Daily Worship

You will receive power…

Pete Phillips May 21, 2020 0 1
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Image credit: Unsplash

Acts 1: 1-11 (NIV)

1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 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.”

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

When I was at university — the year after Cain and Abel graduated — we had a charismatic revival. People began to speak in tongues, share visions and words. Later on, we had the Toronto Blessing and people lay on the floor laughing. I remember feeling so close to God. But as I read this story of the first Pentecost, something begins to worry me. The Spirit can sometimes be so powerful an experience in our lives, that his presence becomes all about us. But have you noticed here in the days before the first Pentecost, the presence of the Spirit isn’t about a selfie culture of tiktok experiences but a witnessing, missional community. The Spirit is not about the high but about action, about engagement, about witnessing to the love of God to the ends of the earth.

PRAYER:

Dear God, move me, fill me, empower me. Make me your witness. Give me the words, the action, the creativity, to be your ambassador in the streets where I live. Amen.