4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
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He was eating. That’s what I first noticed. It was over a meal that he spoke those important but powerful words. He had just recently told his disciples to go (Mt 28:18-20), and now he tells them, “but wait.”
And then he tells them “in a few days” you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. They really didn’t understand all this. But Ok.
And so they wait. A few days went past and nothing. A few more days went past and still nothing. A month goes by. I’m sure people were getting restless. Maybe they thought the Spirit had come but in less dramatic fashion. I don’t know. But they continued to wait. Then 35 days went by.
“A few days” they realized was interpretive.
But finally after 40 days they were utterly blasted with the Holy Spirit. They went on to rock the world and it is still rocked from the moment to this day.
While I’m reading this I’m looking at the last few years of life. I’ve made some pretty bad decisions. Not “sinful” or “immoral” but very unwise. And most of it was because I didn’t wait long enough. I waited. I prayed. But I was suffering and so desperate to escape my circumstances that I didn’t wait until the full peace of the Lord to move. I fell to the pressure of the world. And now I pay the price.
Sometimes we must wait longer than we anticipated. But when God moves, he moves so fast and so powerfully we can hardly keep up. In fact, most times we can’t. But the waiting is often longer than we want. When a “few days” turns into 40, it gets uncomfortable personally, socially, spiritually and more.
I want to have learned this lesson.
There’s a time to act, and a time to wait. We do need to discern the season.
But in the season of waiting, I hope next time I will fully wait on the Lord.