Full Faith For Following Through

Following His baptism, Luke tells us that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, Luke 4:1. And being full of the Spirit, Jesus was led by the Spirit through the wilderness for forty days. Jesus fasted during those forty days while being tempted by the devil. He overcame every temptation because He was full of the truth of God’s word and His faith, which was full of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was immersed in the word of the Father and the presence of the Holy Spirit as He went through the wilderness and all its dangers.

Jesus went into the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit, following the Holy Spirit, and came out the other side of it, “…in the power of the Spirit…” Luke 4:14. The word “power” is the Greek word dunamis. The English word “dynamite” comes from this Greek word. It means to have the ability or power to do something. It was often used to describe the potential within someone to accomplish something great.

In the context of Luke 4:1 – 14 you learn that in the life of Jesus, He was first filled with the Holy Spirit, then He followed the Holy Spirit, and only then was He empowered and given the ability of the Holy Spirit to accomplish the Father’s will. AMEN!

Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit following His choice to be baptized by John and together with him, “…to fulfill all righteousness.” Matthew 3:15. He had waited upon the Father for the right time to begin His ministry, taken the first step in His ministry by including John and his baptism, demonstrated His ministry of death, burial, and resurrection with John’s baptism, and all of this filled Jesus with the Holy Spirit because it was according to the word of the Father. God spoke at His baptism, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” Luke 3:22.

In Christ, your faith is full of the Spirit because His was as He lived on earth. In Christ, you are led by the Holy Spirit because Jesus was as He lived on earth. In Christ, you will go through, not around or over, times of difficulty, temptation, and trial because He did as He lived on earth. And, in Christ, as you follow the Spirit through the wilderness of this life, you will have His power and ability, the same potential He had when He accomplished His ministry.

But the question is this: Are you willing to wait upon the Father to fill you with His word before stepping out to begin some task for Him? The filling of His word precedes the filling of His Spirit. Faith must be full of His word before being filled with His Spirit. The disciples had spent three years with Jesus and were filled with His word, and only then the Holy Spirit came. Some just want the power of the Spirit without the filling of God’s word, much less to first be obedient and to wait upon the Father. Our ways are not God’s. Repent of the idea that you need power first for the ministry without the wilderness and without the fullness and obedience of His word.

Today, be filled with God’s word and He will fill you with His Spirit, give direction through this wilderness, and empower you to accomplish His will. This is what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth.