As I said yesterday, the Holy Spirit is a core theme in the two books written by Luke: Luke and Acts. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted to test his resolve. In the same way, in Acts 4, Luke shows how the early church showed their resolve to be bold witnesses in the face of persecution: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” Likewise here in Luke 4 we see Jesus using the words of Isaiah to boldly declare his mission: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” The greatest test of your resolve to live by the Spirit is to do the very thing that the devil least wants you to do: to be a bold witness to the good news of Jesus. It’s not that this is difficult since it merely involves us being open about our faith. But, we are naturally afraid that we will be ostracised by people, just as Jesus was ostracised. And here lies the test. For our resolve is manifested in our primary concern: Are we concerned that people will accept us or that people will accept Jesus? So we pull down the shutters over our faith and keep it private. For sure, your faith is personal. So keep your testimony personal. You don’t need to lecture people. But while your faith is personal, it’s not private. The Spirit of the Lord is within you because he has anointed you to proclaim good news to the spiritually impoverished.
Ask God to empower you with boldness to be an open witness to Christ.
Read Luke 4:14-30
