LIVING BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. (Part 32).
Luke 4. Verses 17-21 read:
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Jesus had an excellent partnership with the Holy Spirit, which ensured his effective execution of the mandate of God upon his life. Today’s text is a fulfilment of a prophetic declaration made of Jesus Christ hundreds of years before his incarnation by the Prophet Isaiah. As part of his routine, Jesus went to the synagogue, and coincidentally, the book of Isaiah was handed over to him to read. He turned to sixty-first chapter where details of his ministry had been spelt out.
Beloved, everything Jesus did in his ministry was founded on the fact that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. The presence of the spirit upon him anointed or consecrated him for some specific assignments. The Heavenly Father’s goal of releasing his spirit upon any man is to enable him to dispense God’s manifold grace to establish God’s plans and purposes for fellowmen. The specific assignments of Christ, which were mentioned by Prophet Isaiah, include:
- Preaching the gospel to the poor: In the general sense, the gospel refers to the word of God. As many as haven’t received Christ and the word of God lack the riches of God’s grace and are therefore classified as poor. Jesus’ mission was to turn the lives of men from the poverty of sin into the riches of God’s abundant grace.
- The healing of the brokenhearted: The brokenhearted are people who have been wounded by the situations of life and activities of the evil one. Brokenheartedness manifests in despondency, dejection, and frustration in the lives of men. Under the unction of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of Jesus Christ was to restore men of this calibre to the rest of God.
- Preaching deliverance to the captives: Captives are people who are confined to a position of defeat and are unable to help themselves. To such, Jesus is out to give the message of deliverance. This message is comparable to the rulers decree that sets captives free. None can resist the potency of the words of Christ’s deliverance.
- Recovery of sight to the blind: Blindness refers to a lack of vision. Vision is a pictorial view of an end one desires to attain. Real visions come from God. Those without vision lack a sense of direction and purpose in life. Based on the unction on Jesus Christ, he is able to open the eyes of the spiritually blind so that they can see the vision of God for their lives. This vision is essential for productive living.
Believers are expected to be extensions of Jesus’ ministry. Our duty is to continue in what Jesus began to teach and do. Yes, Jesus is not physically present on earth now, but he lives in the believer by the Holy Spirit. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we must arise and labour on just as Christ did.
SHALOM 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏