We’re in a new season as a church.
It’s been a big few weeks – Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and on the weekend we celebrated and farewelled Pastor Frank and Maria Zuvela after 32 years of faithfully pastoring this church. It’s been full-on, and very good.
But Easter isn’t just about what happened two thousand years ago. It’s also about what happened next. After the resurrection, Jesus spent forty days teaching the disciples about the kingdom. You’d think they’d be ready to launch. But his instruction was: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised.” (Acts 1:4)
Wait? After all that? Surely now’s the time to get moving.
But there was a purpose to the wait. There always is with God.
What worked last time isn’t what God will use next time
In Exodus 17, while the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness they were thirsty and God told Moses to strike a rock and water came out. But later in Numbers 20, same situation – no water, the people complaining – God tells Moses to speak to the rock this time. Moses, clearly frustrated with the peoples complaining, defaulted to what worked before and struck it twice instead.
Water still came out. God was still gracious. But Moses didn’t obey God’s instruction, and it cost him the Promised Land.
Sometimes the biggest threat to obeying God isn’t open rebellion – it’s assumption. Assuming we know what he wants because of what he did last time. God works in seasons, and what he did in one season isn’t always what he’ll do in the next.
Our season
We celebrated an incredible season under the Zuvelas’ leadership. I love looking at those photos – the building broken in one shot and restored in the next. The people who raised enough money for this place to be purchased debt-free. We sit in the blessing of what God did in that season.
Now, however, we’re in a different season. Without Karina and I doing anything different, things will by nature change – we’re younger, a different generation, different ministry background. As I keep saying, Pastor Frank is taking his shoes with him to the Hunter Valley. We can’t fill them. We’re different. But I also think this isn’t a time for us to ask “What are Andy and Karina going to do?” It’s “What is God going to do through all of us?”
Right now, the important thing is to wait on God. Not rush. Not be fearful. Just create space for him to speak and give direction. There is no rush in the timing of God for this season.
Like Moses at Kadesh, we can’t just repeat what worked last time. We need to hear what God is saying now.
So what does he teach us while we wait?
1. Patience – trust his timing
When I was growing up, a family friend’s husband kept opening the oven to check on a cake his wife was baking. Because he kept opening the oven door it never rose. Clearly, allowing a cake to rise requires patience.
Patience isn’t laziness – you can’t sit on the couch saying “I’m waiting on God” while doing nothing. But it’s also not frantic hustle. The Bible talks about two kinds of patience: endurance under pressure – staying the course when it’s hard – and long-temperedness – giving space, not forcing outcomes. Both are active, not passive. And we’re going to need both in this season.
Not every issue in your family needs resolving tonight. The right career opportunity at the wrong time is still the wrong move. And if God hasn’t answered your prayer yet, that’s not a no. Keep praying, keep showing up. The disciples had ten days of nothing – then suddenly, everything changed.
2. Pride – surrender self-reliance
Frank Sinatra sang “I Did It My Way.” Great song. Terrible theology.
Even after forty days of Jesus teaching them post resurrection, the disciples still asked: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Still trying to fit God’s plan into their framework. Jesus’ response was gracious but firm: “It is not for you to know.”
Pride doesn’t always look like arrogance. Sometimes it’s self-sufficiency, presumption, or control – trying to manufacture the outcome rather than depending on God. Moses fell into it at Kadesh too: “Must we bring you water out of this rock?” The moment we think the ministry, the business, the family, or the church runs because of us, we’ve crossed a line.
Pride says “I know what this church needs.” Humility says “I’ll pray, I’ll serve, and I’ll trust God is leading even when I can’t see the full picture.”
3. Power – receive what only he can give
The source of power for the Christian life is the Holy Spirit. When I preach, I don’t just want to speak well – I want to preach anointed, because if it’s anointed, God is speaking to you, not just me trying to convince you of an idea. And it’s the same in your life. You don’t have to overcome things in your own strength.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus says “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” That word – dynamis – is where we get the word dynamite. It turned frightened disciples into bold witnesses who changed the world. But the biblical pattern is that God’s power flows through weakness, not strength. The wait ensures we don’t try to do God’s work in our own strength.
You weren’t designed to ‘will-power’ your way through life – through temptation, anxiety, or grief. The Spirit is the helper Jesus promised. Ask for his help daily.
My encouragement to you
God wasn’t slow with those ten days – he was strategic. Pentecost fell on a feast day when Jerusalem was packed with pilgrims from every nation. Maximum reach for the miracle. If the disciples had scattered early, they’d have missed it.
Take some time this week to wait on God. Slow down. Go for a walk. Create some space and ask him about the season you’re in. Then… wait. He might not answer straight away. He might. The key is to trust that in the waiting, he is working. Maybe what he wants to do in you is more important than what he wants you to do right now.
I don’t want the story of this church to be about what Andy and Karina did. I want it to be about what God did through all of us.
Patience – trust his timing. Pride – surrender your grip. Power – receive what only he can give.
Wait.