Saturday, May 2, 2026

PT-2 “The Spirit’s Anointing” (Luke 3:22a)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/2/2026 10:30 AM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-2 “The Spirit’s Anointing”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                    Reference:  Luke 3:22a

            Message of the verse:  “and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove,”

            I want to continue writing from where I left of in yesterday’s SD, and so if you have not read my SD from yesterday then you probably will want to do that.

            Now the Old Testament also taught that God would give the Spirit to the Messiah.  Isaiah 11:1-2 predicted that “the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him.”  In Isaiah 42:1, God said of the Messiah, “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one  in whom My soul delights.  I have put My Spirit upon Him,” while in Isaiah 61:1-2 the Messiah says,

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.”

            MacArthur writes “Throughout Christ’s entire life, including His development (Luke 2:52), sinless obedience, triumph over temptation, preaching, healing, casting out demons, death (cf. Heb. 9:14), and resurrection (cf. Rom. 1:4), His deity was mediated to His humanity by the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit’s power was essential—in His humanity Christ would not have done the miraculous deeds He did, or say the divine words He spoke.  The reason for that is found in Philippians 2::6-7, which says that ‘although [Christ] existed in the form of God, [He] 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.’  Jesus voluntarily surrendered the independent use of His divine power, and submitted Himself completely to the will of the Father.  And though His human nature was sinlessly perfect, it nevertheless did not have supernatural power.  Thus much so that to attribute His works to Satan is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31-32).”

(Matthew 12:31-32)

31  Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32  And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

            Now let me try to explain a little more about these verses in the context of which they are in.  The 12th chapter of Matthew is a turning point in the book of Matthew.  In this chapter the Pharisees stated that Jesus was doing His miracles in the power of Satan, “(24  But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.’” As mentioned when they said this, Jesus then began to teach in parables so that no one would be able to understand His teaching, but He explained the parables to His disciples.

“It must be stressed that in no way limits Christ’s full deity and equality with the Father (cf. Col. 2:9).”

(cf. Col. 2:9)

“9  For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,”

“But in the wonder and mystery of the incarnation, He set aside the independent use of His divine attributes.

            “That the Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove does not, as is commonly assumed, mean that the Spirit appeared in the physical form of a dove.  The phrase does not describe a birdlike visible manifestation of the Spirit’s presence, but rather that visible manifestation’s manner of movement as it descended upon Jesus. ‘What was visible was not a dove, but rather what was seen in compared to a dove,…The manner of the Spirit’s descent was like the way a dove floats gracefully through the air’ (Carrel L. Bock, Luke 1:1-9:50, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids, 1994] , 338).  The visible reality of the Spirit’s presence indicates His approval of and involvement in the Son’s ministry.”

            It was truly a shame that the Pharisees and the other “religious” groups did not understand who they were dealing with when the Messiah, the Lord Jesus came to earth, and because of that in the year 70 A.D the Romans would come into Jerusalem and tear down the beautiful temple that Jesus ministered in from time to time while on earth, and that began the dispersion of the Jewish people which is still going on today.  However they do have a choice now as the Jews are free to move into the state of Israel, which began again, this time on May 14th, 1948.  God is still watching over Israel and is prospering them, but there will come a time in the “Tribulation Period” that Israel will fall into the hands of the Antichrist as he will make a deal with them for seven years, but will then turn against them half-way through that time period and again the Jews will be persecuted until they all turn to the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  After the Lord Jesus went back into heaven as seen in Acts chapter one He said that the Holy Spirit would come upon those 125 believers that were gathered.  This happened on the Day of Pentecost and that is when Peter preached that first great sermon of the church age and many came to know Christ as Savior, and Lord.  The Holy Spirit comes on all who accept the forgiveness that Christ offers and that is an amazing power we as believers all possess.  Because we are still sinful people the Spirit cannot do the things He did in the life of Christ, but He can do wonderful things in believer’s lives to cause them to do the things that God has called each believer to do.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to have His Spirit work in my life so that I can do the things that He has called me to do for the cause and glory of Christ.

5/2/2026 11:07 AM

 

 

 

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