Confession of faith
The word "profession" used in Hebrews 10:23 (or "confession," as it is translated in other scriptures), from the Greek word homologia, is not the picture of a person who simply repeats what someone else says. This is an individual who has gotten God's Word into his heart and who has come into agreement or alignment with what God says. This person sees a matter like God sees it; hears it like God hears it; feels it like God feels it. Now his heart and God's heart are so unified on the issue that their hearts are nearly beating in syncopation with each other. Thus, when the believer opens his mouth to "confess" God's Word, his confession is no longer powerless, empty chatter; instead, it comes from a very deep place of conviction inside his heart. In light of this, Hebrews 10:23 carries this idea:
"Let us come into agreement with God and then begin to speak what He says, holding tightly to what we confess and refusing to let anyone take it from us.…"
Real confessions are made out of words from God that have been sown into the heart. After a period of meditating and renewing the mind, you finally begin to see it the way that God sees it. You really believe what God believes! And from that place of heartfelt conviction, you then begin to speak and to declare your faith!
I heard a story of a preacher, staying at a pastor's house while he was preaching in his church. About 5 a.m, the telephone started ringing - and it rang and rang and rang. - thirty rings, forty rings, forty-five rings. Finally on the fiftieth ring, the visitor got up, put on his clothes, and walked down the hallway to the kitchen, mumbling in frustration to himself.
He picked up the receiver and said, "Hello"; but was amazed when the phone just kept on ringing, even though he was holding the receiver in his hand! Then he noticed that the ringing wasn't coming from the telephone at all, but from something to his right that was covered with a big white sheet. He pulled the sheet back to look, and there in a big cage was a Grey African parrot looking back at him! It had been mimicking the ringing of the telephone! That parrot sounded just like a telephone, but it was not a telephone!
Let's respond to Philippians 2:2 AMP "make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same love (toward one another), knit together in spirit, intent on one purpose (and living a life that reflects your faith and spreads the gospel – the good news regarding salvation through faith in Christ).
Kath
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