Holy Boldness

Holy Boldness

Ephesians 6:18-20 “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.”

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication.  Praying in the Spirit to me means praying in tongues.  It says in Romans 8:26, “ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”  In other words, we don’t know how to pray, but if we allow the Spirit to take over for us, then He can pray what we really need to pray.  I am not sure how many of you listening to this podcast have prayed in tongues before, or even believe that praying in tongues is a thing that people do.  I thought I would just take a moment to explain what happens when you pray in tongues.  When you are praying in tongues, you mouth and vocal chords are making sounds that most of the time do not sound anything like real words.  You do not know what you are saying when you are praying in tongues.  It is a conversation between the Holy Spirit and The Lord.  The Holy Spirit is speaking what it finds in your heart and sharing that with the Father.  

When looking up the meaning of this verse two different sites talked about how living and praying in the Spirit was about more than just our thoughts and our desires.  Praying in the Spirit also has to do with our submission to God.  We need to realize that we are dependent on the Lord for all things.  It is about turning to God and asking Him to help us and then we also trust that He will help us and His help with be whatever is best for us.  

Then the verse says to keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.  When I first read this I thought it was asking us to persevere in asking the Saints for their help.  However, upon research this verse is actually asking us to persevere in supplication for the saints, not from the saints.  It is asking us to pray not only for the things that we need but those needs of other believers.  It talks about how we are to pray persistently and about all matters.  Although we might not be able to pray out loud every second of every day, it is important to develop the habit of praying consistently.  When something comes up, no matter how big or how small, our first thought should be to share it with the Lord.  We need to turn to Him no matter how small the matter is.  

The second half of this verse is talking about St. Paul.  St. Paul was put in prison because he was sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.  Now in this message he is asking for prayers so that he may speak boldly about the message of the Gospel.  He is still in prison when he writes this, that is why he is saying that he is an ambassador in chains.  How many of us would be willing to still continue to proclaim the Gospel if we were sitting in jail for doing that very thing?  Take a minute to think about it, would you?  I have prayed for a holy boldness ever since I knew that was a thing.  I don’t remember when I learned about holy boldness, or where I first heard that term, but I instantly loved it.  

If you don’t know let me share something with you, I am a crier.  I cry when I see a sad movie or TV show.  I cry when I see a happy movie or TV, especially if I didn’t expect the happy ending.  I cry when I am upset, I cry when I am nervous, I cry when I am happy.  Sometime I don’t even know why I am crying.  I can feel the tears falling down my cheeks, but I don’t feel sad and so I don’t know why I am crying.  I have been told that tears can be a gift from the Holy Spirit.  They have never felt like a gift.  I know some people that can’t cry.  Due to their upbringing, things that have happened to them in their past, or some other reason, they just can’t cry.  No matter how hard they try. So when they see me cry they feel that it is a gift.  I guess it all depends on how you look at it.  

The reason I mention this is because this is a big part of the reason I never really talked about the faith to people unless they started the conversation.  I was afraid if I got nervous and I started to cry then they would think I was crazy.  I still don’t really like to walk up to someone that I don’t know and start a conversation.  However, I am getting better at this as I have been asking God to help me with this for a very long time now.  I remember the first time I felt called to ask someone if I could pray over him.  I was a silent retreat and I had just been given the gift of speaking in tongues.  This guys was really suffering and I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to pray over him.  I didn’t know this guy, I hadn’t ever talked to him. The only reason I knew he was hurting was because he shared that at the first night of the retreat.  Then the rest of the retreat was silent so I never talked to him again.  I remember hearing the Lord ask me to pray over him and telling the Lord if He wanted me to do this, then He would have to give me the courage, because I was scared to do that kind of thing.

I remember the Lord gave me several opportunities and I let each one pass me by.  I was just so nervous.  Each time I repented and told the Lord that I wanted to, I just couldn’t and that if He kept giving me chances I would keep trying.  Finally, I asked the guy if I could pray over him.  He said I could and was thankful. Even though he was thankful, I was still nervous and I did start to cry.  Not ugly face cry, just tears streaming down my face as I prayed.  I felt foolish for having cried, but I was really proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and asking the man in the first place.  

This is why I can’t imagine being as brave as St. Paul who was willing to proclaiming the Good News even from his prison cell.  Maybe this is why he is asking us to persevere in supplication for all believers.  We all need strength from the Lord.  Maybe what you need is different than what I need.  Maybe you don’t need a holy boldness.  I know several ladies in my prayer group that proclaim the Word of God for the whole world to hear.  They may not need boldness, but maybe they need strength for trials they face, maybe they need help not worrying, we all need something.  Let us keep praying for ourselves and for our fellow believers.  Let us pray that God gives each one of us exactly what we need to help bring others into a personal relationship with Him.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we ask that you help all your saints and give us whatever it is we need to help spread your word and help bring others into your glorious kingdom.  Lord we ask you to help us be alert as St. Paul asked of us.  We ask that you help us to be persevering in supplication for your saints.  We ask that you give each and every one of us a holy boldness to proclaim your word.  Lord you are so good and you always give us everything we need for the day.  I ask that you help us to see this each and every day.  Lord, you are amazing and we love you.  We ask all of this is accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name.  Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  This week we are working on growing in forgiveness. (Click Here) for a link to the article about forgiveness.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!