The Spirit of God is on us to set us free and bring freedom to others
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Luke 4:18,19
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
The Holy Spirit of God is upon the Son of God they are one. The role of the Son is to show us the Father, to take on the sin of the world, to ever intercede for us at the right hand of the Father.
The role of the Holy Spirit, in this case, is to anoint us to preach the good news, heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, set free the oppressed and to proclaim God’s favor
Let me ask you…Does the Holy Spirit dwell in and with you?
If so, then this is our purpose, our call also….because the Holy Spirit is the same yesterday today and forever too
But before we can make this happen for others the Lord has to do it for and in us.
For today’s purposes I need to share this part of the teaching today first and then we will continue with worship
1) Healing the brokenhearted when The Holy Spirit spoke these words originally through Isaiah He really was talking to many people today.
The word broken hearted means splintered, shattered, fractured by life with a divorce rate that has been at a steady 50% for more than 4 decades and in the last 20 years the increase of “families” without the commitment of marriage and with the redefining of marriage Moms and dads were created each for a unique purpose and needed in the health of a child. Single moms and Dad’s all do an amazing job but there is still a need for both parents to be healthy or the impact we can see will be splintered and shattering of personalities
Ministry opportunity flash….if your children are grown you can help by being a grandparent and a surrogate parent to some of our families that are headed by a single parent…they could use the love and support from you
With so many children being exposed to substance abuse and physical and verbal abuse in the home.
So many, primarily women, being abused in the homes
So many abandoned by their Fathers
So many parents not parenting anymore but instead choosing to be their child’s friend this too causes a splintering
The Lord knew this would cause brokenness in many individuals because of the family
The word “heal” here means to set free or loosen as in to set someone free from the effects of the shattering or splintering…the Holy Spirit’s job is to release us from the effects completely of the pain of rejection, abuse, neglect and bring us to a place where we each feel totally loved, accepted, believed in, and healed
If we can receive this then we can do this for others
If this is you please come and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to you as we continue on in worship
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The Spirit of God is on us to set us free and bring freedom to others
Luke 4:18,19
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
2) We need to understand when Jesus is reading “preach the Gospel to the poor” what it means
– We have received a good and joyful message
– We believe this message and are living the message
– We see everyone else in light of this message
– We recognize anyone who doesn’t know or hasn’t heard this message is poor of spirit, heart, and will
The Holy Spirit has been poured out on us so that we might have the power to be His witnesses Acts 1:8
What Gospel are people seeing and hearing from us if you are just a miserable and hopeless as the world why would anyone what to hear anything from you?
I shared about brokenhearted already so onto the next part
3) “Liberty to the captives” – this is a funny phrase because it is the picture of a prisoner of war being brought out to freedom
When person was captured as a prisoner of war, Roman soldiers would tie their hands behind their back and a spear was shoved into their ribs…they had this sharp pain constantly in their back or side that is the literal translation of the word captives
When we are held captive by a sin, a mindset, a fear, a way of thinking, it is always right there eating at us Jesus has already proclaimed “FREEDOM” over each and every one of us.
Our minds can be totally set free, released from every harassing thought that has possessed us, the things that have controlled us in shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, and worry.
You can not set people free if you are not free yourself…the full immersion in the Holy Spirit can do this for you and then you can quickly discern that in others and God will set them free through you.
4) Recovery of sight to the blind – Jesus is the light of the world and he challenged us to be the light of the world to those in darkness
– people are in darkness because of their pain, their prejudice, their fears, their wounds, their ignorance, anger, rejection the Holy Spirits desire is for their eyes to be open to see the light God has for them so they can be in freedom
– of course, this also means literal healing of blind eyes but is not limited, as Jesus ministry was not limited to opening blind eyes but all kinds of healing
If the Spirit of the sovereign Lord is on you, Jesus promised we will lay hands on the sick and people will recover (Mark 16:18)
5) To set at liberty those who are oppressed
I had talked about this last week this has two meanings
– oppressed means to be pressed, pushed down or against, pressured
– it also means to be bruised like a stubbed toe
we can feel so pressed, burdened that everything is skewed by that pressure and we don’t even realize it.
The bruising is like a place in your head or heart that people keep hitting and every time they do it hurts you like the stubbed toe
6) To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord actually a more accurate translation would be the year of the Lord’s favor
– God’s favor means blessings in every way as you might suspect
– it also means
– rest
– joy
– answers to the questions
– insight and understanding into His word and character
– deep, intimate relationship
– the peace and assurance to know that nothing can or will happen to you apart from God
It doesn’t mean that you won’t go through struggles and trials but you can have the confidence God is with you.
All of this comes because we know the Lord and are filled with his Spirit.
All of this the Lord wants to do in us as the church and as I feel the Lord releasing me…like he did with broken-hearted today and oppressed last week (and this week by the way if you missed it)
If he does it in us first then we can bring this freedom to others.
Today if you have never been filled with the Holy Spirit or need a fresh infilling we are going to pray for you.
How do you know you have been filled with the Holy Spirit?
– Do you have a prayer language,
– Have you prophesied,
– Do you have real desire to share the Gospel these are generally some of the more normal signs of being filled with the Holy Spirit?
These are the “signs” we see in scripture for the fullness of the Spirit. When you are filled you natural desire is to want people to know the freedom you know
Please come