A man can remain wretched for years even though he never once verbally spoke wretchedness. A man can walk in great possibilities even though he never once said or typed, “I am going to be great!” on his wall.
You see, many times people think “words” are only words when they are spoken. Well, it’s because of the limitations of our minds and the fact that we often only consider something tangible when we can see, hear, or touch it.
But words are deeper than sounds.
Greatness does not start with your verbal confession. Greatness starts in your mind. Even if you were dumb and could not speak, if your mind were speaking it, you could still walk in greatness. This is why I have a problem with the teaching that an unbeliever must verbally confess the Lord Jesus with the mouth before they can be saved.
How then will a person who is unable to speak get saved?
Someone might say, “He should first get healed before he can get saved.”
But we all know there may be cases where the person does not receive healing. Does that mean salvation is therefore not available to them? Of course not.
This imbalanced teaching often comes from a misunderstanding of what the Bible means by “confess.”
Confession is not first verbal.
In fact, verbal confession should come as an expression of what has already been registered in the heart.
Paul says:
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” — Romans 10:10
Notice the order.
Heart first. Mouth second.
Something happens within before something is expressed without. The mouth gives expression to what has already found agreement in the heart. Words are not only spoken verbally. The first place words are formed is in the consciousness or mind of a person. This means knowledge must precede meaningful words.
That’s why someone can be verbally confessing good things while their life is still a mess. They are saying something their inner consciousness has not yet understood, embraced, or become aligned with.
Of course, there is a place for voicing out your thoughts to bring your heart and emotions into conformity.
Speaking can reinforce what you believe. Speaking can remind you of what you know. Speaking can help you give language to something that has already begun to take shape within you. But if you want to understand the power of confession, you must first understand that the mouth is not the origin of the word. The heart is.
The truth is, for someone to know or realize the power in speaking out their words to birth mental conformity, they must also understand what I’m actually saying right now.
Things may be hard for you this period. If your verbal confessions have changed because of the circumstances around you, perhaps you should ask yourself whether those previous confessions were ever truly rooted in knowledge.
You used to say, “I have joy in chaos.”
But now that chaos has become more intense, the confession has disappeared.
Why?
Perhaps it was merely an empty statement, void of the understanding behind it. That’s why it is self-sabotaging to jump on clichés without understanding the knowledge behind them. You can repeat a biblical phrase a thousand times and still not know what you are saying.
You can say,
“I have peace.”
“I am favoured.”
“I am blessed.”
“I am victorious.”
“I have joy.”
“I am more than a conqueror.”
But if those words have never become knowledge within you, they can remain nothing more than religious vocabulary.
And religious vocabulary does not automatically produce transformation. If you do not know the revelation behind a word, you can say it all your life, and it would be empty. And even if you never said a word verbally but you have the understanding of it, you would still walk in the light of that knowledge.
Why?
Because even if your mouth never uttered the syllables, your heart spoke. And that is the real place where verbal words come from, or should come from.
Now, what exactly does the word “confession” mean in terms of “confessing” a truth of God’s Word in your life?
The word translated “confess” in Romans 10:10 is the Greek word ὁμολογέω (homologeō).
It carries the idea of acknowledging, confessing, declaring, or agreeing with something. The word is commonly discussed in relation to homos, meaning “same,” and logos, meaning “word,” “message,” or “account.”
The idea is useful:
To confess is to come into agreement with what has been said.
The key thought is SAME.
So confession is not merely producing sounds with your mouth. It is agreeing with and acknowledging what has been revealed to you. This is why biblical confession is based on saying what God says. But what God says must first become understood.
And what God’s Word says can only be fully understood through spiritual revelation.
I mean, intellectual understanding must become revelational understanding. Otherwise, you may know the words without knowing the reality those words are pointing towards.
This is why professors can teach divinity and Bible doctrines in schools, be Bible scholars, understand Greek and Hebrew, and yet not necessarily have a living relationship with the reality they are teaching. They can understand the language of Scripture while remaining closed to the Spirit behind the Scripture.
The Scriptures themselves say:
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” — 1 Corinthians 2:14
The words of Scripture are spiritual. You must be spiritually discerning to fully understand them. This is why knowing Greek and Hebrew alone does not guarantee revelation. You can dissect a verse grammatically and still miss what the Spirit is revealing through it. You can know the vocabulary without knowing the life. You can know the text without knowing the truth. So, you can only truly say the same things God has said (confession) when you have come into an understanding of what God has said.
You see why many people confess peace, joy, favor, etc., and yet their lives seem to be the total opposite of their confessions?
They thought confession meant verbally and intellectually repeating a series of words from the Bible. They were saying words because they were told that words have power. But they had not yet received the knowledge that gives those words substance. That’s why people from other religions, atheists, agnostics, and even religious Christians can read the Bible and still not understand its message.
It is not simply head knowledge.
It must birth light in you before you truly grasp its meaning. The things you have been confessing from God’s Word—do you truly know them?
Do you know peace?
Do you know joy?
Do you know what it means to be accepted in Christ?
Do you know what it means to be loved by God?
Do you know what it means to have authority in Christ?
Do you know what it means to be a new creation?
Or have you simply memorized the words?
Because there is a difference between knowing a statement and knowing the reality behind the statement.
Now you know why your words may have seemed empty all these years. You were trying to make your mouth say what your heart had not yet learned.
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” — Proverbs 23:7
Not:
“As a man speaketh with his mouth, so is he.”
The mouth reveals.
The heart conceives.
The mind processes.
And the life eventually demonstrates what has been established within.
This is why the pattern should be:
“We have believed, and therefore we speak.” — 2 Corinthians 4:13
Notice it again.
BELIEVED → SPOKE.
Not:
SPOKE → HOPED TO BELIEVE.
Your confession is powerful, but its power is not in the mere vibration of your vocal cords. Its power is in the reality you have come to believe, understand, and agree with. So don’t merely learn to speak better words. Learn to know better things.
Because when the heart truly knows, the mouth will eventually find something to say.