LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
To the Lord Rather Than to Men
The book of Acts is the most exciting account of church life. Many attempts at restoration, many subsequent revivals, have had as their model and example those glorious early days of the church. However, it is worth asking ourselves how each of the great movements of the Spirit in the book of Acts began. What exactly was there before the beginning of each one of them.
The first movement we have it from chapter 2, and the second from chapter 13. The first is the beginning in Jerusalem, for the whole Jewish world, and the second is the one that occurred in Antioch, for the whole Gentile world. In both there is a previous fact of superlative importance: those whom God would use were before the Lord, ministering to the Lord, in patient waiting, before being sent by God to do His work. The Lord's command before ascending to heaven had been clear: "Wait in Jerusalem". The disciples obeyed that command, and the Holy Spirit came upon them like a mighty wind.
Later, in Antioch, the prophets and teachers of that church were ministering to the Lord when the Holy Spirit set apart two of them for the work. They did not have the work in mind, but the Lord of the work. The principle is this: we are to wait before the Lord before we go out. We are to minister to the Lord before we minister to men. Someone has said that a servant of God is really ready to serve only when he is willing not to be used; silence before God is harder to bear than bustle among men.
There is too much work that is the fruit of man's impatience, of man's ingenuity and inventiveness, rather than of a command from God. The only one who can initiate a spiritual work is God. If God does not begin, he will not later join in the work of man. If a work begins in man, it will conclude with man as protagonist and figure. This is a very delicate matter, for, by ignoring this fact, or by deliberately violating this principle, we are presenting before men a work of inferior quality to what we should, and above all, we are adding pain to the heart of God.
God would like to bless the work of His children, to use them for the greatest work that man has ever undertaken. He would like to be able to use everyone in the best way; but man's problem is haste, the inability to wait on God. God wants to give us his instructions, to show us the pattern of the mount, to train us first, but we are not willing to wait; we are obsessive, and vain. We think we know, that we can, and that we hardly need God to do His work. May the Lord restrain us in our impulsiveness, and speak to our heart, telling us: "Be still and know that I am God".