“Un” Numero Uno 2: Uncommon Courage
Posted on Monday 30 July 2007 by Greg @ 6:58 am
Filed under: Rants
This continues my first series called "10 Un’s from the book of Acts that launched the biggest revival ever!"
Un #2: Uncommon Courage
As soon as the Spirit of God descended on the early disciples uncommon courage was infused into their souls. Peter stood up and boldly proclaimed the gospel to a hostile crowd of thousands. When the religious leaders pushed back later on in Acts they found that these boys were not intimidated in the slightest. Check out Acts 4:13, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."
When we spend time with Jesus and yield to His Spirit within uncommon courage should spring forth from the deepest core of our souls. We need to, like the early followers of Jesus, open our hearts to God and then open our mouths and let ‘er rip.
This brand of courage doesn’t mean that we don’t have fear in our hearts. We just choose to conquer this menacing fear by charging ahead anyway. Yesterday as I looked at the vertical drop water ride (AKA "Flatline") at Water World (the largest water park in the nation) my heart began to pound. As I stared at it my friend Greg Zinn dared me to take the plunge with him on that ride. As we were walking up the stairs to the towering platform fear began to take over. As I walked up to the "launching pad" for the vertical drop my heart rate was racing. As I pushed myself over the edge my heart was pounding so hard that it could have been the drummer for KISS (shame on it.) I was scared. But my actions weren’t detered by the fear pounding through my veins.
The same is true with evangelism. Courage doesn’t mean that we don’t feel fear, but that we conquer it in Jesus’ name and push ourselves over the edge. Courage means that we refuse to let our feelings dictate our actions. We do what we know we should do even though all the fear factors are working to tell us "no!"
If we want to see true and lasting revival in our nation then we need to swallow our pride, push down our fears and take the plunge into a lifestyle of evangelism.
Geronimo!
P.S. They should call that ride "The Water Wedgie"
