Boldness

A week of worldwide fasting and prayer for the US began on April 30th and will continue through May 6th. Interestingly enough, this fast was not requested by Americans. Australian believers have sent out this call.

Because of that, I am recycling several blog entries I wrote last year. At that time, God prompted me to shift my focus as I prayed for the nation. In short, I believe God showed me four things about which to pray:

• Pray for people to know what to do.
• Pray for people to receive wisdom along with their knowledge.
• Pray for those people to receive the boldness to step out in what they know to do.
• Pray for those people to be filled with boldness to carry out their tasks to completion.

Originally posted last year (sixth in series):

…and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. Ephesians 6:19-20, emphasis added

Back in April, I heard this in my spirit: Pray for people to know what to do, so I wrote about it. I also wrote about for whom to pray (basically everyone needs to know what to do right now, and our prayer on their behalf will help to facilitate the distribution of God’s knowledge to each one). In the last blog entry, I addressed the need to pray for wisdom for the people who are receiving the knowledge of what to do.

Another ingredient needs to accompany knowledge and wisdom—especially for God’s people. In particular, godly leaders must obtain this special ingredient: Boldness.

The apostle Paul requested prayer along these lines. First, he wanted the Ephesians to pray that he would be given utterance in the opening of his mouth—to know what to say by the leading of the Holy Spirit—and secondly, he asked his friends in Ephesus to pray that he would make known the mystery of the gospel with boldness, to proclaim it boldly as he spoke it forth.

It’s my opinion that Paul was probably a fairly bold man naturally. Before his salvation, he was a go-getter—a mover-and-shaker type—who was rising in the ranks of Judaism. He had been zealous for his faith and was persistent in pursuing, capturing, and imprisoning members of the early church. Then after his conversion, he constantly found himself in the eye of the storm as he proclaimed the good tidings of Jesus Christ. When he acknowledged that his ministry would eventually lead to his death, he faced it with the same characteristic bold confidence—to live is Christ; to die is gain (see Philippians 1:21).

And yet this apostle—the author of the bulk of the New Testament and the man responsible for hundreds and thousands of true conversions during his time—requested that his fellow believers ask God to grant him boldness in both utterance and in making known the mystery of the gospel.

Human boldness is typically a very positive characteristic for Christians to possess. However, human boldness can only go so far before it encounters supernatural obstacles for which it is no match. Paul knew that, and I believe, experienced the eventual ineffectiveness of his own personal boldness at some point in his ministry. That is why he so adamantly urged his friends to pray that he move over into the God-kind of boldness—a confidence instigated and sustained by the living God Himself for the task of proclaiming the gospel. When God emboldens a human, the mystery of the gospel is made known in the hearers supernaturally, and the speech coming forth from that person is bold, bold, bold, as it ought to be.

Paul asked for prayer that he may open his mouth with boldness (Ephesians 6:19). “Boldness” is the Greek word parrēsia and means something that was rather shocking to me when I first landed upon the definition. It means “freedom in speaking; unreservedness in speech” (see http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G3954&t=KJV). To operate in the boldness of God, you speak freely and unreservedly. It also means “openly, frankly, i.e. without concealment” (ibid). No beating around the bush for someone who speaks boldly as they ought to speak. “Without ambiguity” and “without the use of figures and comparisons” (ibid) are also involved in the God-kind of boldness. Such a speaker will not express their concerns, thoughts, or convictions covertly or “round-aboutly”; this speaker will let their “yes be yes and their no be no” (see Matthew 5:37 and James 5:12). To top it off, the boldness which Paul sought was “free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, assurance” (ibid). Paul desired the kind of confidence which supernaturally wells up within any available child of God by the Holy Spirit Himself—not merely that which emanates from a strong or charismatic personality.

“Freedom in speaking” and “unreservedness in speech” were understood to be vital, not only by the apostles in the early days of the church, but also—in my opinion—by the founding fathers in the early days of this nation. The boldness earnestly desired by Paul was of a supernatural quality, and yet it was simple, unpretentious, and free. I believe it is no coincidence that the very first amendment to the Constitution of the United States so conspicuously links freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech together. It says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (Bill of Rights, US Constitution). In this nation, freedom of and in speaking is inextricably linked to the free exercise of one’s religious convictions. I believe that the essence of boldness and confidence in the Lord is most clearly demonstrated when there is freedom and unreservedness in speaking.

Sure, “there is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword” (Proverbs 12:18a), but brash, impulsive, thoughtless speech is nothing more than a cheap counterfeit of the wonderful gift of free, confident, Spirit-led communication so highly-prized by the apostle Paul and defended “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence” by our Founders (Declaration of Independence).

What is so strongly under attack in our nation at this hour? Our freedom of speech! And what seems to be under such strong attack across the nation as far as believers are concerned? Our confident, bold witness as our freedom to express the truth of the Word of God comes under ever-increasing scrutiny.

Should we throw our hands up in dismay and lament the encroaching darkness as the “will of God”? Or should we pray for our fellow citizens, our secular leaders, our church leadership, and our brothers and sisters in Christ to know what to do, to do it in wisdom, and to be empowered to do it in the boldness and freedom of speaking that comes from on High?

I believe that we must pray, pray boldly, and pray confidently. And then, let God be God in this hour.

Dorothy

… nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You. 2 Chronicles 20:12b

And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word… Acts 4:29, KJV