Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1 Right and Wrong Confessions
Few Christians have recognized the place that confession holds in the scheme of things. Whenever the word "confession" is used we instinctively think of confessing sin, weakness and failure. That is the negative side of this question. Christianity is called "the Great Confession." Confessing is affirming something that we believe. It is testifying of something that we know. It is witnessing for a truth that we have embraced. Confession holds a very large place in Christianity. Jesus planned that this great Life and Love should be given to the world through testimony, that is, through the confession of our lips. Testifiers and witnesses and confessors have been the great leaders in the revolutionary life that Jesus gave to the world. The major problem that we face then, is to know what we are to confess. Our confession centers around several things: first, what God in Christ has wrought for us. Second, what God through the Word and the Spirit has wrought in us. Third, what we are to the Father in Christ. And last of all, what God can do through us, or what the Word will do in our lips. You cannot confess or witness about things you do not know. It is what you have seen and heard that counts in the court room. It is what you know personally about Jesus Christ and about what you are in Christ that counts. How few of us dare to confess to the world what the Word declares that we are in Christ! Take this scripture: "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation" II Corinthians 5:17. What a revolutionary thing it would be for the Church to make a confession like that! They are not just forgiven sinners--not poor, weak, staggering, sinning church members. They are New Creations created in Christ Jesus with the life of God, the nature of God, and the ability of God in them. What a stir it would make in the modern church for you to confess that you are absolutely redeemed. Ephesians 1:7-8, "In whom we have our redemption through His blood, the remission of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence." That would mean that Satan's dominion has been broken, that he lost his dominion over your life the moment you became a new creation. You received a new Lord, Jesus Christ, to reign over you. Satan's dominion ended and Jesus' dominion began. Disease and sickness can no longer lord it over you. The old habits can no longer lord it over you. You are a new creation created in Christ. What a stir there would be if this scripture became a reality, "Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." "If God be for us, who can be against us?" That is the most revolutionary thing that has ever been taught. That is your confession as you stand before the world. "God is with me this morning." I John 4:4, "Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." You fearlessly say, "God is in me now; the Master of creation is in me!" What a confession that is! You face life fearlessly. You know now that greater is He that is in you than all the forces that can be arrayed against you. You are facing bills that you cannot pay. You are facing enemies that you have no ability to conquer and yet you face them fearlessly. You say with triumph, "He preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. He anoints my head with oil." I am filled with joy and victory because God has taken me over; He is fighting my battles." I am not afraid of circumstances because "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me." He is not only my strength but He is at my right hand. He is my salvation; whom shall I fear? He throws light upon life's problems so that I know I can act intelligently. He is my salvation, my deliverance from every trap the enemy sets for me, from every snare in which he would enslave me. "God is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" I am not afraid of anything. I have no fear because this God of Omnipotence is on my side. This is my continual confession. I confess that I have a redemption that God planned and wrought in Christ. I am a new creation of which He, Himself, is the Author and the Finisher. I have a righteousness that permits me to stand in His presence as though sin had never been. I not only have righteousness reckoned to me but I have righteousness imparted to me in the new nature that I have received from Him. I have received His nature, His life; and in this life and nature is the Life of God. This makes me righteous even as He is righteous. This is my confession. This gives me boldness in prayer. This builds faith. This makes my way sure. I am no longer hemmed in by limitations because I am united with the Limitless One. He is the Vine and I am the branch. As a branch I bear His fruit because the Vine is imparting to me the fullness of His life. I know the reality of this because it has become a part of my very being. I know I love because He has shed abroad His love in my heart through the Holy Spirit and I know that His nature in me is love. His love ability has gained the mastery for now I can love in whatever circumstances I am placed. I can say with joy, "Sin shall not have dominion over me." It can no longer lord itself over me. Circumstances can no longer hold me in bondage and hinder my usefulness in the world. I have not only God's life in me and this great Spirit who raised up Jesus from the dead in me, but I have the use of Jesus' Name. He has given to me a legal right to use it. My confession is that whatever I ask of the Father in His Name, He gives to me. He has given me the power of attorney. I am using that power to help men. I am taking Jesus’ place now. He is working His own work through me. He is living His own life in me. (chapter continues)
