Speak the following out loud:
1. I belong to God. (John 17:9)
2. I am protected by the power of His name. (John 17:11)
3. I am kept from the evil one. (John 17:15)
4. I have been justified through faith. (Romans 5:1)
5. I have peace with God through Jesus. (Romans 5:1)
6. I am saved from God’s wrath. (Romans 5:9)
7. I have died to sin with Christ. (Romans 6:3)
8. I am no longer under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14)
9. There is no condemnation of me in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)
10. God’s Spirit now dwells in me. (Romans 8:9)
What you just did was to confess, out loud, truth from God's Word. What happened while you were doing that is that you were speaking truth and hearing truth at the same time. God’s Word says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17 NKJV). All faith comes from God and is increased by reading and speaking His Word.
Successful educators will tell you that people—children especially—learn best and retain more when they use as many of their senses as possible during the learning process. Reading God’s Word out loud uses one’s visual and auditory senses. Writing down what one reads involves the sense of touch. This process is a practical way to learn and retain God’s Word, but according the Romans 10:17 above, hearing the Word increases one’s faith.
I have found that reading and speaking God’s Word out loud no only helps me to remember it, but also fulfills Romans 10:17 in my life.
“2I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?...5So then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by hearing with faith” (Galatians 3:2,5 HCSB)?
The above verses bring to mind two other Scripture passages about faith: James 2:26 and Hebrews 11:6.
“Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works” (James 2:26 NLT).
“Good works” in conjunction with faith in this context represent the applying of our faith to the process of speaking and hearing God’s Word.
“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 NLT).
The faith that pleases God in this context is the faith applied to the process of speaking and hearing God’s Word.
“What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see” (Hebrews. 11:1 NLT).
Faith is reality for the believer, even when that reality is not yet visible! Some versions use the term substance. Substance is virtually the essence of life itself. Faith is also the evidence of what we cannot yet see.
“…That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, ‘I have made you the father of many nations.’ This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who brings into existence what didn't exist before’” (Romans 4:17 NLT).
God spoke light into existence. He spoke space between the waters of heaven and the waters of earth. He spoke and grass sprung up and trees bore fruit. When God speaks, what He speaks happens! When we hear God speak and believe what He says, faith happens!
“9If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. 10For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved” (Romans 10:9,10 GNT).
Based on this passage, it is by our faith that we are made right with God. Our confession is agreeing with what God has said and proclaiming it openly. This combination of possession and profession are what secures our salvation.
Confession in this context is speaking the truth, or saying what God has already said! Confessing the God’s truth builds our faith. Believing and confessing lies, however, has a totally negative effect.
Have you ever made statements like “I hate my hair!”, “My knees are too bony.”, “I’m too fat.”, “I’m too skinny.”, “I’m too stupid to understand math.”, or “I’ll never amount to anything.”? Or has someone else made such negative statements about you and you believed them?
How do such negative statements make you feel?
What you are doing when you speak negative and untrue words to yourself and believe them is, in effect, reinforcing your belief in what is not true about you. Hearing and believing negative things that others (including the devil) say about you has the same effect. Scripture admonishes us to confess what God has said so that we fill our hearts with His truth. Listen to what Jesus said to the Pharisees.
“You snakes—how can you say good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Matthew 12:34 GNT).
According to this verse, evil words come from evil hearts and good words come from good hearts.
If you consider the “whole counsel” of God in the matter of confession and faith, you will discover that what you believe and speak openly matter greatly.
“10Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My friends, this should not happen! 11No spring of water pours out sweet water and bitter water from the same opening. 12A fig tree, my friends, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water” (James 3:10-12 GNT).
There's an old saying that, “what goes down in the well, comes up in the bucket.” Whatever you believe and speak the most is what ultimately fills your heart. Do you see, then, why it’s important to be careful what you say?
Let’s look at the power of confession from Jesus’ perspective.
“I assure you that if you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this hill, ‘Go from here to there!' and it will go. You could do anything!” (Matthew 17:20b).
“21Jesus answered, ‘I assure you that if you believe and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I have done to this fig tree. And not only this, but you will even be able to say to this hill, “Get up and throw yourself in the sea,' and it will. 22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer’” (Matthew 21:21-22 GNT).
“24For this reason I tell you: When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for. 25And when you stand and pray, forgive anything you may have against anyone, so that your Father in heaven will forgive the wrongs you have done” (Mark 11:24-25 GNT).
“Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you” (Luke 7:7).
Do you see a common thread in all these verses? They all are about making our requests known to God. And how do we do that? By asking!! Asking is believing and speaking or confessing what we want, and as long as what we want is what God wants for us, He guarantees that we will receive whatever we ask for. But first we must ask.
“You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it” (James 4:2 GNT).
Let me sum up for you why it is important to speak God’s Word.
God’s Word…
- …always produces fruit, accomplishes all He wants it to, and prospers everywhere He sends it. (Isaiah 55:11)
- …is pure. (Proverbs 30:5)
- …nourishes the spirit. (Luke 4:4)
- …always bears fruit. (Luke 8:15)
- …blesses those who hear it and keep it. (Luke 11:28)
- …cannot be broken. (John 10:38)
- …grows and multiplies, (Acts 12:24)
- …works in those who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
- …is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.
(Hebrews 4:12a) - …is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
(Hebrews 4:12b) - …framed the worlds. (Hebrews 11:13)
- …is JESUS! (Revelation 19:13)
Boldly Speak Your Christian Testimony
A testimony simply is a statement or declaration about something someone has experienced, such as eyewitness testimony in a trial. Your Christian testimony is your story about your salvation and how and why you chose to accept God’s free gift. It should include three things:
1. How you came to hear and respond to the Gospel
2. How you responded (i.e., your actual conversion experience)
3. How your conversion has made your life different
What impact has hearing the testimonies of others had on you? Have they strengthened your faith? Have they encouraged you?
The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Church in Colosse, explains how the testimonies of others can encourage us.
“Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts” (Colossians 3:16 NLT).
Speaking, teaching, and even singing are all forms of confessing or speaking the truth. Praise is a very powerful form of confession in which we speak or sing back to God what He has revealed to us about Himself in Scripture. We can do this corporately (as a group) or individually. Either way, there is power in praise.
Speaking the truth is so powerful that in the Revelation, believers…
“… won the victory over [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the truth which they proclaimed;…” (Revelation 12:11a GNT).
Faith and confession are directly proportionate. Your faith only will increase as does the frequency of your confession. Confession is to faith what thrust is to an airplane. Thrust is the amount of lift applied to an aircraft’s wings determined by the forward speed of the aircraft. The faster the aircraft travels in a forward direction, the more lift it produces on its wings. The more you confess truth, the more your faith increases.
So it is with confession. The more you confess God’s Word (out loud), the more your faith increases. And since faith is reality for believers, increasing our faith increases our acceptance of God’s reality in our lives.
This is the true power of spoken words!
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