7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:7

Bible schools and mission agencies around the world use this verse to discuss the role of missions in the life of a Believer, especially someone interested in missions.

Jerusalem is always near (in your home town), while “to the ends of the earth” is always in a far away land. The impetus for this graduated witness is the power of the Holy Spirit.

Earlier in the chapter, Jesus gave a command to wait in Jerusalem before going out. It is generally accepted that the command only applied to His immediate Disciples (those who actually heard Him say that). Since the words in this verse were spoken at the same time as the command to “stay in Jerusalem”, are we to then assume that waiting for the Holy Spirit to come upon us will be our only motivator for missions?

A number of years ago I heard something very interesting about the late Christian musician Keith Green. Before actually recording the music, he would pray until he felt the Holy Spirit would be present to bless the recording sessions. Recording sessions in professional music studios back in the day were hundreds of dollars per day (or more), but Keith insisted that they wait. I am not sure whether this was an “urban legend” about Keith Green or whether it was true, but it makes a point. Here was a man who believed that God would bless, and he had faith to spend hundreds of dollars before recording a single note.

Obviously we cannot live by our feelings but we can certainly step back and wait a lot more for the Holy Spirit than we do.

Typically we do what we want and ask God to bless it later.

What if we did the exact opposite? Waiting on the Holy Spirit is a dying discipline that probably needs to be revived.