The key to faith is Revelations. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. Confidence comes through revelation. Jesus was brought up like any other children of His times. He went to school, to the synagogue to study the word of God, He read the bible everyday, He worshipped God in the temple with His parents. Through His studies of the word of God, He learnt about His identity, who He was and what His mission was on earth. He never doubted His identity. He carried on with the works of the Father although He read of His death, His suffering and His resurrection. He knew He was the Chosen One and the Messiah. The revelation was clear to Jesus throughout His growing up years. John 13:3 clearly says Jesus knew where He came from, what have been given to Him and where He was going.
Do you know who you are as surely as Jesus does? It is important for you to know:
1. Your position – who you are in God. You are the head and not the tail.
2. Your power – the anointing and the spiritual gifts given to you.
3. Your purpose – God’s will for you in your life to impact the world for Him.
John 13:4-5 listed Jesus washing the feet of His disciples. Jesus, being the Creator of the universe, Lord of lords, King of kings, he actually knelt down to wash the feet of the disciples. In the olden days, the washing of the feet of the guests is a job done by the lowest level servant upon arrival and before meals. The disciples before the supper were arguing who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of God so none of them was humbling himself to wash the feet of their fellow brothers before the supper. Each was thinking he would be the greatest next to Jesus. Jesus set them an example that the greatest leader must be a servant leader. He knew His position as the Son of God, yet He stood and washed the feet of His disciples with confidence and love. He was not even focusing on the revelation that shortly one of them would betray Him and the rest would desert Him. He became a servant with love that night.
Some of us may feel that becoming a servant is belittling of your position. You may be a CEO of a big company, a high ranking officer in your department or a rich man living in huge houses and driving an expensive car, you are still called by God to be His servant to serve His people. Jesus was also called the Holy Servant because He was humble and did the work of a servant, serving the people of God. Similarly, as the servants of God, we are to serve. The more you serve God’s people, the more you contribute to helping them make their life better. God, seeing your humility, will raise you up before the eyes of men.
Another example is Joseph (Genesis 39-41). Joseph, was arrogant in his younger days. But as he became a servant in Egypt, he learned to be humble and walked with God. As the head servant in Potiphar’s household, all authority was placed into his hands, yet he did not abuse his authority and serve his master well. Later, he was thrown into the jail after being wrongly accused, he continued to serve the keeper of the prison. Eventually, the Lord brought him before the Pharoah and he became the right hand man of the Pharaoh. The bible said that God was with Joseph and all things put into Joseph’s hands, God prospered him. God raised him from nothing to the highest rank. All these were possible because of Joseph’s personal walk with God, his confidence in God and his humility to serve his masters despite of the full authority placed into his hands. Never once did Joseph abuse his authority given.
Confidence give you power to serve.
How do you maintain your confidence in God? In Psalm 91:1, we are to run to God and dwell in the secret place of God. Psalm 23 is a beautiful Psalm that tells us God is our Shepherd. In verse 1 to 3, the Psalm begins with the writer referring to God being the third person as shown in the word used “He makes me”, “He leads me”, “He restores my soul”. From verse 4 to 6, it says that “when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me.” The third person from verse 1 to 3 became personal when the writer used the word “You”. It showed that God has become part of his life and he has a personal relationship with God. Only when you are confident that God is with you, you are not afraid to brave any difficulties. It is even okay that not everyone is happy with you but you know that God is with you and all things will be well.
What did Jesus do when he was troubled? He always prayed. He would go to a secret place early in the morning, late at night in the mountain, where no one could reach Him and disturb Him. He went away to a quiet and secret place to pray to God. These were the moments when He was able to pour out his soul to His Father and have His strength be renewed and recharged.
Do you have a secret place where you can pray to God? To nurture your confidence in God again? If we dwell in the secret place of God and walk in confidence with God, we have no fear. Today, if you have no set aside time to pray about the troubles in your heart, it shows that it is really not important enough to warrant you going on your knees before God and cry out for help. Only when you do so, then will you be able to find the peace of God surrounding your heart, to hear a new revelation on what to do and to nurture your confidence in God again. Take the effort to go away to your secret place to be with God, you will not regret doing so.
A person who does great commandment by loving God and loving people, great commission by doing mission and the cultural mandate by engaging the market place to God. - Sermon Alive
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