Because

When Holy Ghost manifests Himself in power, there is a reason, a “because.”

Text for Today – Luke 4:18-19 – The Spirit of the Lord is upon ME, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at libety them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Please read our Text for Today once again very closely.  Try to lay aside what you have heard preached from this passage in the past.  Let it speak to you afresh and anew today as though you are reading and hearing this wonderful passage for the first time in your life.  (And please not, too, that I am capitalizing all the personal pronouns that refer to the Trinity.)

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me” – note the tense of the verb is present tense.  That is very easily understood.  It means right now.

“Because” – here is a simple word, but so often overlooked in this passage.  Jesus, in reading from the writings of Isaiah, is clearly indicating that Holy Ghost was upon Him for a reason, and mor than that, it was “because” something had already occurred that caused Holy Ghost to come upon Him.  What was it that had happened?  The next phrase answers that question.

“He hath anointed Me” – once again, notice the tense of the verb.  Here, the Lord clearly speaks in the past tense that the Lord “hath anointed” Him.  Of course, that should be easy for us to grasp, for Jesus was the Anointed One, the Christ.

Now look at the anointings that were already in the life of Jesus; what He was anointed to say and do.  He was anointed to . . .

• preach the gospel to the poor 
• heal the brokenhearted   
• preach deliverance to the captives   
• preach recovering of sight to the blind   
• set at liberty them that are bruised   
• preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Now, remember, Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One.  So, what is an anointing?  It is something of Christ that is imparted to you as a member of the body of Christ.  And why did Holy Ghost come upon Jesus?  Because He was anointed.  So then, why do you suppose Holy Ghost would come upon you today?  The answer is simple.  Because you are anointed.  The anointing that is upon the Head flows down (is distributed) upon the body.  What is your place in the body of Christ?  What has God called (or sent) you to do?  That is your anointing, and your anointing is the target of Holy Ghost.  Get busy using your anointing.  Holy Ghost has no problem at all in hitting a moving target.

Manna for Today – Acts 10:38; 1 John 2:20-27; John 20:21; Psalm 133