In his series on the power of confession, Kong Hee taught on the power of the spoken words and the law of confession.
Senior pastor of City Harvest Church, Kong Hee, launched a new sermon series on the power of confession on the weekend on Feb 18 and 19. Churchgoers were taught not to underestimate the power of their words, and that breakthroughs come when they speak aloud the Word of God.
“Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God,” said Kong in his first instalment. “Having faith means we believe in His integrity. He means what He says and says what He means!”
The pastor quoted Mark 11:23 to illustrate faith and the power of confession. The verse reads: “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” The word “believe” is mentioned once while the word “says” is mentioned three times.
Kong extrapolated, “For every single time we believe, we must speak three times as much.”
However, many believers do not proclaim the promises of God because they are afraid that the Word would not happen and they would look bad or their faith would be challenged.
When Jesus spoke to the fig tree (Mark 11:12-14, 19-21), Peter was shocked that it withered just as Jesus commanded. Jesus, on the other hand, was not surprised. He knew that His Word had power and expected it to have an effect.
“When we pray and proclaim God’s Word, we shouldn’t be shocked when it comes to pass,” said Kong. “We should be shocked if it doesn’t!”
In Matthew 12:34, Jesus said, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Kong exhorted the congregation to revalue the words they say.
In the next verse, Jesus went on to say, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” Here, the word “treasure” means “to deposit” in Greek. Kong warned the members to be careful of the things they deposit into their hearts. It could be the words spoken into their hearts or the words they read—words that form their belief system.
Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Kong exhorted the congregation not to be flippant or loose with their words, “or our words won’t carry the weight they are supposed to.”
He added, “What we say goes deep into our soul, even when we are joking. We’re designed such that what we say, we believe, and what we believe we will say. If we speak positively, it will snowball into faith. If we speak negativity and fear, it will snowball into worry.”
He brought up the example of Jairus in Mark 5. Jesus wanted Jairus to hold fast to his initial faith confession: “Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” Jesus wanted him to do this even though in the natural his daughter had died and it seemed humanly impossible for his daughter to come back to life.
“What you last said is still working,” said Kong. “Don’t say anything to contradict or cancel your faith confession to God.”
BE A CUSTODIAN OF GOD’S WORDS
On the weekend of Feb 25 and 26, Kong continued teaching on the idea of holding on to one’s confession. In Genesis, God said “Let there be light”. That word is still working today, the senior pastor pointed out.
“Adam was created to function like God and so are we,” Kong taught. “Our calling is to be the custodians of God’s word. That is why all throughout the Bible, God always urged His people to spread His word.”
Kong reiterated the damage flippant words that are not consistent with God’s Word can do.
“Every word we speak must be measured against the Word of God,” he said. “The devil wants us to say things that the Bible didn’t say. But we must only speak words that will build us up, not tear us down.”
The first temptation Satan presented to humanity in the Garden of Eden was doubt. Kong urged the congregation not to consider the negative.
“No matter what you are going through today, don’t doubt or consider the negative,” Kong said. “Keep speaking the Word of God into your situation and see your mountain being removed and cast into the sea.”
He went on to share from 2 Kings 4:18-27 about the great faith of the Shunammite woman. Her son died one day but instead of going into despair, she sought the man of God. Her faith was so great that in verse 23 when her husband asked why she was looking for the prophet, she answered, “It is well”. She held on to the same confession when she met with the prophet. Elisha then raised this boy from the dead. Theologians believed that this boy grew up to be the prophet Habakkuk.
“There are dream thieves and faith destroyers,” warned Kong. “We can be honest about the situation but do not doubt His promises.”
BE A PEOPLE OF FAITH
For the third and final installment of the series on the weekend of Mar 4 and 5, Kong taught on the law of confession. He started by reading Mark 4:37-41 (AKJV). The word “peace” in the verse is “shalom” in Hebrew, and it means complete wholeness. Kong encouraged the congregation to be faith-conscious, Jesus-conscious and Word-conscious, instead of failure-conscious.
He went on to explain the concept of law. A law is a principle based on predictable consequences of an act. Confession, which is homologeo in Greek, means to say the same as God’s Word. Jesus Himself often made His confession by quoting the Old Testament.
Kong exhorted the congregation to publicly declare and proclaim the promises of God. “The more we confess God’s Word, the more mountain-moving faith we have! Speaking life causes angels to work. Speaking death gives Satan the upper hand,” he explained.
Kong brought the church to Numbers 13 and 14, where the 10 spies had gone into Canaan and brought back bad reports allowed their circumstances to shape their reality. They saw with their natural eyes that the giants of the land were stronger than the children of Israel, and thus believed and confessed that they “were like grasshoppers”.
However, Caleb, who was one of two spies who came back with good reports, inherited Hebron years later (Joshua 14:7, 10). Caleb held on to his confession for 45 years and the Lord kept him alive—well-nourished, strong and whole.
Kong concluded the series by reminding the congregation of the power of their confession: “We rise and fall to the level of our confession. In Matthew 16:18-19, Jesus says ‘And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’
“God watches over His word to perform it. Our job is to believe and speak!” he said.
