“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” (Acts 10v38)
Everything Jesus did – He did through the power of the Holy Spirit! Although Jesus was God, He chose to set His divine nature aside, and chose to operate fully as a man – as a man filled with the Holy Spirit!
Jesus never spoke a sermon, never did a miracle, never made a decision, outside of the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Himself said that without the Holy Spirit “the Son can do nothing by himself” (John 5v19)
This is so important! If Jesus did what He did as God, then His life is unattainable for you and me. If however, Jesus did what He did as a Spirit anointed man, then we are responsible for pursuing His lifestyle!
Jesus was concieved by the Holy Spirit, He was filled with the Holy Spirit, led by the Holy Spirit and filled with the power of the Spirit! The Holy Spirit descended on Him as a dove, He set people free by the Spirit, preached words that were Spirit and life, taught on the Holy Spirit, was anointed by the Holy Spirit and rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. He offered His life on the cross through the Holy Spirit, was raised by the Holy Spirit, breathed the Holy Spirit into His disciples and gave them the Holy Spirit in Acts 2!
If Jesus needed the Holy Spirit then how much more do we?! It is complete arrogance to suggest we do not need the power and person of the Holy Spirit to fill us every day!
As we see that what Jesus did what He did as a Spirit filled man, it changes the way we look at the gospels. They become less of a history lesson, and more of an example of how God wants us to live and operate. I don’t care how big or large or succesful a ministry is, the only ministry I want is the ministry of Jesus! That means all the signs and fruit that Jesus had in His ministry I want in mine! The Bible says He has led many sons to glory. It says as He is in the world, so are we! We are here to carry on the ministry that Jesus started! The problem is that we are not representing Jesus properly! When John the Baptist asked if Jesus was who He claimed to be, Jesus could point to the evidence “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” When we claim that our churches are life changing places where God is present, can we point to the same criteria?!
People need to see the real Jesus! A powerless Christianity is no Christianity at all!
John 7 says “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
The whole reason why Jesus died on the cross, was not just so that we could be forgiven and go to heaven, but that He, by His Spirit could dwell on the inside of us, that the divine nature that Adam lost could be restored! The reason why Jesus was kicked, punched, spat on, whipped, nailed and pierced
was so that me and you could experience the power and presence of the Holy Spirit! When people say “I don’t need the Holy Spirit” or “The power of God is not for today” we are rejecting what Jesus did for! When we don’t acknowledge or welcome or hunger for the presence of the Holy Spirit, we are not just rejecting Pentecost, but Passover – for the two can not be seperated! Some people mock or despise it when the Holy Spirit knocks people to the floor or causes them to laugh or shake – but do we not realise that Jesus died so that we could experience the power of God?! Before Jesus, only the chosen few could experience the Holy Spirit, but now “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off— for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2)
Never take the wonderful person of the Holy Spirit for granted! The Holy Spirit is not a gift from God, He is THE gift of God, through whom all other gifts flow! It says of Jesus that He had the Spirit without limits! We too should take off the limits and allow the Holy Spirit to so fill us that we “may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God.” (Eph 3v19)
Andrew Murray 