How to Wait on God

I. Introduction

Acts 1:4–5 NKJV

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Think about where we are in history. This is the transition to the next phase of God’s redemption of man. This is the Holy Spirit that has been promised since the Old Testament, and Jesus is saying, “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

We can go over to Acts 2 and we can see exactly what Jesus is talking about. We can read about the mighty rushing wind. We can read about the tongues of fire. But you have to imagine what the disciples were thinking. There is no way they understood what was about to unfold.

The one thing they did know was that Jesus told them to “wait”.

Jesus tells them to “wait on the promise of the Father.” This means, very simply, wait for God to reveal His Spirit, and you will know what to do.

The disciples, just like we are so many times, were simply instructed to wait for the will of God to be revealed.

David Jeremiah asks an important question about this truth, “Why does God tell His people to wait before He gives them next steps?”

And, as I thought about that question, I would say this:

God is trying to solidify the faith of His people. When we wait, we will see that God will always come through.

Really, it’s a way of testing our faith, so that when God does come through, we are able to wait on Him the next time.

God is preparing the hearts and preparing the way for all parties involved.

God is working in ways that we cannot possibly understand.

I want you to think about the chain of events that led me here to this church. Brother Burtis was led, I believe by the Holy Spirit, to stay through the Covid-Pandemic, which is the same time when I was called to my first ministry job.

You had a pastoral candidate that didn’t work out, just as God began to work in my heart to enter the pastorate.

I called a mentor in the ministry and he encouraged me to apply to churches outside of my purview…in January of 2024 I began to apply, by May of 2024 I was here at Providence.

Do you know how many different hearts, and how many different situations that God was preparing during those times? It’s impossible to know…because God is doing things in your life right now that you may believe is a frustration…you may believe it is a coincidence…you may believe it is a hangup or a hard time…but if you will wait on God, you are going to see His hand in every situation, preparing the way the entire time.

And next time, if you will give God the credit He deserves this time, you will be able to wait on His preparation no problem.

But today, we are not asking the question of “why we wait”, but we are asking the question of “how we wait.”

In Acts 1:1-8, Jesus gives them this instruction. “wait on the promise of the Father, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit, He will empower you to be My witnesses.”

Read Acts 1:9-11

Acts 1:9–11 NKJV

Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Their boss has just given them a job to do, and they’re just standing there staring at the place where He disappeared from. They would have made great government employees.

These angels are there and they say to these guys, “Why are you staring? He’s coming back soon and He’s left you some work to do while you wait, so go on and get busy.”

Read:

Acts 1:12–14 NKJV

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey. And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

When we think of waiting on God, some people think it means to do nothing. They really think it means just to go about their daily life, hoping that something changes.

What we see in v. 12-14 is something totally different. That the initial work the disciples began to do while they were waiting on the will of God is they were praying. They were petitioning God.

They gathered there in that upper room, and they got together in a worship service, and they began to collectively petition God and ask Him to reveal this promise.

What do you need to see in this time of petitioning?

II. Waiting Means Petitioning God: Persistently, Intensely, and Including Others

Acts 1:14 NKJV

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

“These all continued with one accord” - they kept on praying.

They didn’t have a one and done prayer session. They got there together, and they prayed, and they prayed, and they prayed, and they prayed.

This wasn’t a dry prayer session. Sometimes baptist get in what we call prayer services and its about as dry as a peanut butter sandwich. This was a prayer service that lasted, and it was a prayer service that was anointed. It takes great discipline to continue in prayer. It takes great vitality and spiritual strength to last in a prayer service.

And not only did they last in one prayer service, they prayed and they prayed and they prayed until God revealed Himself and His promise of the Spirit.

“They all continued with one accord” - they did it together.

I promise you that there in that upper room they weren’t praying one at a time. They weren’t taking turns. They were all there praying at the same time. And while they were continuing in prayer, they were all praying for the same thing. They were praying that God reveal this promise to them. That God would show them what His will is.

That phrase there, “continued with one accord” is one word in the Greek, and it literally means, “to stay in a fixed direction.” It is also taken to mean, “to wait on continually.” That is, these disciples and those there praying in that upper room became obsessed with discovering the will of God.

They had a resolve in their heart and in their spirit that they would not deviate from whatever direction God wanted them to go in. Just now, Jesus commanded them to wait until the promise was revealed. So they prayed obsessively, and without deviation, that God would reveal this promise to them, and they did it together.

“They all continued with one accord with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” - They included others in prayer.

Now, it’s not just the 11 Apostles that were there praying, there were others who weren’t Apostles praying.

I want to pay particular attention to the involvement of the women here, who were mentioned before the brothers of Jesus.

I am there in class being taught by Don Wilton who was Billy Graham’s pastor there in North Carolina, and he very plainly said that one of the most destructive things in a church is sexism. You didn’t find the sexism that is so prevalent in society here in this origin of the church, and you will not find it here in this church.

I believe in the deepest recesses of my heart that of all the prayer warriors that have ever lived, a woman holds the title as the greatest prayer warrior in history. Who she is, I don’t know, but I believe that women so often times develop into the most sincere prayer warriors out there.

“Dylan, don’t you think women can do well in business roles as well?”

Sure I do, but if you were going to ask me to prioritize talents and giftings, you can take all the business people with you, and I’ll take all the prayer warriors with me, and when you lose the battle and we win the battle, don’t be upset. Thank God for people who pray.

What about in your life right now? Who do you have in your life that you can pick up the phone and say, “Hey, I am praying about this…will you pray with me?” If you don’t have someone like that, find someone like that.

You younger men, go find one of these older men and and tell them about your family and ask them to pray with you.

You younger women, go do the same with these less younger women here in the church.

Find a friend, find someone from another church, get others involved in your life through prayer. If you don’t have someone praying for you, start praying now that God will send you someone, and while you’re waiting, you start praying for another, even if they don’t know you’re praying for them.

When you petition God persistently, when you petition God with absolute focus, and when you petition God by including others, what He wants from you will be revealed.

Read:

Acts 1:15–17 NKJV

And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty), and said, “Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus; for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry.”

Judas was the one that betrayed Jesus. He walked with the people of God and looked like them, acted like them, but in the end, he was overcome by life. He was overcome by his desires.

III. Waiting Means Avoiding The Pitfalls of Life

Judas was not a Christian, but he represents every temptation that takes over in the heart of Christian people.

What he did was he placed himself and his desires over the will of God.

Now, what Judas ought to do for us first is have us examine our own hearts and ensure that we are really following Jesus Christ.

Judas from the Outside

On the outside, Judas had it all together. He was the treasurer, he was in the inner 12, he witnessed and had access to things that we could only dream about, and he was never saved. There is something in the heart of a man that will blind him to his need to be saved. What he will begin to do, is he will begin to rely on his own inner goodness and find satisfaction from within. - this is called “the pride of life”

The Pride of Life - Pitfall #1

What is the pride of life?

The pride of life is when you begin to believe you’re like God.

“Dylan, I don’t believe that I’m like God!”

Our culture and our world is full of the pride of life.

Who do you spend more time thinking about, yourself or God?

How do you view your life? Do you have a desire to live comfortably, or are you living as a sacrifice for Jesus Christ?

Do you focus more on your outward appearance or your inward appearance?

Do you seek to please men or God?

The other day, we are in a store and we see a shirt that says “do what makes you happy.” And that is the culmination of all that we have here in America.

I’m tired of seeing Christians promote ill-informed and unbiblical stances on the nature of humanity. What we so often think it our right and our privilege is really just the pride of life. It’s really just us refusing to become a sacrificial offering to Jesus.

When It’s all Going Well

When everything is going according to plan, we have no problem following God. We have no problem saying I am a Christian. But when things begin to get tough, instead of running to seek God, what we do is we swell with pride, and we start to think, “I’ve got to get myself out of this mess.”

What we don’t realize is that we are the reason we got in the mess in the first place, and we need God to get us out. The more you dig, the deeper you go. The more pray, the higher you’ll grow.

Men today think they can build a tower to get to God. God will strike them down.

We think today that the stock market and our economy is our savior, God help us before He strikes us down.

We think today that we are the one’s that provide, that we are the one’s that build societies, that we are the one’s that run the world. What we don’t realize is that all this takes place simply because God allows it.

Instead of having the pride of life, we need to be humble before God.

You have got to come to the place in your life where you realize you have no status, power, or control if you really want to follow God.

The Lust of the Flesh - Pitfall #2

Typically, when we hear that we automatically think that the conversation is going to trend in the direction of sexual perversion.

That is true, that the lust of the flesh is deeply rooted in sexuality.

We are born with the biological drive to pro-create. Because of sin, that has been perverted and taken advantage of. What is the result of this sexual perversion?

Fornication, that is, to have unwed sex of any kind. Sex is designed for marriage.

I’ve heard it said that sex is like a fire. When it’s contained in the confines of marriage, it is useful for all sorts of things. Purification, cooking, and warmth.

When it is burning out of control, outside of the confines of marriage, it like a wildfire, like a house that has been set ablaze, it’s uncontrolled and will leave a scar on anyone who is caught in the flame.

2. Homosexuality, transgenderism, and other kinds of sexual abnormalities.

Don’t ever let someone convince you that these things are natural. Even if you were to take this from the naturalist view of the world, there is no case to be made that these things are normally occuring. They are a product of sexual perversion.

But not only is it talking about sexuality, it’s also talking about gluttony, alcoholism, addictions (pills, marijuana, harder drugs), or even laziness, that is the refusal to hold a job and provide for your family, these all come from the lust of the flesh. They will all defile you.

A Misguided Statement

One of the most misguided attempts the church has made to steer people away from these types of behaviors is to say, “Well all that stuff ain’t any fun anyway.” Of course it’s fun. If it wasn’t fun, if it wasn’t exhilarating, then people wouldn’t do it.

A better way to think of it is that the fun only last a little while, living a life giving into these lusts will lead you to a dead end. You will have so many burns and scars from sexual encounters and drunken parties that you will find yourself asking the question, “how can I live with myself after what I’ve done.”

This is a great and dangerous pitfall of life.

The Lust of the Eyes

One day we’re out with some friends, Elizabeth and I newly married, and we go to Marble Slab ice cream, and I ordered the biggest Ice Cream cone they had. I couldn’t finish it. The guy I was with looks and said, “your eyes are bigger than your stomach.”

Where does all of our emotional unhappiness come from? Where does our feeling of inadequacy come from? It comes from the lust of the eyes.

An affair starts when a man or woman sees someone or something they want to be.

An bad financial decision starts when all you can see is what everyone else has and how its so much better than what you have.

Credit cards go through the roof trying to have the best clothes, makeup, body, house, or, today, to deck out your kids in the best sports equipment.

When we begin to look and see what others have, we become diminished in what God has given to us. And instead of simply saying, “thank you, God, for how you’ve blessed us!” We sit there and scroll instagram, looking at everyone else going to Cabo and having steak dinners, thinking, “my life is meaningless because I don’t have.”

Our Problems Would be Solved

Almost all the problems we had would go away if we just lost our sight. The church down the road has a digital sign, we need a digital sign.

The neighbor just got a new Heavy Duty truck, I need a heavy duty truck.

“All my friends have a phone!” “all my friends have new cars” “all my friends have, and I don’t have anything!”

The lust of the eyes is a dangerous tool in the hands of Satan. Don’t fall for it, live within your means, be thankful for what you have, who care if you wear hand-me-downs. Who cares if you don’t have a backup camera. Who cares if you don’t have a pool, a deck, or a theatre in your home?

You may be better than me, but in my life, almost every problem that I have encountered is because I, or someone close to me was dissatisfied with what God had given them, and they began to lust with their eyes.

1 John 2:16–17 NKJV

For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

How To Avoid These Pitfalls

How can you avoid these things?

Exercise some self-control.

Seek Godly counsel before making a big purchase like a house or a car. Not worldly financial advice, but spiritual financial advice.

**MOST IMPORTANTLY** Petition God to give you a spirit of discernment. That means to understand if its from God or if its from us. Measure it against scripture, if its not there, seek that Godly counsel, and while you’re doing both of those things, listen for the Holy Spirit.

I was listening to Dave Ramsey talk about his pastor, and he said that his pastor always use to say, “Don’t say you have a gut feeling. The Holy Spirit isn’t a gut, He’s a person, and He will tell you when you’re doing something wrong.”

IV. Waiting Means Following God’s Directions

Acts 1:21–26 NKJV

“Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

These apostles were down in number. They needed a 12th person to be an Apostle.

An Apostle Defined

Not just anyone can be an Apostle. The major qualification is there in v. 21-22, that they were with Jesus on earth, and they were witnesses to His physical resurrection.

If anyone today claims to be an apostle, they’re not.

They needed this 12th person because these Apostles are going to have a throne and they are going to rule over the 12 nations of Israel in the New Heavens and New Earth.

Peter’s Motivation

Now, Jesus told Peter to wait for the Promise before doing anything else. Why then, did Peter start this process to choose this new Apostle?

Acts 1:20 NKJV

“For it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘Let his dwelling place be desolate, And let no one live in it’; and, ‘Let another take his office.’

This is a prophecy concerning Judas. It’s true that Jesus gave Peter the instruction to wait. But Peter, by the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and because he was petitioning God, read this scripture, and knew that it was time for it to be fulfilled.

So, Peter didn’t just go off and start doing administrative work, he didn’t just start making executive decisions, he petitioned God, and he read the scriptures, and he did what the scripture said.

The most damaging thing that Christians do in their life is that they just ignore what they know the Bible has told them to do.

You think that God is going to give you the next step without completing the first one?

I worked a job one time, it was an office job, and one of the rules was no boots, and your shirt had to be tucked in. If they caught you with your shirt untucked or wearing boots to work instead of dress shoes, they’d write you up and you’d be on the chopping block.

It really seemed like a rule I didn’t want to follow, but the HR manager was a friend of mine, and he said, “the reason we have that rule is because if someone can’t even keep their shirt tucked in, what other areas of their job are they too lazy to accomplish.”

You want God to bless you with all of these things in your life and you can’t even manage what He’s already given you.

As a child of God, why would he give you a million dollar salary if you can’t manage a thousand dollar salary? Why would he give you a leadership position in the church when you can’t manage the leadership of your home? Why would He give you a place of prominence and of standing if you haven’t proved yourself in the little areas first? He won’t.

In my opinion, if a pastor is too big to sweep the floor and keep the nursery, he’s too small to preach.

if the business man is too big and important to tithe, he’s too small to lead the finance team.

if the church strategist is too big and intelligent to pray and to follow the word of God, he’s too small to lead the church.

V. Conclusion

Jesus Christ has given us an instruction. He has said to us, “watch and pray, wait for my second coming.” Maybe God, just like He gave these disciples, has given you something more specific to your life. Whatever that is, there are some things to do while you are waiting.

You don’t need to just sit around, you need to get busy petitioning Him, you need to keep yourself pure from the lusts and the pitfalls of this life, and you need to follow the instructions that He has already given you, all of which are found right here in His word.

Philippians 4:6–7 NKJV

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:9 NKJV

The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.