Jun 28, 2023
Web Description: The idea of waiting is a simple concept. You can wait for a bus or you can wait for some event. But the biblical concept of waiting on the Lord is much more than that. It is a matter of waiting for the Lord to empower you. It is how you plug into God and download from Him the power and abilities you need to be His witnesses in this generation.
Show Notes: No one could have been more prepared than the disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) before the Day of Pentecost. They had lived with Christ during His ministry, as well as during an intensive forty days following His resurrection. They had been through tremendous dealings of God in their lives. So yes, they were prepared, but on the other hand, there was something more they needed, which was the empowering of the Holy Spirit. And that was triggered by their waiting in Jerusalem for what the Father had promised.
As a believer in Christ you may be very prepared. You may have experienced many things in your walk with God. But I think there is still something we all need as individual believers and as the Body of Christ. Just like the disciples, we are still not equipped to be witnesses of the Lord without this process of waiting on the Lord and having God come and empower us. Waiting on the Lord is something we need, but it is also something that is not taught enough in the Church.
In Christianity we tend to have a negative concept of meditation because we see it as something out of Eastern religions, and so we shy away from it. Instead of that concept, however, think of it as plugging into God. Just as the disciples did, as Yeshua Himself did, we need to plug into God and download from Him all that He has given us until the things of God—the strength, the power, the gifts, the healings, and the miracles—flow from us. That is what Pentecost is about and that is what we reach into today with all our hearts.
Key Verses:
• Acts 1:1–8. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”
• Isaiah 40:28–31. “Those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength.”
• Isaiah 43:19. “Behold, I will do something new.”
• John 5:26–32. “Just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.”
• Matthew 27:52–53. “The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.”
• John 5:15–19. “The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing.”
• John 8:26. “The things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.”
• John 12:49. “I did not speak on My own initiative.”
• John 14:10–12. “The Father abiding in Me does His works.”
• 1 Corinthians 2:16. “We have the mind of Christ.”
Quotes:
• “There's something that comes to you that's new. It's not a refreshing of what you had. It's a new thing that God is doing.”
• “It's obvious that the works that Christ did were not human. They could not be possibly done by a human. Therefore, they had to be sourced from God Himself, and they had to be received from God Himself in order to be accomplished by Christ.”
• “The things of God are available to be imparted to us, but I think there is a way that we must reach and present ourselves before Him with this drive in our hearts to connect with Him, to plug into Him, and to receive.”
Takeaways:
1. I know that we really have walked with God, many of us for years, and we have been prepared by Him on many levels to become His witnesses and to minister and impart Him into the earth. But I believe there is a final empowering that is needed.
2. If we are going to have this empowering, we need to learn how to receive it. And it does not matter if we call it waiting on the Lord or the prayer of listening or meditation. Whatever we call it, what we are learning to do is to plug into God and to download all that He is.
3. We will receive the mind of Christ when we download it from the Lord. It is not going to mystically come into us. We will have to wait on Him and connect to Him. We are to know what God wants us to do. Christ said, “I do not do these things on My own or by My own ability.” God imparted them to Him and that is what we must reach into.