Musa had been a Christian since his second year at university. He led the Bible study in his hostel. He knew large parts of Romans by heart. But in three years as a junior accountant at a firm on Victoria Island, he had never once spoken about Jesus at work. People knew he went to church, because he did not drink at the end-of-year party and he kept a small Bible in his drawer. Beyond that, he kept his faith carefully folded away between nine and five.
In March, the father of one of his colleagues died suddenly. Chiamaka sat two desks away from him. She took a week off for the burial in Enugu, and when she came back she was thin and quiet. One afternoon, when the office had emptied for lunch, she turned her chair toward him.
“Musa, you’re the church person,” she said. “Can I ask you something? What do you people actually believe happens when somebody dies? Is my father somewhere? Or is that just something we say?”
He told me afterwards that his mind went completely blank. Every verse he knew seemed to evaporate. His heart was pounding. He was afraid of saying the wrong thing, afraid of sounding like a street preacher, afraid that someone would walk back in and hear him. So he said, “Only God knows these things. Just take heart.” Then he asked whether she had eaten, and went to buy suya.
That night he could not sleep. He kept seeing her face as she waited for an answer. “I had the words of eternal life in my head,” he said, “and I gave her a greeting card.”
Perhaps you know that feeling. You are not ashamed of Jesus, exactly. You love Him. But when the moment comes to open your mouth, something closes. This article is about why God invites you to speak His Word boldly, where that boldness comes from, and what it looks like in ordinary places like Musa’s office.
Unlearned men who had been with Jesus
The book of Acts is full of the word boldness. It is one of Luke’s favourite words for what the Holy Spirit did in the first believers. And the first time it appears in that sense, it describes two fishermen standing before the most powerful religious court in Jerusalem.
Peter and John had healed a lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. A crowd gathered, Peter preached Christ, and the temple authorities arrested them and held them overnight. The next morning they were brought before the rulers, the elders, the scribes and the high priest’s family, the very men who had handed Jesus over to be crucified only weeks before. The question was put to them: by what power, or by what name, have you done this?
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
Look at what Peter did. He named Jesus, plainly, to the men who had rejected Him. “Whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” He told them that the man standing in front of them was whole because of that name. And then he went further than the question required: “Neither is there salvation in any other.” He did not soften the message to make it more acceptable to his hearers. He spoke the truth about Christ to people who had the power to imprison him.
The Greek word translated boldness in Acts is parrhesia. It originally described the freedom of a citizen to speak openly in the public assembly, without fear. It carries the sense of frankness, plain speaking, openness. Peter and John spoke openly and plainly about Jesus, in the place where it was most dangerous to do so.
And the council noticed something. These were “unlearned and ignorant men,” which in that setting meant they had no formal rabbinic training. They had not sat at the feet of the great teachers. They were Galilean fishermen. Yet they spoke with a confidence that astonished the most educated men in the nation. And the council “took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
That is the source of boldness. Not training, though training is valuable. Not personality, though some people are naturally more outspoken. Peter had been with Jesus. He had seen the resurrection. And he had been filled with the Holy Ghost, Luke tells us, at the moment he began to speak.
When they were released and threatened not to speak any more in that name, Peter and John answered, “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). Then they went back to the other believers, and the church prayed. They did not pray for the threats to disappear, although they asked God to look on them. They prayed, “grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word” (Acts 4:29). And when they had prayed, the place was shaken, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, “and they spake the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
Notice that these were people who had already been bold. Peter had already preached at Pentecost and before the council. Yet they still prayed for more boldness. They did not assume that one courageous moment made dependence unnecessary. Boldness is something the Holy Spirit gives, and keeps giving, to those who ask, whatever their temperament.
“I am a child”
If you feel like Musa, unqualified and tongue-tied, you are in good company. God has a long history of calling people to speak who did not feel ready. One of the most moving examples is the call of Jeremiah:
Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD ! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD . Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
Jeremiah’s objection is honest. “Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.” He was young, possibly still a teenager. He was being sent to speak to kings, priests and a whole nation that did not want to hear. He felt utterly inadequate.
Notice what God did not say. He did not tell Jeremiah that he was more capable than he thought. He did not give him a course in public speaking. He did not argue about his age at all. He simply said, “Say not, I am a child.” In other words, stop describing yourself that way.
Then God gave him three things. First, a sending: “for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.” Jeremiah would not be choosing his own topics. He would be speaking what God gave him. Second, a presence: “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee.” The fear Jeremiah would face was the fear of faces, of people’s reactions, frowns and threats. God answered it with His own presence. Third, a touch: “Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.”
PunchlineThat is the heart of the matter. God had put the words in Jeremiah’s mouth, so his boldness rested on the One whose words he carried, whatever his eloquence.
A few verses later, God repeats the warning in stronger terms: “be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them” (Jeremiah 1:17). There is a sobering note there. If Jeremiah let the fear of faces silence him, he would end up more confused and ashamed than if he had spoken. The greater danger was silence.
Jeremiah’s ministry was not easy. He was mocked, beaten, put in stocks and thrown into a muddy cistern. At one point he decided he would stop speaking altogether. But he found he could not: “But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay” (Jeremiah 20:9). The Word God had placed in him would not stay silent.
God did not answer Jeremiah’s fear by telling him he was more capable than he felt. He touched his mouth and said, “I have put my words in thy mouth.” Your boldness rests on whose words you carry.
The Word that does not return empty
Why should we speak God’s Word boldly? Because of what God’s Word is, and what it does. Isaiah gives us one of the most beautiful pictures in Scripture:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD . For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
The passage begins by reminding us how different God’s thoughts are from ours. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.” And then comes the picture. Rain and snow fall from heaven. They do not go straight back up. They soak into the ground, and the ground responds. Seeds sprout. Crops grow. The farmer has seed for next year and bread for this year.
“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
Think about what that means for Musa in his office. When he speaks God’s Word, the outcome does not depend on how polished he sounds, or whether Chiamaka responds immediately. Rain does not produce a harvest on the same afternoon it falls. But it never falls for nothing. The Word carries its own life. It goes into the soil of a human heart and does its work, often slowly and out of sight, but surely.
God told Jeremiah the same thing in the very chapter of his calling: “for I will hasten my word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:12). And later He asked, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29). Fire and hammer. The Word of God is strong enough to break rock. It needs no protection from us by being kept quiet. It needs to be released.
This is one of the deepest reasons for boldness. The Word is already powerful before your personality adds anything to it. Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). The power is in the gospel. Your part is to let it out of your mouth.
NuggetThat should take an enormous weight off your shoulders. Your responsibility is to speak faithfully. God takes responsibility for what His Word accomplishes in the hearer.
Boldness that answers a promise
Boldness is not only for preaching to others. It also describes how believers speak in response to what God has said to them. The writer to the Hebrews gives a striking example:
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
God has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” That is His promise. And then: “So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”
Notice the pattern. God speaks first. We answer with boldness. Our declaration rests entirely on His word. We say “The Lord is my helper” because He has said “I will never leave thee.” This is a model for all faith-filled speech. It begins with what God has spoken, and then gives that word a voice in our own mouths.
I believe strongly in this kind of speaking. There is something that happens in a believer when he opens his mouth and says aloud what God has said. Faith grows stronger when it is spoken. Fear grows weaker when it is answered. Many believers have walked through hospital corridors, court hearings and dark nights saying, under their breath or out loud, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.” They were boldly saying what God had already said.
And notice the context. The verse is set in a call to contentment: “be content with such things as ye have.” The fear it addresses includes the fear of not having enough, the fear that makes possessions seem like our final protection. It also addresses the fear of people, “what man shall do unto me.” For Musa, both were at work. He was afraid of what his colleagues would think, and somewhere underneath, he was afraid that being known as a fanatic might affect his career.
The assurance in Hebrews does not mean that opposition can never cause us harm. The letter was written to people who had suffered for their faith, had their goods seized and stood by fellow believers in prison (Hebrews 10:32-34). Its confidence goes deeper. The Lord will not abandon His people, and the fear of human power must not be allowed to become the highest authority over our allegiance. We can ask for protection and still honour Him when obedience carries a cost.
Proverbs puts it memorably: “the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1). A lion does not check whether the other animals approve before it walks through the grass. That boldness belongs to the righteous, and in Christ, you have been made righteous.
Utterance and preparation
Even the apostle Paul asked for help with boldness. Writing from prison at the end of his letter to the Ephesians, after describing the armour of God, he says this:
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 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 which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
“And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly.” This is Paul. The man who had preached across the Roman world, debated with philosophers in Athens and stood before governors and kings. And he asks the Ephesian believers to pray that he would be given words and boldness. Twice in two verses he says boldly. He did not take it for granted.
That should encourage you enormously. If Paul needed prayer for boldness, it is no shame for you to need it. Ask for it. Ask others to pray for it. This is exactly what the Holy Spirit loves to give. Jesus promised, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me” (Acts 1:8). The power of the Spirit is given for witness. If you have never asked to be filled with the Holy Ghost for boldness, ask today. If you were filled years ago, ask again, as the church in Acts 4 did.
At the same time, notice that Paul calls the Word of God “the sword of the Spirit.” A sword is used with skill, and skill requires training. We must be careful never to turn that image into permission to use Bible verses as weapons against people we dislike. Paul has just told us that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Our struggle is spiritual, and the people in front of us are not the enemy.
Dependence on the Spirit does not cancel preparation. Peter wrote, “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). Be ready. Learn the message. Read the passage beyond the line you intend to quote. Think about the questions people around you actually ask. Musa knew Romans by heart, but he had never thought through how to talk to a grieving colleague about death and resurrection. Preparation would have given the Spirit something to bring to his remembrance.
Preparation also includes listening. A rehearsed speech may be accurate and still miss the question the person is actually asking. Chiamaka was not asking for a theology lecture. She was asking whether there is hope. Faithful witness pays attention to the person in front of you.
And preparation includes honesty about what you do not know. It is perfectly bold to say, “I don’t know the answer to that.” An honest limit does not weaken the truth you do know about Christ. It can make your witness more trustworthy, because you have refused to borrow certainty from the sound of your own voice. You can be completely clear about Jesus while continuing to study what you do not yet understand.
Boldness with patience
Paul’s final letter, written to Timothy shortly before his death, contains a charge that every preacher and every believer should hear:
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season.” Instant means ready, standing by. Whether the timing feels convenient or not, whether people seem receptive or not, Timothy is to be ready to speak. Paul anticipates a time when people will not want sound teaching, when they will gather teachers who tell them what they want to hear. In that environment, faithfulness may mean persisting without immediate approval.
But look at the manner Paul requires: “reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” All longsuffering. That is patience. And doctrine means teaching, explanation. Boldness does not authorise harshness. People need the truth explained to them. Elsewhere Paul tells Timothy that the Lord’s servant must “be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient” (2 Timothy 2:24).
Consider a Bible teacher opening a passage that challenges years of familiar teaching in his congregation. He could ridicule the people who taught differently and demand an immediate change. Or he could explain the text patiently, show where the earlier understanding fell short, and help his hearers examine it for themselves. The second approach takes a settled boldness. Insecure teachers shout; confident ones can afford to be gentle.
People may still refuse the truth. Patience is no guarantee of agreement. And opposition does not automatically prove that we were faithful; sometimes people oppose us because we were unkind or wrong. We remain responsible to examine both our content and our manner, and then to keep going in the assignment God has given.
Boldness has a definite centre, too. The apostles testified to the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Boldness does not mean speaking confidently about every subject, or using spiritual authority to avoid scrutiny. It means being unashamed of Christ and His Word.
Boldness in ordinary places
PunchlineMost of us will never stand before the Sanhedrin. But we will all stand in places where fear wants to decide whether the truth will be spoken.
A student may be tempted to hide her faith because her classmates mock it. A worker may need to explain to his manager why he cannot falsify a document, even if everyone else in the department does it. A father may need to pray with his children aloud, even though he feels awkward. A woman in the market may have the chance to tell a customer why she does not cheat on the measure. A believer at a wake may be asked, as Musa was, what Christians really believe about death.
Boldness in those places will rarely look dramatic. It does not require you to dominate a conversation or to answer every disagreement on the spot. Sometimes it looks like a single sentence. Sometimes it looks like a quiet “no.” Sometimes it looks like asking, “May I pray for you?” What it means is that fear is no longer permitted to decide whether Jesus will be acknowledged.
You do not need to make yourself appear large for the message to matter. The risen Lord is the One being announced. His Spirit can give courage to a quiet believer whose few truthful words may be exactly the witness another person needs to hear.
The morning after Chiamaka’s question, Musa got up an hour early and prayed. He did not pray for long. He told me he prayed something like the prayer of Acts 4: “Lord, You saw what happened yesterday. I was afraid of her face. Give me boldness to speak Your word. And give me another chance.” Then he opened his Bible to John 11 and read the story of Lazarus three times, until he could tell it without looking.
He waited two weeks. Then one afternoon he asked Chiamaka if she would like to get lunch. They walked to a small restaurant near the office. While they were waiting for the food, he said, “You asked me something a few weeks ago, and I gave you a rubbish answer. I’m sorry. Can I try again?”
She looked surprised and nodded.
He told her he could not say everything about her father, because only God knew her father’s heart. But he could tell her what he knew about Jesus. He told her about a man named Lazarus who died, and about his sister Martha, who was angry that Jesus had come too late. He told her that Jesus stood at the grave and wept, and that He said to Martha, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” He told her that Jesus Himself died and rose again, and that because He lives, death is not the end for those who trust Him. His voice shook a little. He did not care.
Chiamaka did not say much. Her eyes filled with tears. At the end she asked him to send her the verse. He sent her all of John 11 on WhatsApp that evening. A few months later, she asked if she could come to church with him one Sunday.
Musa still works at the same firm. He is still not loud. But he told me that something changed in him at that lunch table. “I realised,” he said, “that I had been waiting to feel bold before I spoke. It turns out you speak, and the boldness comes with the words.”
The Word God has given you is not fragile. It will not return void. The Spirit who filled Peter, touched Jeremiah’s mouth and answered Paul’s request for utterance has been given to you. Ask Him for boldness. Prepare what needs preparation. Then, when the moment comes, open your mouth. God has put His words there.
Teaching Companion
For Reflection
- Where in your life does the “fear of faces” most often silence you?
- God told Jeremiah, “Say not, I am a child.” What disqualifying sentence about yourself might God be telling you to stop saying?
- How does Isaiah 55:10-11 change your sense of responsibility for the outcome when you speak God’s Word?
- Paul asked others to pray for boldness for him. Who could you ask to pray for you, and for whom could you pray?
- What would preparation look like for the conversations you are most likely to have this month?
This Week
This week, pray the prayer of Acts 4:29 every morning: “Lord, grant unto me, that with all boldness I may speak thy word.” Ask specifically to be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit for witness. Then prepare one simple thing: choose a short passage about Jesus, such as John 11:25-26 or 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, and learn to explain it in your own words in under two minutes. Ask God for one opportunity to share it, and when the opportunity comes, take it.
A Prayer
Lord, thank You that You have put Your words in my mouth. Forgive me for the times I have been afraid of faces and given a greeting card when I carried the words of eternal life. Fill me afresh with Your Holy Spirit, as You filled the believers in Acts. Give me utterance, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the gospel. Teach me to prepare well, to listen carefully and to speak with patience and grace. Thank You that Your Word will not return to You void. I will not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Truth received brings freedom. Truth believed establishes the heart.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. · Illustrations using first names only are composites unless stated otherwise.