Heralds Digest

  “ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath 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 .” Luke 4 : 18 - 19 KJV One of the beauties of spirit-inspired sent-forth services is the recognition of believers’ (1)  sensitivity to the spirit rather than self - Acts 13:2-4; (2) extravagant excellence of the eternal Emperor - Psalms 36:7; (3) nomination for the naming of new nature - Luke 4:18-19; and the (4) transparent transmission of the gospel of Truth - Luke 4:32, 36. Whereas, all self services are simply motivated by an outright disbelief in the existence and excellence of God. Even when a service assignment is started in the spirit, the heart’s recognition of the relevance of man above God can readily divert and destroy the original purpose of God. For example, the...

  “ And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Luke 4 : 3 - 4 KJV One of the fundamental lessons on how to resist temptation as taught by the Master Jesus Christ is the appreciation of loneliness. Beyond the lustful company with bread to arrest hunger, Satan apparently loathed or detested the satisfaction of Jesus with the word of God. Socialization and companionship with people are good, only if accommodated to sustain believers’ fellowship with God. Unfortunately, the basic source of temptation comes from the place of our preferences for bread or any means of socialization and companionship that can guarantee ceaseless production of bread. When Moses got angered by the people’s murmuring for meat in the wilderness, it wasn’t from the place of their sin against God…but rather from his personal dissatisfaction fo...