JESUS AND OPEN HEAVENS
November 22, 2009Bible in One Year:
Sunday, November 22, 2009
(2 Cor 1 - 2 Cor 3)
Memorise: "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him" (Acts 10:38)
Read: Matthew 3:1-13
1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4 And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
When John commenced his ministry, he preached repentance from sin and dead works. Many located him in the wilderness and confessed their sins and submitted to water baptism. As they queued to be baptized in River Jordan, vipers also came. Then the Lord joined the queue but John protested saying as the Saviour, He was sinless and therefore did not need to be baptized. Jesus insisted He must be baptized. Why was it essential for Jesus to be baptized? Jesus submitted Himself to water baptism so that Heaven might open unto Him. Why did He need open Heavens? When you are working hard without results, it is a proof that your Heaven is closed. Until Heaven opens over one's attempt, every effort of man is fruitless. The Lord wanted to ensure that Heaven was open over Him before He commenced His ministry. Acts 2:37-38 spells out two conditions - repentance and baptism. Since He had nothing to repent of, He went ahead to do the second - which is baptism.
Another reason the Lord needed open Heaven during His earthly days was so that the Holy Spirit could overshadow Him as His mother was overshadowed. Throughout His earthly ministry, the Holy Spirit was on the Lord Jesus Christ. He needed open Heavens so that His partner - the Holy Spirit could stay with Him. No wonder He did all He did by the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38). If you take a cursory look at the ministry of Jesus, you will notice that even though He never had posters, banners and the publicity gadgets we have today, the crowd kept following Him (Matt 4:23-25). You can prepare the best of sermons, delivered with the greatest oratory ability, if the Holy Ghost is out of the equation, nothing will come out of it. Do you know that to get people to come for a vigil in an air conditioned church promising tea or food may be in vain? Once the Holy Spirit becomes an active - not dormant partner in your ministry, things will begin to happen. Have you made the Holy Spirit your Senior partner? To what extent do you cultivate His friendship, seek His guidance and praise and worship Him? Do you listen to Him? Do you allow Him freedom to do as He wants in your ministry? As long as you box Him in one tight corner of your life, He cannot do what He would want to do. Your possibilities and potentials remain bottled up until you give them to the Holy Spirit. Like Jesus, you can be a man of the Spirit.
ACTION POINT:
Holy Spirit, overshadow me like you overshadowed Mary and Jesus Christ.
Posted by Pastor E. A Adeboye. Posted In : NOVEMBER 2009
Fondly known as G.O or Daddy G.O, Pastor Adeboye became the General Overseer (G.O) of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in 1981. Sheer curiosity and the search for a solution to a personal problem led Pastor Adeboye to worship at RCCG – Ebute-Metta in 1973. It was a most unlikely place of worship for a professor of Mathematics as the church had very few educated people and it lacked the comfort and grandeur of the Orthodox churches.
His desire to reach the ends of the earth is captured in this statement, “I would love to have a breakthrough to such a height that I can lend to nations and preach on every television and radio station at least one hour per day.”
