Jesus, The Revealer of God's Sovereign Will by Larry Sparks

Day 14 of the “What Child is This?” Advent Devotional

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me…

(Isaiah 61:1, NIV)

After Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, and then tempted by the devil in the wilderness, we read that “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region” (Lk. 4:14). He emerged in the power of the Holy Spirit, reminding us of what took place at the Jordan River. The Son of God was also beginning his ministry as the Anointed One, the great model to every believer who would ever walk the planet. Jesus came to show you and I what was available in this glorious demonstration of the Kingdom of God we call Christianity.

However, there is a barrier to the advancement of the Kingdom. It comes packaged in doctrine and ivory-tower, spiritual-sounding theology. One of the key restraining agents to you and I taking our place as the advancing army of God on the Earth, binding what is bound in heaven and loosing what it loosed in heaven, is our perspective on God’s sovereignty.

I find it astonishing that Jesus was anointed by the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord. So many of us sweep a lot of stuff under the banner of sovereignty that is, in fact, totally out of agreement with the good sovereign plan of the Sovereign Lord. I don’t know how it works, but somehow, someway, God accomplishes His sovereign plans by working with, through, and in Spirit-empowered people. A single devotional is no place to even begin the conversation mining the depths of God’s sovereignty.

However, I want us to slightly adjust our perspective when it comes to what God’s sovereign will includes. While there is undeniable mystery in God’s will, there is also clarity. Some of us throw everything up to divine mystery, when in fact, there are certain realities God has revealed that are the right and privilege of every single believer to bring to this hurting world. Remember, Jesus is our model, and Jesus was a man filled with the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord like us. Wait a minute, then? Is the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord also living inside of me, then? Yes.

Here is what He desires to do through you. According to Jesus’ announcement in Luke 4:18 and 19, as He quotes Isaiah 61, Jesus unveils the Father’s sovereign will: To preach the gospel to the poor… to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

It is amazing, but the very things that we have been anointed and empowered to destroy are the very things so many of us brand as “God’s sovereign will.” Torment, affliction, disease, and captivity are actually targets for healing and deliverance, according to the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord.

Jesus then goes onto demonstrate…

Advent Prayer

Father, You are sovereign! You are above all, and You are over all. At the same time, the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord lives on the inside of me. Help me to step out in Your power to do the very things You have anointed and commissioned me to do.

Reveal Your sovereign plans and purposes through my life, and bring great glory to the Name of Jesus