Have Confidence in God Today Part 2

Listen to the Audio Here

Summary

• The Feast of Purim is Friday and reminds us that God is fighting for us and can turn situations around quickly. 
• Pray the 2 minute prayer from the 30 Day Prayer Challenge each day.
• After praying ask the following questions and listen for what God may tell you.
  • What do you know to do over the next 24 hours?
  • Is there anything you have been procrastinating on?
  • What is the most important thing God is trying to show or tell you today?
  • Is there anything else God wants you to do or focus on over the next day?
• The answers are the plan for the next 24 hours. 
• We asked God to help us do TODAY what is right and best according to him. Now we must develop confidence that he is going to help us. Confidence is one of the highest expressions of trust. 
• Think of it like a GPS. First we set the goal or destination. Then we activate the GPS by choosing to start navigation. Then we listen and follow the prompts on the journey. 
• Often we must first deal with condemnation and all the excuses that keep us from starting. Then we commit today to walk out God's plan for our lives. Then we can activate the plan by taking communion as a reminder God is with us which gives us the courage to take the first step. Then we stay tuned in throughout the day and listen for God's directions. 

Full Article

After praying the prayer from the 30 Day Prayer Challenge take the time to create a plan with God for the next day. Here is how to do this...

After praying ask the following questions and listen for what God may tell you.

• What do you know to do over the next 24 hours?
• Is there anything you have been procrastinating on?
• What is the most important thing God is trying to show or tell you today?
• Is there anything else God wants you to do or focus on over the next day?

These questions help to create more clarity on God's direction for our lives. Part of the 30 Day Prayer Challenge is thanking God that he is with us and that he is fighting for us.

Jesus was struck down, smitten, bruised, crushed, spit on, disgraced, and his life was cut short so that we can be one with God and have him on our side. God is fighting for us now. 

Last year my grandfather passed away and I was given his Bible. His Bible contained several notes that said... " Read Isaiah 40." In Isaiah 40 it says "speak tenderly to Jerusalem that her warfare has ended and her sins have been paid for or pardoned." Most of us would agree that Jesus paid for our sins, but we often leave out the other part about our warfare being ended. There is a lot of teaching in the church about warfare but the greatest spiritual warfare strategy I have ever learned is ignoring and choosing to focus on God instead. 

In Exodus God promised that he would be an enemy to our enemies and in the New Testament it says that God is going to crush Satan under our feet. These enemies aren't people. They are spiritual forces that are keeping people bound in darkness and oppression. In the time of Solomon, God fought for his people and gave them peace and rest on every side. 

Because of Jesus our warfare has ended and it is time to move onto confidence in God. That he is with us and working for us. Confidence is the highest expression of trust. It is the state where we move from believing in God to knowing God. In John 17:3 Jesus said that eternal life is to know him and God. This is the definition of eternal life and we can walk in it today. We have been released from the darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God.   

Jesus turned the tables and brought in grace. It used to be that you had to follow the law and do everything right to be right with God, but now we have grace through Jesus. Once God puts a law in place it can't be undone. The Old Testament law is still around if we want to try and earn favor with God. Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Jesus brought the New Covenant that overrides the law and sits above it. It turns the tables and gives us God's grace by simply believing in Jesus. 

In the Feast of Purim we see an example of this. A law was written that was going to destroy God's people, and once the law was written it could not be undone. The answer was to write a new law that would override the old. When Esther and Mordecai wrote a new law the tables were turned and the Jewish people were in control. It says that they gained the upper hand or mastery over their enemies. We used to have the Old Covenant but Jesus turned the tables and brought in the New Covenant which overrides the old and gives us the upper hand and mastery over our enemies. God is now fighting for us. Jesus is the table turner, he even turned over the tables in the temple. Our fight now, the fight of faith, is to keep our minds and eyes fixed on God, when life tries to divert our attention. To put our hope, trust, and confidence in God, that he is fighting for us. When situations come at us in life the greatest warfare we can do is choose to focus on God instead of the darkness, because he will fight for us. 

In the 2 minute prayer we asked God for his direction for our lives. Think of it like a GPS. With a GPS the first step is to decide where you want to go, because 2 destinations can't be entered at the same time. The best destination I have found to plug into our GPS each day, week, month, and year is to be doing what is right and best in God's eyes. If we are doing what God says is right and best then we can trust and be confident that he is going to guide us to a beautiful place. 

The first step is to set the goal. Set the intention of walking out God's plan for your life and commit to it. Set it as the destination and plug it into the GPS. Once the destination is entered into the GPS it will start planning the steps and directions, and God will do the same once we commit. Often we get tripped up in how we are going to achieve our goals, but this is the wrong question to ask. The better question to ask is WHO. Our job is to commit to the plan and then trust and be confident that God can lead us. 

When plugging into a bigger goal or intention condemnation may come. Bigger goals often generate a bunch of excuses as to why we shouldn't get started. We may think we are not capable, not smart enough, not talented enough, don't have the time or resources, we are too old or young, it is not the right time, or maybe we think God is mad at us. God told Moses to go lead the people, but Moses let condemnation creep in because he wasn't a good speaker. Then God told him that HE would help Moses speak and teach him what to say.

In 1 John 3:21 it says that if our hearts don't condemn us we will have confidence before God. The first step in pursuing God's plan for our lives is dealing with this condemnation so that we are confident that God is willing and able to guide us to the destination he created us for. Get rid of the condemnation, plug the destination into the GPS, and trust that God can guide you there. Make the commitment. 

I like to take communion whenever I start something new as a symbol of God being with me. It is a reminder that God is with me, and I can be confident in him. With a GPS once the destination is entered the GPS will ask you to push the START button to start the navigation. To push the start button in our lives we take the first step we know to do, but this will often require a burst of courage, because everything God asks us to do requires faith. 

Once we get started now it is time to listen to the GPS as it guides us to the destination. Once we plug the destination in with God and commit to his direction, then we can activate the plan by taking communion and taking the first step. For me the first step is often a Memorial Portion. In the Old Testament, the priests were commanded to take a small handful of the offerings and burn them before God as a Memorial Portion that would remind God of the people. This can also be seen in the Acts when the prayers and alms of Cornelius came up before God as a Memorial Offering. After praying for God's direction and we can pair it with giving. What I do is take a small amount of money and give it away as a reminder that God can take the little bit we have and do the miraculous with it.

A Memorial Portion doesn't have to be just money. The other day I had more to do than I thought I could get done in a day. After my morning routine I was getting ready to start my plan for the day. But as I was about to start my youngest daughter wanted me to play with her. So we played for about 10 minutes and then I started my plan. God showed up and I was able to get everything done by 4pm and had plenty of time to relax and enjoy time with my family. God reminded me that my day by giving a Memorial Portion, and he took what looked like was not enough time and turned it into more than enough. He is always more than enough of whatever we need. 

Deal with the condemnation, commit to the goal, activate it with communion and a Memorial Portion, then take a bold and confident step of faith to get started. It will often take a bold courageous step of faith to get us started. This takes confidence that God is going to come through. When we take bold confident steps of faith we step out of our comfort zone and into God's capabilities rather than our own. We access his grace by faith. As practical example, God was prompting me to get started with music, but I had never done anything musical in my life. The condemnation was creeping in and there were plenty of reasons not to even start. But I made the commitment and took a step of faith by buying my first guitar. I bought the cheapest guitar I could find and started practicing. Within about 6 months God upgraded my guitar twice for free. Who knows what grace you may run into on the other side of a bold confident step of faith. When we step out we step into God's abilities rather than our own. 

When we see God's grace start to flow and empower our lives, it builds our confidence in him even more. We can see him showing up every day and each day our confidence and trust in him can grow. As we do this day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year God will navigate us along the path.

The other big part of a GPS is staying connected. If your phone loses its connection to the satellite you won't be able to navigate successfully. We stay plugged into God by abiding in Christ. Keep seeking him and staying connected to him and he will navigate you through the day and lead you to a beautiful place. 

Our job is to stay connected to him and keep taking the steps as he guides. The other part of this is showing up with peace, joy, and confidence in him. Peace is our indicator that we are in faith and single minded with our focus on God. When we lack peace it is usually because we are wavering. Joy is our indicator that we are aware of God's presence with us throughout the day. Joy is our indicator that God is there helping us in the present moment. 

If we will start to implement this every day it will lead us to a beautiful place. 

Set the goal, deal with the condemnation and make the commitment to get started. Activate the plan with communion and a Memorial Portion. Then get started with a burst of courage and stay tuned in as God navigates your day. Maintain your connection with him throughout the day.