How to be confident and do great things.

Most Christians want to be strong and confident, and they have a sincere desire to do great things for God and with Him. Sadly, many go about it the wrong way or have the wrong motivation for it. 

“…the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”
Daniel 11:32b NKJV

If you find that you don’t really have the confidence to step out in the great things that God is leading you to do, then it’s only because you don’t really know His true nature – you aren’t convinced that He is good and that He has your back! Having the right knowledge about God and having a relationship with Him will result in you being strong and doing great things. True strength and doing great things in your life is the result of a relationship with God.

Yes, every believer has a relationship with God, but not all believers base their relationship with Him on true and accurate knowledge. You cannot have a good relationship with God without knowing Him – what He is truly like. Your view (knowledge) of God determines what kind of relationship you’ll have with Him, and your view of God determines how you see yourself, and how you live your life. If your view of God is distorted, the way you see yourself and the way you live your life will also be distorted.  We need to see God for who He really is.
 
“The Son shows the glory of God. He is a perfect copy of God’s nature, and he holds everything together by his powerful command. The Son made people clean from their sins. Then he sat down at the right side of God, the Great One in heaven.”
Hebrews 1:3 ERV (Emphasis mine)
 
“The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendor, the exact expression of God’s true nature—his mirror image!…”
Hebrews 1:3 The Passion Translation (TPT)

Many people think that Jesus is good and nice, but God is an angry judge, waiting to “zap” people with lightning bolts from heaven when they step out of line. Jesus is a perfect copy and expression of God’s true nature! Jesus is the mirror image of God! You can know what God is like by looking at how Jesus is. Everything that Jesus did (healed the sick, delivered people from oppression etc) reflected God’s nature. Jesus confirmed this by saying that if we have seen Him, we have seen the Father (John 14:9).  During His earthly ministry, Jesus never did anything that God the Father would not have done (John 5:19).
 
“how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
Acts 10:38 (NKJV)
 
“Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with great power. He did wonderful things for others and divinely healed all who were under the tyranny of the devil, for God had anointed him.”
Acts 10:38 The Passion Translation (TPT)

The Father empowered Jesus to do the wonderful things He did – Jesus had the backing of heaven to heal the sick and bring freedom to the captives of the devil (note that they were not captives of God!). God commissioned (sent) and empowered Jesus to do what He did. Some people wrongly see a courtroom drama going on in heaven where God wants to punish mankind, but Jesus is an attorney who is constantly reminding God of His sacrifice. This is not true. God is not angry, and He isn’t sitting on the edge of His throne waiting to punish you.
 
Jesus came because God loved the world, not because He was angry (John 3:16-17). Jesus came to save us from perishing, not to condemn us for our sin. Through Jesus, God is not holding anyone’s sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:19). Many people wrongly believe that God has a long list of everything you’ve done wrong and thought wrong and that He’s going to punish you for it someday. If you see God like this, then it is the foundation of your relationship with God will not be healthy – it will be based on fear, not based on love or truth. Knowing God’s true nature will cause you to have a godly confidence which will cause you to rise and do great things with God.