By Derek Hanisch, RTF Staff Writer

I still remember that day three years ago. I stood in front of two hundred youth at a juvenile detention center to give a sermon. I hadn’t prayed about what I was going to say. I had done the preparation on my own. I was giving the sermon on my own. And I bombed. I bombed badly. It was a real self esteem crusher for me. Because of it I hadn’t spoken in public since.

I’ve been involved with Campus Crusade for Christ at my school, and just recently we put on an Interfaith Conference with the Muslim Student Association. Each faith had a twenty minute introduction before questions were taken from the audience towards both faiths.

I was asked to be a part of the panel. Without even thinking I said no, remembering the last time I had tried to do something like this. Two others were chosen for the Christian panel and things were good. One of the speakers fell through and immediately I was asked again. I had been praying that God would open up doors and use me. I couldn’t deny it anymore. I prayed about it that weekend and knew that this was something I had to do. I said yes.

I began to freak out a lot. I’ve been reading through Acts and there was one theme that kept coming to mind: God always gave His followers the words to speak. Look at Stephen in Acts 6.

Stephen is a man who loves Jesus, and wants all to know who Jesus is. The Jewish leaders were not very thrilled with this, so they went to the temple to try and trap Stephen. Did Stephen get tongue tied and make a fool of himself and the Gospel? Nope.

“None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.”

Stephen was given wisdom to say to the Jewish leaders. It wasn’t his own knowledge that got him through it, but the Holy Spirit. God filled Stephen with his Spirit and gave Stephen the words needed. God granted Stephen wisdom.

As the Interfaith Conference was approaching I was praying desperately that God would grant Reed (my partner) and myself the wisdom needed to defend His word.

You know what? He did. I didn’t know all the answers, and neither did Reed. Between the two of us we were able to answer all of the questions, though. God granted us the wisdom necessary.

Moses is another key figure to look at when it comes to speaking for God. Let’s take a look at a bit of his story:

“Moses spoke to the Lord. He said, “Lord, I’ve never been a good speaker. And I haven’t gotten any better since you spoke to me. I don’t speak very well at all.”

The Lord said to him, “Who makes a man able to talk? Who makes him unable to hear or speak? Who makes him able to see? Who makes him blind? It is I, the Lord. Now go. I will help you speak. I will teach you what to say.”

But Moses said, “Lord, please send someone else to do it.”

-Exodus 4:10-13

Next time the Lord asks you to speak out on your behalf ask yourself this important question. Do you have faith that the Lord will give you the words you need? Or do you wait for the Lord to send someone else?