The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.

As we saw on Friday, this passage is primarily about the Messiah, Jesus.

‘He is someone of quite extraordinary importance. We have met him before, of course. The Spirit…is on me recalls 42:1 (‘I will put my Spirit on him’), but also 11:1 (‘The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him’). He is both the Servant of chapters 40-55 and the Messiah of chapters 1-35, for – this is what we must notice – these are one and the same person.’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’, pp.233/234.

Webb goes on to point out that the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s ruins after the exile was a major work, only made possible by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit (Haggai 2:5; Zech.4:6). Yet it is far surpassed by the building of the church through the Spirit-enabled preaching of the gospel.

So although this is first and foremost about Christ, we are reminded that if He needed the Holy Spirit to carry out His ministry on earth, how much more do we? We can be grateful, then, for every promise in the Bible that points to the Spirit’s equipping of believers for ministry. Notably today, I think of Acts 1:8:

”But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses…”

George Verwer, the founder of ‘Operation Mobilisation’, use to say: ‘The Holy Ghost gives you a Holy go!’

PRAYER: Lord, we want to be as filled with your Spirit as it is possible to be, so that we overflow with empowered words and deeds of witness