Confessing Jesus as Lord

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. -Romans 10:9,10

This Scripture gives us the second type of Bible confession. Paul talks about confessing with our mouths, so he’s talking about a verbal, audible confession that leads to salvation.

Just after I got saved, I went with a particular college campus group to Daytona Beach to share Jesus with people at the beach. I used to tell people, “If you’ll confess your sins, God will save you.” But technically, that’s not true. The new birth does not come as a result of confessing all your sins. (You couldn’t remember them all anyway.)

Paul didn’t say, “If you will confess with your mouth every mistake you ever made,” No, he said, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus [or that Jesus is Lord] and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.”

The Bible says, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Is the Gospel bad news? No, it’s good news. A lot of times, we’ve given people bad news: “You old rotten sinner, if you don’t get saved, you’re going straight to hell.” But what is the Good News? Look at 2 Corinthians 5:19: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them…” Jesus, the Lamb of God came and took the sin, iniquity, sickness and disease of the world upon Himself.

Your sins have been paid for; God isn’t holding them against you. So, you see, the confession of salvation is not a negative confession—it’s a positive one. It’s not the confession of sin. It’s the confession of Jesus as Lord.

CONFESSION:

Jesus, I call upon Your name, I believe in my heart God raised You from the dead, and I confess You as Lord of my life. I receive You as my Lord, my Savior and my healer.

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999

 

 

Understanding Biblical Confessions

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. – Matthew 3:1,2; 5,6

People have gone to extremes with the subject of Bible confessions. Many misunderstand this subject because so much tradition and religious doctrine have been taught. But we shouldn’t throw out the whole spiritual principle because of extremes. We just have to go back to the Word and find the truth.

You can find four basic types of confessions in the Bible. Usually when the word confession is mentioned, people automatically think of confessing sin. This is the first type of confession, and it is discussed in Matthew 3:1-6.

This passage addresses John’s baptism—the baptism of repentance and the confession of sins. However, we need to understand that this was before the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Under the old covenant, people couldn’t be born again, because Jesus hadn’t been to the Cross yet. So, to be in right relationship with God, they had to confess their sins.

This type of confession is biblical. However, confessing each and every one of our sins to get in right relationship with God, to be born again, doesn’t apply to us today, because we’ve changed covenants. Hebrews 8:6 tells us that we live under a new and better covenant established on better promises.

Paul tells us how to enter that new covenant: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord  Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Salvation comes by believing in our hearts and confessing with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead. This is the second type of biblical confession and the one that leads us into salvation under the new covenant.

CONFESSION:

I confess that Jesus is my Savior and my healer.: He took my pain and sickness so I could have His health. I walk in the healing covenant God has provided for me.

 From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999

 

 

The Problem Is With Your Mouth

Hear: for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things For my mouth shall speak truth… -Proverbs 8:6,7

Several years ago, I went to a small camp meeting in another state. While I was there, the minister in charge asked me to preach at an evening service, and I agreed. However, I was new in the ministry, so I prayed, “Dear Lord, what am I going to do?”

At that point, I taught from manuscript sermons I had written down almost word for word. So I got out my notes and found a sermon I was comfortable with. I thought, Here’s a good message. I’ll use this one.

When I got to the service, I sat reviewing my notes. All of a sudden, I heard on the inside: Your problem ins not with your faith, and it’s not with God, it’s with your mouth. When I heard that, I knew it was for someone else, not for me.

When I got up to teach, I looked at my notes. Suddenly they didn’t make a bit of sense to me. I just went blank. So I said, “All right, Lord, You win. I’m just going to start off with what You said.” So I began, “Your problem is not with your faith, and it’s not with God. It’s with your mouth.” And I preached for about an hour.

To this day, I don’t know what I said, but after the service a lady came up to me. She had driven from the other side of the state and could only stay for that one service. She said, “I’m in a life-and-death situation. I’ve been battling this physical condition for quite a while, and I’ve tried to figure out why I haven’t received my healing.”

The woman continued, “At first, I thought maybe there was some reason God wasn’t healing me. Then I thought, No, the problem is my faith. I don’t have any faith.

“But now I know where the answer is,” the woman said, “The problem is not with God, and it’s not with my faith. The problem is with my mouth. Well, I’m changing what I’m saying. And you just watch—now I’ll live and not die!”

CONFESSION:

I feed on God’s Word continually.  My words line up with what He says. As I speak the Word, I hear myself say it and my faith rises to the level of my confession.

 From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999

 

What Do Your Words Carry?

The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.                                                                                                                         -Ecclesiastes 10:12

Our words create an atmosphere. Words are powerful “carriers”; they carry faith, or they carry unbelief. And whatever we fill our words with will directly affect our lives.

Sit down sometime and take a look at your life. You’ll find things you do like. But if you look hard enough, you’ll find some aspects of your life you don’t like. Then ask yourself, “What have I been saying about those parts of my life that I don’t like?”

If you don’t like where you are in life, change your words. Quit saying what you’re saying. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue…”

For instance, have you ever said, “I never get anything from God. I tried that faith stuff, but it didn’t work for me”?  If so, switch over to speaking words of faith: “I’ve been feeding on God’s Word for years, and my faith is growing exceedingly. God’s Word is seed planted in my heart, and it’s working mightily in me!”

We are a direct result of what we’ve believed and said about ourselves in the past. So to make sure our future is different than our past or present, we often have to go back to the Bible and get our minds renewed and our thinking straightened out.

Once you get your thinking lined up with God’s Word, it’s amazing how easily your believing will line up right behind it. And after you get your believing straightened out, your mouth will straighten out! Out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth will begin to speak faith. (Matt. 12:34.)

You’re in good shape when you have your thinking, believing and speaking, all lined up with God’s Word. You’re ready for the faith-filled words to carry you straight into a future of health and abundance!

CONFESSION:

My words are carriers of faith. They create the blessings I live in. As I speak God’s Word, He renews my mind, heals my body and gives me strength. God's Word works for me!

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999

 

Slay Your Giant of Sickness by Faith

Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? -1 Samuel 17:26

Believing and saying the Word of God is a spiritual law, just as gravity is a natural law. You can find the spiritual law of faith all through the Bible.

Remember David and Goliath? David was just a shepherd boy, working out in the fields with a sling and a handful of stones. But in 1 Samuel 17, he fought against Goliath, who was a warrior from his youth. Notice what David said, “I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts. This day He’s going to deliver you into my hands!” (vv 45, 56)

That might seem pretty cocky for a little guy (at least compared to Goliath!) But David wasn’t cocky. He wasn’t speaking in arrogance. He just knew he had a covenant with God.

There is a difference between acting in arrogance and walking in confidence in our covenant with God. The difference lies in whether our confidence is in ourselves or in God and His Word.

David spoke out of confidence in his God, asking, “Who does this ugly Philistine think he is, defying the armies of the living God?”

Notice what David’s motives were. He didn’t challenge Goliath for his own glory. He didn’t say, “I’m going to make myself famous over this.” He just didn’t like people defying the armies of the living God. He was proclaiming, “We have a covenant—why don’t we walk in it?”

So David boldly told Goliath, “I’m going to take your head off your shoulders today!” Goliath may have laughed, but he didn’t laugh long. David sank one of those stones in his forehead, then he cut off Goliath’s head with the giant’s own sword.

What did David get? Exactly what he believed and said. It was the spiritual law of faith in operation.

CONFESSION:

Sickness and pain are my Goliath. I face the giant and, in the name of Jesus, recite the terms of my covenant with God. “Jesus bore my sickness and carried my pains. By His stripes I’m healed!”

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999

 

 

The Simplicity of Faith

For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]:  it is sharper than any two-edged sword. -Hebrews 4:12 AMP

God operates in faith by believing and saying, and God gets exactly what He says. Everything God does, He does by speaking.

Did you ever notice that everything God does in the world today, He does by His Word on the lips of believers? That’s how God carries out His plan on this earth.

How did you get saved? By believing in your heart and saying with your  mouth. Then how are you going to get healed? By believing in your heart and saying with your mouth. How are you going to get your needs met? By believing in your heart and saying with your mouth. How does faith work? By believing in the heart and saying with the mouth.

Thank God, He made it easy for us. Faith is so simple. Faith is just taking God at His Word.

So feed on God’s Word until you get it on the inside. Read it, study it, mutter it, meditate on it and think about it until it is lodged deep down in your spirit. Then declare God’s promises with your mouth and watch God bring them to pass. James 2:20 says that faith without actions is dead. So act on your faith. Open your mouth and boldly declare, “Thank God, by Jesus’ stripes I am healed!” It’s that simple!

CONFESSION:

I believe with my heart and say with my mouth that God’s Word is true in my life. His Word says I am healed by the stripes of Jesus. The power in that Word is working in me now, healing , strengthening and restoring me to health.

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999

 

 

Speak the Word From Your heart

When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” -Mark 5:27-28

How did this woman with the issue of blood get faith? “When she had heard of Jesus…” Faith comes by hearing. But did you notice how she started releasing her faith? “For she said…” I like what The Amplified Bible says: “For she kept saying. If I only touch His garments, I shall be restored to health.” She kept saying those words that released her faith.

Someone may ask, “How long do you speak the Word over a situation?”

Speak it until it manifests.

But don’t rely on just simple confession alone to do the job. Feed on God’s Word at the same time. Take time to read and study the Word. Meditate on it, speak it to yourself.

Matthew 9:20-22 provides another account of the same healing. Verse 21 says, “For she said within herself…” I like it better yet to say it this way: “For she said from within herself…”

Many people just mimic the way others speak the Word. However, they do it out of their heads instead of their hearts. They grab some Scripture and start saying it without even concentrating on it. These people are just saying a lot of empty words.

That kind of confession accomplishes nothing. You have to put some heart belief behind your words. So plant the Word down in your spirit until its truth is alive and real to you. Speak it forth from the inside of you. Release the faith in your heart with the words of your mouth!

CONFESSION:

I abide in Jesus, and His words abide in me. I make my request according to God’s Word, and He answers me. I believe and speak God’s Word; therefore, His healing power is released in me, and I am healed!

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999