Positive Confession

Definition and Meaning

Positive confession is the teaching that when believers repeatedly speak God's promises aloud, those words come to pass in reality. Here "confession" does not mean acknowledging one's sins; it means affirming and declaring something with the mouth.

The teaching encourages believers, even in difficult circumstances such as illness or poverty, to say things like "I am healed" or "I am blessed." Conversely, it holds that negative words bring about bad outcomes. It is best known as a core teaching of the Word of Faith movement.

Biblical and Historical Background

Proponents cite the following passages in support:

• Mark 11:23-24: the saying that whoever tells a mountain to be cast into the sea, and does not doubt, "shall have whatsoever he saith"
• Romans 10:9-10: the passage teaching that "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation"
• Proverbs 18:21: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue"

Historically, the teaching drew on the writings of E. W. Kenyon in the United States in the early twentieth century. It is generally regarded as having been popularized by Kenneth Hagin. It later spread, together with prosperity theology, within parts of the charismatic movement and Pentecostalism.

Critics argue that the teaching places human words ahead of God's will and thereby undermines the sovereignty of God. They also contend that Kenyon was influenced by the nineteenth-century American New Thought movement, which held that thoughts and words create reality. Proponents counter that positive confession is not autosuggestion but an act of laying hold by faith of promises already recorded in Scripture.

Practice in Korean Churches

In Korean churches the term is used in two senses:

• Narrow sense: it refers to the doctrine of the Word of Faith movement.
• Broad sense: across denominations, it refers to the exhortation to refrain from negative speech and to speak words of faith and thanksgiving. The practice of making declarations in prayer or preaching, such as "…let it be so," is close to this sense.

In the Full Gospel tradition (including the Korea Assemblies of God), the "fourth-dimensional spirituality" of David Yonggi Cho, which emphasizes thought, faith, dreams, and words, is widely known. Some observers hold that its emphasis on the creative power of words overlaps with positive confession. Full Gospel adherents explain this emphasis as an expression of biblical faith.

Theologians and pastors in the Presbyterian Reformed tradition frequently criticize positive confession together with prosperity theology. They point out that answers to prayer depend on God's will (1 John 5:14). They also worry that overemphasizing the power of words leads people to attribute unhealed illness to a lack of faith. In other denominations as well, some accept positive language of faith in itself while urging caution against making it a doctrine.