by
Rev. Dr. Robert SJ Coutts
“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 broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and
recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
When Jesus
was in the temple one day, He picked up the book of Isaiah and began to read
some powerful words. These words were even more powerful because they were
emphasized by the very work He was doing on the earth at that time.
There is
something very important about having the Spirit of God upon us. I believe God
is bringing us to a place where we know the Spirit of the Lord is upon us and
if we have not yet gotten to that place it would be good to consider how to get
there and make a determination that you are going to do it as soon as you
possibly can.
I believe God
is drawing our attention to the fact of what Jesus said in John 14: 16; “I
will pray the Father, and He will give you another helper [Comforter in the
KJV] that He may abide with you forever.” John 14:16
We need to
make sure in this lifetime that the same anointing comes upon us. The Spirit of
the Lord came upon Him who is our head, so it should be imperative to us that
we receive it as well to carry on the work of our Lord. I don’t know about you,
but I want that same Spirit on me.
The devil
will cause us to lose the victory if we allow ourselves to be defeated by him. But
if the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, the devil has no say. He has no way with
us. And it is a fact that if we have not the Spirit of the Lord upon us, we
have no message at all, and, as for me,
I have no
message for anyone apart from that message He gives to me and I also believe
that the signs He speaks will follow His message. I believe that Jesus was the
One sent forth from God. He was sent to be the propitiation for our sins. He
became the scapegoat that you and I might have life. He became the propitiation
for the sins of the whole world. I John 2:2; “And He is the propitiation for
our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole
world.” I John 2:2;
We see the
manifestation of the Spirit resting upon Him so that His ministry was with
power. May God awaken us to the fact that this is the only place there is any
ministry of power.
I want to
speak to you in such a way today as to stir you up to the fact that the Holy
Spirit is here now. He is here and He is here to stay forever. Are you going to
let the devil defeat you? Or, are we
going to produce the signs following that Jesus promised once the comforter had
come. The signs must follow because
Jesus said so. When we walk in that same Spirit we will not be defeated by the
devil and we will produce the signs that Jesus expects of every Spirit filled
believer.
Folks, there
is absolutely no limit to what we can become if we will only live and dwell in
the Spirit. In the Spirit of prayer, we will be immediately transferred from
earth to the very presence of God. In the Spirit, the Word of God seems to
unfold in a wonderful and powerful way. In the Spirit, the love of God is
poured out in us. Romans 5:5; says, “and hope maketh not ashamed; because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to
us.” Romans 5:5;
As we speak
in the Spirit we feel the fire that burned within the hearts of those two men
on their way to Emmaus when Jesus walked with them after the resurrection. Luke
24:13-3;2 is the story. I just know, that when you and I walk with Him, it will
also come to pass in our lives that our hearts will burn within us.
That same
power of the Spirit of God is present to make it happen. The two men on their way to Emmaus could not
understand what was happening on the road but a few hours later, they
saw Jesus break the bread, and their eyes were opened.
Folks, I am convinced that as we walk with
our Lord, our hearts should always be burning inside us. Burning with a
passion for Him and about Him. There is a place where we can live in the
anointing and be totally clothed in His spirit. A place where everything we say
will come out in the power of the Lord.
Ephesians
tells us. . .“Do not be drunk with wine. . .but be filled with the Spirit.”
Ephesians 5:18; I tell you the truth, to be filled with the Spirit is a
wonderful privilege. With that privilege come responsibility, like John on the
Isle of Patmos that day. He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and God used
him to pen Revelation and because of the fact he was in the Spirit, God made
the Revelation clear to him. you can read about that in Revelation 1:9-10;.
What does it
mean to this generation for us to be kept in the spirit? All human reasoning
and all human knowledge cannot be compared with the power of the life that is
lived in the Spirit. In the Spirit we have the power to loose and we have the
power to bind. Matthew 16:19; “And I will give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 16:19;
There is a
place where the Holy Spirit can put us where we cannot be anywhere else but in
the Spirit. If we breathe the Holy Spirit’s thoughts into our thoughts, and
live in the anointing of the Holy Spirit as Jesus lived, then there will be
evidences that we are in the Holy Spirit, and we will do His works. But, it is
only in the Spirit!
Now, I read
in Matthew
16:19; that Jesus says in essence, “I will give you power to bind, and I will
give you power to loose.” This is a power that we have not yet claimed,
and we will not be able to claim this manifestation of the Spirit unless we
live in the spirit. I believe we are only able to bind and loose when we are
living in the Spirit. We cannot bind things in human strength or in the natural
mind. This kind of power was never lacking in the life of Jesus but as I give
you this word today,
I feel there
is a great lack of that power in most Christians today. God help us! Luke 4:18;
says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.
Friends,
there was a great purpose for this Spirit to be upon Jesus and likewise there
is a special purpose for each of us to be baptized in the Spirit. We must not
forget that we are all members of the same body, His body and by this wonderful
baptismal power, we are partakers of His divine nature. 2 Peter 1:4; says. . .“Whereby
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:4
The
revelation came this way. I saw Adam and Eve driven out of the garden and a
flaming sword at every side to keep them from entering into the garden. But I
saw that all around me was a flaming sword keeping me from evil, and it seemed
this would be true if I would claim it, and I said, “Lord I will.” The flaming
sword was around me, delivering me from the power of Hell. In this way we are
preserved from evil. God is like a wall of fire around us Zechariah 2:5;
so why should we fear? What a
wonderful salvation! What a wonderful deliverer!
The next time
you read Ezekiel. Read chapter 37; and
notice, the only need of Ezekiel was to be in the Spirit, and while he was in
the Spirit, it came to him to prophesy to the dry bones and say, “O
dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.” Ezekiel 37:4
And as he
prophesied according to the Word of the Lord and God’s command, he saw an “exceeding great army.” Ezekiel 37:10;
rising up about him. he prophet obeyed
God’s command, and all we have to do is
exactly this: obey God. “What
is impossible with man is possible with God” Luke 18:27;
It is truly
my prayer that your body, soul, and spirit may be preserved holy and that you
will always be on fire, always ready with the anointing on you. Without it we
are out of divine order and we ought to be on our faces before Him crying out
to Him until that glory returns to our life and shines on our face for the
world to see. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.” Luke 4:8;
There must
have been a reason for the Spirit of the Lord to be upon Him. There is, and the
Word gives us our clue. Luke 4:18-19; Because He has anointed Me to
preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted [what a
Gospel!], to proclaim liberty to the captives [what a wonderful Spirit was upon
Him!], and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are
oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Missionaries
who work in many of the foreign countries have an awesome responsibility to
deliver the Gospel of Salvation and healing and deliverance. Knowing how
missionaries are to work can be found in the life of Paul among the natives on
the Island of Malta. When the viper (snake) came out of the fire and fastened
on to Pause hand, they watched to see him swell up and die. When he neither
swelled up nor died, they said, “He
is a god.” Acts 28:3-6; Missionaries need to be sure that when they go
to foreign lands where the devil is having his way and they go there to see the
bands of Satan loosed and prisoners of sin set free, they need to be sure they
can say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”
The Word reminds
us that Christ is made unto us not only Salvation, but also wisdom and
redemption I Corinthians 1:30. I am under the firm conviction that each of us when
we go into our own mission field, must be sure we can say, The Spirit of the
Lord is upon Me and that we are filled with God, yes, filled with God, pardoned
cleansed and filled with God.
Being filled
with God leaves no room for fear or doubting. I am sure we really do not have
any idea of what all pertains to being filled with God. I know it means being
emptied of ourselves for sure. But, do you know what it means to be filled with
God. It means you have no fear. That means you are filled with God because the
word specifically says, “perfect love casts out fear.” I John 4:18;
I don’t know
about you, but I want to know more about this manifestation of the power of the
Holy Spirit so let’s just follow the Apostle Paul for a bit. If you look at the
28th chapter of Acts, we find that the chief of the Island had a
fever and he had dysentery. The minute Paul ministered to him, he was healed, and
the people gave Paul things to take with him Acts 28:8-10;
When we think
that the church is poor and needy, we forget that the spirit of intersession
can unlock every bank in the world. What did God do for the children of Israel?
He took them to vineyards and lands flowing with milk and honey, and all they
did was walk in and take possession.
If we would
only live in the Spirit and the anointing of the Spirit, there would be no
lack. The is only lack where faith is not the substance. Hebrews 11:1; says, “Now faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” And whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Romans
14:23; “And he that doubteth is dammed if he eat, because he eateth not of
faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
If we believe
this with all our hearts, this will come to pass. You do not need to try and
bring Christ down to earth, He is already here according to Romans 10:6-8; “But
the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine
heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is to bring Christ down from above:
Or, who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from
the dead,) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in
thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;” Romans 10:6-8;
He is here
and if we will obey Him, there is nothing He will not give us since He has
given us Jesus. The Spirit will have to reveal to us the fact that, because the
Lord has given us Jesus, He has given us all things. The Spirit of the Lord is
upon Me Luke 4:18; says.
It is
absolutely true that we must be filled with the Spirit. We need to ask God to
teach us what that means. It is only because Jesus had an understanding of what
it meant to be filled with the Spirit that he was able to do mighty works and that
He could stand before a demon and say, “Come out!” I wonder today, who is the
person that is so willing to lay down everything so they can have all God has
for them?
If that is
you today, I urge you to begin to seek His face and don’t stop seeking until
you get what you are looking for. A closeness with Jesus that can only be
explained by the works He will do through you. Don’t stop until you can
truthfully say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me!”
I thank you
Father that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have
revealed them to babes. Matthew 11:25;
If that is
you and you are in the infant class today, the Spirit must have revealed to
you, your lack of Him. You need to seek with all your heart and you need to be
made a flame of fire for Him. The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you
will do exploits for Him.
Ask Him
today, Spirit of the Lord, Come upon Me.
