We know our words have creative power. We also know that if we want to receive all the blessings that God has in store for us we have to receive them by faith. The best way to exercise our faith to receive is through confessions of faith. No, this is not name it and claim it theology. Just because exercising your faith requires confessions of faith to receive doesn’t mean you can claim whatever you want and believe that you receive it and it’s yours.
There have been lots of teachings that say that God wants to give you whatever you want. They manipulate the verses about speaking in faith and believing that you receive to make God out to be some kind of magic genie in a bottle who grants all your wishes. That’s not what we’re talking about here. God is not some magic genie in a bottle. You can’t just say some magic words or repeat some “guaranteed” prayer and expect to win the lottery or get a boat or a new car or whatever it is you’re “naming and claiming.” This kind of belief makes a mockery of the holiness and sovereignty of God. It’s completely unbiblical!
No, you can’t name and claim whatever takes your fancy, but you can stand on the promises of God’s Word and put them to work in your life. We know that God’s Word does not return void. He makes sure that His Word is fulfilled (Isaiah 55:11). So when we stand on the promises of God’s Word, we are in safe territory. We can speak those words by faith and activate them in our life because we know that what we ask is in accordance with His will and that confidence is what allows us to ask and receive (1 John 5:14-15).
You may be dubious about the idea of speaking out the promises of God in order to receive them by faith. After all, what’s the big deal about speaking it out? Can’t you just pray silently and have the same effect? Well, yes and no. Yes, you can pray silently, and God will hear you just the same. But God also told us to speak. When Jesus was talking to His disciples about faith He said, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.” (Mark 11: 22-24) Notice that Jesus didn’t say “whoever prays about his mountain.” He said, “whoever says to this mountain.” That’s what a confession of faith is. It’s speaking the promises of God to your problem.
It’s important that we hear things over and over again to truly remember them and believe them, so speaking the promises of God out loud over our situations is a big part of activating our faith. There’s a difference between possessing something and using something. My grandmother possessed three pressure cooker pots. She used none of them. The fact that she had the pressure cookers was great. If she ever needed to pressure cook something, the pot was right there ready to be used. But if she never used the pot, it did her no good to possess it. We possess faith. All of us do. The Bible says that God has given to each man the measure of faith (Romans 12:3), but just because we all possess the measure of faith doesn’t mean we all use our faith effectively.
2 Corinthians 4:13 says, “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak.” Isn’t this how we were saved in the first place? We believed in our heart that Jesus was Lord and confessed with our mouth that God raised Him from the dead and we were saved (Romans 10: 9). Why, then, does it seem so far fetched to believe that this is the pattern to receive all the blessings offered to us in Christ the same way that we received the salvation offered to us in Christ?
If you’re struggling, though, don’t worry. The Galatians struggled as well. They had received their salvation and begun serving the Lord, but some trouble makers came in to stir up trouble in the church by insisting that the church needed to demonstrate their obedience to certain requirements of God’s law. Paul found out about the struggle and admonished them by saying:
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?
Galatians 3:1-5
Sometimes we do the same thing. We might not be struggling with issues like kosher dietary laws or circumcision, but we can all fall into the trap of relying on works to earn favor with God. How many times have you thought, “I’ve been reading my Bible everyday, so God will answer this prayer”? Or “Maybe if I go to church more or tithe more or pray more, God will do this for me”? It’s an easy trap to fall into. We get stuck in the mindset that we have to be perfect for God to bless us or that God has some cosmic accounting system where He figures up all the things we’ve done right against all the things we’ve done wrong in order to determine whether or not we receive something from Him.
But that’s not biblical either! We don’t earn our salvation. We are saved by grace through faith and not through our works (Ephesians 2:8). If that’s how we receive the biggest blessing God has for us–our salvation–why do we think we have to do something different to receive the other blessings of God: blessings like healing, provision, wisdom, etc. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Since God doesn’t change, the laws governing His kingdom don’t change either. If we attain the blessing of salvation by a confession of faith, we attain all God’s blessing by the same means.
Ephesians 1:3 tells us that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. They are ready and waiting for us to receive them. Isaiah 30:18 tells us that the Lord earnestly waits to be gracious to us. He is ready and waiting to bless us. There’s no cosmic accounting sheet set aside to determine our worth. What holds us back from receiving is the fact that we aren’t using the faith we possess.
So look at the areas of your life where you need God’s blessing. Search the Scriptures to find the verses of promise that related to that area of your life. What has God promised in relation to your need? Then begin to speak that Word in agreement with God. Activate your faith by making a confession of faith in agreement with the promises God has already given you. You’ll begin to see a change as you position yourself to receive by faith the things that God has already given you. It may take time for it to manifest in the physical realm, but it will happen because God’s Word is true and does not return void.
A Beautiful Mess 