Kenneth E Hagin - Leaflet - Understanding Confession

7/25/2019 Kenneth E Hagin - Leaflet - Understanding Confession

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UNDERSTANDINGOUR CONFESSION

by Kenneth Hagin

(Sixth in the ser ies: Six Big Hindrances to Faith)

I Timothy 6:12

Fight the good fight of faith...."

Sometimes folks have said, after having alittle battle in the area of faith or a little fightin obtaining healing, "I f I had just been therewhen Jesuswas on theearth. It would have beeneasy then." However, if you go back and readthe four Gospels youwill findthatit was not soeasy.

Take for instance the woman with theissueof blood. Jesussaid to her , "Daughter, thy faithhathmade thee whole" (Mark 5:34). It was notJesus' faith, nor someone else's faith, but herfaith that made her whole.

To rece ive her healing she had a number of

obstacles to overcome . Firs t, according to theBook of Leviticus, a woman with an issueofblood was in the same category as a leper.They were not supposed to be in public mixingand mingling with other people. If anyone came

close they were to cr y out, "Unclean! Unclean!"That was her church teaching.

But she got right into thatcrowd,mixed andmingled with them, and reached right throughand touched Jesus'clothes. She had an obstacleof some churchteaching toovercometoreceivehealing. But she overcame it .

Women in that country, especially at thatt ime, didn't have the rights and pr ivileges ofmixing freely in publicthatthey have in most ofthe world today. She overcamethat, too. Shedidn't pray that God would make it easy. Shejustgot r ight into the midst of thecrowd. And,of course , when she got to whereJesuswas, themultitude was there.

You could say that the multitude stood between her and healing. Public sentiment stoodbetween her and healing. Some of her ownchurch teaching stood between her and gettingto Jesus. But she did not pray thatGod wouldovercome the obstacles or remove them forher. She did something about them herself.

You, too, will have to do something aboutthe obstacles which confront you yourself. Ihave heard others actually pray, "Lord,make iteasy for me to be filled with the Spirit," andnever be filled. You see , Godputs it all on afaith proposition. Too manypeoplewantGod todo all of it, leaving nothing for them to do; nopart for them to play. Butwe do have apart toplay.

And we do have obstacles toovercome. Ourtext says, "Fight the good fight of faith." Ifthere were no hindrances or enemies therewouldbe no fight.

The Bible tells us, "...faith comethby hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans10:17). There fore the greates t hindrance thereis to faith is a lackofknowledgeof God's Word.It is a mistake to pray for faith when what isreally needed is a knowledge of God's Word.If you gain knowledge of God'sWord, you willhave faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearingby the Wordof God.

Faith will growwhen ourknowledgeof God's

Word grows. If faith is notgrowing,our knowledgeof God'sWord is notgrowing.I would beconcerned if I did not have a growing faith.

It is a tragedy that folks can believeGodmore when they are first new baby Christiansthan they can after they have been Christiansfor ye ar s. Instead of growing in faith, it looks

as though they deteriorate in faith. That shouldnot" be.

We have been looking at six hindrances tofaith. Al l of them, ofcourse, are in connectionwith a lack of knowledge of God'sWord. Thesixth hindrance we shall look at is the reason

many fail. They do notunderstandwhat the Bible says about "confession."

When we use the word "confession" peopleinstinctively think of confessing sin, confessingfailure. And the Bibledoes say, "If we confessour sins, he is faithful andjusttoforgive us oursins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteous-


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ness" (IJohn 1:9). Butthat is the negative sideof confession. The Bible has much more to sayabout the positive side of confessionconfessing our faith.

Regarding salvation, for instance, the Biblesays in Romans 10:9, "That ifthoushaltconfesswith thy mouth the Lord Jesus (Jesusis Lord),and shalt believe in thine heart that Godhathraised him from the dead,thou shaltbe saved."This does not refer to confessing sin. This isconfessing Jesus. This is not a negative confession. This is a positive confession.

Now notice the next vers e, "For with theheart man believeth unto righteousness; andwith the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10). This is not a negativeconfession. This is a posit ive confession. " . . .with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." In other words we could say, with the

mouth man confesses that he is saved.Didyou knowthat no man is ever saved un

til he confesses that he is saved? I don't careif he fee ls saved, he sti ll is not saveduntil heconfesses he is saved. God's Word says that,

"with the mouth confession is madeuntosalvation."Ina certain Full Gospel Church in one of our

large ci ties, the men were in thehabitof comingby the church each day before they went to workfor an early morning prayer meeting. A lostman who had never been saved had been coming

to the men's prayer meetings each morning forsix months and was still unsaved.

When I came to this church to hold a meeting, one of the Christian brothers theretold meaboutthis lost man. "Brother Hagin, Ibelieveyou can help him," the Christian brother said.

I knewthatI could because God'sWordwill always straighten any of us out who will listen toit.

Since the men worked during the week and

could not attend the morning teaching sessionswe had during the meeting, they asked me toteach at aSaturday night teaching session formen only. And into the firs t Saturday nightmen's meeting here came this lost man withhis Bibleunder his arm. We were introducedbut we didn't have time to talk before the service began.

Somewere stil l coming in even though it was

time to start so I said, "While others are stillcoming in we ' l l have a few testimonies." Oneor two men testified and then I looked over atthis man and said to him, "Get up and confessthat you are saved."

That startled him. He said, "Oh! I'm notsaved yet."

"I know it ," I said, "but you see the Bible

says thatwith the mouth confession is made unto salvation, and you will never be saveduntilyou confess thatyou are and make a public confession of it because Jesus said, 'Whosoevertherefore shall confess me before men, himwillI confess also before myFatherwhich is in heaven' (Matthew 10:32)."

"Yes , " he said, "but I don't feel like I'msaved."

"Certainly not. Youcan'tfeelsomething youhaven't got. You don't feel saved because youare not saved. You won't feel saved untilyouare saved; untilyou confess it. "

"Well, II," he stuttered," Idon't much believe I want to dothat."

"I want to ask you a question," I said. "Is it

correct thatyou have been coming here for sixmonths praying and repenting?"

"Oh, yes, " he replied , "God knows I haverprayed and repented every morning."

"Well repentance has its place, but you havealready done that and you don't need to do it a-gain. Now you are ready for the next step. You

see, if there werethree stepsintothisbuilding,

just because you got onto the first step, or eventhe second, would not mean you were in thebuilding. Ifthere are three steps, you have totake all three before you are in."

(Folks will just take a step or two, and thesteps they take are Biblesteps, but they don'tarrive because they don't takeall thestepsthatlead to the particularprovision.)

Then I said to him, "You have your Bible,open it to Romans 10:9-10 and read it aloud."

He read, "That ifthoushaltconfess with thymouth the Lord Jesus,andshaltbelieveinthineheart that Godhath raised him from the dead,

thou shalt be saved. For with the heart manbelieveth unto righteousness; and with themouth confession is made unto salvation."

I said to him then, "Confess that you aresaved."

"No, I don't much bel ieve I 'l l do that."(Now I do things sometimesthatstartleme.

And in this instance I did one of those things.The Spirit of God came upon me to anoint me todo it. Even as I spoke the words I found myselfthinking, "Is that coming out of me?" My headhad nothing in the world to do with it .)

Suddenly I found myself pointing my finger

at him and withauthority and sternness in myvoice, I said, " I command you! Icommand youto stand and confess you are saved!"

When I said that he stood. He lookedaroundabout half scared and said, "Well, most of youknow that I have been coming by here for sixmonths and praying every morning. And Godknows I am tired of sin andthatI have repented


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and repented, prayed and prayed, and cr iedand cr ied. The Bible does say right here, 'thatif thou shalt confess with thy mouth the LordJesus, and shalt believe in thine heartthatGodhath raised him from the dead, thou shalt besaved.'

"Well ," he continued, "Ibelieve tha tJesusisthe Son of God and thatHedied for mysins according to scripture . And Ibelieve thatGodraised Himfrom the dead for my justif ication.(He knew what the Bible said about it. ) So I ' l l

just confess Him as my Lord and Saviour andconfess that I am saved." Then he sat down so

fast and hard you would have thought he hadknocked the bottom out of the seat.

To divert attention awayfromhim, I quicklypointed to another fellow and said, "Brother,you stand and test ify." He did. Then I pointedto another one and he testi fied, too.

After two had testified I looked back atthisfellow and I' ll tell you his face was lit up like aneon sign. I said to him, "Brother, you get upagain now."

This time you didn't have to prod him. Hejumped up as though thatpew werewiredwithelectricity. As he jumpedofftheseathe shout

ed , "Woo! WhenI saidthat,something happeneddown here inside me."

I said, "Sure something happened to you. Itis with the mouth that confession is made unto,and when you made your confession God imparted eternal life into your spiri t. Pra iseGodthat is what happened!"

Two nights later he was filled withtheHolySpirit and began to speak with other tongues.

The following summer, he and his familywereonvacation and stopped by where we were in a

meeting. Intalking to us further he said, "Brother Hagin, I would go by the church and prayand I meant business. I was honest and as sincere as I could be. Everymorning I would cr yand repent and every afternoon after work Iwould stop by the beer joint and drink with thefellows. But after Ijusts imply madethat confession there was such a change in me. Instantly I was even del ive redfrom cigarettes.I had been car rying a packofthem in my pocketand about a week later after breakfast Iunconsciously reached for them. It was thenthat Irealized Ihadn't been smoking. My wife spokeup and said, ' I 've been watching you and you

haven't smoked a cigarette in a week.'"Hewas a new man. Andthe inward man was

dominating the outward man. Now some folksdon't have itthateasy. That is because the outwardman keeps dominating. Theylet the bodydominate the man on the inside. However,if youwill let that new man on the inside dominate it

is easy to keep the flesh out.He continued, "I didn't dothatpurposely, itwas just that I was so car ried away with thebless ings of God and taken up in Him that Ididn't notice I hadn't smoked for a week. Ithrew thatpackage away and it has never bothered me . I went right past those beer jointsand they were never any temptation to me."

Whenyou make apositiveconfessionof faithit creates reality. Andthenyou walk in the re alityof God's blessing.

Manypeople struggle because insteadofbeing on the positive side, they are on the nega

t ive . It' s alwayssucha battle withthem, "Oh,I 'mhaving a time. Poor ole me."

Our faith keeps pace with our confession.Let me repeat . Our faith keeps pace with ourconfession. Faith never rises above its confession. As I said, I am not referr ing to theconfession of sins, but to the confession of theWord of God and the confession of our faith inGod's Word.

If we confess weakness, and failure, andsickness, wedes troy faith. Ifyour need is healing, boldly make your confessionthatyour diseases were laid on Jesus, thenhold fast tothat

confession. That is where the fight of faithcomes inin holding fast to our confession offaith. Hebrews 4:14 te lls us to hold fast ourconfession. When we dothatwe bring God onthe scene.

The majority of Christians, however,thoughthey are earnest yet they are weak. This isbecause they have neyer real ly dared to confesswhat God'sWord says about them. Theyhavenever dared confess that they are what the Bible says they arethat they are who the Biblesays they arethat they have what the Biblesays they have.

A spiritual law which few of us realize isthat our confessions rule us. They are rulingus and they will continue to rule us. Jesussaid, ".. .whosoever shall say...and shall notdoubt in his heart, but shall believe that thosethings which he saith shall come to pass; heshall have whatsoever he saith." (Mark 11:23).

Notice that last phraseagain, "he shall havewhatsoever he saith." What we say is our confession. What we say is our faith speakingwhether it is on thepositiveside or on the negative. Jesus said thathe shall have whatsoever

he saith.Did Jesusknow whatHewas talking about or

are these just the words of an irresponsibledreamer? No, they are not the words of adreamer! He knew exact ly whatHewas saying.And what did He say you shall have? He saidthat you shall have "what you say."

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I te ll people al l the t ime, "If you are notsatisfied with what you have, then change whatyou are sayingbecause you have createdthatyourself in your own life."

Somany people will maintain a wrong confession, instead of maintaining a right confession. A wrong confession is a confession of de feat, of failure, and of the supremacy ofSatan.

Many people have more faith in the devilthan they do in God. They don't mind at alltalking about what the devil is doing and whathe's going to do. Theytalkaboutit all the t ime.But try and get those same people to talk about

what God will do and they say, "Well , I wouldbe afraid to dothat." Arethey afraid God won'tkeep His Word? Ar e they afraid that He is alia r? No, Godwilldo everything that He saidHe would do! Prai se the Lord! Hewill keepHis Word!

Al l some people talk about is their combatwith the devil and what a time they are havingwithhim. Theyshouldn't have any trouble withthe devil because Jesus has already defeatedthe devil for them. If they knew theWord theywouldknowthatSatanis a defeatedfoe. Colos-sians 2:15 says, "And having spoiled principal

it ies and powers, he made a shew of them openly , triumphing over them in it." He triumphedover them in His resurrection and put them tonought.

Therefore always talkingaboutyour combatwith the devil, how he is hindering you, how heis holding you in bondage,howhe is keeping yousick, is a confession of defeat. Andas long asyou talk about that, thatis what you are going tohave.

Many times I have prayed for folks and theyhave been healed because of themassfaith pr e

sent,or on my faith.Al l

symptoms of their for mer diseases left. Yet,as they went away, I hada heaviness in my spirit . I knew the thing orsomething worse would come back on them.How did I know? The whine never left theirvoices. I knew theywouldgoright back to whining and talking negatively; talking unbelief.

Wrong confession glorifies thedevil. Talking about what a time you're having with thedevil, what a battle you' re having, what all youare going through, how he is keeping you from

success, keeping you sick, holding you in bondage; that kind of confession glorifies the dev

il.I know folks wouldn't do it if they really

knew what they were doing, but to tell you the

truththat kind of confession is an unconsciousdeclaration thatGod, your Father,is a failure.

Everytime you testify, you are confessing

something. Most of the testimonies or confes-

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sions wehear today glorify the devil. I listento them in churcheswhere they have testimonymeetings.

When you testify and brag onJesus aren'tyou glorifying Jesus? When you tell what Godhas done and is doing, don't you glorify God?By the same token, if you get up and brag onthe devil's works then you are glorifying thedevil. Some folks haveglorifiedthedevilmorethan they have glorified Godandthatis the reason they are in the mess they're in.

When you talkaboutthedeviland what he hasdone you are glorifying thedeviland his works.

When you talk about defeat you are talking a-bout the works of the devil. Defeat is not ofGod! God did not intend thatthe Church shouldbe defeated, did He?

Let 's look at what theBiblehas to say aboutthis. The Bible declares in Matthew 16:18thatthe gates of hell shall not prevai l against theChurch. Paul writing to the Church said, " . . .

in all these thingsweare morethanconquerorsthrough him thatlovedus" (Romans 8:37). If hehad just said we were conquerors itwouldhavebeen enough. But it saysthatweare more thanconquerors, through Him!

Al l right then, let's talk about what we arein Him. Rather than saying, "Well, I'm justwhipped. I'm defeated," get up and tell whatthe Bible saysaboutyou. Say, "lam a conqueror!"

"But it doesn't seem that I am," you mightsay. It may not seemthat it is so, but your confession of it will create the rea lity of it in yourlife. Sooner or later youwillbecome what youconfess.

An evangelis t told me of holding a meetingin a Full Gospel Church in a city ofaround

100,000 population. The leading business manof the city, the wealthiest man in town, was amember ofthischurch. This man had aheartcondition and during the meeting he had an attack at home. Hiswifecalled thepastor and theevangelist to come and pray.

They went to the upstairs bedroom of thepalatial home where the man lay unconscious.The doctor said thathe could not be moved evento get him to the hospital. He told the man'swife that though they were givinghim oxygenand doing all they could, he wouldnever regainconsciousness but would die there in bed. The

evangelist and pastor laid hands on him andprayed and as quickly as you wouldsnapyourfingers, he opened his eyes and was all right!

He sat up, then got out of bed and walkeddown the stairs to the living room where hevisitedwith them for about forty-five minutes.When the pastor and evangelist rose to leave,


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he did not go outside with them as he was stillwearing onlypajamas and a robe and the weather was cold. Hiswife,however, didfollow themoutside. She closed the door as she followedthem so that her husbandcould not hear. Shesaid to the evangelist, "Keep praying for him.Keep on praying for him."

The evangelist asked, "Why?""Well ," she said, "the devil will comeback

and put that right back on him and he'l l haveanother attack."

"Sister, you have more faith in the devilthan you have in God.Youhavejust stood right

there and told me what the devilis going to do.You said,'Thedevilis coming back and he's going to put it back on him. The devil is going togive him another heart attack.' Why don't yousay, 'God has healed him. Healing belongs to

us and the devil can't come back. He's not going to put that back on him?'*

She answered, "Oh, I'd be afraid to say athing likethat."

"Why?" he asked.Whisperingshe replied, "Don't youknowthe

devil wouldhear me."Many Christians are the same way; some

preachers even. I was holding a meeting in theLos Angeles area one year whentherecame anepidemic of the Asian Flu. Headlines of "TheLos Angeles Times" said that two million hadAsian Flu in the LosAngeles area.

In the suburb where we held the meetingthere were two high school football teams. Thelocal paper reportedthatbothofthem cancelledtheir Friday night games. One team had a squadof thirty-nine men and not a single oneturned upfor practice. The other squad had forty-onemen and only two showed up for practice. Our

church building which seated several hundredhad been full, but whenthisthing hit so many ofthem had it, we got down to forty people.

Someone asked me, "Aren't you afraid?"I publicly declared, " I don't worryaboutit,

I will never have the Asian Flu." And I neverhave.

Well, when I have made confessions offaithsuch as that, I have had Full Gospelpreacherssay to me privately, "Boy,aren't you afraidtomake a statement like that?"

I said, "No, why?"Theywhispered it out to me, "Don't you know

that the devil will hear you?""SureI know he will hear me. I said it for

his benefit. He' s the ve rydudeI wanted to hearit . There was no need in my saying it for God'sbenefit. He already knew it anyhow. The devilis the one that I wanted to hear it."

A number of years ago my wifeand I start

edto go in to visit someone whomwe had heardwas i l l . "If you are afraid," they cautioned,"you'd better not come in here. I've gotthisvirus and I've got a bad case of it."

"Don't let it bother you a bit," I said, "I 'l lnever have it."

But my wife said, "Well, now maybe I'dbetter not go in. I might get it."

I told her to make her own choice and shedid goahead and go in with me, but sure enoughshe got it because she had saidthatshe probablywould. I did not get it. I pointed that out toher and told her, "You said the wrong thing."

That hesitance was there. She had wavered.And I mean she came downwiththatillness almost before we got home. It jumped on herthat fast.

If you open the door the devil will jump.on-.you. Job said, "For the thing which I greatlyfeared is come upon me, and thatwhich I wasafraid of is comeuntome"(Job 3:25).Youopenthe door to the devil by being afraid. You openthe door to the devil by saying the wrong thingand making the wrong confession.

There are also those who say, "I believeI ' l l try that," just because they have heardsomeone teach it; perhaps myself. Well, ifyoumake confessions which are not really yourfaith speaking but are justoff the top of yourhead, so to speak, youwillfallflat on your faceand the devil willwhip you badly.

It is when you know what God'sWord saysfo r yourself and make that the confession ofyour faith that you cannot be defeated. That iswhy I encourage people to get into the Word.Find out what the Bible saysaboutyou as Christians. Underline those statementswe told youabout in our previous lesson, "UnderstandingOur Place in Him." Underline all the "in Him,""in Christ," "in Whom," etc., scriptures andbegin to confess them. Confess. "This is minebecause I am in Christ ." "Because lam in Him,I have this." Find out what is yours and whenyou make your confession of faith because ofwhat you see in God'sWord, then because youhave a foundation of God's Wordunderyou, youwill never be defeated.

Inthe natural, folks willmaintain the wrongconfession and then naturallytheir confessionof doubt and failure and unbelief will sap thevery life out of them and will destroy their

faith. Itwillhold them in bondage. But the confession of your faith which has grown out ofknowledge of God's Word will defeat the devilin combat every time you meet him. Praise theLord!

Peter wrote, "...your adversary the devil,as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom

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he may devour" ( I Pe te r 5f8).I think that is as far as some people read.They say, "Woo, the devil is after me. It sayshere he is going about like a roaring lion. Itseems like I can feel his hotbreathon my neckright now. He's seeking whom he may devourand I'm afraid he's about to get me. You allpray for me that he won't." There rea lly isn'tany need to pray for anyone like that becausethe minute they started talking thatway he hadthem.

Certainly we have an enemy. "Your adversary" this verse calls him. Anadversary is an

opponent, an enemy, one who is arrayed againstyou, one who standsbetween you and victory,between you and success.

"Your adversary, the devil walketh about(right down here onthis earthbecause he is thegod of this world) as a roaring lion (if you lethim he will scare you) seeking whom he maydevour."

If you stop reading right there, that's not avery pretty picture, is it? But we are not tostop reading there.

Peter is writing to Christians, he's notwriting to sinners. The devil has already de

voured them and swallowed them up. Hewillswallow us up if we let him. Now what are weto doabout it?

Are wejust going to throw up ourhands andsay, "Well, there's nothing we can do. I' m soweak and unworthy. Poor ole me."? No! Athousand times no!

Are wejust to rol l over and play dead thinking, "He ' l l goaway if Ipretend he 's not there."?No! We ' r e not to dothat.

Well, what are we to do? Le t's read on anddowhat the scripture says todo. "Whomresiststedfast in the faith... ." ( I P e te r 5 :9 ) . I like onetranslationwhich says, "Whomresiststeadfastin your faith." Your faith in God'sWordyourfaith in whatGodsaidaboutthe devilyour faithin what God said about you. Youresist him inthat! Hallelujah to Jesus!

James 4:7putsitthisway,"Resist the devil,and he will fleefromyou." "You" is the understood subject ofthat sentence. "Youresist thedevil. . . ." It does not say to get somebody elseto resist him for you. We can help each othertemporarily but in the final analysis some

things you have to do for yourself. James wrote

this letter to the Church but he did not writethem to this effect, "Word has come to me thatour beloved brother, Apost le Paul, has hadgreat success casting out devils and dealingwithdevils . I suggest you write to him and gethim to do something about it." No, he did not

~say that. Youhavejustas muchauthority as the

next fellow over the devil. Youresistthe deviland he will flee from you.Now, in order for him to flee from you he

would have to be right there withyouor maybeeven in you. I could not flee from Tulsa, forinstance, if I was not in Tulsa, could I? Whenyou resist him, he will flee from you.

I looked up the word "flee" in several dictionar ies . I wasn't satisfied with the differentshades of definitions I could gather untilI gota dictionary about a foot thick which had morethan one page on the word "flee." Under theheading "to flee" Ifound the one Hiked. It said,

"to flee from: to run from as in terror."At the time Iwas looking into the meaning of

this word, a dam broke high up in the mountainsbordering France and Switzerland. Billionsofgallons of water came down between thosemountains and wiped out an entire town. Onenewspaper art icle read, "The townspeople arefleeing...." They were running from as interror because their l ives were in danger.

God's Word says, "Resist the devil and hewill flee from you." Hewill run from you as ifin terror!

Oh,he'snotso afraid of you as an individual.

But when you find out what your rights and privileges are in Christ; when you find outthat theName of Jesus belongs to you and you have alegal right to the use of that Name; when heknows you have found out what thatNamewilldothen he will run from you as ifJ.n te rr or .

Untilthen, he willhang aroundbecause youdon't know and every chance he gets hewill rubyour nose in the sand. Hewillkeep you on thedefensive and defeated.

You resist the devil. You do something a-bout it. God has already done all he is going

to doabout it. He sent Jesus and Jesus arosevictorious over the devil. Jesus defeated himfor you and now it is yourturnto do somethingabout it.

Let 's find out what belongs to us and riseup and walk in the light ofthat which is ours!The way these things become real to us is bybelieving them in our heart and the confessionof the mouth.

Romans 10:10 says, "For with theheartmanbelieveth unto righteousness; and with themouth confession is madeuntosalvation." Thatis not onlytrueconcerning salvation. It is true

concerning everything you receive from God.It is always with the heartmanbelievesand

with the mouth confession is madeuntothe Baptism of the HolyGhost. It is with the heart manbelieves and with the mouth confession is madeuntohealing. It is with the heartman believesand with the mouth confession is madeuntoan-

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swered prayer. I thoroughly believethis andhave proven it. TheLordsaid to me years ago,"I want you to go teach my people faith. I havetaught you faith through my Word and I havepermitted you to go through certain exper i

ences. You have learned faith both through myWord and through experience. Nowgoteach mypeople faith. Teach them what I have taughtyou."

I heard a voice from heaven speak thosewords to me. And so Ijust teach people what Ihave learned from the Word or what I havelearned from experience.

If you reallybelievea thing in yourheart andsay it with your mouth you will really have itbecause Jesus saidthatyouwouldinMarkll:23.Some say, " I did and I don't have it." I don'tmind telling them, "You or Jesus, one is lyingabout it because He said, 'Whosoever shall sayand not doubt in hisheartbut shallbelieve thosethings which he saith shall come topass; heshall have whatsoever he saith.' "

Usually though, if you let people talk longenough they givethemselves away. They'll say,"Brother Hagin, I just want you to know I did

justexactly what the verse said and itjust does

not work.""Well, if it doesn't workthenJesustold a lie

about it ," I say to them.They will stop and say, "That's right, He

didn't l ie , did He?"

"No."

Then they let the cat out of the bag, "Well,I sort of wondered ifthatwould work for sureanyway."

You see, they were indefinite. Be specificabout it.

"Withthe mouth confession is madeunto....*

"He shall have whatsoever he saith." Thosephrases from God's Word say the same thingusing different words. You are not going tohave victory confessing defeat, are you?

With the mouth confession is madeuntohe shall have whatsoever he saith. Youare notgoing to have health confessing sickness, areyou?

With the mouth confessionis madeuntoheshall have whatsoever hesaith. Youare not going to have wealth confessingpoverty,are you?

You are notgoingto havesuccessconfessingdefeat and failure, are you?

It is amazing what faith people have in thewrong thing. And because they believe in itthey constantly talk it . They bel ieve in sickness so they talk sickness. They believe in defeat and they talk defeat.

I don't believe in sickness. I believe sickness exists, because you see it everywhere.

However, I believe inhealth,so I constantly talkhealing and health.

Some say to me because they might seethatit seems I have symptoms of a cold, "Oh, you' re

taking a cold."I say, "N o, I don't have a cold and I'm not

going to take one. The devil is trying to giveme one but I'm not going to take it." It leavesme then.

I am trying to teach you how to practicefaith. It works for you. We walk by faith and

not by sight God's Word declares. Sogoaheadand walk by faith. Quit walkingby sight. Most

people talk by sight ratherthantalking by faith.But we are to talk by faith. Talk faith. Actfaith. Let your words and your actions agreethatmakes you a believer.

I do not believe in defeat so I never talk defeat. I do not believe in failure so I never talkfailure. I do not bel ievethat God is sick, northat He is a failure, northatHe is defeated. Henever has been and He never will be.

I don't believethat Jesus is sick,doyou? Idon't believethat Jesus is defeated, do you? Idon't believethat Jesus is a failure, doyou? Ibelieve that Jesus is the healer and because Heis the healer I have health. Ibelieve that I ammore than a conqueror through Him who lovedme and gave Himself for me.

The Bibleteaches usthatweare the Body ofChrist. Did you knowthat the Bible calls youChrist? I want to read along withyou a passageof scripture, making comments as we go:

IICorinthians fi;H-15

Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers:(Paul is writing to

the Church at Corinth. "Ye" is the believers. "Beli evers ,'he

say s, "don't be unequally yoked together with unb eli evers.

Now why?) for what fellowship hath righteousness with un

righteousness? (The beli ever is called "righteousness* andthe

unbeliever is called "unrighteousness," Haveyou ever thought

of yourse lf as righteousness? The Bible says you ar e. Look

at the previous chapter inl l Corinthians 5:21, "Fo r he hath made

him to be sin for us, whoknew no sin; that we might be made the

righteousness of God In him."D idyou ever think of yourse lf as

being rig hteousness?-- the righteousness of God in Him? You

are. The beli ever is called "righteousness" andthe unbeliever

is call ed "unrighteousness.") and what communion hath light

with darkness? (The beli ever is called "light;" the unbeliever

is called "darkness." ) And what concord hath Christ with Be

lial? (The believer is called "ChrlstI" And the unbel iever i s

called "Belial.") or whatparthath he that believeth with an In

fidel? (The beli ever is called a beli ever and the unbeliever is

called an infidel.)

Nowwhy is the believer called Christ? Becausethis is written to the Church and Jesus is thehead and we are the body.

Does your head go by one name and yourbodyby another? Supposing you are a"BrotherSmith." Wouldn't it bestrangeif someone asked

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me if I knew Brother Smith and I said, " I knewhim by Brother Jones. His head goes by thename Jones and his body by the name Smith."

Can you see that? Can you see the wholebody of Christ? We are Chris t. Can you seethat? That is the reason he cal ls us Christ.

And you know the strange thing about it isthat he's writing to that old carnal Church atCorinth; and he still call s them Chri st. He is

trying to get them to see what belongs to them

so they can grow out of their carnali ty. Hewants them to come up tothat level.

I believe most Chri stians, if they are re al ly

Chris tians and if theywillfindout andknowexactly who they are and what they are,will riseto the levelof what belongs to them!

The trouble is,however,thatsomefolks arelooking at things from the naturalfrom thephysical standpoint. God is looking at it from

the spiritual standpoint. They keep looking atthemselves from the physical and theylookoutinto this world of darkness and theywalkbysight and not by faith. They will write andsing some old unbelieving song suchas, "HereI wander like a beggar through the heat andthrough thecold." Those are the thingsthatdefeat us.

Find out what the Bible says and begin toconfess, "That is what I am. That is who I am."

You see, I do notbelievethatChrist is sick.There should not be any sickness in His Body!I don't believe thatHe is defeated nor thatHe

is a failure. Ibelieve that He is a conqueror!And that is why theBiblesays," . . .we are morethanconquerors through himthatlovedus" (Ro-mans 8:37).

M

KENNETH HAGIN EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION

P.O. BOX 50126 TULSA. OKLAHOMA 74150

Kenneth E Hagin - Leaflet - Understanding Confession

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