I Jn 5:14-15
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Notice our opening scripture and what the word of God is saying to you and me as children of God
And this is the confidence that we have in him,
What a statement that is being made for the purpose of understanding and comprehending the voice of the Lord and for the purpose of revelation and disclosure concerning the things of God
And this is the confidence that we have in him,
What does confidence mean?
It means assurance, it means without a doubt, it means openness and boldness, it means free from fear and it also means cheerful courage, it means total and unwavering allegiance and loyalty to the word that has been spoken.
And this is the confidence that we have in him,
Now what is it that gives us this confidence, assurance and boldness?
It is the confidence that your life is well pleasing to the Lord
Col 1:10
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
I Jn 3:22
And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
Turn to
Dan 1:9
Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.
When you are well pleasing to God, when you have been brought into a place of favor, you can sleep the night in the lions den, you can sleep in the Macedonian prison like Paul or you can sleep in a cave running for your life as David did.
When you have favor with God, when you have confidence with God, you have a right relationship with God.
Don’t miss this,
The rightness has been imparted to you by the righteousness of Jesus Christ if you are born again and you should know where you stand as a child of God concerning that rightness.
When you know you have favor, that confidence, that assurance it makes no difference where you stand, where you sleep because you know that wherever you are He is right there beside you because He will never leave you nor forsake you.
Hear this truth,
There is no way that you can ask with confidence and assurance until there is a perfect union between you and Almighty God.
I Jn 3:21
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
When our heart is not condemned, when our hearts are free from the condemnation of sin and its consequences, it is then that we have confidence in God.
Listen to Christ in
John 10:30, He says
I and my Father are one.
What Jesus is saying is that He and His Father have a prefect union and in this perfect union He and His Father are one, and because this relationship is perfect and there is no condemnation, He has confidence in God His Father.
Now notice what He says in,
John 17:11
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
And now scripture shows us that the same relationship that Christ shared and walked in with His Father is now the same relationship that he desires for you and I to share and walk in with Him and His Father so that we may be one as He and His Father are one so that we might have confidence of God.
John 17:21
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And not only does He desire that we be as one with Him and His Father but now He desires that we be one with each other so that we might have confidence in Him
The foundation has to be confidence and fidelity in Him, the foundation has to be the substance spoken about in
Heb 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Now faith
Don’t miss what I am saying
Now faith, the substance of things hoped for,
In order to receive the things hoped for there has to be confidence and assurance to obtain them.
Heb 11:2
For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Turn to,
John 11:32-36
Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
Jesus wept.
Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!
There are many people who believe that the reason that Christ wept is because of his love for Lazarus
The reason that Christ wept was because of the unbelief of the people, they did not believe, they had not come to the realization that anything that He would ask the Father, the Father would grant it to him because of there relationship.
Even Mary and Martha had not come to that revelation and there unbelief brought brokenness, sadness and emptiness into the heart of Jesus.
And He wept because of there unbelief
John 11:38-44
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.The moment Jesus prayed the heavens opened and the moment He was done praying the heaven’s remained open
I tell you that if we have to wait for heaven to open something is terribly wrong, what is it that makes us lose the confidence of God; it is disobedience unto that same God.
Let me say it once again,
It is disobedience unto the Lord and all that He commands.
Listen to the Lord in
John 11:41-42
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
How many stones will have to be removed before the dead of this world will be able to walk free?
How many times must the Savior Weep?
How many times must the Savior be grieved before the children of God begin to understand the context of the scriptures?
How many times is it going to take before we understand that it is not by power, nor by might but by the Spirit of the Lord.
It does not matter how we feel, our feelings have nothing to do with the word of God, nor the operation of the word of God.
It does not matter what has happened nor what any body else has done,
The word of God is true and it still opens the Red Sea’s and tears down the Jericho walls of this life.
The word of God is not dependant on anything other than what God has proclaimed and on you believing what God has proclaimed.
Josh 6:4-5
And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.
And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.
Notice the commands that God has given to Joshua concerning obedience to His word
#1 seven priests shall carry trumpets of rams horns before the ark
#2 on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times with the priests blowing the trumpets
#3 when you hear a long blast of the trumpets all of the people will give a loud shout
#4 then the walls will collapse
Theses are specific instructions that God has given to Joshua.
Now notice something else that Joshua said,
Josh 6:10
And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.
Allow me to make an observation,
When you are walking by faith you need to understand faith.
Walking around those walls was nothing more than an act of faith.
They were fifty feet tall, two chariots drawn by 6 horses could run around on top of those walls side by side and the instructions that God gave was not to build ladders, it was not to build catapults, the instructions were not to scale the walls, the instructions were to march around the walls.
Here is revelation, nothing that the child of God was going to do was going to cause those walls to collapse.
And Joshua tells them,
Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.
I am convinced that if you want to see your walls come down you will have to keep your mouth shut concerning the walls that you are marching around; you will have to keep your mouth shut concerning your unbelief, concerning the time element involved and concerning your opinion of the walls.
Your only concern can be the confidence that you have in the word of God that states these walls are coming down.
So on the seventh day they marched around the city seven times, the priests blew the trumpets and the people shouted.
Josh 6:20
So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
So what was the shout, the walls were still standing before they shouted so what was the shout.
It was the victory before the victory
It was the evidence of things not seen, it was the confidence that we have in Him
I Jn 5:14-15
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.