Uncle and his wife had scarcely left their pineapple farm when the community members working on the road that leads to their farm confronted them, demanding their payment of the levy imposed for the work. Expressing gratitude for the work, Uncle promised to pay during his next visit, though he was not aware of the road project.
One of them insisted that Uncle would not pay the imposed levy but rather, a substantial amount of money because Uncle is very rich. His wife looked around and saw that the bulldozer working on the road had pulled down some part of their fence and nobody informed them. Still not apologetic, or sympathetic for the damage, what took the toll was the chorus that the couple was rich and could repair their fence.
“Looking through the broken wall,” Uncle asked them, “do you see pineapples there again? Have cows not destroyed them before we fenced the farm? Staff salaries are still paid from Lagos and this is not right for a farm of this age. Don’t worry, we will repair our fence”. Then, they drove off.
“You made a negative confession yesterday,” Uncle’s wife told him the next morning, “why should you tell the community people that if they looked from the broken wall, they would see that they are no more pineapples?” Uncle would not buy that. “What’s wrong telling the story as it is? Should the people not know the true situation of things so that they will stop making wrong assumptionsand assessments?” He defended. Aunty insisted that believers, in all situations, should be making positive confessions.
She left immediately to transact a business in the bank and a few hours later, she was back. She asked Uncle how he was getting on with the pains in his right eye. “Why are you tempting me?” He asked her. Smart woman, trust her, she caught the joke immediately. “So, you want to avoid making a negative confession?” She asked him. With his knowing smile, he teased her by ‘confessing’ that the pain left his eyes last year! The discussion by the couple then set me thinking: How do we communicate our problems to others? What is positive confession and when is it telling lies?
For two days, Uncle’s driver did not come to work and he did not inform anybody. Aunty called him, enquiring why he was absent from work. “I am very strong,” he replied. If he is working in the bank and was issued a query and he replied that way, would he not be fired? Imagine a man taking his wife to the hospital because of typhoid, and if the doctor asks him what is wrong with her and he says, “She is okay”, will the doctor not suspect that something is wrong with him upstairs? Take another scenario, where a man takes his car to his mechanic because of brake failure and imagine what the mechanic will do, if he asks the man what is wrong with it, and he says, “Everything is okay!” Your wife made Afang soup and for two nights, in satisfaction, you licked your fingers. You then asked her if it remained for a friend to be invited for dinner. “Plenty,” she replies. You then invited him, only to discover that it has finished! Her porous claim would be that she made a ‘positive’ confession! It is possible to still go to a native doctor after making these ‘confessions’.
Jesus asked the blind man He was healing, how he fared. He confessed that he was seeing men like trees, walking (Mark 8:24). Jesus did not rebuke him for negative confession before healing him. Peter’s mother-in-law was sick, the sickness was confessed to Jesus. He healed her. The Lord Jesus told His disciples that Lazarus was sick (John 11:11). He confessed later to them that he was dead (John 11:14) but He raised him from the grave. On the cross, Jesus confessed that He was thirsty (John 19:28). “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He asked God (Matt 27:46). When death was at His feet, He shouted, “It is finished” (John 19:30). He yielded the ghost. We should note that in spite of all these tough situations, He had His victory.
“Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, ‘Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea’, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith” [Mark 11:23]. What is important is to recognize that there is a mountain on your way. We do not deny it. The mountain can be the empty land, where you had planted pineapples and cows have eaten them, it can be the sickness attacking your wife, or the brake failure of your car. You then begin to say consistently, what God says concerning such a situation, not considering the ugly circumstances surrounding it. This was played out nobly at the gravesite of Lazarus. Jesus knew that he was dead. Mather, his sister, even informed Him that his corpse was stinking before the burial. Not minding all these, Jesus commanded him to rise from the grave. And he did!
The right confession is also to be committed to what you say. When you are in your closet, you keep on saying it to yourself. When you are in public, you maintain your confession. Jesus shouted in public, “No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever” and His disciples heard it (Mark 11:14). Right confession goes beyond ‘saying’ it. It includes, ‘doing’ it. After commanding the lame man to rise and walk, Peter took him by the hand and lifted him up because he had faith in his faith (Acts 3:7). The man rose up and walked.
When I threw away my ulcer medicine in 1980, I was not denying the fact that I had ulcer. I was standing on the finished work of the Lord Jesus, “By Whose strips ye were healed”. I was angry with Satan, for causing the ulcer, which left my body the day I was born-again, to come back after six years. Thank God that my stand yielded dividend. The ulcer left by body never to return again!
What I have in my bank account is the fact but not the truth. It is not also the issue. The truth is, “My God, shall supply all your (my) needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phl 4:19). I am not discouraged by my human limitation since, “I can do all things through Christ, Who strengthens me”. I smile when the devil sends his agents to attack me, because, “No weapon fashioned against me shall prosper. Any tongue that rises against me in judgment I condemn” (Isa 54:17). The agents of Satan know how to magnify his powers. My confidence is that, “They (we) overcame him (not will overcome him) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12:11).
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0802 3002-471; [email protected]