Confess your Faith

We look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are unseen for the seen things are temporal while the unseen things are eternal. In Luke 17:11-19, the ten lepers started to go to the priests while they still had the leprosy on them and the Bible says that as they went they got cleansed. They didn’t start to go because they couldn’t see the symptoms, they began while the symptoms were still there. That means that if you ask something from God, even though you can’t see it now you should start acting as if you already have it. Start thinking it. Start talking it. Start making plans for it. If you are sick in your body, take God’s word and put it your life and start acting healed. Oh yes, though I still have the pain I will act and talk healed because I am healed. The lepers started acting healed. It’s only healed people who could show themselves to the priests.

When the Lord Jesus asked the servants at the wedding in the Cana of Galilee to take the water to the master of the feast, they began to take it even though they knew what they had put in the jars was water. They acted as if they had already put wine in those jars. Now that’s faith. Faith takes the initiative. Faith does not need to see the results for it to function, it starts moving in expectation that the results will come. Faith has hope. You can’t have faith and be hopeless. Your hope is only relevant when faith is present. Faith is making five thousand men sit down while all you can see is five barley loaves and two small fish. (John 6:10-12). As the disciples were sitting the people down they still had the five loaves and the two small fish, but they sat them nevertheless.

Faith is unleashed through obedience and confession. We express our faith by what we do about what we believe and also by what we say. Faith without works is dead. (James 2:17). The works of faith are actions and words.

And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak…

2 Cor. 4:13 (NKJV)

We also believe and therefore speak. So what do we speak? We speak our faith. Faith is not faith until it is spoken. Yes, we believe and therefore we speak. We do not believe and keep quiet about it. We speak it! “But is it not between me and God? Do I have to tell everyone?” Yes, you have to shout it on the rooftops. Jesus said that if you confess Him before men He will also confess you before the Father in heaven and if you deny Him before men He will also deny you before the Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33).

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): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:8-10 (NKJV)

The word is very near, you don’t have to go anywhere to get it. You have it right here with you, in your mouth. “…the word of faith which we preach”. Yes we preach faith. You listen to our preaching and you will get faith because we are preaching the word of faith. Now that the word is near you, even in your mouth, what are you expected to do with it? You confess it with your mouth! Many people don’t like the word the confession because all they think of when they hear it is sin. They think you’re trying to show them how guilty they are, and rightly so because the Bible says that if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9). But that’s just one side of confession. It is good to confess sins but that's not all there is to confession, there are good things too.

The Greek word homologeo is translated confession and in some older translations profession and it literally means to “speak the same thing”. In relation to sin, it is admitting oneself guilty of what one is accused of, the result of inward conviction. On the positive side it means to declare openly by way of speaking out freely. This is resultant of a deep conviction of facts. This is acknowledging something. It is speaking the same thing God is speaking. It is our open declaration of what God has said or done for us.

“…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Now confessing the Lord Jesus is a good confession. It is acknowledging Him as Lord. It is allowing Him to take charge of your life. It is giving him the highest place in your heart and in your life. It is inviting Him to rule over your life and establish His kingdom in you. Confession is not just a mere recitation of words. Anybody can say “Jesus is Lord” and not necessarily get saved. Confession is not recitation. You see the Bible says, “…and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” That qualifies confession. It has to be out of deep conviction of this truth in the heart, and as you believe you speak.

The conviction in your heart is the force that gives power to your words. Without that persuasion your words are just words and can’t accomplish salvation for you. You can’t really say that Jesus is Lord while you’re not convinced that God has raised Him from the dead and expect it to do anything for you. How can He be dead and still be Lord? How can He rule over your life if He is dead? Now there are other people who claim to believe but they won’t confess it, it’s between me and God, they say. They are so much afraid of what people will think or say about them if they found out what they are saying? Revelation 21:8 says that the cowards, the unbelieving and others have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, the second death. In other words, they have no hope of salvation. So believing and not confessing it will not help you, it’s just like you don’t believe it.

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