Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
—Luke 24:49
The Lord had said to the disciples, “Without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). Why, then, did He choose these powerless, helpless men to go out to conquer the world for Him? So that in their feebleness they might yield themselves and give Him, as Lord on His throne, the opportunity to show His power working through them. As the Father had done all the work in Christ when He was on earth, so Christ in heaven would now be the Great Worker, proving in them that all power had been given to Him “in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). Their place would be to pray, to believe, and to yield themselves to the mighty power of Christ.
The Holy Spirit would not live in them as a power of which they could have possession. But He would possess them, and their work would indeed be the work of the almighty Christ. Their whole attitude each day would be that of unceasing dependence and prayer, and of confident expectation.
The apostles had learned to know Christ intimately. They had seen all His mighty works; they had received His teaching; they had gone with Him through all His sufferings, even to His death on the cross. They had not only seen Him, but they had also known Him in the power of His resurrection and the experience of that resurrection life in their own hearts. Yet they were not capable of fully making Him known, until He Himself, from the throne of heaven, had taken possession of them by His Spirit dwelling in them.
Every minister of the gospel is called to rest content with nothing less than the indwelling life and power of the Holy Spirit. This is to be his only preparation for preaching the gospel in power. Nothing less than having Christ speaking through us in the power of His omnipotence will make us able ministers of the New Testament, bringing salvation to all who hear us.