Is it better to be disillusioned or to live in illusions? We easily build illusions about God and what we think He should do for us and in the world around us. When we walk with God we have to be seeking Him and studying His word, and we must do it with the Holy Spirit as he guides us into all the truth. When we know the truth, we are set free (John 8:32).
During the days of Christ’s ministry many were anticipating and waiting for a leader to deliver Israel from the Roman rule. At one point Jesus asked His disciples what people thought about Him. Matt. 16:13-17 Jesus said, “Who do you think I am? What do you expect me to be to you?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He said, you are Peter… the rock… I will give you the keys of the kingdom. Matt.16:18-19.
Christ often said that His kingdom was not of this world, and that it would be better for them that He leave them and send the Holy Spirit. Peter and the disciples reacted when Christ told them that He had to suffer and die. In one sense, the crucifixion was a great disillusionment to the disciples. Some went back to fishing. On the way to Emmaus, some did not even recognize the Lord resurrected, and were reporting how they felt after everything that had happened (Luke 24). They were disillusioned.
Jesus wasn’t hiding anything from them but they still believed in illusions based on their own expectations. In Acts 1, one more time He appeared to them in His resurrected body and told them to stay in Jerusalem. They were obedient to go to the upper room and wait. They all wanted Jesus to be something for them but He said that they would receive the Holy Spirit and become His witnesses.
The disciples had to stay together, in an atmosphere of oneness and agreement, and that was the atmosphere that triggered the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I believe that it is in our loving one another, washing one another’s feet, strengthening each other and walking in oneness that we will receive an even greater outpouring of His Spirit. That is the impartation that we need to be His witnesses to the world today.