Rom. 10:10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Over the years I have heard much criticism about confession, and yet scripture teaches that for one to receive what God has done for us you must believe in your heart and confess with your mouth unto what you believe for. Confession is an area that is not understood as well as it should be, and because of this we have not see the results promised in God’s Word. There is a difference between confession and speaking the Word of God. It is important to understand the difference if you want to see what the Word says about you come to pass.
The word here in Romans 10:10 translated confession means to declare that which one is convinced of and holds to be true. Where I have seen error in confession both in my life, and in other believers as well, is when we think if we just keep confessing what God’s Word says it would come to pass. The problem is that is not a true Bible confession. A Bible confession is already convinced that what you confess is true. This is where speaking God’s Word comes into play.
Our foundation text here refers to receiving the salvation that God offers to all who will put their faith in Jesus Christ and receive Him as the Lord of their life. But it implies far more than just that initial born again experience. You see the word salvation here actually means to be delivered, rescued, preserved, safe, and healthy. If you want to be delivered from debt, disease, and all the works of darkness you are going to have to have a faith filled confession. But to often we try to put the cart before the horse.
For example if you were in combat facing an enemy and you had the best gun money could buy, what good would that gun be if you did not first take the time to load it? You could pull that trigger again and again but without any bullets you are not going to defeat your enemy. How silly would it be at that point to put the blame on the gun? “Well I guess my gun must be defective”, someone might say. But the problem isn’t a defective gun, the problem is someone did not take the time to get the ammunition they needed and load the gun.
This is what happens in the lives of believers who have been given the most powerful weapons on earth, their tongue and the Word of God, and yet they can’t understand why they have confessed and confessed but nothing seems to change. They may begin to blame God saying that this confession stuff must not work. Others may put blame on people who may have tried to teach them about confession declaring that it must not be true. The problem is not with the weapons God gave you, your tongue and the Word, but the fact you probably have not taken time to load your weapon.
Mark 11:24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
One of the best things we could do as believers in Christ is make the decision that if God’s Word says something then it is true, period, end of discussion. How often the enemy wants to get us to go into the realm of reason trying to figure out in our minds how this faith stuff works. Yet Jesus declared very clearly here in Mark 11:24 that whatever things you ask when you pray, believe your receive them, and you will have them. That is still difficult for some to swallow because they want to get all intellectual and try to figure out how this works. God’s Word works for all who will simply believe it is so.
Here Jesus is telling us the same thing that Paul stated in Romans. Whatever you ask, you must ask (confess), whatever you ask when you pray, believe you receive it and you will have it. The problem lies in the fact that people began to discount this verse or they thought if I just say whatever the Bible says long enough I will have it. You would not ask for something more than once if you believed you received it when you asked. We need to first load our weapon. The area we have missed it is not yet having the belief in our heart before trying to make a confession with our mouths.
Something I have been meditating on quite a bit lately is something I heard Kenneth E. Hagin say. Christians often substitute prayer for what only the Word of God can do. They have need of something and they pray their prayer but they have not taken time to feed on God’s Word, speaking it to themselves until it becomes a revelation to them, so that when they make their confession they would know it was already so. The example the Lord gave him is that prayer is like breathing. You are not going to live long unless you are breathing. We have to breath to live, but if all you do is breath and you never take time to eat it doesn’t matter how much you breath you won’t be around long.
Matt. 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
Jesus gave us this analogy when He was confronted by satan in His time of temptation in the wilderness. The analogy is that man must obviously feed on bread if he is going to survive, but if he wants to truly live it will take more than just natural bread, man must learn to feed on the Word of God. The word brother Hagin got from the Lord was that prayer is like the breathing part, but meditating on the Word of God is like the eating part. You need both. Believers often substitute prayer that has no belief with it for what only feeding on the Word of God can do. If we don’t take time to feed on the Word we are not going to have good success. We may be making what we think is a confession of the Word, but remember a Bible confession is one that speaks of what it is convinced is true. This is where speaking the Word or meditating on the Word comes in.
Rom. 10:17 So faith comes from hearing the message, and the message that is heard is what Christ spoke.
Just as there is no substitute for eating, there is no substitute for feeding on God’s Word. Faith arises within us as we hear the message of what Christ spoke about us. When we take those words and begin to speak them to ourselves this will begin to erase the thoughts of our old way of seeing and believing. The more we do this the more faith will arise in our hearts. Confession can then be made coming from the belief in our heart of what we now know is true and it will then come to pass.
Mark 4:24 Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.
Jesus tells us here that it is very important that we are taking heed to what we hear. The measure of the Words of Christ you are hearing will determine how much you will receive understanding of it. If we are not speaking God’s Word consistently as to who Christ made us to be, we are going to lack in our believing in God. You cannot substitute anything for hearing God’s Word that will help you to arise in faith. You hear yourself more than you hear anyone else each day. This is why it is so important to speak the Word of God over your life daily.
Rom. 10:8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
When we get the Word of faith, which refers to what Christ has done for us in our mouth, then it will begin to get in our hearts. Notice it must get in your mouth first before it will get in your heart. This again is why speaking the Words that refer to who Christ has made you to be and what He has done for you is so important. If you don’t take time to get the Word of faith in your mouth it will not get in your heart. Our thinking will effect our believing. Our speaking will affect our thinking. If our speaking is wrong or non-existent when it comes to what Christ has done for us, then our believing is going to be weak. The result will be a confession that has no belief to back it up, which means that we will have a false confession because there is no conviction that what we are saying is a reality, even when we don’t see it. Remember a Biblical confession is convinced of what is says is so.
Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
Remember you hear you more than anyone else. Most only look at this verse and relate it to what we say to others, but you are hearing you more than anyone else. When corrupt words proceed out of your mouth they don’t build faith, they corrupt the faith you have been given. What are corrupt words? The Bible says if you sow to the flesh you will reap corruption. Corrupt words speak of the things of the flesh and not the things of God. But if we sow to the Spirit we reap life (GAL 6:8). Your words are seeds. The most important parable in the Bible teaches us that words are seeds (MARK 4), which become planted within our hearts. So if you want to walk in a faith filled confession you must watch what you say.
By observation of believers for 22 years as a pastor and even observing my own walk with Christ I believe we fall prey to the fact that just because we have head knowledge of something we believe it is in our hearts. But you can have head knowledge of what God’s Word says and yet still not have faith in your heart. We need knowledge of the Word of God for without knowledge of what we have in Christ Jesus we can be easily deceived. So I am not discounting the importance of us having knowledge of God’s Word, but knowledge alone is not enough. We need to have revelation in our hearts of what we know is true in the Word of God. To get this we must speak the Word pertaining to what Christ has done for us and who we are in Him for faith to arise in our hearts. Once it does we can then confess it with our mouths and it will work for us.
See You Again Next Week For More “Weekly Wisdom”
May God’s Best Be Yours!
Pastor Darryl Baker
