2023 04 05

Good morning.

Luke records in Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah prophesied 700 years before Christ began His ministry. He shows us four ways to be witnesses of Christ. "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners." (Isaiah 61:1)

Holy Spirit annoints us to:

• proclaim good news to the poor. This is the good news: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

• bind up the brokenhearted. Two of the mist agonizing wounds brought upon us by our iniquity are shame and rejection. "The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit— a wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your God." (Isaiah 54:6)

• proclaim freedom to the captive. "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)

• proclaim release from darkness for the prisoners. Jesus said: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Let's go and be effective witnesses to Christ.

Blessings.

Mike and Daphne