Growing in the Gifts of the Spirit - Be Bold, Take Risks (Daily Devotional)

Welcome to Living Supernaturally, the daily devotion of All People’s church. We're so glad that you could be here even as we study God's word together. This week, we've been learning about growing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and we've been looking at different aspects that help us to grow. Today, we are looking at one particular aspect, one thing that can help us to grow, that is to be bold, be courageous, and be in faith, which means to take risks. So, be bold and courageous and to take risks. This is what we see in Acts chapter 11 and verse 12, ‘then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.’ So, this is about an instruction that Peter experienced. Now, Peter after ministry, he was there in the house of Simon the Tanner and something happens there. God sets up a divine appointment, and he sends people with some specific instructions, people who did not know, who had not met Peter before, but then they are sent with that instruction to go to this place, to go to this address, all very specific things and they come here. Well, they take a step of obedience and faith, and they come and they invite Peter. Peter, being a Jewish man and these are Gentile people who have come and they are inviting him to the house of the of the Roman official. So, Peter receives this instruction from the Holy Spirit and he obeys. The instruction is to go with them, doubting nothing. So, as we receive the instruction from the Holy Spirit in our spirit through the spirit sense or it could be a quickened word from the word of God, a rhema word that comes from God, quickened by the Holy Spirit, we are to yield and we are to do what He wants us to do. Now, this instruction can defy logic and reasoning at times. God has given us a mind, He wants us to use it, but there are times when the instruction of God goes beyond that reasoning. For Peter, it did not make sense, why should he go and why should he trust these men? But he went and on the other side of obedience, he saw the fruit of it. So, in order for us to grow we need to obey, we need to take risks. Yes, we need to test whether it's of God, we need to discern whether the instruction that we are receiving is from God or not. We need to also validate and see whether it's righteous, whether it's based on the word of God, and so on. But at the same time, we also need to take that step of faith, go boldly and courageously and take a risk. When we do that, we will experience the power of God, we will see the fruit of what God wanted us to do. So, when we take a step boldly and when we take a risk, sometimes we want to protect our reputation, what if this goes wrong? I know that my reputation is at stake, I will look bad in front of people. Sometimes we need to die to that, die to that fear, die to that stirring of the flesh because that stirring of the flesh is about self-preservation and protecting our reputation and so on. So, we would need to die to that and step out and take that step of faith. Today as we pray, let's pray on those lines and say, "Lord, I want to be a person who's courageous. I want to be able to take risks, I want to move boldly even as you lead me and I want to be sharp in my spirit to hear correctly, to receive, and let my spirit senses of hearing, listening and receiving what you're saying, let it be sharp in the spirit. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you that this is something that you desire for us and you're willing to lead us, to lead people to an encounter. Lord, you have set up people who are there, who need to hear your word, who need to experience your breakthrough that you're bringing to them and it is our joy and privilege that you choose us to do that. Even as we grow in the spirit, grow in this ability, we pray that we will step out in faith, courageously, boldly, and not hesitate to take risks, after testing whether it's from you or not, we thank you, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
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