LMT Network Digest - May 2024
May 17, 2024
Waiting with Hope
This Sunday, the church will celebrate the day of Pentecost, 50 days following Easter Sunday.
Forty days after his resurrection from the dead Jesus ascended to heaven. During that 40-day interval he appeared to various groups of his followers in various locations, beginning on the day of his resurrection, when he appeared first to the women who had gone to complete the burial rituals.
Just prior to his ascension he commissioned his disciples to carry on with the disciple-making task:
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)
Following his instructions to wait in Jerusalem, as recorded in Acts 1:4-5, Jesus’ followers were together in prayer when the Holy Spirit filled each one.
Perhaps its easy to skip over the 10-day gap after Jesus left, before the Holy Spirit came.
Waiting.
Hoping.
Questioning.
Maybe this is a season of waiting for you, as you love the Muslims God has brought into your life. Waiting for signs of life. Waiting for signs of receptivity. Watching for growth. Praying and waiting.
Let me encourage you today to continue watching and waiting. The Holy Spirit came, and everything changed. The Holy Spirit is at work today as we wait and watch and pray.
God’s story is most easily seen in looking back, reflecting on what happened, recognizing the miracles, the provision, the transformation, the breakthroughs.
As you wait, may you be encouraged by the hope that God, the Holy Spirit is powerfully at work, and give thanks for the gift of his powerful presence in our lives!
Lorna Johnston,
LMT National Chairman