Independence Day“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 proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year [Jubilee where free favors and salvation abound] of the LORD.” (Luke 4:18-19) In the 1996 summer blockbuster Independence Day, Will Smith and company take on the invading aliens who are hell bent on destroying planet earth. That may be Hollywood’s take on the most important day of the year, but God has a message for each of us on independence day. Two centuries before 1776, the pilgrims made a covenant with God on the ship Mayflower to settle in the new world for the furtherance of the Christian faith and for the glory of God. On July 4th America the beautiful celebrates its independence from the tyranny of England. On this day in 1776, our forefathers by the leading of the Holy Spirit drafted the Declaration of Independence to establish a free nation based on the Bible and its Judeo-Christian principles. America has been so blessed over the years to be the world’s richest and most powerful nation because Psalm 33:12 says “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD.” For we the believers, Luke 4:18-19 which came from Isaiah 61:1-2 is our spiritual declaration of independence, where it is clearly the will of God for us to be set free from poverty, broken hearts, imprisonment, blindness and oppression. In His first sermon, Jesus was anointed by the words of Isaiah 61 to preach to the lost, because it is the preaching of the gospel of salvation that calls people to repentance and saves them. When Peter preached to the crowd under the anointing of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the people were pricked in their hearts and asked, “What shall we do?” Peter preached and 3,000 people were saved and baptized in Acts 2:41. Jesus was anointed to heal and proclaim freedom to those in bondage to sin, sickness, fear, blindness, oppression, poverty, and anything that is not from God. His healing and restoring power can break the chains that are binding us so we can enjoy Unchained Melody. If any of us haven’t given our heart and life to Jesus, today is the perfect day to declare our independence from sin and death, from poverty, sickness and oppression. We can do it by just saying this prayer out loud: “Father God, I repent of every sin that I have ever committed and I am truly sorry. I ask You to save me, heal me, deliver me, and set me free as You fill me with the Holy Spirit. From now on I am going to serve You with everything that is in me. This is my independence day. Help me to study and obey Your Word. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”Copyright © 2003 Eddy Ministries. All rights reserved. Subscribe/Unsubscribe: eddyn@earthlink.net
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