Mark 7:35 “And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.”

When the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church for the second time, in closing his letter to them, he asked for prayer for himself and his fellow labourers in Christ, and for them specifically to pray “that the word of the Lord may have free course”.

Often the word of the Lord doesn’t have free course in our lives as we relate to others. Often there’s a hidden string that’s holding our tongue, preventing us from speaking as we ought. Do you ever feel like you just can’t say what you need or want to say? How many of us would like to say what we think, or how we feel, or what we know we should say to someone as Christians… and yet we just… can’t.

There’s an old saying “has the cat got your tongue?” which is used for when someone is being unusually quiet, or doesn’t know what to say. Well something has got our tongue, us Christians. Because we really struggle to speak freely with fellow Christians or unbelievers alike. How free is your fellowship? And how is that conversation in this world of yours going?

I’m convinced that there are many Christians, myself included, that proverbially the cat has got our tongue. And there’s a loosing, a liberating, a freedom that needs to come in how we speak and relate to other people, be it in fellowship with other Christians, or even moreso in ministering the gospel of Christ to others.

It’s amazing how “tongue tied” we really are in a spiritual sense. Maybe you are a great speaker, and yet you’re bound, and you know it. And more and more we are in a generation being required to be shut up in what they say, rather than to speak truth, and say how they really feel or what needs to be said.

Speaking is a very important part of life. Articulating things is a very important part of our lives. And yet how often we don’t say what needs to be said, we say it in our heads, we have it in our hearts, but it doesn’t go out through our tongue. And when it might well, then it doesn’t come out right.

Think about this. Think about how often a person dies and at the funeral or afterwards, people that remain wish that they said this, this and that to the deceased person when they were alive. They wish they told them how they felt. They may wish they told them thank you for all you did for me in your life. They may wish they expressed their appreciation and gratitude for them while they were alive.

But why couldn’t they say these things at the time? Why can’t we say what needs to be said? Even moreso as Christians, we have to speak. There is a necessity to articulate things. The Bible speaks about confessing Jesus Christ before men, so the articulation of truth is important. And Satan wants to prevent it, the world doesn’t want to hear it, and your flesh doesn’t want to say it.

While you can’t say it, you’re not truly free. Why do you think a country like America values “free speech” so much and the battle over speech is emblematic of the battle for freedom.

Articulation is a vital part of being a Christian. And there is a real warfare, an unseen battle against us articulating with each other and with others. Because there is power in articulation. If you’ve ever shared the gospel with someone and punched through those invisible restraints holding you back, you experienced a “high” like no other. Because it’s important to get what is within… out.

And we’ve got important stuff within us, we have Jesus Christ in us, how are we going to minister Christ to this world if we are tongue tied? Are we going to sign language him to this world? You’re not made to shut up, you’re made to shout.

And the stakes are actually very high for us Christians. If people have regrets over not saying they loved someone to someone that died… what about the people that will go to hell that we will wish we told them the gospel while they were alive? How many regrets will you have over things you never said to this and that person all because something invisible was holding you back?

I quoted a verse from Mark 7, where Jesus healed a man with a hearing and speaking problem. He couldn’t speak right… the Bibles says he had a speech “impediment”. Something was holding his tongue back from speaking how he could and would.

Just think about what potential for praise and worship and salvation is in our tongue! But how much our tongue needs to be set free! I think about that colt that Jesus told them to go and loose, because there’s people out there, Christians, who have so much potential in their tongue and their life… they’re just needing to be let go.

I looked up the word “impediment” which means “That which prevents distinct articulation”. Does that sound like any of us? Are you being prevented? Do you have an articulation problem in the gospel, in the things of God, in your walk with Christ, in relating to others? Do you find that when you know to say, and when you go to say… that something is preventing you?

Are you tongue tied, spiritually speaking? This man that Jesus healed was tongue tied. But Jesus touched his tongue and loosed the “string” of his tongue and he was healed. And he could now speak clearly. And this amazing miracle led to a great publishing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I’m convinced that if invisible string that’s holding our tongue was loosed, we don’t know the half of the story that could be told, quite literally.

I’m reminded of elsewhere in the Bible, in the gospel of Luke, when Zacharias’s mouth was opened after the naming of his son, John the Baptist, he had been mute because he didn’t believe God’s word that the angel told him, but as soon as his tongue was loosed, the Bible says he spake and praised God. Amazing what happens when our tongue is loosed!

In Matthew, Jesus healed a dumb man who was possessed with a devil, who when Jesus cast the devil out… the dumb spake, and the multitudes glorified God. So there are different reasons for why you can’t speak right or at all in a spiritual sense, it could be fear of man, you’re not right with God, you’re being spiritually oppressed… but whatever the case, Jesus is the solution.

The thing is, do you want freedom? Do you want the word of God to have free course in your life? Do you want to have the freedom to say what the Holy Spirit leads you to say? Is your tongue liberated to fellowship with other Christians? Paul wanted prayer for “free course”… do you want God’s word to have free course in your life?

If there are invisible strings or unseen cords that are holding your tongue back… know that Jesus is the answer. Jesus can do it. That’s why you pray to him. The solution is simple. Jesus can change your life, and he will, he’s still performing these miracles, and he can loose you from whatever is making your Christian experience “tongue tied”.

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