Are You Desperate For It?

A few weeks ago I published a post called Are You Willing To Ask?  In this post I talk about the first part of the book of Acts where the Apostles are baptized with the Holy Spirit an they begin preaching with boldness. I summarized my post by saying that I don't want to be comfortable, I don't want my girls to be comfortable, I want my family to be ready, willing and able to truly seek out opportunities to show and share the love of Jesus.  I want to have my heart in a place I am willing to seek for the Holy Spirit to truly baptize me with boldness.  

Today during my personal study time I was challenged to take this question even further.  In Acts 3:1-26 and 4: 1-31, I looked at a second time the Holy Spirit granted boldness.  In these passages we see Peter and John heading to the temple when they come across a lame man asking for money.  Instead of giving him money, Peter tells him in the name of Jesus to walk.  Peter then grabs his hand and pulls him up.  The man then gets up and walks into the temple with them praising God.  The people are amazed and the leaders are freaked out.  Peter begins preaching and in the course of his sermon they get arrested.  When they stand before the ruling leaders they do not back down but again speak boldly for Jesus.  Then when the leaders let them go the first thing they do is begin praying asking God for even more boldness, and the Holy Spirit granted them boldness.

As I read and studied through this passage a couple things stuck out to me.  One was in chapter 4 verse 13 which says this: "Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus."  I wrote down in my notes the question...do people look at me and see that I have been with Jesus?  Do people look at me and see that I am truly different and so changed by my personal experience with the Living God that it shines boldly through my life?  

In 4:20, Peter and John say "for we cannot stop speaking about what we have see and heard."  They were so impacted by their experience with Jesus and his resurrection that nothing will stop their speaking out.  I love how my pastor talked about how they did not form a committee to discuss how to be politically correct, they did not talk about ways to change their approach so people would not be offended by what they were preaching, and they did not cower back and agree to the demands of the elders for them to leave and never preach Jesus again.  Instead they  did this...

"And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, 

“O Lord, it is You who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, 

and all that is in them,  who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our 

father David Your servant, said,

‘Why did the Gentiles rage,

And the peoples devise futile things?

 

‘The kings of the earth [c]took their stand,

And the rulers were gathered together

Against the Lord and against His Christ.’

 For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.  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." Acts 4:24-31

They prayed!  Here we see that they began praying and you can see in this passage they they prayed with boldness and power.  They gave honor, credit and glory to God knowing that it was the Lord who had made all that occurred possible not them. My favorite part of they prayer is where they ask for even more boldness to speak the name of Jesus.  Wow!  They were not worried about what people thought.  They were not worried about being politically correct.  They were not worried about whether speaking out would cost them their lives.  No...they spoke out with boldness and when trouble came, they asked for even more boldness.

I want this in my life, I want to be a person who not only asks the Lord to give me boldness but asks in almost desperation.  I do not want to be a Christian who is comfortable and lives my life doing church.  Our world is not getting better and the Bible tells us that over time it will only get more lost and depraved.  But the Bible also tells us that the Lord desires that none perish.  What am I doing to spread the gospel?  Am I seeking to live a life that boldly speaks Jesus?  Am I adjusting my walk to make sure I do not offend people when I speak of Jesus?  Now understand I do not believe being bold means being blunt, rude and pushy.  No, I believe that being bold means speaking truth with the love and grace that we see Christ give all throughout the gospels.  I want people when they see me to see the love and grace of Christ in all I say and do, but I want to be brave enough to not adjust my words or actions because I am fearful of "rocking the boat".

To me this is where our daily Bible study time, prayer time and relationship with Jesus becomes so important.  You see as we seek boldness we are not to seek for ourselves but so that the Holy Spirit can come and do His work through us.  When we allow that to happen then I believe we will know when to speak, when to be silent and when to walk away.  I have friends who claim to know Jesus because they did church but it is obvious they don't have a relationship with Him.  I can think of times where the Holy Spirit provided me opportunity to boldly speak of Jesus and other times where I truly knew I was to be silent and pray.  You see our impact on this world will never be because of our own actions and words.  Our impact on this world will be through our allowing the Holy Spirit to come and work through us as we continually point people to Jesus.  It all comes back to that simple rule.  Everything always comes back to Jesus and when we point people to Him then we allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in His time.

So again I want to ask you...are you willing to truly ask for boldness?  Are you desperate for it?  Do people see you and know you have been with Jesus?