TD Jakes - Positive Confession
Father, in the name of Jesus bless the Word and let it come alive while it's being preached today. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Somebody say, "Amen". Now, understand this clearly, my brothers and sisters. When the Word is spoken to you, it's seed. It gets down in your womb. It gets down in the ground of your heart. It germinates. It develops. It grows. When the Word has worked you through the many processes that it needs to take in order to bring abundance in your life, it comes back forth out of your mouth.
The sign of being well-taught, well-exposed, making great decisions, transformed, ready to build, made up your mind to finish, and all of the things that I've taught you along the way about receiving is when the conversation that you've been taught begins to become the conversation that you speak. You start speaking out what you believe, rather than worrying about situations and circumstances, and all of a sudden you don't even recognize your own speech. How many of you in this room have been going through a metamorphosis, where you even talk differently? And this is the frustration that your friends and some of your relatives have with you, because they are used to you talking like you used to talk before, but now you're talking on another level and you're thinking on another level and you're feeling on another level, and it's gotta get in your conversation or it's not real.
If it's always just in the books and just in the tapes, then it's somebody else's Word. God can't deliver you off of somebody else's Word. It has to become your Word, your Word. It has to become knit with you. Listen to this. The Bible said the engrafted Word of God is able to save your soul. The engrafted Word of God is able to save your soul, engrafted, graft, like they take skin from one place and graft it to another. If it grafts, it sticks. The only word that you can use is the Word that sticks. I may say a thousand things to you and only ten of them stick. You walk outta here with ten things. Those ten things are the things you can use in your life, the Word that sticks, the engrafted Word of God. You cannot use somebody else's revelation to turn your life around. It has to become personal. It has to be yours. It has to be your personal experience. The engrafted Word of God is able to save your soul. Are you with me?
This Scripture that I read to you today, Romans 10:8-11, when we deal with this text, we generally use it in reference to salvation. Says, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation". "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; with the mouth confession is made unto salvation". There has to be an agreement between what is in the heart and what is in the mouth. If there's not an agreement between what's in the heart and what's in the mouth, you're not gonna be able to seal your deliverance with powerful words.
At one time we were teaching people, you know, "You shall have whatever you say and speak the Word and this and that and the other," and people were running around speaking all kinds of stuff, but they didn't have it in their heart. If you speak something you're not prepared for, you couldn't handle it if you got it. That's why I don't teach people to go out and go through parking lots and claim cars. "I claim this car in the name of the Lord". Go looking for a house, "We claim this house in the name of the Lord". Claim them payments. Claim them payments. It's not enough to claim that house if you're not gonna claim the resources to meet that obligation, amen? If you're gonna speak something, speak the totality of it into existence so that you can walk in it and claim it and live in it and understand it.
God needs to hear the Word come out of your mouth. Your confession is made unto salvation. It is real when you speak it in your life, and you embrace it, and you receive, and you say, "You know what? I've changed this area of my life. This is a done deal for me. I'm here. This is it. This is the new me". You need to hear yourself say that. You need to declare it. You need to know it. You need to stand on it. You need a conversation that goes along with where you are now. How many times have you ever met somebody, and you thought the conversation would be on one level, and when you met him the conversation was way down here? And you said, "This doesn't even match up with this person. I'm shocked that the conversation is down here".
See, something is lying. When the mouth is saying one thing, the heart is saying something else. There is a disconnect there. There ought to be an agreement between what you believe in your heart and what you speak out of your mouth. You can't say that you believe God for blessings in your heart while you talk defeatism out of your mouth. "I just don't know how I'm gonna make it. I don't know what in the world I'm gonna do. I'm just at the end of my rope. I'm about to lose my mind. I'm at my wit's end. I'm having a nervous breakdown. I feel like I'm having a fit". When you start speaking all of those things, you speak against your success. You speak against what God has done in your life. Sometimes you start speaking it because you hear everybody else saying it, and you get caught up in saying, but your mouth is too powerful to just repeat what other people say.
According to the Scriptures, your mouth is a sword. It's a sword, it's a weapon, it's a tool, and when you speak things, you give life to them. That's worth writing down. When you speak things, you give life to them. When you speak things, you give life to them. I'm gonna really get personal, so I hope you can handle this. You can have feelings for somebody, somebody you really care about, and as long as you don't say anything about it, it's kinda manageable. I know you gotta act like you don't know what I'm talking about, but the moment you have that big conversation where you just gotta tell him, and you say, "And, you know, it's not like we're friends. It's more than that. I love you". The moment you say it, it magnifies. The moment you speak anything, it gets bigger. The moment you say, "You know what? I'm sick of you and everything you did," when you start venting it, it magnifies.
The Bible teaches that the power of life and death is in your tongue. You shall have whatever you say. Confession is made unto salvation. Now, we all hear voices. I don't mean we're crazy. I don't mean we're schizo, but we all hear voices. Can we be real? Do you hear voices? Don't leave me out there by myself anymore, 'cause y'all look so dirty. When I said we all hear voices, you all looked at me like, "You're on your own, dawg". We all hear voices. You're getting ready to go on a job interview, one voice says, "This is gonna be the one". The other voice says, "Ain't no need in going on the interview. You're not gonna get it". One voice says, "This is your time, and God's gonna bless you". The other voice said, "Don't even try". You got all these voices talking to you all the time. The voice that you believe is the Word you receive.
The Bible says whose report do you believe? The very fact that it says "whose report" lets you know that there are gonna be many reports. They're all kinds of things being spoken about your situation right now. Which one do you believe? Some voices say, "You're not gonna make it". Some voices say, "Now that God's blessed you, you're gonna lose everything". Some voices are saying, "Don't rest in it. Don't trust anybody. Don't open up. Don't receive anybody. Don't embrace anything". Some voices are saying, "You're at your wit's end. You waited too late. You should have done it sooner. It's too late for you. You're never gonna be happy. You're never gonna be free". There's all of these reports out there. Whose report do you believe? If you wanna know whose report you believe, look at whose report you repeat. You will repeat the report you believe.
There are all these voices talking to you, "Give up. Give up. You're just cursed. You're dumb. You're stupid. You can't make it. You waited too late. Nobody loves you. You're just cursed. You're just like your mom and nem". All those voices. The voices you repeat are the voices you receive. In the midst of that, particularly if you've been getting a good Word, there is all these other voices coming to you talking about, "You're the head, not the tail. You're above, not beneath. You're more than a conqueror through him that loved us. You're in trouble, but you're coming out of this". "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all". There are voices, and you're talking about, "You're in a struggle, but you're gonna get out of this. Don't give up. Don't give in. Don't give out. Don't lose your head. Don't get nervous. Don't get frustrated. Take your time. You're gonna get out of this. Hold your peace. The battle is not yours. It belongs to God".
There's all those voices coming to you. All those voices are hitting your head all the time. Let me tell you what gives life to the voices: when you repeat 'em. When you start walking around and saying stuff like, "I am who God says I am. I can do what God says I can do. I can have what God says I can have. I can become what God says I can become. If God says I'm more than a conqueror, you know what? I'm more than a conqueror. And, yes, I may be in a fight and, yes, it might be the fifth round and, yes, it may not look good, but you know what? The Word of God said I'm more than a conqueror. When everything is said and done, I am coming out of this". Say it with me, "I am coming out of this". Say it again.
Do you not know that when you speak like that, you seal your deliverance? You seal your deliverance. You speak with power and with clarity in the situation, and this is why I'm glad for spirituality, that I am a spiritual being and that I feed myself spiritually. It's not enough to feed yourself physically or feed yourself intellectually if you don't feed yourself spiritually. I am a spiritual being and if I feed myself intellectually I will have light in my mind. If I feed myself physically, I will have light and illumination in my body, enlightenment. My body will respond to being fed. It will get the nutrients. It will get all the minerals and all the sustenance that it needs if I feed my body. If I feed my spirit, the same thing happens. If I start building myself up in my spirit, I get illuminated on the inside. Are you with me?
Go to Genesis chapter 1. I want you to look at something. Verse 1 through verse 4. When you have it, say, "Amen". It reads something like this, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness covered the face of the deep. And the Spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the waters. And God said", underline that, "and God said". Everything is dark. Everything is black. Everything is bleak. Everything is in decadence. Everything is in trouble, until God said. Nothing turned just because God was there. His presence didn't turn it. He was there. His presence didn't change a thing. It was when he spoke to it, "And God said". At the point that God said, demons trembled, darkness became intimidated, because the Bible says, "The entrance of thy word giveth light". "The entrance of thy word giveth light". Look at this. "And God said," what? Just the first word. "And God said, Let". Let. That means that there is something opposing it.
If somebody is wrestling with your child, you'll holler, "Let him go". You wouldn't say that if somebody wasn't wrestling with him. If he's just walking in the room, and you say, "Let him go," that means you're crazy. If you say, "Let," there is something resisting. And God said what? See, you have permission. Let. Let there be. Let there. You have to speak. If you want peace in your house, you have to speak, "Let there be peace in this house". You can't get peace in your house by winning arguments. All you will get is better fights. I know you can't say "amen". Say, "Ouch". You have to say, "Let there be peace. That means anything that's stopping peace from being a reality in this house, I command you to break your grip. Let there be peace in this house".
Let me take you a little bit deeper. You can't speak peace on the outside if you've got hell, this is why this has to be the last step. You have to have gone through a metamorphosis yourself. You have to have gone through a transformation yourself. You have to receive what God is doing in your life for yourself and then finally you begin to speak to the world around you because something has happened in you that empowers you to change the situation around you. If it hasn't happened on the inside, you can't work it on the outside. You can't speak peace outwardly if you've got confusion inwardly. That's why God has to deal with the real you before you deal with situations around you. That's why you can't just go to church and get this Word. "I'm gonna go home and work this". And you just start saying, "Well, let me tell you something. I do so. I rebuke the devil". If that stuff isn't down inside of you, it won't work for you. "I claim abundance," but you got a defeated mentality. It won't work. When you get delivered on the inside and all of a sudden when something comes to threaten it, you say, "Wait a minute. I'm not having this. This disagrees with the light I have on the inside of me. According to the power that worketh in me, I speak in the name of the Lord let there be peace," or light or healing or calmness.
When you start speaking those things, they have power. Power. Somebody say, "Power". Power is in your mouth right now. You can build your house with your mouth, or you can tear it down with your mouth. You can build your children with your mouth, or you can tear 'em down with... I've seen people rip their children apart with their mouth. "You're dumb. You're dumb just like your daddy. Look at your daddy coming out outta you. You're stupid, you know? You cheat just like he did. You'll never be anything," you know? They just speak things that crush possibilities. If speaking can crush possibilities, speaking positively can magnify possibilities. Conversations are powerful, powerful. Confession is made unto salvation.
When you can confess your reality, speaking your reality - see, when I say "confession," you get nervous because most of the time when people confess, they always confess their past. "I did it. I did it. I'm sorry I did it. I'm guilty". Next week, "I did it. I'm sorry. I'm guilty. I did it. I'm sorry. I'm guilty". Three months, "I did it. I'm sorry. I'm guilty". There years, "I did it. I'm sorry. I'm guilty". Ten years, "I did it. I'm sorry. I'm guilty". Wait a minute. If you keep confessing your past, you're gonna live your life backwards. You don't need anybody that keeps drawing you back into past mistakes and failures. You need somebody who understands that was then, this is now, I'm walking in the newness of life, and you begin to confess where you are now. If God has given you a new life, given you a new attitude, changed your situation, your talking needs to reflect where you are and not where you were. And you may have to change who you're talking to. You may have to change who you're talking to in order for confession to be powerful.
Listen to what Jesus said to his disciples. He said, "If you go into a house and you speak peace and that peace does not dwell," he said, "leave that house swiftly". In other words, there are some things that God does in your life that you can't share with just anybody, because they're not ready to receive it. What do you think it means when it says, "Cast not your pearls before the swine, neither give that which is holy to the dogs"? When God has done something on the inside of you and you need to confess it and communicate it, if you confess and communicate to somebody who's an unbeliever and has no faith, you have cast your pearls to the swine.
Now, let's talk about pearls. Pearls are made from irritations in a clam. A grain of sand lodges in the flesh of a clam and produces an irritation. The body begins to fight the sand by building up calcium. The more it builds up calcium, the more it develops pearls. Your pearls are made from the irritations in your life: the things that you endure, the things that you put up with, the things that got lodged down inside of you that hurt you and you had to build up a defense to be able to deal with the issue because you had an irritation in your life. Pearls are beautiful. You wear 'em on your neck. You ladies wear 'em on your ear. You put 'em on your ring, say, "It look beautiful. They're lovely," but that beauty was made from the pain of the clam, who endured hardness and developed a pearl.
Your pearls cost you something. Your pearls cost you something. It takes time to build a pearl. You can't build a pearl in a minute. You have to live with some pain a while, endure some suffering a while, go through some changes a while. And, finally, after you've suffered a while, you've got a pearl in your life. Is there anybody in here that's got some pearls? Oh, my God. I got something for you this morning. I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost in this place. Look at your neighbor and say, "I've got some pearls". I can't cast my pearls before the swine, neither can I give that which is holy to the dog. Stop trying to confess your reality to people who have no respect for your experience.
O God, help me to preach. When people have no respect for your experience, they will reject your confession. You have to find somebody who has a similar experience and can appreciate where you are right now, and then when you speak to each other, iron sharpeneth iron, you get bigger. You get better. You get fuller. You become alive. You can't confess to people you gotta fight with, people who seek your destruction. You gotta speak out of the newness of where you are now to people who are somewhere in the midst of a transformation, too. And when you start speaking it, "I'm coming out of this. I'm starting to see a change in my life. My whole attitude is starting to change". The more you start speaking the Word, the closer, the closer, the closer you get. The closer you get. That's why I have you running around talking about, "We're coming out of debt". It might look stupid when you're saying it. You might have got a disconnect when you said it. You might have got one of them letters written in red when you said it, but when you keep saying it, it becomes a reality in your life.
"We're coming... I love you". Whatever it is, if you keep saying it, it happens. Speak the Word only and thy servant shall be healed. Speaking the Word releases the power of God to operate in your life. You have to walk around talking about, "This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. I'm the head and not the tail. I'm above and not beneath. I'm more than a conqueror. I'm overcoming. I'm coming out of this. I was built for this. I'm able to handle this. It's a tough fight, but I'm a tough man. When it's all said and done, I will arise". See, talking like that will always get you out of the ground. Look at Jesus. He said, "Listen, if you destroy the temple, in three days you know what, fellas? I'll be back again. Go ahead. Drive the nails in my hand. That's cool with me. I'm coming up again". He told Joseph, "I need to borrow your tomb 'cause I'm not staying in here. I'm coming up outta your tomb". Jesus went around talking his deliverance, speaking the Word, "I'll be back. Meet me in Galilee. I will arise".
You shall have whatever you say. Confess it. Oh, my God. My God. My God. I'm talking about God talk. I'm talking about faith talk. I'm talking about overcoming talk, where you begin to confess it until it happens in your life. When the enemy wants to come up against you, tell him, "Oh, no, wait a minute. Oh, no, I'm not going backwards. I'm not gonna live in my past. I'm gonna live in my future. I confess life and not death, victory and not defeat. I will finish. I will overcome. I will survive". Teach your children how to survive. Teach your mentees how to survive. Everywhere you speak, tell 'em what you've been through to get where you are. Your testimony is your gift. Your testimony is your power. The Bible said they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Speak the Word.