Faith

(Prov 22:17 & 18 AMP) Listen (consent and submit) to the words of the wise, and apply your mind to my knowledge; for it will be pleasant if you keep them in your mind [believing them]; your lips will be accustomed to [confessing] them.

Yesterday I introduced you to these verses and we dealt with the process of mind renewal. I told you that when we hear something from God that is contrary to what we believe, that we must then make a decision to either stand by our old beliefs (even though they are clearly against God's way) or submit to the process of mind renewal so that we can experience true transformation. Getting our mind programmed to think God's way is extremely important for the believer. Unless we learn to think God's way, we will never truly experience all that God wants us to experience in the earth.

Getting our minds programmed in the first step and once our minds are renewed our words will follow, because what's in us abundantly comes out of us eventually. The way we think and the words we say have a great deal to do with the life we live and whether or not we will experience God's best.

Let me explain it this way: Paul said, "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" (Rom 10:1,10).

This passage is commonly used for salvation. The Holy Spirit through Paul teaches us that if we confess Jesus as Lord with a believing heart we will be saved. Think about that for a moment. We use our mouths (what we say) and our hearts (what we believe) to make a confession unto salvation. To get a better understanding of this we need to look at the original language. The word translated "confess" in v.9 and "confession" in v.10 is the same word. It is the Greek word "homologeo." This is a compound word. It comes from "homo," meaning the same as; and "logeo," where we get "logos," meaning the written Word. In this case, it is a reference to the written Word of God. So, in context, to confess with your mouth is to literally say the SAME AS the Word of God concerning... whatever you are confessing. In the case of salvation it is saying the SAME AS the Word of God about who Jesus is and who He is in your life. Once you confess Him as Lord, with your lips, from a believing heart, He becomes your Lord and Savior and you are translated out of the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of God. You are saved by speaking words with a believing heart. Or in other words, speaking words that you believe!

If words spoken from a believing heart can change your eternal destination, then doesn't it stand to reason that the same would apply to other areas of your life? If speaking believing words that agree with God's Word kept me from going to hell, then I have to believe (and I do) that speaking believing words that agree with God's Word will keep peace in my marriage, warmth in my home, obedience in my children, health in my body, success in my career, and etc. But remember, I am not speaking of empty words, I am speaking of words that you believe - words spoken from a believing heart!

So what does this mean? It means that you must have faith in two places: your heart and your mouth. Confessing and believing (together) is what kept your life from hell and this same combination can keep hell from of your life. Solomon teaches that once you get God's Word in your heart, your lips will be accustomed to confessing it and your life will never be the same!

Father, I have faith in my heart and in my mouth. My words come out of the abundance of my heart. I fill my heart with good things, so that my words will be words of blessing and not cursing, good and not evil, life and not death. Once my input is pure, my heart is right, and my words are righteous, I cannot help but be blessed. My heart is filled with Your Word and out of my lips come words that line up with Your Word, spoken from a believing heart, and because I speak faith-filled words, and I believe what I am saying, You are able to use me for Your glory daily! I speak words of prayer in the morning, in faith, and I backup my words of prayer with faith-filled words (spoken from a believing heart) all day long! In Jesus' name. Amen!