A Consecrated Mouth
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

Today's Treasure: "We all stumble in many ways.  If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check" (James 3:2).

The tongue's potential to wreak havoc is staggering, yet so is its potential to reap the stuff of heaven on the turf of earth.  We can rest assured God and Satan are both vying for authority over our mouths.  Nothing is a greater threat to the enemy than a believer with the Word of God living and active on her tongue, readily applied to any situation.  If no part of the body is harder to submit to godly authority than the tongue (James 3:2), what could possess more power to reap benefit than one He controls?  I know a wonderful place we could go to consecrate our mouths to God.  Come with me to the glorious scene depicted in Isaiah 6:1-8.

          In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  And they were calling to one another:  

          "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

          The whole earth is full of his glory."

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

          "Woe to me!"  I cried.  "I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."

          Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

          Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?"

          And I said, "Here am I.  Send me!"

As sophisticated as we'd like to think we are, we have more in common with the ancient prophet Isaiah than we might admit.  Unless you are highly unusual, your tongue-just like mine-has been misused and misappropriated countless times.  As if our own tendencies aren't bad enough, we also live among a people of unclean lips.  Many of us live or work in environments where backbiting, gossip, lying, profanity, and off-color remarks and jokes are pandemic.  Like Isaiah, God wants to send you and me forth into our worlds in His name.  The instrument of His greatest potential use in each of our lives is the tongue.  No, we're not all called to speak, teach, or preach, but we are all called to use our mouths to glorify His name.

Recall how many of Christ's New Testament commands involve the tongue.  We've been called to share Jesus with the lost and give our testimonies any time we have the opportunity to tell another person of our hope.  We've been called to pray.  Yes, we can and do pray silently, but not coincidentally some of our most explosively powerful praying will be aloud.  We've been called to disciple others, teaching God's Word and His ways.  We've been called to encourage the hopeless and weary.  And, Beloved, we've also been called to speak to some mountains and tell them to "Move!"

Too much power is at stake to continue cultivating an inconsistent and unconsecrated mouth.  The challenge of a tamed tongue is so great that we'd be wise to give it daily attention in prayer, but I'm asking God to perform a powerful and memorable work today.  Through God's Word and prayer, let's go to the throne of grace like Isaiah did.  Look back at the passages from Isaiah 6 once more.     

Nothing is more important in the atoning scene of Isaiah's vision than the altar from which the live coal was taken.  The original word for altar in this segment comes from a Hebrew word translated sacrifice.  Other kinds of altars existed among the ancient people.  The altar of incense was also in the temple, but I believe the live coals in this vision could only have been removed from the altar of sacrifice.  Why?  Because coals, no matter how consumed with fire, have no power to take away guilt or atone for sin. 

I am convinced that the God-appointed power the coals had to purge and atone came from the blood of the sacrifice laid upon the altar.  God's Word never veers from the concept that all remission of sins comes through the shedding of sacrificial blood (Heb. 9:22).

Jesus Christ graced the earth's guilty sod to offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice and fulfill every requirement of the Law once and for all.  He shed His precious blood on an altar constructed of two pieces of wood and fashioned into a cross.  The fire of holy judgment met with the blood of the spotless Lamb, and our guilt was purged and our sins atoned.  Glory to His name!  We need no further act of atonement, but we are desperate for the continuing work of sanctification. 

Today you and I stand before the same throne the prophet Isaiah approached in his glorious vision.  God is just as holy.  Just as high and lifted up.  The train of His robe still fills the temple, and the seraphs still cry "Holy!"  But the writer of Hebrews 4:15-16 tells us that because we have Jesus as our great High Priest, we boldly approach a throne of grace.  The same grace that saves also sanctifies, and we could use a fresh work of consecration, couldn't we?  In one way or another, we, too, are a people of unclean lips, and we undoubtedly live among a people of unclean lips.  How God wants to use our mouths!  But He is calling us to a fresh consecration and a willingness to turn from misuse.  Today could be that day.  Tarry with Him at the altar.  Make confession and petition. 

We need not hang our heads and beg.  All we need to do is lift up our faces and ask.  May Jesus touch our lips again with coals from the altar and set our tongues aflame with His holy fire. 

Holy God, I confess using this mouth, these lips, and this tongue in impure ways.  I'm grieved for having offended You with my lack of self-control.  I lift my face to You with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.  Please forgive me.  Touch my lips and set my tongue aflame.  Let my mouth be consecrated to proclaim Your glory and goodness.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

Adapted from Believing God, by Beth Moore, pages 163-167.  Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2004.  Used by permission.