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Friday, October 25 2013
Introduction The three studies on The God-Kind of faith established the fact that God gave every believer the measure of faith before we can be born again. We also discovered that Faith is fed by feeding on God's Word and your faith will grow by exercising it (acting on the word of God). Simply reading and meditating upon the Word will not build faith. Reading and meditating on the Word will feed your faith and build a capacity for faith, but faith must also be a part of our daily speech. In other words, the Word that you feed on has to be exercised daily. It has to become a part of your daily speech. That word has to become a part of your daily conduct and actions.
We shall be looking into the law of Confession in the next three lessons. It will teach you how the Word of God must be on your lips. The Word of God in your heart and on your lips gives you power over disease, demons, and evil circumstances and causes you to walk in victory in Christ in every area of your life.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue” P.C. Nelson once said, "More people lose their healing over a counterattack than any other thing." I almost lost my own healing that way. After I was healed, people would ask me if my heart was better. I would answer that it wasn't because I didn't always feel good, and my heartbeat was still irregular and beating sporadically. As soon as I would say I didn't feel good, I would begin feeling even worse. One day as I lay on the bed, I began to analyze my situation and to ask myself where I was failing in faith. I realized what I was doing. I was confessing my sickness instead of my health!So I immediately started saying I was well when people asked me how I felt. And that is exactly what came to pass - I was healed! Our lips can make us millionaires or keep us paupers. Our lips can make us victors or keep us captives. The woman with the issue of blood in Mark chapter 5 spoke her faith and her faith made her a victor. Jesus told the woman with the issue of blood that it was her faith spoken out of her lips that had made her whole (Mark 5:34). Your lips can keep you sick. You can fill your words with faith or you can fill your words with love that will melt the coldest heart. You can fill your words with love that will help the discouraged and brokenhearted. You can fill your words with faith that will stir heaven. Or you can fill your words with hatred and poison. You can make your words breathe out the very atmosphere of heaven. But your faith will never register above the words of your lips.
“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall SAY unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall BELIEVE that those things which he SAITH shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he SAITH.”
Just believing the word of God is not enough to activate our faith. We must go on to confessing what we believe for it to work. From the scripture above, the words SAY and SAITH came up three times while the word BELIEVE came up once. We must be ready to do more confessions of what we believe in our heart. Confession in our mouth actually strengthens faith in our hearts to bring about what we believe. Confession in our mouth will eventually kill doubts in our hearts. Many Christians are failing primarily in the saying part and not in the believing part. What I confess, I possess. And that is all I will ever possess.
That if thou shalt CONFESS WITH THY MOUTH the Lord Jesus, and shalt BELIEVE IN THINE HEART that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For WITH THE HEART MAN BELIEVETH unto righteousness; and WITH THE MOUTH CONFESSION IS MADE UNTO salvation. If you want to wait and possess your petition first, and then confess it, you're wrong. You've got the cart before the horse. You'll never get what you desire from God that way. You have to believe the promises in God's Word are true for you, confess them for yourself; then you possess them. That is as true with salvation as it is with all the promises of God. Christianity is called "The Great Confession." The law of that great confession is that I confess I have obtained the promises of God's Word before I consciously possess them in the natural realm. Let us look at a classic example from the life of Kenneth Hagin; That is exactly the way I received healing for my paralyzed body and incurable blood disease. That is exactly the way I received healing for a deformed heart. I saw the truth in God's Word and I confessed that I received my healing before it ever manifested in my body. I confessed I had my healing before I consciously possessed it in the natural realm. When I confessed that my heart was well, I was still in bed and my heart didn't seem any better - it didn't feel healed. Also, the minute I confessed the promises in God's Word regarding healing, the devil challenged me. But, thank God, I had discovered the law of faith, which says, "... I BELIEVED, and therefore have I SPOKEN..." (2 Cor. 4:13). The devil told me that I wasn't healed because I didn't look healed or feel healed. I told him that I was healed because the Bible says I'm healed and because I believe the Bible. I told him that by faith I had my healing; if I was lying, then Jesus Christ also lied in His Word because He said that by His stripes I AM healed!Within ten minutes, I was out of that bed and standing on my feet!The devil had tried to call me a liar, but we know that the Word of God is true. He is the liar and the Father of it.
“That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus… with the mouth confession is made to salvation” With your lips you confess salvation. The confession of the lips for your salvation comes before God acts upon your spirit and recreates it. When you were born again, you had the witness of the Spirit of God in your heart that you had become a child of God; but you didn't have the witness first and then confess it. You confessed your salvation first and then your confession created the reality of it in your heart. Then God acted upon your spirit and recreated it.
A woman came to Kenneth Hagin and said that she wanted him to lay his hands on her and pray for her to receive the Holy Ghost. But then she added that maybe she ought to get saved first because if she had ever been born again, she didn't know it!She also needed healing. She had come for the Holy Ghost but she needed all three - salvation, the Holy Ghost, and healing. I instructed her to pray a prayer after me from her heart: "Heavenly Father, I come to You in the Name of Jesus Christ. You said in Your Word, `... him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out' [John 6:371. You said, `... whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved' [Rom. 10:13]. I am calling upon Your Name. I want You to save me now. You said, `. . . if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved' [Rom. 10:9]. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that He died for my sins according to the Scriptures. I believe that He is raised from the dead for my justification. With my mouth, I confess Him as my Savior, and I confess now that I am saved." When she finished praying this prayer, she said that something had happened on the inside of her. I told her that by confessing Jesus Christ as her Savior, she had confessed eternal life and eternal life had been given to her. Her spirit had been recreated. You see, she confessed that she had it first; then she received her salvation. Then within a few minutes she also received the Holy Ghost and her healing. She received all three gifts within ten minutes' time.
Conclusion: The confession of the lips for salvation comes before God acts upon our spirits and recreates them. The same law prevails when it comes to receiving the Holy Ghost or anything God promises in His Word. I believe it and confess it first, and then I receive it. Contributor: Alex Alajiki |