“And the Spirit of Yahweh shall rest upon Him…”
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Oh the secrets of Messiah! Oh the wonder that Messiah was to give to us exactly what the Father gave Him. Messiah’s secret can be – should be – our secret too. Isaiah possibly did not fully grasp what he was talking about. Who knows? Perhaps he did. The secret was that the Holy Spirit would be resting upon Him, sitting upon His life, manifesting Himself through the consciousness of Jesus of Nazareth. Messiah was to be divinely equipped in the most stupendous manner.
Whether Isaiah knew it or not, we know the absolute truth when we examine his words through the glasses of the New Testament. For the first thirty years of Christ’s life, the days of His flesh, He who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, who lived a perfectly sinless thirty years without doing any miracle or preaching any sermon, He who lived with the Spirit of God indwelling Him from conception and with that same Holy Spirit keeping Him from the day of His birth until the day of His baptism, was silent. Apart from the episode of Him asking the elders in the Temple adult and insightful questions about scripture when He was twelve years old, nothing else of spiritual significance could happen in His life until the Holy Spirit was to come upon Him. All we know of those years is that, “He went down with them (His parents), and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Other than that it is 18 years of total shtumm!
“The Spirit of Yahweh shall rest upon Him” (Isaiah 11:2). We of the other side of the resurrection of Christ, have the privilege of knowing that the Spirit of God came upon Him and rested upon Him at the Jordan River while being immersed in water (Matthew 3:13-17. Mark 1:9-11. Luke 3:21-23). John the Baptist said, “He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptises with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33). The Baptist was told that he would see it take place and that he would know what had happened. The dove like manifestation came down and perched, landed and nested on Christ and remained. The advent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus of Nazareth was a permanent fixture of His Being and consciousness thereafter. The Holy Spirit literally abode on Him. John said so (John 1:32). We are certain that in essence, what happened to Christ at the Jordan River happened to the one hundred and twenty people in the upper room in Acts 2 and needs to happen to every believer in every generation. The Holy Spirit “within” is glorious enough. Every true Christian is born again of the Spirit. If any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. Jesus then told them to wait until they had the Holy Spirit resting upon them as well.
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We are not talking of the Spirit “with” or even “within.” We are talking of the Spirit being completely at home “upon” Christ. Like oil being plentifully poured over a person and that oil running down to the collar and hem of their robes. Christ could not and would not do anything that constituted any part of His redemptive ministry life, until the Holy Spirit had come upon Him. This is a serious observation! If Christ Himself did not dare enter into ministry without the enduement of power which came upon Him by being clothed upon by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, what sort of comedians are we to even imagine that we could minister as He did without the very same enduement of power and the very same Holy Spirit coming upon us in a similar manner. I am talking of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit of Yahweh was to sit, live and abide with Christ. Once upon Him, the Spirit would immediately lead Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. From the moment the Holy Spirit came upon Him, Christ responded differently and immediately to the leading of the Spirit of God. Christ obeyed all that the Holy Spirit required of Him. After a silent 30 years, Jesus now burst into an incredible amount of activity, all at the leading of the Holy Spirit. All this as well as Jesus seeing what His Heavenly Father was doing and hearing what He was saying. After conquering Satan in the realm of temptation alone in the desert, Messiah returned to more sociable circles in the essential power of the Spirit.
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John 13:3 informs us that Christ came from heaven. 1 Peter 1:12 tells us that the Holy Spirit was “sent from heaven.” The Holy Spirit that descended from heaven for the purpose of equipping Christ, was also sent by Christ in exactly the same way to function on earth amongst Christians in the same way as He functioned in the life of Christ. Notice that Jesus did not withdraw from people having had the Spirit come to rest upon Him, but engaged with humanity all the more because He had the Spirit upon Him.
The Spirit descended upon Jesus. Rested on Him and remained on Him. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert. After that He returned in the very power of the Spirit. Jesus Christ is our model.
My mentor used to often say, “The Jesus I know is Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.” To talk of Christ’s life without the explanation and qualification of the Spirit coming upon Him in baptism, with the accompanying explanation of how John said that Christ was He who would baptise in the Holy Spirit, delivers a false picture. “The Holy Spirit shall rest upon Him,” said Isaiah. The question today is: “Does the Holy Spirit rest upon us?”
It is God’s plan to become intimately acquainted with us in a warm relationship of love and power by His Holy Spirit. That is the way it has been since He breathed upon Adam and gave Him life. It is the intention of God that the Holy Spirit would be the air we breathe, the environment that we live in, and the abiding cloak of blessing that throughout life should be enshrouding us with the blessing of Yahweh. In such a living environment, surely we are condemned to a life of victory, freedom and joy.
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Why didn’t God give us a “Systematic Theology Book,” so that we would know exactly what to believe? Why wasn’t Christ born in a heavenly explosion of glory revealing who the baby was to the whole earth? Why doesn’t He just step out of heaven to speak to us or write a note in the sky? Why doesn’t He make a few announcements to the world on a Heavenly Sound System so that everybody on the planet could hear what He is saying in their own language? Why doesn’t He do things the way we like them to be done? Answer: We are bordering on the stupid to expect God’s deepest revelation to happen just as we like it. If everything God did was just the way people like it, why on earth would God need to reveal anything about Himself to us?
The Holy Spirit that wrote the scriptures is the same Person who will reveal to us all we can carry. We need to note that when John cried, “I am baptising you with water, but when He comes He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit,” whether or not John realised what He was saying or not, Jesus did not baptise a single person in the Holy Spirit while He was on earth, either before or after His passion. He has now returned to heaven and since Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost it is one of His heavenly roles in His divine office. As well as our Great High Priest Jesus Christ is the baptiser in the Holy Spirit. This writer was converted under the declaration of “Jesus Christ, the Saviour, Healer, Baptiser in the Holy Spirit, and the Coming King.”
From the moment that Jesus was “baptised” in the Holy Spirit at the Jordan He was walking in the all saturating power of the Spirit and was the first human being to do so. No one else had entered into such a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Even when Jesus sent out the twelve, and then afterwards sent out the seventy, it states that He gave them their power and authority. Before the crucifixion the disciples cum apostles did not heal or preach under their own anointing of the Spirit or on the basis of their own holy character. They operated under the auspices of Christ’s own anointing, not their own. The power that they operated under was nothing to do with their own godliness or character. How do I know that? How can I be sure of that? I know that simply because Judas Iscariot was amongst them. Judas, the son of perdition, when given by Christ the power and authority to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons and raise the dead, operated in just the same manner as Peter, James and John at that time.
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There was something strikingly different than all the Old Testament people who operated with the Holy Spirit “upon them.” Moses wrote scripture moved upon by the Holy Spirit. Elijah and Elisha had anointings of the Spirit of God to do all sorts of signs and wonders. Micah the prophet even wrote, “I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord” (Micah 3:8). Even the Judges experienced the Holy Spirit coming upon them. In the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, the book of Judges tells us that the Holy Spirit “pounced” upon some of the Judges, using the same word used in Acts 3:8 when the man at the beautiful gate jumped to his feet and was dancing and “leaping” after being healed. Kings Saul and David were both “instantly” different people once Samuel had poured the anointing oil of kingship upon them respectively. Along with the symbolic oil being dropped on their heads, the reality of the power of the Holy Spirit dropped on them too. David wrote in the Spirit when he wrote many of the Psalms. Yet, even with all those accounts, what happened with Christ was unique and different, but was to be common and widespread when the church, the body of Christ was later to commence where Christ Himself had left off.
What Jesus was walking in was historically unique; we know this because John wrote in his gospel (7:39) that, “He said about the Spirit who was about to be given to the believers, but was not yet given because Jesus had not been glorified.” What Christ had, had never been seen on the earth before, but was to be common as He would pour out the Spirit upon the church, starting in Acts chapter 2.
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All Christians require the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Jesus commanded the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they had been baptised in the Holy Spirit. The baptism in the Spirit is an act performed by God Himself. Christ is the baptiser in the Holy Spirit. In Christ’s baptism, human hands cannot be employed because it is wholly divine. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the highest and sublimest evidence of Christ’s power and goodness that is exercised towards us. It shows the greatness of His power given to us, the believers – the church. Are those persons today who claim such an experience as the Holy Spirit baptism, also willing to claim its results? (Acts 19:6) Before Heaven can be present within you, you must pass through and into the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit baptism is a critical must for practicing Christians. The Holy Spirit within us is a divine person we obtain upon repentance and baptism. The Holy Spirit upon us is a gift from God we receive direct from heaven. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is all about power. An important reason for Baptism in the Holy Spirit is power for witnessing for the living and resurrected Christ.
It is this writer’s conviction that when Jesus said “Among those that have been born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11), the only thing He could have been referring to that changes the goal posts for His definitions was the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. John was filled within. Paul and Peter had the Spirit upon them.
It was the manifestation of the anointing of the Holy Spirit (ie: external to Him, yet upon His body and person) that led to Christ’s all glorious ministry.
Isaiah wrote:
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The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn (Isaiah 61:1-2).
Isaiah was referring to an external anointing, and was suggesting in its wider context that this is what Messiah would be qualified to say.
700+ years later in a Synagogue in Capernaum in the Galilee, Doctor Like writes:
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, “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 liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son? (Luke 4:17-22)
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Yes indeed! Christ owned the words that Isaiah had written as His own. The anointing He refers to cannot be anything else other than the anointing that alighted on Him and remained under the understanding and discerning eye of John the Baptist.
Several years after the incident in Luke 4, one of the men who was with Jesus at that point of time, a man whose name was Simon Peter, on one certain occasion stood up to preach, and we have a transcript that records:
Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that fears him, and works righteousness, is accepted by him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, I say, you know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. (Acts 10:34 -38)
It was the anointing and the power that was given at the baptism in the Jordan that Peter was referring to.
Isaiah was absolutely correct when he said , “The Spirit of Yahweh shall rest upon Him.”
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Swimming Up the Niagara 