When the Spirit of the Lord Is Upon You!

Good morning, friends.

How are you? How have you been? I trust you are well.

I just wanted to share from my devotion this morning.

This morning, I had the privilege of reading Luke 4:18. And it says:

"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."

This scripture… I don't know. It is eating me deeply this morning.

And the part I cannot just move past is right at the beginning.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me."

When the Spirit Comes Upon You, People Can Tell

As I was meditating on this word, I found myself thinking back through the Bible… the several instances where the Spirit of the Lord came upon people.

I thought of Saul. In 1 Samuel, his father's donkeys had gone missing, and Saul went out to search for them. There was a prophecy that something was going to happen near the prophet. And sure enough, when Saul drew close… the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. This was a man who had no inclination toward God, no experience with the prophetic. And suddenly, he was prophesying alongside the prophet.

He prophesied so much that the people around him could see it.

It was obvious. Something had changed.

And then I thought of Peter.

Peter was a timid man. He was the one who denied Jesus… not once, but three times. He wasn't sure of his faith. He was shaky. But then the Spirit of the Lord fell heavy upon him. And the same Peter who had been afraid in a courtyard, shrinking back from a servant girl, was suddenly standing up in front of crowds and speaking with a bold confidence that stopped people in their tracks.

People could tell. Something had happened to him. He had been with Jesus. And the Spirit of the Lord was all over him.

Are You Standing in His Presence?

As I sat with all of this, the Holy Spirit began to speak to me.

Abiola, that is the same thing that can happen to you… if you dwell in my presence.

And He brought to mind Elijah. In James 5:17-18, we see that Elijah was a man just like us. But he stood in the presence of the Lord. And because he stood there, he could pray fervently. Consistently. With results.

And God asked me:

Are you always in my presence?

Because there is no way you can stay in the presence of God… and not carry a reflection of Him.

His Presence Transfers

I remember an analogy God gave me once, and it came back to me this morning.

When you are driving in your car on a very sunny day… the sun is miles and miles away from you. You are inside the car. There is glass between you and the sky. And yet the beam of the sun still reaches your face. You still feel the warmth. You still carry its light.

That is what happens when we sit in God's presence.

His glory transfers to us.

It was said of Moses that after he had been in the presence of God, his countenance changed. He was shining so brightly that the people around him could not even look at his face directly.

That is what the presence of God does.

It doesn't leave you the way it found you.

So when this passage says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me"… it is not just a declaration.

It is a description of what becomes possible.

When the Spirit of the Lord rests upon you, there is an anointing to speak God's Word with confidence. Not a rehearsed confidence. Not a performance. A Spirit-breathed boldness that reaches people in places your words alone never could.

And not only that.

You can lay hands on the sick and see them healed. You can speak to the broken and see them lifted. You can walk into a room carrying something that was not there before you arrived.

This is not about who we are.

It is entirely about whose presence we have been sitting in.

Friends, the invitation this morning is simple.

Stay in His presence.

Not just for a moment. Not just when life gets hard and you need an answer. Not just on Sundays when the worship is good and the atmosphere is right.

Every day.

In the quiet of the morning before the noise starts. In the middle of the school run and the work emails and the meetings. In the evening when you are tired and the day has taken everything from you.

Stay.

Because the Spirit of the Lord does not fall upon a life that is always rushing past Him. He rests on those who make room. He settles on those who sit still long enough to let Him.

And when He does… you will not have to announce it.

People will see it in your face. They will hear it in your words. They will feel it when you walk into the room.

Just like Saul, who had never prophesied a day in his life. Just like Peter, who had been too afraid to even admit he knew Jesus.

When the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, it is evident. It is undeniable. And it is available… to every single one of us.

So today, I want to ask you the same question the Lord asked me this morning.

Are you in His presence?

Not just visiting. Not just passing through.

Are you dwelling there?

Because that is where the anointing lives. That is where the boldness comes from. That is where the healing flows, where the gospel gets preached with fire, and where broken things start to mend.

His presence is not a reward for the spiritually elite. It is an open invitation to anyone willing to draw near.

Draw near to Him today. And watch what He does with a life that simply makes room.

Have a blessed day, friends. I am praying for US.