His mandate and ours
In Luke 4 :16-21 we read “…He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. 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 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;…Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus returned from the time of testing in the desert in the power of the Spirit and went into the synagogue and gave a declaration about the mandate He had from the Father to heal, restore and deliver. What a powerful proclamation concluding with “today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” leaving no doubt whatsoever as to His identity. Those present were the first to hear the fulfilment of Isaiah’s words penned hundreds of years previously.
The anointing of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus empowered Him to go about the Father’s business not only preaching about the Kingdom but each time He did, He demonstrated the power of the Kingdom to those listening to him. This included but wasn’t limited to, multiplying food, raising the dead, opening blind eyes or deaf ears, and setting free those afflicted by demons. He told His followers the very thing which sustained him (He called it food) was to do the will of the Father who had sent Him to earth (John 4:34).
He passed the baton to us to continue this work until He returns again. I believe when we ‘preach’ the Kingdom, we must be able to demonstrate the Kingdom to the hearers or our words are empty and meaningless. Paul put it this way…”my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power…” (1 Cor 2:4).
Be encouraged today! We have a mandate from heaven to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out the demons and cleanse the lepers – we have freely received so we must freely give to those with whom we have contact (Matt 10:8). His power and goodness are FAR too good to keep to ourselves. It all beings with 5 simple words – “may I pray for you?” Remember it is not by might, or power but by the Spirit of God! (Zec 4:6).