Day Forty-Nine
29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word.
Almost four years ago now, I had a conversation that changed my life. A mentor of mine looked at me and said “do you know the one thing that you need to help you breakthrough in this next season? Spiritual authority.” At the time this sounded a bit ambiguous. Right as I was about to open my mouth and ask “Ok, how do I get it?” Thinking there’s a formula or a book I read, he says “there isn’t a formula or book you can read, and no one can pray for you to get it. You only receive it by asking for it in prayer. But no one can ask it for you, you have to go after it.” In other words, this rests on your pursuit, not on God’s desire to give it to you.
Maybe you’ve felt similar as we’ve been on this journey together of 100 days of Bold Action. You want to be bold, you’re even convinced that you need to be bold, but you’re looking for one of these devotionals to tell you a three-step process on how to become it. Well, I have good news for you. The process is just 1 step: PRAY. And when I say pray, I mean to open your mouth and declare those words. Don’t just think bold thoughts, or what it may be like if you were bold. Open up your mouth and ask God to make you bold. Something begins to not just shift around you, but to shift in you when you pray this way. That’s what happened to Peter and John in Acts 4. They were thrown into jail for performing miracles in the name of Jesus. And while in jail they prayed “give us GREAT BOLDNESS.” And verse 31 says:
“After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.”
It shifted inside of them and their environment. Just be ready because if you pray “God make me Bold” He’s going to give you immediate opportunity to be bold. It’s a dangerous prayer, but are faith and boldness safe?
Blessings,
Ryan Rolls