A Revision of What We Learnt in Part 1
- The God-Kind of Faith works through two mechanisms: Believe and Confession.
- Jesus stressed more on the mechanism of Confession through the mouth using the tongue because ‘Believe’ is already an integral part of the believer.
- The ratio Jesus gave for ‘Believe to Confession’ is ‘one is to three’.
- The reason why we are not seeing a greater manifestation of God’s promises manifesting in our lives is greatly due to a lack of ‘Confession of God’s Word’.
- The lack of Confession of God’s word maybe due to a lack of knowledge. People spend more time in things contrary to the word of God, which directly impacts how they think, how they talk (Confession), and how they act.
- For the God-Kind of Faith to work, we need to surround ourselves continuously by the things of God. We need to regularly read and study our Bibles. We need to make time to attend Sunday Service, Home Prayer Meetings and Bible Studies. We need to spend time alone with God in Prayer, Worship and Silence (Be Still and Know that I AM God). We need to be involved in the ministry. We all should be doing something for God. He has blessed every single person with some sort of gift. There is no excuse. If you are not involved in any ministry, then I encourage you to start doing something for God today. Talk to your pastor and tell him that you want to be involved in God’s work. Believe me, there’s a lot to do.
- As an individual surrounds himself/herself with the things of God, he/she will soon realize that their spiritual sensitivity is becoming better day after day. Another noticeable change one will notice is that he/she will have more desire for spiritual things. Yet another important change that will become more visible is the thinking, talking and acting is now being molded by what God’s word says. As they release the promises of God continuously using their mouth, believe them in their spirit and act in thankfulness that God has already answered their requests, they will see those things manifest in supernatural and natural ways before their very eyes. Isn’t that wonderful? Our God is just so awesome. I can’t stop saying but good things about Him; always; all the time.
Introduction
The God-Kind of Faith is such a big subject. We can really write down books upon books on just this one topic. I am not perfect. The reason I wanted to say that is because sometimes folks can read articles I write and the other things I do in ministry and get the wrong idea that this guy seems spiritually perfect and has it all good. Now, God has blessed me a lot. I won’t lie on this point. But do remember, as long as we are living on earth, we will all face problems whether you be a believer or not. The one thing that makes a difference in the Christian life is the fact that we can always rely on God and look to Him as our Father and lean upon Him as His children. The Bible tells us very clearly that God will never leave you nor forsake you.
Hebrews 13:5 KJVS
[5] Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
I myself have learnt a lot of things in my spiritual walk with God the hard way and there are so many things I am not proud of. There are still some things that I continuously struggle with but I thank my Savior, Jesus Christ that He is merciful and loving to always be waiting to welcome me into His gracious hands. So, always remember friends, there is no sin so great that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse. Now, I want to make one point very clear that the blood of Jesus is not a license to sin but is a provision for God’s children in time of need. Have a look at John 1:9.
1 John 1:9 KJVS
[9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I love this verse! Our God is a God of forgiveness! Isn’t that wonderful? Thank you Jesus!
The word confession is has two implications. One, confession deals with telling God that you have missed the mark and asking Him for His forgiveness. Two, confession deals with speaking the promises of God over your life. The one that we deal with in this article is the second one.
Power of Life and Death
Proverbs 18:21 are a very powerful verse. We will look at some different translations of this verse to get a deeper understanding of this verse.
Proverbs 18:21 KJVS
[21] Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Proverbs 18:21 NLT
[21] The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.
Proverbs 18:21 TPT
[21] Your words are so powerful that they will kill or give life, and the talkative person will reap the consequences.
Proverbs 18:21 AMP
[21] Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it and indulge it will eat its fruit and bear the consequences of their words.
How exactly does the God kind of faith work? It works off the words formed by your tongue and released through your mouth. The tongue is a very small part of your body but it has the capability to produce life and death. The Bible has a lot to say about the tongue. This verse alone sums up pretty much everything all the other verses have to say about the Tongue in the Bible. What does the tongue do? It forms words. Words are the most powerful thing in this universe. Have a look at the verse below:
Hebrews 11:3 KJVS
[3] Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
There’s a lot of meat in this single verse. One, everything we see around us was made by the Word of God. Two, the visible things were made of invisible things. Three, all these things were accomplished by God through the element of faith. Think about it, the word that God speaks contains creative power. You don’t have to be smart to figure out that words are formed by the tongue and spoken out through the mouth. Since, we are created in the image of God, our words also have a similar effect. The problem is that our believe and confession needs to be lined up correctly. A lot of times we say that we believe the word of God but we seldom speak or talk about it. The issue arises from the fact that we are surrounded by so many things contrary to the word of God that directly affects the synchronization of our belief and confession. This creates a problem for our words to come to pass. One minute, we shout I believe I am healed by the stripes of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The very next minute, we say maybe it’s not God’s will for me to be healed. James says that a double-minded person is unstable in all his ways.
James 1:8 KJVS
[8] A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Something that believers don’t realize is that although God works within the universe He has created, He is a spirit being and therefore He is beyond space, time and matter. What I am trying to say is that with God, there is no such thing as past, present and future. Everything is now for Him. I know it’s a little bit confusing because we are creatures who live within the constraints of space, time and matter. The minute you confessed that you were healed by the stripes of Jesus and the minute you said maybe it’s probably not God’s will to heal me, you cancelled your positive confession with your negative confession automatically because with God both was ‘now’ on His end. This is really the position of a double-minded person. First of all, their heart and tongue are out of sync but their tongue is also changing the confession every other minute, hour, day, month or year which is another problem. The God-Kind of Faith is formed and brought into manifestation solely on the basis of the synchronization of the tongue and spirit proceeding towards the act of acknowledging and receiving the words as done without seeing any physical manifestation of the request. Remember, I am talking about faith in reference to God’s word alone since I am relating it to the belief and confession of a believer.
Believe and Confession
Paul wrote some very powerful verses in his letter to the Church in Rome. Rome was the center of attraction back in the days. All the wealthy and high profile people (lawyers, philosophers, doctors etc.) lived here. Paul is writing this to some of the smartest people of his day. Have a look at the following verses from Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Romans 10:8-10 KJVS
[8] But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
[9] That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
[10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Let us dissect these verses one by one. There’s a lot of content in them. In verse 8, Paul points out several facts. One, the word is in your mouth. Two, the word is in your heart. Three, the word Paul is talking about is the word of faith. What is the word of faith? The word of faith is the word by which God created everything. It was written down by the Holy men of God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. These written manuscripts were put together by servants of God and printed out as a collection of sixty-six books named as the Holy Bible in the English language. The words in the Holy Bible are words of faith. It contains the very words God spoke out and it contains His creative power. When we, His people speak out these same words with our mouths believing and receiving the end result without any physical evidence, we are going to see results. But remember, we need to hold fact to our confession of faith in what God says in His word. It is a process. Sometimes the manifestation of the promise is quick, sometimes it takes longer. The important part here is that we hold onto our confession without wavering. Have a look at the scripture below.
Hebrews 10:23 KJVS
[23] Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Let me clarify something before we move further. The word profession here is the same Greek word that is translated as confession in other places in the New Testament. Remember what I said about everything being now for God and how our opposite confessions cancel out our requests and petitions made to God. To summarize verse 8, we learn that the word of God is near you even in your mouth and heart. Moving onto verse 9, we learn about a very important principle. Confession can only be made with your mouth; believe can only be done with your heart which is your spirit. Coming out with some other form of alternative is not really a choice. Look, I did not write the Bible. It is the Word of God. Either you accept it or deny it. We cannot cherry pick verses from the Bible. Always read it in context. In verse 10, Paul drives his point home by declaring that believing and confessing the word of God gives us an upper right hand. Seriously, it’s true. Just re-read the verse. It does two things. One, we obtain a right standing with God based upon what Christ did for us. Two, we are granted the salvation package which is a gift from God therefore it’s absolutely free. Salvation comes from the Greek word, ‘soteria’ which is a pretty deep word. It does not just mean forgiveness for our sins, but contains health, healing, preservation, protection, safety etc. That sure makes me put on my praise suit, what about you?
Wrapping Up Part 2
We learnt some very important things in this article. The two mechanisms that operate the God kind of faith are: Believe and Confession. The word of faith is the word of God, which contains the thousands of promises God has made to His beloved children. Yes, we are that children. Isn’t that wonderful? So, what must we do to put the God-Kind of Faith into operation? Find the promises of God that apply to your life or situation, personalize them, speak it out in past tense as often as possible and believe them in your spirit. Make sure, you stick to speaking the promises only. Do not speak anything contrary because these will nullify the confession. In other words, all your work goes to waste. Believing and confessing God’s promises over your life, family, church and country is not an easy job. It takes effort, time and dedication. Remember the word is near you. Physically the Bible should always be with you whether it be the hard cover or an app on your smart phone. One way or the other, keep the word in front of your eyes and continuously feed the words to your ears as well. Surround yourself with the things of God and hang around Godly people. The devil is after the word of faith in your heart. Don’t give Him any opportunity to steal it. He is a clever thief. Always be on your guard. You have an advantage because the greater one is living on the inside of you according to 1John 4:4. I think I will end here. I don’t want to make it too long. Hopefully this has been a pleasant read and you learnt some things here that will help you grow in your spiritual walk with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you!