It’s 1:00 am on Sunday, and this is the message that God wants delivered through His prophet. After the warning, there will be deliverance instructions to help you.

“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” (Exodus 20:7 NIV)

Please listen to me. QUIT using the Lord’s name as swear words. I hear it all the time and it hurts in my spirit. This culture is so skewed when some will use the Lord’s name in such a derogatory manner. There is no need to provide examples, you know exactly what I’m talking about. So quit it! God has no problem bringing His punishment against you.

I’m asking you to read the Scripture above in context so you see just how serious God is about this warning. God even promises to punish your children. How anyone can be so flippant about this subject just floors me.

Another way that you can misuse God’s name is to say that a “word” is from the Lord that isn’t. That’s going to land you in some serious problems. For example, sometime last year, a guy who was a known conspiracy theorist tried to convince me that the earth is flat. I rolled my eyes and turned away from him. That’s when he said “God wants you to know that the earth is flat.” Oh please, that is the same guy that previously said that God doesn’t speak. Then suddenly he is assigned to tell me a message from the God that I’ve been hearing everyday for more than 20+ years? I don’t think so! (You know that I can ask Him anything.) God is not going to put up with using His name to sell your bogus ideas.

Ok so that’s the warning. Now, let’s look at a solution.

1) First, stop doing it! Resolve to honor God with better language and honesty.

2) Then, ask God for forgiveness. Be specific.

3) Ask God to help you do better by providing a specific consequence for bad behavior. This will help you to realize the behavior more obviously. You will probably want to separate yourself from others that engage in that bad behavior too. (Note: If you love them enough, you will want to warn them like I have warned you.)

4) After you have had a sincere forgiveness conversation with God about everything (yes, I said everything), then listen to God’s instructions and follow Him.

You’ve been warned so you have no right to pretend not to know.