The thing the Holy Spirit will detect in you is your nature that can never work in His service. And no one but God can detect that nature in you. Do you have anything to hide from God? If you do, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin in your life, don’t just admit it— confess it. Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master, whatever the humiliation to your right to yourself may be?

~from the September 24, 2007 My Utmost For His Highest

I never thought about the difference between “admitting” and “confessing”; in fact I have used them somewhat interchangeably. But in the way that Oswald teaches in this devotion, it made me realize the incredible difference in heart condition between the two words. Just because I admit that I have done something, that doesn’t imply that I am sorry for it or regret doing it; in fact, it almost implys the oppisite! If I am simply admitting to something but do not have the heart or desire to actually confess it to the Lord, I beleive that it reveals a stubornness in my heart and a lack of genuine spiritual remorse for having done it. 1 John 1:9 does not say “if you admit your sins”; it says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.(NASB)
When I die and instantly am in heaven with God the Father, I don’t want Jesus to walk in and just admit he knows me before the Father; I want Him to confess his intimate knowledge and relationship with me, to plead for me to be saved from the fires I richly deserve, to be excited for me to have finally made it home so that I may hear the words “Well done, good and faithful servant“.