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Jesus said that he had come to seek and save the lost – the word ‘save’ literally meaning to bring into a wide-open space. It is a place of unrestricted freedom. Isaiah the prophet had seen that when God’s Messiah came, he would fulfil this word (Isaiah 61).
In his hometown, at a public meeting, Jesus read this scripture and told the crowd he was about to fulfil a prophetic promise. That was his manifesto. The words he spoke would become reality in people’s lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. He claimed that if he set a person free they would be free indeed.
Jesus ministered through revelation and the gifts of healing, miraculous powers, the distinguishing of spirits and faith. He modelled this ministry firstly to twelve disciples, and then to seventy. And once he had shown them how it worked, he sent them out in twos to do it themselves. And after he rose from the dead, he indicated in the great commission to the church that this ministry should continue through all those who came to believe in him…
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The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Isaiah 61 v 1-2, also Luke 4 v 16
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