Welcome to part three! I hope you're enjoying the series on Luke 24 so far. In this week's post, I am looking at verse 49, "And now stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven." (The New Living Translation) Christ's followers had been given the instructions to 'Go', but then He instructs them to 'Stay here'. There is a period of waiting for the equipping of the Holy Spirit and next week we'll look at what it is to be equipped, but this week I want to ask you, how are you doing in the Waiting Room? #waitingroom #luke24vs49 #holyspirit #go #stayhere #beingequipped #updateinprogress
Let's look at the world of gaming again. My son loves to play a particular online game with his friends and every now and then, the game has an update that basically reinvents itself again with new skins and challenges, and I think competitions, (don't worry I don't actually know that much about the game but am surmising from what I have seen when he is playing!). The most frustrating thing for him is when these updates happen, they take a long time to download, meanwhile, his friends are telling him to hurry up through his headset, and asking him how much longer he's gonna be, adding to his frustration. Can you relate to this picture? I sure know I can.
There have been moments in my life where I have felt like I knew what I was called to do, but the timing has seemed a bit off. I am someone who likes to move forward with a plan and get things done, even if I do procrastinate a little bit. I think God knows I need time to process what He has downloaded and that I will take some time to think about, pray about and seek confirmation. I am cautious, but I like to be moving. And then sometimes, I can be impatient waiting. It's kind of like waiting in the doctor's waiting room. You tend to be anxious while you're there. Wondering if there's something wrong, or if it's going to be a routine visit. Time seems to slow right down and they're nearly always running late. As a kid, I had to go to Middlemore Hospital for an annual check-up for my mouth. I was born with a cleft palate (a hole in the roof of my mouth) and so I would have these appointments with a room full of doctors, my surgeon, an ear, nose and throat specialist, an orthodontist and a bunch of others, and my parents. My Dad likes to be early to appointments, so we would get there at least fifteen to thirty minutes early and have to sit in the waiting room for what felt like an eternity with nothing much to do, but try to stay quiet and not annoy anyone. It was a long time for a kid, and I would just want it over with. But there is preparation time in the Waiting Room.
I think God knows I need time to process what He has downloaded and that I will take some time to think about, pray about and seek confirmation of.
God's Waiting Room is a place where we get to build intimacy with Him. In Luke 24:52-53, Jesus' followers worshipped him and spent all their time in the temple, praising God after Jesus' ascension. Sometimes when God's doing an update on us, just like a game, the internal CPU needs time to overwrite and reconfigure the existing information for us to move to the next level. It can be hard to stay in that place. Over the last few years, I have felt like God has pulled me away from the familiar settings and comfort zones. At first, I kicked against it. I cried and battled with God. I felt rejected, misunderstood and unwanted. I didn't understand what I had done. I was exhausted and worn out. Overloaded from years of giving, without spending a lot of time building my intimacy with Christ Jesus and God knew I needed to reconnect with Him for me to be able to move to the next level of my walk. I didn't want to do the waiting. Eventually, I got the message though and entered a place where I could honestly say to God, "I give up. If I never hear your voice again, it doesn't matter as long as I can sit with you, in your presence." Silence became my best friend. I learnt that when I don't have words, God knows what I'm saying anyway.
How we spend our time in The Waiting Room determines how long we are there and how effective we will be as we go.
Do you like to spend time waiting with others? Sometimes it can be more comforting to spend our wait times with other people, just like my son does while waiting for his game to update. We can build ideas and thoughts from our conversations with one another. Sometimes our updates come from healthy debates on theology (which is just a fancy word for having conversations about God and scripture). Dietrich Bonhoeffer was someone who spent his time debating scripture with other theologians. His biblical worldview and response to living in Nazi Germany was shaped by what he saw in the scriptures, mostly around the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 through 7). Ultimately, Dietrich gave his life for what he believed was right and became a personal enemy of Hitler. He died on 9 April 1945 just a month before Germany surrendered, and ended the war in Europe. Without debating the scriptures and spending years forming his internal beliefs would Bonhoeffer have been able to stand as a voice against the Nazi programme and be able to fulfil the call of God on his life?
How we spend our time in The Waiting Room determines how long we are there and how effective we will be as we go. Just as Christ's followers did while they were waiting in Jerusalem we should be actively trying to spend our wait time praising and worshipping God, all the while bearing witness to the things we have seen Christ do in our lives. Keep building your intimacy with God, keep learning to recognise the ways the Holy Spirit talks to you and build up your knowledge of the scriptures. It is through this time of waiting we get to update our internal lives, letting go of things that may hold us in an old way of sharing the Kingdom of Heaven. I pray that as you go into this coming week that you would allow the Holy Spirit to update the areas in your life that may be keeping you from moving forward to the next stage or level in your life. I pray that your waiting room moments would be incredible moments to experience something new and incredible with Jesus!
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