The Confession UNTO Faith and the Confession OF Faith
God needs your vocal agreement. When you agree with God concerning any matter and say so, you release His power on the earth. The power is already everywhere. God is omnipresent and omnipotent. But that power is not released until God’s Word comes out of your mouth. We see this principle in Romans 10:9-10, where confession is made unto salvation. Salvation is not yours until you confess (say) that it is. We would not accept a testimony that someone got saved if no one heard the person declare Jesus Christ to be his Lord. You would not baptize someone who has never said that Jesus is his Lord. Likewise, healing does not manifest until you are willing to say it out of your mouth. You’re kidding yourself if you think you have something but you’d be uncomfortable telling anyone else that you have it. Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34-35). If you won’t say it, you don’t really believe it. That might sound hard, but it is definitely the truth.
It is not difficult to tell what people really believe. Just listen to them talk for a few minutes and you’ll figure it out. If they say anything other than “I have received my healing; it is mine now,” you know that they are not in faith, even if they mentally agree with the doctrine of divine healing and can quote all the Scriptures on it. There is a difference between assenting to a doctrine and actually receiving something. If you really believe something, you will say it. You will have the spirit of faith that says, “I believed, therefore have I spoken” (2 Corinthians 4:13).
God sent His Word and saved you from your sins. God sent His Word and healed you (Psalm 107:20). But only when you say it do you receive it. Otherwise, the power that was there for you all along goes to waste. It is not up to God to speak His Word unto salvation; it is up to you.
I am not talking about a “fake it till you make it” mentality, where you pretend to believe something until you really do. There is a confession unto faith and a confession of faith. A confession unto faith repeats God’s Word to yourself so that you get used to hearing yourself agree with the Word. This develops your faith. A confession of faith releases the power of God in the situation now and receives the answer now. You may need some time to continue speaking God’s Word before it becomes more real to you than whatever it is that you’re facing.
In Joshua 1:7-8, Joshua was commanded to meditate on (mutter) the Word regularly so that he would observe to do it and then make his way prosperous. Note the 3 steps here: (1) Confess the Word, (2) Do the Word, (3) Prosperity follows your doing of the Word. A similar thing is referred to in Psalm 1:1-3.
A constant awareness of the Word was commanded back under the Law:
Deuteronomy 6:7:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Deuteronomy 11:19:
And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
We aren’t under the Law today, of course, but Christians would be much better off if they spent more time studying God’s Word for themselves. Many Christians barely seem to recognize the need to read their Bibles, and this is evident by the shocking ignorance of clear biblical principles that is rampant in today’s church world. You can only act on the Word that you know!
Usually, a confession unto faith will be necessary for a while to retrain your mind to think in line with God’s Word instead of thinking according to worldly or religious principles. Once the Word really becomes real to you, the confession of faith will result in whatever aspect of salvation you need, whether it is healing, finances, or something else.
If you fill up a squeeze bottle with ketchup and squeeze it, ketchup will come out. If you fill it with water, water will come out instead. Whatever you are filled with is what will come out when the squeeze is on, so you need to lay up God’s Word in your heart so that it comes out when things get tough. If you have been filling yourself with worldly TV shows, the “advice” of some TV “doctor” is all you’ll have in your heart to come out, but if you’ve been filling yourself with the Word, the Word will come out.
It is not a long-term solution to play “confession police” for each other and try to correct each other’s confessions. If someone is speaking wrong things, he has not yet laid up enough of the Word in his heart to speak right, and the only solution is for the person to immerse himself in the Word. Simply advising him, “Stop saying that the pain is killing you” will not change things if he really believes that the pain is killing him. He will need to believe “by whose stripes you were healed” more than what the pain tells him, and pain can have a very loud voice!
There is no “quick fix” here. But you can develop strong faith by continuing to hear and reflect on God’s Word. The investment is well worth it!