51_Confidence.pdf

Volume XIV, Issue 1

L EGACY

OF D EREK P RINCE

Confidence

If you could convince people that our country’s economy is going to collapse, and

you could get everybody talking about it, what do you think the result would be? The

economy would collapse! The simple reason is that our economy has one essential

foundation: confidence. The same is true of every similar system—financial, political

or spiritual: if confidence is undermined, it is certain to lead to disaster.

n this article I want to examine three themes

related to confidence: confidence toward God,

confidence toward our fellow believers, and

warnings against giving up our confidence.

his tremendous confidence in God. No matter what

happened, whether his enemies came against him to

devour his flesh, or armies arose to war against him, he

was absolutely confident in the Lord. In Proverbs

3:23–26 we find another beautiful picture of confidence.

Then you will walk safely in your way, and your foot will

not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid;

yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Do not

be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked

when it comes; for the L ORD will be your confidence, and

will keep your foot from being caught.

The Bible consistently teaches that God’s people

need not fear. That is why I have reservations about a

teaching or prophecy that imparts fear to God’s people.

God is saying here, “When trouble from the wicked

comes, it’s not your problem. If you are not wicked, it’s

not going to strike you.”

Verse 26 tells us where to find confidence: “The L ORD

will be your confidence. He will keep your foot from being

caught.” The Lord doesn’t change. He is always in control.

He is never flustered. He never encounters an unex-

pected situation or emergency. He always has the answer.

Confidence in God

I want to examine various examples of confidence toward

God, first from the Old Testament and then from the New. If

you will approach these Scriptures in faith, I really believe

your heart will be filled with godly confidence. A tremen-

dous note of confidence and victory is sounded in the

opening verses of Psalm 27.

The L ORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I

fear? The L ORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall

I be afraid? When the wicked came against me to eat up

my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell.

Though an army may encamp against me, my heart

shall not fear; though war may rise against me, in this I

will be confident… verses 1–3

The secret of David’s victory throughout his life was

T HE T EACHING

Volume XIV, Issue 1

Proverbs 14:26 says, “In the fear

of the L ORD there is strong confidence,

and His children will have a place of

refuge.” If we have a right attitude

toward God, there is no need for

worry. He is our shelter and place

of protection.

In the Old Testament, Isaiah said:

For thus says the Lord G OD , the

Holy One of Israel: “In returning

and rest you shall be saved; in

quietness and confidence shall be

your strength.” But you would not,

and you said, “No, for we will flee on

horses”—therefore you shall flee!

And, “We will ride on the swift

horses”—therefore those who pursue

you shall be swift! Isaiah 30:15–16

God is calling His people to return

to Him, to find rest, and exercise

confidence in Him. Those who reject

God’s call to quietness, trust and

confidence soon learn that their

problems overwhelm them, regard-

less of their schemes of escape. Time

and time again, this is evident in

Israel’s history. When God’s people

were obedient to Him, their enemies

were defeated and Israel had peace.

But when Israel relied on their own

strength, they were defeated and

ultimately scattered throughout the

nations.

In the New Testament, the Greek

word translated confidence is a very

forceful word. It is specifically

related to confidence in speech. In

secular Greek usage it denoted

“freedom of speech,” or the right to

say what you think—almost an exact

equivalent to the liberty of speech

guaranteed by the American

Constitution. It implies that you do

not have to be silent about what you

believe. You have an absolute right

to say it and no one can silence you.

It is a “bill-of-rights” word.

In the New Testament the first

Scripture we’ll look at deals with

having confidence toward God in

prayer.

Beloved, if our heart does not

condemn us, we have confidence

toward God. [We can say anything

we want to God.] And whatever we

ask we receive from Him, because

we keep His commandments and do

those things that are pleasing in His

sight. 1 John 3:21–22

Notice again: the basic require-

ment for having your prayers

answered is confidence. Don’t let

the devil rob you of your

confidence. Exercise your prayer

rights and the liberty of petitioning

because Jesus purchased it for you.

It is written into your constitution.

Another attack of the enemy that

many Christians have difficulty in

facing is condemnation. Romans 8

shows us that life in the spirit is a life

of freedom and liberty, without a

shadow of condemnation. You

cannot enter or live the life

presented in Romans 8 if you are

living under condemnation. This

essential requirement is stated in the

opening verse of the chapter: “There

is therefore now no condemnation to

those who are in Christ Jesus, who do

not walk according to the flesh, but

according to the Spirit.” Condem-

nation is the great barrier to the

liberty, joy, peace, and power of the

Holy Spirit. But a right attitude of

confidence will enable us to

overcome this obstacle in our lives.

having confidence in God.

It is interesting that the word

confidence in the English translations

comes from different Greek words,

depending on whether the confi-

dence is in God or in men. For

obvious reasons, God does not

expect us to exercise the same kind

of confidence in our fellow believers

that He requires us to have toward

Him, but He does expect us to

exercise trust. Although trust more

closely represents the original Greek

word for the attitude we should have

toward other Christians, the New

King James Version uses the word

confidence .

It is obvious from Paul’s epistles

that he had the same kind of difficult

people to cope with that we have

today. The Corinthians were getting

drunk at the Lord’s table; they were

misusing the gifts of the Spirit; one

man was living with his father’s wife;

they needed instruction about finance.

In fact, they had many problems! Yet I

want you to notice what Paul said to

those people in 2 Corinthians after

he had “straightened them out” in

his previous letter.

And I wrote this very thing to you,

lest, when I came, I should have

sorrow over those from whom I ought

to have joy, having confidence in you

all that my joy is the joy of you all.

verse 3

That is an amazing statement

when you consider the problems

these people had. Paul says he has

confidence in them in all things!

To me, that indicates that Paul was

a giant of the faith.

I believe the capacity to have

confidence in people is a mark of

spiritual maturity. I also believe

that if I have confidence in people,

it does something for them. If a

parent has confidence in his

Confidence in

Other Believers

The second aspect of confidence

is having confidence in our fellow

believers. We would probably all

agree that this is even harder than

the teaching legacy of derek prince | dpm archive

Volume XIV, Issue 1

children, it lifts them up; if he

doubts and criticizes them, it puts

them down and breeds insecurity.

Parents who always criticize and

never praise their children may

think they are clever. But pointing

out faults in a person doesn’t prove

you are clever, because a person’s

faults are usually obvious. To have

confidence in people is far harder

than to doubt or criticize them,

and it requires the power of the

Holy Spirit.

Let’s look at some other

Scriptures about trusting our

fellow believers.

I have confidence in you, in the

Lord, that you will have no other

mind; but he who troubles you shall

bear his judgment, whoever he is.

Galatians 5:10

me, I realized that wasn’t so. I came

to see that when the Lord took me

on, He took on a lot of problems

that were going to take Him infinite

patience and wisdom to deal with.

But I thank God that today I share

His confidence that He will finish

what He started—even in me! Paul

makes another remarkable assertion

in 2 Thessalonians 3:3–4:

But the Lord is faithful, who will

establish you and guard you from

the evil one. And we have

confidence in the Lord concerning

you, both that you do and will do

the things we command you.

How many pastors can say that

about the people looking to them for

leadership? If pastors believe in their

people, it will both motivate them and

encourage them in the Lord. But if all

the pastor sees is their problems,

they will soon come under self-

condemnation and discouragement.

Confidence liberates the people

about whom you are confident.

Jim Moore once said, “When a

man quarrels with his wife, his

greatest weapon against her is to

bring her under condemnation.”

When you bring your wives under

condemnation, husbands, you are

just setting yourself up for a

problem that you’ll have to face

later. But if you encourage them by

your confidence in them, you will

lift them to a place of peace and

security.

they started in faith, they were going

back to works. They started in the

liberty of the Spirit, but they

reverted to religion, ritual, and rule.

And there is no sufficient basis for

confidence in any of these.

There are five separate warnings

in this epistle, all of them written to

believers. We will examine three of

the five. They are some of the

strongest warnings found in the

New Testament. In essence, the

writer says, “Don’t give up your

confidence, don’t become so

religious that you can’t enjoy the

Lord, and don’t become so serious

that your religion is no longer a joy.”

We can get so preoccupied with

doing what we ought to do that we

lose the enjoyment of doing it.

One of the greatest assets of the

spiritual life is spontaneity. We

cannot afford to lose it. When I

look back on my life, I discover

that most of the major decisions I

made were arrived at by accident.

That doesn’t make me sound very

spiritual, but it’s true. For example,

my coming to the United States in

1963, which has been a major

turning point in my whole life,

happened by accident.

All the plans and arrangements

we can work out are not enough;

they won’t get the job done. Plans

made strictly on the level of human

ability merely produce an Ishmael.

Ishmael was the best Abraham

could achieve without God’s

supernatural grace and power. And

he was not good enough.

One test I have used to determine

whether something is of God or not

is to see if it was born

supernaturally. If it was solely the

result of my planning and arranging,

I must question whether it’s from

God. I believe in being practical and

working something out, but its

Being confident of this very thing,

that He who has begun a good work

in you will complete it until the day

of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

Can you believe that about

everyone in your church? Do you

really believe that the Lord will

finish what He started in each one

of their lives? If you do, then you

will feel differently about the

people with whom you fellowship.

You may still be aware of their

problems, but you will see them in

a different context.

My conviction is that the Lord

never started anything He couldn’t

finish. I apply this to my own case.

When the Lord took me on, He took

on a lot of problems. Nevertheless,

He took them on in the confidence

that He could deal with them.

When I was newly saved, having

been a professor, scholar, and

philosopher, I really thought the

Lord was pretty fortunate to get me!

But as the Lord began dealing with

Warnings about Lost

Confidence

Let us now look at the warnings

against giving up our confidence, all

of which come from the epistle to

the Hebrews. The greatest problem

of the Hebrews was that, though

the teaching legacy of derek prince | dpm archive

Volume XIV, Issue 1

origin must be in the supernatural.

That is the difference between

Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was

naturally originated; but Isaac was

supernaturally originated. Isaac was

as far above Abraham’s own thinking

and ability as heaven is above the

earth.

“For My thoughts are not your

thoughts, nor are your ways My

ways,” says the L ORD . “For as the

heavens are higher than the earth,

so are My ways higher than your

ways, and My thoughts than your

thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8–9

We plan on the earthly level; God

initiates on the heavenly level. That

doesn’t mean it will not be worked

out on earth; but we must be sure it

originated in the heavenly realm.

The things that are a result of

human planning will not survive the

pressures that we have to go through.

My marriage with my first wife, Lydia,

was supernaturally initiated. God

showed me whom I was to marry.

Later, Lydia and I were subjected to

pressures we would never have

survived if our marriage had been the

result of human planning.

The same applies to my marriage

with my second wife, Ruth. God’s

will for us in this matter was

revealed to each of us by God-

supernaturally and independently.

Marriage itself is supernaturally

initiated; it did not start on the

human level. God thought

marriage up; man didn’t. That’s

why it is such a solemn sacrament.

There are three specific passages

in Hebrews that contain conditions

based upon confidence. The first is

Hebrews 3:6:

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.

Where it says rejoicing in the New

King James Version, the New

American Standard Version says

“boasting.” We have already seen

that confidence is expressed by

“freedom of speech”—God wants us

to boast about Him. That’s the

condition of being the true church:

that we hold fast our confidence and

boast in God until the end.

Second, Hebrews 3:14 says:

For we have become partakers of

Christ if we hold the beginning of our

confidence steadfast to the end.

This passage shows that our

salvation is conditional upon our

not giving up our confidence. In

traditional theological terminology,

this is known as “the perseverance

of the saints.” Those who do not

persevere do not qualify as saints.

Finally, in looking at Hebrews

10:35–36, we find a reference

taken from the military world.

Therefore do not cast away your

confidence, which has great reward.

For you have need of endurance, so

that after you have done the will of

God, you may receive the promise.

One major piece of a soldier’s

armor was his shield. In Greek

literature, the greatest disgrace for

any soldier was to cast away his

shield and run from the battlefield

without it. When the writer says

here, “Do not cast away,” I believe

he’s thinking about the disgrace of

casting away your shield. So he is

saying, in effect, “Do not cast away

your confidence, which is your

shield. Do not cast it away because

there’s a great reward coming if you

hold on to it.” We must tighten our

grip on that shield of confidence

and resolve not to let it go at any

cost.

Looking ahead, we can see that

the future is both challenging and

frightening. In all parts of the world,

peace is threatened, and upheaval

and uncertainty rule the day. Yet

beyond this, we as Christians have a

King who has a plan and an answer

for our particular situation. It is He

who has said that He will be our

refuge in the time of the storm. The

kingdom that He rules is

unshakable and the foundation we

build on cannot be moved.

Therefore, we may appropriate for

ourselves every one of the promises

given in Proverbs 3:23–26 to those

who make the Lord their

confidence:

I will walk safely in my way.

When I lie down, I will not be afraid.

I will not be afraid of sudden terror,

Nor of trouble from the wicked when

it comes.

The Lord will be my confidence.

Adapted from a New Wine article

of the same name by Derek Prince.

For further study, we

recommend Derek’s message:

Seven Steps to Christian

Love

A contribution to help cover cost will be

appreciated, but is not necessary.

Reproduction of articles

from the DPM Archive for

free distribution is permitted.

To receive regular teaching

and encouragement from

DPM by e-mail, subscribe at

derekprince.org.

Derek Prince Ministries

P.O. Box 19501

Charlotte, NC 28219

704.357.3556

www.derekprince.org

ContactUs@derekprince.org

TL061

the teaching legacy of derek prince | dpm archive

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: