|
Lord we ask for boldness. Boldness of the things that we know that we know that are in You. The truth that lies within us. Not without wisdom, and not without understanding, but those things that we know to be true we stand before the world in boldness and boldness silences because it is truth. Truth is the anchor. Hope is the anchor. Life is the anchor to our soul. And that is You living in us. Lord we know that without asking we won’t receive. So we are asking now to place in us a boldness that will move people to seek Your face. Thank You Lord for saving my soul, for making me whole and making me bold to be Your witness of who You are. Isaiah says, the people that walk in darkness need to see a great light. Being able to see the light is very important for your soul. Jesus said He was the light of the world. He is the light of the world and the light of men. Unless you have Jesus in your heart and in your soul, you’ll not be able to see. What we see in this nation and in the world today is a huge fight. Because of a lack of sincerity in the church we have allowed darkness to almost totally overtake the world. Most of the darkness is unchecked. The church has become very quiet. The wicked seem to get away with everything. Jesus must be the light in you for you to be able to see. Those who do not have Jesus in their heart walk in blindness and they need to see light. There are two worlds. The world of the kingdom of satan and the world of God’s kingdom. I’ve never seen it clearer than I do today; those who serve satan and those who serve God, or who at least have some level of light. I John 4:17, Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. If you have a love for someone, you will stand up and fight for the one you love. That’s what we are to do with Jesus. If you really love the Lord you’ll not be ashamed of Him, and you will labor to show that Jesus is good and true. We live in a day of judgment now. From here on out until the thousand year reign takes place, we are going to be living in judgments. These judgments will continue to separate until such a vast separation takes place that there isn’t anything in common between those who love God and those who don’t. The battle in this nation is bringing about that separation. So what we want to look at is boldness. If we are bold towards the Lord, we know that we are becoming perfect in Him to be like Him. He was bold. I have had people tell me we shouldn’t try to offend anyone, but Jesus offended many and we are to be like Him. Jesus offended the religious leaders. Don’t you think he offended them when He took a whip and drove them out of the temple? I would be offended if someone did that to me. Verse 18, There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear. Any area you have fear you don’t have perfect love in God yet. …because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. 1 John 5:1, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. Those that are born again will love God. When you are born again, what happens? A light comes on and you see your sin. When you see that Christ loved you in the midst of your sin, that opens your heart to love, because you don’t find many people that will love you when you’re not good. Verse 2, By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. The world cannot understand the kind of love we have because their love is of the flesh and their love satisfies themselves. When I see a person that is self-centered, they are in love with themselves but they don’t have Christ in them so they can’t love others like they love themselves. Where jealousy arises in the midst of anybody, they only have self-centered love. Scripture says that we should rejoice when we see someone prospering. Are you happy when someone prospers? I think the greatest joy I have is watching someone prosper, because I know that when they prosper in God they have a love for Him, and the Father has a love for them. Verse 4, For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. We overcome the world because our faith has grown to the point that we have confidence in God. You cannot overcome the world and have faith in the world. When we have boldness we quiet the devil. If our faith begins to waiver, the enemy comes in like a flood. But when the enemy comes in like a flood we are to raise the standard. What standard? The standard of loving Him. Verse 5, Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. We must walk in great boldness to be perfect, because God has no pleasure in those that shrink back. If you are shrinking back, God says, that person really doesn’t love Me very much. When I first was anointed of God, I was bold but I didn’t know how to function in it. I thought everyone would want what I had. I look now for those that are hungry, but I don’t over power them with truth, because while they are with me, they are seeing light. But when they leave, unless they really by faith grab ahold of what was said, that truth will begin to dim and pretty soon drift away and they will be back to blindness. Everything that was spoken to them will be twisted and all messed up and they will say you are a fake. Even those that call themselves Christians in the church, if they don’t have the light of Jesus in them, are still in darkness. They aren’t selling their soul to satan like the world is, but they have given their soul to satan because they’re not bold. What satan’s kingdom is trying to do is cause havoc. Ezra 9:5, And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God, And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. Since the fall of man satan has become bold and the church has very few times walked in great strength. The church hasn’t been bold but satan has been. We must go to the throne of grace in boldness to release and expose the works of the devil in the United States. Verse 8, And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. What he’s saying is for just a little space now we have an opportunity; the Lord has shown Himself to us to leave us a remnant to escape. He has remnants of His church scattered here and there in this nation today and it has allowed you to escape from the world. That’s what a remnant is. What does it mean to be given a nail? He’s saying, even if I had just one nail to put in the temple of the things that God wanted before the foundation of the world, to put that nail in and say, there, we were in that generation. At least we put a nail in the building of God’s house. He knew they were still in great bondage but they were trying to break out and do something for God, for at least a little span. Verse 10, And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken thy commandments Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever. The most important thing for me is that this generation would leave an inheritance for the next generation, and that generation for the next generation. We don’t know how long. We are to plan as if its a thousand years but live as if it is tomorrow or today. Verse 14, Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? Wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? If God wouldn’t have remnants for you to go to, there would be no place to run to go. Verse 15, O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this. What we are talking about has been an issue since the fall of man. We don’t have boldness. The greatest boldness on the face of the earth was the time after Christ left and gave the Holy Spirit. For a period of thirty to forty years, as long as those who were with Jesus and taught by Him were alive, there was boldness. But that boldness slowly drifted away and within three hundred years you hardly recognized the church. It’s because the boldness was gone. Some people say that I’m bold but I haven’t been ship wrecked three times, and in the water for a day and a half floating around on a piece of wood like Paul did. He was beat three times with 39 stripes, and many of the whips had little pieces of iron at the end of it that would cut as it hit their back, and just shred it up. Then Paul and Silas were in jail singing unto the Lord with their backs all destroyed. They were honored to have to go through that. That’s how much love they had for the Lord, and that love gave them boldness. Acts 4:13, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. What an honor. Probably the elite saw Peter and John doing a work and said, who are they? They don’t know anything. Acts 4:29, And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word. By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. They prayed that God would give them signs and wonders so they would become bold and show that they had been with the Lord. Verse 31, And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. That’s because they were full of the Lord. We must speak with boldness with wisdom. Plant a seed without making them mad but giving them something to think about. 2 Corinthians 7:3, I speak not this to condemn you: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you. Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. He had a lot of trouble with the Corinthians. He always said, I am bold when I write but I hope that I don’t have to be bold when I am with you. Paul was the boldest of the leaders of the early church. Peter loved Jesus yet it was difficult for him to be bold. He had to learn how to be bold in God. 2 Corinthians 10:1, Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: but I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. Ephesians 3:10, To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. If you understood the things in heavenly places and you knew how it worked, you would automatically become bolder. The lack of knowledge does not make you bolder. It’s when you have knowledge and know that you become bold. Whatever it is. I always enjoy talking with someone who has done something that I have done too so that I have knowledge of it. If you don’t really know God and the kingdom of God it is hard for you to become bold. Someone that has only read through books is just a carrier of the word but doesn’t carry the wisdom of that word. The best thing that could happen to the school system today is that teachers would spend five or ten years working in the field they are planning to teach in so they have the foundation to know what they are going to teach. Having only book knowledge is rubbish. By the time it gets through three or four intellects it becomes worthless because each one is injecting their own thinking. Ephesians 6:18, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel. For Paul it was a fight. Apparently he wasn’t an overly smooth mouth preacher. He said, I have come to you even though I didn’t have elegant words to say, but I told you what was what. But he asked the church to pray for him that when he had the opportunity, and that he would be given opportunities, that he would speak boldly. Truth will offend people, but if it is done boldly with love it will do it in a way they will be able to receive it. Even if they forget about it there will be a time of need it will pop up and it will be deliverance for them. Who knows how many people you have talked to in boldness about the Lord that will be in heaven. God says, you just spread the word and I will take care of the rest. Verse 20, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. To be bold and to say something for your lover Jesus Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit is to bring accomplishments. If you have done something and you know it could be an eternal accomplishment that is comforting to the soul. Philippians 3:13, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. When you say something, people will know whether you know it or are just speaking something you heard. There is a whole lot of difference. Truth is solid. Truth is unmovable. When you speak the truth of God, you are releasing an absolute on someone that that’s the way it is. They will not be able to move it. They can ignore it and eventually it will go away if they don’t receive it but you’ve done your part. Hebrews 4:16, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 10:19, Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. You have to be bold. There are things that I still struggle with to be bold. Paul was transformed and he would give his experiences with boldness. Paul was bold in being able to say what God did for him. When I approached God to ask Him for the seven eyes of God I did it very quietly and with an attitude of, Lord is it possible for me to have that, because I didn’t know the boldness that needed to take place to go up to the throne of grace and say, I want that. We’ve lived in a church that has been so timid. You have seen people that call themselves Christians that are bold that are just plain ignorant and that’s not what I’m talking about, but we must walk in boldness. Verse 20, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. Every time I pray, I go to the throne of grace. I’ve learned to become bold to go before Him and ask for things but I always say, not my will but Yours be done, because that’s what Jesus did. Jesus went boldly before His Father and said, isn’t there another way? But His Father wouldn’t say anything. So He said, if it’s not Your will I will go through it. Verse 22, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. The biggest hindrance to being bold is that mankind is confronted with an evil conscience, or an evil thought in our mind. Everybody fights that because that’s what satan puts into your mind. But you have to reject it and push it out because it isn’t the thought in your mind, it’s the doing of what was in your mind that brings an evil conscience. Verse 23, Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Many people say I wish I could speak boldly like you do. Well you have to have something to speak boldly. That is truth in your heart and that you believe and live it. Then you can speak boldly. Father, we lift our hearts to the throne of grace this day. Your word says we are to come boldly before Your throne. Lord we ask for boldness. Boldness of the things that we know that we know that are in You. The truth that lies within us. Not without wisdom, and not without understanding, but those things that we know to be true we stand before the world in boldness and boldness silences because it is truth. Truth is the anchor. Hope is the anchor. Life is the anchor to our soul. And that is You living in us. Lord we know that without asking we won’t receive. So we are asking now to place in us a boldness that will move people to seek Your face. Thank You Lord for saving my soul, for making me whole and making me bold to be Your witness of who You are. In Your name we pray, Amen. 
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLarry Troyer |
||