Nowadays, there are many who believe in the power of "positive confession," or the act of saying, pronouncing or declaring good things towards one's self or towards others. While it does have good effects, we should know the right things to declare to ourselves.

Speak God's Word

Friends, it is wrong to believe in the power of positivity if it is not based on the truth of God's Word. Positive confession alone will not work if what we are declaring is not what God has declared over us.

For example, did you know that at one time in the Old Testament, a king listened to many prophets who spoke "positive" things but ended up facing demise?

"King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah, dressed in their royal robes, were sitting on thrones at the threshing floor near the gate of Samaria. All of Ahab's prophets were prophesying there in front of them. One of them, Zedekiah son of Kenaanah, made some iron horns and proclaimed, 'This is what the Lord says: With these horns you will gore the Arameans to death!' All the other prophets agreed. 'Yes,' they said, 'go up to Ramoth-gilead and be victorious, for the Lord will give the king victory!'" (1 Kings 22:10-12)

Those declarations and that prop that some prophet made sure sounded positive, right? But when we read the whole chapter of 1 Kings 22, we find that both kings and their armies were defeated, and King Ahab even died. What happened? Those positive declarations weren't founded in God.

Grounded in God's Word

Friends, positive declarations are of no avail if they are not grounded in the Word of God. Worse, they will backfire if they go against what God says, just like what happened in the story above.

Make it a habit to read God's Word and declare it to yourself, instead of declaring other "positive" things. Ezekiel 37 gives us insight regarding the matter.

God's Word should set the tone

In Ezekiel 37, the prophet Ezekiel was taken by God to the valley of dry bones. There, God caused Israel's dead to rise again, but He did it through Ezekiel's mouth. How?

"So I spoke this message, just as [God] told me... So I spoke the message as [God] commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army." (see Ezekiel 37:7, 10)

God commanded Ezekiel to speak His Word to the dry bones, and they went back to life. Ezekiel didn't merely speak positive words from his store of encouragements. Rather, he spoke what God told him to speak, and consequently saw what only God can do – bring back dry bones to life, complete with flesh, blood, and breath.

In the same way, friends, we have to let God's Word fill our mouths with what we declare over ourselves. We can't expect God to do to us what He didn't say. Let His Word be our declaration – and source of expectation.