A Dose of God Confidence
by Joanne Ellison
08.14.17
08.14.17

Good morning, Making Space for God friends! I love Mondays when we get together to discuss ways to allow the Holy Spirit to get into our business. Don’t sign off yet – it really isn’t that anxiety producing. Jesus came and left us His promise to send the Holy Spirit to lead us, come alongside us, and empower us to be His witnesses. He was true to His word and at Pentecost a mighty rushing wind swept over the people and released His Spirit. The intention of this Making Space for God blog is to allow the Holy Spirit to pour out over you, releasing His Spirit into areas that you have felt stuck or in need of help, power, or direction. Today my hope is that you will look more closely at what it means to be confident and be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to fill you with His confidence that enables you to know deep within your soul that “He has this.”

Let’s begin with the online definition of confidence:

The feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust. 

And another definition:

A feeling of self- assurance

Now let’s look at this word through the lenses of a Biblical worldview:

God assurance; trusting that the Holy Spirit will lead and direct your steps (this is my definition, by the way:)

So here is the problem. If we follow the first definition and lean on our own confidence and our confidence tank is empty, then what??!!

We can fill our self with false confidence that comes from:

  • Money
  • Power
  • Our looks
  • Our gifts

And the list goes on an on… But what happens when our money runs out and we no longer have power we once had and we begin to age and our looks change? Friends, I can tell you what happens because in ministry this is what I see on an ongoing basis: Discouraged, empty, purposeless people who have lost their joy.

True joy comes internally from knowing that God loves you and that He has your best interest in mind. True confidence comes when you are God reliant not self reliant. It wells up like a fresh spring of water and radiates as true beauty. 

I am deeply concerned that the secular world has taught us to rely on things that are fleeting such as the list above. And when those things are no longer available or accessible, we lose our joy. My heart’s cry for each of you reading this is that you will ask the Holy Spirit to look deeply into your soul; that you will give Him access to your emotions and allow Him to show you a new way– a way of life that does not depend on self but depends on Him. I speak from experience. There was a time when I buckled up my seat belt and jumped into my fast little car and pulled onto the freeway of self. And I crashed. It’s worth it to pull off this highway and take another path.

A voice is calling: “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. “Let every ballet be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low. And let the rough ground become a plain and the rugged terrain a broad valley (Isaiah 40:3-4)

 

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2 Comments

  1. Nancy W McGowan

    Blessings to you dear Joanne, always good reminder of where our strength and confidence comes from.

    Reply

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