Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
When Jesus was baptized at the Jordan River three significant things happened (Mark 1:9-11). The heavens were literally torn open meaning; He had total access to the Father and all that is in heaven. The Father revealed to Jesus His identity, love and acceptance and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the bodily form of a dove.
Jesus submitted to water baptism so all righteousness could be fulfilled (Matt. 3:15), and part of that fulfillment was to show that those who are in Christ can experience an open heaven, the Father’s love, identity and being clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit.
The dove represents the governmental power of God. Isaiah 9:6-7 tells us that Christ is the “Prince of Peace” and the government of God will rest upon His shoulders. The Holy Spirit is the Lord (2 Cor. 3:17) and the Bible is clear – the key for consistently experiencing God’s love, power and anointing is the Spirit of the Lord resting upon us (Eph. 3: 19-24, Luke 4:18-19).
The Holy Spirit desires to have a relationship with us (2 Cor. 13:14). The word communion in that verse means fellowship, interaction, engaging relationship and conversation. The Message Bible calls it intimate friendship. In the Old Testament, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend (Ex. 33:11). This is a picture of what the Holy Spirit desires to do with you and me today.
Isaiah 11:2-5 shows something very powerful concerning the Holy Spirit and His work upon Christ. It says, “The Spirit of The Lord is upon Me.” Then it shows three pairs of manifestations of the Spirit of the Lord. They are the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, and the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.
I believe this passage in Isaiah lays out the essence of the fullness of the person of the Holy Spirit and what He does. We have an invitation to enjoy and experience a relationship with every aspect of Him. When we are in a real and living relationship with Him we can expect these three manifestations in our lives.
1. We will delight in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:3). The fear of the Lord does not make us afraid of God, but instead encourages and strengthens our faith through a revelation of how good the Lord truly is (Hos. 3:5). The fear of the Lord comes from His awesome presence and that is why Jesus so delighted in it. Reverential fear in its purest form is birthed out of love. Jesus delighted in the fear of the Lord because He loved the Father and had revelation of His nature and character.
2. We will live a prophetic lifestyle (Isaiah 11:3). The prophetic lifestyle is really the normal Christian life as the New Testament describes it. We will not judge by the sight of our eyes or hearing of our ears, but with righteousness, justice and truth we will see life and people. Simply put, we will have eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to understand (Matt. 13:15), which is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding resting on our hearts.
3. We will experience the Spirit of the Father speaking in us (Isaiah 11:4). Jesus said, “Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making.” (John 6:63). Our words are spirit, but they are not always life-making as Jesus’ words are, but when the Spirit of counsel and might rest on our words; things will happen when we speak (Matt. 10:20).
Many Blessings, BW