And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. —MARK 2:1
There are three powerful principles of breakthrough faith revealed in Mark 2:1, and I want to cover them over the next three sections—declaration, testimony, and Presence. They are all unique keys but powerfully interrelated. The first one we will focus on is the importance and power of decree. The words we say can either stir up or stagnate our faith. This is why in the following pages we are going to explore the biblical balance on what it means to declare words of faith and, as a result, see God’s supernatural power released in our lives.
One of the first things we notice in the paralytic’s account is how breakthrough faith is released—through a decree or a word. We see “it was heard” that Jesus was in the house. The Message Bible phrases it this way: “After a few days, Jesus returned to Capernaum, and word got around that He was back home” (Mark 2:1 MSG).
Pay attention to what drew the four men to come out to the house where Jesus was—word got around. It is not stretching the text to say that the words people were sharing about Jesus were instrumental in setting up the paralytic for his miracle. As the four men heard decrees about the miracles Jesus was performing, faith was stirred up within them. They were compelled to bring their friend to Jesus, largely because of the testimony they heard about Him.
A decree awakens and activates faith. Before we study how this all takes place, it is important for us to briefly navigate through some of the controversy and misunderstanding on the topic of declaration and confession.
Michael Klassen, author of the eye-opening book Strange Fire, Holy Fire, describes different packages that the positive confession camp comes wrapped up in. Some of these phrases include:
Name it and claim it.
Believe it and receive it.
Confess it and possess it.
Blab it and grab it.50
In the last thirty to forty years of contemporary church history, few things have been as harmful and perverse as the so-called prosperity gospel. This is a major doctrinal ditch we must stay away from. The key is remembering that every road has two sides with two separate ditches—and that both ditches are equally bad. Likewise, it is just as dangerous to equate poverty with spiritual maturity or even sainthood. Prosperity is not the telltale sign of God’s blessing, nor is poverty.
Just because people have used “positive confession” language to “name and claim” everything from a new house to a new Bentley to a new spouse does not mean that the power of confession or declaration is of the devil (although the devil would like us to believe it is). To activate the true scriptural power of declaration, we need to see what it is not, get a clear picture of what it is, and then learn how to apply it in our daily lives. The following chapters are dedicated to help us navigate through this process and start making powerful, biblical declarations of faith.
A decree awakens and activates faith.
Because this theological ditch is so deep, Christians (myself included) have had the tendency to throw the entire principle of decree or confession out with the proverbial bathwater. This is just as dangerous because it creates a whole other set of problems. Pastor Robert Morris hits the nail on the head in describing the imbalance that has happened concerning the power of words: “Some have taken the truth about the power of our words and stretched it farther than God’s Word can support.”51 The principles are often biblical, but how they are used and applied are taken beyond the legal boundaries of Scripture. This is not a call to completely reject the power of words however. Theological controversy should always lead us into a deeper study of Scripture to discover the balance rather than reject an entire truth.
I attended a church that was really big into the power of positive confession. For several years I experienced the theological ditch of prosperity gospel, name it and claim it mumbo jumbo, where many people treated God like He was a cosmic butler or a divine vending machine. God was presented as a “get rich quick” principle that we plug our prayers and confessions into in order to get “whatever we need or desire” from Him.
One night when we were leaving a prayer meeting, a group from the church drove past us. Windows open, they were confessing, in faith, that their “new cars were coming.” I specifically recall hearing a Cadillac being confessed, and some other fancy brand that I can’t remember now. God is not against His children having nice things; however, I am of the opinion that we should not waste our declarations on “calling forth” material stuff; but rather we should invest most of our “confession energy” into agreeing with and declaring the words of Jesus.
Again, I do not believe it is wrong to ask God for big things. Nice things. Needs and wants. He is a good Father who longs to bless us in unusual ways. However, when we assume that our declarations order God around and that He is obligated to do whatever we tell Him to, this reveals a life ensnared by serious error and a heart given to lust, not love.
Theological controversy should always lead us into a deeper study of Scripture to discover the balance rather than reject an entire truth.
Remember, when we love Jesus we will imitate Him. When our ears are pressed close to His voice by remaining in His Word and listening to the Holy Spirit, we cannot help but start saying what the Father is saying through the Son. By default, we start speaking forth powerful words and declarations that release healing, breakthrough, deliverance, signs, wonders, and miracles. The end result is that our hearts burn to see Jesus receive the glory we know He deserves. We love His glory. We love His supremacy. He alone is our passion. When we treat the name of Jesus as a secret password that obligates God to give us whatever we ask Him, love is not our great aim. Instead, we are trying to use God to satisfy our carnal lusts.
After leaving the really off-the-wall positive-confession posse, my wife and I became church vagabonds for an extended season. Through this wandering in the church wilderness, we discovered that both ditches were alive and well. After leaving the dysfunctional positive-confession church, we attended another local fellowship where, while trying to appropriately emotionally digest what had just happened in our previous church, we were warned to be careful with what we said, otherwise we might “curse our lives.” Again, this represents the imbalance of positive confession.
This perspective believes that if we say a single negative thing, such as, “I don’t feel well today,” we are literally painting a bull’s-eye on our lives for the devil to wreak all sorts of havoc. Let’s get this straight: Being negative does not position us to experience a victorious life. But on the flip side, dealing with reality and saying how we feel does not cause God to withdraw His protection and give satan license for a free-for-all in our lives. After visiting a few more churches that tended to be in alignment with the whole positive-confession perspective, we ended up breaking completely from that sphere of Christianity and started attending more traditional churches. It was here that we saw the opposite at work. One camp believed God for everything and another believed Him for nothing.
The negative confession safeguard is just as dangerous as the positive-confession imbalance. It is common for those who come out of a hyperpositive-confession climate to go completely opposite (I sure did), and instead of believing God for everything, they start expecting nothing. Here is the bad news: claiming nothing is just as dangerous as claiming everything, for both perspectives completely miss the model of Jesus Christ. He was not silent, nor was He selfish—He simply said what the Father was saying and, in return, saw what the Father was seeing. This is the model we need to follow if we want to stir up breakthrough faith through our declarations.
Our negative confession does nothing to or for God. Our negative words do not cause God to put curses on us or release sickness over us or unleash unspeakable calamity into our lives. If anything, negative words simply reveal a mind that needs to be renewed when it comes to the very truths we have discussed so far. Scripture plainly tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21). The positive confession people know this verse inside and out. However, I have yet to hear them really link the power of our words to what is present in our hearts and minds. Jesus made it clear that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34). Our words are symptomatic of what dwells in our hearts.
In some of the more traditional churches we attended, there was little hope for victory in this lifetime. God was often able but not willing. His ways were mysterious. The devil was not acknowledged as humanity’s foe or opponent, and everything bad that happened in life was the result of God’s sovereign will and orchestration. There was no fight in the people because there was no fight in their theology. God did everything—both good and bad. We noticed a tremendous amount of sickness, torment, and defeat present among those who attended these churches. Too many people were embracing things as legal that the Word of God had declared illegal.
I was living in a wrestling match during this time. I was so burned out by the imbalanced positive-confession stuff, but at the same time, I could not justify sitting back and letting the devil just do whatever he wanted to in my life—and then have the audacity to call it God’s will. While I am forever indebted to the season we spent visiting different denominational churches, I became aware of the dire need for a biblical balance. The revelation I received of the cross, the dynamics of salvation, and a hunger for sound theology was truly priceless. However, it was during this same season that I started to ponder, “Could there indeed be a reality where we decide to believe everything that is clearly stated in Scripture—from the cross to confession?”
Claiming nothing is just as dangerous as claiming everything, for both perspectives completely miss the model of Jesus Christ. He was not silent, nor was He selfish—He simply said what the Father was saying and, in return, saw what the Father was seeing.
Although this chapter was dedicated to exposing the two extremes of positive confession, we were reminded that the key to stirring up our faith is by first possessing a balanced, biblical understanding of this dynamic truth. Because the power of declaration is such a vital way for us to activate breakthrough faith, the first thing we needed to do was clear the air on a controversial topic.
Though there is not ample space in this book to cover this subject in its entirety, the next chapter focuses on one of the most powerful revelations concerning declaration.
Every theological road has two sides and two ditches—and both of them are bad. One such road is the power of positive confession. Instead of throwing out an entire truth, it is important for us to discover what it is not and what it is according to Scripture, and learn how to walk in the biblical balance in order to consistently keep our faith stirred up.
The Power of Your Words by Robert Morris
Change Your Words, Change Your Life by Joyce Meyer
Strange Fire, Holy Fire by Michael Klassen