by Helen Jesze 22nd May 2026

“The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed
One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent
Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send
forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised,
crushed, and broken down by calamity], To proclaim the accepted and
acceptable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the free favors of God
profusely abound.” Luke 4:18+19 Amplified Bible

Right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, as His custom was on the Sabbath Day, He
went into the Synagogue in Nazareth where He had been brought up. He stood up to
read, and He was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and He found the place in
chapter 61, where the above words were written. Then He rolled up the scroll and
giving it back to the attendant, He sat down again; everybody in the room was gazing
attentively at Him.

And He began to speak to them: Today this Scripture has been fulfilled while you
are present and hearing. What was He meaning, that the Spirit of the Lord was
upon Him, and that He was the Anointed One – the Messiah?! Why He was only
Joseph the carpenter’s son. They all knew Him and His mother, Mary, and the rest of
the family! Here He is calling Himself the Messiah – God’s Deliverer, for whom they
were all waiting!

Jesus spelled out clearly God’s purpose, God’s mandate for His life – that He had
come to bring deliverance to all those in need and to usher in the Kingdom of God on
Earth, but only because He was empowered by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus had been
baptised by John, in the river Jordan, He was still praying when the Heaven was
opened. Everybody saw the Holy Spirit descend on Him like a dove, and a voice from
Heaven was heard saying, You are my Son, my Beloved! In You I am well pleased
and find delight! (Luke 3: 21b + 22 Amplified Bible)

Although Jesus was the Son of the Living God, and although He was conceived by
the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, yet He never performed any miracle until after
the Holy Spirit had come upon Him, giving Him power for service.
In the same way, each of us who are Christians have been born of the Spirit into
God’s Family, but we need the infilling or Baptism in the Holy Spirit to empower us
for service. Two distinct experiences.

Straight after His baptism, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where He
fasted and stayed alone and with the wild beasts, being tempted by Satan. However,
He was victorious, quoting God’s Word to him, and after 40 days, Jesus came out
again, “full of the Holy Spirit”! My, most of us would have come dragging out, but
He was full of the Spirit, eager to start His commission of deliverance and setting free
the captives!

If we study these verses Jesus told the people in the Synagogue, we see that this One
sent from God was to be a Man of compassion, One who sought out those people
who were broken-hearted, trodden down in Life, blind physically, mentally and
spiritually, like captives in a dungeon with no way out, crushed and bruised – a Man
full of the Love of God, His Father.

I was thinking that Christians and especially everyone whom God uses has times of
brokenness, times of being shaped on the heavenly Potter’s wheel, formed into the
plan God has for our lives. He is seeking to purify us like gold. When gold is put into
the furnace, it is heated until any impurities leave the metal and rise to the top, where
the gold-maker can skim it off, and it is ready when he is able to see his face mirrored
in the gold! We too, are being purified and being made into the image of God’s dear
Son. God wants to see His beauty in our lives. Jesus wants to be seen shining out of
us to bring glory to the Father and to bring healing to the lost and broken.

Perhaps you feel you are in the furnace at the moment, dear Friend! You may be
broken-hearted and do not know how you are going to come through this sorrow or
trial. Let me encourage you, Jesus the Anointed One will hold you steady, pour His
healing balm into your heart and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Lay back in His
arms, let God fight the battles for you. Don’t run away from Jesus in bitterness, now
is the time to run to Him!

In our Scripture, Jesus made it quite clear that the answer was in the power of the
Holy Spirit, giving Him compassion and the power to change people’s lives. But
Jesus had to surrender to the Holy Spirit, for it’s “Not by might nor by power, but by
my Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts,” Zechariah 4:6. Human effort is fruitless, only
God’s way is the answer.

At this time of Pentecost, let us surrender ourselves anew to the Holy Spirit in our
personal lives and let us experience His working, healing and deliverance in a new
way!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending the Holy Spirit
to the Earth at Pentecost, to dwell with and in us. Thank you for His
healing and delivering power; for Him guiding us into all truth; for
showing you to those in the world; for convicting us of sin and
drawing us to your Son, Jesus; for being our Comforter – our
Paraclete or the One who stands by us, our Advocate.
Let this Pentecost weekend be a milestone in our life, when we can
look back and say, yes, I had a fresh encounter with the Holy Spirit,
which has continued and deepened to this day!! Give us a greater
compassion for those who are in need.
Father, touch every one of my friends and me afresh! Rain down your
Spirit upon us, quench our spiritual hunger and thirst, we pray, for
you are not a disappointment! We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen!