As I began to do an in-depth study into the early Church, I wanted to discover the ancient paths that we have lost and they obviously had found. Amazingly, I discovered a very old but seldom taken path, the art of tarrying. For some it might be contemplative prayer, for others it is silent prayer and for others, it is meditation. Some would say it is the harp and bowl model and others would call it soaking prayer. But tarrying is more than any of these types of descriptions. Most of these are primarily focused around the presence of the Lord. But tarrying has both presence and divine purpose associated with it.
Luke 24:49 (KJV 1900) — 49 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.
Jesus commanded them to tarry until a certain aspect would occur, to be endued with power from on high. The word ‘endued’ means to be wrapped in light or to be totally enveloped. It also can mean to be mantled. The word ‘power’ is the word dunamis and means grace, but also means the nature of God himself. He told them to tarry until this wrapping of God’s character and mantle was upon them.
The definition of tarrying is to wait with anticipation and expectation, not to sit idle. Tarrying is worship, prayer, decree, studying, but all these are outward actions. Anticipation and expectation are issues of the heart. Jesus was essentially saying to them ‘go position your heart and keep it positioned until My character is mantled upon your life’! The actions of worship, prayer, decrees, etc. help keep our heart positioned correctly but are not actually ways of tarrying. Tarrying is sitting with expectation at the feet of Christ.
In the account of the upper room, they were given this commandment to go tarry. However, earlier, Jesus had asked them to come with Him as He tarried before the Father. Mark 14:34 My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch. He asked them after finding them sleeping, could they not watch one hour, verse 37. He modeled tarrying as He had deep conversation with the Father concerning the destiny of His life and the redemption of the world. He was in agony as He poured Himself out before heaven’s throne and received final instructions. Yet when He returned, He found them all sleeping. This is much like the Church today. In our prayer meetings, 24-hour worship and prayer, etc., we tend to go through the motions but our hearts are far from Him. We need to be awakened and that is what true tarrying will do. It awakens you to God’s purposes.
In the garden, Jesus invited them to tarry but at the upper room, He commanded it. This command was a necessary one as their hearts had proven in the garden to be far from the things of God. I believe God is again, not inviting us to this ancient path, but commanding us to come and tarry. The first invitation was for one hour. Imagine His disappointment then, but also even today, as many cannot pray for an hour even when giving God their wish list, all He wants is for us to come and sit and hear His heart.
In Acts in the upper room, they went, not knowing how long they would be in the process. We know it to be about 10 days. A quick work was being accomplished. When it was finished, the purpose of God was formed inside of them and the nature of Christ was upon them enabling them to fulfill the assignment. You see, true tarrying has nothing to do with you and your needs and everything to do with God’s plan and purposes. It is a deep cleansing process and deep gut- wrenching moments as He reveals both our inadequacies and His divine nature. It is as if we are at odds with them and all our so called “prayer requests” hold no real value of being answered compared to the glory He is revealing to us.
As we look at this time of tarrying, we see Peter arising and preaching the first message after being endued with power. It is roughly ten to fifteen minutes in length by what we see written and 3,000 converts were made. How many of us would be willing to tarry for 10 days, speak 10 minutes with such power from His nature, and see 3,000 added? Within 24 hours of the answer, there were 3,000 converts. We have lost the ancient path of tarrying before the Lord!
Most of our messages are powerless and hold no real revelation. They do not prick men’s hearts and shift culture. We spend time in study and prayer but we must spend time in tarrying. Tarrying forms His nature within us, which empowers us. Tarrying enables our plans and message to be discarded and His picked up. Tarrying allows us to not just preach with enticing words, but to preach with power and signs and wonders.
When Jesus slipped away to pray to the Father, He modeled tarrying more than any other things. He was having a dialogue with the Father and conveying His heart as He received the Father’s heart. He then came forth out of these times and moved in great power.
Acts 1:7–8 (KJV 1900) — 7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
These verses in Acts say again, what will happen in the tarrying.
Times in the Greek is chronos meaning ‘measurable time, like minutes, hours, days’
Seasons in the Greek is kairos meaning ‘divine moments in God He has ordained’
(Own) Power in the Greek is exousia, which means ‘authority or the legal right’
(Receive) Power in the Greek is dunamis, which is ‘the origin of the very nature residing’
As we look at this, we can see that tarrying is going to produce something that is more important than even knowing times and seasons or even the legal rights because it will produce the living nature of Christ within us. Tarrying conforms our nature to His nature thus enabling us to move in the full power of the Holy Spirit.
We have often pondered on what they did as they gathered for all those days. Did they reflect on scriptures? I believe they did, trying to find answers and explanations to what this power would be. We see Peter speaking from the book of Joel as a fresh revelation, which was possibly a recent place he had just read. Did they sing and worship? Probably, as they were excited to be counted worthy of this new dimension creating questions none of them could answer. Did they pray? I’m sure of it. They needed answers and I’m sure they were full of questions. Did they discuss Jesus’ words? Absolutely! His words were why they gathered. They probably had in-depth conversations about them and the possible meaning. The one thing we know happened is that they created an atmosphere to draw the Holy Spirit and created one accord. The act of tarrying has all these elements in it, not in the mechanical processes we tend to do, but in a living, life- giving and flowing purpose. The tarrying was for a reason, not just because it was something needing to be done. It was a container built by human spirits hungry for God.
You see, their approach was not seeking results; this is called ‘search theology’, which is constantly looking for results to validate God. They knew there would be results. He had promised and commanded and spoke with authority that this would come to pass. They had a ‘harvest theology’, which means they understood the promise’s ultimate result would occur. Their seeking and the difference in tarrying over simply praying is; praying is searching while tarrying is knowing. Instead of them searching God, they were allowing God to search them. They were in a quickened process of obstacles being removed from their lives so they would not block the intentions of God. Now that’s real tarrying! They were at a critical moment of time, the second time the word ‘tarrying’ was asked of them. Let us go back to the garden and look at that time again to help us see the importance of tarrying.
Matthew 26:38 (KJV 1900) — 38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
Tarry means “to continue”, “tarry”, “endure”, and translated miscellaneously five times. 1 to remain, abide. 1a in reference to place. 1a1 to sojourn, tarry. 1a2 not to depart. 1a2a to continue to be present. 1a2b to be held, kept, continually. 1b in reference to time. 1b1[1] to continue to be, not to perish, to last, endure. 1b1a of persons, to survive, live. 1c in reference to state or condition. 1c1 to remain as one, not to become another or different. 2 to wait for, await one.
They had not become one yet. They definitely were not of one heart and soul and they still were not one with Christ. Jesus saw the lack in the human nature to understand spiritual things and the process needed to create that oneness. Imagine His disappointment as He came and saw them sleeping.
Matthew 26:40 (KJV 1900) — 40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
Here He is at the most critical part of His assignment upon the earth and He desires to share this moment with those closest to Him. Yet they are sound asleep. As I said earlier, this is the state of the Church and few in this hour are awakened. Even among those already awakened, few are tarrying and we wonder why things are not exploding. We are again at the most crucial moment in the life of Christ in the Church upon the earth. We are at a real point of death to self unlike anything we have ever seen before. Dying to self has become so cliché and has no meaning unless combined with tarrying before the Lord to receive His instructions. However, for those who do tarry like Christ did with His Father, there will be loosed a resurrection power that will far exceed anything we have seen and done. Our later years will be greater than our former and we will do greater works!
Luke 24:29–30 (KJV 1900) — 29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. 30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
Another time the word ‘tarry’ is used is after the Resurrection and Jesus is on the road to Emmaus and meets two followers. They asked Him to abide but Luke wrote that He tarried with them. He did not spend much time yet suddenly their eyes were opened. You see the actions of Jesus tarrying created awakening. His tarrying had corresponding actions.
We see another time that Jesus left the normal actions of life and tarried at a well. (John 4) The other disciples went to get food but as Jesus told them later in John 4:34 My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work”. His tarrying at the well was intentional and had a specific result; it confronted a woman’s heart and brought healing with the overall results being the conversion of multitudes of Samaritans.
As we begin to look further, we see times that Apostle Paul tarried as well. He specifically states that his tarrying would produce a certain result.
1 Timothy 3:14–15 (KJV 1900) — 14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: 15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Paul tarried so the reverence he had would come upon others. He believed his tarrying would be a living example for others to follow. We might interpret this as his length of stay, but I see it as his length of time spent before God. After all, he could stay for a long length of time but if they did not see His actions before God, they would not have reverence. It was a specific type of tarrying that Paul did and he invited others into it to experience it.
We know Jacob wrestled all night for God’s blessing. In my opinion, he was tarrying before the Lord. He did not know how the blessing would come or what it would look like but he did know not to give up. The scripture says he wrestled but the wrestling was probably more with himself and his responses before God. His act of both wrestling and tarrying allowed him to walk away marked by God for the rest of his life, a reminder of a turning point in his life.
Daniel also tarried and fasted for 21 days to get an answer. Interestingly, his words were heard from the first day, but his tarrying was enabling the spiritual realm to be cleared so his answer could come. It appears tarrying faith can both put into motion and hold in motion the angelic host until the answer is brought forth upon the earth. Perhaps much of our spiritual warfare is not effective because we don’t really tarry in faith. Maybe it also has to do with our lack of fasting, another ancient path that has been lost or at least greatly diminished.
Like all things, ancient paths require the right heart attitudes and motives to be effective. If our heart condemns us not, then we have confidence before God. If we are feeling condemned or are walking in sin, rebellion, or lack a desire to live a fully committed lifestyle of true faith, our confidence will reflect this. Confidence does not just come for us to feel good about ourselves but it comes to empower the desire to abide in God … to pursue His presence, to tarry until He comes.
However, what else keeps us from tarrying before God? A prayer less life. Prayerlessness keeps us from tarrying because we might be confronted about areas of our life in need of change. God wants to deal with your heart BEFORE you tarry with Him. Notice I said with Him. Tarrying is about a discussion of partnership of God’s intentions into the earth. Prayer tends to be a more one-sided discussion as we make requests of God. Tarrying is God making requests of us! God wants to shift things in our personal lives and before tarrying can truly be effective, things must be confronted with prayer and worked through in our own walk with Him. Tarrying is for the corporate Body as prayer is for the individual. God does not want our times of tarrying to deal with our personal sin issues but the sin issues of a region, people group or nation.
When we tarry before God, we are also tarrying before His holiness. We are seeing the beauty of holiness of which David so beautifully described. We are at a place of awe and reverence. If our heart is right, then tarrying shifts our position from entering into His holiness to tarrying in His holiness. We stay sustained in this place as a supernatural exchange occurs. We receive more of His nature and our nature fades. We understand His ways and paths because they are holy. We see the ravages of sin upon humanity and God’s overall love and plan. We are truly coming under His Lordship to be a tool empowered to make change. The actual degree of Lordship we see exercised today is directly related, I believe, to the amount of time spent before the Lord simply tarrying. When Lordship is lacking, a deep relationship is not in place. As you study the scriptures, the overall plan of salvation has little to do with the actual act of forgiveness and more about Lordship and the walking out of forgiveness under Lordship. I am not demeaning the work of the cross but simply stating it is the invitation and not the final destination of our walk with God!
Tarrying is not about spending time to find or receive a blessing. God may or may not reveal that portion to us. Tarrying is about a transformation process. It is about a journey with Him. If you are struggling in tarrying and it is hard for you to simple sit for a length of time of say, two hours, then possibly you are still coming to the Lord with a blessing mentality. You will know you have made the true transition into fully tarrying when it becomes a joy instead of an obligation. When it becomes an expectation. The reality is, the ones who can tarry a long time have found a real secret ancient path. That is the tarrying is the blessing! This is the joy of being with Him, not asking anything of Him but His dialogue! Now that is joy unspeakable and full of Glory and the half has not been told!
Micah 7:7 (KJV 1900) — 7 Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: My God will hear me.
What we are tarrying for can be summed up in this “that a portion of His holiness would rest upon us.”
- Tarrying before God will enable us to be kept by the power of God.
- Tarrying transforms our nature.
- Tarrying before God will release hidden mysteries.
- Tarrying before God will cause clarity to come concerning spiritual truth.
- Tarrying can become a lifestyle and not an event.