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Writer's pictureSteve Derenge

A Healing Tongue

Updated: Jun 6, 2022

A gentle[Or healing] tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Proverbs 15:4 ESV

“A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.”

Proverbs 17:22 NASB.


A gentle tongue is a healing tongue (1). A healing tongue is a tree of life, leading to health and healing (2). Healing and righteousness (thinking that way the God thinks as our character increasingly conforms to the way He is day by day as a result of all the time we spend connecting with His heart) go hand in hand (3).


On the same note, in more cases than we may think, disease and unrighteousness (not thinking how God thinks) also go hand in hand. According to the disciplines of neuroscience, pathology, and epigenetics, the thoughts we think end up forming our biology (sickness, bodily breakdown, health, and/or homeostasis) through a process called DNA synthesis. Physiology demonstrates how the body is a responder to thought.


A [Lit healing]soothing tongue is a tree of life, but perversion in it [Lit is the crushing of the spirit]crushes the spirit.

Proverbs 15:4 NASB

“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

Proverbs 17:22 ESV


Perverseness in the tongue breaks the spirit, which dries up the bones (that is, it weakens the immune system), which results in loss of homeostasis in the body, bodily breakdown, and disease. Do you recognize perverse speech in people? Disease may be right around the corner if there is no change of heart, for it is from the overflow of the heart that the mouth (or tongue) speaks (see Matthew 12:33-37; 15:10-20; Proverbs 18:4,8,14,20-21).


Did you know that the immune system largely comes from a person’s bone marrow? The bone marrow produces [red and] white blood cells to [carry nutrients throughout the body and to] destroy foreign invaders like cancer cells, viruses, and bacteria. In the case of autoimmune diseases, the white corpuscles (blood cells) go rogue and attack the body itself in response to messages from the brain emanating from the thoughts of our mind. It has been scientifically established that for every thought we think, a neuron or neurotransmitter is triggered to release a corresponding chemical or hormone into the body.


If we think and mull over or agree with thoughts like “I hate myself,” “I hate my mother-in-law,” “something bad is about to happen,” ”I’m rejected,” “nobody loves me,” “I can’t do anything right,” “I don’t deserve anything good in life, only death,” “I can’t get free from what I’ve done,” “We live in a fallen world, so there’s no hope for my healing this side of heaven,” etc., long term, then these deviant white corpuscles will be informed that [various parts of] your physical body is the enemy that they must attack. What, then, is the solution? A gentle or healing tongue is a tree of life.


If you think and agree with what God thinks about you, receiving His indescribable love for you, so that you are filled to overflowing with His perfect love for Him, others, and yourself, then you won’t think those unloving, bitter, unforgiving, envious, accusatory, perverse thoughts of death anymore. Your brain will respond to those thoughts by ceasing the attack on your physical body, your immune system will be brought back to functioning properly, and the homeostasis of your body will be restored as you have fulfilled the condition for the promise of Psalm 103:3 to become a reality in your life:


"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; 3 who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases; 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; 5 who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle."

Psalm 103:2-5 NASB


As you believe and know for a fact that God has forgiven all your wrongs, failures, mistakes, flaws, evil, blunders, etc., cascading His unending love and forgiveness over you like a waterfall, then as a result, all your diseases will leave as a byproduct of the body coming back to homeostasis when you are reconciled in your relationships with God, others, and yourself. For then you are no longer being discipled, shepherded, pastored, or mentored in how to think by death, but by the Spirit of resurrection life. See Psalm 49:14-15; Romans 8:6-11; Galatians 5:19-23.


Are you struggling with a crushed spirit, find yourself living in a spiritually dry place, burdened under the weight of a fallen world (ruled by fallen beings)? (4) Here is a powerful prayer that we could use in further continued conversations with God no matter what we are going through:


1-2 God, give me mercy from your fountain of forgiveness! I know your abundant love is enough to wash away my guilt. Because your compassion is so great, take away this shameful guilt of sin. Forgive the full extent of my rebellious ways, and erase this deep stain on my conscience.


3–4 For I’m so ashamed. I feel such pain and anguish within me. I can’t get away from the sting of my sin against you, Lord! Everything I did, I did right in front of you, for you saw it all. Against you, and you above all, have I sinned. Everything you say to me is infallibly true and your judgment conquers me. 5 Lord, I have been a sinner from birth, from the moment my mother conceived me. 6 I know that you delight to set your truth deep in my spirit. So come into the hidden places of my heart and teach me wisdom.


7 Purify my conscience! Make this leper clean again! Wash me in your love until I am pure in heart. 8 Satisfy me in your sweetness, and my song of joy will return. The places within me you have crushed will rejoice in your healing touch. 9 Hide my sins from your face; erase all my guilt by your saving grace. 10 Create a new, clean heart within me. Fill me with pure thoughts and holy desires, ready to please you. 11 May you never reject me! May you never take from me your sacred Spirit!


12 Let my passion for life be restored, tasting joy in every breakthrough you bring to me. Hold me close to you with a willing spirit that obeys whatever you say. 13 Then I can show to other guilty ones how loving and merciful you are. They will find their way back home to you, knowing that you will forgive them. 14 O God, my saving God, deliver me fully from every sin, even the sin that brought bloodguilt. Then my heart will once again be thrilled to sing the passionate songs of joy and deliverance!


15 Lord God, unlock my heart, unlock my lips, and I will overcome with my joyous praise! 16 For the source of your pleasure is not in my performance or the sacrifices I might offer to you. 17 The fountain of your pleasure is found in the sacrifice of my shattered heart before you. You will not despise my tenderness as I humbly bow down at your feet. 18 Because you favor Zion, do what is good for her. Be the protecting wall around Jerusalem. 19 And when we are fully restored, you will rejoice and take delight in every offering of our lives as we bring our sacrifices of righteousness before you in love!

Psalm 51 TPT


  1. see ESV footnote for Proverbs 15:4

  2. see Proverbs 11:30; 13:12; Revelation 2:7; 22:1-2,14

  3. see Malachi 4:2; Mark 2:17; James 5:16; 1 Peter 2:24

  4. see Matthew 12:43-45; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11,33; 1 John 2:13-14; 4:4,17-18; 5:4-5; Isaiah 14:12; 35; Ephesians 2:6; 6:12


For more information on entering into a personal relationship with God, see my post “Did You Hear the News?



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