By Ken Fletcher
“Wherefore holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus;” Hebrews 3:1 ASV
In this article, I am led to talk to you about the important subject of confession. When approaching this area many people automatically associate it with the confession of sin or faults. Others have been exposed to wrong teaching along these lines and have been completely turned off by the subject.
Although it is true that there has been some excess and wrong teaching about confession, Christians must be careful not to throw out the true with the false. We must always stay balanced in the Word no matter what others may do! In our study today, I won’t be dealing with confession as in the confessing of sin or faults; (which is a valid Bible subject), but with the positive aspect of confession.
For many years in church history Christianity was referred to as: “The Great Confession”. It is amazing how closely related our faith and confession really is! If you read Fox’s Book Of Martyrs, you will notice over and over again that those who killed the saints tried desperately to make them renounce their confession of faith in Christ. The devil certainly knows the importance of your confession! Do you?
Our heavenly Father is a God of confession. Perhaps you have noticed throughout the Bible that God confesses, or speaks out, His faith. He releases His faith through Words! For example: count how many times the phrase “And God said…” is recorded in connection with the creation in Genesis chapter 1. We know that God created the universe by His faith. He could have written this phrase just one time and then simply list all that He had created. By the obvious repeating of the phrase, “And God said…” I believe that He is emphasizing to us – in the very first chapter of the Bible – the significance of confession!
Your words are very, very important! You must realize and understand that, in life, you will have what you say – positive or negative! Your words are actually containers for your faith OR unbelief!
Think about what actually happens when you pray. Your words carry your faith into the heavenly realm by the Holy Spirit, through Jesus, unto the Father. As you pray, you are expressing, and releasing, your faith through the words you are speaking!
How were you saved? Romans 10: 9-10 explains that you must believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess Jesus as your Lord! Verse10 says: “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Notice that it is believing and confessing. Your confession is vital in the process of receiving the life of God and becoming born again!
Some people wrongly assume that we who practice positive confession are trying to move God into doing what we want. If that were true, our efforts would be very foolish and futile since no one has ability to manipulate God at any time! In reality, true confession is to simply agree with God in what He has already declared to be His will for mankind! TRUE CONFESSION IS AGREEING WITH GOD!
Your faith in, and confession of, the Word of God is vital to obtain His will for your life! In our main text above, we read that Jesus is the High Priest of our confession. This is a good time to check up on yourself. Think about the words that you have been speaking over your life and your loved ones’. Can Jesus be the High Priest over the words you have been speaking? You understand, of course, that He can only be High Priest over words that agree with God’s Word!
Do you want God’s very best for your life? Then you must make your mouth say that which IS God’s best for your life! It is a discipline. Your mouth naturally wants to speak out all kinds of goofy, negative stuff just like mine does! Our flesh (and tongue) is enmity against God! We must bring under our fleshly members – including, and ESPECIALLY, our tongue, to the will of God!
In the book of James, chapter three, we see that the tongue guides our life in right or wrong directions. As the bit in a horses mouth or the rudder of a ship, our tongue is small in comparative size, but, it actually determines the course, as well as the destination, of our whole life! Is your confession important? Vitally so!
Once you realize the weight your words carry in life, you will begin watching what you say! Recently, I cut my finger. A few minutes after it happened, a man that I knew saw my finger, and said: “Boy, that sure is a deep cut. It is really going to take a long time to heal!” Now, if I was going by what I saw, I would have had to agree with him. It was a bad looking cut! If I had not been taught the truth about my confession, I naturally would have nodded my head and said, “Yeah, it sure is going to take a long time to heal.” But, thank God, I had inside information! I knew something! It came from the Word of God! Instead of agreeing with that man’s words, I chose to agree with God’s Words! Hallelujah!
I didn’t want this cut to take a long time healing, and I didn’t want a bad scar on my finger. So, based on the Word and the power of my confession, I spoke my faith! I said: “This cut will heal quickly and it will be hard for anyone to see the scar after it is healed!” I had to choose my words – whether they would be faith or unbelief.
Soon after I spoke these words, doubt came floating into my mind saying: “Now, you know that it is going to take a long time for this cut to heal – and, take another look at it, see, this cut will certainly leave a very noticeable scar!”
When the doubt thoughts come – AND THEY WILL COME, hold fast to your confession of faith! Hebrews 4:14 says: “Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” “Fight the good fight of the faith, ….confess the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.” 1 Timothy 6:12 ASV
Every time that I looked down at my cut finger or changed the bandage, I confessed my faith. I spoke to my finger, and said: “Finger, you are healing quickly, and you are healing so well that it will be hard to see where the cut was.” As I was speaking these words, I knew that God’s power was in operation performing what I said! How did I know? Because I was agreeing with God’s will for my healing! Jesus already had settled that issue upon the whipping post long ago! Hallelujah! It was up to me now to give God my faith-filled words so He could perform His will in my life!
I held fast to my confession of faith and my finger, indeed, did heal quickly! Even now, this soon after the injury, it is difficult to see the scar! I got what I said! Praise God! I have written this small example in my own life (that everyone can relate to) only to illustrate that positive and negative confession affects your life greatly. If one’s confession can change the outcome of something small as a cut finger, how much more vital it becomes with the larger, more important issues of life!
Now, I need to emphasize something here: When you are confessing, you cannot just speak out of your head. What I mean by this, is, you can have a head knowledge of God’s will for your life and speak out of that head knowledge – and just parrot something out. This won’t work! It is shallow and without power. I’m not talking about just chirping out empty words that agree with the Bible. I’m talking about confessing your faith that’s down in your heart – a deep inner conviction – based upon God’s Word! Words filled with faith!
You’re not trying to believe what you say, you are fully persuaded and convinced about what you say because you have settled it in your heart as truth! You are firm on God’s Word! It runs deep in your spirit! You are united with it. There is nothing shallow about your confession! When you confess, you are releasing the power of faith from the very core of your inner being! Your faith is exposed and is working mightily through your confession! Your faith and confession are a powerful force that is real and tangible!
As my dear friend, Rev. Gary Regich says: “Confession blasts the faith rocket ship off of the launching pad in your heart and out your mouth!” I like that, don’t you! Confession puts faith in motion! Your faith must have expression. True confession is the launching of the faith in your heart out through your mouth! Praise God!
It works because it is God’s Word! It works because you are connected to God’s power! True confessing is speaking out the will of God for you! You know, and are certain, that God is backing up your words because you are standing solidly on His Words! Bless you! K.A.F.
Please follow and like us:
