Nurturing Trust and Faith: A Prophetic Perspective

POV – What’s ahead? Our Perspective Makes a Difference

It is important to maintain a positive perspective when seeking prophetic guidance, emphasizing faith and trust in God. Personal experiences on shapes our viewpoint and influences how we interpret spiritual insights. Nurturing a perspective anchored in trust and God’s faithfulness amidst life’s challenges will foster feelings of safety and security, rather than fear and anxiety.

Good Question, Good Answer

What can we expect in the coming year? How can I prepare for what’s coming? The prophetic community is seeking answers from God. These are all really good questions. The answer nevertheless comes with a word of caution. Be careful what you ask for. God might just show you.

When we are seeing in the Spirit prophetically into what is coming, we need to keep something in mind. God doesn’t shows us things to instill fear. It’s so that we can participate with God by engaging our faith.

Faith has to do with trust or confidence in someone or something. I’ve been asking myself this question- Am I trusting God completely? How much faith do I really have? How can I nurture my faith and foster a greater ability to trust God? We aren’t perfect. Are there times when anxiety gets the best of me? Of course, I’m human. We all are. But, I am nurturing a life of faith. I do that by spending time with God, in prayer, meditation and reading His word.

When I’m driving I trust that when I step on the brake pedal the car will stop. At the same time I know that brakes can wear down and fail. So, I drive defensively. Driving defensively means you don’t assume that the other drivers will do what you think they should do. Life is like that. I can’t assume that circumstances are going to go the way I think they should. So, while I trust that certain things will happen a certain way, I am not thrown into chaos when they don’t. Because, I am trust more in God than in my circumstances. That trust has been developed over a lifetime.

Ever increasing faith can happen.

Faith grows. It takes time to develop trust in God. Trust is a product of relationship. It takes time to learn someone’s character. I can trust God more now than I could when I was a young woman. We learn the trustworthiness of God when time after time He actually does what He said He would do.

Another question we have to ask ourselves is: Is my faith in my faith or is my faith in God. My faith can be weak at time. Sometimes it will fail. BUT! God never fails. So what is faith?

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. – Hebrews 11:1 (LSB)

I like how the Passion Translation interprets this verse

Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. – Hebrews 11:1 (TPT)

Faith is confidence in what is not visible in our current circumstances.

Confidence doesn’t just happen. Confidence has to be nurtured. Confidence in God and confidence in myself can be cultivated. Get to know yourself. Get to know God. We get to know someone by spending time with them.

When we are dealing with underlying issues we tend to avoid them. We push those thoughts aside rather than dealing with them. That doesn’t help. When it comes to encouraging confidence in ourselves and God challenging our thoughts about ourselves and God is an important step to growing and expanding our faith.

We Have a Choice

Can we view what God is showing us through the lens of faith? Can we then go forward full of the Spirit of the Lord full of confidence and hope? I think we can!

For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. – 2 Corinthians 10: 3-5 (MSB)

Perspective or Presumption

Perspective is: a way of thinking about and understanding something, a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something. It is an individuals point of view or attitude. It is a mindset developed out of their personal life experiences which shapes their core values.

We all have a point of view. Everyone’s perspective is uniquely theirs. Presumption is an idea that is taken to be true, and often used as the basis for other ideas, although it is not known for certain. When we base what we know about God on what we have been taught rather than what we have learned through personal experience that is presumption.

We can presume that God is angry with us but that doesn’t mean He is. We can think God is a harsh taskmaster. That doesn’t mean He actually is. I was raised to believe God was waiting for me to screw up so He could punish me. What I discovered through my own personal experience was that God loves me and desires to bless me. He is constantly looking for ways to show me kindness, generosity and loving care. I learned He isn’t nearly as offended as the people in my life presented Him to be.

Don’t let presumption distort your the way you see things

Ten people can go through the same experience in the same context and walk away with ten completely different interpretations of it. We can’t help it. It’s how our brains work. While we can’t control how the brain works, we do have the power to change our mindsets, paradigms and inclinations.

When it comes down to it, it’s a choice. I can choose to view life through the unhealed trauma of my past and always see myself as a victim. Or I can change my perspective to one of being an overcomer, focusing on gratitude, and joy of life.

The more I set my mind on the loving characteristics of God, the more I will see His loving characteristics in the everyday things of life. The more I focus on gratitude for things like being alive, having a place to life, God’s watchful care, His leading and guiding, the more my perspective is influenced by that viewpoint.

Prophetic POV

How I view life has a direct effect on how I interpret prophetic words, visions, encounters with God and even the written word of God. The result of our life experiences can not only distort how we see the world around us, but also misinterpret spiritual things.

If our life experience was traumatized with chronic criticism, toxic shaming, violent hostility, constant disapproval, or continuous ridicule, our viewpoint is going to be skewed by what the affects. If this is the case, we more than likely interpret life through feelings of being unsafe and unsure of ourselves. We may have an over developed sense of responsibility, or always be ready for a fight. We can lack the confident assurance it takes to make decisions.

So, when God reveals to us that troubling times are ahead, our response can often be one that is reactionary and motivated by our fears. In this case we become more focused on the circumstances than on God’s ability to see us through.

BUT

If my point of view has been molded by life experience including honesty, encouragement, tolerance, praise, acceptance and approval, My way of thinking and processing information will be through a lens of self confidence, being patient with others, and appreciation. I will probably value things like genuineness and trustworthiness and honesty. Even if we haven’t grown up with these things in our lives we can cultivate them for ourselves now. It’s re-parenting our inner-self.

My core values will determine my response. When my POV is one anchored in knowing I can trust God, and rely on His nearness and watchful care, I can respond with faith, trust and hope. In this case, my focus is on God’s faithfulness despite the circumstances.

Then our hope is not be in the outcome of our situation but in the loving care of our Savor and Lord. Our trust will not be in our current condition but in God whose ways are above our. Our minds will be at rest. Anxiety will not be given a place.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it produce and sprout, And providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes out of My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:8-11 NASB

A New Testament Example

Let’s take a look at someone from the New Testament who was shown what was coming.

The Apostle Paul was shown by God how much he was going to have to suffer because of his believe in Jesus as Messiah. Despite being shown what was coming he went forward in faith. He didn’t allow himself to get crippled by fear. The gospel was brought to the Gentiles as a result. He went on to be the greatest contributor to what we know as the New Testament. He wrote:

For I consider [from the standpoint of faith] that the sufferings of the present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us!- Romans 8:18 (NASB)

YOU’VE GOT THIS!

Maintaining a positive perspective when seeking prophetic guidance needs to be rooted in faith and trust in God. Personal experiences shape our viewpoint and influence our interpretation of spiritual insights. God shows us things not to instill fear, but for us to engage our faith. Faith grows over time through developing trust in God. Presumption can distort our perspective, but we have the choice to view life with confidence in God, leading to a focus on His faithfulness despite circumstances. How we view life affects how we interpret spiritual things, and our core values determine our response. Despite being shown what was to come, the Apostle Paul went forward in faith and brought the gospel to the Gentiles. We can too!

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