Confess your sins to God ... not to man

Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet

An American Indian potter, Margaret Tafoya, told me this story.

She had 7 children and wanted them to study the Bible.  So she enrolled them in the McCurdy Mission School and removed them from the Catholic church school.

The priest called her in and told her she could not do this.

She said, "But I want my children to study the Bible."

The priest responded, "People like you don't need to read the Bible.  We will tell you what you need to know."

Margaret continued saying that she wanted her children to study Bible.

The priest then said to Margaret:  If you do this we will put you out of the Catholic church and you will never be able again to confess your sins.

Margaret told me this with great shame.  She said, "I don't know what came over me but I said to the priest: 'I don't have to confess my sins to a man like you.  I will confess them to the Lord.' "

I knew it was the Holy Spirit of God speaking these words through Margaret.

Confess your sins to God.  God is faithful to forgive us our sins.  Only God is able to forgive sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And walk in the light of the word ...

I Jn. 1 ... 5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 

If you lie to people to make yourself appear better, you walk in darkness, not light.

If you commit fornication you walk in darkness.

If you hate other people and despise people and think yourself better than others, you walk in darkness.

But if we walk in HIS light, the Word, doing the Word, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

Confess your sin to God ... not to man.

Put your faith in God ... not in man.

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What about James 5:16 ... 

 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

"faults" is very different from "sins".

Fault is defined in dictionary as:  an unattractive or unsatisfactory feature in a person's character.

Sin is defined in dictionary as:  transgression against divine law

Only God can forgive sins.

Adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbian acts, stealing and other works of the flesh listed in Galatians 5 are "sins".

You can do much harm to the body of Christ by telling other people the sins you have committed.  Settle sins with God, not with man.  Although God might have you go to someone against whom you have committed a sin and ask that person to forgive you.

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Concerning confessing faults to other person ... I did this once in the 1970's when I was unable to work through a problem.  But I selected a godly woman.  So many church people are immature and some do not have the spirit of God.

I would encourage you to be very cautious in doing this.

First, turn to God and try to work through your problem with God.  He might then lead you to go to a godly person.  But start with God. 

An example of a "fault" might be as follows:  I know people who do not want to see any "bad".  This can affect a person to reject seeing truth.  They want to live in a Walt Disney type world.  But as delightful as Disney productions were, they were not true, but fantasy.

Jesus said we worship God in Spirit and in truth.  Jn. 4

Jesus said he would have us wise as serpents and harmless as doves.  Mt. 10 

Jesus said:  Let no man deceive you.  Mt. 24

And to use any scripture you must be led in a spiritual way by the Spirit of God.  I've encountered people who used scripture in fleshly ways and such puts people in grief and trouble and does much harm.

Paul explains: I Cor. 2 ... 9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit:for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 

12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
 
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:for they are foolishness unto him:neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Many of the false doctrines set up in church denominations came by fleshly men in the church interpreting scripture by their own mind separate from the Spirit of God.

God puts HIS laws into our hearts and into our minds and establishes us in HIS laws. (New Covenant:  Heb. 8 & 10) And we must cling to that which God shows us as we live on this earth.  For many men who do not have the Spirit of God on the matter at hand will try to pull us off that shown us by God, using scripture by fleshly minds to try to pull us away from that which God has shown us.

When such happens, I am grieved ... and I turn to God in prayer, allowing God to re-establish me in HIS Word and in the right way concerning the matter at hand.