Be Bold With It!

Ephesians 6:19

{Pray} for me, that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.

One of my pet peeves is when people are talking and they mumble as if they are not confident about what they are saying. If you want to be heard you must speak with confidence and strength. I don’t know if it’s my influence from being a Broadcasting Major with a minor in Communications or the fact that my mama would say to me, “Quit all that mumbling and speak up.” Mama hated mumbling and looking down at the ground because black men during her time were taught through oppression to hide their voices; she taught me how to raise my voice and to have something to say. I told a young man the other day at Power Lunch that came up to me shaking my hand and looking at the floor, “Son always look someone in the eye when you are talking because to look down means you having something to hide.”

We must speak the truth boldly. God has given me a spirit of boldness. I can’t shut up even if I wanted to. I’ve discovered that the more I pray and the more my intercessors pray for me, the bolder I get.

Last night I preached a message entitled, “The Dangers of an Empty House.” I told the congregation that a vacant house brings down the value of the property around it. I told them boldly that some of them were empty houses that are bringing down the spiritual value on “the House” because they will not fill their house with anything of spiritual substance. God is not going to allow prosperity to move into your area if you house is vacant. No ministry. No obedience. No devotion. Faith without works is dead. Dead neighborhoods bring down the value of homes around them. Don’t be an empty house. My wife told me after the message, “baby I appreciate you breaking down the mystery of the gospel. We got the word because of your boldness.”

People sometimes don’t get what you are trying to say when you are mumbling or withholding the truth because you are afraid how they will receive it. Be bold with it. Don’t hold back out of insecurity be bold with it. The thing about last night is that what I said wasn’t even on paper. The Holy Spirit through Prayer gave me that to give to the congregation. Before you open your mouth make sure you pray. Jesus told his disciples when you go before authorities don’t worry about what you are going to say for I will give you the Holy Sprit and he will give you what to say. When you study, when you pray, when you open your mouth God will give you what to say. Be bold with it.

Sometimes when you are a vessel for truth, it can become disconcerting when you are antagonized for being bold. It can become burdensome and you just want to keep your thoughts to yourself. But I am like Jeremiah after he had been persecuted by the people he told God:

Jeremiah 20:7-8

7 O LORD, you deceived [a] me, and I was deceived [b] ;
you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8 Whenever I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the LORD has brought me
insult and reproach all day long.
But then he comes back to say:
9 But if I say, "I will not mention him
or speak any more in his name,"
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.
Be Bold with it!

Dear God, help me to be bold with the truth. Give me the confidence to speak truth to power, to give sight to the blind; to set the captives free, to raise the dead. And proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. I want to be your vessel, help me to lift my eyes from the floor to the hills from where all my help comes from. Fill me with the substance of things hoped for and give me the evidence of things not seen. Use me as your mouthpiece; just give me the courage to be bold with it!

In Jesus Name.
Amen.