Lesson 10. Christ the Healer. F. F. Bosworth. A Classic in Divine Healing.
Many do not receive what they pray for because they lack an understanding of confession.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews (3:1), Christianity is called a “confession.”
What Does This Mean
In Greek, this word means “to say the same thing.” It means believing and repeating what God says about our sins, sicknesses, and everything else included in our redemption.
Confession is a declaration of the biblical truth we hold to. To confess simply means to believe with all our hearts and repeat with our mouths God’s command concerning who we are in Christ.
In the First Epistle of Peter (2:24), the Holy Spirit says: “By His wounds you were healed.” We must believe this and say the same thing. When we confess the Word of God, He watches over it to fulfill it (Jer. 1:12).
Confession is a way of expressing our faith.
“The High Priest of Our Confession”
Hebrews 3:1 says: “Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus Christ.” Our High Priest, Jesus, acts on our behalf according to what we say when we speak in line with the Word.
This is what Paul, who preached the word of faith, says about confession: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:9–10).
Confession and Its Result
Notice that confession—that is, repeating what God says—is made by faith: we must believe and confess before we see the results.
First, confession must take place, and then Jesus, our High Priest, gives us new birth in response. It is not salvation leading to confession, but confession leading to salvation—confession comes before salvation.
There is no salvation without confession.
What Should We Confess?
Few Christians today recognize the place confession occupies in God’s plan for obtaining blessings. As soon as the word “confession” is mentioned, many instinctively think of confessing sins, weaknesses, and failures. This is only the negative side of a very important subject. The negative confession of our sins was meant only to open the way for the POSITIVE confession “unto salvation”—a whole life of faith in the heart and speaking with our mouths everything God tells us about His promises.
Confession unto salvation is the initial form of confession; there are also subsequent forms. First comes the form of the new birth, followed by every blessing promised in the Word. A Christian must work through each stage of salvation that he knows about. We must believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths the “Word of faith” preached by Paul. He preached “the whole counsel of God.” He preached “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” He said that he had withheld nothing that could benefit them.
Everything Jesus accomplished in His sacrificial work, He did so that it might become your possession. Thus, God wants us throughout our entire Christian life to believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths who we are in Christ. We must not ignore or neglect our legal position in Christ, because it is the foundation of our acts of faith, which God brings into operation as He fulfills His Word. We must confess, or say in our hearts: “In Him I am complete.” When we know that God says in His Word, “I am the Lord who heals you,” we must believe it and confess it with our mouths, and Christ will act as our High Priest.
We must confess that Calvary was our deliverance from everything that is not the will of God, and we must act accordingly. We must confess that our diseases were laid upon Christ and that He delivered us from the curse of sickness. “Let the poor say, ‘I am rich,’ for the Lord is my strength.”
Our confession includes:
• all the truth of Scripture;
• everything given to us through Christ’s redemptive sacrifice;
• everything included in His ministry as High Priest;
• all of God’s will revealed to us.
We must confess that our redemption is complete. Satan’s rule has ended, for Calvary has set us free. Like the slaves in the South, we must believe that we are free on the basis of the emancipation act, but never on the basis of our feelings or the testimony of our senses.
Deliverance means that everything connected with the old life has been erased. We are a new creation. The old has passed away; now everything is new.
We must continually confess our redemption from Satan’s dominion.
Of course, we do not need to tell others that our healing has been fully manifested before it has happened. God does not claim this. But you can say to those who ask you about it: “I stand on the Word of God.”
Wrong Confession
We can never rise above our confession. Negative confession, however, will bring us down to its level. What we confess with our mouths controls us. When our confession is negative, it binds us; conversely, when it is positive, it sets us free. Many continually talk about their failures and lack of faith. Inevitably, they sink to the level of their confession. Confessing a lack of faith multiplies doubts. Whenever you confess fears and doubts, you are confessing your faith in Satan and denying the grace of God. When you confess doubt, you are bound by your own words. “You are snared by the words of your mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth” (Proverbs 6:2). By doubting His Word, we believe something else that is contrary to the Word. Wrong confession leaves the Father outside the door and lets the devil into the house.
We must firmly refuse to have anything to do with wrong confession. When we understand that we cannot rise above our confession, we will reach the place where God can use us.
When you confess the testimony of your senses, sickness gains control. Outward appearance and feelings have no rightful place in the realm of faith. Confessing sickness is like signing a receipt for a package: Satan receives a check confirming that you have accepted this package from him. Do not accept anything Satan brings—“give no place to the devil.”
“If anyone speaks, let him speak as the words of God” (1 Peter 4:11). In Ephesians 4:29, we are commanded to speak “only what is good for edification in the faith.” We must not testify about our enemy. We must act in faith: speak faith and think by faith.
In Philippians 4:8, the Holy Spirit says: “Finally, my brethren, whatever things are true (this is the Word), whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report—if there is any virtue and anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”
The Holy Spirit says in Proverbs: “As a man thinks, so is he.” In 2 Corinthians 10:4–5, the Holy Spirit says: “The weapons of our warfare… are mighty… bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” We must cast aside doubt and give the Word of God its proper place in our minds and mouths.
We must have “the mind of Christ”
Jesus remembers when He bore your diseases, and the Holy Spirit teaches us: “Do not forget His benefits, the One who forgives your iniquities and heals your diseases.”
God’s promises of spiritual and physical transformation must come to us through the “renewing of the mind.” Romans 12:1 says: “Present your bodies (the home or laboratory of the five senses) as a living sacrifice—and be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may know what the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God is.”
A spiritual law that not everyone recognizes is that our confession governs us. What we confess is what truly dominates our inner world. Make your mouth fulfill its duty. Do not allow it to destroy the work of God’s Word in your life. Some confess with their mouths but deny it in their hearts. They say, “Yes, the Word is true,” but in their hearts they say, “It does not work in my case.” The confession of your mouth has no value if your heart refuses to accept it.
Hold fast to your confession
“Therefore, having a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession” (Hebrews 4:14)—the confession of faith in the redemptive work accomplished by God through Christ.
I am told in this passage to hold fast to the confession of the Bible’s absolute unity. I am told to hold fast to the confession of Christ’s works. I am told to hold fast to the confession that “God is the strength of my life.” I am told to hold fast to the confession that “He took my infirmities and bore my diseases” and that “by His wounds I was healed.”
God says this, and we must believe it and say the same. We must know our rights, proven in His Word, and hold fast to their confession.
When you learn that “Christ took your infirmities and bore your diseases,” hold fast to this confession.
When you learn that “greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world,” hold firmly to this confession.
We must hold firmly to our confession concerning everything Christ has done for us so that it will not be delayed in manifesting in our lives. We must hold firmly to our confession that we have been redeemed from Satan’s dominion. We must hold firmly to our confession in the face of all contrary evidence.
God declares, “I am healed by His wounds.” I must confess what God says about my illnesses and hold firmly to this confession. I must acknowledge the absolute truth of these words before any visible changes appear. I must act on these words and thank Him for laying my illnesses on Christ, just as He laid my sins on Him.
Healing is always an answer to a testimony of faith. Some fail when things become difficult because they lose their confession. Illness, like sin, can be defeated by confessing the Word. Make your mouth fulfill its duty; fill it with the Word. Make it speak what God says about your illnesses. Do not allow it to say anything contrary to the Word.
Believing God’s Word with the heart means that we “put off the old man” with its habit of judging by the results of our feelings. Faith treats all symptoms that contradict it as “false gods,” like Jonah, and replaces feelings with the Word.
Our only problem is maintaining harmony with the Word of God and not allowing feelings to usurp the Word’s place. We no longer live like unbelieving Thomas, who says, “Unless I see, I will not believe.” We must affirm Christ’s words: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” The Word remains lifeless until faith is breathed into it through your mouth. Then it becomes supernatural power. Make your mouth harmonize with the Word of God.
His Ministry as High Priest
His ministry as High Priest meets every need we have from the moment we are born again until the moment we go to heaven. Why do we need to hold firmly to our confession?
Because Christ is the High Priest of our confession (Heb. 4:4).
Because He is the great High Priest.
Because He is the merciful High Priest.
Because He sympathizes with us in our weaknesses.
Because He lives forever to “always intercede for us.” He is always ready to give us “grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
Success Is Promised to Us
Jesus is the High Priest of our confession; therefore, when you confess, “By His wounds I am healed,” and hold fast to your confession, no sickness will stand before you. Simply thank the Father and praise Him because every need you have has already been provided for through the redemption that belongs to you. To believe is to thank God for healing not yet manifested, but to thank Him as though it has already been revealed.
The confession of your lips, born of the faith in your heart, will completely defeat the enemy in any battle. Christ’s words destroyed the power of demons and healed the sick. They do the same when we believe and confess them. The Word will heal you if you continually confess it. God will bring your body into obedience to the confessions of His Word, for “no word from God will ever fail” (Luke 1:37).
If I dare say that verse 11 of Psalm 33 is true—that “those who seek the Lord lack no good thing”—and firmly stand on my confession, then God will give me every good thing I have confessed.
Nothing will build and establish your faith as quickly as confession.
First, confess it in your heart.
Confess it aloud while in your room.
Repeat it again and again.
Repeat it until your words and your spirit come into complete agreement.
Repeat it until your entire being comes into harmony and full agreement with the Word of God.
Christ’s words are filled with Christ Himself, and when we act on them, they fill us with Christ. We must obey the Word as we would obey Jesus if He were visibly standing beside us.
Confessing Christ as Lord
When we come to God for salvation, at the very beginning and in every subsequent instance, we are required to confess the lordship of Jesus. The Holy Spirit says in Colossians 2:6: “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” “For to this end Christ both died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom. 14:9). “Reaching faith” for the fulfillment of any promise implies our submission to His lordship. When we are submitted to Him as the Lord of our lives, He is ready to:
• heal us;
• baptize us in the Spirit;
• give us zoe—the abundant life of God;
• be our inner source, flowing into eternal life;
• enable us to take our rightful place in the world;
• manifest Himself through every promised blessing;
• be our strength, our portion, our everything;
• give us the right to use His name without limitation;
• give us the ability to cast out demons in His name,
• anoint us to preach;
• give us the ability to lay hands on the sick for their healing, etc.
Your success and usefulness in this world will be measured by your confession and the steadfastness with which you hold to that confession under all circumstances.
God cannot be manifested in you beyond what you confess about Him.
In the face of every need, confess that the Lord is your Shepherd and that you will not lack anything.
Author: F. F. Bosworth
