Courage




Joshua 1:5-9
"5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
"6 Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.
"7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
"8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
"9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." [Bolded emphasis mine].
        We see it three times in five verses. God commands us over and over to BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS... When he commands it then we CAN do it... Check Phil. 2:13

Now let's jump down to Daniel...
Daniel 10:12
"12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words."
        God gave me a lot of insight on Dan. 10 but for now we will just deal with this verse... 21 days later this answer came, 3 full weeks... Think about it... It reminds me of the 6 day creation events in Gen. 1 and 2... Why so long... God is not only a delivering God but a God of order and he has things that he wants to teach us... He works on his time table and that time table involves teaching us things to conform us more to the image of his Son...

Matt. 21:22 says,
"22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
        We will deal with this more towards the end of this lesson...when we deal with faith in Rom. 10:17...

Isa. 41:10
"10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."
        Do we really believe the Almighty God, the all-knowing, the God who is called love in the bible? Do we really BELIEVE him???

II Tim. 1:7
"7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
         I will break this down regarding power, love and sound mind...

"OF POWER"
Acts 1:8 says,
"8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

Matt. 28:18-20...
"18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
"19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
"20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

And then I Cor. 12:27 says,
"27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."

        The Holy Ghost furishes us with power as we walk in the Lord Jesus Christ. When God came in a perfect body we knew him as Jesus Christ in humanity but now the humanity that he walks in is his people, those who have been born of his Spirit.

"OF LOVE"
I John 4:8 says,
"8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

AND I John 4:17-19,
"17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
19 We love him, because he first loved us."
        This love is a strong love, not wishy washy. This love takes a stand for the truth and rejects the wrong. This love comes from God, hence it should remain true to his character and love does that. We mix a lot of worldly definitions to love and still call it love but it isn't. Love puts others first, helps, believes for them, interceeds for them, yearns to see them walking in the life of God, etc.

"A SOUND MIND"
Isa. 26:3 says,
"3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee."
        I used Peter walking on the water towards Jesus at other times but the illustration is super important. We walk on the water with the Lord Jesus Christ as our focus is on him and NOT on the problems.. When Peter started looking at the winds and waves, he started sinking. The same is true with us, when we take our eyes off of Jesus or our mind is not stayed on him, the problem solver, and we put the focus on the storms (problems, cares, whatever) then we start sinking too..

Phil. 4:6,7 says,
"6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
        If we are truly in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving then we couldn't be worrying or full of care about other things since the peace of God would be keeping us safe in the Lord.

Psa. 56:3
"3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee."
        I tell Christians we are not called to trust the Lord just when everything is going good but through the hard times too... He doesn't just want to be a good weather friend but a friend in the bad weather, hard times too... He is there and he said that he would never leave us or forsake us. He wants us looking to him, calling on him in the bad times so he can show himself faithful.

BECAUSE...
John 15:7 says,
"7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. "
        This is speaking of "us" and the Lord Jesus as a plant... The Lord Jesus Christ is the vine and we are the branches... If we are vitally hooked to the vine, his life will be flowing through us and we will experience his strength, his protection, his security. Everything the branches need comes through the vine.

Prov. 3:5,6,
"5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
        The mind must be renewed with the word of God so if your mind tells you things such as "I can't do it", "I am too tired", "They won't listen to me", "I don't have a college diploma", etc. Things that come into your mind that makes sense to you mentally but you know the word tells you the opposite then stand on the word and KEEP renewing your mind...

AND
since

Rom. 10:17 tells us...
"17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
        Keep in mind Matt. 21:22 at the beginning of the lesson... Since faith cometh by the word of God then to start naming a bunch of junk that your flesh wants isn't faith that comes from God. His word is pure and perfect as he is. Hence he will not be satisfying your carnal desires to help you build your own kingdom instead of his. The word produces faith to believe for those things that bring honour and glory to the Lord's name, things that bring you closer to him not to basically please your flesh, sin nature which is to be crucified.

Phil. 4:13
"13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
        What does he "strengthen" us to do... Those things that are pure, holy, good, just, honorable, etc. The things that edify us and others, that builds us up in the most holy faith...

Phil. 2:13 "13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
        God is not going to tell us to do anything that he won't furnish the ability, the strength, the knowledge to do it. He even furnishes the desire as you submit to God and resist the devil.
(Check James 4:7)
"7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

Return to the Christian Directory