Tarry There!: Spiritual Endowment for Today's Generation Per Luke 24:49

Tarry There!

Spiritual Endowment for Today's Generation Per Luke 24:49

Dr. Cleveland L. Taylor

Copyright © 2019 by Dr. Cleveland L. Taylor

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Table of Contents

God the Holy Spirit

Pentecostal Forefathers

Tarry Period in Transitions: A Comparison Study

Transformation

Approval Sheet

Tarry There! Spiritual Endowment for Today’s Generation per Luke 24:49

Dr. Cleveland L. Taylor

Dr. David J. Pederson / Mentor

Dr. Rodney Wayne Dempsey / Reader

September 13, 2017

Abstract

This project will revisit the biblical significance of tarry’s treatment in Luke 24:49 and the key principle of waiting on the timing of God’s provision of power promised to accomplish the job description God has given Christians. A tarry period of radical fasting and prayer retreat will be an initial tarry presented to encounter the Holy Spirit experience. The word for power that Luke uses in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8 reference that ability to do work. Acts 1:4 placed emphases on them, not leaving Jerusalem without the promise. The potential value of this topic is in its impact on the reader’s personal life. The project will conduct a hundred surveys, interviews, and research of historical tarry data. The successful tarry, as Luke presents it, will yield an authentic encounter with the promised Holy Spirit and the production of guidelines for Christian mentors to tarry for endowment.

List of Abbreviations

KJV: King James Version

NRV: New Revised Version

NCV: New Century Version

CEV: Contemporary English Version

NASV: New American Standard Version

NIV: New International Version

NLT: New Living Translation

NKJV: New King James Version

TM: The Message

Chapter 1

Introduction

There must be the Spirit of Christ visible and audible before men and women of our time. It is imperative to take the Spirit of Christ inside so that he may live in each Christian. How can an individual live an intense life if the presence of Christ is not intense within? How can the individual live an intense life if Christ does not become the center of thoughts, affections, and activity? The disciples that had given up all and denies themselves mandates the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The statement made by Jesus recorded in the old King James Version of Luke 24:49 addresses this type of individual. Jesus said in that chapter and verse: And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. Reference the prevision, tells what it is and what it will do for the born-again believer. To live an intense Christian life requires an intense spiritual experience that parallels that of the early disciples. Let us also remember that this same intense spiritual life, if it is authentic, leads us to the proclamation of the good news known as Gospel and to the apostolate.

The Spirit of Christ in our life overflows in our hearts and leads us to overcome obstacles internal and external to reach those around us. Through the power of the Holy Spirit within the individual, illumination occurs in a dark world. It is the electrical power flowing over the filament within the glass casing of the lightbulb that causes it to shine. When the believer’s soul has the flow of the Holy Spirit moving within their tabernacle, illumination occurs. The believer truly becomes a light in darkness because they are endued with the power to do so. That is our task, our mission—to allow ourselves to be authentic Christians, to receive the Light Word, to welcome it, to proclaim it, allowing its light to be transparent in our daily life through our good works. The Christian must bear the light referred to by Jesus to his followers in Matthew 5:16: Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. The believer should tarry there! in their Jerusalem until endowment comes and shines enough for the world to know of Christ’s existence.

In 2010, the Barna Research group polled a minimum of 1,000 adults randomly across the continental United States and noted among its findings that the Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate and losing its influence on the American people.¹ The study further noted that a growing majority believe that the Holy Spirit is a symbol of God’s presence or power, but not a living entity, and suggests that the Protestant will face unparalleled theological diversity and inconsistency.² This theological illiteracy is problematic in that it becomes increasingly difficult for the new believer to conceptualize the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as an entity and the time needed for a refreshing of the Holy Spirit. A twenty-first-century refreshing is needed.

Statement of the Problem

The problem addressed here is the believer not waiting or tarrying for the promised comforter and Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, as instructed in Luke 24:49, the believer not staying placed until the promised endowment comes with power from above, reforming and regenerating church leadership for service. This problem addresses a missing mind-set for the tarrying that produces the baptism with the Holy Ghost that empowers the believer to witness for Jesus and produces a life that reflects passion. There is a shortage in believers that reflects a personal corroboration of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, which testifies of Christ.

In the twentieth century, there were two trends of thought that countered each other. One held that baptism of the Holy Spirit eradicates the sin in the believer when received, the other that it empowers and endues the believer to witness.³ Obedience to Luke 24:49 in context with Luke’s Acts 1:8 account of the discourse between Jesus and the disciples should be equally applicable for believers. The anticipated power and vision of service envisioned in the discourse is missing; this is a problem. The believers that are highly motivated to witness and emulate Christ in the process being Holy Ghost filled address the problem. Tarrying for endowment must be sought after and desired by the recipient. The process may not make earthly sense; however, the design is not secular.⁴ This was the process of early Pentecostal church. They believed because God was a Holy God; the logical progression was that his people were to be a holy people. In Exodus 3:5, the presence of God was in the burning bush and on the dirt around the bush. It should be noted that the ground is holy only because of his presence.

This project acknowledges that there are two schools to theological thought in the discussion of being baptized with the Holy Spirit. The Pentecostal and Charismatic grouping and the non-Pentecostal groups that feel the wait is not necessary. However, the idea that a Christian need not wait for the Holy Spirit’s ignition in obedience to the written word and that motivation for specific service is self-ignited is at issue and a problem since human willpower can weaken. The believer who doesn’t know the difference between these two types of motivations should tarry in prayer until it is revealed or experienced. The instructions in Luke 24:49 imply that the believers were to remain in Jerusalem until they receive the promised power by the Holy Spirit.

The believer having a spiritual birth is supported by scripture. We as believers are new creations in Christ in accordance to 2 Corinthians 5:17. In this sense, we are all uniquely and wonderfully made, but there is a birthing period to go through. Being born-again can be instantaneous. In Mark 1:18, Peter and Andrew, his brother, dropped their nets, believed, and followed Christ. Nicodemus was a scholar of Hebrew law first and then a believer who had to be born again, and both had to wait on the promised Holy Spirit endowment to further their ministry. This proposal suggests that more than just academics and specific temperaments are needed to accomplish God’s assignment. There is a waiting period of reflection in the lives of those who accomplished a work for God in the past that must be realized by Christianity to survive the future. The problem may appear enormous, but the solution is simple. There are church pastors, evangelists, teachers, prophets, and apostles concerned more about being politically correct than their stance for God. There are churches that have multi-gifted pastors that pass out ministerial assignments and congregation with high holy expectations of pastors.⁵ A priority change is needed if there is to be leadership with conviction, which embrace the fact that their waiting process is relevant and desired.

Time investment is without price since we are finite creatures and God is infinite; therefore, time must be redeemed and used wisely.