Acts 4:29-31 “And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your Word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.” This episode is about the Holy Spirit. It also talks about how God never lets us down, even if we feel like He does sometimes. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Be Bold And Ask God (Be Bold Series)
Acts 4:29-31 “And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your Word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.”
Last night, I attended the East Coast Encounter Ministry Conference. I was so happy to be there. I love being in a room that is full of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever had the privilege? Have you ever been in a room where you could feel the Holy Spirit? I am not even talking about when you have a sense that the Holy Spirit might be there. I am talking about when you walk into a room, and you can feel the Holy Spirit is there in a big way. It is a feeling I can’t quite describe. There is so much joy in the room. It is truly amazing. Last night was one of those nights. The conference started with worship, which is how we should start anything. Even your own personal prayer time will be more meaningful if you start it with praise. God loves when we praise Him. There isn’t one certain way that we need to praise Him. He leaves the how up to us. My favorite way is to listen to Christian music and sing along. Maybe you would prefer to tell God how great He is or call out various names for Him. The choice is yours.
After worship, we had prayer time, where a Deacon spoke words of prayer and words of prophecy over the whole group. Next, we had a speaker talk to us about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. It was a wonderful and funny talk. I am sure I will pass along some of what I learned at a later date. Right now, I am just letting it all sink in. After the talk, there were prayer teams that were set up to do individual prayers over people. It was so beautiful. There were people who were overcome with the Holy Spirit everywhere you looked. It was amazing. The Holy Spirit definitely showed up there last night. However, I wasn’t surprised as He always shows up when we call on Him. He is so good like that. He wants to give us all He has, His gifts and His fruits; we just aren’t usually asking for them.
The speaker went through several scriptures tonight, one of which was the scripture above. I liked how this verse begins because the person writing this verse is telling God to “look at their threats,” talking about the Jews that killed Jesus. It’s as if the speaker is telling God something He didn’t already know. There is nothing that goes on that God does not know about. He not only knows about it while it is going on, He knew about it long before it started. He knows everything, from the beginning of time until the end. It wasn’t necessary for Peter or John, whoever was speaking at that time, to make that statement and yet it speaks to their human nature. It is tough for us to wrap our heads around the fact that God knows everything. So, sometimes, oftentimes, we feel the need to remind Him of what we are going through.
What Peter and John are looking for in this verse is boldness, along with signs and wonders to be performed in Jesus’ name. They understand what they are up against. They are trying to spread the Gospel to people who lived the same time Jesus lived and yet still don’t believe. They are trying to spread the Gospel at a time when they could be put in jail, stoned to death, or crucified just for saying Jesus’ name. They know if they want to have any chance at being successful in their mission, they will need to preach with a holy boldness. They know if they expect people to believe them they need also to have signs and wonders to back up their teaching. It would be so great if we could all believe without seeing, but that is not how a lot of us work. We need to see first and then believe. The apostles knew this.
What happened after they asked for boldness, signs, and wonders? “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.” What happened? God answered their prayers. He always does! He is good like that. I know there may be a lot of people in your life that you can’t count on. We live in a fallen and broken world. However, God is not one of these people. You can count on God to answer your prayers every time you ask. He will never let you down. I feel like I should say something about that last statement. Every time I write that statement, I wonder if this is true. When I say He will never let you down, I mean He never says He will do something and then fails to do it. He never breaks His promises. He never leaves us. He is always with us. He always answers your prayers. There is never a time when you are asking for something and He is ignoring you. He always comes through.
I think why I get this funny feeling when I write that God never lets us down because I know people who feel God has let them down. I think anyone who has lost a loved one probably feels let down by God when it happens. I know when we lost a member of our prayer group, a young member who was in her 40s, I felt let down. I didn’t understand why He didn’t save her when I knew that He could have. If you have lost a loved one, you may have had similar feelings. So, I think that is why I am hesitant to say God never lets us down. Although what I feel the Holy Spirit is saying to me right now is that God didn’t let us down, we were disappointed with His decision. We asked for our loved ones to be saved, and they weren’t, and we are understandably upset with God for that. However, God did answer our prayers; it just wasn’t how we wanted Him to. Our expectation was that He would save our loved ones here on earth, and He decided to save them by bringing them to heaven. God didn’t do what we wanted Him to do, and we are disappointed, and that is OK. God can handle our disappointment. He can even handle our anger. As long as we are turning to God in our time of need, He will be there to help us through all of our emotions.
I may have gone on a little tangent there, but every time I write that God won’t let us down, I get a funny feeling, and the Holy Spirit let me address that feeling today in case any of you were listening and feeling like the Lord has let you down. We may not always like the answers to our prayers, but He does always answer them, and He is always there with us to provide us with the strength to get through another day. He gives us the strength to get through the circumstances we are presented with. He is a good, good Father.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this podcast today. Lord, we want the holy boldness that You gave to your apostles. We want the signs and wonders also. Lord, we want all your Holy Spirit wants to give us. We are open to the gifts and the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If there is someone listening to this episode who does not know about the Holy Spirit and how amazing He is, I ask that you put a desire to learn more in their hearts. I ask for you to put a desire to grow more in the Holy Spirit on every person listening, Lord. I pray for a revival of the Holy Spirit in this town, in this state, in this country, and in the world. Lord, help everyone know you, your son, and your Holy Spirit. Lord, we love you, you are truly amazing. We are so grateful you gave us your Holy Spirit. We ask all of this in 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. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow! I will see some of you tonight on mentoring. Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “At times, people hurt you, but their intentions weren't as bad as you think that they are. Give them a chance. Give them the benefit of the doubt, my children. Be compassionate as I am compassionate with you.”