Faith is a matter of confidence, not so much in ourselves, but in God, in His promises, and the fact that He always keeps them.
Of course, when we are confident in God’s Word we will develop a personal confidence in our ability to keep His Word and employ it as He gives instruction. His confidence builds confidence. The Word calls it ‘from faith to faith,’ His faith bringing about our faith in Him (Rom.1:17).
The two go hand in hand. Faith builds confidence. How can we have faith? Well we know that faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom.10:17).
What we hear and believe from the Word of God becomes reality as we speak it and act on it in faith. That is when we will see the way in which the Word will go to work for us.
Remember, these are not simply idle or presumptuous words, but words of faith right from the heart of faith, and that assurance must be derived from and connected to His Word and Spirit.
Benefits
God gives us many advantages when we are born again. We have an entire list of benefits that are already ours the day we are saved.
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Peter 1:2-4
Everything relative to life and godliness has been given through His divine power. They are outworked by application of His ‘exceedingly great and precious promises.’ It is through these promises that we are invited to partake in the divine nature. We are no longer of the world, but of God.
Can we have confidence in this? Yes, of course. These are promises made by God who cannot lie (Num.23:19). Does He have the will and power to carry them through as we apply them? Again, yes. The Spirit of Christ is the guarantee that His will shall be done in our lives as we discover and activate those promises in our own lives.
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
2 Corinthians 1:20-22
We actually glorify God when we believe and act on the promises of God. We bring His Word and Spirit into play in our lives and ministry. We can serve others with His Word and Spirit by bringing those promises to them on His behalf, in other words, in His name.
He is the Amen
See how He says that the promises of God are, in Christ, Amen, to the glory of God ‘through us.’ We all know that ‘Amen’ means, ‘so be it.’ It means ‘truly,’ or ‘in truth.’ His Amen ratifies the Word as we access and apply the promises God has given us.
The Amen is the assurance of the promise. The Yes is the agreement that it will be carried through. In Revelation 3:14, Jesus calls Himself the Amen. He is the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, meaning the One Who began everything, the Beginner.
So, can we have confidence in His promises? According to the Word of God we can.
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
1 John 5:14-15
God’s will must include His promises. It must include His Word. Whatever is written to us must be His will, in more than one sense. It is His will as a testament after a person dies, pointing to the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It is His endowment to those who believe on His name.
It is also His will in terms of His desire, or His determination towards us as His born again believers.
God’s will cannot fail. His promises will be carried out. Our part is to receive, believe and act on the promises, by our word and by our actions. We have no confidence in the flesh, but every confidence in God’s will, Word and promises.
