Holy Spirit Lesson 7, Wait on the Lord Devotional

“Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” Isaiah 40:31. I remember several years ago when I finally read the Bible the whole way through after many failed attempts and false starts. I came away impressed with one of its overarching themes, waiting on the Lord. I kept seeing the word “wait”. I couldn’t help but wonder, what does it mean to wait on the Lord?

Many of you may be waiting on the Lord right now… waiting to hear a doctor’s report, waiting for a wayward child turn back from walking away, waiting for some answered prayer. Waiting can be so hard!

There is a great example of waiting on the Lord given to us in the book of Acts. We can learn a lot from the example of the first disciples. Forty days earlier Jesus had been crucified, died, buried and was resurrected. As the book of Acts opens the last thing He told His disciples before He ascended into heaven was not to leave Jerusalem, “but wait for what the Father has promised, for John baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses…” Acts 1:4,8. The disciples were instructed to wait until they were fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But what does waiting on the Lord look like? When you combine the end of the book of Luke with the beginning of Acts you see there were 120 believers who waited on the Lord. This group included Mary the mother of Jesus (this is the last time she appears in the Scripture) and the brothers of Jesus, James and Jude. When Jesus was alive his brothers did not believe Jesus was the Messiah, but after the resurrection they became believers. There were others with them, including many women.

What was that band of believers doing during those ten days? How did they model waiting on the Lord for us? What can we learn from them about receptivity to the Spirit of God? We see that waiting on the Lord is not a passive proposition. It seems they held a ten day prayer, praise and worship meeting going back and forth between the upper room and the temple. Acts 1:14 gives us insight into how they passed the time, “They were continually devoting themselves to prayer.”

My guess is they were not passively assuming that the Lord would send His Spirit, but they were asking, seeking and knocking for Him to come. They were engaging the Lord, not because He is begrudging or reticent, but because He is like a father who delights in engaging with his children. There are times when the sovereign God of the universe, who can do anything He wants, limits Himself, waiting until we pray before He acts. He invites us to join Him in prayer to accomplish His purposes. Persistence in prayer is a key to waiting on the Lord.

Theologian Peter Wagner said in his commentary on Acts, “God in His sovereign wisdom has so arranged reality that although He might desire to do some things, He will not do them unless and until believers are obedient and faithful in their prayer lives. The whole world has ultimately been blessed because the disciples in Jerusalem decided to be obedient to their Lord and gave themselves to prayer.”

As the believers waited, they prayed; they also obeyed the revealed will of God. They remained in Jerusalem which was explicitly what Jesus had told them to do so that is an example of obedience. They also would have known Psalm 109:8 that says, “His office let another man take.” They undoubtedly interpreted this to mean that someone should take the place of Judas. In their desire to obey the written word of God, they prayed for the Lord, who sees hearts, to select His choice as they cast lots. As a result they selected Matthias to replace Judas.

While we wait we need to make sure our lives line up with the teaching of Scripture. We yield our lives to what the Bible teaches, we obey. What does this look like in your life? Ask Him to bring to your mind any sin in your life, any area where you have put your will above His will. Wait and He will show you. If He points out anything to you, repent of going your own way and turn and go with the Lord. This is obedience. This is a necessary step to take as you wait on the Lord.

Another quality we see in the lives of the 120 believers as they waited in Jerusalem is unity. Unity in the body of Christ is important as we wait on the Lord. “These all with one mind….” Acts 1:14. The Lord loves unity among believers. This is one of the primary things He prayed for on the final night of His earthly life in John 17:21, “that they may be one”. Unity like this comes when we are all focused on the Lord. It will not come if we are comparing ourselves to one another or in competition with each other. We cannot promote our own agenda, even if it is a “Christian” agenda. There will be no unity if we hold a grudge, or refuse to forgive an offense or cling to some unresolved conflict or even misunderstanding. Unity comes when we humbly bow before the Lord releasing our agenda, looking to Him for His plan. He draws us into unity and this pleases Him.

“They were all together in one place.” Acts 2:1. This may seem obvious, but their presence was important. They made it a priority to be together. Community is essential.

Those 120 people had an attitude of expectation and anticipation as they waited on the Lord. They were on their knees, but in a sense they were on their tip toes. They actually had no idea exactly what to expect, but they knew something good was coming their way. They also had an attitude of desperation. They knew they could not take one step forward without the outpouring of the Spirit. They were desperate for the Lord to move.

There is one more detail that I want you to notice about waiting on the Lord. His timing is important. He is never too late. This is important for you to know if you are waiting on the Lord for an unanswered prayer. Many times there are delays because He answers far above and beyond what we ask or even think to ask for. He does many things on many levels. We would settle for so much less, but He answers above and beyond and His timing is always perfect. He is never too late.

There is a detail about the timing of God’s answer tied up in the ancient Jewish feasts. Way back in the time of Moses God set up seven feasts that are still celebrated to this day by Jewish people throughout the year. The feasts marked events on their agrarian calendar, they also commemorated historical events in the life of the Jews and pictured future events. Each one of the four spring feasts coincide exactly with a specific event in the life and death of Jesus Christ. The first feast is Passover, picturing the unblemished lamb who was slain at the exodus. The Lord Jesus Christ, our passover lamb, was crucified on the very day that Passover was celebrated. The second feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread began the day after Passover celebrating another aspect of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt. It pictures the death and burial of the Lord. Jesus was in the grave during the very days the Jews celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The third spring feast is the Feast of First Fruits. This was celebrated on the Sunday after Passover. It was a thanksgiving for the barley crop that was just coming in. The priest took a new sheaf of barley and waved it before the altar, thanking the Lord for the harvest yet to come. First Fruits pictures the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the first fruits of our resurrection. His resurrection guarantees our resurrection to come. The actual resurrection of Jesus Christ took place on the very day of the celebration of the Feast of First Fruits.

The final spring feast is 50 days after the Feast of First Fruits. In Hebrew it is called Shavout, the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Sevens. The date was calculated by counting seven weeks or seven sabbaths from First Fruits. The day after the seventh sabbath would always be a Sunday. In Greek, it is called Pentecost, which is the word for fifty —seven weeks of seven days plus one more day. In the Jewish tradition this was the day God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. In God’s perfect timing the Jews were celebrating Shavout or Pentecost on the exact day of the out pouring of the Spirit. As we wait on the Lord we will see that God’s timing is important and He is never late.

When the Spirit was poured out at nine o’clock that Shavot morning, the people in Jerusalem heard the sound of a mighty rushing wind, they saw tongues of fire dividing and resting on the heads of the believers, they also heard the unlearned Galileans speaking in their native tongues praising God and telling of His magnificence.

What was the reaction of the multitudes in Jerusalem as they saw the outpouring of the Spirit? Some were bewildered, some were amazed, others perplexed and wondering, some were skeptical and mocking. They were all curious; they could not deny that something very unusual was going on. What did all of this mean? The stage was set for possibly the most powerful sermon of all time. As Peter presented the gospel, the Holy Spirit did His magnificent job of convincing the multitude and 3000 souls believed that day. The church was born, all because 120 folks waited in prayer, obedience and desperation for the pouring out of the Spirit.

Dear Heavenly Father,
You often call us to wait on you. Thank you for giving us the example of how to wait on you from the early believers. Draw us into persistent prayer and radical obedience. Help us to release our agendas, bring us into unity and agreement with you. Give us expectant and desperate hearts as we trust you and wait. Thank you that your timing is perfect.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen