Bible In One Year-Day 34 (Monday, February 03, 2014)

Commentary- Luke1-3. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. All these books are saying the same thing but being expressed in different way. If one touched an issue passively, the other touched it actively. Why do we have it in such a way? It is because of our difference in personalities as human beings. Luke, as a person, was different from Matthew; Mark and John. We are all different, and it will amount to foolishness for us to compare ourselves with another person. Once we try to be another person, we lose our identity and such cannot be useful to God; he may be useful to the person he/she copies. You need to be yourself. Luke was a medical doctor. His thinking and actions are different from Matthew and other gospels. He carried his profession into service for God. For instance, none of the other books described the birth of Jesus as Luke did. In addition, the manner he narrated the healing ministry of Jesus is deep and detailed than others. This is a great lesson to those who wants to be another person, thereby stirring up unholy contest and rivalry. God needs you the way you are for His work and glory through His transformation. Saul of Tarsus, was going from house to house, city to city persecuting Christians; very hard working and totally devoted to whatever he believed in. After he met Jesus on the way to Damascus, his attitude/character did not change but transformed; he was going from house to house and city to city preaching the gospel; what a transformation. This will give us the better understanding of Romans12:1-2. Paul was no more conformed with the believe of his people, but through the light of Jesus, he was transformed with the renewing of heart (mind, emotion and will); i.e. the zeal in him was re-directed and Jesus was glorified. This is what we call the WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Let God’s Spirit work on you. He is the only one that can turn you to another person (1Sam10:6) that could turn the world upside down for God.

1 Samuel 10:6 “And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.”

Therefore, when you “come as you are” into the fold of Christ, you must submit to God’s word and Spirit to work on you in order not to remain as you are. If after a couple of years as a Christian, the mouth, eyes, ears, legs, hands etc are still under Satan’s use and control, drop all positions with the pride attached to it and cry to God for help, Mark9:43-45. What distinguishes you from another person is your mind, emotion and will. Once you allow the Holy Spirit to work on these, you become another man; your mind becomes that of God, ‘will’ becomes the will of God. Instead of tearing apart, you repair the breach, Isaiah58:12. People read JESUS in you and He is glorified. Two mysteries were narrated in Lk1; John the Baptist’s and Jesus’ conceptions. The same Angel gave the messages of good news to both. One of the recipients of the goodnews was muted (i.e. the door of doubt was locked, there is danger in verbalizing your doubt before the angel of the Lord) and the other rejoiced (she believed (faith), Lk1:38). One’s divine visitation was an answer to prayer (and this is why you should operate in the spirit of 1Thes5:17/Eph6:18/ Lk18:1 and not complain) while the other was just FAVOR. The parent of John The Baptist were righteous but had no child, Lk1:5-7. Though age was not on their side, yet they took side with prayer and ministry (hope). People had given the mother of John the name “barren” but she and the husband never allowed that to distract their devotion to God; they remained blameless. God listed them to be part of His plan for the salvation of mankind. I guess Zacharias was muted because he had read and heard about Abraham, and the angel was not expecting him as a priest to doubt the repetition of the miracle. But for Mary, such had never been, hitherto. The Angel said the Holy Spirit would bring about the fulfillment of His word and favor in the life of Mary. If John was to fulfill the mission and prophecy of Lk1:15-17, he needed to be empowered. The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth released the baptism of the Spirit for the assignment into John while in the womb just as the angel said in verse15.

Luke 1:15 “For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.”

Luke2 is about Jesus; his birth and development. The angel explained to Mary how the Holy Spirit will work it out. Jesus was carrying the holiness of the Most High right at conception by the Holy Spirit, and this was for His growth until when the assignment will be due. What happened after His baptism by John was the Spirit for the divine assignment. If you are praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit for signs and wonders, you need to pray for the inward baptism first to mature you out of spiritual childishness.

God protected Jesus through communication with Joseph in the dream. Here we could see the importance of dreams. Though Joseph was not a prophet or priest, he lived a righteous life and his dreams were quite prophetic. When a child of God suffers defeat in the dream, there is an issue to take care of. Your dream must be your spiritual prophet to reveal deep things to you. There are some things that border me, though; where were the owners of the manger and why did the Angel visited another set of shepherds and not the owners of the manger? They missed a contact in their lives and so we never heard of them. Quite unfortunate! Your leg will not yield to satanic order when good thing is about to happen to you this year in the name of Jesus. My deduction is that, they left their flocks for the township, either to sleep in the Inn or gone to enjoy the worldly splendor or party somewhere. The other shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks, Lk2:8. Those who love their bed don’t get much, Prov6:4-11. But those who “keep watch” over their assignments will ever receive divine messages. Without any doubt, we could see in these chapters that Jesus is the Son of God in fulfillment of Isaiah9:6-7. Prayer: O Lord, break me and re-mould me for purpose, IJN. Our reading for today is Luke4-6. Keep the fire burning and alive. Spread the gospel of JESUS!!!