Waiting for God’s wave

Pentecostals love the move of God’s Holy Spirit like surfers love waves, writes Eric Gaudion

Just standing upright was not easy. The blast of the onshore wind onto the headland overlooking a rocky bay in my home island of Guernsey threatened to bowl me over. Though buffeted by the wind, I was intending to watch the waves bursting over the rocky outcrop nearby but became fascinated by the dozen or so surfers dodging each other in the surf and spray on the beach below in pursuit of the next big wave. Obviously passionate for their sport, clad in skintight wetsuits and clinging to surfboards, they amazed me with their commitment to their sport. Suitable waves for surfing seemed few and far between.

What struck me about them was the courage, determination, patience and persistence they needed to succeed. And success seemed to be a matter of getting up onto those surfboards, either kneeling but more often standing, and riding the crest of a huge wave for a few brief seconds before being tossed back into the maelstrom. But the overwhelming impact of their surfing on me was created by their willingness to wait so patiently and for so long for that certain special wave to finally come their way, and to position themselves perfectly to catch it at the full!

Pentecostals love the move of God’s Holy Spirit like these surfers love their waves. We share with them the thrill and exhilaration of riding the crest of God’s revival power. But have we lost the art of waiting expectantly, poised and ready to go whenever God moves?

One of the early fathers of the Elim Movement, ECW Boulton wrote the words of a stirring hymn ‘Tarry for the Spirit’ that expressed the desire of those young Pentecostals to wait with patience, persistence and passion for the wave of God’s blessing to come. His second verse declares to God:

Rivers is thy promise, this shall be our plea;
Less than this can never meet our cry for thee;
Tired of lukewarm service and the loss it brings,
We would live entirely for eternal things.
On, then, Church of Jesus claim your Pentecost,
God shall now baptise thee in the Holy Ghost.

I’m not sure that there is ever much surfing on rivers, but the sentiment is much the same.

The first wave of the Spirit was at Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles. At that time the outpouring of God’s power launched the global movement that is today’s church of millions. There have been many waves since then, thankfully, not least the one in the early 20th century that brought modern Pentecostalism to birth.

The work of the brothers Stephen and George Jeffreys grew out of the Welsh Revival of 1904, bringing wave after wave of Holy Spirit-inspired growth to the church. In my own lifetime there have been surges of the Spirit’s power like waves of blessing. There was a definite move of the Spirit in the 70s and 80s that might be branded as the Charismatic Awakening. I recall what became known as the Toronto Blessing of 30 years ago, and even lately in the UK an upsurge of church attendance and enthusiasm for God and spirituality that has been characterised by the Bible Society as ‘The Quiet Revival’.

So, I take a lesson from the group of surfers I saw that day and determine to wait on God for the moving of his Spirit. In Luke 24:49 Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they would be clothed with power from on high, from which Boulton got his ‘Tarry for the Spirit’ idea. We may not be great surfers or swimmers, but we can ride the wave of God’s blessing if we position ourselves to be ready when it comes. “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his Word I put my hope,” (Psalm 130:5).

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.