The Source of Boldness...

This week, we are looking at a prayer that early followers of Jesus prayed after two of their leaders, named Peter and John were arrested by the leaders of the Jewish people. And it is in this prayer by these early followers of Jesus that we see God reveal for us a timeless principle that God’s co-mission requires boldness. These early followers of Jesus recognized that there would be opportunities that would continue to pop up. And with those opportunities would be opposition. With those opportunities would be threats. With those opportunities would be fear and hesitation. And those realities drove these early followers of Jesus to ask for boldness, for the courage to speak up when an opportunity popped up to share the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel.

And in the same way today, to fully engage in God’s co-mission requires that we have the boldness to speak up when an opportunity pops up. Because when we are faithful to speak up when the opportunity pops up, we create the space for God to partner with us in His co-mission to do what only He can do. We see this revealed for us as this prayer in Acts 4:29:

"And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus." And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

These early followers of Jesus prayed that as they demonstrated the boldness to speak up when the opportunity popped up, that God would enter into those situations to do only what He could only do. The healing, the signs and the wonders that they were referring to in this prayer referred to the spiritual sign gifts that God was working through in the lives of these early followers of Jesus that resulted in the miraculous, which served to authenticate and confirm that the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel was from God and not made up by man.

Luke then explains that as these early followers of Jesus finished praying for boldness, God entered into their prayer in a powerful way. God’s presence became powerfully present, causing the room where they were praying to be shaken. You see, prayer is as much or more about communion with God than it is about communication with God. And while we may never experience God’s presence to the point that it shakes the room we are in, when we pray, our focus should be less on an answer to prayer as it is to be in the presence of God in communion with God.

Luke reveals for us that God not only responded with revealing His presence in a powerful way, God also responded by granting their request. These early followers of Jesus were equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit to have the boldness to speak up when the opportunity popped up. And that is exactly what they did. Because to fully engage in God’s co-mission requires boldness. So here is a question to consider: Are engaged in God’s kingdom mission with boldness? How are we responding when opportunities pop up to talk about the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel?

Do we respond to the opportunities with loudness? Do we respond to the opportunities with confrontational coldness? Do we respond to the opportunities by trying to win an argument? Do we respond to the opportunities by avoiding or running from those opportunities? Or do we respond by having courage to speak openly and frankly when an opportunity presents itself? Because, at the end of the day, boldness is simply the courage to speak up when an opportunity pops up.