After having prayed for one the other morning, she was satisfied that she was perfectly healed, but now the symptoms have returned, and her heart is disturbed. She wonders where the difficulty lies.
I asked this party, “Did you tell your husband when you met him at night that you were healed?”
“No, you see, I wasn’t sure yet. I didn’t want to say anything until I was positive.”
“But you had no pain? Was there any soreness?” I asked.
“Oh, that all left; but you see, I have to be careful. My husband is skeptical, and I didn’t want to tell him I was healed until I was sure.”
I can see where her difficulty lay. She did not believe the Word. Had she made her confession to her husband, the thing would never have come back. But she played into the hands of the enemy, and he restored the same symptoms that she had had, and brought back the pain and soreness. This happened because she invited him to do it.
Had she dared to stand her ground on the Word and hold fast to her confession that she was healed, he would have no ground of approach.
Our faith or unbelief is determined by our confession.
Few of us realize the effect of our spoken word on our own heart or on our adversary.
He hears us make our confession of failure, of sickness, of lack, and, apparently, he doesn’t forget, and we unconsciously go down to the level of our confession.
No one ever rises above it.
If you confess sickness, it develops sickness in your system.
If you confess doubt, the doubts become stronger.
If you confess lack of finances, it stops the money from coming in.
You say, “I can’t understand this.”
No. Because most of us live in the sense realm and spiritual things are very indistinct.
Hebrews 4:14 must become a constant reality: “Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession” (ASV).
Our confession is that the Word cannot be broken, that what the Father says is true.
When we doubt the Father, we are doubting His Word.
When we doubt His Word, it is because we believe something else that is contrary to that Word.
Our confidence may be in the arm of flesh; it may be in medicine; it may be in institutions; but whatever our confidence is in, if it contradicts the Word, it destroys our faith life.
It destroys our prayers.
It brings us again into bondage.
Every person who walks by faith will have testings.
They do not come from the Father; they come from the adversary.
He is refusing to allow you to escape him.
You become dangerous to the adversary when you become strong enough to resist him—when you have learned to trust in the ability of the Father to meet your every need.
When that becomes a reality in your consciousness, the adversary is defeated.
But as long as he can confuse the issue and keep you in a state of flux, you are at a disadvantage.
This book is written for one purpose: to strengthen your confidence in the Word, to make you know that “no Word from God shall be void of power” (Luke 1:37 ASV) or can go by default.
There isn’t power in all the universe to void one statement of fact in this Word.
He said, “I watch over my word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:12 ASV).
And again, “Whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame” (Romans 10:11 ASV).
Your confidence is in that unbroken, living Word, and you hold fast to your confession in the face of every assault of the enemy.
Note William J. Conybeare’s translation of Philippians 1:28: “And nowise terrified by its enemies; for their enmity is to them an evidence of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God.”
Here is James Moffatt’s translation of this verse: “Never be scared for a second by your opponents; your fearlessness is a clear omen of ruin for them and of your own salvation—at the hands of God.”
Wherever I go, thank God, he makes my life a constant pageant of triumph in Christ, diffusing the perfume of his knowledge everywhere by me. I live for God as the fragrance of Christ breathed alike on those who are being saved and on those who are perishing. (2 Corinthians 2:14–15 MOFF)
You take your position in Christ that you are more than a conqueror, that no matter what the testing may be, God cannot let you fail.
You are not standing on sense evidence.
You are not standing on the faith of other people.
You are standing squarely upon His own Word.
Your confidence is not in the prayers of others, but in this unchanging, unbreakable Word, and you refuse to allow your lips to destroy the effectiveness of that Word in your case.
You hold fast to your confession though it would appear as though the prayer was never answered.
It is your quiet assurance in His Word that gives you the supremacy over your adversaries.
You know that all authority is in the name of Jesus, that every demon and every disease and every circumstance must bow to that name.
Philippians 2:9–11 says, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
You see that the name of Jesus has all authority, and you have a legal right to use that name in every extremity.
You are His son, His own very child.
You have come to Him in the name of Jesus for this need, and He is under obligation to see that you are not put to shame.
He is under obligation to make His Word good.
One said to me this morning, “God has tied Himself up by His Word. He cannot fail us. He cannot ignore us.”
So, let us hold fast to our confession and never cower for a moment, no matter how sense knowledge may produce evidence to the contrary.
You are not standing on sense evidence.
Feelings and appearances have no place here.
This is God’s field and God’s alone.
REALIZATION FOLLOWS CONFESSIONS
We walk in the light of our testimony—our faith never goes beyond our confession.
The Word becomes real only as we confess its reality. The reason for this is, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Sense knowledge would confess only what it had seen, heard, or felt.
The people who are seeking experiences always walk by the senses.
Our testimony of the reality of the Word is feared by Satan.
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth” (Romans 10:9). This reacts on our heart just as doubt spoken by the lips reacts on our heart.
You talk of your doubts and your fears, and you destroy your faith.
You talk of the ability of the Father that is yours and fill your lips with praise for answers to prayers that you have asked. Its reaction upon the heart is tremendous: faith grows by leaps and bounds.
You talk about your trials and your difficulties, of your lack of faith, of your lack of money, and faith shrivels, loses its virility.
Your whole spirit life shrinks.
You study about what you are in Christ and then confess it boldly.
You dare to act on the Word in the face of sense knowledge opposition.
Regardless of appearance, you take your stand; make your confession and hold fast to it in the face of apparent impossibilities.
You see, faith doesn’t ask for possible things. Faith is demanding the impossible.
Prayer is never for the possible, but always for the thing that is out of reason.
It is God who is at work with us, in us, and for us.
“How shall he not with him also freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32).
You see, you are launching out into the realm of the impossible just as Abraham did when he asked for a son.
You’re not asking for something you can do for yourself, but for something that is beyond reason.
Then you refuse to take counsel with fear or to entertain a doubt.
The hardest battles I have ever fought have been along this line.
The greatest battles I have ever won have been those that seemed the most impossible, where there was the greatest opposition, where reason discredited my faith.
I held fast to my confession and the Word was made good.
Confess your dominion over disease in Jesus’s name.
Never be frightened by any condition no matter how forbidding, how impossible the case may be.
It may be cancer, tuberculosis, or an accident in which death seems to be the master of the situation. You never give in.
You know you and God are masters of the situation.
You never for a moment lose your confession of your supremacy over the works of the adversary.
This disease, this calamity, is not of God. It has but one source, Satan.
And in Jesus’s name, you are master. You have taken Jesus’s place; you are acting in His stead.
You fearlessly take your position; confess your ability in Christ to meet any emergency.
Always remember that Jesus met defeat and conquered it. You are facing defeat everywhere as a master.
Don’t let down. Keep your solid front.
Arthur Sanders Way translated Philippians 1:27–28 thus:
Let your life as members of one communion be worthy of the glad tidings of the Messiah so that, whether I do come and see you, or whether I must still be afar and only hear news of you, I may know that you are standing firm, animated by one spirit; may know that with united soul you are working strenuously shoulder to shoulder for the faith of the glad tidings; may know that you are not cowed one whit by your adversaries. Their failure to daunt you is clear evidence—an actual sign from God—for them that their destruction is imminent; but for you, that salvation is yours.
That solid front is spoken of in Colossians 2:5 (MOFF): “Although I am absent in body I am with you in spirit, and it is a joy to note your steadiness and the solid front of your faith in Christ.” This is the solid front presented to your enemy.
You can’t be conquered.
Your spirit is whispering, “Nay, in all these things, I am more than a conqueror.” (See Romans 8:37.)
Every disease is of the adversary.
All kinds of sin are of the adversary.
All opposition to the glad tidings is of the adversary.
God and I are victors.
Greater is He that is in me than this opposition or this disease. There is no need that is greater than my Lord.
There is no lack that He cannot meet.
This indomitable will that God has wrought in you cannot be overwhelmed or conquered.
You remember what you are—you are a new creation.
You are a branch of the vine.
You are an heir of God.
You are united with Him. You and He are one, and He is the greater part of that one.
There is no such thing as conquering God when His instrument refuses to admit that the enemy can overwhelm him.
You are that instrument.
“I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content” (Philippians 4:11 ASV).
DEFEATED WITH YOUR OWN LIPS
You said that you could not, and the moment that you said it, you were whipped.
You said you did not have faith, and doubt arose like a giant and bound you.
You are imprisoned with your own words.
You talked failure and failure held you in bondage.
“Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken [captive] with the words of thy mouth” (Proverbs 6:2).
Few of us realize that our words dominate us.
A young man said, “I was never whipped until I confessed I was whipped.”
Another said, “The moment I began to make a bold, confident confession, a new courage that I had never known took possession of me.”
A young woman said, “My lips have been a constant curse. I have never been able to get the mastery of my lips.”
Another woman said the other day, “I always speak my mind.” She has few friends. Only pity causes people to go see her. Her lips have been her curse.
It isn’t so bad speaking your mind if you have the mind of Christ, but as long as you have a mind dominated by the devil, few people care to hear your mind.
Never talk failure.
Never talk defeat.
Never for a moment acknowledge that God’s ability can’t put you over.
Become “God-inside minded,” remembering that greater is He that is in you than any force that can come against you, remembering that God created a universe with words, that words are more mighty than tanks or bombs, more mighty than the Army or Navy.
Learn to use words so they will work for you and be your servants.
Learn that your lips can make you a millionaire or a pauper, wanted or despised, a victor or a captive.
Your words can be filled with faith that will stir heaven and make men want you.
Remember that you can fill your words with love so they will melt the coldest heart, and warm and heal the broken and discouraged.
In other words, your words can become what you wish them to be.
You can make them rhyme. You can fill them with rhythm.
You can fill them with hatred, with poison; or you can make them breathe the very fragrance of heaven.
Now you can see vividly what your confession can mean to your own heart.
Your faith will never register above the words of your lips.
It isn’t so bad to think a thing as it is to say it.
Thoughts may come and persist in staying, but you refuse to put them into words and they die unborn.
Cultivate the habit of thinking big things, and then learn to use words that will react upon your own spirit and make you a conqueror.
Jesus’s confessions proved to be realities.
Faith’s confessions create realities.
Jesus confessed that He was the light of the world. He was it. The rejection of Him has plunged the world into a new darkness.
He said He was the bread from heaven, and it is true. The people who have fed upon His words have never suffered want.
His words build faith as we act on them, let them live in us.
His words were filled with Himself; as we act on them, they fill us with Christ.
His words feed faith and cause it to grow in power in us.
The believer’s words should be born of love and filled with love.
Our lips are taking the place of His.
Our words should never bruise or hurt, but should bless and heal.
Jesus was the Way, the reality, and the life.
We are taking His place, showing the Way, confessing the reality, enjoying the life.
You will never enjoy what you are in Christ until His love rules your lips.