Confession brings possession”, that’s what I and many that I have spoken with were taught. Is that really true? Or did they leave something out? Let’s reword that phrase according to how it was taught to me: “I’m going to speak/confess/use these scriptures to get God to release what He has for me.” On the surface, it sounds good. You are probably thinking of the same verses I am, about death and life in the tongue. There are many such scriptures in the Word, but, is just saying a Bible verse what moves God? If our intent is to leverage God into releasing something to us through our much speaking, that is called (in the Bible) a dead work which will only produce the fruit of frustration and disappointment.

The first principle of God, according to Hebrews 6:1 is “repentance from dead works and faith towards God…” Faith is being steadfast on God’s works, not ours.

Using the word in that way is not a fruit of belief but an attempt to use your efforts to make something grow from that word instead of letting the spirit, through revelation of the truth of that word, manifest the demand that you’re placing on it because you believe. The confession as revealed in the word is one that is a fruit of our belief, not the root. Example: let’s say someone gets a sickness or disease so they pray and nothing happens that they can see or feel, so they’re thinking “that didn’t work”. In desperation they pick up a book on healing that gives a testimony how someone saw in the word,  1 Peter 2:24 and began to confess that over themselves throughout the day and now they are healed and symptom free. The writer of the book leads you to the conclusion that the person got healed because they faithfully confessed the scripture.  So we, still facing symptoms in our body, decide that is what we need to do to be healed. We write out all these scriptures and then begin faithfully confessing the scriptures and we’re thinking that by confessing the scriptures we’ll be healed, but, will we be healed? If that’s what it takes to receive healing then Jesus did not do it all for us, he still needs us to confess the word to be healed.

Confession, as used in the New Testament, simply means “saying the same thing as another” or “agreeing with another”.  The only “another” that is beneficial is the spirit of God, which agrees with the word of God.

Can one really be healed just by confessing the scriptures alone? No! First of all, if we are saved we have already been healed, because Jesus not only bore our sin but the consequences of sin (Galatians 3:13, Isaiah 53:5, Matthew 8:17, 2 Corinthians 5:21, and many more) by paying the penalty of that sin. Secondly, Jesus said that it is belief and belief alone that causes us to appropriate or receive what God has provided for us (which is in Christ Jesus, Matthew 21:22, Mark 11:24, John 6:28-29, and Ephesians 1:3). So, if we’re using the word of God to get something from God, with that being our motive, that becomes a dead work. By doing so, we would be saying it’s our effort that’s going to release the spirit of God because we’re speaking the scriptures. If that is our motive, we are deceived, and the spirit can’t release the provision through that deception, which is unbelief of the truth. In Titus 1:16 Paul shares that even though someone may confess that they know God, in their actions they can actually deny him.

Titus 1:16

They profess (same Greek word as translated confess)  that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

Also, Jesus said “This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me (Matthew 15:8).” Our actions are an overflow of what our heart believes, yet we could say something with our mouth and believe something different in our heart. The only way to discern what our heart motive is, is to let the Spirit reveal the Word to us and compare our actions and motive with that Word, Hebrews 4:12.

The word of God itself does not go void! The word of God is Spirit and life which will always accomplish what the Father sends it to do:

Isaiah 55:11

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I will, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Psalms 107:20

He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

God sent His Word of healing to all of Israel, but not all of Israel was healed, why? How does His word accomplish it? How does it work? As Jesus said, be it unto you according to your belief. When we believe that Word, the spirit of that truth is released into our life. Does it work just because we quoted or spoke it repeatedly? No. Does it mean that we believe just because we are quoting scripture? No. I know in my own healing journey, I quoted many scriptures trying to get healing and did not see any positive results. I speak with many others who are so frustrated with confessing and rebuking that they are ready to give up on the word and God. Why is it frustrating to them? Because they are trying to get something from God that they think they don’t have yet based on their circumstance, situation or symptom. The word defines that method of evaluation as unbelief. If we believed what we are confessing as Jesus demonstrated or as those who received from him when he was ministering here in person, we would not be seeking to be healed, we would be testifying of what he has already done for us.

It’s not the repeating the scriptures alone that brings forth the fruit but when the confession has become a fruit of our belief, then we’re just affirming what we have already believed in our heart and our mouth is making confession in agreement to what our heart has already received. Remember the definition of ‘confession’ above: Confession, as used in the New Testament, simply means “saying the same thing as another” or “agreeing with another”.  The “another”, we should be saying the same thing as, out of belief of the truth, is the spirit of God.

This view is exactly what the Word of God teaches. The writer of Hebrews 11 relates this truth in verse 13. “These all died according to faith, not having received every promise here on this earth, (made complete in Christ, the Heavenly City, etc – see verses 17,39,40) but, having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed they were pilgrims and strangers on the earth.”

Notice the progression leading to confession:

1. 1. 1. They saw the promise (heard the word)
      2. Were persuaded of it (convinced the word was true)
      3. They embraced the promise as theirs (believed)
      4. Then…they confessed (as if they had already received, even though they did not physically experience all of the promises here on this earth)

I was bound with thinking that my confession was going to produce the fruit of healing in my life. I would panic when I realized that I had forgotten to go through all my scriptures during the day. I realized after countless times of confessing 1Peter 2:24, that was not the way to go. In fact, I started to feel like one of those Jesus said not to be like in Matthew 6:7:

  Matthew 6:7:

“….use not vain repetitions, as the heathen (unbelievers) do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”

You might ask then what benefit is confessing the Word?!  It is very beneficial! It is an outward expression of our belief, our agreement with God, which is actually worship/praise. It also ministers to our own heart, “….faith comes by hearing”.  God told Joshua that we should meditate in his word day and night.

Joshua 1:8:

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

We do not confess or speak the word to get something from God, but to observe to do (live) all that is written therein and by doing so we will make our way prosperous and will have good success. But our confessing or meditating alone will not release it; it’s living the word (we live what we believe in our heart) that positions us for that word to manifest in our life. When we begin to live the scriptures, it is because we understand and embrace them through belief and are persuaded they are speaking truth to our heart. We see the manifestation because we’ve yielded our heart to them. Our Father told us death and life are in the power of the tongue. What makes our words death or life is our belief behind them, not the speaking of them. They that love it, agree/believe in our heart, shall eat/partake of the fruit of it. Confessing the word God’s way, keeps us focused on the things of the spirit instead of the flesh. To be spiritually minded is life, peace and health to all our flesh;

Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Proverbs 4:20-22.  My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

I hear this question quite often, “…when should I stop confessing?” (That question reveals they are still thinking that their actions are affecting whether or not God will release healing, instead of believing that they are already healed). My reply is often, “If it takes a thousand times for you to get to the place where you just accept that what that scripture is saying is true and is accomplished for you and your situation, regardless of being able to see it in the physical or not, then go ahead and quote the word a thousand and one times, just to make sure your heart is at rest in the place of belief” (see Hebrews 4:1-11). In fact if one believes there is a certain thing that must be done in order be healed, they should do it now, why wait another second?! Because until that ‘certain thing’ is accomplished they will not receive their healing. Have you considered that the woman with an issue of blood put the condition on her receiving healing, not God:  “For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” Mark 5:28. What if she had not touched?  She set the condition for her healing not God.

If one is thinking that they must confess in order to be healed, that is their condition for healing, not God’s.  What if they are a deaf mute? How will they confess to be healed?

I’m sure you’ve experienced that once you have received and you know in your heart that it’s done you actually stop thinking about it because you have it. If anything, you might thank the Father but you are not confessing scriptures about it. You might say “Father thank you, that’s awesome, I’m really enjoying that benefit that Christ provided for me”. But you stopped trying to get it through confessing because you have it. So, if you know that you are healed and have received it based only on belief of the word and not your senses, what would you be “confessing”?

  Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to us to let the truths of God’s word fully persuade us that we have all that Jesus died and rose again to provide for us than to just quote scriptures about it, hoping that we will get it because of our confessing?  This is how Paul, inspired by the spirit of God, expressed it:

2 Corinthians 4:13 “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;”.

Not a dead work but the fruit of having believed the word of our Father; beautifully simple.

Related teaching: Our Words

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