Confession #2d

We're going to continue our teaching on "Faith and Confession," and we're going to pick up for we left off last time. Turn to Mark 11:23-24.

I) We said this last time and several times during the teaching on the series, but so important that it needs to be repeated; and that is "YOU CAN SEPARATE FAITH FROM CONFESSION OR CONFESSION FROM FAITH BECAUSE THEY GO HAND-IN-HAND."

A) If you have faith in your heart, when confronted with a situation, immediately the Word of God will come out of your mouth.

1) It's not something you have to think about, and it's not something you have to figure out what scripture to confess.

2) If faith is in your heart then out of the abundance of your heart your mouth will speak.

a) So in other words, if you're confronted with the situation, let's say the symptoms of the flu, immediately words like "By Jesus stripes I'm healed” will flow out of your mouth from your spirit.

B) Well, how we get this instinct like faith, faith that is in the heart and not in the head only?

1) (Romans 10:17) says, "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."

a) Your first up in getting faith is hearing the Word of God.

b) Your second step comes from (Proverbs 3:5) which says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding."

(i) So your second step to faith is make a conscious effort to trust everything that God says as the absolute truth and the final authority.

c) And the 3rd step brings us back to (Romans 10:17) which again says, "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."

(i) The more you hear God's Word the stronger your faith will get; you'll become a highly developed in faith.

II) REV 12:11.

A) 1 of the commentaries that I was reading said that the definition of the word, “WORD” in this V means “THE SAYINGS OF GOD.”

1) We overcome Satan by the BLOOD OF THE LAMB and THE SAYINGS OF GOD or by SPEAKING THE WORD OF GOD.

B) I like how the Matthew Henry Commentary puts it.

1) It says that “The servant’s of God overcame Satan, By the blood of the lamb, and By the word of their testimony, which is the sword of the Spirit, that is the WORD of GOD, and it is mighty, through God, to pull down strongholds.”

a) This V says that it was “Their testimony.”

C) When I looked at the definition of the word “TESTIMONY” in (Revelation 12:11) I found something very interesting.

1) The Enhanced Strong’s Concordance says that the Word “TESTIMONY” means, “What one testifies or says.”

2) But the main definition of the word “TESTIMONY” is this; “The office committed to the prophets of TESTIFYING CONCERNING FUTURE EVENTS.”

a) I like that part which says, “TESTIFYING CONCERNING FUTURE EVENTS.”

b) When we confess God’s Word we are testifying of what will be or future events.

c) For instance if I was to confess, “My God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

(i) In essence what I was saying is this, “I have a need right now, but according to the Word of God, all my needs are met. But this is what has taken place in the spirit. But as I confess God’s Word I will see it manifest IN THE FUTURE.”

(ii) That’s exactly what the word “TESTIMONY” means in (Revelation 12:11).

d) It was through their use of the Word of God that gave them the victory, along with the blood of Jesus.

(i) We need to begin to put God’s Word in our mouth.

III) A few messages ago I read to you (John 12:47-50) which said that Jesus spoke only the words of his father. In other words he spoke the Word of God.

A) Jesus became highly developed in the area of faith by speaking the Word of God.

1) We know the Word of God is true and it says in (Romans 10:17) "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."

2) Jesus became so highly developed in faith because he only spoke the words of the Father.

a) When you speak Word of God it causes faith to go into your spirit.

3) What you speak about yourself, will affect your health, your finances, your social life, your mental state, your success, the way other people see you, every area.

a) The Word of God is even more powerful in your life when you hear it spoken out of your mouth.

(i) Words will affect you more when they are spoken out of your mouth.

(ii) What you speak out is what you believe.

(iii) Again, Jesus said in (MAT 12:34), “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

(iv) Sure some faith will come if you here me speak the Word, But even more will come if you speak it out of your mouth.

b) That’s why God told Joshua in (JOSH 1:8), “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth.”

(i) If you went around speaking everything God said, you would get highly developed in the God kind of Faith.

B) Turn to Matt 4:4,7,10.

1) Notice something very interesting here, Jesus never said Devil I rebuke you, flee from me, go now.

a) All those things are part of the Bible and part of the authority of the believer, authority that we have over Satan.

2) But I think that Jesus was giving us a very valuable lesson here.

3) What did Jesus do here to defeat the Devil?

a) He confessed the word of God!

(i) (Ephesians 5:1) Tells us that we are to be imitators of God, as dear children. KJV

(ii) We are to do the same works of Jesus.

b) What did Jesus do? He spoke the word. (John 12:50)

C) PRO 3:3

1) He says, “Write them upon the table of thine heart.”

a) How are you going to write “Things, Anything” on the table of your heart (or spirit)?

(i) Peter refers to the heart being the spirit of man. (1PET 3:4)

b) (PSA 45:1) Says, “My tongue {is} the pen of a ready writer.” (KJV)

(i) (Psalm 119:11) “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” KJV

(ii) Where did he put the Word of God? In his HEART.

2) Look at ROM 10:8.

a) When you have the Word of God in your mouth it’s going to be in your heart.

(i) “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

     II. Look at Josh 1:8

              A. God told Joshua, “Don’t let the Word depart out of your mouth. Meditate therein day and night. Observe to do all that is written therein. Then you will make your way prosperous.”

                                  1. Did you here 1 of the steps to PROSPERITY that the Lord told Joshua?

                                           a. He said step # 1 Don’t let the word of God depart out of you mouth, then you make your way PROSPEROUS.

                        2. Faith will come to you much more quickly and have a much more powerful effect in your life when you speak it out of your mouth.

              B. JAMES 1:26

                        1. (NIV) (JAM 1:26) “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.”

                                  a. The word “deceiveth” means “to cheat, i.e. delude: deceive.”

                                           i. We’re causing our spirits to be deceived by not bridling our tongue.

                                           ii. In other words, we’re cheating our spirits by not confessing the Word of God.

                                           iii. The tongue will deceive the heart if we’re not confessing the right thing.

                        2. Look at JAMES 3:3-6

                                  a. But notice in (V 3) he likens the tongue to a “BIT” in the horse’s mouth.

                                           i. That bit can change the horse’s direction, our tongue can change out entire direction.

                                  b. (V 4) refers to a rudder which can change an entire ship’s direction, again our tongue can change the entire direction of our life.

     III. MARK 4:14

              A. What is the man sowing? WORDS

                        1. This V is specifically talking about the Word of God.

                        2. The Bible calls the Word of God the INCORRUPTIBLE SEED.

                                  a. (1PE 1:23) Says, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” (KJV)

                                  b. Peter shows a difference between 2 kinds of seeds.

                                           i. 1 CORRUPTIBLE and the other INCORRUPTIBLE.

                                  c. If there is an incorruptible seed then there is a corruptible seed.

                                            i. The incorruptible seed is the Word of God and the corruptible seed would be everything that is contrary to the word of God.

                                           ii. But there is a Parallel between the Word and every other word.

                                           iii. That means that every word your speak is a seed.

                                           iv. That doesn’t mean that you will always have the harvest of what you planted.

                                           v. You can do things to stop the harvest. Like confessing the Word of God then, confessing the problem again.

              B. MARK 4:15

                        1. What I wanted you to notice is that the Word is sown in the heart of man.

                        2. MARK 4:26-28

                                  a. Jesus said, in (V 26) “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;” (KJV)

                                           i. Who is the man that should cast seed into the ground?

                                           ii. Remember words are the seeds. (V 14)

                                  b. The Lord told Joshua, “Don’t let the word of God depart out of your mouth.

                                           i. You are the man that is casting the seed into the ground or the Words into the ground.

                                           ii. Those words are going to begin to grow. Look at V 27.

              C. PRO 18:21

                        1. Life and death are in the power of the tongue.

                        2. DEUT 30:19

                        3. Words are seeds, let’s sow the Word of God in our lives and reap the blessings.

8/1/90 WED PM and WOLCC SUN AM 11/24/96

7/25/90 WED PM TFC and WOLCC 3/27/96 and WOLCC 11/10/96 Sun AM and W. O. L. C. C. Thursday, October 01, 1998. Thursday, October 15, 1998. I skipped a few weeks before I preached this message and so it was preached on Thursday, November 05, 1998. I skipped Confession #3.Doc because it is the same as this message and the previous messages. Part of this message, the last half, is from Confession #4.Doc. Thursday, November 12, 1998