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POWER OF BELIEVING

“Believing In Yourself”

By Pastor Delbert Young

Life Gate Ministries

204 North Main Street, LaFayette, GA 30728

706-638-7620

www.lifegatechurch.com

There is POWER IN BELIEVING unlike any other power in the universe. It has the potential to change the natural into the supernatural. It can save a soul. It can heal a body. It can change the course of nature. It can do anything.

Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

I want to talk to you today about the power of BELIEVING IN YOURSELF. Even more specific, I want to talk about what God has uniquely given you to help you BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. We know that we must believe in God, but do we realize that we must believe in our own selves?

We need to have a confidence, nearly a cocky-confidence in our own self.

Webster describes confidence as “faith in oneself and one's powers without any suggestion of conceit or arrogance.”

I meet so many people who have low self-esteem and little, if any, confidence in their own selves. What I want to tell us today is that we really won’t have a powerful life-changing belief in God if we don’t believe in our own selves also. There is a tremendous power that occurs when you combine believing in God and BELIEVING IN YOURSELF.

Diana Cooper said in her book, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, “The Universe rearranges itself to bring you what you believe.”

In other words supernatural things happen when we believe they will. The opposite is just as true.

In his book, “Conversations with God,” Book 3, by Neale Donald Walsch, he said, “Believing that you cannot have something is the same thing as not desiring to have it, for it produces the same result.”

BELIEVING IN YOURSELF is vision. Successful people believe in their own selves. They pull on their instincts. They pull on their God-given-talents. They relentlessly pursue that which they believe will happen.

IF YOU ARE GOING TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND EXPERIENCE THE SUPERNATURAL ABUNDANT LIFE, FIRST YOU HAVE GOT TO BELIEVE THAT GOD REALLY DOES LOVE YOU AND WANTS THE ABSOLUTE BEST FOR YOU. That’s got to be foundational.

Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Not only has God given us Jesus, he wants to give us ALL THINGS. How can anyone not believe that if God would not spare Jesus for us that he would not hold back anything now? God wants to bless you.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God has good plans for us. He has a good future planned for every one of his children. God doesn’t want to punish you or beat you up. He wants to bless you.

God is not looking for ways to kill or destroy us. He is looking for ways to bless us. If he wanted a reason to judge us then he could pick any number of things nearly any day. But that’s not what God is about. God wants to bless our lives.

IT BREAKS MY HEART to hear some of the horror stories that people tell me about preachers. I heard one this past week. Someone told me that an unwed mother went to a church and was told by the preachers that unwed mothers should not go to church. I said, “WHAT?” Isn’t that what the church is here to do? Are we not here to bless and help and show God’s love and mercy?

On the other side of the story, I had a lady once bless me to pieces. I was going to perform her wedding ceremony. I try my best to make weddings special, so I try to get people to let me know how they envision the ceremony. This lady said, “I like that scripture in Jeremiah that you talk about. It’s the one where God says he has a hope and a future planned for us.” I said, “You got it. That’s a perfect scripture to use in your wedding.”

My point is that you have got to believe that God wants to bless you and is for you in every area of your life. That is why Jesus came.

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Jesus came so we would have life at its best. God doesn’t want us to live a mediocre life. We are not to have a life filled with constant problems and struggles. God’s desire for every one of us is that we live an overcoming life of abundance.

NO MATTER WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH NOW AND NO MATTER WHAT YOU HAVE GONE THROUGH IN THE PAST, you have got to believe that God loves you and wants to bless you. If you think for one moment that it’s God will that you be unhappy, lonely, and depressed, financially broke, etc. then you will never experience the abundant life God has for you. If you are settling for things that are less than God’s best and you give over to the enemy’s attacks, then you will not experience the life that God has planned for you.

Knowing that God is for me and has a plan to prosper me and give me a great future with an abundant life helps to give me a cocky-confidence.

ANOTHER THING YOU MUST DO TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF IS TO HAVE CONFIDENCE IN YOUR GOD-GIVEN-TALENTS. God has given you something – a gift – that allows you to do something well. There is something that God has given you that you can do a little better than most people. With some training, you could be great at it. What is it?

Remember Moses at the burning bush? We have to remember that Moses, as did most Biblical characters, had a dysfunctional life. His mother had given him up for adoption. (Has it ever stirred your curiosity as to why she gave up Moses, but not Moses’ brother Aaron who was only a few years younger?) Then Moses killed an Egyptian and tried to cover it over by burying the Egyptian in the sand. He ran from the law and was a fugitive. He ends up on the backside of the desert feeling like a castaway and a failure shepherding his father-in-laws sheep. There was Moses with all that education and training settling for minimum wages and on the backside of nowhere. Moses had not had an abundant life, BUT GOD HAD A PLAN FOR MOSES TO GIVE HIM A HOPE AND A FUTURE. One day Moses saw a bush burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Moses went to investigate. It was the changing point of his life. Suddenly God was real to Moses. Until that experience, God was only a figment and a teaching.

God will do that for you too. It doesn’t matter what you have experienced or done in the past. God has a plan for you. God will send something that will get your attention. I had someone tell me the other day what an influence I had been in their life. Because of that, this person was now attending church and serving the Lord. God will send you a burning bush. All you have to do is talk to it. That experience will make God real. It’s a holy experience and one you want to take your shoes off and stay awhile. God will send you a burning bush.

At the burning bush, the Lord gave Moses the opportunity to change his life. Moses didn’t have to stay on the backside of the desert. Moses could accomplish great things and live an abundant life if he would simply follow God’s plan. But there was a problem.

Exodus 3:10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.

Exodus 3:11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

Though God had a great plan for Moses, Moses had absolutely no belief in himself. Moses said,” WHO AM I?” Moses felt inferior to talk to Pharaoh. He had no belief that people would believe him. Moses didn’t even believe that he could talk and communicate clearly. Before God could change Moses’ life and bring Moses into the abundant life that God had planned for him, God first had to get Moses BELIEVING IN HIMSELF. If God could get Moses to BELIEVE IN HIMSELF, Moses would fulfill his destiny and change the world. We do not understand the potential in us. If we can believe in God and BELIEVE IN OURSELVES, we can change the world.

In the midst of Moses’ self-esteem problems, God said, “What is that in your hand?” Isn’t that strange? Could not God see what was in Moses’ hand? It was that Moses needed to see it.

Exodus 4:2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

Moses said, “It’s just a rod – a stick.” It’s not important. I only use it occasionally.”

Exodus 4:3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

The rod frightened Moses. When we understand the potential of what is in our hand, it will frighten us. It has supernatural potential. What is in your hand?

Exodus 4:4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

Pick it up. It looked like a rod, but in that rod was supernatural potential to change Moses, Egypt, create a nation, and change the world. People who have changed the world simply got a hold on the supernatural potential of what was in their hand. The next verse says,

Exodus 4:5 That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.

A rod… God would use the rod in Moses’ hand to create belief. Isn’t that interesting? If you want to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF and you want others to believe in you, you must tap into the power that is in your hand.

Once Moses saw the potential of what was in his hand, Moses was unstoppable. Once you see what God has given us and discover the potential therein, you are unstoppable.

Moses couldn’t believe in himself, but he could believe in that rod. He clinched to that rod.

Exodus 4:20 And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

The rod of Moses had become the rod of God. Moses went before the people and Pharaoh with that rod in his hand. With it he worked his destiny – he turned the rivers to blood, brought frogs upon Egypt, brought the plague of lice, brought the plague of hail and fire, locusts, opened the Red Sea, and brought water from a rock. Once Moses stood on the hill with the rod as Joshua fought the battle below and brought victory.

God put a rod in the hand of Moses. What has he put in your hand? It’s something you already have. God will take it and do supernatural things with it in your life if you will BELIEVE. There is something that you have that God will use to bring your belief to a place where you can BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.

You have something. God has given you some skill, or talent, or power that he will take and make life abundant for you.

“How can someone value your skills if you don’t value them yourself?” Lynda Field, How to Become the Person You Most Want to Be

Moses believed in that rod. What is it about you that you believe in? Begin there. It will work miracles for you. It will open Red Seas. It will bring supernatural provisions. It will defeat the enemy.

It was 1978. I woke one Sunday morning and asked my wife is she wanted to go to church. She looked at me amazed, and then said, “Sure. Where do you want to go?” I had seen a burning bush. I had seen a man named Billy Shirah on fire for God, but not consumed. I wanted to go to church where Billy went. We did and we haven’t stopped burning since. I had a rod. It was just a little ability I had to instruct and encourage people. I only used it occasionally, but one day God showed me the potential of what I had. Now, for nearly thirty years, I have been using it. It has changed my life and the lives of many.

I want to encourage you today. THERE IS POWER IN BELIEVING. Believe that God loves you and has a plan for your life. He wants to give you a hope and a future and the best life imaginable. In fact, it is a life more than any of us can ask or think. BELEVE IN YOURSELF. Discover what is in your hand. What is your gift and talent? It will change your life. It will make the natural supernatural. It will make the ordinary extraordinary. It will bring you abundance. It will win your battles.

How many are going to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF more than ever? Give the Lord a shout and a handclap. Amen.

	Reaching people and making them devoted followers of Jesus Christ.