Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 313

November 9;      Matthew 3:16;      3/260;      ‘Ready to Minister’

Matthew 3:16  “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him”.

Philippians 2:5-11 tells us that the Lord Jesus left deity in heaven and came to earth as a Man. When, He was water baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him and empowered Him for ministry.  His ministry began after He was empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus did this, so that after His redemptive work and resurrection was accomplished, He would send the Holy Spirit to empower every Christian baptized in the Holy Spirit, just as He was empowered. The genius of the Lord is seen. Jesus ministered as a Man, empowered by the Holy Spirit, so that we, as men and women empowered by the Holy Spirit today could continue His ministry. We need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to minister effectively in this world. This begins to take place in Acts 1:8 when the Lord Jesus, after His resurrection, told His disciples (and us) that they would receive the same power He ministered by, when the Holy Spirit came upon them. On the Day of Pentecost, all of this was fulfilled. The Holy Spirit’s empowerment is called the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and it is vital for every Christian to experience it. Our ability to minister without the power of the Holy Spirit is drastically limited. The Book of Acts clearly teaches the amazing transformation of the Apostles and their powerful ministries. This was a direct result of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. If the Lord Jesus needed this empowerment to minister, so do we. It is a free gift. Once we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are ‘natural’ men and women no more. How incredibly exciting to have God’s power surging through us to bless and help others.