“But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”
Hebrews 3: 6
And
“According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.”
Philippians 1: 20
We are to walk with such confidence in this life that we are unmovable. Confidence is the belief that we will act right and be effective. In these perilous and difficult days, it is easy to be fearful of falling short and missing it. The enemy wants us to walk with anxiety and fear of failure so that we walk cautiously and gingerly. The devil knows there is power in confidence.
Smith Wigglesworth said:
“There are times when a stone wall seems to be in front of us. There are times when there are no feelings, when everything seems as black as midnight, and there is nothing left but confidence in God. What you must do is have the devotion and confidence to believe that He will not fail and cannot fail. You will never get anything if you depend on your feelings. There is something a thousand times better than feelings, and it is the powerful Word of God. A divine revelation within you came when you were born from above, and this is real faith. To be born into the new kingdom is to be born into a new faith.”
When we are moved and held by our feelings, we stand strong when things look good for us, but when challenges come that are greater than us, we become shaky. The enemy senses the blood in the water and launches his attack. When we lose our confidence, we begin trying harder, and all too often, the harder we try, the more we fail.
We must run to the Secret Place and get our eyes back on Him. Sometimes, we just need to get some small wins in which we see Him move on our behalf, and our confidence is restored.
Smith explained:
“There is a rest of faith that rests in confidence in God. God’s promises never fail. ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’ The Word of God can create an irresistible faith, a faith that is never daunted, a faith that never gives up and never fails.”
If we go back to the Book of Hebrews and continue reading, we see:
“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness.”
Hebrews 3: 7, 8
Here we see some powerful keys! We must run to the Secret Place to hear His voice, especially in the day of trial, and secondly, we must not harden our hearts. How do we start to fail to hear His voice or harden our hearts? Smith explained:
“We fail to realize the largeness of our Father’s supply. We forget that He has a supply that cannot be exhausted.”
We must never allow our vision of Him and His resources to become too small and our vision of our problems, symptoms, or circumstances to become bigger! He has unlimited resources and unlimited ways to get those resources to us. We need to get aside into the Secret Place so we can hear His voice once again. Oh, we need His voice to be fresh. There is something so reassuring and comforting about the voice of Our Father. We need to run once again into His Presence so that we might today hear His voice. We need to know today His promises are for us. We need to know today His love and care for us. When you think about a married couple who are in love, there is a need for each party to express and reveal their love to the other. Yesterday’s words become faint and fade.
Smith said:
You cannot talk about things that you have never experienced. God has a process of training us. You cannot take people into the depths of God unless you have been broken yourself. I have been broken and broken and broken. Praise God, for “the LORD is near to those who have a broken heart” (Ps. 34:18). You must have a brokenness to get into the depths of God.
When life becomes too complex, He brings us back to the basics and seeks to capture our ears and eyes. In times of difficulty and trial, we return to our old ways and seek to find a way to overcome them. But He wants us to stop leaning on the flesh and rest in Him. This sounds so easy, but our flesh hates it and resists it. But our flesh must be crucified, and we must return to the place of confidence in Him.
Smith said:
God’s power cannot come out of you unless it is within you. We must have all inward confidence and knowledge that we are God’s property, bought and paid for by the precious blood of Jesus. God wants you to know how to claim the victory and shout in the face of the Devil and say, “Lord, it is done.” (See Revelation 21:6.)
God wants us to abide long enough in the Secret Place until we are so transformed that we stand fully persuaded. How? Because we come to know Him, and when you know Him, it is easy to believe Him.
Smith added:
God has a million ways of undertaking for those who go to Him for help. He has deliverance for every captive. He loves you so much that He even says, “Before they call, I will answer” (Isa. 65:24). Don’t turn Him away.
Think about the fact that even before we come and ask Him, He knows what we need. He is just seeking that we come and ask! He desires that we come before Him in confidence and boldly ask Him.
“Trust in Him at ALL TIMES, you people; POUR OUT your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.”
Psalm 62: 8 (Emphasis added)
Run to Him and pour your heart before Him, allowing Him to speak into your life and bring any correction if necessary. Make it a habit so that at ALL TIME, you seek His face in the Secret Place.
Smith added:
It is a great truth for us to understand. In this glorious position of God’s own, we come to a place where we know with confidence, we say it without out fear of contradiction from our own hearts or even outside voices, es, “Beloved, now we are children of God” (1 John 3:2).
He wants us to know that we are His children, and He is a good, good Father. He is a faithful God who will not fail because He can’t fail! Such confidence is built by abiding in the Secret Place and allowing His Word to abide in us.
Confidence changes our walk and how we talk. Confidence demands respect and puts fear in the enemy. When I was a sales manager, I sought to train reps to walk with confidence. Yes, confidence and not arrogance or weakness. Customers know when a rep is desperate and demands more compromises. Weakness always produces confidence. Arrogance is a false confidence that does more damage than good. But confidence is powerful. Customers like to buy from confidence reps because they know they are buying something good and getting good value. Confidence breeds confidence.
“I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.”
Psalm 16: 8
And
“My soul, waits silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved.”
Psalm 62: 5, 6
He is your Source, and He is your Supply. Stop looking to men or things and look to Him. Your expectation must be in Him.
We serve a confident God who seeks to impart to us confidence. When we are confident, we are not looking at what the enemy is doing, but our eyes are fixed on Him.
Smith said:
I want us to examine ourselves in the light of the Word. God has definitely purposed that we should inherit all of the Scriptures, but we must meet the requirements necessary to claim them. Remember member this, there are any number of things you may quote without out possessing the essential reality of them. I want us to have something more than the literal word. Words are of no importance unless the believer has the assurance of the abiding of those words. You can quote the words of Scripture without being in the place of victory.
The Lord wants you to abide in a place of confidence where nothing distracts, and nothing shakes you.
