THURSDAY
This week we are coming off of our serve Sunday food pack event. Since the devotionals are usually themed towards the sermon from Sunday, we are going to tie the two themes of service and the presence of God together this week. Let’s look at a few biblical characters who were divinely empowered to accomplish their missions that God calls them to.
The big idea is simple—to serve God and others we need to be familiar with the presence of God.
The gospels record that Jesus, although God in flesh, performed his miraculous works in the power of the Holy Spirit.
He begins his ministry only after his baptism in which the Holy Spirit falls on him.
Matthew 3:16–17 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
When he introduces himself as the Messiah at a synagogue, he reads this passage from the scroll of Isaiah.
Luke 4:18–19 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
When ministry got busy, Jesus would often withdraw to lonely places to rest in the presence of the Father.
Luke 5:15–16 15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Jesus said that he only did what he saw the Father doing, indicating his dependence on the presence of God.
John 5:19 19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
Jesus drove out demons by the Spirit of God:
Matthew 12:28 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
In preaching the gospel to Cornelius in Acts 10, Peter tells how God was with Jesus and anointed him with power to minister.
Acts 10:37–38 7 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
Jesus, of course, could have done his service in his own power as the second person of the Trinity, but I believe he is here setting an example for us of the power of God in ministry.