How Quickly Does God Work?

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                          Acts 2:2

How Quickly Does God Work?

by Robert T. Cooper

There is a saying that God can accomplish more in a short time than we can accomplish in months and years. Plus we know that unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers labor in vain.

We all have heard of musical sensations who suddenly burst on the scene. What no one ever talks about is the years and years those “sensations” labored at their craft, developing and honing their skills, learning their crafts, paying their dues. It happens all the time.

In the spiritual realm, we have all been sensitive to the times we prayed and prayed, and God didn’t seem to hear or to answer for years or even decades. Some didn’t see the answers in their lifetimes, though the answers eventually came. It reminds me of the verse that begins, “When the time had fully come, God….”

Jesus talked about it being like yeast slowly growing until the entire lump of dough is leavened. He talked about it being like a seed that slowly grows into a huge plant or bush.

Jesus had taught about the coming of the Holy Spirit during his 3½ year ministry. During the 10 days following the Ascension, at least 120 believers had participated in a 24/7 prayer meeting, waiting on the coming of the Spirit.

But then on the Day of Pentecost, “Suddenly” the answer to the promise and the prayer came. God moved and acted in mere moments.

Wind of the Spirit

Jenifer Jones

I have known of people who prayed and prayed for a godly spouse, only to finally give up the search. They decided they must be amongst those who never get married, and they began seeking to be content in their single status. Only then did the Lord bring into their lives the one He had all along intended to be the answer to their prayers. Was it sudden, or was it a long-term process?

Of course, God lives outside of time. For Him to work into one moment of time is no different to Him than to work into any other moment of time. But from our perspective there is both process and suddenness.

Please share in the comments section about times God’s work seemed to be a long-term process and times His work seemed to be a sudden happening.

Power: Dynamite or Dynamo?

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                          Acts 1:8

Power: Dynamite or Dynamo?

by Robert T. Cooper

When most preachers speak on Acts 1:8, they will mention that the word for “power” is dunamin. Then most preachers will mention that this is the word from which we get our modern English word, “dynamite.” Some preachers are quite comfortable with this comparison. In their minds, the Holy Spirit gave the first believers an explosive power that resulted in the spread of the Gospel across the known world in one generation.

Other preachers are quite uncomfortable comparing Holy Spirit power to dynamite. These preachers find dynamite to have a bad connotation. They find it a symbol of destruction. One might say that in many places the Gospel destroyed the old worldview and the old way of living. It destroyed idolatry and false religion. It was destructive to immorality. But that seems to be grasping at straws in order to hang onto an analogy that does not quite work.

With the construction of modern turbines and electric-generation facilities, a better choice of a modern term might be “dynamo.” When one reconsiders the spread of the Gospel during the years immediately following Pentecost, the Gospel did not exactly explode across the known world. The year in which Pentecost occurred, it is not apparent that any of the new disciples left Jerusalem for several months. When they finally did leave, it was because of the persecution instigated by Saul of Tarsus. At that time, while Luke doesn’t report foreign disciples finally returning to their homes, most must have done so. But the domestic disciples didn’t scatter far, perhaps in a radius of 100 – 200 miles. And still the Apostles were hanging back in Jerusalem.

No, the spread of the Gospel in that first generation was more like a dynamo than like dynamite. It may have taken a couple of decades, but the Gospel did make it from England to Ethiopia, from Iberia to India, and perhaps beyond.

Still, what the verse says has more to do with the manner in which the Holy Spirit will empower disciples than with the speed of the spread of the Gospel. The witness of the disciples would be empowered.

Which brings us to the crucial questions. Why is it that in our sight there are only a few people whose witness appears to be empowered by the Holy Spirit? Should we not expect the witness of every disciple, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, to be empowered? Shouldn’t my witness be empowered?

The first couple of decades of my Christian witness, I considered myself to be a 30-fold disciple. In Jesus’ parable of the Sower and the Seed, the seed sown on good soil produces crops, some 30-fold, some 60-fold, and some 100-fold. I figured that over the course of my life, if the Lord blessed, perhaps 30 people might come to a saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But then a few years ago I found myself in a situation in which there were several people coming to faith. It seemed to me that the Lord had blessed that I might be a 60-fold disciple. I am so grateful for what the Lord has done, and I give Him all the credit, all the glory.

What about you? If you are only a 30-fold disciple, that is still a witness empowered by the Holy Spirit. Face it! There is no getting out of it! You and I might not be 100-fold disciples, but our witness is still dynamic; the message of salvation is still spreading. Perhaps it is like yeast in a lump of dough, hard to realize what is happening until the whole lump is leavened. And still the Holy Spirit is empowering our witness.

Questions: Can you tell at all that the Holy Spirit is empowering your witness? In what ways?