Responding to the Invitation : A Pentecost Sunday Reflection
There’s a moment in Acts 1 that I keep coming back to…
Jesus has just risen from the dead.
He has appeared to His disciples, eaten with them, spoken with them, breathed on them.
And now He is about to ascend.
You might expect Him to send them out immediately — these men and women who had walked with Him for three years, who had witnessed the resurrection, who were arguably the most prepared people on the planet to go and change the world.
Instead, He says this:
“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised.” (Acts 1:4)
Wait.
Not strategize.
Not organize.
Not launch a ministry plan.
Wait.
The Disciples Had Every Reason to Go
Put yourself, for a moment, in that upper room…
You had seen Jesus die.
You had seen Him rise.
You had heard His commission ringing in your ears:
“Go and make disciples of all nations.”
The whole world needed to hear this news.
People were suffering without it.
Every hour of delay felt like an hour of souls going without the gospel.
And Jesus says: Wait.
I wonder if some of them paced.
I wonder if someone quietly suggested, “Maybe we could just start in the neighbourhood? Just a small gathering? Surely that’s not too much…”
But they waited.
All 120 of them.
Together.
In prayer.
For ten days. (Acts 1:14-15)
And then Pentecost came.
Fire. Wind.
Languages they had never learned.
Three thousand people in a single day.
The church born not from the best human effort, but from the breath of God.
Henri Nouwen Asked the Right Question
I have also been sitting with a quote from Henri Nouwen lately that feels like it was written directly for this moment in the church calendar:
“The question that must guide all organizing activity in a parish is not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence.”
Oh, that lands deep!!!
How much of what we do — in our churches, in our ministries, in our spiritual lives — is actually noise dressed up as faithfulness?
We fill calendars.
We launch programs.
We volunteer for every committee, attend every event, say yes to every need. And somewhere underneath all that beautiful, sincere, exhausting activity… we can’t hear Him anymore.
We’ve become a church of doing in a world that desperately needs a church of being — being with Him, being filled by Him, being sent by Him.
The disciples in that upper room weren’t being passive. They were being prepared. There’s a profound difference.
What Waiting Actually Looks Like
Waiting on God is not the same as doing nothing.
The disciples were actively waiting — praying together, worshipping, seeking His face. Acts tells us they were constantly in prayer (Acts 1:14). But they were not running ahead. They were not filling the silence with their own plans.
They were creating space.
And into that space, God poured Himself out.
This is the pattern of the Kingdom.
It is not the pattern of our culture, and honestly, it is often not the pattern of our churches. We have become very good at filling space. We are far less practised at holding it.
But this is what spiritual direction has taught me, over and over again:
God speaks most clearly in the spaces we are afraid to leave empty.
The still small voice.
The gentle nudge.
The quiet impression that changes everything.
These come not to the person frantically running from task to task, but to the person who has learned the holy discipline of being still.
A Question for You on This Pentecost Sunday
As you celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit today, I want to invite you to sit with a question — not a task, just a question:
What would it look like for you to wait on the Holy Spirit before you move forward?
Maybe it’s a decision you’ve been carrying. Maybe it’s a ministry you’ve been about to launch in your own strength. Maybe it’s simply the frantic pace of your daily life that hasn’t left much room for silence.
What if, before you moved, you waited?
Not indefinitely. Not passively. But intentionally. Prayerfully. With an open hand and a listening ear.
The same Spirit who descended like fire on that Pentecost morning is the Spirit who lives in you right now.
He is not in a hurry.
He is not wringing His hands over your to-do list.
He is not impressed by your busyness — but He is deeply moved by your availability.
A Breath Prayer for Pentecost
If you need somewhere to start, try this simple breath prayer today. Breathe in slowly, breathe out slowly, and let these words settle into your body:
Breathe in: “Holy Spirit, increase.”
Breathe out: “I wait for You.”
That’s it. You don’t need to have it all figured out.
You don’t need a plan.
You just need to be present, available, and willing to let Him move first.
The disciples waited ten days.
And the wait changed everything.
Your wait — even ten minutes of honest stillness — just might change things too.
Happy Pentecost, friends.
May the fire fall on the waiting ones.
Reflection Questions for Your Journal or Spiritual Direction Session:
- Where in my life am I moving ahead of the Holy Spirit right now?
- What is one area where I sense God inviting me to wait before I act?
- When did I last create intentional space — silence, stillness, unhurried prayer — for God to speak?
- What am I most afraid I might hear if I stopped long enough to listen?
If you’d like to explore questions like these in a safe, Spirit-led space, join us! We’d love to walk with you. You can learn more about spiritual direction and coaching here.
Merri Ellen 🙂
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