Positive confession question

[Tom in TN]

From time to time I seem to see "positive confession" used in a context that makes it seem to be akin to taking God's Name in vein and I am curious about this.

Would anyone dare suggest that "confessing negatively" is the proper thing for children of God to be doing?

Would someone mind clarifying this?

Thanks!

[Byrd]

The teaching of Positive Confession is taught by those in the Word of Faith movement with leader like the late Kenneth E. Hagin, Kenneth Copelad and others. Most of their theology is gleaned from the writings of E.W. Kenyon who was an offshoot of the Christian Science movement, that essentially denied the existance of sickness. They believe that we are spiritual beings, and since we are created in the image of God, we have the same authority as God.

Their flagship scripture is Mk. 11:23 which says in part...you can have what you say. Essentially the error in this teaching is that it elevates man to the status of God with the ability to "speak things into existance", which is both blasphemy, and heresy

It is an extremely dangerous movement because of the emphasis it places on your confession of faith, and not the sovernity of God.

Hope this helps!

[Tom in TN]

The teaching of Positive Confession is taught by those in the Word of Faith movement with leader like the late Kenneth E. Hagin, Kenneth Copelad and others. Most of their theology is gleaned from the writings of E.W. Kenyon who was an offshoot of the Christian Science movement, that essentially denied the existance of sickness. They believe that we are spiritual beings, and since we are created in the image of God, we have the same authority as God.

Their flagship scripture is Mk. 11:23 which says in part...you can have what you say. Essentially the error in this teaching is that it elevates man to the status of God with the ability to "speak things into existance", which is both blasphemy, and heresy

It is an extremely dangerous movement because of the emphasis it places on your confession of faith, and not the sovernity of God.

Hope this helps!

It does- thank you.
IMHO- we are spiritual beings who are temporarily housed in a fleshly body and are temporarily residing on planet Earth in 3 dimensions.
The only authority that we have is whatever authority that the Son of God, Jesus Christ has given us... and when Jesus says that we will do greater things than he did (John 14: 11-12)- we must have been given a lot.
I don't believe we can speak things into existance, but I do believe that Jesus has given us authority over many things, through His blood.

I suppose I am like Shadrach and his buddies - 'My God will rescue me, but if not- so what? Praise be to God'.

Thanks byrd. :thumb

[Jesse]

From time to time I seem to see "positive confession" used in a context that makes it seem to be akin to taking God's Name in vein and I am curious about this.

Would anyone dare suggest that "confessing negatively" is the proper thing for children of God to be doing?

Would someone mind clarifying this?

Thanks!

The Bible presents both positive and negative truths, as I explained in my article titled Strong Delusion (http://members.tripod.com/jdlarsenmn/strong_delusion.htm).

Confessing negativity would not be any better than confessing "positivity" if it was not in line with God's word. On the other hand, some may say that Jesus made a negative confession when He showed His disciples that He would suffer many things and be killed (See Matthew 16:21). Peter must have thought this was too negative, because he said, "Far be it from you Lord; this shall not happen to you!" (Matthew 16:22), to which Jesus responded by saying, "get behind me Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:23).

This shows the problem with the "positive only" philosophy which is taught by so many today. From the Scriptures that I posted above, it should be clear that whether or not we are being "positive" or "negative" is not the issue, but the issue is whether or not we are being realistic. The issue is whether or not we believe the truth.

The main problem with the positive confession movement is that it leads us to put faith in our confession, or in our so-called "faith" rather than simply having faith in God alone. For example, Kennith Hagin has even told people to "have faith in your faith". This subtly turns us away from faith in God, and subtly leads us to trust in ourselves instead. But those who truly believe that God is wiser than they are will not want their faith to be in anything other than Him.