August 29th, 2022
Written by Brandy Wallis
Have you ever felt a stirring in your spirit…you know the one where you are confident that God has been speaking something to you but you’ve just avoided recognizing it? One where, every person you meet, messages you hear, and just general conversations with folks have somehow, someway been directed towards one word or topic? No, just me? Ok! Just kidding. I hope this blog is for you!
The word that keeps circling me has been boldness! I know that God has been pushing me to be bolder for Him, His word, His mission, and His kingdom. What about you? Personally, I believe that God is calling all of his children to take a bolder stance when it comes to things happening around us in the world today. After all, I think we can agree that most of the world leans towards things that are contrary to the truths in God’s word.
Acts 4:12-13 says, “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.”
You see, the same spirit of boldness that lived inside those of the early church is still the same spirit that lives inside of you and I today. Oftentimes people think that early Christians had some special position before God that you and I don’t have. That’s simply misinformation.
Hebrews 13:8 says, “God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.” Therefore He is incapable of changing! The spirit of God that lives within us hasn’t changed either. Culture changes, principles don’t!
Nowhere in the Bible will you find a command that believers should keep the truth about Jesus all to themselves. You will however find a radical, bold, and, at times, risky public proclamation of the truth of the message of Jesus and his saving grace.
Look at Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” It brings salvation to whom? Everyone!
Can you imagine what our schools, communities, and even this great Nation would be like if we Christians were simply not ashamed of the gospel? If we had a passion, a desire, a burning inside of us to snatch them from the fire! After all, isn’t that what Jude 1:23 tells us to do?
People all around us are dying and going to hell every single day and we have the answer that could change that. What would our world look like filled with people who, not only believed this, but chose to walk it out? Those who had a reverence for God’s word and declared it over the darkness? Those who had a broken heart for the things that break God’s heart?
The early church was not afraid to turn the world upside down proclaiming the good news of the gospel with boldness. You see, they realized they had found a gift that was the answer to everything they had been searching for…it brought hope, it brought love, it brought freedom, it brought life!
The message of the gospel was not something they kept as a private matter, just something between their ears, in their own quaint homes, in their churches. It was rather something they knew was worth being spread all throughout the world as far as they possibly could. The Bible is full of these accounts. And they continued to do this, even knowing there were grave consequences of these actions. They were thrown in prison, they were beaten, tortured, killed, their families were humiliated, murdered, starved. They were stripped of their earthly possessions, they seemingly lost everything…yet it didn’t stop them. You see, they knew the cost, they counted it, and Jesus was still enough!
The church is still a powerhouse, contrary to popular belief, that can influence cities and direct entire nations. We do not have to sit back and let the world tell us what they’re ok with us talking about. We hear things like: don’t engage the culture, don’t cause problems, don’t stir up controversy, don’t stand up for things that are contrary to what the world believes, keep the divide between the secular and the sacred. There are people in our schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and even our very own homes who haven’t heard the gospel-saving, life-transforming message of Christ. The church was never designed to be a people pleaser but rather a people changer!
Think about what the church could accomplish today for the kingdom, if we simply cared enough for the souls of the lost to take the grace-saving message of Christ to them…regardless of what it costs us?
Romans 10:17 (NLT) says, “Faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ”. If we don’t tell them, who will?
Our job as Christians isn’t to save them–you realize we could never save anyone’s soul. Only Jesus can do that! Beating someone over the head with a Bible does nothing! Being bold and brave has absolutely nothing to do with being boastful and arrogant! Our job is to boldly tell them about the life-changing, life-restoring, hope-abounding, mercy-overflowing, goodness of Jesus Christ. This…this is the true message of the gospel that changes the world!
Maybe you have been walking in a comfortable state of passiveness in your life…you’re saved, you mind your own business, you read God’s word, you pray, you’re good. Aren’t you glad the person who was bold enough to share Christ with you didn’t feel this same way? I believe God is calling you to a bolder place in your walk. After all that God has done in your life, how he saved you, delivered you, restored you, and set you free, you should desire to share your story with others. Because, believe it or not, there are people who are lost, hurting, broken, hopeless, and dying just like you were. I believe, if you’ll let Him, God wants to replace that spirit of fear and anxiety with a boldness, and an anointing and power through His Holy Spirit that you have never before had and never knew you needed, until now.
Maybe the person you have to push back against the hardest with unbelief is your own self. That voice in your head that tells you that you’re not good enough to witness to those around you, that you’ll be the laughing stock of wherever, that you’ll make a fool of yourself; that you don’t know enough, you’re not qualified! Listen to me, God qualified you when He chose you. And if the God of all creation, time, and life has called you, that’s all you’ll ever need.
So today, I challenge you. Be bold, be courageous, and tell someone about the goodness of God in your life. You never know when someone has been waiting on confirmation of what God has been speaking in their life!
Have you ever felt a stirring in your spirit…you know the one where you are confident that God has been speaking something to you but you’ve just avoided recognizing it? One where, every person you meet, messages you hear, and just general conversations with folks have somehow, someway been directed towards one word or topic? No, just me? Ok! Just kidding. I hope this blog is for you!
The word that keeps circling me has been boldness! I know that God has been pushing me to be bolder for Him, His word, His mission, and His kingdom. What about you? Personally, I believe that God is calling all of his children to take a bolder stance when it comes to things happening around us in the world today. After all, I think we can agree that most of the world leans towards things that are contrary to the truths in God’s word.
Acts 4:12-13 says, “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.”
You see, the same spirit of boldness that lived inside those of the early church is still the same spirit that lives inside of you and I today. Oftentimes people think that early Christians had some special position before God that you and I don’t have. That’s simply misinformation.
Hebrews 13:8 says, “God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.” Therefore He is incapable of changing! The spirit of God that lives within us hasn’t changed either. Culture changes, principles don’t!
Nowhere in the Bible will you find a command that believers should keep the truth about Jesus all to themselves. You will however find a radical, bold, and, at times, risky public proclamation of the truth of the message of Jesus and his saving grace.
Look at Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” It brings salvation to whom? Everyone!
Can you imagine what our schools, communities, and even this great Nation would be like if we Christians were simply not ashamed of the gospel? If we had a passion, a desire, a burning inside of us to snatch them from the fire! After all, isn’t that what Jude 1:23 tells us to do?
People all around us are dying and going to hell every single day and we have the answer that could change that. What would our world look like filled with people who, not only believed this, but chose to walk it out? Those who had a reverence for God’s word and declared it over the darkness? Those who had a broken heart for the things that break God’s heart?
The early church was not afraid to turn the world upside down proclaiming the good news of the gospel with boldness. You see, they realized they had found a gift that was the answer to everything they had been searching for…it brought hope, it brought love, it brought freedom, it brought life!
The message of the gospel was not something they kept as a private matter, just something between their ears, in their own quaint homes, in their churches. It was rather something they knew was worth being spread all throughout the world as far as they possibly could. The Bible is full of these accounts. And they continued to do this, even knowing there were grave consequences of these actions. They were thrown in prison, they were beaten, tortured, killed, their families were humiliated, murdered, starved. They were stripped of their earthly possessions, they seemingly lost everything…yet it didn’t stop them. You see, they knew the cost, they counted it, and Jesus was still enough!
The church is still a powerhouse, contrary to popular belief, that can influence cities and direct entire nations. We do not have to sit back and let the world tell us what they’re ok with us talking about. We hear things like: don’t engage the culture, don’t cause problems, don’t stir up controversy, don’t stand up for things that are contrary to what the world believes, keep the divide between the secular and the sacred. There are people in our schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and even our very own homes who haven’t heard the gospel-saving, life-transforming message of Christ. The church was never designed to be a people pleaser but rather a people changer!
Think about what the church could accomplish today for the kingdom, if we simply cared enough for the souls of the lost to take the grace-saving message of Christ to them…regardless of what it costs us?
Romans 10:17 (NLT) says, “Faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ”. If we don’t tell them, who will?
Our job as Christians isn’t to save them–you realize we could never save anyone’s soul. Only Jesus can do that! Beating someone over the head with a Bible does nothing! Being bold and brave has absolutely nothing to do with being boastful and arrogant! Our job is to boldly tell them about the life-changing, life-restoring, hope-abounding, mercy-overflowing, goodness of Jesus Christ. This…this is the true message of the gospel that changes the world!
Maybe you have been walking in a comfortable state of passiveness in your life…you’re saved, you mind your own business, you read God’s word, you pray, you’re good. Aren’t you glad the person who was bold enough to share Christ with you didn’t feel this same way? I believe God is calling you to a bolder place in your walk. After all that God has done in your life, how he saved you, delivered you, restored you, and set you free, you should desire to share your story with others. Because, believe it or not, there are people who are lost, hurting, broken, hopeless, and dying just like you were. I believe, if you’ll let Him, God wants to replace that spirit of fear and anxiety with a boldness, and an anointing and power through His Holy Spirit that you have never before had and never knew you needed, until now.
Maybe the person you have to push back against the hardest with unbelief is your own self. That voice in your head that tells you that you’re not good enough to witness to those around you, that you’ll be the laughing stock of wherever, that you’ll make a fool of yourself; that you don’t know enough, you’re not qualified! Listen to me, God qualified you when He chose you. And if the God of all creation, time, and life has called you, that’s all you’ll ever need.
So today, I challenge you. Be bold, be courageous, and tell someone about the goodness of God in your life. You never know when someone has been waiting on confirmation of what God has been speaking in their life!
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