Biblical view of speaking life

Hi all,

Haven't been posting for a while, few personal difficulties, but I'm back!

I'm struggling with the speak life teaching, which is also promoted as 'positive confession'... Although most times I've heard scriptures referenced (namely God breathed life into us, ergo we can breathe life to others) and the other one regarding the fig tree...

The understanding I have is we can speak encouragement or can also speak gossip - the desire being encouraging others as part of my Christian life.

Can anyone provide a suitable explanation for this teaching, and possibly why I would feel extremely uncomfortable with the very term 'positive confession'?

Blessings

I'm struggling with the speak life teaching, which is also promoted as 'positive confession'... Although most times I've heard scriptures referenced (namely God breathed life into us, ergo we can breathe life to others) and the other one regarding the fig tree...

The understanding I have is we can speak encouragement or can also speak gossip - the desire being encouraging others as part of my Christian life.

This teaching is the core of the Word of Faith heresy. This belief is also taught by Hindus, New Age Gurus, Buddists and every other cult.

'If you speak positive, and think positive you can change your life'

Notice that our need for Christ is never found in that statement.

The understanding I have is we can speak encouragement or can also speak gossip - the desire being encouraging others as part of my Christian life.

Right there is the demonic hook, it sets Christians up to be controlled because if you point out that the teaching is not Biblical guess what?

You are guilty of 'gossip'! And that's not positive...

Using this teaching, now I'm free to ask people for money, get a divorce and not hear about it, etc. and if you say something about it, you are judgmental and not 'speaking positive'. I've been to this extreme in churches, so I KNOW what I'm talking about!

Like you I was never comfortable with it and it was THE LORD who always gave me a check in my spirit about it.

Are we supposed to go around trashing our brothers and sisters? NO!
Are we supposed to go around trashing the government? NO!

We are commanded to "speak the truth in love" which often times is not very positive sounding, but our joy comes from serving the Lord not being loved by the world.

1thess 5:11 says to encourage one another, and yes, I agree that sometimes saying the truth in love can really hurt. It's happened to me, and I speak from my own personal experiences that whatnwasnsaid caused me to take stock and look at my life.

This causes further concern for me, and expressing this to my brothers and sisters at our fellowship has been met with indifference...

Thanks for the reply, it was most helpful.

richrock: learjet may disagree with me on this one, but what some in the WOF movement have sometimes taken to an extreme is nothing more than letting the words of your mouth be in agreement with the word of God.

Positive confession does not make things happen as if by some kind of magic. But when I am faced with any situation of life, I chose to believe and speak over that situation only what the word of God says about it, rather than what my flesh my feel or my mind may reason about it.

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

If it is true that the words of God are my bread, then I should fill my mouth continually with that bread.

When I speak only what the word of God has to say about a battle, I must recall His word, process His word, speak His word, hear His word, and as a result my faith is increased as I am building myself up. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word.

What if a group of believers have taken a truth to an extreme and sometimes perverted it? Does that then make the legitimate truth become heresy? You get the idea.

If I am faced with a battle, I chose to say only that which God says. And believe me, the temptation to speak out of my emotion or my carnal mind is ever present and I often find a lot of carnal thinking coming from my mouth before I check myself and intentionally change my speech.

I guess it is positive confession in that I am confessing the word of God in the situation, and that is definitely a positive thing to confess as contrasted with speaking the things of the flesh about the situation.

Psa 19:14. David said, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer." I wonder, what could be more acceptable in the sight of God than to speak His word over each and every circumstance of life? There is power in the word of God, both to change the circumstance as well as to increase my faith.

It is simply a choice that I make. The only other option is to gripe and complain or to keep my mouth shut.

twayneb wrote:

"I guess it is positive confession in that I am confessing the word of God in the situation, and that is definitely a positive thing to confess as contrasted with speaking the things of the flesh about the situation."

Well said.. to me "positive confession" is simply leveraging faith rather than unbelief.

No, "positive confession" meaning tricking yourself into believing something is true that isn't will never change anything. But FAITH changes things.

It is very difficult to have faith if we are negative thinkers. If we believe that God can do anything, but just doesn't do very much, especially for me, how can we have faith?

Why did Jesus have such faith? Because He knew exactly what the Father is like and spoke and lived it forth.

by richrock on 2012/7/24 6:06:38

Hi all,

Haven't been posting for a while, few personal difficulties, but I'm back!

I'm struggling with the speak life teaching, which is also promoted as 'positive confession'... Although most times I've heard scriptures referenced (namely God breathed life into us, ergo we can breathe life to others) and the other one regarding the fig tree...

The understanding I have is we can speak encouragement or can also speak gossip - the desire being encouraging others as part of my Christian life.

Can anyone provide a suitable explanation for this teaching, and possibly why I would feel extremely uncomfortable with the very term 'positive confession'?

Blessings
[\\quote]

Never heard of this speak life thing but if it is the positive confession thing then it all depends. I have a phrase that goes like this 'You can be positive and be positively ridiculous with it' in other words, you can say things positive and be out of reality of it just for the sake of not being negative.

My place of work, there was a time that whenever there was a problem it was never addressed as a problem. It was addressed as an opportunity. I suppose it was repackaged that way in order to put a positive spin on it in order so that the ones dealing with it saw it has a learning experience rather than an 'oh man!'.

I had a friend who was in the positive confession business and Word of faith movement. She would speak positive things and would rebuke you for saying negative things. Needless to say we did but heads when I would confront her on her nonsense. She even did her best to follow nutritional guidelines to keep her body healthy. At age 42 she was hit with cervical cancer and it eventually went to her lungs. She refused to go to the hospital because of her positive confession. When that didn't seem to work she decided to go to the doctor but it was too late to do anything. She died within a year. I have often wondered if she realized her folly after she died.

In the end, being positive is a great trait. To turn a negative around to a positive outlook is always a great trait and can be infectious. I think that when the confession begins to deny reality then a person ends up with a problem. Make any sense?

John

hi, if you want to be miserable and do a lousy job:go around and speak negative all the time. noone wioll want to be around you. we serve a positive God.i have seen people in the business world not promoted because of a negative attitude. my take on wof is to eat the fish and spit out the bones.look what God did for the critic of david dancing before the Lord.negativity is a curse.jimp

Hi! 'RichRock'

Please, I would like to ask the following questions of everyone wrestling with this kinna' question:

Would any one say that Noah was drawing on an ability of 'positive thinking' when he "prepared an ark"?
Was Abraham filled with 'positive thinking' when he "went out, not knowing whither he went", and when he "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God?"
And, what about Sarah? Was she merely a positive thinker too when "she judged him [God] faithful who had promised"?

'Positive Thinking' is not a spiritual ability; it's merely a natural ability. Both sinner and saint have a share of 'positive thinking' to one degree or another.

'Positive Thinking' is the elementary ability of every natural man to confess the eternal POSTURE of God towards His creation: "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous".

There have always been those who eagerly chase after this inborn 'secret' behind creation. Not surprisingly, they've even invented formulas which supposedly can draw this posture of God nearer to them; eg: the ideas behind the 'Secret' movie and the concepts behind 'Law of Attraction'.

The ability of positive thinking is related to the visible world. For instance: everyone appeared at their workplace today while positively expressing a belief in their employer's ability to pay them their deserved wages at the end of the week.
But faith is something completely different.
Faith is related to the unseen/invisible world. For instance: everyone who performs righteous deeds today in the Name of Jesus and His kingdom are expressing faith that the act of "laying up treasures in heaven" (in the unseen world) will surely be rewarded by God.

While positive thinking remains totally directed at the POSTURE of God towards His natural creation, faith is directed at the eternal PURPOSES of God towards His spiritual creation; concerning works of His re-creation.

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also".

As Christians, we should have already easily known this difference between positive thinking and faith because Hebrews clearly states that faith is "the evidence of things NOT SEEN".

When we desire to grasp something for ourselves from out of this visible natural world, the ability of positive thinking might well be sufficient. But when we wish to grasp something for ourselves from out of the invisible world, only FAITH can obtain it for us.

When one is laying up treasures on the earth, (a need for a newer car or a better job, ect ... ) this requires positive thinking.
When one is laying up treasures in unseen heaven, (righteous deeds), or when seeking after treasures of the unseen heaven, (spiritual gifts and maturity), this requires faith.

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, [shall he] not much more [clothe] you, O ye of little faith?Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof.

Hi! 'Jimp'

Who are these people who (as you say) "want to be miserable and do a lousy job; go around and speak negative all the time?"
A purely positive thinker would rightly say that such people are 'negative thinkers'.
But the faith of a man of God would say that the thoughts of these 'negative' people are being influenced by powers of darkness.
Why is this?
Because the man of God is equipped to see behind the visible and declare "the evidence of things unseen" ... namely that the man's expressed negativity has its origin from out of the unseen/invisible realm of darkness.

Hi! 'TMK'

You wrote: ""positive confession" is simply leveraging faith rather than unbelief".

We know that the command is to "Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven" and the accompanying assurance is that all our natural needs will be met because the position of God remains steadfastly positive to every living thing on the earth. It "rains on the just as well as the unjust".
Positive confession does not "leverage faith" as you say. Quite the contrary, it risks supplanting faith!

The ability of faith was given to the godly man to enable him to perceive the "evidence of things unseen"; the things which are unseen concerning the kingdom.
This is why it says that it was by FAITH that Abraham saw the "evidence of things unseen" and having seen such invisible things, he began to yearn for the day that the "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker God", would become visible in and through God's people.

No amount of positive thinking could have revealed the "evidence of things unseen" to Abraham and a host of other faithful saints who followed after him.

Hi! "Twayneb'

Maybe you're needing to clarify some of your doctrinal vocabulary a bit; I think you might find it useful to clarify some issues about faith.

Every living creature on the earth possesses the ability to exercise positive thinking; this ability forms part of his intrinsic makeup. Even from a very early age, children display this ability remarkably well.

But we should not mistake our inherent ability to judge something positively or negatively as being equal to having faith. Faith and positive thinking are completely separate and distinct abilities and which function differently too.

The thoughts of God (His Word) were expressed in faith and, as such, the evidence of their ongoing accomplishing can only be perceived through faith.

What your doctrinal vocabulary seems to be stumbling over is the fact that God Himself functions with faith.
The Scripture repeatedly says, "The just shall live by faith".
And what faith would that be?
Like Paul, our confession is: "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God".
Did you notice the words: FAITH OF THE SON?
And this verse too, "That which is through the faith of Christ".
Did you notice the words FAITH OF CHRIST?

It has me asking the question of Romans 3:3: "Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?"
Did you notice above the words FAITH OF GOD here too?
Anyways, we should all move beyond our feeble vocabulary and simply state it the way it is: God has Faith!
Our Christian life stands on God's faith; what God's faith had declared about us and of His eternal plans and intents for us.

Leave the positive thinking for the empty of heart and those ignorant of God's faith.
We wish to march on to victory and triumph over every adversity confessing God's faith.

I'm still confused somewhat. I wish I could transcribe what I heard last week from our pastor, that might shed some light on things.

Essentially, it boils down to speaking blessing on our lives in all areas, spiritual, financial, work, etc.

I just can't reconcile it compared to the teachings of Jesus and Paul, to either forsake the things on the world, even my own life, and also like Paul to be content regardless of situation...

We are all capable in our fallen state as well as saved state to praise others. I'm specifically talking about a pastor encouraging us to speak life into whatever situation we are in (and prayer was not mentioned -I'd just pray anyway than go around saying ' I will get that new motorbike' etc)

Hi! 'RichRock'

I'm sorry to hear that you remain "still confused somewhat".
All of us here can only give you thoughts to ponder about and investigate. After that, it is only God Himself who can bring you into a better understanding of the words given.
I also notice from your further explanation here, that your church is involved with something akin to what might be described as "speaking into existence". This has also been taught under the guise of "the tongue as a creative force".

The problem with such ideas as these you describe is that they are very much indistinguishable from the truth ... very clever counterfeits.

You said, "I just can't reconcile it compared to the teachings of Jesus and Paul". Well, that's an excellent beginning.
You see, 'RichRock'? You'll never ever be able to reconcile a lie to the truth. Unless, of course, you choose to dismiss the early warning signs which the Spirit is now giving you.
You are being equipped to discern between good and evil. There are times when God has the mind to let you work things out from what you have already learned from Him. This is a normal learning curve on your path to spiritual maturity.
I hope you didn't think that God was going to teach you something and not put you in a place to test your working knowledge of it through experience. Such does not happen.

Blayne,

Thank you brother for your writings on SI. I have been meaning to tell you that I have been blessed by many of your posts. But this thread is the best of them all!

I love the way you have explained "positive thinking" vs "true biblical faith" and I just had to let you know this.

I agree 100%, and I also believe that Wayne also believes in the difference even though he didn't articulate it the way you did. Thank you for using your gift from God to bless others, I am learning more to appreciate others in the body of Christ, even though we all don't get it right, all the time.

Blessings...from brother rbanks

Maybe you're needing to clarify some of your doctrinal vocabulary a bit; I you'd find it useful clarify some issues about faith.

Every living creature on the earth possesses the ability to exercise positive thinking; this ability forms part of his intrinsic makeup. Even from a very early age, children display this ability remarkably well.

But we should not mistake our inherent ability to judge something positively or negatively as being equal to having faith. Faith and positive thinking are completely separate and distinct abilities and which function differently too.

The thoughts of God (His Word) were expressed in faith and, as such, the evidence of their ongoing accomplishing can only be perceived through faith.

Blayne: I am not speaking at all of positive thinking. I am talking about speaking the word of God over each and every situation in our lives. My point is that we sometimes take a term such as "positive confession", relate it to a particular movement, WOF for example, and throw the baby out with the bathwater.

When we refuse to speak anything but the word of God in a given situation, we bring our own mind, will, and emotions into agreement with what God has to say in the matter. This is an act of faith, and it also reinforces the word of God in us. We know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The word of God brings faith. It is the foundation on which our faith rests. So, if I am faced with a battle, I get into the word, find out what it has to say, and refuse to speak anything else. This is true Biblical positive confession.

That response was such a blessing - I know I'll never reconcile it, I know it is indeed a lie.

In order to enlighten people - I became a Christian some 16 years ago, sat under charismatic teaching which almost, but never quite fed enough spiritually. Some months ago I was truly saved, the awareness of sin, what Christ had done on the cross so strong I wept for days.
Since then several things I used to do as have been removed completely, my spiritual life has transformed from what God could do for me into how can I seek and serve Him... Amongst many other things.

Church life, sadly, has become difficult because of the awareness of this teaching, reinforced frequently now. Praise God for this site, among others that edify the body with the word of God, the good news of the gospel and people like yourselves able to help me out.

[by richrock on 2012/7/25 11:49:19
We are all capable in our fallen state as well as saved state to praise others. I'm specifically talking about a pastor encouraging us to speak life into whatever situation we are in (and prayer was not mentioned -I'd just pray anyway than go around saying ' I will get that new motorbike' etc)]

For me personally, I would run from this church if that's what he's teaching.

For you to discern when its a very clever counterfeit lie and when its the truth is to really seek God earnestly. Then He will start teaching and revealing to you and give you more discernment.

Hi! 'Twayneb'

Thank you for your reply. I've read it intently and with much interest.

I was particularly struck by your saying: "I am talking about speaking the word of God over each and every situation in our lives".

This is quite a telling statement which you've made here.
Frankly, God doesn't need any help from you nor anyone else to have His word accomplish that which it has set out to perform.
So, your choosing to "speak the Word of God over every situation" is a rather redundant exercise.
If you should wish to speak anything about the Word of God, it should about be your faithful obedience; your faithful cooperation with it.

Yes, a Christian might wish to speak about His faith in the eternal power of the Word; much in the same manner as Mary saying "Be it unto me according to thy word".
But clearly, the extent of Mary's participation with the Word was limited to her voluntary cooperation with it.

I honestly don't mean to offend you, 'Twayneb', but these sort of ideas find their origins in mysticism or the chantings of Buddhism.

You continued adding: "When we refuse to speak anything but the word of God in a given situation, we bring our own mind, will, and emotions into agreement with what God has to say in the matter. This is an act of faith, and it also reinforces the word of God in us".

Do you honestly think that God needs you to "come into agreement" with His word?
Again you indicate yourself as desiring to be more than a cooperator with the Word of God. You insist that the power of the Word to accomplish is somehow dependent on your mind, will and emotions.
This is a complete fallacy.

Then you stated, "The word of God brings faith".
The Bible doesn't say that "the Word of God brings faith".
No, the Word of God initiates faith; it solicits your faithful cooperation; it invites your voluntary obedience.

Now, 'Twayneb', I'm not suspecting that you're some weird heretic 'er anything like that. It's just that you've got some doctrinal vocabulary issues and these are interfering with the truth of the gospel.

Hi! 'RichRock'

I'm so pleased to read what you have shared concerning your Christian journey. I'm very encouraged by it.

Actually, I myself keep coming back here for very selfish reasons; to be blessed by reading about the experiences and probing questions that some express here.

I'm much more easily social in MouseLand; simply because I've never successfully learned the inz-an-outz of social etiquette in the real world ... and, I've kinna' shy too.

But in MouseLand, I feel very comfortable because everyone is compelled to value the inward appearance of a person and the treasures therein. In the real world, the integrity of a person can be so often judged wrongly by their outward appearance or negated by their lack of excellent speech.

[by Blayne on 2012/7/25 16:08:35
..Actually, I myself keep coming back here for very selfish reasons; to be blessed by reading about the experiences and probing questions that some express here]

Blayne,
don't you dare leave this forum for the forseeabl future. Don't you know by now how blessed your posts are for the members here. I'm pretty sure God wants you to stay in this forum for the time being.