Kenneth Hagin 

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession [confession]. — HEBREWS 4:14

The Greek word translated “profession” here is translated confession elsewhere in the King James Version. The literal Greek meaning of this word is to speak the same thing. So instead of saying, “Let us hold fast our confession” we could say, “Let us hold fast to speaking the same thing.” Notice that words are involved here.

The thing that defeats many people is that they have a double confession. One time they confess one thing, and the next time they confess something else.

For example, they may say to you, “Yes, the Lord is my Shepherd, and I shall not want. According to Philippians 4:19, my God shall supply all of my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus — and I’m believing God to supply my needs.”

But when they leave you and meet someone else, their mind may revert back to their problems, so they’ll say, “We’re not doing so good. We can’t pay our phone bill. We’re going to have to take the phone out. And it even looks like we’re going to lose our car . . .”

What about that first confession they made? It was nullified by the second.

Confession: I make my mouth do its duty. I see to it that I speak in line with God’s Word. Then I hold fast to my confession.

Joseph Prince

Psalm 139:7–10

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.

Hebrews 13:5 says that God’s presence in your life is a guaranteed constant. But I want you to know that you cannot evaluate God’s presence and His unmerited favor in your life based on your circumstances. To help you understand what this means, let’s look at the life of Joseph.

Joseph refused the advances made by Potiphar’s wife, and as the common saying goes, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”! She maliciously accused Joseph of attempting to rape her, brandishing as “evidence” the garments that Joseph had left in her hands when he fled from her. When Potiphar heard his wife telling her version of the story, his anger was aroused and he seized Joseph, stripped him from the place of authority he had given him and threw him into prison.

Just put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. What is happening here? It sounds all too familiar, doesn’t it? With the painful memory of his brothers casting him into the pit still fresh in his mind, here he is once again, cast into a dungeon even though he was innocent.

Any average person would be bitter and angry with God! Most people would ask, “Where is God? Why had God brought him this far, only to abandon and forsake him? How could this happen? Where is the justice against this false accusation?”

But Joseph was literally no “average Joe”! He knew that the Lord would never leave him nor forsake him. Joseph considered not his circumstances but kept his focus on the presence of the Lord. Regardless of whether he was a common slave, an overseer in Potiphar’s house, or now a prisoner facing the prospect of life imprisonment for a crime he did not even commit, Joseph did not evaluate God’s unmerited favor in his life based on his circumstances.

Instead of getting bitter, he kept his hope in the Lord. Instead of throwing in the towel and giving up on God and on life, he kept his confidence, knowing that all his success was wrapped up in the presence of the Lord.

And boy, did the Lord deliver him! I want you to read this for yourself to see what the Lord did for Joseph:

But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

—Genesis 39:21–23

What does this tell you? If you refuse to bow to your circumstances and continue to be conscious of the Lord’s presence, wherever you are placed, whatever your environment, you will rise to prominence. You will have favor with your bosses and they will promote you to man-in-charge. And whatever you do will prosper!

Joseph Prince 

1 Corinthians 1:27, 29

God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty . . . that no flesh should glory in His presence.

For many people, it is the very simplicity of the holy Communion that makes it so hard for them to believe it can be effective. All they can see is a small piece of bread and a little cup of juice. They cannot imagine how something so seemingly insignificant, small, and weak can drive out disease or cause them to live a long life.

When we dismiss the Communion elements for those reasons, we are forgetting the way God works. The Bible says God chooses the weak things of the world to put to shame the strong. Time and again, we see how God defeated the enemies of the children of Israel not through military might but through seemingly insignificant things.

God used a sling and a stone in the hand of a young shepherd boy to bring down Goliath, the mighty champion of the Philistine army (1 Sam. 17:38–51). He used a hammer and a tent peg in the hands of a defenseless woman to destroy Sisera, the ruthless Canaanite military commander who had oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years (Judg. 4:3–22). He used the jawbone of a donkey in the hand of Samson—one man—to slay a thousand Philistines (Judg. 15:15–16).

It’s interesting that when a Gentile woman came to the Lord Jesus seeking healing for her severely demonized daughter, He referred to healing as “the children’s bread.” Do you know what the woman said to Him?

“Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Jesus then said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And that very hour, her daughter was healed (Matt. 15:22–28).

What do you think the children’s bread that is laid on the “masters’ table” is a shadow of? The holy Communion!

You and I sit at the Master’s table because we are sons and daughters of the Most High God, and we partake freely of the Lord’s Supper. If the seemingly insignificant “crumbs” that fell from the table could heal the woman’s child, how much more healing and life we shall receive when we have the substance of the holy Communion!

Kenneth Hagin

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. — ACTS 10:38

I have read about Rev. John Alexander Dowie, a Congregationalist pastor in Australia in the 1870s, when a bubonic plague came to Australia. People were dying like flies during that epidemic. Rev. Dowie had already buried forty-three members of his congregation, and had four more waiting to be buried.

While sitting at the desk in his study one day, he began to cry out to God. “Dear God, is my whole church going to die? Did You send this plague? Is this Your will? Are You going to call them all home?” He didn’t know who was to blame for it. He had read in the Old Testament how plagues could sometimes be stayed. Could this plague be stayed? He wept for the members of his congregation.

The Spirit of God spoke one verse of Scripture to his heart: Acts 10:38. Rev. Dowie said, in effect, “Like a flash, I saw it! The plague didn’t come from Heaven—there aren’t any plagues in Heaven. It didn’t come from God. Satan is the oppressor—Jesus is the Deliverer. From Genesis through Revelation, scriptures began to come to me. I saw that it is the will of God that people be healed and live their full length of time out down here below and die without sickness and disease.”

Then Rev. Dowie said to God, “Help me preach this to my people. Help me teach them so that they can see it and walk in the light of it. Give me the wisdom to share it with them.”

Confession: Jesus is the Deliverer—Satan is the oppressor. Sickness and disease don’t come from God; they come from Satan. Therefore, I choose to live my full length of time out down here on earth and die without sickness and disease!