CONFIDENCE TO ENTER – Monday: A
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus . . . Let us draw near" (Hebrews 10:19-22)
No one can draw close to the Lord without a measurable degree of confidence. Just as sin thrust Adam away from God, causing him to hide, so sin continues to drive people from the presence of the Lord. However, this condition must, and can, be overcome! Believers are exhorted, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Heb 10:19). Notice, "boldness," or confidence, is something that can be possessed: i.e., "HAVING boldness." Men do not have to come in cringing fear before the God of all the earth. Both Scripture and exalted reason confirm this to be the case. "In Whom (Jesus) we HAVE boldness and access by the faith of (in) Him" (Eph 3:12). Jesus opened the way to God, and faith enables us to travel it with confidence!
"Boldness," or confidence, speaks of expectancy. As we come to the Lord, we expect to be received because of Christ. We do not approach the "Father of lights" to see IF He will receive us, but because He has already received us in the Son. We are "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph 1:6), and He greatly delights in our unreserved acceptance of that reality. This is the "full assurance of understanding," the declared result of hearts being "knit together in love" (Col 2:2).
To "enter" the "holiest" is to allow the Lord to dominate your heart and mind. It involves the subjugation of lesser thoughts that "exalt" themselves against "the knowledge of God" (2 Cor 10:5ff). Fleshly preferences and circumstance are willingly forfeited in order to bask in the light of the greater glory of God. You cannot "enter" the holiest without personal effort and a persuasion of the goodness of the Lord.
Coming into the presence of God with confidence is drawing "near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Heb 10:22). Herein is the secret of spiritual stability: holding on to "the full assurance of hope" (Heb 6:11). Those who lack this assurance have little, if any, spiritual strength. They are not able to withstand the assaults of the evil one because they live closer to him than to the Lord. Satan has already been expelled from the presence of the Lord. As you press close to Him, you leave the place dominated by the "old serpent." How glorious, therefore, is the "hope" that anchors us "within the veil," the "most holy place" (Heb 6:19).
"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward" (Heb 10:35). That confidence, or boldness, will appropriate mercy for you! It will procure "grace to help in time of need" (Heb 4:16). Do not discard the confidence generated by faith in preference of the "pleasures of sin for a season." It is a foolish thing to trade the benefit of coming confidently before God in order to wallow in the flesh, thereby nurturing affiliation with the world.
Scripture depicts confidence as being forfeited by CASTING it away – thrusting it from us because of a desire for lesser ands temporal things. The Spirit must be quenched to lose confidence. This confidence, or assurance, can only be abandoned by turning to the cursed order. God declares such to be an act of the will, whereby confidence is "cast away."
Notice, we enter the presence of the Lord "by the blood of Jesus." It is only the willing forfeiture of His life that has enabled us to come before the Lord, casting our burden upon Him, praising Him, and making our requests known unto Him. Thanks be unto God for confidence to enter!
PRAYER POINT: Father, I thank You in Jesus name, for welcoming me into Your presence.