FAITH’S CONFESSION OF GOD’S WORD.

Based on Apostle Andre Pelser's notes with additions by Apostle Aje Pelser,

Preached at Harvester Reformational Church, Cape Town, 13^th of March 2011

Keys to unlock God's Promises through accurate faith confessions of God's Word:

1. According to Your Faith let it be 

Jesus Himself established the importance of understanding how faith operates, when He said, “According to your faith let it be to you” (Matt. 9:29). Faith that believes is called to become faith that appropriates. The present day has seen a rise of understanding on this subject, but mixed with a confusing and distracting flurry of ideas that have often brought misunderstanding and criticism. Is there a biblically balanced approach to “confessing God’s Word in faith”? This study is an examination of Scripture that may bring hope for such balance.

2.  (Gen.17:5). Our words should line up with His Word about us. “Abram” means “High Father” or “Patriarch.” “Abraham” means “Father of a Multitude.” Every time Abraham heard or spoke his own name, he would bereminded of God’s promise. Adam Clarke’s Commentary states it well: “God [associates] the patriarch more nearly to Himself, by thus imparting to him aportion of His own name,”  Do not “name” yourself anything less than God does.

The addition to Abram's name contains a bit of God's name:

At the same time that the Lord blessed Abram and commanded circumcision, He changed his name from Abram to Abraham, and the name of his wife Sarai to Sarah. The new name, Abraham, means "father of a multitude"; but there was a deeper meaning than that in the change. The letter "h" which was added to Abram's name and to his wife's, was from the Lord's own name Jehovah, and it was a sign that Abraham and Sarah were to be His children, to obey Him, and as far as they could, to be like Him.

From the folliwng link: http://www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/sower/gen/gen13.htm 

In Revelation we see Jesus giving those who overcome a White Stone with a new name:

Rev 2:17  "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it." '  

So look into the mirror of His Word, like Gerald Sharp used to sing, and see hte kind of men we really are.

Let's speak what God speaks over our lives, pull out the prophecies and wage war with them, live out our spiritual identity.  

The tongue is a powerful weapon, it steers hte body like a rudder steers a ship! If we speak right, we help our faith. Murmuring and complaining in unbleief and doubt wiped out hte Exodus generation, all but Joshua and Caleb, who spoke in faith about the promised land.  

3. Inherit the promises through Faith and Patience (Num. 13:30; 14:6-9). Caleb saw the same giants and walled city as the other spies, but the ten spies brought back an “evil report” of unbelief.Caleb’s words declared a conviction—a “confession”—before all Israel: “We arewell able to overcome.” He had surveyed the land, a reminder that faith is notblind. Faith does not deny the reality of difficulty; it declares the power ofGod in the face of the problem.

There is a message in the spirit of Caleb’s response to the rejection of his faith-filled report. Some use their confession of faith to cultivate schism, but Caleb stood his ground in faith and still moved in partnership and support—for forty years—beside many whose unbelief delayed his own experience.What patience as well asfaith! His eventual actual possession of the land at a later date indicatesthat even though delays come, faith’s confession will ultimately bring victoryto the believer.

Heb 6:12  that you do not become sluggish,but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

4. Silence Unbelief (Josh.6:10).

 Joshua commands the children of Israel tomaintain total silence as they walk around the city of Jericho. The memory that Israel’sforty-year punishment in the wilderness was a result of the people’s murmuringin unbelief was doubtless in Joshua’s mind. At that time, the spies had returnedwith a report motivated by what man sees without Holy Spirit-given vision.Their unbelief that they could take the land had sealed their fate in thewilderness.(6:20).

Take every thought captive, bring all arguments to the obedience of Christ continually, sometimes we talk ourselves out of God's blessings through murmuring and complaining, and in Philippians we are encouraged to do all things without it! U