Waiting is a discipline that enriches our lives as we learn patience. In a world where speed means everything, for example microwave meals, faster internet, quicker product delivery, and much more, waiting is a bit of a 21st century misnomer! Yet waiting is a noble, Godly and character building attribute.
“You are witnesses of these things”. “And behold I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power form on high”. (Luke 24:48,49)
4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised “Which”, He said, “You heard of from Me;5 for john baptised with water but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”..12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem a Sabbath day’s journey away. (Acts 1:4,5&12)
In Luke Chapter 24 Jesus is giving His final instructions to His disciples and telling them that they will be His witnesses in all the nations starting in Jerusalem. But He sets a specific requirement in place for this to become a reality and that is in His instruction to ‘stay’. This command is repeated in Acts Chapter 1, ‘He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait’. Can you imagine this situation? The disciples have just seen the resurrected Jesus, thus testifying to the fact that He was who He said He was, He is the saviour of the world but their commission to be the agents of this message was put on hold by the command to stay, to wait. In fact, this great commission begins with a return journey, rather than going out they have to go back, back to where they will inherit the promise of the Father. This isn’t a short journey; it takes a whole day to return to a place to be sent.
Firstly, before anything can happen, before they can fulfil the commission of Jesus they have to be prepared by the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls it being clothed with power from on high. There is no way they can take the journey of Jesus’ commission without being prepared for it and that preparation includes returning, staying and waiting ‘until’ they are clothed by God’s Spirit.
Building the kingdom of God requires that firstly we are clothed with power to do it and this clothing comes through a process of waiting. Waiting is a somewhat alien concept in our modern world where we measure success in terms of speed. A meal that once would have taken a couple of hours to prepare and make, is now ready to eat after a few minutes in a microwave. Same day delivery for internet orders is becoming commonplace, faster and faster trains mean that we don’t have to wait so long to get to our chosen destination. A friend recently wrote a book, sent it to Amazon in the USA for publishing and received a draft copy delivered to his door within three days of sending the script! Definitely no waiting there!
I guess the disciples would have wanted to get on with the job, ‘we’ve lived with Him, we saw Him crucified, we’ve seen Him alive, come on, let’s go! Why wait?’ But maybe this process of waiting enables the stripping off of all sorts of other clothing in order for them to be clothed with the power of God, that is the enabler for the witness that Jesus said they would be. The word ‘stay’ used in Chapter 24 of Luke actually means to sit down, to find a seat. Finding a place of rest is the place from which Kingdom activity flows. A heart with an irregular heart beat has to be stopped and restarted in order for the rhythm to be reset. For our heartbeat to be functioning correctly we need to come to place of complete standstill, a place of absolute rest, at this point the Father can reset the rhythm of our hearts.
Lord help us! We need you to show us how to wait!
Adrian