Your confession, that is the things you say which are from the heart, can work against you; and of course, the opposite is true as well. This is one subject that has stirred the proverbial pot in the church, because of misuses. Much of which is the result of ignorance or lack of understanding. Confession is certainly real, without it, none of us could be saved (see Romans 10:8-11). The Bible also makes it clear that we should choose our words wisely. Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Our words affect whether our minds are renewed, which in turn affects our lives as a whole. So, let’s break this down step by step. How does this all work?
1 Peter 4:11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles (speak the utterances) of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to Whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
“Any” means any, and that includes you. This idea is new for some, so how is it possible to speak the words or utterances of God? Does this mean we are to run around reciting the Bible all the time? Reciting the Bible does play a part, but it’s not the whole. Jesus said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4), which He quoted from Deuteronomy 8:4. So, we have the written and the spoken Word. We will not go into great detail on hearing at this stage, but hearing from God requires Holy Spirit. John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (Read John 7:38; chapters 14-17; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 for starters). The children of God are led of Holy Spirit (see Romans 8:14-18). In short, we begin by submitting to Him.
Paul makes a very important statement, which begs our attention: For God is my Witness, Whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers (Romans 1:9). He understood that in order to properly serve God, he had to do it with his spirit. Why? Our connecting point with Holy Spirit is our spirit (see Romans 8:16; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16). We have a spirit, heart, soul, mind and body(see Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27). The shortened version of this is spirit, soul and body (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23). When everything is in correct order, we function at our best. Holy Spirit connects to our spirt, which in turn connects to our heart, then our soul, to the mind and finally, our body. Another way to look at it, if you want the abbreviated form, is Holy Spirit connects to our spirit, which connects to our soul and manifests in or through our body.
Of course, there is great deal said about the heart. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34). He goes onto to say, “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (Matthew 12:35 [see also Mark 7:18-23; Luke 6:43-45]). It’s for this reason it is important to pay attention to what you put in your heart. What you put into it, is what comes out of your mouth. From it will come either words of life or death, along with all the nuances attached to them. If you want to speak words of life, then fill your heart with the Word of God. John 6:63 It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Interestingly, while we serve with our spirits, we believe and obey from the heart (see Romans 6:17; 10:8-10; Ephesians 6:5-6; Colossians 3:22; 1 Timothy 1:5; Hebrew 10:22, etc.). What we say is one of the things that enters our minds, which in turn influences our actions and the functions of our bodies in a number of ways. What software is to hardware in a computer, is what our minds are to our brains. And of course, it’s our brains that run the body on the physical level. In short, proper confession brings our entire person into harmony with God. For the sake of brevity, we will go in greater detail about confession in the next blog (Lord willing). There’s still a lot to unpack.
