{"id":6501,"date":"2015-05-06T00:24:18","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T00:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6501"},"modified":"2015-05-06T00:24:18","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T00:24:18","slug":"empowered-by-boldness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6501","title":{"rendered":"Empowered by boldness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Australian believers called for a week of worldwide fasting and prayer for the US. It began on April 30 and is wrapping up on Wednesday, May 6.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Because of that, I\u2019ve been recycling a series of blog entries I wrote last year. At that time, God prompted me to shift my focus as I prayed for the nation. In short, I believe God showed me these four things for which to pray:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Pray for people to know what to do.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Pray for people to receive wisdom along with their knowledge.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Pray for those\u00a0people\u00a0to receive the\u00a0boldness to step out in what they know to do.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Pray for those people to be filled with boldness to carry out their tasks to completion.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Originally posted last year (eighth in series):<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2026but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, <strong>we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition. <\/strong><\/em>1 Thessalonians 2:2, emphasis added<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday&#8217;s blog was about the need to pray for people to\u00a0receive the boldness to step out\u00a0into what they know to do. Today, I am going to ask you to pray for them to be <em>enveloped<\/em> and <em>empowered <\/em>by God\u2019s boldness, as well.<\/p>\n<p>Let me explain with an example from my own life. Years ago, in my twenties, I felt led to speak to a scruffy young man about Jesus. I <em>knew <\/em>what to do\u2014to tell him about Jesus\u2014and yet I had a <em>choice<\/em> to make. Would I value my comfort-zone and dignity more than the clear prompting of God? I needed <em>boldness<\/em>. After a quick prayer, I made the decision to obey God, and I mustered up enough boldness to <em>step out<\/em> in what I knew to do. I received boldness to take the \u201cleap of faith\u201d, so to speak.<\/p>\n<p>I introduced myself to him and began sharing the gospel with fear and trembling. The young man stopped me after a bit and said, \u201cHey! You\u2019re shaking! What are you afraid of? I <em>want<\/em> to hear what you have to say! Calm down! Relax!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I had received boldness to <em>step out<\/em>\u2014a good thing\u2014but I was neither <em>enveloped <\/em>nor <em>empowered<\/em> by boldness. As a result of that experience, I recognize the need to pray for people to not only <em>step out<\/em> in boldness to do what they know to do, but also for them to be<em> empowered<\/em> in that boldness as they accomplish\u00a0the good pleasure of God.<\/p>\n<p>When you and I pray for people to <em>know what to do<\/em> and for the <em>wisdom of God<\/em> to attend their \u201cknowing\u201d and their \u201cdoing\u201d; when we pray that God will grant them confidence, courage, and <em>boldness to step out<\/em> into the course He is leading them, we <em>also<\/em> need to recognize that they will likely face<em> obstacles<\/em> despite our prayers on their behalf\u2014obstacles which will require a magnitude of boldness to\u00a0empower them <em>beyond<\/em> their initial step. This is true for the secular folks God is using and, actually, even <em>more<\/em>\u00a0imperative for\u00a0all believers and godly leadership.<\/p>\n<p>The Apostle Paul wrote this about the obstacles he confronted in his ministry: \u201c\u2026<em>for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries<\/em>\u201d (1 Corinthians 16:9). He also wrote, \u201c\u2026<em>but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more<\/em>\u2026\u201d (Romans 5:20b). We live in an hour in which sin is increasing by leaps and bounds; we live in an age in which there are many adversaries to true justice, righteousness, and the message of the gospel.<\/p>\n<p>But take a closer look at those two verses. First Corinthians 16:9 speaks of open doors. In this dark hour, doors <em>are<\/em> open for effective service for the church and her leadership, <em>and<\/em> I believe the doors are <em>also<\/em> open in the secular world for upright and honest men and women to choose, act, speak, and\/or rule wisely as they help to turn our nation around. Every one of them needs prayer.<\/p>\n<p>Romans 5:20 reminds us that although darkness blankets the land, God\u2019s grace increases and expands even more. Do we have sin on every hand here in our nation? Undeniably. That means one thing: The grace of God will increase all the more as those of us who are lights in Christ refuse to\u00a0quit shining. That truth does <em>not<\/em> cease to exist just\u00a0because we&#8217;re\u00a0precariously close\u00a0to the end of time. Absolutely<em> not<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p>So there exist many doors of opportunity to further the will of God in multiple arenas, and His grace currently abounds. <em>And<\/em> there are many adversaries; <em>and<\/em> sin abounds. Boldness empowers those for whom we pray to walk through\u00a0open doors of opportunity saturated with grace in realms where sin abounds.<\/p>\n<p>Because of the adversaries, people need boldness. Adversaries intimidate, threaten, conjure up and spread lies; adversaries stand as bullies to scare men and women, boys and girls from doing what God is leading them to do. Adversaries can wear flesh and blood; such adversaries are merely pawns in the hand of the devil, the real adversary. Our warfare is not against those flesh and blood adversaries; in reality, when we pray, we are contending against the devil on their behalf, whether they would agree with that perspective or not.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, we must have boldness in our prayers; we must request the Lord to envelop and empower those for whom we pray with His boldness.<\/p>\n<p>Be bold as you pray for people to know what to do; be bold in your prayers for them to walk in the boldness that is from God. <em>They<\/em> need your prayers;\u00a0<em>you<\/em> need the results of their wise knowing and bold doing.<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy<\/p>\n<p><em>Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel&#8230;<\/em> Ephesians 6:19, NIV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australian believers called for a week of worldwide fasting and prayer for the US. It began on April 30 and is wrapping up on Wednesday, May 6. Because of that, I\u2019ve been recycling a series of blog entries I wrote last year. At that time, God prompted me to shift my focus as I prayed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayerperspective","category-praying-for-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6501"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6504,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6501\/revisions\/6504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}