Confession (Heart and Mouth)

HEART and MOUTH 

'Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer' (Psalm 19:14).

The Bible tells us that our lives our determined by what we believe in our heart and say with our mouth: 

'Whosoever shall SAY unto this mountain: 

'Be removed and be cast into the sea, 

and shall believe that what he SAYS shall come to pass, 

he shall have whatsoever he SAYS.' (Mark 11:23) 

When what we believe and what we speak agree then it will come to pass. 

This works in the negative as well as in the positive: 'Death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat of its fruit.' (Prov 18:21)

What comes out of your mouth locates you, it shows what you've been meditating in your heart, 'for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.' (Matthew 12:34). It's so important which thoughts and beliefs get established in our hearts, because when we speak them out they come to pass in our lives: 'A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth (by his words) good things, and an evil man out of his evil treasure (of thoughts) brings forth (by his words) evil things.' (Matthew 12:35).

God created the world by speaking forth the vision He had stored in his heart, by faith believing that what He said would come to pass. We are made in the image of God and our words have creative power when we believe them, for good or bad. We bring forth the atmosphere, relationships and quality of our lives through the words we speak. (v34) 

Therefore we will be judged according to our words (v36,37).

'Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows (especially with his mouth) he will also reap ..he who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.' (Gal 6:7; 2Cor 9:6). 

Our words, like seeds, are containers of what is in our heart (good or bad) 

Speaking words is like sowing seeds which grow up to produce a harvest of what we have sown. So whatever we confess will be multiplied in our life good or bad.

We build up good treasure in our heart by hearing, thinking and meditating the Word of God. (Phil 4:8). Meditating involves speaking the word to oneself. When a thought comes into your mind it isn't established until you take it by saying it. (Matthew 6:31) Worry is meditation on the negative. When we speak the negative, those thoughts get established as a stronghold in our mind and we believe them more strongly, until we reach the point that we speak out of the abundance of our heart, releasing words with negative power that bring more evil things to pass. Our tongues can start fires spoiling and destroying our lives as well as those around us (James 3:5,6)

THE CONFESSION OF OUR FAITH. 

Faith has a voice: 'I believed therefore I spoke' (Psalm116:10) 

'Confession' means 'to say the same thing.' So to fully confess God's word is to agree with it in our heart and with our lips.

There are 2 levels of Confession- 

1. The 'Confession unto faith' (MOUTH-HEART). 

What you HEAR (open your ears to and receive into your heart), especially the thoughts you speak out, become established in your heart and begin to fill it. (Meditation). When you speak God's Word to yourself (meditation) it becomes more and more established until it fills your heart (you fully believe it). 

Then when you speak it out those faith-filled words have creative power to bring themselves to pass. This is:

2. The 'Confession of faith' (HEART-MOUTH) 

When the heart is full (fully persuaded) it can't help but speak through the mouth. Those words will have creative power to bring to pass either good or evil. 'No word of God is without the power to bring itself to pass.' (Luke 1:37 literal). When your heart and mouth agree you shall have whatever you say. (Mark 11:23).

'The word of faith is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart, that if you confess Jesus is Lord and shall believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (manifestation).' (Romans 10:8-10). 

When you believe it in our heart you possess it spiritually, but when you confess it with your mouth (and actions) you bring it into manifestation. Any problem is capable of solution by the power that raised Jesus from the dead. The key is believing in that problem-overcoming, satan-smashing, bondage-breaking power of Christ, more than we believe in the power of the problem. Then we speak out our faith, confessing JESUS is Lord over that thing, that it is under His feet. The result: SALVATION.

So how do we face and talk about problems in life? (Romans 4:17-21)

(1) We do not hide from them or deny them. 

Our minds will naturally consider them. Abraham saw that he and Sarah could not have a baby. (v19). This is mere human reasoning. It's valid as far as it goes but we must not stop there.

(2) Consider God's promise, power and faithfulness.(v18,20,21). 

Considering the problem we feel our weakness to solve it, which is good if we go onto trusting in God for the more we know our own weakness the more we'll depend on God's power. But if we just stay in the problem and don't move to trusting God and speaking God's Word we just get bogged down in depression and worry. Abraham focused on God's character and did not move from God's promise. To Abraham the truth of God's unchanging Word was greater than the truth of his senses (which is subject to change- 2Cor 4:17,18). He is a picture of strong faith. This is operating in Divine Wisdom.

(3) By faith confess the Word. 

By meditating on God, we become persuaded of the truth of His promise. 

Then we speak it out and give thanks for the answer. Like Abraham we should confess God's Word as the higher dominant reality. He called himself 'Abraham' (father of many nations) even before he could see anything. He praised God for the answer. (v20). He declared the end-result - 'he called those things that be not as though they were' -imitating God in how He created the world and raised the dead.(v17). 

As he did this God's power was released to bring forth the answer. 

And Abraham is our father and example of what faith is.(v16) 

'Let the weak say I am strong in the strength of my God.'

So it is OK to mention a problem, but not to dwell on it. 

If we describe a problem, we should not stop there but go on to say: 

'BUT GOD IS GREATER and He will work it for our good' and declare what God will do. Abraham may have said to people: 

'Yes, Sarah and I are past age and it may seem impossible 

BUT my God has promised me a son and I am fully persuaded He is able do it. He is greater than any problem and can resurrect what is dead in us. It may look hard but He will not let us down.'

In Romans 8, Paul mentioned the things of this life that are problems to us as we follow God, and that God will turn them for our good as we obey Him (v28). Then he tells us how to speak to these things (v31-39) Real faith sees the present problem clearly but is not overwhelmed by it because it knows the Greater One has the answer. Such a faith stands in the face of the mountain of opposition and speaks to it (Mark 11:23), declaring God's grace (His promise and power). Thus God's power is released to remove it and establish God's will.

When Israel had to rebuild the Temple in the face of great opposition God showed them how to succeed through speaking the word of faith: 

'This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: 'Not by (human) might, nor by (natural) power, but by My Spirit' says the Lord of hosts (armies) 'Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you (shall become) a plain!' And he shall bring forth the capstone (the final stone of the temple) with shouts of 'GRACE, GRACE' to it!' (Zech 4:6,7).

This is the basis for Mark 11:23, for the mountain is to be removed and the work of God brought to completion, as Zerubbabel strongly speaks (shouts) the word of faith to it, declaring the end result. God's power is released through the word of faith and it comes to pass not by human power but by Divine power.

We are to use our tongues to steer our lives through the sea of life. (James 3:4) When storms and winds arise that try and push you off course- 

if you will keep a strong hand on your rudder (tongue) you will come through it well. But if you take your hand off and let it say whatever the pressures dictate then you will shipwreck. What you continually and consistently declare over your life will come to pass. 

Paul literally put this into practice in Acts 27:21-25

When God tells us to do something there will always be contradictory circumstances. It will rarely be the easy or convenient thing to do. Other courses of action present themselves that seem to be easier or financially better. If we take them it is because of a lack of faith that if we put God's will first He will not take care of the other things also (Matt 6:33). If we just meditate on the problems of doing God's will we get pulled of course by human reasonings. But if we consider God and His power we will face the problems with faith, declaring 'Jesus is Lord' over them, and His power is released to turn it all for our good.