ACKNOWLEDGE THE HOLY GHOST
Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jesus for a particular purpose, and He told us what the Holy Spirit did when He came upon Jesus. The Holy Spirit is still doing these same things through those He anoints today. What I want to look at is the first thing Jesus said in this passage. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” He acknowledged that something was different now, that the Holy Spirit had come upon Him. When did that happen? It happened when John baptized Him with the baptism of repentance. It happened when Heaven opened, and the Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove. Notice, the Holy Spirit is not a dove but descended as a dove would fly down and sit upon you. Also, notice Jesus did not say, “This is what I am going to do,” for He was a man who was anointed by the Holy Ghost, so He was directing all attention to the anointing of the Spirit of God. He basically said, “It is that anointing is what is enabling me to do these things.”
When you and I acknowledge the Holy Spirit more and more, then He will be able to do more things for us as well. There are many scriptures that tell us what the Holy Spirit does in the life of the believer. To become more aware of those things in your life, you must acknowledge Him. For instance, before I minister the Word of God, while I am praying, I always try and acknowledge my dependence on the Holy Spirit. I am not doing it for show; I rely on Him, and without Him doing what He does, there is no reason for me to attempt to minister. You could do this. When you need to understand something in the Word of God, John 16:13 says, “The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth,” so acknowledge that. Say, “Holy Ghost, if I am going to understand this, you, who are my guide, will have to reveal it to me.” You can say to Him, “You are the Spirit of truth in my life, and you are my guide.” That scripture goes on to say, “He will show you things to come,” so you can say, “Holy Spirit, you are the one who makes the way; I can’t make this decision until you show me what is coming. You always show me things to come.” That is how you acknowledge Him. Can you think of anymore? How do you acknowledge Him?