WHAT CAN WE NOT SEE?
How to be empowered
To Read: Ezekiel 10-12
To Know:
"To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing
to them during forty
days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he
charged them not to depart
from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, 'you
heard from me,...'"
(Acts 1:3,4)
Stay put. Wait. Stay in position. Don't chase the play. Those were my orders
from the coach. My senior
year I played defensive end on our high school football team. The defensive end
has one primary job: to
make certain that the runner does not get to the outside run for a touchdown.
When Jesus rose from the dead, he gathered his disciples and re-commissioned
them. These eleven men
were to spearhead a mission to take the knowledge of Christ to the entire
world. The Lord's first words
seemed contradictory of this plan to reorder world history. Stay put. Wait.
Before the apostles could
successfully proclaim Christ to the world they needed power far beyond anything
known on earth. They
needed the Holy Spirit of God. God had promised to these mere human beings the
gift of his own Spirit.
The Spirit of God who had created the world was about to recreate it in Christ.
This Jesus planned to do
through the apostles.
To Do:
Fifty days after being crucified, Christ sent his Holy Spirit to the believers.
The wait was now over. For us
there is no waiting at all. Ever since the day of Pentecost whoever places
faith in Jesus' name receives
his Spirit. Paul wrote, ".Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does
not belong to him." (Rm.
8:9) If, indeed, your faith is in the name of Jesus then you are empowered.
Whatever Jesus Christ is
doing, that is what you are to do also. Jesus is winning the world to himself.
The gospel is universal
in its appeal. Nowhere has the message of the cross gone without finding those
willing to believe. At the
close of history, representatives from every tribe, tongue and nation on earth
will believe.
To Ask:
Father, what is my part in your work?
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