₦airaland Forum

But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even
in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word
of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness; and
with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
— Romans 10:8-10
What we believe is a result of our thinking. If we think
wrong, we will believe wrong.
If our believing is wrong, our confession will be wrong.
In other words, what we say will be wrong. It all hinges
on our thinking!
But the Word of God has been given to us to straighten
out our thinking!
Jesus said in Mark 11:23, "For verily I say unto you,
That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou
removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things
which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever
he saith. "
Ordinarily, we talk quite a bit about the believing part,
but we do not talk too much about the saying part. Of
course, we will not be able to make the right confession until
our thinking is right. Our thinking must be in line with the
Word of God, because we cannot believe beyond the actual
knowledge we have of the Word of God.
People who have been involved in the past with metaphysical, mind-science religions often get this teaching
about right and wrong thinking confused with those
religious teachings, because they still think that man is
just a mental and a physical being. But man is far morethan that: He is also a spiritual being!
Advocates of metaphysics have taught so much about
the mind that Full Gospel people are almost afraid to say
a word about it — yet the Bible has a great deal to say
about the mind.
For example, the Bible says, "Trust in the Lord with
all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own UNDERSTANDING [mind]" (Prov. 3:5). The Bible says, "Casting
down IMAGINATIONS [reasonings], and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and
bringing into captivity every THOUGHT [thinking] to the
obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5). The Bible also says, "And
be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by
the renewing of your MIND, that ye may prove what is
that good, and acceptable, andperfect, will of God" (Rom.
12:2).
We renew our minds by studying the Word of God. The
Bible teaches us to have "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16).
The only way we can have the mind of Christ is to study
His Word, believe it in our heart, and act upon it.
The Word of God also teaches us to think on whatever
is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, or
whatever has virtue or praise (Phil. 4:. So the Word of
God does have much to say about the mind!
However, we need to realize that thoughts can come into
our minds from two different sources. In other words, the
thoughts that come into our minds do not always originate
in our minds. The devil puts many thoughts into our minds
from outside ourselves. That's one source. Then, of course,
thoughts from God come from within us. They come
through our spirits into our minds.
As you stay in close fellowship with the Lord through
prayer, meditation, and study of His Word, you will learn
to distinguish the source of your thoughts. Naturally, evil
thoughts are from the devil. God is love, on the other hand,and love thinks no evil, hears no evil, and sees no evil. Those
kinds of thoughts come from God.
I have found that Scriptures referring to the mind
confuse many people. However, in Scriptures referring to
believing, many think they do believe. (And they do believe
in their minds, but not in their hearts.)
In Scriptures referring to thinking, about all many
Christians can understand is the negative side of the
subject (for there are both negative and positive sides,
and the positive side is the more important).
For example, if one talks about "confession," most
people think of confessing sin, weakness, or failure. The
Bible says, "// we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). But the Word of God has much more
to say about the positive side of confession than the negative side. If people could understand that, it would make
a great difference in their lives and thinking. But they have
only heard one side of confession preached — the negative
side. Therefore, they have only exercised the negative side:
The "thou-shalt-not" side.
Yet Paul says in Romans 10:9, "... ifthou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. . . . " This does not refer to
confession of sin, nor is it a confession of weakness.
Instead, it is a confession of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
This passage continues, "... and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. "
This is not a negative confession; it is a positive
confession! In fact, Christianity is called "the Great
Confession." Hebrews 3:1 says that we should consider the
Apostle and High Priest of our "profession" (a marginal
note in some Bibles says "confession".
Right and Wrong ThinkingAt this point, it would be helpful for us to define the
word "confession." First, it is affirming something we
believe. Second, it is testifying to something we know.
Third, it is witnessing to a truth that we have embraced.
It is necessary that we do as Hebrews 4:14 admonishes,
and "... hold fast our profession [confession]." It is also
necessary that there be a continual confession of redemption from Satan's dominion and a confession of the fact
that he no longer rules us with condemnation, fear, or
disease. We are to "hold fast" to our confession because
our confession is Satan's defeat. Jesus defeated the devil
nearly two thousand years ago. But what Jesus did for us
legally must become a vital, living reality in our lives.
The experiential side of redemption is the vital side. We
never shall thoroughly understand the Word of God until
we can clearly see the two different sides of our
redemption — the legal side and the experiential side.
An example of the legal side of redemption is this: We
often pray, "God save this man," or "God, heal that
woman." However, in the mind of God, He has already
healed these people and saved them. In other words, God
was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Jesus
doesn't have to die again to save anybody. He already died
once, didn't He? He doesn't need to shed His blood
anymore. Legally, God has already done everything He
needs to do to provide our redemption!
If one just deals with the legal side of redemption and
preaches it exclusively, people will not actually experience
anything in their lives. And that is the great problem with
many churches. What is being preached is legally true, but
the believers have become cold, dead, and formal because
they have heard just one side of redemption preached —
the legal side — and so redemption hasn't become a living
reality in their lives.
If, on the other hand, only the vital side of redemptionis preached — the experiential side — wild fire, fanaticism,
and extremism result. Also, if a minister preaches only the
experiential side of redemption, some people will seek for
experiences apart from the Word of God. (A balance must
be achieved between the two so that one can enjoy
everything God has legally provided in redemption.)
That which the Lord has legally purchased, wrought,
and provided for us becomes ours, experientially, when we
believe the Word of God in our heart and confess with our
mouths that it is true and that it is ours.
For example, we can see this legal and vital side of
redemption in Paul's writings to the Christians at Rome.
In Romans 10:8, Paul said, ". . . the word of faith, which
we preach. " Such an expression is not seen in the Old
Testament, because the people in those times did not have
the redemption experience available to them as we have.
They did not even clearly understand what it was they had
prophesied about regarding the coming Messiah! And in
the four Gospels we do not see redemption outlined either,
because the redemption Jesus came to bring was not
actually available to the people while He was on earth.
Jesus did forgive sins, but we have more than forgiveness
of sins in redemption — we are made "new creatures"!
Redemption did not become available to us until after
Jesus was crucified, was raised from the dead, and was
seated at the right hand of the Father. In other words, the
New Covenant was not in force until the High Priesthood
of the New Covenant (or New Testament) was in effect.
Jesus is the High Priest of the New Testament!
It is difficult for some people to understand this, because
they think redemption was in force while Jesus was here
on earth. But redemption was not yet in force. Some men
on earth did have their sins forgiven then — but under the
New Covenant we have much more than just forgiveness
of sins. We have the New Birth, and we have become newcreatures in Christ Jesus.
If a person sins after he has been born again, he does
not need to be born again time after time. A person can
only be born again once — but he can be forgiven of his
sins many, many times, thank God. The promise to
believers who sin is, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins ..." (1 John 1:9).
As we have seen, Romans 10:9,10 says, "That if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness. ..." When sinners hear the
Word of God preached it straightens out their thinking.
The Word shows them that they are lost, that they are
sinners, that they cannot save themselves, and that they
cannot make themselves righteous or redeem
themselves.
The sinner simply needs to say to God, "Dear God, I
am a sinner. I cannot save myself. I know according to your
Word that I cannot make myself righteous, but I thank
You because You love me, and You sent the Lord Jesus
Christ to die for me. And through His righteousness,
redemption is made available to me. I believe that Jesus
died for my sins according to the Scripture. I believe that
He was raised from the dead and is my justification. I
confess Jesus now, and I take Him as my Savior."
This is thinking in line with the Word and believing
what the Bible says. Confessing it creates a reality of
salvation in the human spirit.
It makes a great deal of difference as to how the sinner
is brought into salvation. For example, if a sinner's thinking
is straightened out to begin with, and his believing and his
confession are made right, then it will be much easier for
him to not waver in his Christian walk. On the other hand,
if he is not given sufficient instruction, then the devil will
take advantage of what he doesn't know. He will bedefeated and robbed of that which God has already done
for him. Because if he doesn't know the Word of God, and
doesn't know how to hold fast to his confession of faith,
the devil will camouflage the situation and try to make him
feel he is not even saved. And when the new convert makes
little mistakes, the devil will try to tell him, "Well, you're
done for, so you might as well give up and quit!"