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 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 ), about 10 verses later (Acts -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 )
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.
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