FOUR STEPS TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH Step 2 Topic 7

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Pastor Maselo Mosomane

Topic 7

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 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. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:8:10

God is a rich God. He created the earth and everything that is in it. We read in the first verse of the bible; “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” David says; “the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.” Inspired by the Holy Spirit Haggai prophesied; “the silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, says the Lord of hosts.” Paul reiterated when writing to the church at Corinth; “for the earth is the LORD's, and everything in it.” And David details it for us; “for every beast of the forest is Mine and the cattle on thousand hills.” Genesis 1:1; Psalm 24:1; Haggai 2:8; 1 Corinthians 10:26; Psalm 50:10

All that is in the world belong to God. The Lord God created them all. In your opinion, who did He create all these for? We read in the bible that at the end of God’s creation project He said; “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and  Genesis 2:15. I think it will be a sound doctrine to conclude that God created everything on earth for man. Now the question may arise; “If God is so rich and created all these things for man; how come so many of us are so poor today?

Today’s lesson will seek to address the above question. Although all that God had created is for man’s benefit, none of them falls on his lap like a ripped fruit. There is a way into God’s treasure house. We said in our previous teaching, faith is the way into God’s resources. When we pray using the Name of Jesus and exercise faith, we align ourselves to a position to receive.

The first gift we must receive from God is Jesus. Let us turn back the clock and remind ourselves how it happened. For those who have not yet appropriated the gift, this may be a good opportunity to listen and understand what is required of you to receive God’s gift – Jesus Christ. This is the principle; not only for salvation but a base upon which we can build a foundation through which we can have a daily interaction with God and received every time we have a need. If we can understand how we received Christ in our lives; I believe it will be easier to receive anything from God.

All who profess to be saved got saved through prayer. They prayed and God saved them. This is how it happened. When they heard the preaching about the saving Christ; they believed. They believed that He can save them as the gospel claims. They trusted Him for their salvation. When an invitation was extended to them to come forward, they acted on their faith and came forward. They then prayed the prayer of salvation that goes like this; “I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord. I believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead. I now believe I am saved; for with the heart I have believed unto righteousness and with the mouth I have confessed for salvation.”

We prayed this prayer and God saved us. Jesus came into our lives. We have no doubt about it – He is right here in my heart. Since He came that day, He hasn’t departed yet. You see my friend; we believed and confessed what we believe and He came in – as easy as that. All we needed was to believe the gospel when it was preached to us and open our mouths and confess what we believe. We believe with our hearts and speak with our mouths. We believed with our hearts that He is able to save those who come to Him including ourselves. We believed that if we could call upon His Name He will forgive us our sins and save us. When we were fully convinced in our hearts we felt compelled deep in our hearts to open our mouths and speak what was in our hearts. This is how we got saved. We heard, we believed and we prayed.

This pattern of prayer lays the foundation for believers to interact with God in prayer and apply the same principle for whatever their need might be at that time. We may call it the prayer of confession.

Let us work on few illustrations. Suppose you are sick in your body and you want to pray about your condition for healing. How do you go about it? We will follow the same principle the bible uses for salvation. When you hear someone preach about healing, or you read a verse in the bible about healing, here’s what you should do. First; BELIEVE in your heart that what the preacher or verse says is true. Believe that that verse refers to you at that moment. The same way you believed Jesus can save you; believe that He can heal you too. Settle it in your heart that Jesus is the healer and if so; He will heal you also. Second; open your mouth and CONFESS that Jesus has healed you. The word is in your mouth and in your heart. This is the word of faith which we preach. The word that is in the mouth comes from the word that is in the heart. What is in the heart must eventually come out through the mouth. If the heart says I am healed, I can open my mouth and say “I am healed.” Here is a sample prayer that may start you up. “I confess with my mouth that Jesus has healed me; I believe in my heart that I received my healing. I believe I am healed.”

Just like in salvation, you don’t need to feel anything – it is not important how you feel. You heard the gospel, you believed it, and you said with your mouth that you believe it and you got saved. Feelings are not important at this stage. For example; you have a brain but you have never seen or felt it. You don’t need to feel it before you believe you have one. Can you imagine shaking your head and someone sees you and ask what you are doing and you say; I’m just trying to feel if indeed I have a brain? No!

All that happened was; one teacher told you, you have a brain or you read it somewhere and you believed it. Since that day you kept saying, “I have a brain” every time there is a need to say so.

The same way that the word of God saved you is the same way that the word of God will meet all your needs. When you hear the word of God believe it in your heart and speak it out with your mouth and it shall come to pass.  

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 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. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”