The Holy Spirit And Healing Anointing

As we saw in the previous lesson, the Holy Spirit has been active in human history since day one. He used to come upon people and empower them for specific tasks. Some of these tasks were momentary, such as Balaam not honoring Balak's request to curse Israel. Others of these tasks lasted a large portion of a person's life, such as David being king over Israel. But in each case, the Holy Spirit came upon them rather than residing within them and never leaving them.

The Holy Spirit continued to come upon people at the start of New Testament times as well. He came upon Mary and overshadowed her to cause her to become pregnant with Jesus before she had intercourse with any man. He came upon Anna and Simeon at the temple when Jesus was born. He came upon John the Baptist to empower his prophetic ministry before Jesus started His ministry. The bible does not tell us much about Jesus' youth, but my guess is that the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus as well while He was growing up.

But there was a change at Jesus' baptism. The Holy Spirit came upon Him in a different way. Matthew 3:16 tells us, "When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him." John 3:34 tells us, "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure" (NKJV) and the NIV says, "without limit." Many take that to mean that at His Baptism, Jesus was given 100% of the Holy Spirit, and there was not any left for anyone else because the Holy Spirit was fully and totally on Jesus, filling Him and working with Him. That is why Jesus had to ascend into Heaven before His followers could be baptized in the Holy Spirit -- Jesus had all of Him while He was on earth and Jesus had to go back to Heaven before the Holy Spirit could fill believers. John 7:39 tells us, "But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."

When Jesus was glorified (e.g., ascended into heaven), the Holy Spirit's relationship and interaction with His creation changed. Instead of just coming upon people for a given purpose, He "moved in" and lived inside of them, never leaving them. The same Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus when He walked the earth now empowers each of Jesus' followers. (That is you and me!)

So, let's look at the role of the Holy Spirit in Jesus' life and our next lesson will look at the Holy Spirit's role in the life of the Church.

The Holy Spirit In Jesus' Life On Earth

When I was in seminary, one of my profs (Peter Wagner) taught a viewpoint that made a lot of sense to me. It is the orientation that I personally adhere to. The theory goes like this:

Jesus was fully God, but when He took on human form, He temporarily laid aside His God power and did not use them when He walked on this earth as a human being. Instead, He submitted to the Father and was given the Holy Spirit to empower Him in everything He did.

Why did He choose to do it that way? Because He was more than just the Messiah, He was also our example and role model. He used the same power source that He has made available to each of His followers. That is why He was able to say in John 14:12, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." E.g., He was empowered by the Holy Spirit and when He went back to the Father, He sent His Holy Spirit to live in each of us, to baptize us in the Holy Spirit so we will "receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

When Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven, the Father restored all of His God-powers to Him so that He did not have to rely on the Holy Spirit anymore (1 Peter 1:21). That is why He was free to send the Holy Spirit to reside in each of us.

So let's look at a few ways that the Holy Spirit worked in Jesus life during that time when Jesus humbled Himself, set aside His own power, and became dependent on the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit strengthened Jesus in the time of temptation. Matthew 4:1 tells us, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." He did not face this temptation alone. The Holy Spirit went with Him to strengthen Him and help Him resist the temptation.

The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to heal the sick. Acts 10:38 tells us, "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him."

The same Holy Spirit also provided the power for Jesus to cast out demons. In Matthew 12:28 Jesus tells us that He cast out demons by the Holy Spirit. He said, "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you."

The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to speak forth God's justice. Matthew 12:18 describes it this way: "Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles."

And the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to preach the good news. Luke 4:14 says, "Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region." And in Luke 4:18, Jesus said, "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..."

Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit, but Jesus also honored Him. Jesus simply would not tolerate blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (e.g. calling the Holy Spirit's work the work of the devil). Look what He said about that in Matthew 12:31-32: "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come."

As you can see from these verses, the Holy Spirit was very involved in Jesus' ministry here on the earth.