From the archives of Oral Roberts – First of three parts
Are you being threatened by something today? Is your back to the wall so that you’re about to give up hope? Do the odds seem insurmountable?
The disciples of Jesus knew this feeling. In Acts 3 and 4, we read how Peter and John had gone to the Temple to pray and on their way they met a man who was begging for alms. Peter had said to this man, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee; In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6). As Peter took this man by the right hand and lifted him up, by faith, the man began to ask what had happened. Peter used that opportunity to preach the Gospel.
While Peter was preaching, the priests and leaders of the Temple came and put Peter and John in prison. The next day, Peter stood to preach before these religious leaders, and after he had finished, the Bible says that the priests and rulers and elders and scribes marveled and “took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
When you’ve “been with Jesus,” there is a boldness that comes on your life. You’ll get the attention of those who don’t know Him like you do. These religious leaders didn’t know what to do because they couldn’t deny the miracle that had taken place, and so they said, “Let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:17˗18).
How did Peter and John answer them? They said, “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).
Friend, the devil comes to threaten your life for one main reason: to get you to stop talking about Jesus. What must our response always be to those who threaten our lives because of the Gospel? “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard!”