SCRIPTURE:

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)

DEVOTIONAL:

In the book of Genesis, God commanded Adam to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” This meant that Adam was to spread the garden of Eden, its beauty, opulence and culture, throughout the whole earth. When Adam and Eve fell from sin and lost their communion with God, they began to create another culture outside of God and God’s original thinking. It became a culture based on fallen man’s thinking and not on the principles and laws of the government of God. 

When Jesus came, He reintroduced the kingdom of God that operated in the Garden, and put mankind back on track with Adam’s original assignment. In Luke 4:18–19 (see this week’s scripture verses), Jesus began to read from Isaiah, chapter 61, but intentionally left out “the day of vengeance of our God” from verse 2. Why? The vengeance of the Lord was not part of Jesus’ ministry on the earth. 

Vengeance and recompense would become the ministry of the Holy Spirit after the day of Pentecost. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives on the inside of every born-again believer, we have now stepped into the part that Jesus left out, “…the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn… 

Through vengeance, or God’s justice system, we will see the complete plan of God manifested. The Church, as an institution, will be recognized as the mightiest and wealthiest in the world. By His anointing, God is beautifying the Church and destroying every work of the wicked one.

PRAYER:

Dear God, I praise You for the work You are finishing in Jesus through His body, the Church. Use me Lord, through Your Holy Spirit, to do my part in Your plan to bring comfort to the hurting and solutions to the problems facing today’s society. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

This devotional is excerpted from Bill Winston’s book, Vengeance of the Lord. To order this all-important book, click here.