“There’s a difference between a confession and a declaration.”
Beloved, as I by the grace of God and for His glory and praise, am a man of confession let it be known, He the Spirit of God also is transforming me into a “man of declaration.” With that being said, I praise God and further thank Him, that I can invite you into my HEART...
Now confession must come before declaration in a mans life, in order for the declaring words to have power and be manifested in his life and in the lives of others. Let us define this confession and declaration.
Confession & Declaration
Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:6, 13-17 NIV)
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17 NIV)
Confession is what must be done in order to be cleansed and made pure in order to be inhabited by the Spirit of God. Now this word inhabited indeed scares many and indeed confuses many. However, let us look to what being inhabited is, concerning this world view, in a manner many including myself in my days apart from God and His Redeeming Spirit saw it to be.
There is a spirit of pornography sweeping this world, especially in the U.S. Now you may say, ‘how does pornography have a spirit?’ Understand this. When you have taken in with your eyes, ears and mind what actions are taking place in such filth, you become inhabited by it, in that you seek to experience it and act it out yourself! This I know, sadly and to my great shame, all too well. Does not the man or even the woman start to act out such roles, fantasies and positions? Indeed! You want what you see. You want what you hear...you have become inhabited by the spirit of pornography.
Inhabitation: To live, dwell, occupy or abide in.
Now, returning back to this inhabiting Spirit of God by way of confession, let us look to what such inhabitation affords us; in view of the other spirit mentioned above. Now this Spirit of God, who is the Holy Spirit and is God Himself! He reveals what is known, what is seen and what is heard from the very heart and mind of the Creator God.
This great revelation, this great sight, this great hearing, inhabits the man who is of confession, and he too, to God’s honor, glory and praise, has what is gloriously known as the “mind of Christ.”
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 2:6-16 NIV)
Now this mind of Christ is revealed in great measure in the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as well as in the book of Acts and the Book of Revelation. This mind, knows declaration to degrees no man knows and apart from this mind, men cannot declare such things that are heavenly; such things that reveal the deep things of God. Yes! To have the mind of Christ is to be to a man of declaration and to have the Spirit of God inhabiting your very heart, mind, body and soul. This mind, is not only to be a man of confession, but to God’s glory and praise forever, is to walk with God Himself knowing all too well a very personal, intimate and powerful relationship with the most powerful force in all existence! Amen.
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