Scripture
Acts 1:8 But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power to testify about me with great effect, to the people in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, about my death and resurrection."
2 Timothy 1:6-10 This being so, I want to remind you to stir into flame the strength and boldness that is in you, that entered into you when I laid my hands upon your head and blessed you. 7 For the Holy Spirit, God's gift does not want you to be afraid of people, but to be wise and strong, and to love them and enjoy being with them.
8 If you will stir up this inner power, you will never be afraid to tell others about our Lord or to let them know that I am your friend even though I am here in jail for Christ's sake. You will be ready to suffer with me for the Lord, for he will give you strength in suffering.
9 It is he who saved us and chose us for his holy work not because we deserved it but because that was his plan long before the world began--to show his love and kindness to us through Christ. 10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, who broke the power of death and showed us the way of everlasting life through trusting him.
Observation
Jesus told us in Matthew to “go and make disciples in all the nations” and now just before he leaves his disciples to return to heaven he tells us the power source for the “going and making disciples” is the Holy Spirit. He gave us a job to do and every time God tells us to do something he provides a way for us to do it. God will never tell us to do something that we are not capable of doing and so Jesus told us that we would receive power from the Holy Spirit to do this job of telling the world about him. That is the power that transformed the disciples from fearful cowards to a mighty powerful witness willing to take a stand and tell the whole world.
I did a word search on Holy Spirit this morning in my Bible software and in the search I found out that the Holy Spirit does so many wonderful things for us. With this kind of help I should be able to do anything that God has asked me to do with bold confidence.
Paul tells Timothy that as we are fulfilling the great commission, we must remember that Christ saved us for the work of telling others and that my fear of what they will think, and what to say or how to say it did not come from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is here to give us power and boldness, wisdom and strength.
That doesn’t mean that there won’t be opposition, remember how much opposition that Jesus dealt with, up to the point of death. Nevertheless we will “suffer for doing good” (1 Peter 3:17) but we will have the strength to fulfill the work of “going and making disciples.”
Application
I will rely on the Holy Spirit to give me the boldness and the words to say to those around me. I will remember how many awesome things the Holy Spirit does for me.
Prayer
I pray that I will take the Acts 1:8 challenge everyday.
