Always confess God’s promise - 27 January 2009
When Jesus was hungry and saw a fig tree without any fruit, he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." Mark 11 : 14 [NIV] People that were with Jesus might have thought, listen to him he is out of his mind he is speaking to a tree. They may have seen the tree still intact, but little did they know that when he spoke those words he was already creating a new set of conditions that would govern the future of that tree. And whilst the tree was looking lush and green on the outside, the roots were already withering and indeed a few days later the people with Jesus saw a withered tree: Mark 20 - 25.
What does this teach us? When Jesus came he brought us a new way of life. It is no longer business as usual for Christians. On the contrary, we are a new species that operates by new rules. It is no longer by our wisdom but by his way of doing things and friends, it is God’s way of doing business to call things that are not as though they were.
Today we are being asked to do the same thing. So what does this mean in reality? If we have things that have not been changing for a long time try changing the way we talk. If your son is misbehaving, isn’t it something common that well meaning friends and everybody approach you saying “We hear such and such a thing is happening with your son”. And what is our answer to this, “Yes, its true. I am really troubled my son is going to continue like this. He is definitely going to land in jail and I need God’s mercy.”
Now there is nothing wrong in people sympathising with us but we must be careful with what we say. In the first instance the devil knows spiritual laws more than any preacher and this is why he does everything to make or provoke you into uttering wrong confession. So how are we to respond? I myself still need His grace in this area; hence why when I stand before him in the evening in prayer, I will be asking for forgiveness and help to make the right confession.
He is revealing these things every day in my work. For example after working so hard on a project to raise funding, there comes a period of waiting for the results of our applications and notice what happens. I will be praying and maybe fasting for a good outcome, but on the day I get the news I have noticed God gives me an opportunity to confess what I really believe. So the conversation goes like, “Well we have been waiting for the outcome of this application. When are we going to hear from the donor? By the way I just heard so and so received news two weeks ago so this means if we haven’t heard, we haven’t got it!”
And each time I am bold enough to declare “I am blessed, I have been praying for this and so we are going to hear good news!” Everybody is privately surprised that we hear the good news either the same day or a few days later. Similarly, I have noticed whenever I compromise for political correctness and agree with the way of the world – it doesn’t matter how much prayer and fasting I have done, I often get the result I confessed at the pinnacle of my testing.
It is scary but there is a way out. Why not pray for forgiveness of the words of unbelief you have been saying about challenging situations? Why not ask Him to guard your mouth and help you to confess his promise instead of what you fear in times of difficulties? | 