Lesson 77 – When the Spirit Makes Bold

Acts 4:31

"And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness."

    I love this text. In response to a prayer for boldness to speak the word in the face of those directly opposing Christ, God answers in a miraculous way, granting the church boldness to preach the gospel through the filling of the Spirit.

    As a pastor, I long for this same boldness. Though I don't face the same direct confrontation as those of the early church, we are warned by the Scriptures that Satan stands against the church. A spiritual battle is raging, even when it hasn't spilled over into my life in a physical way. In that light, I need boldness to be faithful to the word, and only by a filling of the Holy Spirit can I stand faithful to the task at hand.

    I also long for the Church to be filled with this same boldness. While not every believer is called to preach, it is among the congregation of Christ that the greatest witness goes forth into our communities. Every believer is appointed as an ambassador for Christ. Every believer is to be a light in darkness. Every believer is to be the aroma of Christ. Every believer needs the boldness of the Spirit's touch to stand firm in the face of opposition.

    So where do we get this boldness? The easy answer is, "From the Spirit." And while that is so, it was through a specific prayer for boldness that the Lord chose to loose the Spirit upon the Church. What if the disciples had chosen to give up the battle without a prayer? Without this prayer, I have to wonder if the results would have been the same.

    We too need to make a prayer for boldness in the Church our continuous mantra. We need to come boldly before the Lord, crying out for our sermons, for our teachers, for our congregations. It is time to quit holding up the usual sort of prayers that are personally focused, but to lift up a cry for boldness that an army of bold believers will change our communities as the Spirit moves in power.

LORD JESUS

Lord, I thank you for answering the heart-felt prayer for boldness to preach your word. May I have boldness in my sermons, and may your Church know your boldness in bringing your witness. Amen.