Central Truth: The confession of our lips will give either God dominion over us or Satan dominion over

us. The Bible is the Word of God and contains God s thoughts. And of course, God s thoug hts are different than man s thoughts. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neith er are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8, 9). As we study God s Word and know His thoughts, we can dare to thi nk God s thoughts after Him as we get our thinking in line with His Word. As we have been studying about confession, we have learned that if our confessin g is wrong it is because our believing is wrong. If our believing is wrong, it i s because our thinking is wrong. And if our thinking is wrong, it is because our mind has not yet been renewed with the Word of God. Sometimes the teachings of the Word of God may not seem reasonable to the natura l man, but that is because his mind hasn t been renewed by the Word. Mark 11:22-24 says, Have faith in God (or the God kind of faith). For verily I say unto you, T hat whosoever shall say and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe shal l have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desi re, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. The Ampli fied version of this last verse reads, For this reason I m telling you, when you pr ay, you trust and be confident that it s granted you. Then you are going to say, It s mine, I have it. The greatest things that will ever happen to the Christian will be when he moves out into this realm. The intellect and the physical senses will fight him every step of the way to keep him from entering that realm, because if the natural mi nd is not renewed by the Word of God, it wants to hold him in the natural realm. But there is a spiritual realm, and this is realty the realm of the Christian. Right and Wrong Confession Looking into the matter of wrong thinking, wrong believing, and wrong confessing , let us ask the question, just what is a wrong confession? Wrong confession is a confession of defeat and failure, and of the supremacy of Satan. Talking about how the devil is hindering you and keeping you from success, about how he is ho lding you in bondage, about how he is keeping you sick, is a confession of defea t. And such a confession simply glorifies the devil. As we have said in previous lessons, confession is witnessing for a truth that w e have embraced, testifying of something we know, and affirming something that w e believe. And many times our confessions, rather than witnessing to what God s Wo rd has to say about a matter, admit to our defeat and glorify the devil rather t han God. Few of us are like the dear old sister who stood in church to testify, The devil has been after me all week, bless his holy name. Yet many of our testimonies do m ore to witness to the supremacy of Satan in our lives than to Christ s dominion. J ust as when we testify to what God has done for us, we are glorifying Him; by th e same token, when we talk about what the devil is doing, of our failures and de feats, we are glorifying the devil. Many people lose the blessing that God has f or them just by making a wrong confession. They are defeated and life is just a grind to them. Actually a wrong confession that glorifies the devil is an unconscious declarati on that God is a failure. Such a confession destroys our faith and holds us in b ondage. The confession of Satan s ability to hinder and keep us from success gives him dominion over us. Therefore, with your mouth you are going to either give G od dominion over you; or you are going to give Satan dominion over you. The conf

ession of your lips that has grown out of faith in your heart will absolutely de feat the devil in every combat. When we are saved, we confess the Lordship of Jesus, That if thou shalt confess w ith thy mouth the Lord Jesus (Romans 10:9) or Jesus as Lord. That means He is our Lord. When we confess His Lordship over us, He begins to have dominion over us and rule in our life. But when we confess Satan s ability to hinder and keep us fr om success, then even though we may be a Christian, we are giving Satan dominion over us. He is the god of this world, and he will move right in because we perm itted him to do so. Even though it may be a permission of ignorance or an uncons cious consent, it is nevertheless consent. And when Satan has dominion, we are f illed with weakness and fear. Overcoming Fear and Doubt II Timothy 1:7 7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and o f a sound mind. Even though in the natural we may sometimes feel afraid, we should never confess fear. Fear is not of God. The above scripture says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Fear isn t something that is coming from the inside of you. It is something that is coming from outs ide, trying to get hold of you. It is the enemy. We should not confess fear, but rather we should confess power love, and a sound mind. The same thing is true of doubt. Don t confess your doubts or your fears. This is not to say that you should not admit doubt and fear if you have them. Just don t s ay anything about it. Doubt is of the devil. Doubt is contraband goods. Doubt is evil. The Christian has no business talking about doubt, for it doesn t belong to him. A lot of people think they are being honest when they confess that they ar e afraid or that they doubt. You may have been tempted to doubt and have listene d to the devil, but you can put him on the run by resisting him. So don t confess doubt, confess faith. Start talking about who you are and what yo u are in Christ, as we discussed in our last lesson. You are a believer. You are a new creature. Talk that, believe that, think that. And if you are tempted, an d none of us is above temptation, Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (Jam es 4:7). Refuse in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to doubt and fear and they will leave you. If you entertain them, however, they will come right in and rob and defeat you. Confessing God s Word Instead of confessing your doubts and fears, confess what God s Word says. God sai d, Fear thou not; for I am with thee (Isaiah 41:10). Therefore, you can say, I am n ot afraid. I am a child of God and He is with me. He has not given me a spirit o f fear, but of power, and love and of a sound mind. We are not doubters, we are b elievers. We can stop talking the devil s language of doubt and fear and can start talking God s language of faith. God is a faith God. We are faith children of a f aith God. In one of my meetings a lady told me about her sister who was in a mental instit ution. She said, She is not too bad but does need institutional care. She underst ands what is said to her. Occasionally I can bring her home for two-week periods . I am going to bring her home now so she can attend these meetings. I believe t hey will help her. I didn t pray for the woman during those two weeks, but she was in every service a

nd just from hearing the Word her mind became clear and she never had to return to the institution. The doctors released her, giving her a clean bill of health. In the past she had been confessing defeat, fear, and doubt until they became a part of her. But as she listened to the Word preached, she saw where she had mi ssed it; she began to confess the right thing and was healed. Seeing the remarkable recovery of this woman, another lady in the church was ins pired to bring her neighbor who had just been assigned to the state mental hospi tal but had not yet left. Neither the woman nor her husband were Christians, but he consented to let her attend our services with her neighbor. Within a week th e woman had been saved, healed, and filled with the Holy Ghost; and she never di d go to the mental hospital. People can become sick mentally as well as physically, and God can heal mental i llnesses as easily as He can physical. We have to recognize that God has not giv en us a spirit of fear. We need to learn to stand against the enemy. Remember, confession of fear gives fear dominion over you. Your fears become str onger and you come more into the bondage of the enemy. But if you will boldly co nfess your Father s care, confess His protection, confess His Word, and declare th at what God says about you is true, confess that greater is He that is in you th an he that is in the world, you will rise above Satanic influence every time. When you confess your doubts and fears, your weaknesses and diseases, you are op enly confessing that the Word of God is not true and that God has failed to make it good. His Word declares that by His stripes you were healed. I Peter 2:24 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being de ad to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. Matthew 8:17 17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Hi mself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. If instead of confessing that Jesus took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses, and we declare that we still have them, we will remain sick. But when we start c onfessing that He has already done something about our sickness, then we will re ceive healing. Too much of the time we take the testimony of our physical senses instead of taking the testimony of God s Word. We have to practice God s Word for i t to work for us. Memory Text: For God bath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of l ove, and of a sound mind (II Timothy 1:7). Faith in Action: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only . (James 1:22).

-Kenneth Hagin