Confession

Nehemiah Chapter 9

        When we confess our sins we are met with a fresh wind from the Spirit. A wind of clarity of who we are, Who our Lord is, and what He has done for us. What we are NOT met with, is condemnation, shame, or a disappointed Father. When we cry out to the Lord for the forgiveness of our sins and transgressions, the veil that lays between us and the depth of God is removed. 

    The people of Israel were no different than us today. They too would fall into sin patterns, and find themselves fogged in their identity. The enemy has no new tactics. He has worked from generation to generation in the same way… He loves to make sin appealing, watch us fall, and then distort our brains in the midst of our transgressions of what God thinks of us, who we are, and what is waiting on the other side of our repentance. Oftentimes we are convinced that because we sinned we are dirty and useless. We think that because we have abused the grace of God, there must only be condemnation when we turn and repent to Him. But what we deserve, and what God offers to us, are two very different things...

Nehemiah writes of the people of Israel, “The people were assembled fasting and in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads.”(9:1)... Confession needs to be approached with a heart posture of desperateness. Because that is what we are. Desperate. If our Savior was not in the picture we would be condemned. We would be destined to hell. When we realize that on our own we are incapable of the forgiveness and cleansing of our transgressions, we feel a shift in our heart from pride to the desperate dependance of a child towards their Father. 

    Nehemiah continues, “The Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the inequities of their fathers”(9:2).... There needs to be an intentionality in our confession. It is not a passing conversation or a burden to cry out to Abba Father. It is a gift. A miracle. It is a dedicated moment of confession. 

We can wholeheartedly and unashamedly confess to the Lord because of the promise that is on the other side of our confession. This hope in the promise produces faith. There is a trust that we obtain through faith, that at our repentance we are met with the great mercies of our Lord. This is meant to produce an eagerness within our heart. We are quicker to make room for the confession when we have faith that the Father offers good things to His children who desperately cry out to Him.  

The Israelites spent their whole day practicing this whole hearted, pure postured, confession. The people of Israel would read from the law (the word of God) and then confess their iniquities. Their confession was met with the written Word of God. This is a necessary act in the practice of confession, because the word of God protects us. The word of God is alive and active, acting as a sword, killing the lies that creep towards us... The enemy will linger into our moment of confession and begin to whisper lies to us. He tries to shame us and guilt us into shortening our confession. He will try to pervert the truth of scripture... In Christ, and in confession, there is FULNESS of life. But the enemy will take a truth, and twist it to fit his own evil intent. Instead of the promise of the fullness of life, He will whisper false prophecy that we are only receiving partial freedom. The enemy doesn't want full freedom for us. He wants to convince us that we have finished confession after only speaking a few iniquities. But as we hold back before the Lord, we are hindering ourselves. How can we experience the fullness of freedom if we do not surrender all to Christ! We need to get it all out in front of the Lord! 

The enemy hates confession because he knows that our God is capable of forgiving us of all transgression, every sin, and any iniquity. On the other side of confession is forgiveness, on the other side of forgiveness is freedom, and that freedom allows for us to steward our gifts deeply and greatly for the glory of the Most High. When people begin to confess, we soon see a body of believers living freely and fully in Christ. The darkness cannot have fellowship with the Light. Darkness ceases to exist where the Light shines. And oh how bright the Light that shines through the spirit of a repenting heart!

The Israelites followed their confession with worship. This is a piece of the fresh wind we are promised on the other side of our confession... The soul of a worshipping being finds great delight in their creator, and when we delight ourselves in the Lord, He gives us the desires of our heart! He is the only One who can turn the words of confession into utterances of praise on our lips. Praise be to God that after the words on confession leave our tongue He is embracing us in His arms as the Merciful Father that He is. He truly holds no transgression against us! Christians often go through seasons of "distance" between them and God. They feel confused and discouraged because of the lack of feeling the nearness of the Spirit. Although God will never separate Himself from us once we have received His Spirit, sometimes, God will separate us from the feeling of His nearness us to test our hearts (2 Chronicles 32:30-32). But, I have seen that often this feeling is not from a test, but a need for confession! A spiritual blockage that is felt in the secret place, can often be redeemed with the confession of sins.

 If we confess, He is faithful and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all that we have confessed. The Israelites discover this cleansing. They find a new clarity. They were living in sin and getting caught in the fog of it. Their sin, partnered with the lies of the evil one, had caused them to fall into a trap. As we see today, when we are caught in the midst of our sin and transgression, we start to forget what awaits us on the other side of our confession. We feel bound to the sin patterns in our life. We feel that we are a slave to the enemy and to our flesh. The Isrealites were stuck in a box of uncertainty. A jail cell of shame. They were walking in the continuous circle of false identity. But we see that after they confess, the Spirit of the Living God breathes on the confusion, and the fog is lifted. There is a new light that shines on the Spirit within their hearts. When we confess our sin, our mind is defogged, our anxious thoughts are untangled, and we have a clear image of the mercy and goodness of God. What better way to experience His grace than by confession and repentance! 

Once we confess, just as Nehemiah writes of the Israelites, we can “stand up and bless the Lord [our] God from everlasting to everlasting”(9:5). We can shout from the freedom within our soul, “Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise”(9:5-6). After the people of Israel confess, we see that immediately, they remember Who God is and what He has done for them. The rest of Chapter 9 (9:5-37), is their proclamation of the perfect character of the Lord. It is obvious that their unconfessed hearts were standing in the way of their clear mind and pure worship. See, there is a weight that burdens a heart when there is a lack of repentance. When we are caught in the deception of sin, it's hard to recall the works of the Lord in your life. When we are living in sin, all we feel that we can see, is the temptation in front of the eyes of our heart. A soul that has not repented is a being attempting to run the race, burdened and blind. How can we run well if we are carrying the burden of shame that lies in a heart that has not repented?... The enemy loves to take his hand of temptation and place it over the eyes of Christs children to keep them from revealing the abundance of life that awaits them...

We must notice the Israelites were thorough with the confession. They held nothing back from God. Even the small “insignificant” sin, they laid before Him. When we have confidence in Who we are confessing to, we are bolder in our confession. This means that we need to remind ourselves regularly Who the Lord is… When our heart sets the foundation of the practice of our confession on the fact that we are confessing our sins and impurities to the God Who has forgiven us of all sin, Who willingly gave His Son for us, Who defeated death, Who sits enthroned in the heavenly places... We will have no reservation. We will confess often. We will eagerly cast our confession at the foot of the throne of The One Who relentlessly forgives us. Because we KNOW that He is merciful and loving toward us. We KNOW that there is no sin too great or transgression too deep that could separate us from His love…. When we are confident in the truth, we are bold, quick, and eager to confess. His love and forgiveness can not run out, and therefore we should never cease to confess. The cross implied that we are sinful people, and that the extent of our forgiveness had to be deep and powerful. Therefore, everyday we should be confessing and repenting of sin. There is not a day that goes by that we are not in desperate need of the cleansing of our Lord... Why would we let anything stand between us and the nearness of Christ when His blood has made a way for us!

When we know the freedom that is offered on the other side of confession, then we are quicker to confess. Our Spirit longs for this freedom, because it was divinely created for this freedom. At your creation, God proclaimed that you are made in His image. As He breathed life into your lungs, you were intended to live in freedom & were destined for Heaven. But the world has tainted us and the Enemy has convinced us, opposing these truths.

But, we must remember that these truths remain despite the lies that deceive us. These truths have not changed. The world has changed, but the gift of freedom from our Loving Savior has not. You have sinned and fallen short, but the promise of forgiveness has not. The enemy has convinced you that confession needs to not be a daily practice because your sin is too great, but the Lord has crushed the serpent's head. Your flesh deceives you that the sin pattern in your life is bondage that you have to live with, but where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. Freedom from sin. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from the schemes of the evil one. 

Confession leads to repentance, that leads to a fresh wind within our soul, that leads to a clear image of Our Creator. This clarity allows us to know Him. As we know the One Who made us, we know what He made us for. 

Do not let a lack of confession stand in the way of stepping deeper into the never ending ocean of the mysteries of the Gospel and Christs love for you. There is more to know and there is more to love. He desires to take your hand and wade deeper into this relationship, but The Spirit is prompting you to confess. He wants to sanctify your heart, but He is urging you to remove the veil that lays between the works of His hands and your heart. This is a veil of lack of confession. 

Remove it and behold the glory of the Lord. Receive your fresh wind. 

Receive the promise on the other side of your confession!