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Writer's Voice! - October 21, 2019

10/21/2019

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Confidence: What is it?

Definition of Confidence: the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust; the state of feeling certain about the truth of something.
Antonym: distrust; doubt; misgiving; apprehension; disbelief; self-doubt; uncertainty; timidity; bashfulness; shyness
 
*Key to the Kingdom:
Fear is an enemy to confidence and to faith. Monitor your thoughts and your words.

 
In the earth, there are two groups of people, those who are unsaved and those who are born again of the Spirit of God. What does each group put their trust in?
 
What is confidence in the flesh?
The Apostle Paul admonished The Church at Philippi NOT to boast about who they are in the flesh but to “worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh…” Paul shares with them that his birth, his upbringing, and his stature as a well-known Pharisee (lawyer) were all rubbish compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus! (See Philippians Chapter 3)
 
*Key to the Kingdom:
You have to let go of the old in order to receive the new. (Matthew 9:16-17)
 
Standing in Your New Identity
We, who are born again citizens of Heaven, are to live and walk in the Spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit who abides within us. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:21) That means we train ourselves daily to be inside minded so that we can release the power of God’s Kingdom on earth. The more we know who we are in Christ, the more confident we become in our identity “in Christ” rather than who we are in the flesh.
 
You develop confidence by living by faith.
 
Vines Dictionary
Confidence: denotes persuasion; assurance; to trust; that which stands; a foundation.
 
The Righteousness of Faith
Paul put his total confidence and trust in his birth in Christ.
“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,  if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:7-11)
 
JESUS OUR LORD
We will never truly know the depth of His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. What was Jesus struggling with? His will, for He saw what was ahead and wanted His Father to remove it from Him. (Matthew 26:36-46) Yet, He let go of His will and grabbed hold of His assignment to become sin for mankind, confident that Father would raise Him from Hell.
 
A deep personal relationship and knowledge of Father and His Word strengthened Jesus to let go of His will and reach ahead to do Father’s will. After all, He knew He was His Son!
 
Once again:
Key to the Kingdom:
You have to let go of the old in order to receive the new.
 
The Apostle Paul experienced this: “… that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Paul suffered great persecution, yet confident, he let go of his past and yielded to do the Father’s will, just like Jesus.
 
Paul would not have written thirteen books in the New Testament had he been determined to rely and brag about all his past accomplishments. When you meet someone new, what do you want them to know about you—your MBA, your position in a well-known company, where you live, what you drive, or how much YOU are doing at your church?  

Our
righteousness comes from what Jesus accomplished for you.
 
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended;
but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-15)
 
All our lives, up until the day we leave this earthly body, are a multitude of daily choices. Forgetting those things of the past and reaching forward, confident in Christ and who He says we are, press forward to attain the prize ahead and fulfill the call of God in Christ Jesus. This confidence produces boldness and strength to carry out our assignment on earth, and confidence can be developed through daily use. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
 
“You are complete in Him…” (Colossians 2:10) The word complete means to “make full, to fill up!” That’s because Holy Spirit lives in you. Meditate on that.
 
This is that … which is our foundation.
“… In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” (Ephesians 3:12 NIV)
 
Recommended for you:
Bill Winston: Pray with Assurance (Confidence)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6TxRqFw-2o

Cory, Contributing editor
​Originally published as "This is that - 10.21.19
https://www.prayerwithpurpose.org/this-is-that

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Writer's Voice! - October 4, 2019

10/4/2019

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Bible Study

A Peek at My Bible Study This Morning
I am in a study of the Book of Philippians from the New American Standard Bible. I started reading Chapter One yesterday and copied several verses in my journal that stood out to me. I read the chapter again this morning for review, but rather than going on to the next chapter, verses 9-11 peaked my interest. God teaches me by making me curious.
 
“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
 
My Recap:
  • Love may abound
  • in knowledge
  • and discernment
  • approve things that are excellent
  • to be sincere and blameless
  • til Jesus returns in the air to remove His church before The Day
  • having been filled with the ways of righteousness (right standing with God which comes from the inner man where Jesus’ Spirit dwells)
  • To God be the praise and glory forever!
  • I remembered the scripture: God is in me to establish His good pleasure. (See Philippians 2:13)
 
I thought, “What do I like best about this list?” I decided to put it into one sentence.

Love, knowledge, and discernment bring excellence and sincerity of character, producing righteousness, which makes me ready for the rapture and gives glory to the Father!
 
LOVE, KNOWLEDGE AND DISCERNMENT
I was curious about these three words so I went to Vines Dictionary. Here are some highlights from several pages of advanced explanation.
 
Love:
Agape: charity; kindness; love for man
God is love. 1 John 4:8 and 16.
Love can be known only from the action it prompts.
God’s love can be seen in the gift of His Son. Love had its perfect expression among men in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian love is the fruit of His Spirit in the Christian. (Galatians 5:22) Love seeks the welfare of all and works no ill to any.
Christian love has God for its primary object, and expresses itself first of all in implicit obedience to His commandments. Self-will, that is, self-pleasing, is the negation of love to God.
 
I remembered 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 and “Love never fails.”
 
Knowledge:
Ginosko: To be taking in knowledge, to come to know; recognize, and understand. Frequently suggests inception or progress in knowledge.
 
“But if any man love God, the same is known of him.” (1 Corinthians 8:3) Here the knowing suggests approval and bears the meaning, “to be approved” – such knowledge is obtained, not by mere intellectual activity, but by operation of the Holy Spirit consequent acceptance of Christ, nor is such knowledge marked by finality; indicates a relation between the person knowing and the object known; what is known is of value or importance to the one who knows, and hence the establishment of the relationship – especially of God’s knowledge; to observe, fully perceive, notice attentively, discern, recognize; advanced knowledge or special appreciation - John 14:7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
 
After thinking about knowledge I wrote: “I like the words learning and enlightenment because they produce the wisdom from God.” I remembered Proverbs 4:7.
 
DISCERNMENT
Anakrino: To examine, judge.
To distinguish, or separate out so as to investigate by looking throughout (intensive) objects or particulars, hence signifies to examine, scrutinize, to hold a preliminary judicial examination preceding the trial proper (this first examination, implying more to follow, is often present in the non-legal uses of the word), it is said of searching the scriptures; “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11); also of discerning or determining the excellence of defects of a person or thing; (1 Corinthians 2:14) “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”
 
Knowledge also signifies to separate, discriminate; then, to learn by discriminating, to determine, to decide. (Acts 11:29) “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.”
 
Also means: a distinguishing, a clear discrimination, discerning, judging, as in discerning of spirits, judging by evidence whether they are evil or of God. (1 Corinthians 12:10)

Also means: fit for, or skilled in, judging, Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
 
Studying the Word of God has tremendous benefits.
It feeds your spirit man by depositing the Word of God into you as you search and inquire. That makes you good ground which will bear fruit for the Kingdom of God. God’s plan and purpose for your life is dependent on you eating from the Tree of Life, God’s Word.

Without that, you can do nothing for God. (See John 15:5)
 
This is that…which you were born of.
“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever…”  (1 Peter 1:22-23)

Cory, Contributing editor
​Originally published as "This is that - 9.26.19
https://www.prayerwithpurpose.org/this-is-that

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    Writer's Voice!

    This is the blog of the  Christian Writers Guild of Santa Barbara. We hope you enjoy these timely articles about Christian writing and writers. Please let us know how these articles have helped you in your life as a writer for Christ.

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