“Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.  When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:14-19

Can we make the Holy Spirit exclusively ours?  The text from Luke says that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit – actually the power of the Spirit, and then embarked upon his ministry. In essence, even in his actions, not just in his words, Jesus was teaching the disciples and all of the other followers what it means to be empowered with the Holy Spirit, and what can be done when one has the power of the Spirit. We will witness Jesus teaching, preaching, healing and casting out demons. The complaint from his hometown is that Jesus says his ministry is not to his own people but to those who need it – without regard to nationality, gender or race. The Jewish people wanted the “prophet”, and expected the Messiah would come only for them. As followers of Jesus, we cannot allow ministries to be thought of in the same way. We cannot keep our ministries only for our own people or our own kind. We need to move into ministries where the Holy Spirit leads us – without regard to exclusivity.

Pastor Dave