That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. (Romans 10:9-10)
" + "James tells us that a "double-minded" person is "unstable" in everything he does (1:8). When we come to God, we cannot we have to be clear that we want God to respond to us according to his will. James says that we should ask in faith believing that you are talking to a living God and that God will respond to you in the positive (Heb 11:6). It is easy to take issue with this scripture because we do not think in faith. Things in our world are so conditional and transitory—we are used to being let down—thus making it difficult for us to conceive of receiving something (according to his will) from God simply because we asked and believed him for it. So, in many ways, we become double-minded. We do not know what to think about the things we say to God. We are uncertain of whether to believe that God is faithful, able, and will or that God is fickle, weak, and won't. We vacillate from belief and unbelief all too easily because of the things we see. Nowhere is this statement truer than in our use and understanding of the name of Jesus.
" + "Christians use the name of Jesus for all sorts of things. We use his name as an as a declaration of profane feelings. We use his name to justify our evil desires. We place his name on T-shirts, the buildings we have created, and other markers of our territory. But all too often, we seem to not understand who Jesus is, and why we need his name. This evinces the fact that we have a major problem knowing what to believe about the name of Jesus. Essentially, we are double-minded about his name. Subsequently, when we cry out to the Lord, in the name of Jesus, we generally do it with all of this baggage behind us. The misunderstandings we have about his name do not go away when we kneel down to pray and ask him for something. All of that stuff is still there influencing our decision making, influencing what and when we go to God. However, God does not want us to be double-minded. God wants us to ask in faith because it is only through asking in faith that we can see the manifestation of the invisible God.
" + "In the above scripture, Paul says we "confess" with our "mouths the Lord Jesus." There is so much one could say on this command to bear witness to God's goodness. But the point here is that this confession of the name of the Lord has to come without the vestigial misuse of his name. Frequently, we say "Jesus" for whatever reason we feel like saying his name. But what is the name of the Lord for? Why do we need his name? The name of the Lord is the means by which we overcome the enemy; it is our "strong tower" (Prov 18:10). So why do we not utilize it for this purpose? Why don't we understand that our calling on the name of the Lord is for the purpose of bringing God's salvation to the world? It is because we call on the Lord with minds attached to things that have nothing to do with his name. His name does not mean what the scriptures teach it means to us. When we are asking for "real salvation" in everyday life, we ask for the bartender to pass the Courvoisier. Other times we may ask the clerk to pass the Lotto ticket. If it's not drugs or money, the issue is internal in that we curse those that offend us. We may stop talking to them or we may just curse them verbally. We choose to find another route of deliverance from evil than the name of Jesus because we have a place for his name. In many cases, it's not for what God said. Thus, we have no choice but to be double-minded about it because the purpose God intended for something is its purpose. Other kinds of usage are wrong. Our minds are towards coming to God but still attached to doing our own will, double-mindedness.
" + "The name of the Lord is for our rescue from the power of darkness not to help us go further into darkness. We as the people of God must recognize the power of the name of our Lord Jesus. Confessing his name comes with great responsibility for it is the means by which we come into his presence. There is power in the presence of the Lord. Do we believe this? Our misuse of the Lord's name suggests that we do not. Let us change our ways on this point brothers and sisters. Let us endeavor to be saved by our savior, the Lord Jesus, calling on his name in faith expecting that he will answer our cry to save and deliver. This happens if we keep ourselves from the filth of foolishness we attach to it.
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