Judging

The Messengers books are based on the Bible as you can tell. :) I was thinking about something this week. Words have power. Proverbs 18:21(KJV) Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

What I was thinking about specifically was that demons can use the words we speak against us as a weapon. When Nathan confronted David over killing Uriah the Hittite, Nathan told him a parable. David judged the bad man in the parable but was really judging his own actions.

Luke 11:53-54(CJB)  53 As Yeshua left that place, the Torah-teachers and the P'rushim began to oppose him bitterly and to provoke him to express his views on all sorts of subjects, 54 laying traps to catch him in something he might say.

They were trying to trap him with his own words. I think we tend to trap ourselves by our words and release spiritual hindrances without knowing it. If we speak judgment against someone else, demons can use the verdict to lay traps for us. I try to speak only blessings into my life and no curses. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. A lot of our common expressions are self-condemning.

So, how can I convey something like this in a book without being preachy? If you pay attention to what full Messengers say, you'll notice that none of them says something like, "I'm afraid that's not possible." or "I can't do that, I'm afraid." They never say, "That just kills me." Other characters use those kinds of self-cursing expressions but not Messengers. They don't invite fear spirits and spirits of violence into their lives. It's not an obvious or in-your-face kind of a thing, but it tries to be Biblically consistent.