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. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 1:4-5
Luckily, these men did WAIT. They didn’t forge their way ahead of the promised Holy Spirit. Instead, the Holy Spirit fell on these men with power in a public place and performed signs and wonders through them and the gospel was boldly proclaimed. Acts tells us around 3000 were saved, and then the disciples’ task came into focus: They didn’t have to GO into the far reaches of the world themselves, but GO less than a half a mile away to where a large number of Jews from all over the known world have been gathered for Pentecost. You’ll not be making disciples of all the nations by yourselves, you’ll be making disciples of a number of people in Jerusalem, and you’ll baptize and teach THEM and they’ll make disciples, and those disciples will make disciples and so on and so on until those disciples take the gospel into the far reaches of the world (there are still isolated areas of the world where people have not received the gospel, and here it is 2000ish years later). These disciples were meant to be apostles, raising up teams, sending others out, teaching, exhorting, course-correcting, giving direction and guidance and watching the fruits of their labor pay large dividends over time.
How often do we as Christians feel an assignment looming and instead of waiting on the Holy Spirit to newly anoint us for the task, just roll up our sleeves, dig our heels in and get to work? How ineffective do we render ourselves by not allowing the Holy Spirit to complete a work in our lives so we can be used by Him? Could we be undercutting our preparation by moving too soon, too often? God, help us trust Your timing more than our plans, and seek to be guided by Your grand design more than our tunnel vision. I’d rather coast on the wave of power of the Holy Spirit and let it propel me across the lake than to jump into a boat in still water and try to paddle my way across with no wind.