It Is Ok To Make A Negative Confession..

Angel*Eyes said:

Pinetree, are you a real life male version of the SNL Debbie Downer character?

:oSeriously, be careful. Look what happened here :

18 Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years."
19The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.
20And now you will be silent and not able to speak
until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time."
21Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22When he came out, he could not speak to them.

Click to expand...

Angel*Eyes said:

A habit of just walking around and talking negatively is the best way to get and stay DEPRESSED. Trust me, I know from personal experience. What we speak influences what we think which influences how we act.


So, should we deny what we feel ??? No.
The BEST time to express our negative feelings is during our intimate time with God. It's best to say something like " God, the situation that I'm in is making me feel angry and afraid. I hand you these negative feelings and ask that you cleanse me of them. Give me strength and wisdom for this situation."

Click to expand...

Oscarr said:

There is a paradox in the Christian life. If we go to God commending ourselves on how good we are, God will ignore us. Note the difference between the Pharisee and the publican in the parable of Jesus. I am not saying that we should go around saying "aint it awful" to everyone we meet; but when we go before God, it is much better to talk with Him about our sins, faults and weaknesses, because when we do that, He covers them, and lets the graces of Jesus shine out through us. But if we come before God and talk with Him about how spiritual we are, and how much better than others less fortunate than us are, then the Lord will punish and discipline us until we learn humility.

We are what we are through the grace of God. We have nothing that has not been given to us by the Lord. Without Him we can do nothing.

When I see these great flashy ministers and evangelists strutting around advertising themselves with great big pictures of themselves and their names in lights, I see people who are commending themselves, making a great show in the flesh, while fooling people to think they are moving in the Spirit. It is a great tragedy to see thousands of people running after them, as if they were more important to them than Jesus Himself.

We must not lose touch with the crucified, suffering Saviour, who hung on that cross for us. He has now been raised to honour and glory, and prays for us to the Father. We need to be humble under His mighty hand. I have no hesitation in talking about my faults and failings to the Lord. I never hide my sinfulness from Him, because I depend on His grace and love to lift me up. Isn't it much better to be lifted up by the Lord with his love and grace, than to lift myself up and appear to others as some great spiritual dude, when I know that I am not really.

He knows who I am, and I am not afraid to let it all hang out with Him. Then, when I minister to others, He is free to let His glory shine through. I treasure that most of all.

Click to expand...

Strong in Him said:

Yes .... to some extent.

I don't think Pinetree was suggesting that we walk around talking negatively, looking for problems, always seeing the worst, or whatever. That would cause us to be depressed, not be a very good witness and so on.

But there are people who seem to take this negative confession thing to extremes. Some people might say that if I say "I have M.E", that it is not only a negative confession but that I am owning and reinforcing this illness. It's not, it's stating a medical fact.
If I say "I can't do this essay and am going to fail", then that confession somehow makes it happen. I know there are such things as self fulfilling prophecies; that if you tell yourself often enough that you're useless you'll believe it and therefore not try, or do any work. I also know that if someone in authority were to say this to a child, it couls damage the child for life. But that is not the same as having an off day or a momentary worry.
When I trained as a Local Preacher, I handed in nearly every assignment with the words "this isn't very good; can I do it again if it fails?" The pass mark was 40%, my average was about 65%. When I was a child, I often worried that my parents would be killed - they weren't. In other words, it is not a spritual law that whatever we say, will happen.

As Pinetree has said, the Psalms are full of people telling God how bad/angry they feel. God wants us to be honest with him. He knows our hearts anyway, so there is no point saying "I'm fine" when we're not.
Even Jesus said that we would have trouble in the world, and Paul listed all kinds of hardships that he'd been through - hunger, persecution, shipwreck, near death and so on. There's othing wrong in telling it how it is.

Click to expand...

Elijah2 said:

Mark 14:7

Our Lord Jesus Christ statement isn’t a callous or negative statement. HE is expressing HIS compassion for those who are overwhelmed with sickness and poverty. And through His Message HE expresses the same compassion and encourages others to meet the needs of those who are overwhelmed with sickness and poverty. Where did you get this negativity from, because HE expressing that HE wants others to give freely, and that they are not being coerced? We are in no position to criticise, as we don’t know what is in a giver’s heart.

Matthew 5:4


Well mate, if you are suffering from GRIEF, and I come up to you and placed my arm over your shoulder and comfort you, then is that negative?

Matthew 6:19


Our Lord Jesus Christ is saying that not to give priority to this, when you should be giving priority to another thing. This passage isn’t talking about you having a car, or a savings bank account. It’s got nothing to do with money or material wealth.

Psalm 88:15
From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death; I have suffered your terrors and am in despair.

Psalm 55, we see David sure did not try to play the control game,or think he had to watch every thought or word..

2 hear me and answer me.
My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught 3 at the voice of the enemy,
at the stares of the wicked;
for they bring down suffering upon me
and revile me in their anger. 4 My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death assail me. 5 Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.


David was expressing his intense PAIN through his strong language.


What are your negative confessions?

Mate, Christians don’t make negative confessions, because when confession is being made, so is REPENTANCE.

Be blessed in Jesus' Name.

Click to expand...

didaskalos said:

We should not speak contrary to what the word of God says.
The spies who went into the land to spy it out returned with this report:

Numbers 13:31-33
31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
​

Was there anything here that is a lie? It would appear that they were speaking the truth. There were giants in the land, the people there were stronger. Yet here we see this being called an "evil report."

Look at the response from God against these who choose to speak the "truth" from the natural sense, while ignoring the truth as delivered by God:

Numbers 14:1-45
1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.
10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.(((Is this not a typical response against faith people!!!))
11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?(((This is what the Lord is saying to those who refuse His words and rather insist on their sense knowledge "truth"))
12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
13 And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them
14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.
15 Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
16 Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.(((This is why people do not recieve from God.. they prevent Him by unbelief)))
17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
20 And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
22 Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;(((This is what we do when we listen to the physical truth and fear the actual giants in our lives and refuse the Lord and His word..)))
23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.(((The only people who received the promise were those who ignored the truth about the giants and instead believed the truth of God...)))
25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.
26 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
27 How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. (((This is people who confess the giants in their life (which are truth according to the flesh)but refuse the truth of God.)))
28 Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:
29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,
30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.
32 But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.
35 I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. (((Confessing the "truth" of the flesh makes one a member of the evil congregation!!!)))
36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,(((Speaking "truth" that contradicts God is a slander!)))
37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.(((The ten spies who spoke the "truth" about giants in the land are said to have given an "evil report" and died in a plague!)))
38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.
39 And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
40 And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.(((It is called sin)))
41 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.(((Such do not prosper)))
42 Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.
43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.(((NOTE:Those who had the evil report about the giants and dying would have GOT WHAT THEY SAID if they had been allowed to enter in!!!)))
44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.
45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.
​

This is the long version of Hebrews chapter 3....

Hebrews 3:8-19
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:(((Talking to you here folks)))
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.((ouch!!!)
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
​

That evil "unbelief" was the ten spies speaking the "truth" as they saw it. There were giants in the land. They were more powerful (to the natural man).
But this killed an entire generation... and IT WILL KILL YOU if you do not heed the word rather than you natural senses!!!!

Click to expand...