Power

 DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

POWER

Acts 1:1-5

1:1 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 showed himself to these men 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." 

NIV

It is a certainty that Luke wrote this very accurate account of the primitive church, as it is clear he is writing to the same person he mentions at the beginning of his Gospel account. Luke being a physician would have such a personality that he would be sure to make exacting records. Luke makes this very clear that he is an eyewitness to the life, death, resurrection, and ascension and thus is able to have the facts. He also was a companion to Paul on many occasions and would be an eyewitness to many of the early church activities. We start off this book or letter to Theophilus with the beginning of a most excellent adventure. We first should note that Theophilus could be the name of a person, but it also could be the name of a group of people, in fact, the whole church for this Greek word is made up of the word for God, Theo, and the word Philos, which means friend. So, this could be a letter to all the friends of God. The life lesson we can learn from this beginning account is of course within the words of Jesus that Luke tells us about. Although the disciples had spent some years with Jesus and heard all his teaching, all the truth of God, and witnessed so many miracles that, as John had said at the close of his Gospel, there is not enough books to contain all that he did, Jesus told them to wait. He told them to wait for the gift his Father promised. Indeed, they had all the knowledge they needed to go into all the world and preach the Good News, but they did not have the power of the Holy Spirit. They might have tried to get started with their ministry, but it would have been a human effort, a futile pitiful human endeavor then would have been doomed from the start because they would not have the power of the Spirit. Here is where we come in. We might try to do things in this life, even things that are considered ministry without the power of the Holy Spirit. Just because we are believers, does not mean we are filled or baptized with the Spirit. The disciples were certainly believers, but they had not been filled with the Spirit yet and so Jesus told them to wait for it. Anything we try to do, if we have not been baptized with the Spirit is simply being done in our human strength. This kind of effort is certain to be weak and without power thus we should do as Jesus told his disciples, wait for the gift his Father has promised. So we must consider there are two types of believers, those without the power and those who have the power, based on who hasn’t and who has been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Those of us who have the power must then go, those of us who have yet received the power must wait. The waiting should only take a couple of days, but then the power will come, the Spirit will descend upon the waiter, and they shall be filled with power, and those who are filled with spill out into the streets with evidence of that power.