FFBosworth-The Christian Confession
FFBosworth-The Christian Confession
FFBosworth-The Christian Confession
Redemptive Blessings
by F F Bosworth
Many people fail to receive what they pray for because of the lack of
understanding about confession.
In Hebrews 3:1, Christianity is called a "confession." The Greek word
here translated "profession" is the same as the one usually translated
"confession".
What Confession Means
In the Greek language this word means "saying the same thing." It
means, to believe and say what God says about our sins, our
sicknesses, and everything else included in our redemption.
Confession is an affirmation of a Bible truth that we have embraced.
Confession is simply believing with our heart and repeating with our lips
Gods own declaration of what we are and have in Christ.
In I Peter 2:24, the Holy Spirit says: "By His stripes ye were healed."
We are to believe and say the same thing. When our affirmation is the
Word of God, He watches over it to make it good (Jeremiah 1:12).
Confession is faiths way of expressing itself.
Faith is acting upon Gods Word; and this always puts God to work
fulfilling His promise.
Wrong Confession
We never rise above our confession. A negative confession will lower us
to the level of that confession. It is what we confess with our lips that
really controls us. Our confession imprisons us if it is negative, it sets us
free if it is positive. Many tell of their failings and their lack of faith.
Invariably they go to the level of their confession. Confessing lack of
faith increases doubt. Every time you confess doubts and fears, you
confess your faith in Satan and deny the ability and grace of God. When
you confess doubt, you are imprisoned by your own words. "Thou art
snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken captive with the
words of thy lips" (Proverbs 6:2). When we doubt Gods Word it is
because we believe something that is contrary to that Word. Wrong
confession shuts the Father out and lets Satan in.
We are to refuse to have anything to do with wrong confession. When
we realize that we will never rise above our confession, we are getting
to the place where God can use us.
Disease gains the ascendancy when you confess the testimony of your
senses. Feelings and appearances have no place in the realm of faith.
Confessing disease is like signing for a package that the Express
Company has delivered. Satan then has the receipt from you showing
that you have accepted it. Don't accept anything that Satan brings.
"Give no place to the devil." "If any man speak, let him speak as the
oracles of God" (I Peter 4:11). In Ephesians 4: 29, we are commanded
to speak only "that which is good to the use of edifying." We are not to
testify for the adversary. We are to act faith, speak faith, and think
faith.
A spiritual law that few recognize is that our confession rules us. It is
what we confess with our lips that really dominates our inner being.
Make your lips do their duty. Refuse to allow them to destroy the
effectiveness of Gods Word in your case. Some confess with their lips
but deny in their heart. They say, "Yes, the Word is true," but in their
heart they say, "It is not true in my case." The confession of your lips
has no value as long as your heart repudiates it.
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the senses; for these are contrary the
one to the other".
doubting Thomas who says, "Except I shall see. . . I will not believe."
We are to prove Christs Words, "Blessed are they that have not seen,
and yet believe." The Word is lifeless until faith is breathed into it by
your lips. Then it becomes a supernatural force. Make your lips
harmonize with the Word of God.
heal us;
baptize us with the Spirit;
give us "zoe" Gods own Life in abundance;
be within us a fountain springing up unto everlasting Life;
make our legal standing our experience;
manifest His Person in the form of every blessing promised;
be Himself our strength, our portion, our all;
give us the unlimited use of His Name;
enable us to cast out demons in His Name;
anoint us for preaching;
enable us to lay our hands on the sick for their recovery, etc.
SUPPLEMENTAL REMARKS
THE CHRISTIAN CONFESSION
The greatest of all secrets of getting Gods promises fulfilled, is to
confess to say what God says to us in each of His promises.
While Jesus was being tempted, He defeated Satan by saying, "It is
written" and then by repeating His Fathers Words. You can defeat
Satan in the same way. When you persistently confess, or repeat Gods
Word, to Satan, as did Jesus, Satan must depart (Matthew 4:3-10).
Satan stands utterly helpless before the Word of God when it is "in our
heart and on our lips," because then God is always watching "over His
Word to perform it" (Jeremiah 1:12).
When Satan finds that we have discovered the secret of using Gods
Word against him, his defeat is certain, and he knows it. However, he
does not want us to know it.
Romans 10:8-10 shows us that "The Word of Faith" The Promise of
God is to be in our mouth and in our heart before the promise is
fulfilled to us. Then it is that Christ, "the High Priest of our Confession,"
manifests His faithfulness by fulfilling the promise. This establishes the
fact that a promise of God in our heart and mouth is our Confession.
ground" where it ALWAYS brings forth fruit. There can never be failure
when we thus get into harmony with Gods Word. It is in this way that
we prove Christs Words to be "Spirit and Life," as He says they are. "I
am the Lord that healeth thee," "in thy mouth and in thy heart" will do
away with "all sickness".
When Mary said unto the angel Gabriel, "Be it unto me according to thy
Word," that was "The Word of Faith" in her heart and in her mouth, and
it turned the Words of the angel into creative power and gave the world
a Saviour. All your blessings have been the result of "The Word of Faith"
in your heart.
Gods Word in our heart and in our lips is as effective as when God said,
"Let there be light," and as when "the worlds were framed by the Word
of God." Mary said, "Be it unto me according to Thy Word," with faith, in
the face of the humanly impossible. This was "calling the things that be
not as though they were," as Abraham had done.
Every promise is God speaking to us, so instead of neglecting them, let
us say with Mary, of each promise, "Be it unto me according to Thy
Word." We will thus prove that "No Word of God is void of power".
A promise of God in our heart and on our lips always becomes "the
power of God unto salvation," in the form of each promise fulfilled.
Every blessing promised in the Bible is included in our salvation.
Christianity is a series of divine promises fulfilled. We can all get the
rest of Gods promises fulfilled in the same way we got the first one
fulfilled.
Gods present tense declarations are not to hope, but to faith. His
promises are called "The Word of Faith;" and they are all prescribed for
our heart and our lips as soon as we know what they are.
We are not regenerated or healed by hope, but by faith, which is always
"NOW." It is wrong to procrastinate to the future what we should do
today.
God is waiting for you to "gladly receive the Word" as a present tense
fact in your case, just as you did in the matter of forgiveness. Nothing
else is believing God in the Bible sense.
All the sick in an entire nation, by taking the right attitude, made Gods
declaration, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," a present tense fact.
"There was not a feeble person among their tribes" (Psalm 105:37).
"The Word of Faith" in our heart and on our lips, is "seed" planted "in
good ground," where it always produces.
By His Redemptive Names, God is speaking to us continually; therefore,
until your healing is complete, continue the affirmation, "You are healing
me now".
Jesus lays down the condition, "If My words abide [continue] in you."
His Words here are the equivalent of the command in Hebrews 4:1-14,
"Hold fast thy confession." The Holy Spirit also, in Proverbs 4:21-22,
says to those needing healing, "Let Gods Words not depart," but "keep
them in the midst of thine heart; for they are health to all thy flesh".
After definitely committing the matter of your healing to God, you are
not to accept any thought or utter any words contrary to your
affirmation of what God is saying unto you by His Redemptive name,
JEHOVAH-RAPHA.
God has been waiting for this to be your attitude toward Him as your
Healer.
Life, why shouldn't it be still easier, after being made spiritually alive, to
get Gods other promises fulfilled?
If, to get rid of sin, sinners must believe and say what God says, why
shouldn't Christians believe and say what God says, to get rid of
sickness?
No Christian should go through life depending upon the faith of others.
In Hebrews. 6:11-12 we are told that "EVERY ONE" should be "followers
of them who through faith and patience [steadfastness] inherit the
promises".
In Romans 4:12 the Holy Spirit speaks of Christians as those "who also
walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham." All Christians
should learn to treat the promises which God has made to them, in the
same way that Abraham treated Gods promise to him. And we are told
in Hebrews 6:15 (Moffat's translation), that it was "by steadfast faith
Abraham obtained what he had been promised".
The Holy Spirit speaks of Gods promises as "exceeding great and
precious." And they were made for your heart and lips, as well as for
those whom you ask to pray for you. By inspiring the Scriptures, the
Holy Spirit has worded your affirmations for you. Learning how to use
Gods promises is a much greater blessing than your healing. Living and
walking in the Light of the Word is the most beautiful and thrilling
experience known. And nothing is impossible when we give the Word
the same place we would give Christ if He were physically in our
presence.
In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), Jesus said: ". . . teaching
them [all converts] to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
you".
It is the purpose of God that every babe in Christ shall go on to spiritual
manhood.
Jesus said, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do
also." He also declared that believers could cast out devils, and lay
hands on the sick for their recovery.
By practicing the important truth discussed in this instruction, you will
find yourself ever going forward in the glorious program of God for your
Christian life.
Help your minister and others by giving them a printout.
(Some of the thoughts expressed in the first part of this booklet were
brought together by permission from the writings of Rev. E. W. Kenyon,
Author of "The Father and His Family," "The Wonderful Name of Jesus,"
"In His Presence," "Two Kinds of Love," and other writings. Kenyon
Gospel Publication Society.