Pursuit Of His Presence

Acts 4:23-33 

The Believers Pray

23On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

“ ‘Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

26The kings of the earth rise up

and the rulers band together

against the Lord

and against his anointed one. ’

27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

31After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

The Believers Share Their Possessions

32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all

Devotional

Preach...With True Boldness!

by Kenneth Copeland

“Now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.” Acts 4:29
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 everyone 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.
Everyone 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
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