KONA YA T.L OSBORN

WHAT ARE WE TO CONFESS? 

T.L Osborn akiwa na Keneth hagin

Few Christians today have recognized the place confession holds in God’s plan for our appropriation of His blessings. Whenever the word "confession" is used, many instinctively think of confessing sin, weakness, and failure. This is only the negative side of this great question. Our negative confession of sin was only to open the way for the positive confession "Unto salvation" — of a whole life-time of believing with our heart and saying with our lips everything God says to us in His promises.

Confessing unto salvation in its initial form, and then in each of its successive forms. First in the form of the new birth, then in the form of every blessing promised us in the Word of God. The Christian is to act on every phase of his salvation that he knows about. We are to believe with the heart and confess with our mouth to the extent of "The Word of Faith" which Paul preached. He preached "all the will (counsel) of God." (Acts 20:26). He preached "the unsearchable riches of Christ."(Eph.3:8). He said that he "kept back nothing that was profitable (or helpful)" unto them. (Acts 20:20)

All that Jesus did in His substitutionary work is the private property of the individual for whom He did it. So throughout our Christian life God wants us to believe with our heart and say with our lips all He says that we are in Christ. We are not to ignore or neglect our legal standing in Christ, for it is the basis for the acts of faith which puts God to work fulfilling His Word to us. We are to confess or whisper to our own heart, “In Him I am complete” or “given fullness” (Col.2:10) When we know that God in His Word says, "I am the Lord that heals you" (Ex.15:26) we are to believe it and confess it with our lips, and then Christ will act as our High Priest and make it good.

We are to confess that Calvary was our "Emancipation Proclamation" from everything outside the will of God, and act accordingly. We are to confess that our sicknesses were laid on Christ, and that we are redeemed from the curse of disease. "Let him that is weak say, I am strong" (2Cor.12:10).

Our confession includes:

The whole of Scripture truth;

All that Christ’s sacrifice provided.

All that Christ’s High Priesthood covers;

The whole of God’s revealed will.

We are to confess that our redemption is complete.

Satan’s dominion is ended, for Calvary has freed us. Like the slaves of the south, we are to believe that we are free on the basis of our Emancipation Proclamation, never on the basis of our feelings, or on the evidences of our senses.

Remission is the wiping out of everything connected with the old life. We are a "new creation." The old things have passed away, and all things are become new. (2Cor.5:17)

Of course we are not to say to others that our healing is manifested before it is. God does not say that. But you can say to those who ask you, "I am standing on the Word of God".

Wrong Confession

We never rise above our confession. A negative confession will lower us to the level of that confession. It is what we confess with our lips that really controls us. Our confession imprisons us if it is negative, it sets us free if it is positive. Many tell of their failings and their lack of faith. Invariably they go to the level of their confession. Confessing lack of faith increases doubt. Every time you confess doubts and fears, you confess your faith in Satan and deny the ability and grace of God. When you confess doubt, you are imprisoned by your own words: "you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth" (Proverbs 6:2). When we doubt God’s Word it is because we believe something that is contrary to that Word. Wrong confession shuts the Father out and lets Satan in.

We are to refuse to have anything to do with wrong confession. When we realize that we will never rise above our confession, we are getting to the place where God can use us.

Disease gains the ascendancy when you confess the testimony of your senses. Feelings and appearances have no place in the realm of faith. Confessing disease is like signing for a package that the Express Company has delivered. Satan then has the receipt from you showing that you have accepted it. Don't accept anything that Satan brings. "Give no place to the devil." (Eph.4:27) "If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God" (I Peter 4:11). In Ephesians 4: 29, we are commanded to speak only "what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." We are not to testify for the adversary. We are to act faith, speak faith, and think faith.

A spiritual law that few recognize is that our confession rules us. It is what we confess with our lips that really dominates our inner being. Make your lips do their duty. Refuse to allow them to destroy the effectiveness of God’s Word in your case. Some confess with their lips but deny in their heart. They say, "Yes, the Word is true," but in their heart they say, "It is not true in my case." The confession of your lips has no value as long as your heart repudiates it.

The Right Mental Attitude

In Philippians 4:8 the Holy Spirit says, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things".

The Holy Spirit says in Proverbs 23:7 "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he"NKJV.

In II Corinthians 10:4-6, the Holy Spirit says, "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete." We are to "demolish arguments (cast down reasoningsKJV)" and give the Word of God its place in our minds and on our lips. We are to have "the mind of Christ" (1Cor.2:16).

Jesus remembers when He bore our sicknesses, and the Holy Spirit commands, "Forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases"(Ps.103:2-3).

God’s spiritual and physical transformations are to come to us "by the renewing of our minds . . . present your bodies [the home or laboratory of the five senses] a living sacrifice . . . and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will " (Romans 12: 1).