Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Tues.’s Devo - “The Spirit of the Lord is Upon YOU!”

Read Luke 4:16-22 According to Alfred Edersheim, a Jewish expert on Jewish life during the days of Jesus, it was customary in the synagogue to have a reading of scripture followed by a teaching about that scripture. The section for the day was subdivided, so that every Sabbath at least seven persons were called up to read, each a portion, which was to consist of about three verses. In the course of 3 years they would read the whole Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Old Testament). Since Jesus was the Word that became flesh , he walked out the reading of the day in his daily life. Today the reading was from Isaiah. His portion to read was Is. 61:1-2. The minister handed him the book and he read his passage, closed the book and sat down. Everyone was looking at him expecting a teaching. His only reply was, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” What Jesus read was a synopsis of his ministry. He was sent by God, anointed by the Holy Spirit to preach the good news to the poor, heal broken hearts, deliver those in chains, give them eyes to see, set free all who were crushed and preach the year of release (Jubilee). He stopped right before the part that says, “And the day of vengeance of our God.” Jesus didn’t come preaching judgment. He came preaching salvation. Before he comes again we will be preaching judgment, because it will be near. Needless to say, the people were drawn to him. He was reading the same scripture that they heard every 3 years so what was so “gracious” about his words? His words were anointed and reached their hearts. It wasn’t just the Word he was reading, it was the spirit of God that was speaking the Word. That is why we can read the Bible and get nothing from it, but hear an anointed speaker read that same verse and it jumps off the book right into our hearts. Pray for anointing to read the Bible and it will be words of life, not just printed words. Lord, let the Spirit of the Lord be upon us that we can do the things you did with the same anointing you had. Open our spiritual eyes to see your Word.

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