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Praying for the Holy Spirit to Come

Acts 1v1 - 2v4

28th May 2021

Most Christians know the story of the first Christian Passover, when the Holy Spirit first came up on the church. But have you ever thought about the prayer meeting before that happened?

First, a little mathematics. Jesus was crucified at the Feast of Passover in 30 AD and rose from the dead three days later. Acts 1v3 tells us He remained on earth for 40 days before ascending into heaven. After His ascension, the disciples prayed together until the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Passover. If the 40 days began at the crucifixion, the prayer meeting was 10 days long. If the 40 days began at the Resurrection, it was 7 days long. Either way, they held a prayer meeting for at least a week.

Also, verses 13 and 14 mention the remaining 11 disciples (Judas Iscariot was already dead), Mary the mother of Jesus, a group called simply "the women" and Jesus's brothers being at the prayer meeting. Jesus had four brothers (Matthew 13v55) so there were at least 15 men, but we don't know how many women were in the group. Verse 15 mentions 120 brothers (which the NIV translates "believers"). Some people think these 120 were part of the week-long prayer meeting, and some think they just came together for one discussion. So the prayer meeting was somewhere between about 20 and 120 people.

Those 120 brothers were not the whole church. 1 Corinthians 15:6 tells us that before His ascension, Jesus appeared to a group that Paul calls "500 of the brothers" at one time. Perhaps some of the brothers (and sisters, of course) really couldn't be at the prayer meeting. Perhaps some didn't want to be there. But the commitment of the people who were there was remarkable, wasn’t it?

What do you think that prayer meeting was like? Remember, none of them had received the Holy Spirit yet. There were no tongues or prophecies, no visions or words of wisdom or healings. They just prayed. And they prayed in their own strength, without the leading, the anointing or the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had told them:

Acts 1v8
"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."

So they knew they’d been entrusted with Jesus's mission to the whole world, and they knew they didn’t have the power to accomplish that mission. They knew that power would come, and they knew they must wait until it came.

We – the church – are entrusted with telling the world about Jesus Christ, His goodness, His love, His power, His redeeming sacrifice and His triumphant resurrection from the dead. We surely know, as they did, that we need the power of the Holy Spirit if we're going to make any real difference. If you want to change the world, or if you want to help one person to find Jesus and change his life, then you will want the fulness of the Holy Spirit to enable you to make that difference.

And surely we know, as they did, that since we need God's power to fulfil our destiny, then we should pray for it. It's not enough to wait for God; we need to wait on God. It's not enough to hope God shows up and watch daytime TV, or play golf, or do the gardening, or play computer games, or go to the pub, until He does. We need to pray.

The disciples prayed, and they kept praying for at least a week.

I think God would love it if more of us went to prayer meetings. Warren Wiersbe says in his commentary, "Prayer is both the thermometer and the thermostat of the local church; for the 'spiritual temperature' either goes up or down depending on how God’s people pray". John Bunyan said, "Prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan".

Suppose a member of your church or mine prophesied that God promised revival here, soon, and suggested that we come together for unceasing prayer until it came. I suspect that, even if we believed it, many of us would find reasons not to do it. It would be so inconvenient. If we're honest, we'd expect it to be a bit boring.

And that's even more true for the first disciples, because they didn’t have the Holy Spirit. But they wanted the Holy Spirit so much that they were prepared to wait, and pray, for as long as it took:

Acts 1v14
they all joined together constantly in prayer.

When Luke says they joined together, he doesn't just mean they were all in the same room. He means they were one in heart and mind. The ESV says "with one accord they were devoting themselves to prayer".

Psalm 133
How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe.
It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

God bestows His blessing on brothers and sisters in Christ who live together in unity. And the church that prays together stays together.

And they kept going. They didn't pray when they felt like it, or when there was no football on the TV, or when their favourite soap opera wasn't on, or when the family wasn't visiting. For these disciples, prayer was the priority.

Nothing happens without prayer. But anything is possible with prayer. If our hearts are right with each other, and if we persist in prayer, they we can see God do great things.

Day after day went by and nothing happened. Did they feel like giving up? Did they wonder if they’d misunderstood Jesus’s words again? Did they begin to find the sheer effort, and the boredom that must come when you pray without the Holy Spirit, was wearing them out? Did they wonder why God was making them wait? We all do that, don’t we? We all sometimes think, "I know God can do it, and I know He can do it now. So why doesn’t He do it now?" But God has His reasons for what He does, and for when he does it.

We don't pray to tell God what to do, or how to do it. God knows what to do and how to do it. He doesn't need our advice. We don't pray to twist God's arm. We can't. We don't pray to impress God with how spiritual we are. He knows exactly what we are.

We pray because God has chosen, in His own sovereign will, to respond to our prayers. Our prayers are the keys that open the doors of His mercy and power, not because He needs our prayers - He really doesn’t - but because He's chosen to respond to our prayers, to include us in His purposes.

We pray because it would be really weird if we didn't. To have a such loving heavenly Father, such a powerful friend, such a wise counsellor, and not to speak to Him would be daft and disrespectful.

And we pray because prayer changes us. Every conversation we have with our Heavenly Father will help us to understand Him, and will change our hearts, minds and wills, making them more like His.

In that week-long prayer meeting, I think God was working on the disciples' hearts, preparing them for the day when the Spirit would come. Perhaps God was deepening their unity. They'd need unity when the mission took off and the persecution started. Perhaps He was purifying their hearts. Prayer does that. And I'm sure He was making them hungry for the Holy Spirit. He was making them willing and able to receive the Holy Spirit when He came, and willing to obey when the Holy Spirit prompted them.

God will visit us in power, but first He'll make us ready. Are we hungry for the Holy Spirit? How willingly do we give the Holy Spirit access to our hearts, and control over our thoughts and wills? When the Holy Spirit prompts us to act or to speak, how obedient are we to His prompting? All this takes time in prayer.

And then the Holy Spirit came:

Acts 2v1
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

The prayer meeting was still going on. God's praying people must surely have grown weary, but they hadn’t given up.

The prayer meeting was at least seven days long. If it was exactly seven days, this was their experience:

Acts 2v2
suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

Everything changed, for ever.

So how's this for the history of every church that's praying just before revival comes: nothing, nothing, nothing, tinkering around, nothing, nothing, WOOOSSSHHHHH!

We’re human. Sometimes, when we’re praying, we wonder if God’s ever going to answer. But He does.

Wait for the whoosh.