Sometimes you can locate where people are by how much response they give to a certain topic, or how much silence they give.
We live in a busy society, so I don’t expect people to read or comment on my blog every day (although I secretly love to hear from others). But for the most part I get a certain amount of feedback–through comments, Facebook, or face-to-face. And it’s my practice to ask the Lord each morning, “What do you want to say today?”
This day, I feel led to follow up with a little more discussion on a recent discussion about the power of activating God’s promises through our confession of His Word. This is a challenge for most people because as soon as we begin to “declare” some things, the enemy makes us feel silly. Or he will go to the other extreme and try to make us fear being prideful and arrogant.
I have struggled with both at times. But what I soon figured out was that God is very good at convicting my heart if I was in a ditch on either side of the road. In other words, don’t listen to the lies of the enemy. If you’re doing something wrong, your Heavenly Father will help you make the necessary adjustments–without belittling you.
And here is one reason the enemy fights us so hard in the arena of our confession: “The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest. It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us” (Romans 10:8, Message Translation).
The word that saves… That alone is powerful; and enough reason for the enemy to try to stop our words. He is against anything that saves. Period.
The New King James Version reads this way: “But what does [the righteousness of faith] say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach).” Just a few verses earlier, the Apostle Paul mentions the way in which the righteousness of faith speaks. And then he answers his own question when he asks, “But what does it say?”
And of course, he continues in the following verse with how a person receives salvation: “That 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” (verse 9).
So it is through confession that a person is saved. Or we could say, the word that saved them was their confession. So here’s my question for you: Why would this be limited to salvation only?
The answer is: It’s not.
Salvation is defined in the Greek as deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness. Believers certainly received ALL of these when Jesus became the Lord of their heart. But salvation isn’t a one-time event. Salvation continues with us every day. In other words, every day I need deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness.
The same way I received initial salvation is the same way I walk out my salvation–through my words.
So I’ll leave you with these scriptures to meditate on:
“But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil… I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:14-15,19).
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue…” (Proverbs 18:21).
What have you been saying?
