There is a popular teaching circulating in charismatic circles today concerning confession. Many are teaching that you will possess what you confess. This is true to a certain extent. God told the Israelites in Numbers chapter eleven, verse 28, that he would bring to pass all that they had spoken in His hearing. We are the prophets of our own life. The reason however that this is true lies in the revelation of God working with God. When we speak the Words of God, God works with those words and those words become flesh in our lives. When we speak the words of Satan, the same thing occurs. Satan works with words of unbelief, bitterness, unforgiveness, and hatred to bring about his demonic destiny, his plan and strategy. It is not necessarily that we may confess anything and that it will come to pass. The truth is when we confess what God has already predestined, then what we have said lines up with God’s will; our words will surely come to pass. This is the principle of God in your mouth.
Jesus points out something about the Pharisees that I find very intriguing. The Pharisees were the protectors of the faith, you could say. In Jesus’ day, they were the established religious leadership that taught and dictated to the masses. Many of the Pharisees had all of the Torah memorized, plus the Psalms, Proverbs, and even the Prophetic books. They were absolute scholars of the Word. However, Jesus did not commend them for knowing the law. He told them in John chapter eight, verses 43 and 44, “Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do…” Jesus makes it clear that, even though the Pharisees were able to quote whole books of the Bible, they did not really listen to the Words of God. They were not able to recognize the True Word of God in their midst.
Today, there are modern-day Pharisees. These people are established religious leaders. They know how to speak the Word. They come across as if they are serious spiritual scholars. But when Jesus shows up, they cannot recognize Him. They may be able to spout Bible verses, but the motive is not God’s motive. They are not being driven by Love to speak the words of Love. If this were true then God would honor their words. Rather, their motive is a spirit of religion, which uses the Word in order to put people under a yoke of bondage.
God wants His church to know the difference between speaking God’s Words and using God’s Words for human or demonic purposes. Even the devil can quote Scripture. That does not mean that he knows the heart of God. God wants to use our mouths to create, command, and call. This week we will be studying what God’s people should be speaking, and how to bring our mouths in agreement with God’s purposes. |