Can You Tarry?

Luke 24:49, "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."

Tarry - to linger in expectation (wait), to abide or stay in or at a place.

Just for a moment, I want you to place yourselves in the shoes of the disciples. They have spent the last few days with the risen Savior. Their understanding has been opened so that they might comprehend the Scriptures. They have been told that they are witnesses of the awesome plan of God. Jesus is getting ready to return to Heaven and they are told to WAIT.

I don't know about you but I can almost hear a collective groan. "I have just been given the greatest message that anyone has ever heard. I am an eyewitness to the greatest miracle on earth. Now I have to wait? Uggghhh!"

Think about it: What if the followers of Jesus hadn't waited? Can you imagine the mess they would have made? I can see them one by one being thrown into jail or killed for their faith. Sure...they would have been zealous but they would have lacked power. The power that Christ was sending them was the same power that raised Him from the dead. They had already walked in some pretty amazing things but what Jesus was getting ready to do was unleash ALL OF IT on them.

Charles Finney said, "There is a great difference between the peace and the power of the Holy Spirit in the soul. The disciples were Christians before the Day of Pentecost, and, as such, had a measure of the Holy Spirit. They must have had the peace of sins forgiven and of a justified state, but yet they did not have the infusion of power necessary to do the work assigned them. They had the peace that Christ had given them but not the power that He had promised. This may be true of all Christians, and this is, I think, the great mistake of the church and of the ministry. People rest in conversion, and they do not continue by seeking until they obtain this outpouring of power from on high. Hence, so many professors of Christianity have no power with either God or man. They prevail with neither. They cling to a hope in Christ, and even enter the ministry, overlooking the admonition to wait until they are clothed with power from on high."

The disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost; but if you continue reading in the book of Acts, you will find that they were continually filled with the Spirit. All of us have been endued with power from on high yet very few of us walk in it. The Holy Spirit resides within us. He has sealed us. He is the guarantee - the down payment - of our salvation. However, this doesn't seem to be the reality in the church. Why? Because we continue to do so much in the energy and power of the flesh.

How do we wait?

We wait in prayer
We wait in worship
We wait in expectancy

If you are seeking to go deeper with God then He will take you there. If you are wanting a greater experience with the Holy Spirit then He will give it. If you are seeking to be baptized in the RIVER that already dwells inside of you then you can be. You just got to be willing to wait. He will do the rest.

Can You Tarry?