Christianity has been called the great confession.
One begins this Christian walk on the road of confession (at an altar, in a bedroom, with someone leading us to Christ one on one, etc.) and suddenly Christ fills our heart with His Presence. But somewhere along the line, in all the defeats, failures, setbacks busyness, the fame and Fortune 500 companies we build--we stop confessing; we stop speaking of the non-existent things as if they already existed.
But prayer and confession must be combined if we are to possess new, unconquered territory. Confession is the act of admitting something; it is to admit the truth and not a lie. To admit:
- That I am more than a conqueror
- I am the head and not the tail
- I am redeemed from the curse of the law
- I am redeemed from poverty, sickness, depression, divorce and unemployment
- I am rooted and grounded in love
- I am blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
In law, for a confession to be admissible as evidence against an accused individual, it generally must have been procured voluntarily after the person was informed of his or her right to remain silent.
It's funny, some of the greatest confessions you can make come during a season of temporary confusion when you have a right to remain silent, a right to remain angry, a right to retaliate, a right to give up or throw in the towel, yet instead make a decision to shout and fight for your dreams (and promise.)
You see, regardless of your disposition, the Word of God is not chained or imprisoned.
In life, words convey our thoughts.
Have you ever called someone and forgot what you wanted to tell them, then after remembering, called back and said, "Oh, I just thought of what I wanted to say?" Of course; we all have. Likewise, God's Word represents His thoughts.
When we pray and confess the Word, we release the mind of God, the thoughts of God, the intentions of God, the imaginations of God, the designs of God, the expectation, will and purposes of God upon the earth and into our very circumstance.
HOW? Because the thoughts of God are peace and prosperity; they are designed to bring us to an expected end. King David wrote: "Many, O Lord my God, are the wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; no one can compare with You! If I should declare and speak of them, they are too many to be numbered." (Ps. 33:5)
God will never run out of Words (or thoughts) to speak over our lives. Our thoughts are the blueprints by which we design things (design our life, dreams, marriage, etc.) And our words and corresponding actions are the hammer and nails by which we build it.
Your faith is released through words (and action.)
The mouth and the heart are connected. It is impossible for the mouth to confess something that is not in your heart. Consider what Jeremiah recorded:
"Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day appointed you to the oversight of the nations and of the kingdoms to root out and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant (WITH THE SPOKEN WORD.) Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a branch or shoot of an almond tree [the emblem of alertness and activity, blossoming in late winter]. Then said the Lord to me, You have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it" (Jer. 1:9-12.)
God is alert and active over His Word.
Are you?
God only watches over His SPOKEN Word to perform it. Not the passive word, not the word that is silenced, bound in leather on a coffee table or idle. But the word that SPEAKS or flows out of you. Many of us suffer unnecessary things because we fail to operate in this authority.
All training in the Word of God is fruitless, if you don't turn your mouth loose to confess it.
John recorded, "Whoever receives His testimony has set his seal of approval to this: God is true. [That man has definitely certified, acknowledged, declared once and for all, and is himself assured that it is divine truth that God cannot lie]. For since He Whom God has sent speaks the words of God [proclaims God's own message], God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the gift God makes of His Spirit!" (Jn. 3:33)
Jesus gave us power (and responsibility) as children of God. But with responsibility, authority was also given, so dominion could come. In His book "Mentoring 101," John Maxwell writes:
"When we first give authority to new leaders, we are actually giving them permission to have authority rather than giving them authority itself. True authority has to be earned."
Permitted authority is not true authority.
RIGHT NOW, the enemy wants to rob you of your confession, by convincing you that your prayers (and authority) do not work.
He wants to convince you into saying: "Why bother?" "What's the use?" "It hasn't changed anything." And true, in the natural you see nothing; but whenever the enemy sees a rout taking place in the unseen realm where prayer is engaged in battle (a realm that you cannot see), he comes to bring a diversion for you to stop and surrender all God has promised you.
What area of your life have you stopped confessing?
As long as we don't confess it, we don't have to look bad if it doesn't happen. And there is no record of our failure for among men; but there is also no record of our faith for the next generation.
We owe it to our kids and the next generation to show them that our God can REVERSE and DO anything in our lives.
