With Boldness

Acts 4:23-31

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

²³ On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. ²⁴ When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.   ²⁵ You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

“‘Why do the nations rage
    and the peoples plot in vain?
²⁶ The kings of the earth take their stand
    and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
    and against his Anointed One.^’

²⁷ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. ²⁸ They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.  ²⁹ Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.   ³⁰ Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

³¹ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.   And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%204:%2023%20-31&version=NIV1984

When I pray, so many times I pray about the here and now rather than focus on the past.  Why is the past so important for us to pray about it?  As you notice, in this passage the people prayed a prayer from David regarding the Kings of this earth and then they prayed regarding what happened to the Lord while He was physically here on this earth.  Again, why is that so important to pray about?  Doesn’t the Lord already know about that? 

Well, the Lord know everything before we ever pray about it!  By praying this prayer it tells us that they knew the scriptures, they recognized Christ as Lord, and they understood that God is in control.  Nothing will happen outside the will of the Father in Heaven.  The also knew the power of God and knew that nothing was done outside of His control.

As I read that scripture I thought, my prayer might have been a little different.  I would have been praising God for the here and now, for saving Peter and John.  They on the other hand put their entire focus on the Lord.  They focused on the fact that God is above the rulers of this worlds both now and in the past.  They recognized that boldness comes from Him and Him alone.  They recognized the will of the Father and its importance throughout history.  They speak of the threats of others and did not ask for Him to silence those who were against them but rather to enable them to speak with boldness towards those rulers.

When we recognize and acknowledge that God is in control, when we ask for boldness to proclaim His Words throughout the nations, and when we submit to His will, nothing is impossible with God.  Yet so many times I seem to pray regarding my will.  I may suggest to Him what I think should happen.  I might have been praying for the destruction of these false leaders, that justice would be served on those who crucified Christ and that God’s wrath would be on those that held Peter and John in prison.  Yet, it is not my will but His that is done. 

There is much debate today regarding when the Holy Spirit actually indwells a person.  Some say it is at the conversion, others say that He comes later.  I don’t want to get into a theological debate.  At this point in the early church, it is apparent that if they received the Holy Spirit at conversion, He began to work within them at this point in time.  They Holy Spirit definitely made His presence known and His message was spread with boldness.  Notice that it doesn’t say they went out and performed many miracles, it says that they were able to speak the things of God with boldness.

My prayer today is this:   I want to recognize that you God are in control.  There is nothing that man can do to me that is worse or better than what you can do for me.   But Father, it is not about me and I recognize that, it is ALL about you.  I see your great timing from the past, like when you placed Joseph in Egypt and when you called Moses to take your people out. Or how you had to have the people of Israel wander in the desert because they could not recognize that you were the One in control.  How they had to die without seeing the Promised Land because they refused to let you have control and tried to do it on their own and with their false gods, their idols.  I see how this led only to their destruction and never to their benefit.  I have read of the answered prayers of the saints, who recognized your power, how Joshua led the people into the Promised Land because he recognized you were in control.  I have also read of the pain of those who put their trust in you, such as John the Baptist who prepared the way for you, but his life was not his own but was lived for your glory.  I have read of the temptations of Christ, how He suffered on the cross, but I also read of the power over death and His resurrection.  I thank you for the sacrifice of Christ to leave His Holy realm to live a humble life on this earth so that He could understand our pain and our temptations and so that I could have a way to you.  I am thankful for the witness to the Gentiles in order that I could have life through Jesus Christ our Lord.    I don’t know what this life will bring me but I do know that in the end, I too will be resurrected to serve you in Heaven.  I know that although man may harm me, you will resurrect me.  I recognize that you are in control of EVERYTHING, I put my trust in you and you alone.  No matter what life brings I pray that I will have boldness to speak and proclaim the word of God.  I pray that the readers of this blog and the Christians that I fellowship with will have the boldness to also speak the Word of God and proclaim His greatness to their opposition.  I pray that God’s greatness will be revealed to the kings of this earth through the boldness of believers who are called before them.  I ask that your Holy Spirit be revealed through our actions and our speech and may you always receive the praise forever and ever.  Amen

As you seek Him, recognize His greatness, His power displayed through all of history.  Know that He is God. Then, go and proclaim Him with boldness.

Seeing Him with all my heart,