"But
ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem ,
and in all Judaea, and in Samaria
Acts 1:8
Within your own abilities and
resources you are powerless; you couldn’t overcome, you couldn’t sustain and you couldn’t
bear without the presences and power of God… I state this to reinforce the message
from today’s focus verse… Jesus informs His disciples that they are to standby
and wait for the arrival of the Holy Ghost before proclaiming the good news
throughout the world… We need the Holy Ghost to share the good news to a loss
and scattered generation; many have fallen into diverse temptations and have
even lost sight of God’s promise and plan because we believed in our own power
and were simply overpowered by the storm or circumstance that we faced… You are called to witness and bring
reconciliation between God and His creation; however, you cannot jump into
action without first being equipped for duty… This is the grave mistake that we
too often make, we have a zeal for God so much so that we move before His
command and end up being rejected like Saul or running into the enemy’s
territory like David… Jesus says ye
shall be witnesses… You will have a story to tell, you will have a
testimony to share and you will be given an opportunity to add your personal
brick to the building of God’s kingdom; the thing you must understand is that there
is a process that must be adhered to before you begin applying your bricks… The
Holy Ghost is our guide, compass and power; we have to have the spirit of God
living in us in order for the will of God to be carried out through us… This
world can be a treacherous place and one of the biggest detractors to our walk
of Faith is seeing a fellow believer become victim to society or circumstances
because they were not prepared to face them… This is the difference between a praying man who has lost everything
and a man who has turned to the streets to try and save his home… When the
spirit rest upon you, you can rest in the will of God knowing that His plan is
perfect and that you will reach His expected end… There are many mistakes
that we can make in this life, giving into temptation, associating ourselves
with the wrong people or even just denying the truth; however, one of the
mistakes we often make which is never really discussed in our Christian journey
is the mistake of moving before God calls you too… In the book of Acts the
disciples were given specific instructions as it pertained to their life after
Christ death and ascension; one of these instructions was simply to be patient
and wait for the comforter… One can only imagine what must have been going
through the disciples head, Jesus had died and rose from the dead, He has shown
Himself to them and now He is going home to eternal glory… Their leader is
leaving them and they are preparing for a life they have not known, we can put
ourselves in this situation when something unfamiliar happens to us, we can
draw a parallel to our lives when the usual is changed; however, we are called
to remember that as a child of God we are called to wait upon the Lord… Isaiah
tells us in his prophetical book that “…they that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength…” You can’t do it on your own, stop trying to figure
things out on you’re on, instead wait upon the Lord and the power that you will
receive through the gift of the Holy Spirit… Peter denied Christ and left the
courtyard weeping; however, when the Holy Spirit came upon him, he preached and
3,000 souls were saved… The point that we must learn is that we are nothing without
the savior and that we are unstoppable with Him…
The key is,
understanding that He must be in the midst if we want to experience the success
that only comes from above… There are many times in our lives when we feel
weak, many days that we feel like we can’t go on and want to throw in the
towel; however, Jesus reminded the disciples just like Luke reminds us today
that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes… The message for us today is to wait on the Lord, this is not to be
confused with not doing anything in life, but rather positioning ourselves in
the will of God so that He can strengthen us and mold us according to His
desires… As Jesus was preparing to depart from Earth and return to Heaven
He instructed His disciples of things to come… He assured them of a comforter
and guide in the form of the Holy Spirit which would be poured out upon them
after He left! It is important to understand that the disciples were scared and
captured by fear at the sight of Jesus leaving the earth; the disciples still
didn’t really understand the magnitude of what Jesus came to the earth for and
why He was leaving, they had walked with Him for three years turned away from
normal practices and now they feel alone and isolated! I think it’s safe to say
that we can only imagine the fear that had come upon them… In our lives we face that same kind of fear, Jesus may not be here with
us physically, but when we choose to follow Him we separate ourselves from the
way of the world and make a choice that will lead us down a path different from
others… It is in that choice that we do experience good and bad days,
nights of peace and nights of unrest; however, we find courage and take courage
in knowing that we shall receive power… Jesus says to His disciples that you
will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes, notice He says that the power
will come with the Holy Spirit… Many of us are struggling on this earth, we are
afraid of being different and losing out on the gains of this world; Jesus is
assuring us today that there is power in knowing Him and that you will receive
power by following His commandments and will… The disciples were to stay where
they were, but when the Spirit of God came there witness would be unleashed! A
lot of times God is simply asking us to stay where we are, don’t become
disgruntle or upset when things don’t look or feel the way you want them too…
Stand firm on God’s foundation and know that He has a plan for you and will see
it through! Often times we want things to happen right here, right now and we
must remember that God never makes mistakes and that He has assured us of
victory through Him… The bible tells us that the disciples gathered and had all
things in common when the Spirit was poured out… Let us continue to gather and
stop promoting our own thoughts and our own will above others, let us stay
focused on God’s will and remember that when His Spirit is poured out we will
be exalted… The bible says, “Stand still and know that I am God…” It
also says as we studied earlier that, “They that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength!” The bottom line is that we must be patient, be
attentive and be alert; your breakthrough, healing and deliverance are in His
hand… Wait on Him, He is coming!!!
BE BLESSED!!!
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