Lesson 11
A STUDY IN FAITH
One cannot grow in Righteousness. He may grow in Righteousness Consciousness, but he already is the Righteousness of God in Christ.
One cannot grow in sonship. One may grow in sonship consciousness and learn to enjoy his privileges and rights in the Family.
We can grow in Grace. Grace is the first fruits of love. Grace is love bearing fruit.
"I am the vine; you are the branches." The vine is love, the fruits are grace.
We are the grace of God unveiled. We are sons of God, and as such we grow in fruit bearing.
We increase in usefulness. We can grow in gentleness, in tenderness, in the beauty of the Master. We may grow in love.
Our love at first has little selfish streaks through it. It is marred again and again, but we keep studying the Word, keep Fellowshipping with the Master, keep walking in love until by and by love gains the absolute supremacy in our lives, so that we only do love things, say love words.
We are growing in love. We steadily move on up in our growth until we actually believe in love. We believe that love is the solution of every problem in life. We believe that love is better than force, better than going to law, better than the whip, better than argument, better than fighting.
We believe that the love way is the sure way, the success way.
When Jesus said, "I am the way," He meant He was the love way. This new way is the best way. We grow in knowledge of our Father and of our rights, of the finished work of Christ.
Then we take wisdom to use this knowledge. We do not grow in wisdom, for Jesus has been made unto us wisdom.
We grow in the ability to use knowledge wisely.
You cannot grow in Redemption. You may grow in the knowledge of what that Redemption means.
You may grow in fellowship. You may grow in faith. Your fellowship will be measured by your personal sharing with the Master and with one another the riches of His grace.
Faith is a tender plant. It cannot stand the harsh winds of Sense Knowledge. It cannot be crowded out of its seat and out of its place without suffering.
It must be fed continually upon the Word of God and upon our acting on that Word.
Simply reading the Word, meditating on the Word, will not build faith. It will build a capacity for faith, but faith is only developed when that Word becomes a part of our daily use, our daily conduct—a part of our daily speech.
As faith develops, Satan's dominion over us wanes. Circumstances are less formidable. Fear is destroyed. As your faith develops, you begin to possess your rights in Christ. You begin to take what belongs to you.
At first, you take the things over that you have merely hoped for before. You have hoped for money, now by faith you have it.
A second thing, you begin to enjoy what you formerly "mentally assented" to.
You have said, "Yes, by His stripes I am healed, but I am sick." You have agreed with the Word, but you have not acted upon it... you have merely assented to it. Now you have reached the place where you no longer hope for it, but you look up and say, "Father, I thank Thee that I am what you say I am."
What you have mentally assented to, you now possess.
Believing is possessing. What you assented to for years, you now enjoy. Faith develops in the atmosphere of confession of the Word.
We are not speaking of confession of sin. It is our confession of what we are in Christ, what Christ is in us, and what the Word is in our lips.
The Word in your lips becomes a living thing, just as the Word in Jesus' lips could rule the sea, the winds and the waves (even the fish in the sea), so His Word now in your lips will take the place of Christ on earth.
There is a sick one. The Word in your lips now will take the place of Jesus. If Jesus were here, He would say, "Son, you are healed." You say, "Son, by His stripes you are healed." You are using His Word. That is your confession, that His Word now has become the healer in your lips.
There is another one who is held in bondage by Satan. You remember what He said, "They that believe shall cast out demons." fearlessly you speak the Word, "Satan, in Jesus' Name leave this person. Go off into the abyss where you belong."
You are quoting the very words of Christ. Your lips become the pulpit of Jesus Christ.
Faith develops with this confession. Faith is no greater than your confession.
Every time you break the silence caused by fear with an open confession of the integrity of the Word, and you act on the Word, you destroy the very roots of fear and unbelief in your life.
Fear and unbelief develop with confession, the same as faith develops with it. You confess that you are sick, and unbelief develops in you.
If you confess that you have been prayed for and have not received your healing, you are confessing that Satan had made the Word of God ineffective.
And we know, "that nothing is impossible to the Word of God" in our lips. That is a literal translation of Luke 1:37, "No Word from God is void of power."
It makes no difference what the environment is, what the association, the limitations, the mental attitude of folk; here is the Word that lives and abides, the Word that cannot be broken, the Word that said, "Let there be" and there was, and the sun, moon and stars leaped into being.
The Word has not lost its ability. Its ability is measured by its Author's ability.
His Word is full of creative ability now. He lives in His Word. His Word has given life to creation; to man, and to the animal and vegetable creation.
"In Him was life (that was the Word) and that life has become the light of men." John 1:4.
You understand that faith, in the sense we are using the Word, is letting the Word of God function through you. It is the Word of God doing business.
Matthew 19:26 "And nothing is impossible to God."
Mark 9:23 "All things are possible to him that believeth."
There has come the union of man with God. Gods ability has been linked with man's inability and has swallowed it up. His very weakness is God's opportunity. "When I am weak, then am I strong."
"Nothing shall be impossible unto you." God is speaking in person to you. Just as food rejuvenates the body, so the Word rejuvenates faith in our spirits.
When will we ever learn that He and His Word are one. He is the surety of the New Covenant. He watches over His Word. He lives in His Word. His ability is in His Word.
It is Jesus speaking through your lips when you use the Word.
Let us think of the vine for a moment again. You are the branch, the miracle bearing part of the vine.
You and the vine are one.
You are the miracle part of the body of Christ. The fruit grows on the branches. Love fruit, healing fruit, grow on the branch.
We are sharers with Him and the bearers of His fruit.
Your fruit bearing is the measure of your confession. Your confession determines your faith life, so hold fast to your confession in the face of all opposition. They cannot conquer you. You are the unconquerable one.
Remember that your lips give expression to your faith. Your words are your faith. You say, "I believe; I have." Then you thank Him for it.
You do not need to see or hear or feel. The Word is your evidence.
He says you are, and because He says you are, you are.
What I Confess, I Possess
It took me a long time to see this truth. After I saw it and thought I understood it, I still could not act upon it.
Christianity is called "the great confession." The law of that confession is that I confess I have a thing before I consciously possess it.
Romans 10:9-10 gives you the law for entering the household of faith. "Because if thou shaft confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God 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."
You see, with the heart man believes that Jesus is his Righteousness, and with his lips he makes a confession of his salvation.
You notice that confession of the lips comes before God acts upon our spirits and recreates them.
I say, "Jesus died for my sins according to scripture, and I now acknowledge Him as my Lord," and I know that the instant I acknowledge Him as my Lord I have Eternal Life.
I cannot have Eternal Life until I confess that I have it.
I confess that I have salvation before God acts and recreates me.
The same thing is true in regard to healing. I confess that "By His stripes I am healed," and the disease is still in my body.
I say, "Surely He has borne my sicknesses and carried my pains and I have come to appreciate Him as the one who was stricken, smitten of God with my diseases, and now I know that by His stripes I am healed." (Literal trans.)
I make the confession that "by His stripes I am healed"; the disease and its symptoms may not leave my body at once, but I hold fast to my confession.
I know that what He has said He is able to make good.
I know that I am healed because He said I was healed, and it makes no difference what the symptoms may be in my body. I laugh at them, and in the Name of Jesus I command the author of disease to leave my body.
He is defeated, and I am a victor.
I have learned this law, that when I boldly confess, then, and then only, do I possess.
I make my lips do their work. I give the Word its place. God has spoken, and I side with the Word.
If I side with the disease and the pain, there is no healing for me. But I take sides with the Word, and I repudiate the disease and sickness.
My confession gives me possession.
I want you to note this fact, faith is governed by our confession. If I say, “I have been prayed for and I am waiting now for God to heal me”, I have repudiated my healing.
My confession should be this: “the Word declares that I am healed, and I thank You Father for it, and I praise Jesus for it, because it is a fact.”
You remember Philippians 4:6,7 "In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus."
Why must prayer be made with thanksgiving? That means that I know the thing is done. I asked for it and now I have it, so I thank the Father for it.
The seventh verse says, "And the peace of God which passes all understanding will fill my heart."
I am not worrying any longer. I have it. I am not going to get the money I need... I have it. It is just as real as though it were in my pocket. I am not going to get my healing... I have my healing because I have His Word, and my heart is filled with rapture.
Your confession solves the problem.
A wrong confession hinders the Spirit's work in your body. A neutral confession is unbelief. It is just as bad as a negative confession.
It is the positive, clear cut confession that wins.
"I know in whom I have believed."
"I know that no word from God is void of power or fulfillment."
"I know that He watches over His word to make it good."
These are the confessions of a victor.
I want you to notice several facts about the relation of confession to faith.
Your confession is your faith. If it be a neutral confession, you have neutral faith. If it is a negative confession, it is unbelief dominating your spirit.
Unbelief develops with a negative confession. A confession of failure puts failure on the throne. If I confess weakness, weakness dominates me. If I confess my sickness, I am held in bondage by it.
These negative confessions are acknowledgments of Satan's dominion over God's tabernacle.
Your spirit always responds to your confession.
Faith is not a product of the reasoning faculties, but of the recreated spirit.
When you were Born Again, you received the nature of the Father God. That nature grows in you with your acting on the Word, and your confession of the Father's perfect dominion in your body, and it causes your spirit to grow in grace and ability.
You remember that your confession is your present attitude toward the Father.
In some special testing that may come to you, your confession is either in the realm of faith or in the realm of unbelief. Your confession either honors the Father or Satan... either gives Satan or the Word dominance in your life.
Now you can see the value of holding fast to your confession.
Your confession either makes you a conqueror, or it defeats you. You rise or fall to the level of your confession.
Learn to hold fast to your confession in the hard places.
John 8:36, "If the Son has made you free you are free indeed." The Son has made you free, now stand fast in that liberty.
Galatians 5:1 is of vital importance to every believer. "For freedom did Christ set us free; stand fast therefore."
The time to make your confession is when Satan attacks you. You feel the pain coming in your body. You repudiate it. You command it to leave in the Name of Jesus.
Romans 8:31-37 "If God is for us, who is against us?" Your Father is for you.
Disease cannot conquer you, nor can the author of disease. Circumstances cannot master you, because the Father and Jesus are greater than any circumstances.
You have learned that in whatsoever circumstance or condition you are, to rejoice in your continual victory.
You know that 1 John 4:4 is true. "Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them."
Notice who you are. "You are of God." "You are born of God." You are a product of His, and of His own will He brought you forth through the Word.
The rest of the verse reads, "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world."
"For it is God who is at work within you, willing and working His own good pleasure."
Philippians 2:13 has been my victory many many times.
Now turn to Romans 8:11, "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
You must recognize this fact. All is yours by confession, or all is lost by a negative confession. You get God's best by the confession that you have it.
The secret of faith is the secret of confession.
Faith holds the confession that he has the thing he desires before he actually possesses it.
Sense Knowledge faith confesses that he is healed when the pain leaves and the swelling goes down. There is really no faith in that.
Faith declares you are healed while the pain is still racking your body.
Let me state it again, possession comes with confession. Possession stays with continual confession.
You confess that you have it, and you thank the Father for it... then realization follows.
Remember, confession with thanksgiving always bring realization.
Confession is the melody of faith.
Confession before realization is foolishness to Sense Knowledge.
Abraham's faith was contrary to sense evidence. He remained strong, giving glory to God, knowing that what God promised He would make good.
Sense Knowledge has no real faith in the Word.
When the heart and the lips join in joyful confession, faith rises to the flood tide.
Reality or Our Relationship
We never know Redemption facts until we boldly confess them.
We never enjoy our Father's fellowship and support until we confess it.
New Creation Realities never become realities, until we confess them.
Many people who have trusted in physical evidences of the Holy Spirit's indwelling never have any confession of His presence, because they do not confess His indwelling, they only confess His incoming.
They talk boldly about their baptism in the Holy Spirit and the evidences they received at that time, but they do not confess that "greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world."
There is no continual confession on their lips of His present power and ability in them.
I have found that I must continually confess that He is in me. In every address that I give I confess that God is living in me, and that He is ministering through me.
"For it is God who is at work within you, willing and working His own good pleasure." Philippians 2:13
I plan to continually confess the present day ministry of Christ at the right hand of the Father on my behalf.
Hebrews 7:25 is a blessed reality. "Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them."
He is our Intercessor. He ever lives to pray for me.
The secret of my success and victory is His continual Intercession. It is my knowledge of His Intercession that gives me courage and victory when everything is apparently against me.
I know that He ever lives to make Intercession for me. I am a victor in the face of apparent defeat.
I know the reality of the love the Father and the Master have for me. "The Father himself loves you." How that has strengthened me.
John 17:23, "That they may know that you love them even as You love me."
I know His love, I confess it continually Not only do I know of His love, but I have His wisdom.
I may have all this knowledge, and see the Plan of Redemption clearly, but if I do not have wisdom, I will not know how to utilize this knowledge. Wisdom is love's ability to use knowledge, and so I am rejoicing in 1 Corinthians 1:30. "Jesus was made unto me wisdom."
He is now my wisdom. He is the strength of my life. He is the Upholder, Teacher, and Unveiler of the Father's will to my heart.
I know my legal rights as a son. What a thrill went through me when I knew my legal standing and my legal right to use the Name of Jesus in my combat with the forces of darkness.
When I knew my right as a son in the Father's family, and began to act the part of a son, I took my place as a son in the family of God.
What a thrilling moment that was! I was no longer a servant, or a sinner supplicating the Father, begging for this and that. I am a son of God.
Then I learned my authority as a son, and I took my place; bearing my burdens as a son, doing the will of the Father as a son, and took my place as a master of Satan. That was a son's place.
I remember that Jesus said, "All authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth; go ye therefore and make disciples (or students) of all nations." Matthew 28:18,19.
Then I knew I had been authorized, deputized to go and carry the Good News. I had been empowered with His might. I had His wisdom, grace and love.
I went out with the confession that I was endued with the ability of God. From then on I began to brag about my Father, and what He did for His children. As I did, the reality of these unseen things began to materialize.
I began telling people what we are in Christ, how we know what we are when we boldly confess it with our lips.
How it thrilled me when He said, "I am the vine and you are the branches." He was a part of me. I was to take His place in the world, and act as He did.
Then my heart was lifted by this fact—Jesus knew who He was. He knew why He came. He knew what His work was to be. He dared to confess that He came out from the Father. "I have come unto the world, again I leave the world and go unto the Father."
You know, I believe that that was faith talking. I believe that Jesus walked by faith, just as you and I do today. I do not believe that He depended upon sense evidence of any kind.
He knew what the Father had told Him, He knew His will, because He had revealed it to Him. Jesus voluntarily became the Head of the New Creation.
I question if Jesus had any other revelation of the Father. His revelation was not any greater or any clearer than that given to the sons and daughters of God in the Pauline Revelation.
We have the Pauline Revelation, an unveiling of what happened to Jesus on the cross, during the three days and three nights, what happened before He arose from the dead, and what happened when He carried His blood into the Heavenly Holy of Holies and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High.
He finished His Redemptive work and sat down as our great High Priest. He is there today making our worship acceptable to the Father. We know that He is our Mediator and Savior. Not only that, but He is the Surety of this New Covenant.
This New Covenant is not a failure, and whosoever trusts in it will not be put to shame.
He knows that He is now our Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father.
He is our High Priest, Lord, bread provider, protector and caretaker. We cannot fail or be conquered. We are united and tied up with Him. We are what He made us.
We did not save ourselves, He recreated us. He gave us His own nature and life.
We are partakers of the Divine Nature. We are linked up with Him. We are a part of Him, as the branch is a part of the vine.
It is with joy that we confess our Lord and the knowledge of this reality. We no longer hesitate in confession. We know what we are. We are what He made us to be. We know that we are what He says we are.
We know that we have His ability to do what He wants us to do.
We know that His Word cannot fail, for "no word from God is void of ability to make good."
We are just as sure of success and victory as though the enemy was conquered and put in chains at our feet.
We do not talk about our faith.
When we pray we do not say, "Father I believe Your word and know Y ou will keep it." That is unbelief talking.
The man who believes the Word simply thanks the Father for the Word when he prays. He never tells the Father he believes. He does not need to.
Do you remember how Peter said, "Though all fail you I never will," and yet he was the first failure. We do not talk like that.
We know what we are. "No in all these things we are more than victors."
Storms will come, but He is in the boat with us, and you will hear His voice say, "Peace, be still."
When your heart is rooted in the Word, when you have studied it and lived it and it abides in you, you will know what to do when the storm comes. If you have been a spiritual hitch-hiker, depending upon the prayers of someone else, you would be in a desperate position if the storm should break upon you. It is vitally important that you "study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who needs not to be ashamed."
Some Facts About Affirmations
An affirmation is a statement of fact, or a supposed fact.
Faith and unbelief are built out of affirmations. The affirmation of a doubt builds unbelief. An affirmation of faith builds strength to believe more.
When you affirm that the Word of God cannot be broken, you affirm that the Word and God are one, that when you trust in the Word you are trusting in God the Father.
You affirm to your own heart that behind the Word is the throne of God, that the integrity of God is interwoven into the pattern of His Word.
Abraham counted that God was able to make good all that He had promised.
God did make good on His promise to Abraham. The amazing thing is that He took a man one hundred years old and renewed his body, making it young again. He took a woman ninety years old and made her young, beautiful, and so attractive that a king fell in love with her.
She gave birth to a beautiful boy after she was ninety years old.
It was not Sarah's faith; it was Abraham's faith that made this woman young.
Doubt was a part of her life. She voiced her unbelief in a statement, and the angel heard her and reprimanded her for it. Genesis 18:12. She retreated in fear from the angel, as unbelief always makes us retreat.
When you constantly affirm that "Jesus is the Surety of the New Covenant" and that every Word from Matthew to Revelation can be utterly depended upon, then that Word in your lips is God speaking.
When you say what God told you to say, then it is as though Jesus were saying it.
When you remember that the Word never grows old, is never weak, never loses its power, but is always the living Word, the life-giving Word, the sustaining Word, the Satan-defeating Word, and you boldly confess it, then it becomes a living thing in your lips.
When you confess that Satan has no ability to break the seal of the blood, and that "by the blood they overcame the adversary and by the Word of their testimony," you gain the ascendancy.
When you openly affirm His Word is what it confesses to be, the Word of God, that His Word is your contact as well as your contract with Him, then the Word becomes a living reality in your daily life.
Your word can become one with God's Word. His Word can become one with your word. His Word abiding in you gives you an authority in Heaven. That is a thrilling fact.
John 15:7 "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever you will, and it shall be done unto you."
The Words of your lips are the Words that abide in you and dominate you.
This visible Word gives faith in the unseen Word sitting at the right hand of God.
The Word you have in your hand carries you beyond Sense Knowledge, into the very presence of God, and gives you a standing there.
Right and Wrong Affirmations
We are continually affirming something, and that affirmation and the reactions of the affirmation upon our lives are sometimes very disastrous.
You know the effect the words of loved ones have upon you. The effect of your own words upon you is just as strong.
You continually say, "Well, I can't do it. I just can't do it. I haven't the strength to do it," and you feel your physical energy and your mental efficiency oozing away and leaving you weak and full of indecision and doubt, and your efficiency is gone.
You see, an affirmation is the expression of our faith: whether we have faith in ourselves, in loved ones, in the Bible or its Author; or whether we have faith in disease, failure and weakness.
Some people are always confessing their faith in diseases, their faith in failure and calamity. You will hear them confessing that their children are disobedient and that their husband or wife is not doing what is right.
They constantly confess failure and doubts. They little realize that that confession robs them of their ability and efficiency.
They little realize that that confession can change the solid, hard road into a boggy, clogged mire, but it is true. The confession of weakness will bind and hold you in captivity. It will cause your husband or wife or your children to be the failure you confess.
Talk poverty and you will have plenty of it. Confess your want, your lack of money all of the time, and you will always have a lack.
Your confession is the expression of your faith, and these confessions of lack and of sickness shut the Father-God out of your life and let Satan in, giving him the right-of-way
Confessions of failure give disease and failure dominion over your life. They honor Satan and rob God of His glory.
Here are a few good confessions: "The Lord is my shepherd, I do not want." You say this in the face of the fact that Want has been your master. A new Master has taken over the kingdom and you whisper it softly at first, "The Lord is my shepherd," then you say it a little stronger; you keep repeating it until it dominates you.
When this becomes true in your life, you will never say again, "I want," or "I need," but you will say, "I have."
"He that believeth, hath." Believing is having.
Here you whisper, "My Father is greater than all." What a confession that is! My Father is greater than want, greater than disease, greater than weakness, greater than any enemy that can rise against me.
Then you say with deliberate confidence, "God is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?"
God is my strength. How much strength have I? God is the measure of it.
There are two types of affirmations that I wish you to notice. First, there is the affirmation with nothing behind it but my own will to make it good. It is based upon a philosophy born of Sense Knowledge. That Sense Knowledge is a product of my own mind. If it be in regard to sin, I deny the existence of it. If it be in regard to sickness, I deny that sickness has any existence. We see this in Christian Science.
If it is a problem of ability to meet a financial obligation, I affirm with all of my might that I have the ability to meet it.
All that I have to make these affirmations good is something that I am, or have, of myself. The Word of God has no place in this affirmation.
I cannot say that greater am I than disease, or greater am I than this demand upon me, consequently, my affirmation becomes a failure.
The second type of affirmation is based upon the Word of God. The Word says, "If God be for you, who can be against you." I know that He is for me. I know that this disease that was laid upon me has been defeated, that it was actually laid upon Christ, and "by His stripes I am healed.
That affirmation is based upon the Word of God, upon the Word that lives and abides and cannot be broken.
Jesus said, "Heaven and earth may pass away, but my Word will never pass away."
You can see the vast difference between an affirmation based upon your own will or philosophy and an affirmation backed up by God Himself.
The affirmations based upon Sense Knowledge philosophy have no more value or ability to make good than is in the will and mind of the maker of the affirmation. But the affirmation that is based upon the living Word has God back of it to make it good.
Some Things that are not Faith
"Claiming the promises" is not faith. Faith already has it. "Claiming" proves that one does not have it yet. It is unbelief attempting to act like faith.
As long as one is trying to get it, faith has not yet acted. Faith says, "Thank you Father." Faith has it. Faith has arrived. Faith stops praying and begins to praise.
Notice carefully, Doubt says. "I claim the promises." "I am standing on the promises." This is all the language of doubt.
Unbelief quotes the Word, but does not act upon it. We call this Mental Assent.
I can remember in those early days how we used to "plead the promises and claim them as ours." We did not know that our very language savored of unbelief.
You see, believing is simply acting on the Word. We act on the Word as we would act on the word of a loved one.
We act on the Word because we know that it is true. We do not try to believe it. We do not pray for faith, we simply act upon it.
One person said to me the other day, "I am trying to make the Word true." I said, "I do not see why you need to do that, because it has always been true."
People do not know the Word until they begin to practice it and let it live in them. They may have sat under one of the finest teachers or preachers in the country for years, yet it has never become a part of their lives.
Using the Word in your daily life is the secret of faith.
The Word abides in you and enables Him to express Himself through you. You draw on the Vine life for wisdom, love and ability. You are never without resources.
The Word is the Master speaking to you. When you act on the Word, you are acting in unison with Him. You and He are lifting the load together. He is fellowshipping with you, sharing with you. You are sharing His ability and strength.
Now you can understand that all that faith is, is acting on the Word.
We are through with Sense Knowledge formulas.
Now we are walking with Him, realizing that His ability has become ours.
Questions
1. We can grow in Grace. Define grace:
2.As we are growing in love, what is happening in us?
3. Reading the Word, meditating on the Word, will not build faith. It builds a capacity for faith. So how do we develop our faith?
4. What happens to you as faith develops?
5. When we confess "Father, I thank Thee that I am what you say I am." What are we now saying?
6. Every time you break the silence caused by fear with an open confession of the integrity of the Word, and you act on the Word, what happens to you?
7. Once you understand that faith, in the sense we are using the Word, what is happening?
8. Your confession determines your faith life. What must we do?
9. Christianity is called "the great confession." That is how you were saved. What “Law” are we obeying?
10. Your positive confession solves the problem. What does a wrong confession do?
11. How should we see the value of holding fast to our confession?
12. What must we recognize about our confession?
13. What scripture should we confess that signifies that God is living in me?
14. What is the promise we have concerning the validity of the New Covenant?
15. How does “unbelief talk?
16. What does the one who believes the Word talk?
17. The affirmation of a doubt builds unbelief. What does an affirmation of faith build?
18. How do you gain the ascendancy over Satan?
19. What does the confession of weakness do to you?
20. What are the two types of affirmations?
21. What is the vast difference between an affirmation based upon your own word and an affirmation based upon God’s Word?
22. "Claiming the promises" is not faith. Faith already has it. What does "Claiming" proves?
23. What does Faith say?
24. What is the secret to faith?
25 What must we understand about faith?
A STUDY IN FAITH
One cannot grow in Righteousness. He may grow in Righteousness Consciousness, but he already is the Righteousness of God in Christ.
One cannot grow in sonship. One may grow in sonship consciousness and learn to enjoy his privileges and rights in the Family.
We can grow in Grace. Grace is the first fruits of love. Grace is love bearing fruit.
"I am the vine; you are the branches." The vine is love, the fruits are grace.
We are the grace of God unveiled. We are sons of God, and as such we grow in fruit bearing.
We increase in usefulness. We can grow in gentleness, in tenderness, in the beauty of the Master. We may grow in love.
Our love at first has little selfish streaks through it. It is marred again and again, but we keep studying the Word, keep Fellowshipping with the Master, keep walking in love until by and by love gains the absolute supremacy in our lives, so that we only do love things, say love words.
We are growing in love. We steadily move on up in our growth until we actually believe in love. We believe that love is the solution of every problem in life. We believe that love is better than force, better than going to law, better than the whip, better than argument, better than fighting.
We believe that the love way is the sure way, the success way.
When Jesus said, "I am the way," He meant He was the love way. This new way is the best way. We grow in knowledge of our Father and of our rights, of the finished work of Christ.
Then we take wisdom to use this knowledge. We do not grow in wisdom, for Jesus has been made unto us wisdom.
We grow in the ability to use knowledge wisely.
You cannot grow in Redemption. You may grow in the knowledge of what that Redemption means.
You may grow in fellowship. You may grow in faith. Your fellowship will be measured by your personal sharing with the Master and with one another the riches of His grace.
Faith is a tender plant. It cannot stand the harsh winds of Sense Knowledge. It cannot be crowded out of its seat and out of its place without suffering.
It must be fed continually upon the Word of God and upon our acting on that Word.
Simply reading the Word, meditating on the Word, will not build faith. It will build a capacity for faith, but faith is only developed when that Word becomes a part of our daily use, our daily conduct—a part of our daily speech.
As faith develops, Satan's dominion over us wanes. Circumstances are less formidable. Fear is destroyed. As your faith develops, you begin to possess your rights in Christ. You begin to take what belongs to you.
At first, you take the things over that you have merely hoped for before. You have hoped for money, now by faith you have it.
A second thing, you begin to enjoy what you formerly "mentally assented" to.
You have said, "Yes, by His stripes I am healed, but I am sick." You have agreed with the Word, but you have not acted upon it... you have merely assented to it. Now you have reached the place where you no longer hope for it, but you look up and say, "Father, I thank Thee that I am what you say I am."
What you have mentally assented to, you now possess.
Believing is possessing. What you assented to for years, you now enjoy. Faith develops in the atmosphere of confession of the Word.
We are not speaking of confession of sin. It is our confession of what we are in Christ, what Christ is in us, and what the Word is in our lips.
The Word in your lips becomes a living thing, just as the Word in Jesus' lips could rule the sea, the winds and the waves (even the fish in the sea), so His Word now in your lips will take the place of Christ on earth.
There is a sick one. The Word in your lips now will take the place of Jesus. If Jesus were here, He would say, "Son, you are healed." You say, "Son, by His stripes you are healed." You are using His Word. That is your confession, that His Word now has become the healer in your lips.
There is another one who is held in bondage by Satan. You remember what He said, "They that believe shall cast out demons." fearlessly you speak the Word, "Satan, in Jesus' Name leave this person. Go off into the abyss where you belong."
You are quoting the very words of Christ. Your lips become the pulpit of Jesus Christ.
Faith develops with this confession. Faith is no greater than your confession.
Every time you break the silence caused by fear with an open confession of the integrity of the Word, and you act on the Word, you destroy the very roots of fear and unbelief in your life.
Fear and unbelief develop with confession, the same as faith develops with it. You confess that you are sick, and unbelief develops in you.
If you confess that you have been prayed for and have not received your healing, you are confessing that Satan had made the Word of God ineffective.
And we know, "that nothing is impossible to the Word of God" in our lips. That is a literal translation of Luke 1:37, "No Word from God is void of power."
It makes no difference what the environment is, what the association, the limitations, the mental attitude of folk; here is the Word that lives and abides, the Word that cannot be broken, the Word that said, "Let there be" and there was, and the sun, moon and stars leaped into being.
The Word has not lost its ability. Its ability is measured by its Author's ability.
His Word is full of creative ability now. He lives in His Word. His Word has given life to creation; to man, and to the animal and vegetable creation.
"In Him was life (that was the Word) and that life has become the light of men." John 1:4.
You understand that faith, in the sense we are using the Word, is letting the Word of God function through you. It is the Word of God doing business.
Matthew 19:26 "And nothing is impossible to God."
Mark 9:23 "All things are possible to him that believeth."
There has come the union of man with God. Gods ability has been linked with man's inability and has swallowed it up. His very weakness is God's opportunity. "When I am weak, then am I strong."
"Nothing shall be impossible unto you." God is speaking in person to you. Just as food rejuvenates the body, so the Word rejuvenates faith in our spirits.
When will we ever learn that He and His Word are one. He is the surety of the New Covenant. He watches over His Word. He lives in His Word. His ability is in His Word.
It is Jesus speaking through your lips when you use the Word.
Let us think of the vine for a moment again. You are the branch, the miracle bearing part of the vine.
You and the vine are one.
You are the miracle part of the body of Christ. The fruit grows on the branches. Love fruit, healing fruit, grow on the branch.
We are sharers with Him and the bearers of His fruit.
Your fruit bearing is the measure of your confession. Your confession determines your faith life, so hold fast to your confession in the face of all opposition. They cannot conquer you. You are the unconquerable one.
Remember that your lips give expression to your faith. Your words are your faith. You say, "I believe; I have." Then you thank Him for it.
You do not need to see or hear or feel. The Word is your evidence.
He says you are, and because He says you are, you are.
What I Confess, I Possess
It took me a long time to see this truth. After I saw it and thought I understood it, I still could not act upon it.
Christianity is called "the great confession." The law of that confession is that I confess I have a thing before I consciously possess it.
Romans 10:9-10 gives you the law for entering the household of faith. "Because if thou shaft confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God 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."
You see, with the heart man believes that Jesus is his Righteousness, and with his lips he makes a confession of his salvation.
You notice that confession of the lips comes before God acts upon our spirits and recreates them.
I say, "Jesus died for my sins according to scripture, and I now acknowledge Him as my Lord," and I know that the instant I acknowledge Him as my Lord I have Eternal Life.
I cannot have Eternal Life until I confess that I have it.
I confess that I have salvation before God acts and recreates me.
The same thing is true in regard to healing. I confess that "By His stripes I am healed," and the disease is still in my body.
I say, "Surely He has borne my sicknesses and carried my pains and I have come to appreciate Him as the one who was stricken, smitten of God with my diseases, and now I know that by His stripes I am healed." (Literal trans.)
I make the confession that "by His stripes I am healed"; the disease and its symptoms may not leave my body at once, but I hold fast to my confession.
I know that what He has said He is able to make good.
I know that I am healed because He said I was healed, and it makes no difference what the symptoms may be in my body. I laugh at them, and in the Name of Jesus I command the author of disease to leave my body.
He is defeated, and I am a victor.
I have learned this law, that when I boldly confess, then, and then only, do I possess.
I make my lips do their work. I give the Word its place. God has spoken, and I side with the Word.
If I side with the disease and the pain, there is no healing for me. But I take sides with the Word, and I repudiate the disease and sickness.
My confession gives me possession.
I want you to note this fact, faith is governed by our confession. If I say, “I have been prayed for and I am waiting now for God to heal me”, I have repudiated my healing.
My confession should be this: “the Word declares that I am healed, and I thank You Father for it, and I praise Jesus for it, because it is a fact.”
You remember Philippians 4:6,7 "In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus."
Why must prayer be made with thanksgiving? That means that I know the thing is done. I asked for it and now I have it, so I thank the Father for it.
The seventh verse says, "And the peace of God which passes all understanding will fill my heart."
I am not worrying any longer. I have it. I am not going to get the money I need... I have it. It is just as real as though it were in my pocket. I am not going to get my healing... I have my healing because I have His Word, and my heart is filled with rapture.
Your confession solves the problem.
A wrong confession hinders the Spirit's work in your body. A neutral confession is unbelief. It is just as bad as a negative confession.
It is the positive, clear cut confession that wins.
"I know in whom I have believed."
"I know that no word from God is void of power or fulfillment."
"I know that He watches over His word to make it good."
These are the confessions of a victor.
I want you to notice several facts about the relation of confession to faith.
Your confession is your faith. If it be a neutral confession, you have neutral faith. If it is a negative confession, it is unbelief dominating your spirit.
Unbelief develops with a negative confession. A confession of failure puts failure on the throne. If I confess weakness, weakness dominates me. If I confess my sickness, I am held in bondage by it.
These negative confessions are acknowledgments of Satan's dominion over God's tabernacle.
Your spirit always responds to your confession.
Faith is not a product of the reasoning faculties, but of the recreated spirit.
When you were Born Again, you received the nature of the Father God. That nature grows in you with your acting on the Word, and your confession of the Father's perfect dominion in your body, and it causes your spirit to grow in grace and ability.
You remember that your confession is your present attitude toward the Father.
In some special testing that may come to you, your confession is either in the realm of faith or in the realm of unbelief. Your confession either honors the Father or Satan... either gives Satan or the Word dominance in your life.
Now you can see the value of holding fast to your confession.
Your confession either makes you a conqueror, or it defeats you. You rise or fall to the level of your confession.
Learn to hold fast to your confession in the hard places.
John 8:36, "If the Son has made you free you are free indeed." The Son has made you free, now stand fast in that liberty.
Galatians 5:1 is of vital importance to every believer. "For freedom did Christ set us free; stand fast therefore."
The time to make your confession is when Satan attacks you. You feel the pain coming in your body. You repudiate it. You command it to leave in the Name of Jesus.
Romans 8:31-37 "If God is for us, who is against us?" Your Father is for you.
Disease cannot conquer you, nor can the author of disease. Circumstances cannot master you, because the Father and Jesus are greater than any circumstances.
You have learned that in whatsoever circumstance or condition you are, to rejoice in your continual victory.
You know that 1 John 4:4 is true. "Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them."
Notice who you are. "You are of God." "You are born of God." You are a product of His, and of His own will He brought you forth through the Word.
The rest of the verse reads, "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world."
"For it is God who is at work within you, willing and working His own good pleasure."
Philippians 2:13 has been my victory many many times.
Now turn to Romans 8:11, "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
You must recognize this fact. All is yours by confession, or all is lost by a negative confession. You get God's best by the confession that you have it.
The secret of faith is the secret of confession.
Faith holds the confession that he has the thing he desires before he actually possesses it.
Sense Knowledge faith confesses that he is healed when the pain leaves and the swelling goes down. There is really no faith in that.
Faith declares you are healed while the pain is still racking your body.
Let me state it again, possession comes with confession. Possession stays with continual confession.
You confess that you have it, and you thank the Father for it... then realization follows.
Remember, confession with thanksgiving always bring realization.
Confession is the melody of faith.
Confession before realization is foolishness to Sense Knowledge.
Abraham's faith was contrary to sense evidence. He remained strong, giving glory to God, knowing that what God promised He would make good.
Sense Knowledge has no real faith in the Word.
When the heart and the lips join in joyful confession, faith rises to the flood tide.
Reality or Our Relationship
We never know Redemption facts until we boldly confess them.
We never enjoy our Father's fellowship and support until we confess it.
New Creation Realities never become realities, until we confess them.
Many people who have trusted in physical evidences of the Holy Spirit's indwelling never have any confession of His presence, because they do not confess His indwelling, they only confess His incoming.
They talk boldly about their baptism in the Holy Spirit and the evidences they received at that time, but they do not confess that "greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world."
There is no continual confession on their lips of His present power and ability in them.
I have found that I must continually confess that He is in me. In every address that I give I confess that God is living in me, and that He is ministering through me.
"For it is God who is at work within you, willing and working His own good pleasure." Philippians 2:13
I plan to continually confess the present day ministry of Christ at the right hand of the Father on my behalf.
Hebrews 7:25 is a blessed reality. "Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them."
He is our Intercessor. He ever lives to pray for me.
The secret of my success and victory is His continual Intercession. It is my knowledge of His Intercession that gives me courage and victory when everything is apparently against me.
I know that He ever lives to make Intercession for me. I am a victor in the face of apparent defeat.
I know the reality of the love the Father and the Master have for me. "The Father himself loves you." How that has strengthened me.
John 17:23, "That they may know that you love them even as You love me."
I know His love, I confess it continually Not only do I know of His love, but I have His wisdom.
I may have all this knowledge, and see the Plan of Redemption clearly, but if I do not have wisdom, I will not know how to utilize this knowledge. Wisdom is love's ability to use knowledge, and so I am rejoicing in 1 Corinthians 1:30. "Jesus was made unto me wisdom."
He is now my wisdom. He is the strength of my life. He is the Upholder, Teacher, and Unveiler of the Father's will to my heart.
I know my legal rights as a son. What a thrill went through me when I knew my legal standing and my legal right to use the Name of Jesus in my combat with the forces of darkness.
When I knew my right as a son in the Father's family, and began to act the part of a son, I took my place as a son in the family of God.
What a thrilling moment that was! I was no longer a servant, or a sinner supplicating the Father, begging for this and that. I am a son of God.
Then I learned my authority as a son, and I took my place; bearing my burdens as a son, doing the will of the Father as a son, and took my place as a master of Satan. That was a son's place.
I remember that Jesus said, "All authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth; go ye therefore and make disciples (or students) of all nations." Matthew 28:18,19.
Then I knew I had been authorized, deputized to go and carry the Good News. I had been empowered with His might. I had His wisdom, grace and love.
I went out with the confession that I was endued with the ability of God. From then on I began to brag about my Father, and what He did for His children. As I did, the reality of these unseen things began to materialize.
I began telling people what we are in Christ, how we know what we are when we boldly confess it with our lips.
How it thrilled me when He said, "I am the vine and you are the branches." He was a part of me. I was to take His place in the world, and act as He did.
Then my heart was lifted by this fact—Jesus knew who He was. He knew why He came. He knew what His work was to be. He dared to confess that He came out from the Father. "I have come unto the world, again I leave the world and go unto the Father."
You know, I believe that that was faith talking. I believe that Jesus walked by faith, just as you and I do today. I do not believe that He depended upon sense evidence of any kind.
He knew what the Father had told Him, He knew His will, because He had revealed it to Him. Jesus voluntarily became the Head of the New Creation.
I question if Jesus had any other revelation of the Father. His revelation was not any greater or any clearer than that given to the sons and daughters of God in the Pauline Revelation.
We have the Pauline Revelation, an unveiling of what happened to Jesus on the cross, during the three days and three nights, what happened before He arose from the dead, and what happened when He carried His blood into the Heavenly Holy of Holies and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High.
He finished His Redemptive work and sat down as our great High Priest. He is there today making our worship acceptable to the Father. We know that He is our Mediator and Savior. Not only that, but He is the Surety of this New Covenant.
This New Covenant is not a failure, and whosoever trusts in it will not be put to shame.
He knows that He is now our Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father.
He is our High Priest, Lord, bread provider, protector and caretaker. We cannot fail or be conquered. We are united and tied up with Him. We are what He made us.
We did not save ourselves, He recreated us. He gave us His own nature and life.
We are partakers of the Divine Nature. We are linked up with Him. We are a part of Him, as the branch is a part of the vine.
It is with joy that we confess our Lord and the knowledge of this reality. We no longer hesitate in confession. We know what we are. We are what He made us to be. We know that we are what He says we are.
We know that we have His ability to do what He wants us to do.
We know that His Word cannot fail, for "no word from God is void of ability to make good."
We are just as sure of success and victory as though the enemy was conquered and put in chains at our feet.
We do not talk about our faith.
When we pray we do not say, "Father I believe Your word and know Y ou will keep it." That is unbelief talking.
The man who believes the Word simply thanks the Father for the Word when he prays. He never tells the Father he believes. He does not need to.
Do you remember how Peter said, "Though all fail you I never will," and yet he was the first failure. We do not talk like that.
We know what we are. "No in all these things we are more than victors."
Storms will come, but He is in the boat with us, and you will hear His voice say, "Peace, be still."
When your heart is rooted in the Word, when you have studied it and lived it and it abides in you, you will know what to do when the storm comes. If you have been a spiritual hitch-hiker, depending upon the prayers of someone else, you would be in a desperate position if the storm should break upon you. It is vitally important that you "study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who needs not to be ashamed."
Some Facts About Affirmations
An affirmation is a statement of fact, or a supposed fact.
Faith and unbelief are built out of affirmations. The affirmation of a doubt builds unbelief. An affirmation of faith builds strength to believe more.
When you affirm that the Word of God cannot be broken, you affirm that the Word and God are one, that when you trust in the Word you are trusting in God the Father.
You affirm to your own heart that behind the Word is the throne of God, that the integrity of God is interwoven into the pattern of His Word.
Abraham counted that God was able to make good all that He had promised.
God did make good on His promise to Abraham. The amazing thing is that He took a man one hundred years old and renewed his body, making it young again. He took a woman ninety years old and made her young, beautiful, and so attractive that a king fell in love with her.
She gave birth to a beautiful boy after she was ninety years old.
It was not Sarah's faith; it was Abraham's faith that made this woman young.
Doubt was a part of her life. She voiced her unbelief in a statement, and the angel heard her and reprimanded her for it. Genesis 18:12. She retreated in fear from the angel, as unbelief always makes us retreat.
When you constantly affirm that "Jesus is the Surety of the New Covenant" and that every Word from Matthew to Revelation can be utterly depended upon, then that Word in your lips is God speaking.
When you say what God told you to say, then it is as though Jesus were saying it.
When you remember that the Word never grows old, is never weak, never loses its power, but is always the living Word, the life-giving Word, the sustaining Word, the Satan-defeating Word, and you boldly confess it, then it becomes a living thing in your lips.
When you confess that Satan has no ability to break the seal of the blood, and that "by the blood they overcame the adversary and by the Word of their testimony," you gain the ascendancy.
When you openly affirm His Word is what it confesses to be, the Word of God, that His Word is your contact as well as your contract with Him, then the Word becomes a living reality in your daily life.
Your word can become one with God's Word. His Word can become one with your word. His Word abiding in you gives you an authority in Heaven. That is a thrilling fact.
John 15:7 "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever you will, and it shall be done unto you."
The Words of your lips are the Words that abide in you and dominate you.
This visible Word gives faith in the unseen Word sitting at the right hand of God.
The Word you have in your hand carries you beyond Sense Knowledge, into the very presence of God, and gives you a standing there.
Right and Wrong Affirmations
We are continually affirming something, and that affirmation and the reactions of the affirmation upon our lives are sometimes very disastrous.
You know the effect the words of loved ones have upon you. The effect of your own words upon you is just as strong.
You continually say, "Well, I can't do it. I just can't do it. I haven't the strength to do it," and you feel your physical energy and your mental efficiency oozing away and leaving you weak and full of indecision and doubt, and your efficiency is gone.
You see, an affirmation is the expression of our faith: whether we have faith in ourselves, in loved ones, in the Bible or its Author; or whether we have faith in disease, failure and weakness.
Some people are always confessing their faith in diseases, their faith in failure and calamity. You will hear them confessing that their children are disobedient and that their husband or wife is not doing what is right.
They constantly confess failure and doubts. They little realize that that confession robs them of their ability and efficiency.
They little realize that that confession can change the solid, hard road into a boggy, clogged mire, but it is true. The confession of weakness will bind and hold you in captivity. It will cause your husband or wife or your children to be the failure you confess.
Talk poverty and you will have plenty of it. Confess your want, your lack of money all of the time, and you will always have a lack.
Your confession is the expression of your faith, and these confessions of lack and of sickness shut the Father-God out of your life and let Satan in, giving him the right-of-way
Confessions of failure give disease and failure dominion over your life. They honor Satan and rob God of His glory.
Here are a few good confessions: "The Lord is my shepherd, I do not want." You say this in the face of the fact that Want has been your master. A new Master has taken over the kingdom and you whisper it softly at first, "The Lord is my shepherd," then you say it a little stronger; you keep repeating it until it dominates you.
When this becomes true in your life, you will never say again, "I want," or "I need," but you will say, "I have."
"He that believeth, hath." Believing is having.
Here you whisper, "My Father is greater than all." What a confession that is! My Father is greater than want, greater than disease, greater than weakness, greater than any enemy that can rise against me.
Then you say with deliberate confidence, "God is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?"
God is my strength. How much strength have I? God is the measure of it.
There are two types of affirmations that I wish you to notice. First, there is the affirmation with nothing behind it but my own will to make it good. It is based upon a philosophy born of Sense Knowledge. That Sense Knowledge is a product of my own mind. If it be in regard to sin, I deny the existence of it. If it be in regard to sickness, I deny that sickness has any existence. We see this in Christian Science.
If it is a problem of ability to meet a financial obligation, I affirm with all of my might that I have the ability to meet it.
All that I have to make these affirmations good is something that I am, or have, of myself. The Word of God has no place in this affirmation.
I cannot say that greater am I than disease, or greater am I than this demand upon me, consequently, my affirmation becomes a failure.
The second type of affirmation is based upon the Word of God. The Word says, "If God be for you, who can be against you." I know that He is for me. I know that this disease that was laid upon me has been defeated, that it was actually laid upon Christ, and "by His stripes I am healed.
That affirmation is based upon the Word of God, upon the Word that lives and abides and cannot be broken.
Jesus said, "Heaven and earth may pass away, but my Word will never pass away."
You can see the vast difference between an affirmation based upon your own will or philosophy and an affirmation backed up by God Himself.
The affirmations based upon Sense Knowledge philosophy have no more value or ability to make good than is in the will and mind of the maker of the affirmation. But the affirmation that is based upon the living Word has God back of it to make it good.
Some Things that are not Faith
"Claiming the promises" is not faith. Faith already has it. "Claiming" proves that one does not have it yet. It is unbelief attempting to act like faith.
As long as one is trying to get it, faith has not yet acted. Faith says, "Thank you Father." Faith has it. Faith has arrived. Faith stops praying and begins to praise.
Notice carefully, Doubt says. "I claim the promises." "I am standing on the promises." This is all the language of doubt.
Unbelief quotes the Word, but does not act upon it. We call this Mental Assent.
I can remember in those early days how we used to "plead the promises and claim them as ours." We did not know that our very language savored of unbelief.
You see, believing is simply acting on the Word. We act on the Word as we would act on the word of a loved one.
We act on the Word because we know that it is true. We do not try to believe it. We do not pray for faith, we simply act upon it.
One person said to me the other day, "I am trying to make the Word true." I said, "I do not see why you need to do that, because it has always been true."
People do not know the Word until they begin to practice it and let it live in them. They may have sat under one of the finest teachers or preachers in the country for years, yet it has never become a part of their lives.
Using the Word in your daily life is the secret of faith.
The Word abides in you and enables Him to express Himself through you. You draw on the Vine life for wisdom, love and ability. You are never without resources.
The Word is the Master speaking to you. When you act on the Word, you are acting in unison with Him. You and He are lifting the load together. He is fellowshipping with you, sharing with you. You are sharing His ability and strength.
Now you can understand that all that faith is, is acting on the Word.
We are through with Sense Knowledge formulas.
Now we are walking with Him, realizing that His ability has become ours.
Questions
1. We can grow in Grace. Define grace:
2.As we are growing in love, what is happening in us?
3. Reading the Word, meditating on the Word, will not build faith. It builds a capacity for faith. So how do we develop our faith?
4. What happens to you as faith develops?
5. When we confess "Father, I thank Thee that I am what you say I am." What are we now saying?
- What
- Believing is
6. Every time you break the silence caused by fear with an open confession of the integrity of the Word, and you act on the Word, what happens to you?
7. Once you understand that faith, in the sense we are using the Word, what is happening?
8. Your confession determines your faith life. What must we do?
9. Christianity is called "the great confession." That is how you were saved. What “Law” are we obeying?
10. Your positive confession solves the problem. What does a wrong confession do?
11. How should we see the value of holding fast to our confession?
12. What must we recognize about our confession?
- All
- The
13. What scripture should we confess that signifies that God is living in me?
14. What is the promise we have concerning the validity of the New Covenant?
15. How does “unbelief talk?
16. What does the one who believes the Word talk?
17. The affirmation of a doubt builds unbelief. What does an affirmation of faith build?
18. How do you gain the ascendancy over Satan?
19. What does the confession of weakness do to you?
20. What are the two types of affirmations?
- First,
- The second type
21. What is the vast difference between an affirmation based upon your own word and an affirmation based upon God’s Word?
22. "Claiming the promises" is not faith. Faith already has it. What does "Claiming" proves?
23. What does Faith say?
24. What is the secret to faith?
25 What must we understand about faith?