Waiting for the Power: Finding Our Next Step
Edited directly from the sermon transcript of Matthew Miller’s message at Highland Hills Church of Christ on January 11, 2026. Adapted for length and readability while preserving his voice and message.
We all want to know what comes next. You watch an episode, become absorbed in the story, and then it ends. Many of us remember having to wait a week, or even a year, to discover what happened. Now we can watch the whole series at once. We want to skip ahead and see the answer.
Beneath that desire is more than impatience. It can be anxiety about control. If I do not know what is coming, am I secure?
In truth, none of us knows what will happen in the next moment, week, or year. Yet that desire for certainty can seep into our spiritual lives. We want power without patience and results without waiting.
The disciples felt it too. In Acts 1:6, they ask Jesus whether he will now restore the kingdom to Israel. He has died and risen. They want a timeline. He tells them that the times and seasons belong to the Father’s authority.
As we read Acts, four questions help us: Where is God at work? How is he forming his people? What does this mean for the church? What faithful step are we being called to take?
Acts continues the story Luke began in his Gospel. It is the continuing work of Jesus through his apostles and disciples. Luke writes to Theophilus, a name that means one who loves God. If you love God, this account invites you into the story too.
The center of that story is Jesus. It is easy to jump straight to what a passage means for us and forget who the story is about. We get to join God in what he is doing.
Luke begins by recalling what Jesus taught and did. The risen Christ presents himself alive after his suffering, giving convincing proofs and speaking about God’s kingdom for forty days. His resurrection gives authority to the mission the disciples will undertake.
Then he ascends. He is going to his enthronement. The disciples are learning to recognize their teacher and friend as Lord over all.
Jesus tells them they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them and will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. As they watch, he is taken up, and they receive the promise that he will return.
Before that mission unfolds, he tells them to wait.
How many of us enjoy hearing “wait” when we pray and anticipate God’s action? It can be the hardest place to live. Yet it can also be where God produces rich fruit in us.
Think of a stage crew preparing for a performance. When we arrive, everything is ready. We may never see the people who put each piece in place, but their work matters to what follows. God is already reigning, instructing, providing, and directing. The disciples must wait before stepping into what he is preparing.
His work begins with his provision. They are to receive the Holy Spirit before going out in their own strength.
That requires faith. We can picture Jesus and his acts of compassion. Through him, we see the Father. The Spirit can feel harder to grasp. The disciples themselves do not yet understand everything that his coming will mean.
But Jesus has prepared them. In John 14–16, he speaks of the Helper who will guide them. He tells them that his departure will make way for the Spirit’s coming.
Their waiting becomes obedience. They learn to trust in the tension of not yet knowing. They resist the urge to act simply because doing something feels better than waiting.
We live in a world that encourages us to move fast and break things. Jesus calls these disciples to wait until he supplies what they need. That waiting includes stillness and expectation as he forms them from spectators into witnesses.
An apprentice first watches and learns. Perhaps you have worked with someone who is so nervous they are afraid to touch anything, or someone so enthusiastic they immediately want to take over. Either way, there is a time to wait, observe, and be equipped. Eyes, hands, and hearts need preparation.
God is preparing the disciples privately before their public witness begins.
What does that mean for the church? We must not rush ahead of the Spirit. Acts tells us what happened in the first church and gives us a picture of what the church can be with his life at its center.
Our witness flows from dependence on God. Strategy has its place, but it cannot generate the power we need. The disciples have a clear commission, yet they still need the promised source of strength.
The church witnesses because of who it has become in Jesus. Identity comes before mission.
Think about batteries at Christmas. One of our seasonal rituals is buying a supply because something electronic is bound to need them. I love remote-control cars and planes. I still do, though I don’t fly them, for everyone’s safety. But without a battery, they are going nowhere. They need a source of power before they can fulfill their purpose.
We need to remain dependent on the Spirit, sensitive to him, and attentive to his leading. Before rushing into work we assume God wants, we seek him. We may accomplish good things in our own strength while missing what he is actually calling us to do.
The church grows through faithful witness to Jesus, sustained by the Spirit. Knowing the future cannot supply that life. No one knows it anyway.
A branch cut from a tree can still look alive for a time. It may even have fruit on it. But separated from its source, it will wither. We need to stay connected to the one who gives us life.
We are called to trust who God is and take his hand as he leads, rather than predict his next action.
What can we practice this week? Prayerful waiting: dependence on the Spirit instead of rushing ahead in our own strength. Before responding, planning, or deciding, stop and ask whether you are moving with God or simply moving for movement’s sake.
Set aside unhurried time to align your heart with his. When you recognize the step he is calling you to take, witness from what you know of Jesus. You do not need to explain everything or pretend to have every answer. Point people toward him.
The disciples wait and pray. The Spirit comes, and the church is born. God wants a people formed in Christ’s image, rather than merely occupied with activity.
As you ask what comes next, have you sought the Lord’s counsel? Have you spent unhurried time with him, or has prayer become an afterthought amid everything else?
This message invites us to prayer, openness, trust, and patient obedience. Release the timetable you have imposed. Stay faithful where Christ has placed you. Do what he has given you to do now. Seek the power and open door for what comes next, and be ready to step through it.
For some, the next step is beginning life with Jesus. He opens that door to true freedom and life. We can take that step in trust, knowing that the one who leads us will supply what we need.
