My heart is confident in You, O God

"My heart is confident in you, O God; No wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart!" (Psalm 108:1, NLT)

Over and over, the Psalms sing about how God leads His people in strength to safety, to a safe harbor (Ps. 107:7,30). When His people are in trouble, He rescues them, snaps their chains, sets them free and leads them into the good land by His unfailing love.

Micah 7:7 proclaims, “I wait confidently for God to save me and my God will certainly hear me.”

Our God is not indifferent or uncaring. Over and over, He has shown us His love and His power. He sets the captives free. His love is so immense we cannot even fathom it. As He sets us free and brings us into His Kingdom ways, we have a different mentality.

When difficulty comes, rather than doubt, fear and insecurity, complaining how things don’t work out and how hard they appear to be, we proclaim the victory as we know nothing can shake us out of His hands. We are never without help or support. We can take the land.

David, in the Old Testament, proclaimed in Psalm 27:3, “Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid. Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident.”

Paul, in the New Testament says something similar as he is working to take the land. He said that he learned to navigate any circumstance with contentment, how to live humbly and abound, being filled and being hungry. His answer was that he could do all things through Christ who gives him strength to endure the most difficult circumstances.

This different mindset comes from a renewed mind. As we come to know the Lord more and more, our ways of thinking are transformed. We grow in confidence of the Lord and all the lies we hold to are washed away. We see this renewed mind in the boldness and confidence we walk in. Rather than insecurity, fear, and doubt, it says that the people who know their God [and have a renewed mind] will be strong and do exploits.

Psalm 29:2 says to “worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.” We do this with all of ourselves- not just in our actions but in our thoughts. Our ways of thinking are central to walking in holiness.

Part of this is letting him chisel away beliefs that would hold us back. We let Him break off from us compromise, stagnation, impatience, insecurity, fear of rejection, feelings of insignificance, self-pity, comparison with others, feelings of superiority, inferiority, guilt, and shame.

We see God working this renewed mindset into His people as He is preparing them to take the Promised Land in the Old Testament. The first group that had come out of bondage in Egypt just couldn’t get there. Even after crossing the Red Sea, they still struggled with doubt and complaining. The result was that, when the faced the Promised Land, they cowered in fear rather than step forward in courage. God had to wait until the next generation of people to bring them into the land.

It took an entire generation to transform the ways of thinking of the Israelites. They had to move from a victim mentality to a warrior mentality. They had to believe they could step into the land based upon the promises of God and overtake anything that stood in the way. God was using their lives to showcase the power of belief. It was critical to their mission.

Over and over, it is mentioned that Jesus could not do many miracles in certain areas because of their lack of faith. One of the biggest hinderances to God moving in power, is a lack of belief. The Kingdom of God is built on faith so one cannot enter it any other way. That faith grows over time and through generations.

Over time, as we follow God, we will develop a warrior mentality where we take hold of strength, stay in the game, and overcome insurmountable odds when we have heard from God and know His will. Rather than be intimidated by our enemies, we know God has us in the palm of His hands. We will walk in a confidence in the Lord that could appear even arrogant to others. David’s brothers shunned him for asking what the reward was for taking down Goliath. They thought he was being incredibly arrogant. But they didn’t see that he had his confidence in the Lord not in himself.

This is the warrior mentality that he was about to pass on to his mighty men. But like that situation of David facing Goliath when no on else would, his confidence is in the Lord that he could defeat anything if the Lord was with Him. He said that with the Lord on His side, he could scale a wall, bend a bow of bronze, or take an army.

David was able to bend reality to Kingdom reality by his confidence and faith in the Lord. He took impossible situations and invited God into them. He believed God for the miraculous. His faith did not waiver. When He saw Goliath, he did not have the mentality of others that this was terrifying. Rather, he was offended that Goliath was dishonoring God and wanted Him to be glorified.

We see this warrior mentality with David’s mighty men. They performed supernatural feats with great strength. A single one of them cleared out an entire army at times. They were walking in the miraculous. The anointing was there to take the land and they walked in a supernatural strength that was not their own. As they stepped out, they saw their enemies defeated before them, even in insurmountable odds. They way they thought and sized up a situation was very different than the world’s ways.

We also see this with Jonathan, the son of King Saul and friend of David in the Bible. He fought the Philistines with such faith as to shake the whole camp. Who would go against an entire army with just their armor bearer to help and say that surely God will give them the land? He had a Kingdom mentality.

This mentality is important in advancing God’s purposes and taking land from the enemy. The enemy will always appear larger and more fearful. Like in the days of the Israelites peering into the Promised Land, in the natural, we will appear like grasshoppers compared to the enemy in our midst.

This is why the Lord speaking through Moses and others continually told Joshua to be strong and courageous. In Deuteronomy 31:6 (BSB) Moses says to Joshua, “The Lord will hand over to you the people who live there, and you must deal with them as I have commanded you. So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

Again, after Moses died, God spoke to Joshua with these same words, confirming them, “This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9 NLT) And as Joshua stepped forward in the land while the fear of the enemy loomed large and appeared insurmountable, facing the Amorites, the Lord told him again, “Do not be afraid of them, for I have given you the victory over them” (Joshua 10:8).

It is easy to look from a distance and appreciate this, but the piece we sometimes miss is that God wants us to walk in this kind of faith. In facing circumstances that would appear would defeat us in the natural and cause our demise, He wants us to be strong and courageous and not afraid or discouraged. He wants our confidence to be in Him and not ourselves.

Rather than being worried of one’s own demise, He wants us to see the victory. Joshua tried to develop this in his leaders. In Joshua 10:22, he tells his commanders not to be afraid or discouraged as he asked them to place their feet on the necks of these kings. Then he impaled these fearful kings that had been conquered on poles.

This Kingdom mentality was very visible with the disciples. They were not learned men but they had a confidence about them and authority in their actions. This is because they had been with Jesus and saw things from a unique Kingdom perspective. They were unashamed or afraid to speak up, even when physically threatened or beaten. Because they had been with Jesus, they were bold and courageous in bringing forth the Kingdom.

It says that in the last days, perilous times will come. This means dire, dreadful, fearful, grave and appalling. But this is not to cause us to hide ourselves in the hills in fear. Rather, Jesus tells us, “Take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, NLT). More than ever, we need a redeemed mindset so we can be strong and courageous in taking the land by faith.

In Haggai 2:47 (NLT), the Lord spoke to the people who were still left in the land when things were in ruins around them to “Be strong all you people still left in the Land. And now get to work, for I am with you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

They were not to look at circumstances around them and become discouraged or defeated. By faith, they were to work all the harder, lay hold of and become mighty as they encourage and establish themselves in the Lord. This fierce group of mighty warriors were being called to prevail over and resolutely seize the victory.

In these days, we are called to no less. It will take both courage and faith to navigate the last days; we are called not to cower but to seize it by faith. We are called to be strong, take courage and overcome while we get to work at the purposes God has for us in this era of taking the land and compelling folks to join the party.

In order to do this, we need to have been with Jesus and see things from His perspective. A great example of this perspective in our generation is Shawn Faught. He is a worship leader and intercessor. When COVID came and there were orders that no one could sing or worship God in a religious setting, he saw things from a different perspective. He saw the need for people to grab hold of the Kingdom of God to navigate through it. While everyone else was shutting down, he did exactly the opposite. He went around from location to location, leading worship outdoors.

He was listing close to the Lord and had a boldness and courage that was unique. It offended many but he kept leading these worship meetings. In the midst of it, a powerful Spirit of revival began pouring out. In them, many people were freed from addiction and suicide mentalities as well as the grip of fear. For myself, I finally heard clearly from God and had an inner strength I had lost. I began going out praying for folks that were hurting rather than making health protocols my priority.

Lord, when things are difficulty, help us to be strong and courageous and seize by faith all you have for us. Let us not become discouraged or defeated, but get to work and resolutely seize the victory and take the land.