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The Spirit of the Lord is upon you: Isaiah’s promise

Amen · 13-min read

One Sabbath, in the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled it, looked for a particular place and read aloud words written seven centuries earlier:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”

Isaiah 61:1-3

Then he rolled up the book, sat down and said: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21). That promise, fulfilled completely in him, did not stop with him. In the same book of Isaiah, God says to his people: “My spirit that is upon thee…” (Isaiah 59:21). Upon you. This article traces what Isaiah announced about the Spirit of the Lord, how it was fulfilled in Jesus, how it passes from him to us, on whom the Spirit rests, what he is given for and how to live under that anointing. At the end there is a prayer to ask for it.

Isaiah, the prophet of the Spirit

No Old Testament prophet speaks of the Spirit of God as much as Isaiah. His book traces a path in four steps. First it announces a King on whom the Spirit will rest (chapter 11). Then a gentle Servant on whom God puts his Spirit (chapter 42). Then it lets us hear the voice of that Anointed One: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me” (chapter 61). And woven through it all is the promise that the same Spirit will be poured out on the people, on their children and on their children’s children (chapters 32, 44 and 59). From the Messiah to the people: that is the movement. Read Isaiah, the prophet of the Messiah.

“Shall rest upon him”: the Spirit who stays

“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”

Isaiah 11:1-2

The image is of a felled tree. Nothing is left of the house of David but a stump; and from that stump, when no one expected anything any more, a shoot springs up. On him the Spirit will come in all his fullness: wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

But the decisive word is “rest.” In the days of the judges, the Spirit came upon a person for a task and a moment: he came upon Gideon, upon Samson, upon Saul; and sometimes he withdrew. Samson woke one day and “wist not that the Lord was departed from him” (Judges 16:20). Isaiah announces something new: someone on whom the Spirit not only comes, but stays. John the Baptist saw it fulfilled at the Jordan: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him” (John 1:32). Read The baptism of Jesus in the Jordan.

“I have put my spirit upon him”: strength with gentle hands

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.”

Isaiah 42:1

And how does someone full of the Spirit act? One would expect thunder. Isaiah says something else: “A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench” (Isaiah 42:3). The bruised reed is the one already bent and about to snap; the smoking flax is the wick that hardly gives any light. The Servant full of the Spirit does not finish breaking what is broken, nor put out the little that is still alight. Matthew applies this text to Jesus (Matthew 12:20).

This corrects a very widespread idea: that the power of the Spirit shows in noise or in hardness. The surest sign that the Spirit is upon someone is the way they treat the weak. And if today you are that bent reed, that wick barely smoking, the Spirit of the Lord does not come to finish you off: he comes to straighten you and to light you again.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me”: anointed for the broken

Go back now to the opening text and read slowly what God anoints for:

  • To preach good tidings to the meek. The Spirit’s first work is a piece of news: God has not forgotten you.
  • To bind up the brokenhearted. It does not say “correct” or “scold”: it says bind up, as a wound is bound, carefully and from close by.
  • To proclaim liberty to the captives. There are prisons without bars: guilt, fear, addiction, resentment. The Spirit opens them from within.
  • To comfort all that mourn. All: including the one who is grieving something no one else knows about.
  • To make an exchange. “Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” Three times “for.” God does not add a little joy on top of the ashes: he replaces them.

And the outcome: “that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.” Those who were sitting in ashes end up planted, with roots, and with shade for others. That is the Spirit’s work.

Nazareth: “This day is this scripture fulfilled”

“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

Jesus took this passage as the programme of his life. He had come from the Jordan, where the Spirit descended on him, and from the wilderness, from which he returned “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14). Everything he did afterwards—touching the leper, straightening the woman bent double, sitting at table with sinners, weeping with Martha and Mary—is Isaiah 61 put into practice. Peter summed it up: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). The word “Christ” means exactly that: the Anointed One.

There is a detail we should not miss. Isaiah says: “the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God.” Jesus read as far as “the acceptable year of the Lord,” and closed the book. He stopped in the middle of the sentence. Not because judgment does not exist, but because this is the time of grace. We are still living in that “acceptable year”: the door is open.

From “upon me” to “upon you”

Here is the heart of this article. What rested on Jesus did not stop with Jesus. Moses had longed for it centuries before: “would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29). Isaiah promised it:

“As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.”

Isaiah 59:21

Joel announced that it would be “upon all flesh”: sons and daughters, old and young, servants and handmaids (Joel 2:28-29). And the risen Jesus fulfilled it. On Easter evening he said to his own: “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you,” and he breathed on them: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:21-22). Before ascending to heaven he promised them: “ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (Acts 1:8). And at Pentecost the tongues like fire “sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:3). Upon each one: not only on Peter, not only on the twelve.

That is why Paul can write to a very ordinary church: “he which… hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). And John: “the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you” (1 John 2:27). If “Christ” means “Anointed,” “Christian” means “of the Anointed One”: someone who shares in his anointing. Isaiah 61 is first the portrait of Jesus; and then, by sheer grace, the vocation of everyone who belongs to him.

On whom does the Spirit rest?

One would think on the strong, the pure, those who never fail. Isaiah answers differently:

“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

Isaiah 57:15

The high and lofty One dwells in two places: on high, and with the contrite. And he promises: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed” (Isaiah 44:3). Water always seeks the lowest place; so does the Spirit. You do not need to be full to receive him: you need to be thirsty. Jesus said it with disarming simplicity: “how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13). Not to those who deserve him: to those who ask.

If you think the Spirit of God cannot be upon someone with your history, remember on whom he came in the Bible: on Gideon, who was hiding; on David, the youngest, whom no one had called; on fishermen who ran away on the night of the arrest. Read “When I am weak, then am I strong”.

What he is upon you for

The Spirit is not given for ornament or for show. “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (1 Corinthians 12:7). He is given to us for the same things as to Jesus:

  • To bring good news to someone who is downcast: a word in season. “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary” (Isaiah 50:4).
  • To bind up: to listen, to accompany, to stay when others leave.
  • To open prisons: to pray with someone who is bound and help them look for the way out.
  • To comfort with the comfort you yourself received (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Your bandaged wound becomes your way of serving.
  • To be a witness to Jesus where you live.

Isaiah adds a title we should not forget: “ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord” (Isaiah 61:6). The comforted become comforters. Read The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit and The gift of service.

Upon you even when you have no strength

The Spirit’s anointing is not a prize for strength: it is God’s answer to our weakness. To a governor disheartened before a mountain of rubble, God sent word: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). To a timid young pastor, Paul wrote: “stir up the gift of God, which is in thee… For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:6-7). And to all who are weary Isaiah promises: “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles” (Isaiah 40:31).

There is a lovely expression in the story of Gideon. The Hebrew text says, literally, that the Spirit of the Lord “clothed himself” with Gideon, as one puts on a garment (Judges 6:34). God did not wait for that frightened man to become brave: he filled him from within. Jesus used the same image as he took his leave: “tarry ye in the city… until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

Do not grieve, do not quench

The same Isaiah who announces the promise also tells of a sorrow: “they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit” (Isaiah 63:10). And the New Testament takes up the warning: “grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30); “Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19).

Only someone who loves can be grieved. The Spirit is not an impersonal force: he is Someone, and the way we live matters to him. In the context of Ephesians, what grieves him is very concrete: lying, anger that is stored up, words that wound, bitterness. And he is quenched when we say “no” to his promptings again and again, until we can hardly hear him.

If you recognise that you have done this, do not despair. David, after his fall, prayed: “take not thy holy spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11), and he was heard. And Jesus promised that the Comforter would come “that he may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16). He did not come on a visit. Turn back to him today.

How to live under that anointing

  1. Ask every morning. Before you look at your phone: “Come, Holy Spirit.” The promise is for those who ask.
  2. Keep the Spirit and the Word together. Isaiah 59:21 joins them: “My spirit… and my words which I have put in thy mouth.” The Spirit without the Word is confused with our emotions; the Word without the Spirit remains a dead letter.
  3. Obey the small prompting. “Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21). It is almost always something simple: call someone, ask forgiveness, stop and listen.
  4. Draw near to the broken. The Spirit moves towards them. Whoever wants to meet him should go where he goes.
  5. Walk with others. The anointing is lived in a body. Let mature brothers and sisters discern with you what you believe you have heard.
  6. Measure by fruit, not by intensity. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23).

A necessary warning: distrust anyone who uses “the anointing” to set himself above others, to ask for money or to demand obedience. God’s Anointed One washed feet. Where his Spirit is, there is humility, truth and liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17).

One Spirit in different traditions

The churches express this truth with different accents. Catholics and Orthodox anoint with oil at confirmation or chrismation, asking for the gifts of Isaiah 11. Pentecostal and charismatic churches stress the experience of being filled with the Spirit and of his gifts. Historic evangelical and Reformed churches insist that every believer receives the Spirit on being united to Christ by faith, and on the need to be filled each day. In different words, all confess the same thing: “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9); and to everyone who is Christ’s, the Spirit has been given. Read Holy Spirit and Set apart by the Holy Spirit: the filling of our lives.

Frequently asked questions

Is Isaiah 61 about Jesus or about me? First and fully about Jesus, who applied it to himself at Nazareth. And, by participation, about his people: he shares his Spirit and his mission with those who follow him.

Why “Jehovah”? The Spanish Reina-Valera version renders the Hebrew name of God (YHWH) as “Jehová”; the King James Version and most English Bibles say “the Lord.” The Spirit of the Lord is the Holy Spirit.

How do I know the Spirit is upon me? “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16). He is recognised in a desire for God, in sorrow over sin, in a love that grows. There is no need to measure it by sensations.

Can the Spirit leave me? Jesus promised that he would be with his own for ever. We can grieve him and stop listening; that is why the Bible calls us to return, not to despair.

Do I have to feel something special? No. Some experience him powerfully and others as a quiet peace. The promise is received by faith, and the fruit appears with time.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, Anointed of the Father, the Spirit rested on you, and you did not keep him for yourself. You breathed him on frightened men locked behind a door. Breathe on me today. I am a bruised reed, as you know; I am a wick that barely smokes. Do not break me; do not put me out. Come, Spirit of the Lord: Spirit of wisdom, for I do not know what to do; of might, for I am tired; of counsel, of knowledge and of the fear of God. Rest upon me, and not only in passing: stay. Exchange my ashes for beauty, my mourning for the oil of joy, my spirit of heaviness for a garment of praise. Forgive me for the times I grieved you and the times I quenched you. And then send me: to bring good news to someone downcast, to bind up a broken heart, to stay beside the one who weeps. May whoever comes near me find your gentle hands. Plant my life, Lord, as a tree of righteousness, for your glory. Amen.