It was a year ago today at a Christmas party I haltingly shared this dream with a leader. When you have a dream that has an element of warning in it, it’s hard to know whether to share or pray. But having sat on that dream a for a year now, I believe it’s time to release it to a wider body.
The theme of the dream was unusual times, unusual weather. It was snowing in December in my home town which it never does in Australia. Occasionally it might in August on one mountain 40km out of town, but only a dusting, but then in the next scene there was a tropical cyclone at the same time.
I was speaking to our friend, he was about to leave to drive 8 hours home, but the weather turned vicious in seconds and I said he had better come in. We hunkered down on the floor of the loungeroom shouting out the name of Jesus. Somehow I could see on a screen the viciousness of the storm outside and that others could die in this storm but the over arching feeling I had was, ‘You know the Name of Jesus works.’ The roof stayed on, my friends car was not touched. There was no damage to us.
Another thing that stood out to me was that my children were asking for food just prior to the storm and I said yes but only out of a certain fridge that I had just stocked because the other had food from 15 years prior in it. But when they looked in there the food was not mouldy it was fine.
It spoke to me that in times of trouble we fill ourselves with fresh revelation that God is giving us for today but we also feed on His faithfulness. (Psalm 37:3)
My husband’s Aunt had a dream around the same time of Christians rising up in their authority and speaking Jesus over bush fires.
Psalm 91 is a wonderful Psalm of promises of protection to read and pray over oneself and one’s family.
There have been two books written about Psalm 91 full of testimonies of those who prayed these Scriptures over crazy situations and miracles that resulted. One by Peggy Joyce Ruth who I interviewed here on the blog and also by Joseph Prince.
So what does confident mean?
A simple Google search reveals the following
Origin
late 16th century: from French confident(e), from Italian confidente, from Latin confident- ‘having full trust’, from the verb confidere, from con- (expressing intensive force) + fidere ‘trust’.
The definition from Mirriam Websters:
1 : full of conviction : certain
confident of success
confident that conditions will improve
2 : having or showing assurance and self-reliance
a confident young businessman
a confident manner
While there are mentions of the word confident and confidence in Job, Judges and Kings in the Old Testament, Psalm 27 is a great place to start and the first one that I have included in the printable.
Psalm 27 starts with ‘The Lord is my light and salvation whom shall I fear, and God is the strength of my life.” In some translations that word strength is translated as stronghold or defense, which lines up with the Scripture, ‘the Name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are saved.’ Proverbs 18:10 A song that I literally sang to myself over and over at age 14 when some locals were rioting outside our very unsecure house in PNG. (I also need to do a study on the word defense and defender but that is for another day…)
The author of Psalm 27 is confident in multiple things, and its not just a simple, The Lord. He is confident in different aspects of God’s character and actions. But it also comes with the exhortation, to not let our heart fear, to not lose heart, to continue to believe that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. The NIV version of Psalm 27:13 says I remain confident of this, I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
You can see in the waiting we aren’t doing nothing, we are choosing to be strong, even strengthening ourselves in the Lord, reminding ourselves of Who He is and how He has shown up for us in the past. Strengthening himself in the Lord is what David did the day his family was kidnapped. He wept till he could weep no more, then he strengthened himself in the Lord, then he waited for God to give him a word of instruction. 1 Samuel 30:6 I have a Scripture Study and Free Printable on the word strength over here.
Interestingly the word used for confident in Psalm 27:3 is different to the word used for confident in verse 13. I explore this within the actual printable.
A beautiful song about this is by Melissa Helser called I Believe and it actually has the word confidence in it with the chorus saying:
As I bow before You, Lord
I will rise in confidence
I will see Your goodness more
In the land I’m living in
And no matter where I go
And no matter where I’ve been
I will see Your goodness, Lord
In the land I’m living in
One time we were driving a small truck and trailer from QLD to Port Macquarie to deliver some camera stand bases my husband had built to the company who had contracted them and all was fine on the way there but on the way back he slept funny and hurt his neck. I’d never driven the truck trailer combo and it would have been too dangerous for me to try to do so on the freeway from Yamba to Brisbane via the Gold Coast so he really needed to be able to do it. After prayer, deep massage, essential oils and a panadol, the song came to me, “I’ve got my confidence back, cause I still believe in the One who does miracles, you do miracles, I trust in God my Saviour the one who will never fail. He will never fail.” I actually know now it was two different songs that merged together, the first half by You Have Been so Good to me by Elevation Worship and the second also by Elevation Worship.
We then drove home, checked out another job on the way, and he and his brother went and did a full days work welding heavy metal on a job site the next day. He needed to rest the following day but they had gotten so ahead of schedule that it was not an issue.
For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught. Proverbs 3:26
Psalm 91:3 is similar: Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
Another side of confidence is found in Prov 3:32 NIV For the Lord detests the perverse but takes the upright into His confidence. In the NKJV it says His secret counsel is with the upright.
And Proverbs 14:26 says that In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. Jer 17:7
Moving into the New Testament we also have some great Scriptures about confidence.
We are told that we have boldness and access with confidence to Jesus. We have confidence that He hears us, and that we can ask according to His will (think the Lord’s prayer, Thy Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Healing yes, deliverance yes, provision yes.) AND that He will answer us. Ask Scripture Printable Study Here, let’s get clear on what we are told to ask for.
We can be confident that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it. Phil 1:6
We are told not to cast away our confidence, which has great reward. Hebrews 10:35
Paul says that he is confident concerning us, that we are full of goodness filled with knowledge and able to admonish one another.. Romans 15:14
Wow. Actually he says a lot of times that he is confident about this or that relating to the people he was writing to.
A beautiful song about confidently coming before the Lord is one by Elyssa Smith from Upper Room
It is a wonderful thing to sit and listen to Scriptural songs, to let the water of the Word wash over us.
One thing that stood out to me as I put all this together was that we can have confidence because of the covenant we are in with Jesus. When one starts studying covenants in Scripture and what they represent it is so deep. There’s so much that Jesus has provided on the cross, and when we take communion we are reminding ourselves and the enemy of that covenant. If you would like to learn more about communion and the covenant we have with Jesus, I invite you to read through some of the blog posts I did about this. In 2105 there was a challenge going around the internet to blog everyday about one topic for 31 Days and the thought of blogging about communion just wouldn’t leave me. Some of those posts are still up, some of them have been condensed and modernised a little with fresh testimonies, and I should probably tidy them up again, but they are there for those who want to look.
One way we can build confidence is also to read the many Who I am in Christ Scriptures of which I’ve made a list. It’s not about who we are on our own, but about who He says we are: His child, His friend, the temple of the Holy Spirit, justified etc.
Even after I wrote this initial blog post, I had God bringing back to my memory songs about the confidence we have in Him. On Christmas or Boxing day it was the song Bless God by Brooke Ligertwood, that goes Blessed are those who run to Him, who place their hope and confidence in Jesus, He won’t forsake them
And then a few days later while I was mowing the lawn, the song Jesus You are So Good by Don Moen, that goes: Jesus you are so good, Jesus you are so good, there’s nothing to fear now I’m here in Your presence. You’ve given me a confidence and my soul is filled with peace, You are my provider, You supply my every need.
