A Devotional by Pastor Cesar Castellanos

Today’s Bible Verse

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’” So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land.

Exodus 8:5-6

Change Your Talk, Change Your Life

Moses, as a prophet of God, had to face the magicians Pharaoh had as his advisors. They were largely to blame for Pharaoh’s heart becoming hard like a rock and for his opposition to surrender to God. The Lord had not forgotten all the wickedness the Egyptians had carried out on His people and how many Israelites had died due to the injustice of the oppression and tyranny. In a single moment, when Moses gave the order all the water in Egypt, including the rivers turned into blood. There was no drinkable water anywhere. This judgment fell over the Egyptians because of their obsession with blood and their numerous rites in which they shed blood. Now the Lord was giving them an abundance of blood to drink. The first judgment was directed at the highest satanic powers. Later on, the Lord guided Moses to a second judgment, which is the plague of frogs. Frogs make a continuous noise and have such long tongues that in this passage they are like a symbol of the spirit of complaining and gossiping. This is the opposite to the spirit of praise, worship, faith and unity. In the mouth of the believer there must always be a word of blessing since there is great power in the phrases we declare. Peter said, “If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God” (1 Peter 4:11a).

Speaking His words activates the spiritual realms. If we speak words of faith and blessing we activate the angelic armies led by the Lord. However, when we speak negative words, full of bitterness and cursing, we activate the kingdom of darkness.

In the vision that God gave John about the final times he was able to see the manifestation of negative spirits and how it went directly to the kings of the earth in order to influence them negatively (Revelation 16:13-14). The same way that Satan has his representatives, who are seduced by power to do what he wants, God’s servants, motivated by Jesus’ love, should do what God wants them to do. That is, not just worship the Lord, but also to proclaim the truth of the Gospel by being careful with the words that come out of our mouths. We have to understand that through faith and the declaration of God’s Word, we activate the angelic armies that help in transforming hearts. At all times we must carry out the good, perfect and pleasing will of God.

Something to Think About

Martin Luther King Jr. once declared, “I have a dream. And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last, free at last Thank God almighty We are free at last.” These last words are on the epitaph at Dr. King’s grave in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin Luther King Jr. lived to fight with all his strength to fulfill a dream, even though it was eventually to cost him his own life. The words of his dream stay with him at his grave. Today, racism in his nation has been all but wiped out.

Prayer

“Dear God, thank You for changing the way I speak, since You have placed words of praise and gratitude on my lips. Thank You for Your divine blood that cleansed me from the wrong of complaining and gossiping along with every negative word I have spoken. Now I can express what comes from Your Word and what inspires faith. Through my words I can encourage others and give them hope because You touched my life and I was transformed by the power of Your blood. I love You, my Lord. Amen.”

Declaration

“I have a new language: words of faith, praise and blessing.”

Today’s Bible Reading

• Old Testament: Isaiah 59-61; Proverbs 29:15-27
• New Testament: Luke 24:28-35; Hebrews 12:14-29