Do you find it hard to speak up?
Do you find it difficult to speak your mind?
The Duke of York Prince Albert, later Great Britain's King George VI, struggled with his speech. He could barely frame one sentence without stammering.
After extensive sessions with Lionel Logue, speech therapist, George VI learned to harness his panic, control his nerves, and deliver adequate speeches. He rallied his nation and the Commonwealth to the common cause against the Nazi regime that was sweeping across Europe and attacking the British Isles.
Logue had counseled Prince Albert early on that if the future King wanted to master his speaking problem, he would have to face the inadequacies and insecurities which had beset him for so long.
Abused by his nanny, always playing second fiddle to his boorish and bullying older brother, Prince Albert was a quiet type who commanded little respect from his father, a stern man who treated his second son like a child, even when he was a grown man.
Like many, Prince Albert labored under a cloud of inferiority. In fact, we all do, to the extent that we are all sons of Adam. A sin nature, which manifests itself as condemnation, afflicts every one of us.
"I am not good enough. No one cares what I have to say. I have no right to speak up or be heard on anything." These thoughts plague everyone of us, especially to the extent that we believe the criticism and harsh attacks of others, whether from parents, friends, or other individuals whom we do not know.
Jesus came to take away this condemnation from everyone who believes on Him:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3: 16-18)
Every person owes God a sin debt. We have broken God's law, we are all out of step with Him, and our own conscience bears witness to this righteous condemnation.
Yet rather than witness His creation be damned for eternity, God sent His own Son to rescue us from our sin, to pay the price that we owed to God.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8: 1-2)
When we know that we have no more condemnation before God, we are set free from all condemnation:
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
"As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." (Romans 8: 31-37)
So you have a problem speaking up? Remember, first of all, where your wisdom and wind come from:
"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." (1 Corinthians 1: 30)
Christ is made wisdom first to every believer. He supplies all lack, informs us what to believe when we need direction:
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." (James 1:5)
As for the wind to speak forth, The Wind that winds through us and wins us over our fears and insecurities is the Holy Spirit (In the Greek, "Hagia Pneuma", or "Holy Wind"):
"And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:
"For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say." (Luke 12: 11-12)
Jesus teaches us expressly to rely on His Holy Spirit within us, who lives and dwells with all eternal certainty in every believer:
"Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." (1 Corinthians 12:3)
Many believers still struggle because they do not know the extent to which they are forgiven, nor do they understand to the extent that the Holy Spirit lives, dwells, and directs us:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:10-12)
God's law is now in our heart, a heart which has been made soft with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (cf Ezekiel 11:19). We do not have to check ourselves to make sure that we are in good standing or fear that we may displease God. Why?:
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
In fact, when we worry about saying or doing the wrong thing, we presume that God's grace extended to us through the Finished Work of His Son Jesus Christ is not enough, that we must determine in our flesh to be diligent and vigilant to avoid sin. Yet if we attempt to secure righteousness by our efforts, we will fail:
"Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
"For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
"For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." (Galatians 5: 4-6)
If we trust in our own efforts, we fail. If we trust in the Lord, we do good, we dwell in the land, and we feed on His faithfulness (cf Psalm 37:4) If we take thought as to what we must say, we feel. If we trust that we are righteous before God, that by the power of the Holy Spirit He works within us both to will and to do for His good pleasure, He will secure our words and our hearts. It is not a matter of what we do, but what we believe, that sets us free.
Do we have boldness, too, as a result of Christ's Finished Work on our behalf at the Cross? Absolutely!:"
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
"By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
"And having an high priest over the house of God;
"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." (Hebrews 10: 19-22)
Here, "boldness" renders the Greek word "παρρησία, parrésia", which means confidence, boldness, but also. . . freedom of speech!
Why do believers have this "freedom of speech?" Because Jesus Christ has acted on our behalf as the final and eternal high priest, taking all of our sin and shame at the Cross, breaking forever the enmity that divided us from our Father and Creator. Our hearts have been washed from an evil conscience. Though the devil may tempt a believer with wicked or guilty thoughts, every believer must:
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11)
How alive are we through Jesus Christ? We are one with Him!:
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2: 4-6)
and
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)
As Christ is, so are we, every believer, in this world. The same boldness which the writer speaks of in Hebrews, John mentions here -- confidence, freedom, boldness of speech. Does Jesus worry about displeasing His Father, as He sits at His right hand? Of course not, for Jesus Christ is God's Beloved Son (cf Matthew 3: 17) So neither does every believer. God loves us as much as His Son, and has glorified us as much as His own Son!:
"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
"I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." (John 17: 22-23)
God loves and glorifies us as much as His own Son! This love (which is God Himself! cf 1 John 4:16) is powerful stuff, casting out all fear (cf 1 John 4:18).
We do not stand on our own to declare the Truth prompted in us. Christ, the Way the Truth and the Life, lives and thrives within us. His love protects, encourages, and strengthens us through all hardships. We need not worry about displeasing our Father, so we have no reason to fear the recriminations and ridicule of others when we wish to speak up. We now have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) We no longer speak our mind, those who walk in the Spirit. We no longer make a point of proving ourselves, but standing fast in our God-given liberty through Christ risen above all principality and power, sitting at the right hand of the Father, no longer do we have to labor under fear, no longer do we have to struggle to speak up, to speak out, to speak forth God's glory!
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