All day today the Spirit was talking with me about how people see things. If a person is blind, they see a lot with their touch. If a blind person gives directions to another blind person, the directions may seem easy to follow – the blind person will describe the directions by things detectable by touch. If a person with sight gives directions to a blind person the directions may not seem as easy to follow to the blind person. That is why a blind person may continue to follow another blind person, and not listen to a person with sight. That is also why spiritual healing is more important than just giving directions to the spiritually blind.

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me 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” (Luke 4:18). And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” (Galatians 4:6). We have the Spirit of Jesus who had the Spirit of the Lord upon Him to preach, heal, proclaim, recover, and set at liberty. We have been anointed to do the same things the Spirit anointed Jesus to do. Jesus said we can do greater because He is with the Father. The Father and Son sent to us the Holy Spirit who anointed Jesus. The Christ is in us and the Holy Spirit is in us; we have to let Them out.

We understand a lot of life by what we see, in the physical or in the spirit (with our eyes or with our heart). If we are angry, we may see everything others are doing as coming out of anger. If we are hurt, we may see things shaded by our defenses (we feel a need to be protective, and may see things others do as an attack). If we are poor, we may see everything as difficult (a struggle). If we are depressed, it might look like there is no way out.

The answer is the gospel – that is what we are to preach – love and forgiveness. God sent Jesus out of love to walk the walk required for us to have complete forgiveness. Jesus took the wrath of God on His body, so we (His body) would not have to. We are no longer a prisoner to our own desires, but prepared to do the desires of the Father. We are no longer led by a broken heart, but by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit anoints us to preach, heal, proclaim, recover, and set at liberty. And the process continues. The work is being done by God; Jesus and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. It is a ministry (serving) that belongs to us all.

We are served by God then we serve God by serving each other. That is the gospel; God came and served us out of love, and we are to serve one another out of love. God is still serving us out of love; and enabling us through the Holy Spirit to serve one another out of love. It is not about us being perfect or holy or righteous – God has been holy and perfect and righteous for us. It is about us loving one another with the same love God loves us with. We pass on what we have received. Sometimes we are looking too hard to see how easy God has made it. Sometimes we overlook the truth, looking for something we need to work at to believe. We all want to love and be loved, and that is what God is asking us to do. Let Him love us and pass the love on by loving one another.

© 2010, Tim D. Coulter Sr.