Tags

, , , ,

While at lunch with one of my mentors, I was pouring out my heart in regards to some pressure that I am under and she looked right at me, without hesitation, but with determination saying, “You need to salt the river within.” I looked at her and said, what do you mean? She said, you have been salting the rivers in our land and now you need to salt the river that is your land. I was stunned by her statement, but knew it was the Holy Spirit speaking through her, so heeded her thoughts overnight, before pulling out a glass of warm water the next morning and putting salt in it. I then drank the salt water and declared 2 Kings 2:19-22 which says, “The men of the city said to Elisha, behold now, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful. Elisha said, bring me a new jar, and put salt in it. So they brought it to him. He went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, Thus says the Lord, I have purified these waters, there shall not be from there death or unfruitfulness any longer. So the waters have been purified to this day, according to the word of Elisha, which he spoke.” Immediately after I did this prophetic act, the Lord revealed to me that our mouths need to be purified, for there is death in them.

The city that the men in these verses were referencing is Jericho. Jericho was a city that Joshua decreed should not be rebuilt by saying, “At that time (after the walls of Jericho fell) Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: Cursed before the LORD is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: At the cost of his firstborn son he will lay its foundations and at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates” (Joshua 6:26). Now in 2 Kings, Elisha’s men are saying, the city is pleasant but the water is bad, why? Because the man who rebuilt this city, paid for it with the death of two of his sons (1 Kings 16:34), based on what Joshua decreed. Therefore, the water was bad, because there was death in the water that ran through the city. Elisha comes and says, we are going to break this curse over this city, over this land, by salting the spring. The spring was the mouth of the river that ran through the city. Can you see the connection and why God is calling us to salt our springs (mouths)?

Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death and those who love it will eat its fruit”. The Lord is inviting us to salt the river within, because there is death in the water and He wants to purify the waters within our lives, so we are only producing life and fruit that nourishes us and others. The old saying, you are what you eat is true, for we eat the fruit of our lips and if we are complaining, grumbling, fearing, doubting, or any other death producing fruit, we are releasing water that has death in it. The Rabbi’s believe, the 4 rivers in the garden of Eden are the 4 chambers of our hearts, there is a mystery here, but think of that, if out of the abundance of the heart our mouth speaks and the 4 chambers in our hearts are 4 rivers, that means if death comes out of our mouth, there is death in the rivers of our heart. It is time to salt the river within.

Now, death has many levels, it can be cursing someone or it can be complaining; it can be fear or it can be murder; so know that just because you are not doing something extreme, if there is any death coming out of your mouth, it is making your land unfruitful and the water inside of you is bad. This is not something to be ashamed of, but when we hear truth, we need to confess it as truth to God, ask for forgiveness and then turn away from it. I did not see, what I was saying as death, but when she said, you need to salt the river within, I knew she was right, so I went to the LORD and dealt with the death in my river and salted my spring (mouth). If we are honest, we all need to salt the river within. It’s not about being perfect, but it is about being honest. The LORD is wanting to make us oracles to the nations, but for that to happen, we must salt the river within.