Do not worry about how or what you are to speak...The Holy Spirit will...

Acts 7:1-29 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible (link on links page)

Stephen’s Defense

7 The high priest said, “Are these things so?”

² And he said, “Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, ³ and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. ⁵ But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even when he had no child, He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him. ⁶ But God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ⁷ ‘And whatever nation to which they will be in bondage I Myself will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve Me in this place.’ ⁸ And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ “The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his household.

¹¹ “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers ^[f]could find no food. ¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. ¹³ On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all. ¹⁵ And Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died. ¹⁶ From there they were removed to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷ “But as the time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, ¹⁸ until there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. ¹⁹ It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would expose their infants and they would not survive. ²⁰ It was at this time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home. ²¹ And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. ²² Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds. ²³ But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. ²⁴ And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. ²⁶ On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren, why do you injure one another?’ ²⁷ But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? ²⁸ You do not mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’ ²⁹ At this remark, Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

We read in yesterday's text that Stephen was chosen to serve with the following criteria as qualification for ministry:  Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom.      We also read that although the ministry he was given was to help to distribute food to widows, basically to serve tables, the text said:  And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.  ⁹ But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. ¹⁰ But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. ¹¹ Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” ¹² And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the Council.

This is an example of what Jesus says will happen. Luke 12:11-12     When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; ¹² for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”       Stephen had not thought out and prepared his defense a head of time. Neither can we. None of us know the time or circumstance when our faith will be challenged and tested. Jesus says when they bring you before, it is really not a question of if it is a matter of when. If we are, like Stephen, walking in the fullness of the power and authority of the will of God, if we are yielded to the Holy Spirit and     full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people, sooner or later someone will accuse us of something. 

  Jesus says:  “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you  

 If we are walking in the will of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, if we are displaying the Light of Christ to this dark world, we will be hated and rejected, accused and challenged by those who have chosen to walk in darkness.

Again, Jesus says we are not to worry about that time. If we are walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit will walk with us and speak through us in that time also. God says:  "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you."(Deuteronomy 31:6)  The psalmist understood and trusted in God's protective presence, he says:     Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me(Psalm 23:4)    If we walk with God, yielded to the Holy Spirit there is nothing that can harm us, even death is just a shadow, because we are already walking in the resurrected life in Christ.

What then is our responsibility? What do we need to do? Are we simply to live each and every day with no thought of tomorrow?  Remember the criteria, the qualifications,  Stephen was chosen under, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom.     We too are selected and called by God for these same qualifications. There is no self righteous pride in that. Our good reputation comes only as we yield to God. Apart from God we are not good. If we are full of the Spirit there is little room for self. John the Baptist said: He must increase, but I must decrease.(John 3:30)    As we allow the Spirit to increase in us there is less of us. To be full of wisdom is something we also get only from God. We can attain tremendous knowledge reading and studying the works of men. Wisdom though, comes from God. Proverbs says the fear(awe/respect) of God is the beginning of wisdom.  Jesus said we should not worry about  what we are to say in those times we face trial and challenges, the Holy Spirit will teach us. Jesus also says: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.(John 14:26)

"Teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."   Stephen had not prepared his defense in advance. He didn't write his declaration of the gospel message that he shared that day. In order for the Holy Spirit to bring to our remembrance the things Jesus has said, we must have heard them. Whether we are good readers or poor, whether we are able to remember and recite scripture and verse or not is not the issue. But if we are to remember the things that Jesus said, if the Holy Spirit is to speak it forth from us, it needs to be in us. Our responsibility is not to prpepare and plan what to say when we are faced with a trial or a challenge. Our responsibility if to fill ourselves with the wisdom that comes only from God, to spend time in His word. We may not feel as though we are able to remember and quote scripture like other people, but if it is in us and we walk with God, yielded to the Holy Spirit, He will bring it forth, teaching and reminding us what to say and of all that Jesus said.

This truth and promise is for us when the time should come that we are questioned, challenged or tried for our faith. It is also true for the times we stand with someone else who is facing a trial or difficult time. We may think that we don't know how to minister to people in difficult times. We don't know the right words to say.     " do not worry about how or what you are to speak,... or what you are to say;  for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”  Trust in Him. Fill yourself daily with the wisdom that comes from God, read and reflect on His word, listen to His word.

The Israelites were told to keep the word and commandments of God. In Deuteronomy 6:4-9   God says:      “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 

Keep His words of life before you each day so that in the time of need, yours or someone else's, He can bring it forth from your remembrance.     He is faithful.     “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?(Numbers 23:19)

Thank You Heavenly Father for the wisdom that comes from Your word. Thank You Lord Jesus for all that You have told me through Your life and in Your word. Thank You Holy Spirit, for teaching me and bringing all things to my remembrance. I desire today to be filled with the wisdom that comes from God. I yield to You blessed Holy Spirit. Increase in me.  Speak for me and through me today.      Amen