Thoughts From Luke - Day 13

                                                 Luke 4:1-4
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ² where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
³ The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.

       Jesus was full of the Spirit. What does that mean? How is the Son of God not full of the Spirit all the time? My guess is that his 30 sinless years before this, He was going through life as a son, student, carpenter, and living an exemplary life while going through everything we go through so that He could be our perfect High Priest. At His baptism, the Holy Spirit empowered Him in a way to leave it all behind and pursue the reason He came. The Spirit sais, "The time is now". Now, the supernatural powers He had no longer had to be subdued. Now the obligations to His earthly family were turned over to His brothers. Now He could leave home and live 100% for the Kingdom of God.

       I remember back in '93, on a mission trip to Tepic Mexico, I would have to say I was filled with the Holy Spirit. I remember calling home and hearing about the kids sporting results, how my practice was going, etc. and what use to consume me paled in importance to what was going on in Mexico. The presence of the Lord was intense, people were getting saved, revival was happening among our group, the youth were on fire, it was awesome. When I came home I started witnessing to all my patients and saw 20 saved. I met with guys throughout the week to pray in the early morning. If I went shopping, played tennis, went to Dollywood - the only reason was to get out in the public to look for someone to share the gospel to. This went on for a good two years. People thought I was somewhat nuts, it put strain on my marriage, it was physically exhausting... but it was great.(I knew 2 people going through the same thing at the same time that I was going through it and they were both put on bipolar medicine - ha) I can truly say that I have experienced that a close relationship with Jesus and living for Him is the greatest thing in life, hands down. I often feel guilty that I'm not there now. What can I do to get it back? Certainly I could go back to meeting with guys for prayer, that would help. Certainly I could go out witnessing - that would help. The problem is that those were a result of what was going on inside me, they didn't cause it. They overflowed from it. Could it be that this was just a period in my life where God filled me with His Holy Spirit for a job to be performed and now that is done? It's not that I am out of His will now or done with my purpose in life - it's just that I've resumed the roles, like Jesus was, until the filling takes place again. I don't know if this is true, I'm just pondering.

   Lord thank You that I can truly say that Your love is better than life. Fill me with your Spirit. Use me while I still have breath I'm me. Amen