The Same Spirit - The One Year Heaven on Earth Devotional

Read: Isaiah 11

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him. Isaiah 11:2

IN WORD

The Spirit of the Lord rested on Jesus. He quoted another prophecy of Isaiah to make that point when He preached in His home synagogue: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor” (Luke 4:18). When God sent His Son into this world in human flesh, stripped of all His divine, supernatural rights (Philippians 2:6-8), He invested in Him the Spirit of His own character. As God would later do in every person of faith in and obedience to the gospel, He gave the human Jesus His own divine nature. The Spirit and the flesh met in Christ.

God’s desire in sending His Son was not just to save the world. Salvation is just the beginning. No, God’s desire was to save people first in order to pour His Spirit on them and in them. We are to be like Jesus, not just in habits and outward performance, but in inward nature. God’s plan was (and still is) to have a multitude of incarnations of Himself—human beings clothed in His Spirit—to be ambassadors and reconcilers in this rebellious world. We are the temple of God Himself. The presence of God in this world is His Holy Spirit in human hearts.

IN DEED

We tend to see so clearly the uniqueness of Jesus that we forget that He is also the prototype of all of redeemed humanity. That’s why He told His disciples that He was sending them into the world the same way the Father sent Him (John 20:21). That’s why He told them they would do even greater works than He did (John 14:12). That’s why a ragged band of disciples was able to turn the world upside down in a few short decades.

Never forget that Jesus is your prototype. God’s Spirit rested on Jesus. It’s also His desire for His Spirit to rest on you. In faith and obedience, walk the path He ordains for you, and ask Him for the same Spirit He invested in His Son.

ADDITIONAL READING: Luke 4:18

As the body of Christ, we are to be like Jesus so that we too reveal God to the world.

WILLIAM R. L. HALEY