Holy Spirit – Lyrics – Jesus Culture – Kim Walker-Smith – in HD

Acts 1 records the final words from Jesus before He left for home.

And while staying^[a] with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me;  for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with^[b] the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” – ACts 1:4-8  ESV

His last instructions were for them to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. He knew they could nothing effective for the Kingdom of God until the Spirit came.

The Greek text calls it “the promise of the Father.”

The waiting was not a formula, it was just a matter of God’s time.

As a side note – Luke stops using the word “disciples” to refer to the eleven here or to the twelve elsewhere in Acts. He now addresses them as “apostles” and the term “disciple” will now be used when making references to new believers.

They knew little of God’s plan but they knew what the final outcome would be – they were being commissioned to bear witness to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, to the love of God they experienced in Jesus and to the example of life as God intends, demonstrated in Jesus’ own life. They were to do this in Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

There were to start in their spiritual home, then the region around their home and then everywhere and anywhere else around the world.

It is an ambitious mission. One that has been extended to me, a disciple of Jesus. One I cannot successful do or be without the Holy Spirit. I pray for the Holy Spirit to fill me with power to do what He has asked me to do.