2022 Breakthrough Fast: Day 14

In the first chapter of Acts we are told that the risen Lord Jesus Christ spoke to His disciples and “commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me’” (Acts 1:4). Jesus was speaking about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit whose manifest presence would empower them for ministry, but their minds turned to their “prophecy chart” and “the next event on God’s prophecy calendar.” They understood that the prophecies of Scripture foretold a future time when the Messiah would reign, so they asked Him, in their words, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). The Lord’s response to their question is, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Acts 1:7). The Greek word translated “times” is “kronos” and means “the linear, sequential movement of time,” while the word translated “epochs” is “kairos” and means “an opportune time or season.” It is the second word, “kairos,” that the disciples asked Jesus about. They are asking Him if this is the season when God would do what they believed and expected Him to do.

Jesus made it clear that the disciples were to “wait” for the promise of the Holy Spirit and that is what they were to focus on. However, there are three things that clouded their thinking about what God would do in their lives that can apply to our lives that make it difficult to “wait” on the Lord. One is that we have false expectations of what God will do based on an incorrect understanding of the Scripture. We can expect and be waiting for something that God has not actually promised would happen, or at least would not happen when we expect it. Second, we don’t understand what season of our lives we are in as God is working according to His purpose. If we are in a time of “winter’ when God is not working as we want, hope, or expect, we must wait for His time for “spring” to come. Being in a “winter” season, we can’t make it “spring,” and so we must “wait.” In the Father’s time, which He has sovereignly “fixed by His own authority,” He will bring about His new season in our lives. Third, whatever season we are in, we must discern and focus on what God is doing in our lives in the season we are in.

It’s certainly not wrong to ask, “Lord, is it at this time…” However, we must discern what He is doing in our lives according to His time. Then Ecclesiastes 3:11 will be fulfilled which promises, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

In Christ,
Bill Hyer