By Keith Gifford

In Matthew chapter 16:13-20 from the NASB, we have an account of Peter’s confession of the Christ. I’m paraphrasing, but Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you yourselves say that I am?” And Peter says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Upon hearing that Jesus goes on to tell Peter how blessed he is because this ‘revelation’ came from His Father in heaven and not from man. Also, Jesus told Peter this revelation is what the church would be built upon and the Gates of Hades (hell), would not overpower it.

In verse 19 Jesus says, “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on Earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Keys represent authority. Also notice keys are plural. And so here we are over 2,000 years later at Crossroads New Life Fellowship, a wonderful local part of the global body of Christ and Jesus is still building His church and wanting us to use those keys as well.

I believe that one of those keys would be the fruit of our lips. I really like that terminology, “THE FRUIT OF OUR LIPS.” When I think of my words as fruit, it makes me want my words to be helpful to others. I want them to be sweet, nutritious, pleasant, even healing and life changing. There are tons of scriptures to back this up. I will probably mention some of them in part 2 of this article. Meanwhile, let’s just keep in mind that we have one of the keys of the Kingdom right here under our nose. The pleasant fruit that comes from our lips, and let’s face it, the world needs more good fruit. Amen?