Thoughts in Worship

Message Magazine's Online Devotional for Thursday, June 11, 2015

Based Upon Acts 1:1-8

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I have said many times before, and it bears repeating that our God has incredible ways of communicating His messages to us. We often get side tracked and need a bit of a nudge in the right direction. The days following Jesus’ resurrection, just before He ascended to heaven for the last time, was such an occasion.

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Having spent a few weeks among His brethren and sisters following the resurrection, Jesus was just about to ascend to heaven to begin His ministry of pleading the forgiveness of sins, and eventually the full expunction of the sin record of those who would have faith in Him. In the meantime, however, His people were to go to Jerusalem to prepare for and await the coming of the promise of the Holy Spirit in His fulness. But for some reason, “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Now, this question would seem benign were it considered in a vacuum, but Jesus invested more than three years painstakingly explaining and illustrating the fact that His kingdom was not of this world. Yet, His people still had a worldly focus. It’s no wonder they, or dare I say, we, need the Holy Ghost! When our focus should be elevated to the ideal of God’s plans in the grand scheme of all things, we need a supernatural adjustment to our thought processes. This can only happen through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Once Jesus patiently redirected His people’s minds in this instance, He then masterfully transitioned their thoughts to the purpose of the promise. “And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:7–8). I hope you did not miss that: He said that while they were, in a sense meddling in the Father’s future heavenly business, they needed to be focusing on their present earthly duties. Their singular job, though it had many facets, was to receive the Spirit’s power so they could move throughout the entire world in concentric circles beginning from home, with the message of the Gospel. That’s it! They would receive the sanctifying power of God in order to share Him with the world, so they could be saved too.

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What’s your focus today, friends? Are you trying to take a peek into the secret eternal affairs of our Father, while missing the illumined duties set right before your eyes. Specifically, are there people right in your home, housing scheme, jobsites, churches, playgrounds, schools, or even social networking communities whom you should be reaching out to for God? This is not a knock at you, friends. We all need a reality check from time-to-time concerning our purpose in life. With crime and injustice on the rise, people’s hearts waxing worse and worse, and the economy being far worse than our world leaders are willing to admit, it is easy to lose focus. But, let me encourage you today to pray that you will receive the Holy Spirit, so you (and I) can get about the work of finding lost souls, so we can get off this crazy planet while God recreates it for us, and we can come back here and live happily ever after. Until then, let’s do our work diligently, for the Lord.--L. David Harris (www.davidwritesalot.com)