Force-feeding

This is part two of “Speaking Boldly”. However this one is a caution to be taken in the case of speaking boldly. I want to make it clear that I believe there to be an important difference between being bold in sharing the gospel and being downright obnoxious.

Too many times, my non-Christian friends have told me stories of zealous Christians jumping down their throats and completely turning them off Jesus and Christian faith. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they’re mistaken to share, nor am I meaning to criticise people who are eager to talk about Jesus at every chance they get but I think there is a key point here:

We need to be discerning.

We can take our example here from the apostle Philip. This guy shows us how to be in tune with the Spirit to indicate to us when, where and with who we need to share. In Acts 8:26-39 Philip comes alongside a eunuch who is struggling with a piece of Scripture from Isaiah. The Spirit indicates this man to Philip and therefore presents an opportunity for Philip to share the gospel to a heart that is open and searching for Truth. The end of this story sees the eunuch getting baptised and becoming a believer in Christ. Now the key part here is that Philip takes his cue from the Spirit. He doesn’t begin sharing until the Spirit indicates the guy and tells him to. This is the difference. The eunuch was in a place to receive and so the sharing was effective.

Here’s another way to of to see it:

No-one gets a taste for food they’ve been force fed.

In fact they may never eat it again.

My sister has never quite recovered from junior school when they forced her to eat cod fish-fingers every Friday, to the point that at aged 22 she still can’t face them.

In the same way if we want people to “taste and see” the beauty of Jesus, delight in Him and regard Him as their “Bread of Life” then we must not ram the gospel down their throats. The Good News is something that deserves to be taken in carefully, that requires savouring, and, therefore, an open mouth.

We also need to be feeding ourselves on what we’re offering them. It’s like the poisoned apple idea. If we’re not eating what we’re offering, what’s wrong with it?

In other words, if we’re telling people Jesus will change their life and yet we haven’t allowed Him to transform our own, what does that look like to non-believers?

Likewise, we shouldn’t be handing people food and walking away.

We need to be inviting them to eat with us.

Think about when you’ve ever invite people to dinner. As the host you make sure of a few things, right? Like:

1. You are well prepared for them.
2. You know what you are going to eat.
3. Most likely you know what you that the food is good and you have eaten it before.
4. You are going to be present at dinner.

I, personally, would feel awkward if I came to your house to dinner and you said “Oh Isla, so glad you could make it” and then proceeded to get your coat, head for the door and leave me alone at the dinner table. Not good. In the same way, if you served me something saying “I’ve never tried it myself but someone told me it’s good”, I would be suspicious. It’s the same with spreading the word:

1. Be prepared. (Be spiritually fed yourself.)

2.  Know what you’re talking about. (Devour His Word.)

3. Live it out. (Practice what you preach, before you preach it.)

4. Be there. (Meet people where they are and love them.)

So yes I pray for boldness, for myself and all of you reading this, but I also pray for discernment and sensitivity to God’s timing and the indications of the Spirit, not just our own enthusiasm or intuition.

Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks. Love you all. God Bless.

Speaking Boldly (Get Your Preach On)

Something that has struck me recently whilst reading Acts is the amount of times there are references to the apostles “speaking boldly” about Jesus. It got me thinking about how much I live it out.

I’m up to chapter 14 and so far I’ve read the phrase at least six times and seen many more examples of it in the actions of the apostles.

In Acts 4 it’s mentioned three times, in verses 13, 29 and 31. In fact verse 29 is about ‘The Believers’ praying for God to grant them “to speak Your word with all boldness”.

And I thought to myself; when was the last time I prayed for that?

How about you?

And then verse 31…BAM prayer answered.

They’re filled with the Holy Spirit and “spoke the word of God with boldness”.

Just like that.

“Boldness please, God.” Done.

So what does this boldness look like lived out?

Well I like the example in Acts 6 of the guy chosen to be one of the seven ‘deacons’, Stephen. Now as Stephen is going about preaching the word and performing “great wonders and signs among the people” members of a Synagogue get mad and begin to argue with him. But they fail to defeat him, as, in verse 10, “they could not stand up against the wisdom and Spirit in which he spoke”. Stephen spoke boldly. But his boldness in speaking was because of the Spirit and the wisdom the Spirit gave him. This effectively meant that no-one could dispute the Truth he was speaking.

Example number one: Stephen spoke boldly.

The second example, (there are tons but these two will be sufficient for a blog I feel…) is the boldness of Ananias in Acts 9 for his part of the conversion of Saul. I love this story because Ananias has such a genuine, relatable reaction to God’s instruction to go to Saul: “Lord, you can’t be serious. This guy has been persecuting, even killing Your people in Jerusalem and You want me to go pray for him?!”

And God said “Yes.”

Because He had big plans for Saul. So Ananias walks boldly into the house where Saul is staying and lays hands on Saul and prays for him to receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

BAM. His boldness in the Spirit is rewarded by the conversion of one man from the greatest enemy of the early church to one of its most eager preachers.

I can’t hardly imagine the boldness it took Ananias to walk into that house let alone pray for the man who had been granted complete freedom to destroy Christians. I wonder if I could do that. Could you?

Lessons learned so far:

To receive boldness all you have to do is ask.

Boldness gives its vessel a new power, if the boldness is founded in Spirit and Truth.

To walk in boldness all you’ve got to do is obey God’s will.

Last lesson for now: Boldness breeds boldness.

Ananias speaks boldly over Saul (Acts 9:17), about 10 verses later (Acts 9:27-29) what is Saul doing?

I’ll give you three guesses.

Killing Christians?

Nope.

Taking a time-out?

No sir.

“He spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 9:29)

Bingo.

So here’s the Boldness four-step, if you will:

Prayer

Foundation in Spirit and Truth

Walking it out in obedience

Watching your boldness breed boldness in others

(OK, boldness hardly looks like a word anymore I’ve written so many times. Hope I got my point across. If not: boldness, boldness, boldness…boldness…BOLDNESS)

So my prayer for us is this:

I pray that God gives us the courage we need to go out there and do what God has called us to and do it boldly. I pray for an anointing of boldness in the Spirit over all who read this and desire it. I want to see a new boldness in the way I speak about Jesus, a new boldness in my soul that doesn’t flinch at challenging requests from God but follows in obedience the path set out ahead of me. In Proverbs 28:1 it says “the righteous are as bold as a lion” and I believe if we all lived this out we would see powerful change in ourselves and the people who we impact for the glory of God. I pray that we would all seek this, claim this and walk it out in Spirit and Truth.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Would love to hear what you guys think. Just something I’ve been thinking about so pull me up on anything you want to. Appreciate it! Love you all.

Eight Six

Oh boy, you had me at ‘enamoured’

I love a man with a good command of vocabulary and grammar.

Oh boy, you had me with that Bible verse,

Yet it seems you haven’t grasped the meaning of those recited words.

You misconstrue, and that’s intriguing

But it’s pitiful.

You exaggerate, which is sad

And yet it’s beautiful.

You admire me and I like that

But it’s not enough

You said it yourself

You just don’t know that much about love.

So like the seal upon a letter

I am bound to you

You pressed the crest of your ring onto my heart.

My arm burns from your touch

As if you branded me

I am yours to keep and yours to tear apart.

Love is as strong as death

And believe me,

I have a feeling this might kill me.

This might kill me.