But wait...there's more!

"Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

Acts 1:4-5

In the verses before the one's I've highlighted here Luke was clear that Jesus had given orders for His people. These orders where to make disciples as we read in Matthew 28:19. It's our call as believers to make disciples as the Church. While Jesus was clear in what He wanted done He says to his disciples "but wait".

Wait? That didn't make much sense to me the first time I read it. Jesus has risen from the grave and gives them a mission and now is about to leave so they can get busy doing the work of God and instead He says to wait? I, being a man, am not a professional at waiting. I hate it. The microwave takes much too long for me. Why in the world is Jesus giving me an order and then telling me to wait??  

Well I think it's important for us to understand that Jesus knew who the people He was working with.

In verse 2 of chapter 1 Luke talks about the disciples and refers to them as those " ...whom He had chosen." Jesus knew these men. He spent time with them and He loved them. That should be so comforting to us as believers to know that the Lord really knows His people because as believers we are His people too!

It's because He knew His disciples that knew that they could not change the world by themselves.

Jesus had walked through life with His disciples and taught them what it was to be a true follower of the Lord. A crash course from the Creator of the universe on how to live life but now He was leaving. He had finished His mission and now it was time for His disciples to be His hands and feet but Jesus never planned from them to do it on their own. Jesus was sending them the Holy Spirit and through Him they would continue to reach the world and leave His fingerprints behind them. Jesus viewed the Holy Spirit very highly and even said in John 16 that it was better for Him to leave for the Holy Spirit to come for the disciples! 

We as believers have the this same Holy Spirit and are not expected to do the work of the Lord by ourselves! We are called to rely on the Holy Spirit and through it, give the world a picture with our lives what it is to be a believer.

3,2,1 Action!

"The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach,

until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen."
Acts 1:1-2

I will always remember what I felt like when I was first saved. I can remember saying to myself "This is great! I'm not going to hell!...now what?". I think the book of Acts starts off the way it does to address that very question of "Now what?". In verse 2 Luke writes " after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.". The first thing we should identify is that the Lord had given orders. He didn't leave this world without telling His people exactly what He desired for them to do but rather gave them clear instructions. Jesus had lived life with His disciples teaching them through His actions and giving them a picture of what is was to truly follow Him. In the very last chapter of Matthew we find these words of Jesus, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations..". This is command of every believer! Not just Pastors and not just people in ministry but all believers! 

When Jesus was crucified some of the disciples went back to what they knew. We find Peter and he is back to fishing and that's the very tendency we have as people when we become believers. My nature when I was saved was now trying to fit God into the life I already had but that is not what the Lord is looking for at all! He's looking for us to fit our lives around who He is and our relationship with Him! Even Francis Chan remembers back when he was first saved, the thing he prayed to God about was not losing any of his friends now that he was a Christian. See we have a default setting of just going back to whats familiar to us but we are called to a completely different life. Our lives should look radically different from when we had no idea who Jesus was compared to calling Him "Lord, Lord". Paul using the analogy in Ephesians of the difference is as big as being dead and then being alive. That's as different as something can be when you really stop and think about it and that's the picture Luke is painting to start of the book.

Jesus did not leave this earth without giving His marching orders to His people in a very clear way. 

Learning

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

Philippians 4:13

One of the most quoted verses in all the Bible. Paul was using it in the context of being "content in whatever circumstances" because the one thing he could always relay on was the Lord. No matter what he had, a lot or a little, it didn't matter because the one constant was the Lord. Paul learned this lesson but by no means do I believe that he learned it the way he expected to. 

See the more and more I learn about the Lord it becomes painfully obvious that He rarely, if ever, teaches me things the way I expect Him to. 

To take that even further He rarely teaches me the way I want Him to. 

In my mind my life would be so much "better" and so much more "fulfilling" if God would just teach me lessons the way I want. Nothing painful, nothing too difficult, nothing that shakes my world or breaks my heart but that's rarely the way the Lord brings truth into our lives. He can but I think C.S Lewis put it best when he said "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." The very things we try our hardest to run from and escape from in this world, such as heartbreaks, trials and pain, can be greatest tools the Lord uses to reach our heartstrings.

I've prayed to the Lord countless times to teach me more about what it is to truly follow Him. To truly be completely surrendered in every aspect of my life. Do we really mean what we pray? Even when His answer is in the form of extreme pain or heartache? Growing to look more and more like Him rarely is a process we have control of and Paul learned this in a way he probably didn't ever expect to. Paul certainly had to question what God was doing at multiple times in his life but all those things, the good and painful, led Paul to write down this verse. 

James 1:17

"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."

James 1:17

The first chapter of James is by far my favorite chapter of scripture. James is all about the idea that the true power of scripture comes not just from hearing the word but putting it into practice and letting it effect every aspect of our lives. It has to define who we are.

Before this specific verse James was talking about temptation and the downfall giving in to it leads to. James tells us that the Lord isn't the one who tempts us but rather He, our Father, give's us every good thing we have. James then goes on to talk about the character of the God we serve, "With whom there is no variation or shifting shadow". James is saying, with God, you know what you are getting and it doesn't shift to something else when you get into it like temptation does. Temptation lures you in promising one thing but never having the ability to deliver on it while God's very character is based on the fact that He never fails to deliver on His promises or His word.

The mark of a Christian needs to be that they relay on the character of God especially during times of temptation and trials. That's the very definition of faith! It's not just a word but rather the very way we live our lives. By faith not by sight.

Love

"We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

1 John 3:16

For me, there are some pieces of scripture that have so much power and influence in my life it's overwhelming. This is one of them. Is there a more beautiful picture painted in the entire Word of God than this? It's a verse I've known for a good awhile and one I routinely use to encourage myself of the Love the Lord has for me. I can remember talking about the Love God has for us and using this verse and all my mind could think about was the crucifixion of Jesus. What Jesus did on the cross is something that can never be overstated and that act of Love is exactly what Ephesians 3:19 refers to when says His love goes beyond all understanding but this verse covers more than just the crucifixion! 

"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 

who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

Philippians 2:5-8

While the crucifixion is one of the most humbling things to read about in scripture for me so shouldn't the very birth of the Savior in Luke 2:1-7. Jesus laid down his place in the heavens and placed himself into this world for me. The story of Jesus' birth is the greatest act of humility anyone will ever read. The Creator of everything chose to step into this world for my sake laying down his rights to meet the greatest need I ever had. The King of Kings entered this world that He created to serve as my perfect sacrifice. Is there a greater picture of Love than that? The very fact that Jesus entered this world at all should bring me to my knees let alone realizing why He came. If we miss the humility and pure perfect Love of our Savior this Christmas we have completely failed to grasp what this day is supposed to mean.

How do I miss the mark so badly when it comes to this day? When did this day become more about me than about Him? When did I get so selfish to think that my life belongs to me when He bought it with a price?

Father, how can I respond to this kind of perfect Love and humility but with my very life? Help me to live out 1 John 2:6 in light of these very things. Help my life be marked with this kind of love and this kind of humility that you have shown. My only purpose Lord is to tell Your story with my life and to be pleasing to you in every area of it.

Process

“Consider it all joy my brethren, when you encounter various trails,

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”

James 1:2-3

*First of all I don’t expect this to make any sense to anyone who reads it and it’s really more for me.

Just thought I’d put this at the beginning as a little disclaimer.

It’s amazing and often times humbling to see God do what He does in my life. I look back over specific things and am just awestruck at how and why He did the things He has done in my life. Usually my relationship with God is going well and that has been especially true for the last couple of months. I honestly can say I’ve never sought the Lord more and walked closer to him than I have over this period of time. It’s been an incredible blessing to see Him answer prayer after prayer in ways I never thought He would. I think that’s why the last week has been one of the most strenuous and emotional draining one’s that I can remember. At first I was quite angry with God and I let Him know it. For me it wasn’t fair that I was having to do things this way at all and that it was completely His fault for allowing things to go this way. Looking back I see how ignorant and short sighted that was but it’s what I needed Him to know at that point. I wanted Him to hear “my piece” and I couldn’t help but feel like Job. Nothing in my circumstances even remotely resembled why Job was crying out to God but my heart cry felt just as justified in my own mind as Job’s did. I also fully understood that God could give me a verbal lashing as He did Job but I was ready for that and perhaps even wanted that just to know that He knew how much I was torn up on the inside over everything. I desired for Him to acknowledge the struggle I was going through and to comfort me even if it meant being beaten up by His word. While I was beaten up a little by His word throughout the past week and last couple of days I saw more of His comforter side through His word. I had already faced this scripture before but it was at a time where I was not currently going through a struggle in my life so it was all head knowledge that I so loathe. I now know what it is for this to hit my heart and to live it out which has been one of the many blessings He’s shown me through this particular trial. It’s actually hit me in the heart and now I can actually apply this scripture to my situation and look up to the Father and say “Ok God. I know you have me in this for a reason. I’m not asking you to get me out of it and I’m not even asking you to speed this up but rather what do you want me to get out of this?”. It took me a little bit to get to this point but I feel I’ve finally reached it and it feels amazingly joyful. I’m still not happy with it and I still don’t want to do it this way but I’ve found joy in it as James talks about in the verses above. Joy is not happiness in the Biblical sense but rather it’s that we as Christians know God has neither lost interest nor forgotten about the problem’s I’m going through even if I don’t necessarily feel happy. I know my God does care and that He is bringing me through this to teach me and show me things in my life which is bringing me closer to Him. It’s not something that happens overnight or quickly by any means but it’s a place we all have to reach during the period of time we face these obstacles.

This is a time that God has allowed to happen and my heart’s desire is to get out what He desires for me to get out of it. It’s not what I want to do nor the way I want to do it, but it’s something that God is using to bring me closer to Him. That’s the very definition of a blessing! It’s crazy how we as Christian’s and people in general are always looking forward to the next thing in life, whatever it may be, when the Lord is telling us to rather focus on what’s currently going on and use it to grow closer to Him. His desire for us is to be Holy and to not miss what He’s doing in the process! We are so used to asking the Lord, during these times, why I’m here and how the heck do I get out instead of focusing on what He wants us to get out of being in that spot to begin with! The process of the Lord leading us through things is so crucial to the entire story God is telling but most of the time we want to skip over that part so we can be comfortable. God never came to this world to make you comfortable or happy all the time. He came to build you into the person He desires you to be and these processes, as much as I can’t stand them and as much as the infuriate me, are exactly what we need to be used by Him. 

The Helper

“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”

John 16:7

Jesus’ words about the Holy Spirit here should excite us like no other scripture. Do you understand what Jesus is saying with these words? Jesus is telling his disciples “it’s better for you as disciples to have the Holy Spirit living inside of you than for Me to be walking through life by your side.” I think as Christians, at least for this Christian, it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that He’s wrong in this statement. I mean if I had Jesus literally walking with me and encouraging me and teaching me then life would be so much easier right? Jesus says otherwise and I think we need to live as if that is in fact true in our lives! It is something however we all need to work on and is an emotional thing.

Jesus has always understood the emotional aspect of what the disciples were doing. When Jesus called to Peter and Andrew while they were fishing and said to them “Follow Me” He understood the emotional toll that put on them. He also understood they wouldn’t be able to get through this journey without having Himself set the example first. See Jesus was very clear when He said “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men” that they wouldn’t be able to be fishers of men without Him. He’s the reason they became fishers of men and He didn’t expect them to become that without help from Him. It wasn’t in what they could or couldn’t do but rather what Christ could do through them and their surrendered hearts.

 Flip ahead a little bit to when the disciples had just seen Jesus crucified. Through the crucifixion they got a pretty graphic picture of what preaching the words of Jesus can do to your life. They understood that the road was a scary one that perhaps would not end in a happy or pleasant way. For a short period of time they also got to see what this journey was like without Jesus walking by their side. I mean when Jesus is resurrected we see Peter go back to fishing because it’s what he knew. He was scared and went back to His life before Jesus.  I think Jesus understood these feelings better than anyone and I think the perfect picture of His understanding is in Acts right before He is leaving to go back to the Father.

“Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father has promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard from Me;”

Acts 1:4

Jesus was telling them “Listen I want you to completely change the world, and you guys are going to flip it upside down but I want you to see you can’t do that on your own and I don’t want you to do it alone.”

Is that how you view the Holy Spirit is?

So they stay where they are and are waiting for this amazing gift from God. They are waiting for something big and supernatural to happen to indicate that the Holy Spirit has arrived. God did not disappoint either. What’s described here is one of those OMG moments. Not just for the disciples but scripture says that even the people in the town heard the noise and realized they need to check out what was going on. A giant rushing wind sound fills the room appearing like tongues of fire to the disciples and it landed on each of them and then they started speaking other languages and could communicate with people they never could before. Something crazy just happened. Can you imagine trying to explain that to someone? It blows my mind when I think if I were one of the disciples standing in that room just waiting and waiting for the Holy Spirit and then chaos ensues. A sense of awe and amazement falls over them and that’s the idea that we should get when we think about the Holy Spirit that is inside of each one of us. Awe and amazement over how powerful Jesus says the Holy Spirit is. God wanted the disciples to know they had the Holy Spirit but not only that He wanted them to know it was a big deal. It not only was to the disciples though but it was also amazing and powerful to the people in verse 7 that came to see what was going on. The words like amazed and astonished are used for the spectators that are hearing these men talk in a language that they understood even though they never had spoken it before. I don’t know about you guys but I’ve tried to learn Spanish and I’ve found it pretty difficult in the 2 years I took in Highschool and remember barely anything from it. These men picked up entire languages in a mere second. This blows Rosetta Stone out of the water.

The Holy Spirit is something that sometimes I don’t think we even think about on a daily basis. People who received the Holy Spirit in that time understood the immense Power that came with the Holy Spirit and that same Holy Spirit lives inside each of us. Part of the problem with us as Christians when it relates to the Holy Spirit is we don’t understand just how powerful and amazing the Holy Spirit is. That needs to change we need to realize that relying on the Holy Spirit in our life is better than Jesus actually walking beside us in our daily life.

If we view it as something small and useless it will have no impact in our lives but if we view the Holy Spirit through the eyes of the Disciples and Jesus then we realize exactly what 1^st John 4:4 is saying. “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world”. When we put the Holy Spirit in the place that is deserves and attribute the power that He deserves than following Jesus will be easier. We should realize that God never expected His disciples to do this walk without Him and He doesn’t expect you or I to do it on our own. He’s given us the Holy Spirit to rely on during this walk with Him. The question is how big do you think the Holy Spirit is? Is He like the disciples say He is or is He what Jesus says He is? Are you ready to rely on the power that is in the Spirit in your life to overcome the problems and difficulties you face?