08-28-24-DAILY READING-ENG.

EXPERIENCING THE SPIRIT

                         EQUIPPED FOR THE ASSIGNMENT 

Jesus fulfilled His assignment as a man filled with the Holy Spirit. He was a man in every sense of the word, but He lived beyond His human ability because He yielded His life to the work of the Holy Spirit. As a result, He was able to fulfill everything the Father wanted Him to accomplish. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me,” He told His disciples, “and to finish His work” (John 4:34). Jesus suggested the limitations of His ability when He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do” (John 5:19).

To those who questioned where He received His wisdom, He answered, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority” (John 7:16-17). He said to others, “I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him” (John 8:28-29). Likewise Jesus told His disciples in the upper room, “The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works” (John 14:10). Never overlook the source of Jesus’ power while He walked on earth in the flesh. We tend to excuse His miracles by saying, “It was easy for Him; He was God!” But when the Son of God chose to come and dwell among us, He laid aside what was rightfully His and lived like a man. “Although He existed in the form of God, [Jesus] did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-7, NASB).

Jesus chose to live with all the limitations of a human being. Why? Because He couldn't take our place unless He first took up our condition. Salvation was dependent upon a man named Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. His life is therefore a demonstration of the way in which we can live, full of the Holy Spirit. Even the teaching Jesus gave the disciples after He'd risen from the dead was accomplished through the Spirit. Luke told us that Jesus ascended into heaven “after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen” (Acts 1:2). From beginning to end, the Holy Spirit was at work in the life of Jesus. While on earth, we human beings are always in need of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That was true of Jesus, and it's true of us.

 That's why the final commandment of Jesus to the disciples was to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon their lives. He knew they couldn't do the Father's will without the Spirit; but in the Spirit all things were possible. And so it happened. Once the Spirit came upon the apostles, they began doing everything the people had seen Jesus do. They healed the sick, raised the dead, and taught with great authority and power—and lives were changed. It can happen that way in our lives and ministry as well. For the Holy Spirit who came upon Jesus is exactly the same Holy Spirit given to you and me.