The Healing Power Of Prayer

Do you know what real revival is? Do you know what real spiritual power is? It is not just getting the roof off. It is getting the walls down. You say, “What do you mean by that, preacher?” Many of us are content to confess our sins to the Lord, to confess our faults to the Lord, we’re glad to get the roof off, but we sure don’t want to get the walls down, do we? I mean, we don’t want anybody else to know what’s in our hearts, we don’t want anybody else to know where we failed. We don’t want anybody else to know our faults and we refuse to get the walls down. But, dear friend, real revival, genuine revival, revival from above, revival that heals, revival that restores, revival that reconciles is revival where we confess our faults not only to God, but to one another.

Now, having said that, I want to say something about the confession of sin. The confession of sin needs to be in keeping with the circle of sin. Now, the devil can use even the confession of sin to his advantage if people are not wise and if people are not scriptural. The Bible does not teach that we should necessarily broadcast our sins to everybody indiscriminately. We may find ourselves casting “…pearls before swine…” (Matthew 7:6).

And, the circle of sin and the circle of confession need to be relatively the same. For example, if there’s private sin in your heart and in your life then there needs to be private confession before God and God alone. The exception to that is you may include your prayer partner if you have somebody that you can trust who is very intimate and you pray with that person and say, “Help me, I’ve had the problem of lust or I’ve had the problem of pride, I’ve had the problem of selfishness, I’ve had the problem, it is a personal problem, it is within me.”

And, that is private sin that is private confession. Now, what about personal sin? And by personal sin, I mean sin against another person. If I sin against Mike, I need to confess to Mike, I need to tell Mike between him and myself alone, and ask Mike to forgive me. If it’s gone no further than that then between Mike and myself I need to confess my fault and say Mike, this is where I failed you or this is where I abused you or misused you or this is the way I’ve sinned against you and Mike, for Jesus’ sake, please forgive me.

Now, that’s not going to drive a wedge between Mike and myself, that’s going to put a bond of love around us. I’ve had people come to me and confess to me some feeling that they’ve had toward me or some resentment they’ve had toward me. I want to tell you ladies and gentlemen, that has never caused me to think less of any individual who’s ever done that—always to think more, always to love that person, and always to esteem that person more—because I know what torture sometimes a person goes through before they can come and humble themselves and say, “I want you to forgive me.” But, I tell you, I feel the power of Jesus when someone does that. I feel the flutter of angels’ wings when someone does that, when we begin to confess our faults one to another.