"If it's our intent to be about our Heavenly Fathers business,
we need to rightly interpret Isaiah 61:1-2 which states. "The Spirit of the Lord God is 1.) Upon
me; because the Lord has 2.) Anointed me to, 3.) ) preach good tidings unto
4.) The meek; he has 5.) Sent me to 6.) Bind up the brokenhearted, to
7.) Proclaim liberty to the captives, and 8.) The opening of the prison to them
that are bound.bound. 9.) To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeanceproclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God; 10.) To comfort all that mourn.
Christ was sent to earth to empower Jesus to be about His Father's business and we are called as born again children of
God; to do the same acts that He did. Let's define these words that I have underlined from our main text.
1.) Upon
This is really two words up and on. Up
meaning, being influenced by a higher wisdom then our own and an interaction with a living God who wants to play the vital
role in molding and changing our thinking into His. The word on means, to have contact with this Living
God and follow a continual course of revelation and action described by Him to go to war and do battle. I
never had a clue when I first got saved that, I was going into a spiritual warfare in my Christian
walk because, the assembly that I first started attending never preached on it with consistency.
2.) Anointed:
Consecrated or set apart unto the Lord to do the works of God
through the anointing of the Holy Spirit at work with in me.
3.) Preach good tidings:
We need to be full of enthusiasm in bringing forth good informative news. Our enthusiasm
is being motivated by God because; we are full of God's word and are being prompted and energized by the Holy Spirit's
anointing from within us and not by any religious denominational beliefs. Good news is not only that Jesus loves us and saves
us from an eternity in hell; it also means that the Holy Spirit wants to point out all areas where our thinking comes into
conflict with God's way of thinking. It's not comfortable at times to hear these truths that come into conflict however;
it then gives us the choice to allow Him to mess with our attitudes for change or to continue in our own
ways.
4.)
The meek:
Meaning, humble, gentle and needy. First
of all this idea of being needy, is us realizing how totally dependent we are on the Holy Spirit to grow us up to know Him
better, as we learn to understand God's supreme authority and what He knows compared to what we know. We then begin to
realize how much pleasure it gives God to reveal Himself to His children. We open our heart up to His Spirit where, a reverential
fear of the Lord begins to dominate our lives. Not a fear of punishment, but a hunger of
not wanting to miss one word of what God is doing in these last days. This is what makes us easily
persuaded by Him to mature. It is the our flowing in the personality of the Holy Ghost which causes us to stay in
a needy humble condition of recognizing that without Him we can do nothing to change our circumstances. There
is a dependency on God that we have to settle into and it's the principle of us learning to die to selfish ambitions
and a fear with in us that if we don't help God out, we're going under in some area of our lives.
The Apostle
Paul in 11 Cor: 7-9 was praying and having a conversation with the Lord and he states. "So that I would not
get puffed up with pride because of all the revelation knowledge I was receiving from the Lord. The Devil began attacking
and harassing me and this warfare was stopping me from being carried away with my own importance. Three times I cried out
to God to deliver me from this warfare" and God's answer was. "My loving favor, kindness and mercy
are enough for you. This will enable you to bear up as a man and enable you to handle the trouble. For my strength and power
can only operate to its full capacity and effectively as you realize how weak you are with
out me." God's destiny is for Him to send us into battle and then have us learn how to let Him fight
the battle for us.
For us to really understand God's mind, we must be actively participating with Him and when we approach
God with a meek attitude, we allow Him to plant His wisdom deep with in us and write His desires on the fleshy table of our
heart. This meek condition should be multiplying in our heart continually. Us learning to be submissive and stop trying to
do it our way has to be our top priority if, we are to going to be all that God intended. So I say to the one who wants to
receive more revelation from God, let the Holy Spirit check you out to see if you have a meek heart and when you are trying
to persuade some one else to follow the Lord, make sure that they have a meek heart to receive instruction. Because if they
are not at a stage of being meek, you're wasting your time and your wisdom is falling on spiritually
deaf ears. (This condition is indeed a sad and dangerous position for one of God's children to be in.)
5.) Sent me:
God doesn't send anybody unless He knows that they
are prepared. There are many people in the body of Christ that think that they were sent by God
and the reality is, they went on there own and some denominations are still building their own towers of Babel.
Also many people in the body of Christ that God planned to send and He hasn't changed His mind, have been taken
out of the cocoon to soon and have crashed and burned. This has left some crippling disappointments and many
have given up in their quest for excellence. This happens because they became unsure of their calling. When this happens,
the whole body of Christ suffers. This word sent means, appointed,
to reach for and grow long. Simply meaning,
God is doing the appointing not man and it will take a life long commitment
of a passionate pursuit, seeking Godly wisdom.
We need to have a vision from God on what we were called to be by Him and empowered
to pursue that vision and never look back and continue to continue in spite of all adversity. It's going to take a persevering
strength that only the Holy Spirit can give us. Most of the time the adversity comes from the very people that you are trying
to help because, they are their worst enemy. It's only us being rock sure that we can come in the name of the Lord that;
will allow us to maintain our resolve and be instant in or out of season, when the word is welcomed and at times when it is
not.
Jesus
did not die on a cross to minister a weak watered down gospel with a halfhearted commitment. It's
the power of God to continually save and deliver His children from every demonic attack the Devil can devise. This is the
foundation that must be laid, if we are going to know where our power comes from and the type of heart attitude we need to
function in as God sends us into battle. We are sent into battle to deliver ourselves and others from all types of deceptions
that the Devil has laid on God's children. We will now discuss what these conditions represent and what we were sent to
do.
6.) Bind up the broken hearted:
The
word bind is chabash: meaning, to heal, govern, and rule or to take control. This takes place by
God's influence and His power working with in us. We can only take control in His strength
and not in our own. The word brokenhearted is two words. Leb: meaning, our heart or will and intellect,
where the center of our being exists and where the issues of life are formed and it also means, we need to have a willing
spirit to seek God for His wisdom. The second word for brokenhearted is shabar:
meaning, to observe carefully, be patient and to be giving birth to a God given vision. It is as our
soul prospers, (which represents our intellect, will and emotions), that will make us live in health and
be whole. Scripture tells us to guard our hearts where the issues of life are formed. All this binding has to be spoken and
be by the Holy Spirit's decrees already formed and in operation in heaven. We must have a fellow feeling and have patient
love operating in our heart and doing it God's way if we are going to be changed into His image.
This is not some
quick instant prayer for deliverance; but a way of life and attitude. It takes time to observe, be patient and give birth
to something. A physical baby takes nine months to be born. We have to be seeking with a concentrated effort with
a higher wisdom than our own and this is an attitude we need to be living in day after day. This Christian walk becomes
very simple when it is taught with sound-minded concepts and being sought after with all our
resolve.
7.) To proclaim liberty to the captives:
The word proclaims is gara: meaning, to publish, call
to, invite and to meet accidentally or in a hostile manner. The word liberty is derowr: meaning,
to move rapidly and to be set free with a spontaneous overflow. We're not to do this by our own planning by formalizing
it in our own minds but by a super natural instinct from a sudden impulse and unction
given by the Holy Spirit from with in us; which can happen at any given moment. Our spiritual
senses most be alert and active at all times if; this is to take place.
The word captive is shebiy:
meaning, a prisoner, something taken, subdivisions, streamers, or a split into tongues. If
we are going to function and stand in the gap for God, we must come prayed and grown up to do spiritual battle in our every
day encounters with people, who are living as a prisoner in their thought life. Our main battle is in our minds because, the
devil does not want the born again child of God interpreting His word through the wisdom of the Holy Ghost.
We go about our
Heavenly father's business as we are going about our every day activities in the market places of life. We are not talking
only about church service and Wednesday night bible class. I would hope that we would not find a hostile environment in our
church assemblies even though I have seen hostility and division within congregations of believers. We are talking about God's
kids so full of the Spirit of God that; they have the boldness to size up a situation wherever they find themselves and know
how to speak a word of wisdom to those who are being brought into captivity from the Devils devices in their particular market
places of life. Jesus when He was on the earth was always ready to encounter sickness and demonic activity where ever he went.
Now
this definition of the word captive is very enlightening and profound in its meaning. Let's talk about
the Devils way of trying to capture us to do his will. From the meaning of captive, it's obvious that
the Devil wants to put division between God and His body and between each one of us. It says subdivisions
meaning, one division built upon another. We have denominations teaching so many different doctrines, that sometimes I think
when Jesus comes back to earth we are going to divide Him into pieces and take only the teaching they we agree with from Him.
God's army of believers are scattered in different camps and unless we learn to follow our Commander and Chief Jesus Christ
in unison, we will stay a ragtime army with no cooperative and common vision. The body of Christ is broken into pieces and
split into many tongues meaning peoples.
Isaiah 59:19 states that, "When the enemy comes in like a
flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him." This standard is in God's strength,
with a cheerful heart, which gives us great success. This word standard is nuwe:
meaning, flit, vanish or put to flight. The standard we raise up makes the Devils deceptions pass lightly and quickly. This
has to be our proclamation when God puts us in places to raise up a standard. If we do not understand our
Fathers business; God can not use us to proclaim anything. Another deception of the Devil is to attack us through our un-dead
flesh. This word streamer means a shaft of light.
Ephesians 6:16 says, "above
all take up the shield of faith and then we will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."
The word fiery is puroo: meaning, to glow, be inflamed or fire. The word dart is
buwth:/bayth: meaning night, house or place of habitation. Scripture tells us that we are the temple of
God and the Holy Spirit lives within us. Therefore, we can plainly see that the battle is within us. The Devils main tactic
is to put doubt in the minds of the believer as to their potential in Christ. If we are ignorant and are not hungering and
thirsting after God, our lack of wisdom of God's ways keeps us living in spiritual darkness within ourselves. It's
as if we are trying to hide from God living in denial as His children. This condition absolutely keeps us powerless
from God's intended purposes of prospering us in our spirit soul and body.
These darts of the Devil can attack at any given moment. It's
like losing your temper in a situation and letting your emotions rule over you. We need to realize that our flesh has a will
of its own. of its own. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians in
5:16 tells them "walk in the Spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh."
It's the Devils main purpose to give us a rush or a quick emotional rapture to satisfy our fleshly craving
appetites. When we are addicted to our own fleshly appetites, that is an extreme bondage and we really are
not living in the freedom that God intended which stops us from exploring our relationship with Him.
Not only can we be addicted to sinful
pleasure or lack of discipline but also, the Devil will influence us with raptures that are counterfeit spiritual
type emotional experiences that have no power to crucify our flesh, but only enslaves us more in us doing our own thing. He
tries to mislead us in our worship of God, where we are worshipping Him through our
emotions and not from the core of Holy Spirit worship from within.
When we became born again believers; our spirit became energized and we now
have the capability to walk in the spirit. Our flesh was not saved or delivered. It's only as we in God's strength
fight and put down these fleshly cravings that, we can walk in freedom in the Lord. If there is no hunger and thirsting with
passion in our seeking of God's nature then, you can forget about walking in freedom in the Holy Spirit.
Walking
in the spirit is a constant urgent relationship of necessity with the Holy Sprit daily. He teaches us precepts upon precepts,
line upon line one-step at a time.
As a man builds a house, you start with the foundation and its takes awhile of committed
effort until you can put the roof on. We are in a battle of staying free or being captured by
the Devil in any area because of our ignorance of God's ways of thinking.
Continued in part 2