As I shut the door of the office after me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It seemed to me that I saw Him as I would see any other man. He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as to break me right down at His feet. I fell down at His feet, wept aloud like a child, and made such confessions as I could with my choked utterance. It seemed to me that I bathed His feet in tears. I must have continued in this state for a good while. I returned to the front office, but as I turned and was about to take a seat by the fire, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. Without any recollection that I had ever heard the subject mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to come in waves of liquid love; it seemed like the very breath of God. I wept aloud with joy and love. – Charles Finney ¹ The Spirit of the Lord was active in the life of the great revivalist, Charles Finney. And, he is and can be highly active in your life. We can learn much about His activity by looking at the workings of the Spirit in the life of Jesus.

Luke 4:18–19 (KJV)
¹⁸ 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, ¹⁹ To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

• This is the sermon Jesus preached in His hometown of Nazareth.
• When He was asked to read, He stood up and found this passage in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 61:1–2 (KJV)
¹ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to them that are bound; ² To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all that mourn;

• Jesus, with the Isaiah scroll in hand, read this passage up until the words ‘And the day of vengeance of our God’.
• Then, he quit reading and sat down on the platform.
  • It was the customary posture of a teacher to be seated when instructing his disciples. After Jesus returned the scroll to the attendant, He sat down on the platform instead of going back into the congregation, because He wished to address the people. ²
• By sitting down on the platform in the customary posture of a teacher, Jesus was inviting the question, “Why not read the entire portion of scripture from Isaiah 61? Why stop at the ‘day of vengeance of our God?’
• Jesus wanted us to know there were two parts to His mission and they would take two different ‘comings’ to finish it.
• The first stage, or advent, or the First Coming of Jesus, as it is known theologically, includes His mission to redeem man including destroying the devastating hold Satan had on the inhabitants of planet earth.
• The second advent or Coming of Jesus is a day of vengeance when He will execute judgement on the enemies of God.
• The first coming of Jesus was about mercy. The second coming is about justice.

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The First Coming of Jesus and the Spirit of the Lord

1 John 3:8 (KJV)
⁸ He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

• As a precursor to the final annihilation of the works of darkness, Jesus went about destroying Satan’s works via the anointing of the Spirit of God.

Luke 13:11–16 (KJV)
¹¹ And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. ¹² And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. ¹³ And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. ¹⁴ And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. ¹⁵ The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? ¹⁶ And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?

• Jesus said this daughter of Abraham had a spirit of infirmity.
• That spirit, spoken of in verse 11, was a Satan controlled being according to verse 16.
• The word ‘infirmity’, in verse 11, is the Greek word ‘astheneia’ which means the impairment of normal physiological function affecting part or all of an organism; especially understood according to the resulting weakness caused by an illness.
• Evil spirits cause sickness.
• They perpetrate illness.
• They are dispensers of disease.
• Bombing cancer cells with glow-in-the-dark radiation is not always the answer to full recovery.
• Loosing people from the spirit of infirmity has it’s place in the restoration of man’s body.
• This action, this loosing, comes by the Spirit of the Lord.

Matthew 12:28 (KJV)
²⁸ But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

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Jesus Sermon in Nazareth

• Jesus sermon lead to a violent rejection.
• I’ve preached many messages but I have never had anyone try to throw me off a cliff because of what they heard.
• What did Jesus say which caused such an uproar?

Luke 4:18–20 (KJV)
¹⁸ 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, ¹⁹ To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. ²⁰ 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.

• Jesus emphasized three things about the anointing.
• Notice the emphasis on the word ‘me’.
  • The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
  • He has anointed me
  • He has sent me
• Jesus was not shy about the working of the Spirit of God in His life neither did he shrink from boldly declaring His calling.
• We are often taught true humility means never speaking of yourself; never using I or me in a sentence.
• The error gets in when we use the key word ‘never’.
• Everything is about inner intent.
• If your inner intent is to magnify yourself, than this is true.
  • Using ‘I’ or ‘me’ is bad business.
• But, one way to get the anointing to function is to speak of it.
• Jesus said ‘I am anointed by the Spirit.’
  • Believing a person is anointed is what causes the anointing to work.
  • In Nazareth, Jesus could do no mighty works because they didn’t believe he was anointed.
  • Nazareth did not believe ‘the Spirit of the Lord is upon me’ message Jesus proclaimed.
  • They thought Jesus was just a carpenter’s son.
  • Jesus said to several, Do you believe I am able to do this?

Matthew 10:41 (KJV)
⁴¹ He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.

• What is the prophet’s reward?
• It’s the fruit of his ministry which is a function of the anointing of God upon his life.

 Call to Action:

What you believe about the anointing coming upon a person makes all the difference in receiving the benefits of it. God provided anointed men and women to minister to the body of Christ. If God has given a person a healing anointing, you can receive that anointing by simply believing that God anointed that person for your benefit. This is a form of faith which can and will enrich your life spiritually.

Question: What blessing have you received by the anointing of the Spirit of God coming upon a servant of God? Please leave your comments in the comments section below.

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References:

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