Have you ever noticed that miracles most often occur among people who are bold about God?

Boldness and the miraculous are so closely tied together that some people “try” to act bold just to get things to happen. Of course, it doesn’t work. I’ve seen people pray just as loud as they could in a restaurant just to prove they were bold about God, and all they did was irritate everybody in the place.

Yet someone with true boldness can do the same thing and great power will be released. Smith Wigglesworth had that kind of boldness. I have a friend who was with him one day in London in a cafeteria. Before Mr. Wigglesworth sat down to eat, he looked around and in his powerful, booming voice he said, “I didn’t notice anybody praying over this meal and giving God thanks.” Then he began to pray.

Everybody in there dropped their fork and bowed their head. When he got through, people all over the room said, “Amen!” Mr. Wigglesworth’s prayer brought that whole cafeteria to a standstill because he had boldness from God.

Most people hear that and say, “Oh, I could never be that bold.”

But let me tell you, if you’re a believer and you have a Bible—you can be! To find out the secret behind real spiritual boldness, read Acts 4. In that chapter, the boldness of God came on an entire congregation of believers. It didn’t happen by chance. It wasn’t an unexplainable “faith accident.” Boldness came on those people for a specific reason because of a specific thing, and it came in answer to a specific prayer.

Here’s the situation. Peter and John had ministered healing to the cripple at the gate called Beautiful. That miracle had so stirred the city that the Jewish religious leaders had taken them into custody and threatened them severely, charging them never to preach in the Name of Jesus again in Jerusalem.

And the first thing the congregation did was start praising God. They’d just been threatened by the local authorities, but they went to the Higher Authority. They went straight to the King of kings and Lord of lords!

Then, in verse 29 they asked for boldness to speak the Word!

These believers didn’t major on the threats. They majored on the Word. Every word they prayed came from the written Word.

We can learn something from that. When there’s a threat, preach the Word. When there is sickness, preach the Word. When there is lack, preach the Word. When the devil comes on the scene, preach the Word! Preach the Word in season and out! And when you preach it, preach it with boldness!

Speak the Word

« God grants me boldness so that I can speak His Word. »  (Acts 4:29)