by Pastor Rich Carlson

Jesus spent 40 days with His disciples after His resurrection, offering "many convincing proofs that He was alive" (Acts 1:3). I can only imagine the emotional and spiritual roller coaster those 11 men and their friends must have experienced—from the anticipation that Jesus would soon set up His kingdom to utter dejection as they watched their hopes dashed at the crucifixion to amazement when he appeared alive again after the resurrection.

And now, Jesus is about to leave them, this time to return to heaven. He offers comfort and assurance in the midst of yet another upheaval in their lives, and he introduces them to Holy Spirit baptism!

The disciples are still stuck on their same old worry: "When is He going to set up His kingdom?" In my own paraphrase, His reply is, "That's not your worry. I'm going to provide everything you need to live for Me while you wait for the Father to decide when He is going to set up His kingdom."

In a sense, there was also another answer: He was going to set up His kingdom right then and there, in them, through the Holy Spirit. Most of the book of Acts is about what happened when they grasped that reality.

This is about more than the outward act of baptism by water. It's the inward permission for God to come into my life and baptize the inside too, cleansing it and empowering me to do great and mighty things for Him. I miss out on so much when I focus on outward religion, when God wants to give me inward holiness by the Holy Spirit—that is, by His supernatural power!

Religion is not predictable in a Spirit-filled life. Try to imagine what will happen to each of us as we allow God, in His timing, to work freely in our lives. It’s the difference between religiosity and spirituality. 

Rich Carlson is campus chaplain at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. "God is Faithful" is adapted from the email devotionals he writes regularly for the Union College family. Rich enjoys filling his life with God, his family, and especially his five grandchildren.