Confirmation

Dear friends

Where I grew up and the way Christianity, to be precise the Protestant way of it, is taught and practiced, there is a so called confirmation taking place with all young people aged around 14.
They are being sent to something which is probably very similar to Sunday School for 1.5 years and then in the end, there is a service where family will attend and where they publicly “confirm” their faith.

Me, I must say, in my case, all the education and even the presents and all the time I spent with the Pastor who led the group and with my fellow confirmants, it didn’t leave any memories or lasting impressions.
I kid you not when I say that I don’t remember anything about it, not even my scripture that I chose -all I remember is that it was NOT psalm 23 as this was the most common one and I found it boring at the time….
It’s a shame this all went so completely past me, and even though I was raised in a so called Christian environment, nobody in my family (except my late dad and one grandma) is a true believer and before I got saved about 7 years ago, in fact pretty much exactly 7 years ago, almost to the day, I had no concept of GOD, I didn’t even know anything about HIS life on earth or about any of the stories the Old nor New Testament tells – isn’t it amazing how the enemy can cloud a person’s mind and let everything be forgotten or unnoticed in the first place, even through such a long time of lessons…?
We were even obliged to go to church every Sunday during that time and I did, but I don’t even remember any aspect of any sermon I must have heard there!

So I was officially confirmed with 14.

Not dedicated to GOD though until many, many years later!

And this is just to say that not only often times, what it says on the label is not in the box.
But also, until GOD confirms a person or a thing or a matter or a prophecy, until then, it is not valid.

Me, I wasn’t confirmed in my faith until GOD said so.

I mean, perhaps me being raised in a what I call “pseudo-Christian” family and baptised as a baby did grant me some of GOD’s protection, even may be the reason I was surviving all the attacks before I was officially born again, baptised again as an adult, and fully committed to HIM.

But I wasn’t confirmed in my faith and in my walk with HIM before I gave my life to HIM and before I was baptised with the HOLY SPIRIT.

And that goes for everything else.

In my walk with THE LORD, HE has been speaking to me, HE has been giving me dreams and visions and words – through HIS word, through other people…. and I was thinking about some of them and how long it took until they came to pass and what I did before that…. and how I knew the difference between something I just wished would happen and something GOD was telling me would be coming to pass….

And I believe the most significant thing that stands out is that from my experience, no matter how long it takes until something we are believing GOD for will come to pass, HE will not let us give up and will send us confirmation that we heard HIM correctly.

Hope.
Some little progress.
A sign that we are on the right path and that HE wants us to keep going.

The enemy will do the same, only the other way around.
He will do all in his power to discourage us and distract us, even to send us a fake, very similar looking answer to our prayers that is truly not an answer, but a stumbling block…
This is ALSO a confirmation that we are on the right track and that the enemy sees a future in us, which is positive and which he is trying to prevent.

When these 2 opposite signs are accumulating, when everything seems to go wrong and at the same time, we are growing stronger in believing that it will be exactly as we had heard GOD say it will be, even though in the natural, it looks more and more unlikely, if not impossible, we are close to the goal.

Very close.

The next phase is that we are giving up without giving up – some people call it surrender all to GOD.

However, we cannot do it because we know it is almost the final step before the breakthrough – we have to be honest with ourselves and with GOD.

GOD will not give us anything that is more important to us than HE is.

On the other hand, HE wants us to believe the unbelievable and to cry out to HIM and to have faith in the impossible.

That’s a big stretch and hard to do.

Not be too attached to the outcome and at the same time, praying and fasting and asking GOD permanently for “it”.

And there’s a fine line and a small, but significant difference between giving up and surrendering…

The most important aspect for me in surrendering is to make it clear to GOD that we want HIS will for us, that we accept, agree and be very certain that what GOD will decide is the very best for us.
Always.
If it is what we want or not.
If we understand it or not.

After all, being aligned with GOD’s will for us is a process, a learning curve, a constant and fluid interaction of communication, asking, receiving answers, correcting ourselves, listening, asking again and seeking to improve what we believe we have been told by HIM needs improving….

And from my experience, before the BIG answer comes, there will be little hints of confirmation, little signs of encouragement, even during the times when we are about to truly give up and not give up in a good way, but give up in a defiant way, in a “don’t care no mo”-way.
In these times when we are “this close” to give it up or to even do something stupid and sabotage ourselves, there will be someone in our life talking about the very same thing, someone we know will be having a breakthrough, there will be a street sign telling us something about “our case”, a song will be on the radio which reminds us of a time when we were in a similar situation and GOD came through for us, a film will contain a scene where what we are believing GOD for is happening, or it will tell us what to do next in order to get closer to our goal.

Last, but not least, the bible will reveal different aspects of our “topic” to us.

There will be a scripture “coming up” that we had never seen before or never seen from this angle before, we will have a revelation about something, receive an answer about some question we had been praying about for a long time.

When we are in alignment with GOD’s will for us, it will feel as if we are in the right place at the right time.
And this will happen more and more often.
We will feel “at home” in our lives, we will feel we are where we are supposed to be.
This will be a strengthening process in itself, as the more at home we will feel, the more people will recognize that we are supposed to be where we are and we will appear more confident, which will again bring us favour and more support.

I believe that GOD wants us to believe before HE gives “it” to us.
The bible says without faith it is impossible to please HIM.
And if we had been able to see “it” clearly, we wouldn’t have needed faith in the first place…?!

Obviously, the ultimate confirmation is when we receive what we had been asking and praying for.

But there’s also many layers and levels of confirmation other than the ultimate, undeniable, testimony-confirmation.
Subtle ones and more direct ones.
Like lights on the way home.

And some of what I am trying to say is not even fathomable with words and with a “regular” understanding, because it concerns the things of GOD, which we cannot even fully understand, as HE is so far above us and above our understanding.

But I came to encourage us today: if GOD has said it, HE will do it and confirm it in the end.
Until then, HE will make sure we have everything we need in order to keep going and to keep trusting and listening and looking out for HIM to confirm that we are on track and that HE will be on time.

How about you, my friend?
Have you gone through a period where you had been believing GOD for something and you were praying and waiting for it to come to pass?
Did you notice any of the steps above or was your process anything like the one I have been observing?
In what ways have you noticed confirmation from GOD coming to you?
Looking forward to learning about your experiences…

I hope and pray that this will encourage, inspire, bless and heal you.
And that THE LORD will bless you abundantly in all areas of your life; that HE will keep you and shine HIS face upon you and bring you PEACE. In JESUS’ name I pray. AMEN.