True Confession

Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation. Romans 10:9-10 (Amplified Bible Classic Edition, AMPC)

Romans 10:9-10 is the blueprint on how to be saved or born-again. But, did you know it is the also the key to receiving anything you need from God?

There are those who teach that if you will believe God for something, such as healing, finances, etc., you can receive it by saying it out of your mouth. It is a concept called faith confessions. And, if you’ve read our posts long enough, you know that we agree with this biblical principle. Why is there so much controversy about this when the Bible supports it? Likely because many have not seen it actually work. There are a couple reasons for this.

You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:2-3 (New International Version, NIV)

First, many people try to gain things using faith confessions for the wrong purpose, or out of an impure motive. Most of us desire financial security and even want to have plenty for ourselves and some extra to fulfill some of our desires. However, when we seek money and material goods simply to heap it up for ourselves without thought for others, we are asking with impure motives, or asking amiss as this passage says in the King James Version. God sees our hearts and He knows if we are seeking Him and His blessings for the wrong reasons. For many of us, an abundance of things can draw us away from the Lord, meaning it actually causes more harm than good to us. In His mercy, God will keep us from such harm.

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Mark 11:22-23 (NKJV) emphasis mine

Secondly, when a faith confession is made, there must be faith involved. Often, people learn that they can speak out what they need or want and God will give it to them. This is correct, but as our passage from Romans points out, we must believe with our hearts AND confess with our mouths in order for anything to happen. So often, people are confessing with their mouth without fully believing in their hearts. In other words, people aren’t making faith confessions, they are making faithless confessions. Regardless of how much we may understand with our heads that the Bible promises something like healing, prosperity, or whatever, we have to have faith in our hearts for it to come to pass. Faith comes by the Word. Only by spending time in the Word, reading it, saying it, and hearing others say it, will faith arise in our hearts. This is the missing element. We want to have what God says we can have without doing what God says to do to develop faith for it.

Is it wrong to confess something before our faith is developed enough to produce it? No, confessing the Lord’s promises helps to keep our hearts and minds focused on the Word. But, don’t assume that saying something once or twice without spending any time exposing yourself to the Word will work. Faith in our hearts is needed for our confession to become reality. And consistency is key.

So, if you are looking to believe for God’s promises to manifest in your life, check yourself. Make sure your motives are right. Ask God to show you anything impure in your reason for wanting what you want. Repent if your motives aren’t what they should be. And check to see if faith is present in your heart. Once we get enough Word inside us, faith naturally arises in our hearts and believing for something becomes easy. That is a true confession of faith.