DEVELOPING AN UNSHAKEABLE CONFIDENCE IN THE WORD OF GOD – NWC 2013 Session 2

Pastor Alex Adegboye

Many people, indeed, most Christians have some confidence but many a times, we don’t enough confidence to be blessed or to receive certain blessings. The bible says there is a reward for confidence. In this message, I want to underscore confidence and help you ascertain whether you have confidence or not, and what you are expected to have confidence in. A lot of time, people have confidence in the wrong things; for instance, people have confidence in unreliable things like fellow human, there wealth, the economy, government, educational certificates and others. The only thing to have confidence in is the word of God. Aside having confidence, you’ve got to grow in it. The confidence in God’s word is so powerful, unshakeable and rock solid. Your ability to preach or teach God’s word is to the extent that it will work. If you lack confidence in God’s word you can’t preach it. There is an appropriate level of confidence in God’s word to be able to preach it. What you have confidence in you do.

Heb 10:35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward.

FOUR REASONS PEOPLE LACK CONFIDENCE

1. People lack confidence because they don’t know it is important.
2. Experience of failure in relationship, work or life makes people loss confidence.
3. Family background, e.g. weak or inferiority complex, from self, parents, schoolteachers, friends, colleagues, e.t.c. for instance slave mentality will lead to lack of confidence.
4. Demonic attacks: attacks from the devil. Unfulfilled dreams or nightmares can make people loss confidence.

There is the tendency of losing confidence when you experience delay, have unanswered prayers, not getting what you want from God’s word as you think you should or you are getting the contrary to what the promises said. This is a very important instruction for anyone who is going to preach God’s word, or anybody whose life would be a testimony to God’s word because there is a great reward attached to it. If you throw away your confidence, you have thrown away the reward also. If you lack confidence you lose the reward also. If you have some confidence, you can develop it.

Isa 30:15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

Someone once said that the Pentecostal Christians are convincing because they are convinced. Our messages are convincing because we are convinced. The point is, when you are convinced you are likely to be more convincing. Jesus said: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. He declared it unarguably. This the way we should preach. This is a true and complete depiction of confidence.

Things Predicated On Confidence

1. Without confidence you cannot defeat the enemy in battle. Without confidence, you can’t cast out devils. To lack confidence is to be unsure.
2. Without confidence, you can’t discern the will of God and the victories He has for you.
3. Confidence is the basis of approaching God effectively in prayer, Heb 4:16.
4. Without confidence you cannot be on the offensive, James 4:17. You cannot stand in the day of battle without confidence. Demons don’t respect people that are not confident or bold.
5. Without confidence you cannot venture into new territories, and as such, you cannot start something new. If you can’t start something new you cannot achieve much, Ps 18:29. The life of David was full of confidence, Ps 112:5-10.

Your confidence in God will put you over impossible situation. A good definition of confidence is an established heart. A man whose heart is established in God is confidence. Mind you, confidence can be misplaced. If your confidence is in your money, position, education, man, church, e.t.c, it is misplaced. A Christian with this kind of confidence is still a baby, Pro 25:19 Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.

It is actually difficult not to have confidence in man because you are always relating with man and the truth is God is actually going to use people. But as long as you live every promise from man should be taken with a pinch of salt so you don’t suffer a broken heart, Phil 3:3, Is 2:22, Ps 118:8-9. Your confidence should be in God totally and not in man, Ps 118:8-9.

HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR CONFIDENCE IN GOD

1. Understanding God’s Provision – God is our source. You must understand that God has made complete provision for us and does not hold any back from us, Hos 4:6. It is He that gives us all we had, have and will ever have. God will surely provide; even those things you seem to have lost he will provide another.
2. Knowing The Word Of God – to know is not in cramming, it begins with meditation. It is knowing the spirit of the word; knowing the essence and purpose of the word, Matt 4:4. The word of God must be eaten (read), and digested (meditated) before it can be useful. What you hear is nothing, but what you think and meditate on is important. What you meditate on is processed, and then you can preach it.
3. By having communion with God – maintaining a life of prayer and communication with the Lord. Communion with God can be through meditation or your thought. Pray in tongues. When you do so, you are praying by your human spirit through the help of the Holy Spirit. Doing this often, sanctified thoughts will flow from your spirit to your mind. If you have communion often, you can say God says this and He will back it up. Communion builds relationship and confidence. Every man of God secures his confidence by communing with God.
4. Remembering Past Victories – this is called Ebenezer. 1 Sam 7:12. When you forget past victories, your confidence reduces, Psa 78. This why we share and remember testimonies.
5. Seeing other people stand – when you see other Christians stand in the same condition you are it builds you confidence.
6. Taking a stand – this implies boldness. Boldness builds up confidence in us, Ps 27:1-5, Eph 6:13.
7. Be filled with the spirit – Eph 18:19. There is nothing on earth as powerful or equal to the working of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life. When the Holy Spirit works on you, you become a changed man. He has come to administrate the work of Christ. The blessings of God come through the Holy Spirit including helping believers to become confident to witness.

As you exercise yourself in godliness you become more confident and develop spiritual muscles. I like to ask you these questions:

1. What are the things you will do if you are sure that if you do it, it will succeed?
2. What will you do or attempt for God, if you knew that if you attempted it it will yield you desired result.
3. Who will you speak to about Christ if you are sure that person needs Christ and will be saved?
4. Are there such people you will speak to if God told you you needed to speak to them?

Only confidence will make you do some unusual things. There is confidence to ask, to speak and do what you’ve never done before.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

You can’t be confident in the bible if you don’t study it and meditate on it, 2 Pet 1:17-21. The prophesies of the scriptures are surer than what anybody says from any other source, Heb 13:5.

PRAYER

Lord, help me to develop my confidence in you.

God bless you.