April 5, 2007

“’I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’” Luke 24:49.
Jesus has reappeared to His disciples in one of His last post-resurrection appearances. He is giving them some final instructions before He leaves to go to be with His Father. With words that are meant to comfort, Jesus states that the Father and He are going to send someone else who will help them in the on-going work of spreading God’s great news. From our perspective looking back on that time, we know that this person was the Holy Spirit. In their moment, they did not know for sure.
In John’s account of the life of Jesus, he tells us that Jesus told the disciples that it was better that He go to the Father, because then the Holy Spirit would come and be their guide, and that they would do greater things than they saw Jesus doing. All of that must have been mind-blowing for them, for they had witnessed some incredibly amazing things – healings, deliverance demonic oppression, raising the dead, and incredible, out-of-this-world teaching (with authority, I might add!). And now, this other Person was going to come, and they were going to do greater things with His help. Unbelievable!
But there was a catch. They had to obey. They had to wait. They couldn’t just go off and start doing these things. They were instructed to “stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Isn’t that the way it always is? There is always a catch! In this case, that was a good thing! It made these disciples more dependent on God, and it meant that they had to wait for His perfect timing. I don’t know if it is human nature, but being patient about something doesn’t appear to come naturally to most people. It certainly doesn’t come easily to me. I have to work on it all the time. I say, “Lord, give me patience, and I want it right now!” It would seem to me that this waiting process that Jesus had the disciples in was a good thing for them. Take time today to think about Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples. Think, also, how they apply to your own daily life. Reflect on the “power from on high” that God poured out on those disciples and the power that He still pours out on us today.