THE TONGUE (PART ONE)  The tongue is the man’s instrument for navigating his life’s path to paradise or perdition. It is a very small portion of the body but both very positively rewarding and at the same time negatively powerful. Abraham blessed Isaac and Ishmael but placed greater worth on the blessing of Isaac because he was a child of promise who would  be one of the patriarchs of the Jews. Isaac blessed Jacob by default through the intrigue of Rebecca his wife and mother of Jacob and Esau. Isaac later realized he had blessed the wrong child, he said  that it was not possible to redo or change the blessing poured on Jacob. Thus, Jacob became the third of the three patriarchs of the Jews. As for Esau, he became the father of the Edomites.  Esau and his descendants could not stand shoulder to shoulder with the Israelites because of what blessings Isaac placed on Jacob. By the potency of the power of the tongue that made the pronouncement, life never remained the same for the twin brothers. It is expected that any word that proceeds from man’s tongue, is supposed to be potent, just as God’s pronouncement does not return to him void. The psychologists, whether they individually believe in God or not, they scientifically work in line with what God wants from us. It involves watching our tongue which is preceded by positive thinking and product to be positive use of our tongue. It is apparently difficult for a negative mind to profess positively in all sincerity.Prophet Eli did not pray elaborately for Hannah, he only used his tongue (though anointed) as a stamp of God’s authority on Hannah’s prayers because he had the anointing being a true prophet of God. A Christian, a true believer indeed, knows that Jesus is the anchor to his faith. In other words, the daunting people’s antagonism, cheating, backbiting, plotting to kill or hinder progress are nothing before God. Use your tongue to pray the prayer of deliverance from your enemies and the battle would be won without physically waging war for physical victory. Confess Jesus as your Lord and savior and leave the battle for Him to fight on your behalf. Such fight is nothing physical. So you do not need to go to the gym to build and tone your muscles. Instead engage in spiritual battle with fasting and prayers. 2 Corinthians 10: 3-4 “For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards. For the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds.We tear down arguments.”Prophet Elijah used his tongue to invoke the spirit of the God of Israel for fire to come down to devour his own sacrifice on Mount Carmel and put 450 prophets of Baal and”400 prophets of Asherah” to shame. He ordered the 450 prophets of Baal to be herded to Kishon Valley where he executed them. Tongue, as said earlier on, is the culmination of what resides in the heart, soul and spirit. Elijah was head, heart, soul and spirit God’s faithful servant to the extent that when the whole of Israel turned against God, he remained loyal to the core irrespective of the danger posed to his life by Jezebel, Ahab’s wife. By his being in tandem with the will of God, he was able to dictate the pace in his bid to bring back the erring children of Israel in the Northern Kingdom first before asking God to end the three-year drought he pronounced on Samaria (N. Kingdom). 1King 18: 1-46.  There were specific portions in this chapter 18 where Elijah’s tongue was used to command everybody without anyone disobeying him because of the anointing on him.Righteousness shows in the way we use our tongue. Take the case of Nicodemus who went by night to learn more from Jesus about being born again. In was in his pursuit of righteousness that he separated himself from the general erroneous belief of the Jews and especially the members of the Sanhedrin. These were the religious elites, the Rabbis, priests and High Priests. Essentially, they could not reconcile with the messianic  mission of Jesus Christ, in spite of their knowledge of the prophets of God’s prediction of the birth and mission of the “Lamb of God” that was to come and be the propitiating lamb for the remission of sins of humanity. Proverbs 10: 32 says: “The lips of the righteous know what is pleasing, but the speech of the wicked is perverse. Honestly,  Proverb 14: 23 says “In all hard work, there is profit, but merely talking about it only brings poverty”. This is a depiction of heart being right or being serious about doing and  the tongue revealing the mind. So watching one’s utterances is helped by asking God to be our guide to be able to follow the path of righteousness. We see again a situation of unbridled tongue: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue , and those who love its use will eat the fruit.” Proverb 18: 21..