From Dr. Timothy

Jesus wants two things for our souls ... First - to be healthy and Second, to prosper!  So this brings out the question - - IS YOUR SOUL PROSPERING?

What is meant by “effective confession”?  Just as prayers are either effective or non-effective, our confessions may be either effective or non-effective.  Non-effective confessions are not just a waste of time, these become tools of defeat in the arsenal of satan!

In some circles, confession means naming your will “in the name of Jesus”!  In some it means repeating a promise of God for “my life”, also “in Jesus’ name”!  While in some groups of saints there is no such thing as confession at all!

Repeating a thing over and over and over WILL NOT make anything happen or give you the strength you need to gain victory!  Finding a “promise” then coupling it with “all the promises of God are yes and amen …” and repeating this over and over will not cause a thing to happen either! 

Non-effective confession is this:  Stating what amounts to YOUR will/desires expecting God to fulfill YOUR command because you belong to Him.  Sadly, I have heard this type of confession expanded to the point that ministers literally COMMAND Jesus to heal a person!

Effective confession will always have two results:  One – make us an overcomer; Two – bring us into agreement/submission/cooperation with God’s Will.

The best examples of effective confession can be found in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 when Jesus was engaged in spiritual warfare against satan and temptation!

While the power in Christ came from His divinity, our power comes from one thing and ONE THING ONLY - - the shed blood of our LORD Jesus Christ!  (Jesus defeated the devil in the wilderness, conquered him on the cross and will eradicate him in the final judgment and through His shed blood Jesus anoints us with power from the same source as His!)

Confession, or the word of our testimony, is powerless without that shed blood of Christ being in effect in your own life (if you are not born again, you are wasting your time) and second, our testimony what is in agreement with and obedient to what God says about any given issue!

This is how Jesus defeated the devil in the wilderness!  He did not merely quote from memory a verse or two!  Notice what He did – He stated His reality which was, for instance, that regardless of what else was available to Him He would only rely upon God for His sustenance!  “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that is spoken by God!” 

What else did Jesus do?  He refused to take the bait of fighting satan on satan’s terms!  Or, as we are instructed in James, He resisted answering the devil on the devil’s terms but remained humble and while satan was trying to draw Jesus into “hand to hand combat” (so to speak), Jesus simply kept His focus on embracing God the Father! 

When confronted with a situation or wrestling with some temptation, ask the Holy Spirit to give you effective confession that will result in your overcoming the confrontation.

For years a certain man – a minister – had real struggles with sexual lust.  He hated it but no matter what he “confessed” he remained embattled with carnal lust.  Then one day, in response to his prayer for an effective answer, the Lord guided him to His Word stating that we shall judge angels.  Immediately the man began speaking thus:  Lord I thank You that in the day of judgment You will appoint me as judge over these fallen angels … God will reveal to me who you are and I shall pronounce upon you the most severe, harshest judgment allowed a human spirit to pronounce …because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ this shall be so!”

Talk about effective confession!  Finally this man became an overcomer in this crucial area of his life!  While this also qualifies as part prayer, part rebuke against the enemy, it was all the confession of the lips in the faith in what Jesus already accomplished coupled with what God tells us in His Word!

Remember, effective confession is confessing God’s will not our own!  Learn it, live it and enjoy your freedom!