CONFESSION:
The method given
to us by Jesus Christ to sow our faith and put it into action is through
speaking. There are various references concerning confession and how it was put
to work in the lives of believers in the Old and New Testaments. One of the
strongest Biblical proofs for the power of confession is given to us by Jesus
Christ Himself after the incident when He cursed the fig tree and it dried up
from the roots. The Apostles passed by this fig tree the next day and found it
had withered from the roots, prompting a remark from Peter, "And Peter calling to remembrance saith
unto him, Master, behold, THE FIG TREE WHICH THOU CURSEDST IS WITHERED AWAY.
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 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" (Mar 11:21-23). After Peter's exclamation, Jesus told them to
have faith in God. This was the requirement for the fig tree to be withered,
but Jesus did not merely stop there. He gave them the means through which this
faith would operate. This was through confession or speaking to the mountain.
Jesus never said that you should pray to God so that He would remove the mountain
and throw it into the midst of the sea. The power to command the mountain to be
removed has been given to you, "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" (Mar 11:23), from this verse we notice that
the terms for speaking or saying are mentioned three times which are "WHOSOEVER SHALL SAY", "THOSE
THINGS WHICH HE SAITH" and "WHATSOEVER
HE SAITH". On the other hand the term for believing or having faith in
your heart is only mentioned once, being "but
shall believe". This gives us a clear indication that for us to
release faith to work on our behalf it will take more than simply believing in
your heart. It is the same when someone is born again, they have to go beyond
merely believing in the heart to confessing with their mouth that Jesus is Lord
and declaring this to others around them. Jesus did not merely pray for God to
make the fig tree wither away, rather He commanded the fig tree Himself and it
had to obey Him. The scriptures again clearly point out that with the mouth the
confession has to be made towards our salvation, "But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even IN THY MOUTH, and
in thy heart: that is, THE WORD OF FAITH, which we preach; 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. For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; and WITH THE MOUTH CONFESSION IS MADE UNTO
SALVATION" (Rom 10:8-10). Apostle Paul clearly states that the Word of
faith is in your mouth and it comes out from you heart. This
word of faith has to be spoken out before it can have any bearing on your
present circumstances, it is "with
the mouth" that "confession
is made unto salvation". This word salvation does not merely mean
having your spirit saved from hell. The Greek word for salvation is soteria derived from sozo which means to rescue from
destruction, to make a sick person well or restore them to health, to deliver
from poverty, to deliver from demonic oppression and to deliver from judgment.
This is quite a mouthful and illustrates that God is interested not only in
your spiritual but also in your physical and financial deliverance. All these
blessings from God can be activated by only one switch which is confession.
The Greek word
translated confession is "homologeo"
which is derived from two words, the first being "homo" which means same and the second being "logos" which is an utterance
or something spoken. This means that when you confess you literally say the
same thing as another. In this case confession implies speaking the same thing
about your situation as God would say in His Word. In case of sickness your
confession ought not to be sickness but the declaration that "I was healed by the stripes (wounds)
of Jesus" (1Pt2:24). In the case of poverty you should not say that
you are poor because Jesus has made you rich, "for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might
be rich" (2Co 8:9). You should not confess weakness even though you
may feel weak or inadequate in a certain area. This is inline with the Word of
God since the weak and the poor are commanded what to say, "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into
spears: LET THE WEAK SAY, I AM STRONG" (Joe 3:10). The weak should not
say that he is weak. Sometimes religion and religious individuals will say, "Are you not lying when you say you
are healed when in actual fact you are sick?" The answer to this
question is that I would be lying to tell you that I was sick yet the Word of
God has pronounced me to be healed. Whey would Apostle Peter write that, "by whose stripes ye were healed"?
(1Pe 2:24). He wrote this verse because Jesus purchased your healing with His
wounds 2000 years ago and all you have to do is to confess and receive the
healing. It may be a "fact" that you are sick and broke but the
"truth" which is God's Word proclaims you to be healthy and rich. As
faithful and obedient believers practicing "homologeo"
we should confess what God's word says about our lives and not what doctors or
carnal observers may say.
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