You Will Receive Power

Reflection

Just before Jesus ascends, his disciples ask about the timing of the kingdom. His answer redirects them entirely: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses." They wanted a schedule; he gave them a Spirit and a mission. This is one of the great gifts of the Christian life. Jesus does not call us to witness and then leave us to summon the courage on our own. He promises power first — the Holy Spirit himself coming upon ordinary, frightened, fallible people and making them capable of things far beyond their natural ability. The same disciples who had been hiding behind locked doors would soon be speaking boldly in the very city where Jesus was killed. Notice the geography of the mission: "in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." It begins at home — in the familiar, sometimes difficult, place where we already are — and ripples outward. Samaria is included too, a people the disciples would naturally have avoided. The Spirit's power pushes the good news across the very boundaries we would prefer to keep. You may feel utterly unqualified to represent Jesus. That is precisely the point. The power does not come from your competence; it comes from the Spirit. Your task is not to manufacture boldness but to receive it, and then to be a witness — right where you are — to what you have seen and known of Christ.