His Heart, My Home

The Lord recently gave me the outline for this message during a time of intercessory prayer.
As I began to meditate on it, I realized this was a vitally important message, a fresh Word for the  Body of Christ.

So let’s prepare to receive a greater revelation about our relationship and partnership with Holy Spirit and to be launched into a new level of ministry to the world around us.

Matthew 9:35-38
³⁵ Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. ³⁶ But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. ³⁷ Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. ³⁸ Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Notice that Jesus was doing everything humanly possible to reach the broken lives of those around him. He was visiting as many places as he possibly could, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

But the task was overwhelming. No matter how many people Jesus ministered to there were always more… multitudes in every city, town, and village waiting to be reached, waiting to be taught, and waiting to be healed.

Verse 36 tells us that when Jesus saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered, like sheep with no shepherd.

It was compassion that motivated Jesus to
engage His disciples in prayer for the sick, weary, broken, and downtrodden multitudes all around them.

We often think of compassion in terms of sympathy, which is defined as a feeling of concern or pity for someone in need.
Or we may go a bit further, and seek to equate compassion with empathy, in which we share the thoughts, feelings, or emotions, of another.
But compassion is much more than mere feelings.

Compassion in the biblical sense is defined as a strong desire that originates from love, moving one to provide aid and comfort to needy, hurting people.

Compassion is an action word! It is more than a desire to help. It is the “doing” of that desire!

I love what happens next! Let’s go to the next verse…

“But, Brother Joe, we’re at the end of Chapter 9. There is no next verse!”

Of course, there is! We sometimes forget that when the Bible was written in the original languages, there were no artificial divisions for chapters and verses. Those were added later for our reading convenience.

So now, let’s read the next verse, which is Matthew 10:1 from The Message Bible: “The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives.”

As soon as the disciples said, “Amen” the Lord said, “Congratulations! You are the laborers you just prayed for. Time to get to work in those harvest fields!”

Notice carefully what Jesus did next. He “deputized” them, delegating His authority and power to them to ” kick out the evil spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives.”

The word “gave” in this verse is the Greek word “didomai”. It means “to bestow upon; to put away in a temporary place for anticipated future use.”

Throughout the Old Testament, Holy Spirit would “come upon” individuals for a brief period of time to enable them to do perform specific tasks of extraordinary ability. A few examples were Gideon, Samson, Saul, David, and others.

One notable example was the prophet Elijah, who, enabled by Holy Spirit, outran the fastest horses in the land, as they pulled the king’s chariot from Mount Carmel to Jezreel, a distance of 30 miles.

In the same way, Jesus’ disciples also received a temporary endowment of God’s power for their mission. Holy Spirit came upon them outwardly. He had not yet come to live within them.

We know the disciples were not Spirit-enabled permanently because, after His resurrection, Jesus told them to WAIT in Jerusalem until they were armed with power from on high.
(Luke 24:49)

Let’s look at one more scripture before we move on. John 14:15-17 says: ¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever; ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

Jesus was giving His disciples a preview of what was to come. Notice in verse 12 of this chapter, that He had just told them that they would do “the same and even greater works” than He Himself did.

How were they going to accomplish this? It was to be through Holy Spirit, who had been with them as they walked with Jesus, but who would now come to dwell in them after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.

Acts 1:8 (Good News Translation) : “But when the Holy Spirit comes, you will be filled with power…”

Of course, we probably already know the Greek word translated as “power” in Acts 1:8 is the word “dunamis” from which we derive several English words.

One is the word “dynamo”. A dynamo is a large machine found in power-generating plants. Dynamo speaks of continual power.

Another word is “dynamite”. Dynamite speaks of explosive power

God’s Spirit, ever living within us, as believers, produces continually explosive power!

This was seen and powerfully experienced on the day of Pentecost.

Acts 2:1-4, (The Passion Translation):

¹ On the day Pentecost was being fulfilled, all the disciples were gathered in one place. 

² Suddenly they heard the sound of a violent blast of wind rushing into the house from out of the heavenly realm. The roar of the wind was so overpowering it was all anyone could bear!

³ Then all at once a pillar of fire appeared before their eyes. It separated into tongues of fire that engulfed each one of them.

⁴ They were all filled and equipped with the Holy Spirit and were inspired to speak in tongues – empowered by the Spirit to speak in languages they had never learned!

Pentecost is the birthday of the Church! What an awesome display of Holy Spirit’s glorious power!

As believers. He goes deeper than just “on” us! He comes to live in us to completely fill us with God’s presence and power!

The same power that created the universe lives in us! The same power that parted the Red Sea; that demolished the walls of Jericho; that enabled 300 of Gideon’s men to defeat 135,000 Midianites; that slew Goliath; that same power that fire-proofed those three Hebrew teenagers lives in us!

Holy Spirit power heals the sick, casts out devils, and cleanses the lepers. That awesome power raised Jesus from the dead, and that power lives in us… continually explosive power, living in you and in me!

Father, in the midst of our everyday ordinary lives we sometimes forget the extraordinary eternal destiny you have purposed and planned for us to live. Your Spirit, living within us, generates the continually explosive power that enables us, as your children, to do the same works and even greater works than Jesus did. Miracles flow from us. Signs and wonders follow us. We are living proof that Jesus is alive! And it is in His name that we declare and decree these truths. Amen!

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NOTE: We will explore these truths further in our next post. What God has deposited INSIDE us, He now wants flowing OUT of us!

This week’s music video is a little longer than most, but we believe you will enjoy it and that the anointing on it will inspire and strengthen you. Enjoy!

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Have a blessed week!