Great grace in your mouth gives strength to your confession. The definition of confession is to talk like God. Confession is to agree with what God is saying. God will only enforce what God says. That means God will only bring to pass what God has said. God wants us to affirm the truth in our hearts, in our minds, in our mouths, and in the lives of others.
This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.
Remember, God wants us to abstain from foolish and idle talking. He does not want our mouths to be distracted with gossip, strife, and disputes, because then we will miss our opportunities to speak the truth of God. Remember the Word says that we will give an account for every idle word that we speak. This means words that do not produce fruit in the Spirit realm. In the Greek, confession is the word homologia, which means to speak the same as the written Word says.
The strength of your confession is directly related to your level of Love. Remember that Ephesians says we speak the truth in love. Some people may quote the Scripture, but their motive is not love. Therefore, their words do not produce what God wants them to produce. There is a twist because the motive is not of God. Even the devil can quote Scripture. When he tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he quoted Scripture. However, we know that his motive was to cause Jesus to sin. The enemy’s motive is always for evil and not for good; even if he quotes Scripture his purpose can never be the same as God’s. In the same way, there are many people who know how to quote Scripture. They are like the Pharisees: they know the written Word, but they do not know the One who spoke it. They were motivated, not by love, but by a controlling and religious spirit – a demonic spirit. God wants our lips to be covered with grace so that when we speak our words are able to accomplish their divinely ordered purpose in God. Gracious words will always carry God’s heartbeat. 1 Corinthians tells us that a person may have faith to move mountains, but without love he is still nothing. God is love; when Ephesians says, speak the truth in love, it is saying that we must speak the truth in God. Our words must be wrapped with the nature and character of God. When God’s words, attributes, God’s nature and character are in your mouth, you will receive a God-response. |