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EMPOWERMENT – Part 17

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1. Wait

Acts 1:4
“He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father”

WHY WAIT?

Waiting is the one thing that is absolutely anathema in our culture. I mean we have internet companies competing showing a person who has to wait for a few minutes to download something and looking like they are going to die! But God knows some things about waiting and human nature. God knows that when people wait for something they really want the value we place on it is commensurate to the amount of time they had to wait for it. In other words the value goes higher with every day, every week and every month they wait for it.

If you will wait until you can save enough money to make that purchase you will appreciate the buy so much more.

If you wait until you get married to enjoy what God intended for the sexual union between a man and a woman you will value each other and the relationship so much more … and true love can wait.

If you have to wait for a good home-cooked meal with all the trimmings instead of a fast-food window throwing out a bag of burgers at you, “Would like to super-size that?” Uh no I just want to eat it! By the time that meal is prepared and everything is ready …sure you are starved but you are going to savour every bite. Your hunger piques!
2. Weary in Waiting

The Lord told the people at His ascension to go and wait in Jerusalem. The Bible says in Acts 1 that were over 500, but by the day of Pentecost (50 days later) their numbers had diminished to 120. Because waiting does something else too: it separates those who will wait for the home-cooked meal from those who will just settle for fast-food and devour junk to satisfy their urge. Waiting increases value but it also piques our hunger and purifies our motivations. When you and I are made to wait for something we ask ourselves, “Is this really worth waiting for?”

They did not know how long they were going to wait. Jesus didn’t tell them it was going to happen on Pentecost. About 380 were impatient but 120 stayed and waited on the Lord in prayer and in unity of purpose being fully persuaded of Jesus’ promise.

Would you wait? I have found over many years of being involved with praying for people to receive the baptism in the Spirit that many people have to wait. They do not get filled the first time, the second time or even the third time. I didn’t!

But I just kept going forward and one night around the front of the church my pastor came and laid hands on me and I was gloriously baptized in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and I have not stopped since.

For many people waiting on God for the baptism of the Spirit is part of the process.


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