Confession A Way to Possession
Confession – A Way to Possession
In Matthew 21:22 Jesus said, “…all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” In other words, we are only limited by what we can believe based on the authority of the Word of God. Then in John 15:7 Jesus said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Here are two important facts. First, we must abide in Christ, and second His Word must abide in us. In other words, don’t cast out the Word in favor of First Experience 4:7 or what somebody said they thought somebody said happened to somebody else.
Don't cast out the Word in favor of First Experience 4:7
A pastor friend of mine related a story concerning believing and receiving. A lady came to him and said she needed a job and so they prayed and came into agreement on Matthew 18:19, “…if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” About a week later she said, “Pastor, I have two job offers, do you think we prayed and believed too hard?” It wasn’t a matter of praying and believing too hard, it was their faith and action that activated the promise. Jesus said, “I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” There was an abundance of jobs available to her when they came into agreement in prayer.
In Hebrews 10:23, the Scripture says, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering….” The word “profession” can be translated “confession.” In other words, we are to hold fast the confession of our faith. If the job offer doesn’t come, what are you going to do? You should continue to confess the Scripture and believe what you agreed on in prayer until it is manifest. The Scripture says let us hold fast to the confession of our faith, which indicates that you could lose it if you don’t hold on to it. You hold on to the confession of your faith by continually affirming what you agreed on because it is based on the Word.
The confession of your mouth establishes the Word in your heart. The Scriptures teach us that confession is a way to possession. And when I use the word “confession,” I’m referring to saying the same thing that God’s Word said about any situation. To be convinced that confession is a way to possession you have only but to look at how people are born again. Paul said: “...if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in thine heart God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9) So the confession that Jesus is Lord is the way to possessing eternal life. This principle also carries over into every area of life. The Scriptures reveal that there was no creation without words. (Hebrews 11:3)
Confession that Jesus is Lord is the way to possessing eternal life.
God gave the children of Israel the land of Promise. (Numbers 13:1-2) It was theirs; it belonged to them. There was no doubt that it was God’s will for them to enter in because He had given them the land. He sent Moses to bring them out of Egypt to the land of Promise, and they were all excited about it for a while. But they began to murmur and complain in the wilderness and let the promise slip from them. They would not say what God had said about them. They got out in the wilderness and began to say, “you’ve led us out here in the wilderness to die; we are going to die in the wilderness.” They prophesied their own destruction. Multiplied thousands of them died in the wilderness. Was it because it was God’s will? No, it was because they didn’t take heed to God’s Word and wouldn’t keep God’s Word in their mouth.
Hebrews 4:2 says, “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” God had made provision for them to keep them in the way and lead them to the Promise Land. But they would not cooperate with God and the angel of the Lord that was sent to lead them. Exodus 23:20-23, “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and Jebusites: and I will cut them off.”
It would seem that with an angel to lead, guide, and keep them in the way, it would be a “piece of cake” so to speak to enter into the Promise Land. But they prophesied their own death. Their words provoked God, and it provoked the angel that God had sent. They just simply wouldn’t mix any faith with what God said concerning the Promise Land.
Notice this Scripture says, “Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions….” The angel did not have to pardon their transgressions. He could not pardon them for their transgression against God.
Their transgression was speaking against what God said and refusing to obey. To say the least, provoking an angel is not healthy. Balaam provoked an angel and almost lost his head over the deal. Angels cannot nullify the Word of God just to keep you out of trouble. They must have your cooperation to fulfill their assignment concerning you.
Angels must have your cooperation to fulfill their assignment concerning you.
The children of Israel began to complain to Moses that they were in the desert with no water. And God had Moses to tap the rock, and water came out of the rock, and that rock that followed them the Scripture says was Christ Jesus. In other words, the rock represented Jesus who is our abundant supply. There was abundant provision made for them even in the wilderness. God provided it miraculously, supernaturally, and assigned an angel to them; and yet they didn’t get victory over the Jebusites and the Hittites because they died in the wilderness. It wasn’t the will of God for that to happen to them, but it did happen because they provoked their angel.
Jesus came that you might have life abundantly, until it overflows. It is His will that you be prosperous and blessed in life. But that does not necessarily mean you will ever enter into it. The ability to enter in to God’s provision comes from the promise itself, which produces the faith to possess it.
Many times in life you have to overcome what you can see, feel, and hear by the confession of the Word of God. The confession of the Word renews your mind to where you begin to think like God thinks, then you can see things the way God sees them.
Hebrews 3:15-19 says, “While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
We all have some legal doubt. What I mean by “legal” doubt is when you just don’t know what the Word said about a certain situation you might have some doubt. But when you know what the Word said, and then you are not obedient to it or will not say what God said, then that is not doubt—that is “unbelief.” It’s really disobedience. The children of Israel disobeyed God. They wouldn’t hearken to the voice of God. The angel made it quite easy for them; he was a cloud by day and a fire by night—a light at night and a cloud in the day to keep them cool. They had supernatural provisions, but they would not mix faith with what God said.
Hebrews 4:1-2 says, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” Yes, we’ve heard the Gospel preached. We’ve heard the good news of the Gospel, that we can have what we say if we believe and doubt not in our hearts. This was a principle under the Old Covenant. But the Word preached did not profit them because they didn’t mix faith with it. It’s important to mix faith with the Word of God.
You mix faith with the Word when you give voice to it by speaking it out of your mouth. There is something about speaking God’s Word after Him that releases the ability of God inside you. The apostle Paul said it this way: “…The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.” (Romans 10:8) In other words, what you speak with your mouth will eventually get in your heart. That’s what happened to the children of Israel. They began to speak the wrong things against Moses and God. When they went in to spy out the land, they gave preeminence to what they saw and what they felt and what they heard. They said, “there are giants in the land, and we are like grasshoppers in their sight, and so are we in our own eyes.” When they began to speak contrary to what God said about them, fear overcame them.
Joshua and Caleb assessed the situation in the light of God's promise.
Fear will always erode faith. The promise was to all of Israel, but all that doubted God died in the wilderness and didn’t enter into the Promise Land. This is a classic example of why you should hold fast to the confession of your faith. Joshua and Caleb said, “we are well able to enter into the land and overcome them, let us go in at once.” But the others said, “we be not able.” Now, they all saw the same thing. The difference was that Joshua and Caleb assessed the situation in the light of God’s promise. Those who came back with the evil report assessed the situation by what they saw and how they felt after they heard themselves rehearsing their imaginary defeat. They cast out the Word of God and allowed fear to overcome faith. Once they began to speak doubt and unbelief, it took over and faith was a thing of the past.
Joshua and Caleb held fast to their confession for forty years, “we are well able to take it.” Forty years later when they entered into the Promise Land, Caleb said, “give me the mountain with the giants on it.” He was 84 years old, but he said, “I will take the mountain with the giants on it.” He experienced the wilderness the same as the others, but he never changed his confession. After forty years he was still well able to do it, and thank God he did. The bottom line is, what you say with your mouth is what will eventually be established in your heart—whether it is the lie of the enemy or the Word of God.
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Fear comes by hearing and quoting and speaking the words of the devil. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. On the other hand, fear is the substance of things you don’t desire.
I encourage you to keep the promise of God in your mouth. It will summon faith and cause you to be in the right place at the right time to live out the reality of the promise of God in your life.
Click to Go Back to the Monthly Teachings Page
If you would like to hear more on the subject. Check out this 4 Part MP3 for just $15.00
This is a faith building series of six reasons revealing WHY and HOW the confession of God's Word benefits you. Reveals God's Word is the power that brings victory in your every day life.
