Today, we’re looking at Isaiah 11:1-2, “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” (NASB) These verses are Isaiah’s prophecy about Jesus and His reign on earth.
Notice the Scripture says the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him. God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is in Jesus. As Believer’s we have that same Spirit in us. In his commentary on Isaiah, J. Vernon McGee states, “This is the sevenfold spirit that rested upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The plentitude of power is the sevenfold spirit: (1) of the Lord; (2) of wisdom; (3) of understanding; (4) of counsel; (5) of might; (6) of knowledge; and (7) of the fear of the Lord.” All these attributes are also in us because Jesus lives in our hearts.
Because Jesus had the Spirit upon Him, He has the power of the Holy Spirit, and we do as well. We learned in our last post that, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;” (Acts 1:8 NASB) Because of this, the Holy Spirit gives us the power to be witnesses of God’s love, He gives us the power to overcome obstacles the enemy throws in our pathway, we have power in every circumstance we face. When we allow the Holy Spirit’s power to work through us, we cannot be defeated.
Our Scripture today also tells us that the spirit of wisdom was on Jesus. When we utilize the wisdom given to us from the Holy Spirit, we can make good decisions. We also rely upon His guidance in making those decisions and following Jesus’ footsteps. Yielding to the voice of the Holy Spirit helps us do battle against the enemy of our souls as he tries to lead us astray.
We also see the spirit of understanding resting upon Jesus. This is spiritual understanding. When we delve into God’s Word, we need the understanding to be able to “rightly divide the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV) It also means spiritual discernment. Being able to sort out fact from fiction. As Believers, sometimes Satan whispers in our ears, feeding us half-truths and outright lies. We need discernment to know the difference between the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the condemnation or lies of the enemy.
Jesus also had the spirit of counsel. Nowhere in Scripture do we see Jesus asking for anyone’s advice or counsel. Instead, He was the one giving the advice. He was the one counseling others on right living and how to have a relationship with God. Because we have that same Spirit in us, we receive that same counsel from Him. If we are tempted to hand out advice to others, we had better be unquestionably positive that our counsel lines up with Scripture and is sanctioned by the Holy Spirit. There is also is a time and a place for advice. Sometimes that time and place is never.
Jesus had the spirit of might. This is the same as power, but I think it may have a stronger connotation. We need to be able to use that power in every situation. The Apostle Paul desired “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;” (Philippians 3:10 NASB) Jesus had the power to be resurrected from the dead. That same power is within us. We also have that might and power to go through suffering with strength, just as Jesus did.
The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord are available to us through the study of God’s Word. Many misunderstand what it means to fear the Lord. It doesn’t mean to be afraid of Him, rather it is to respect Him and honor Him. The more time we spend in God’s Word learning about His character, the more we get to know Him and what His attributes are, the more we become more knowledgeable of who He is and how much He loves us.
God’s Spirit resides in us, and because He resides in us, we can be confident that we have the ability to let Jesus’ light shine through us and His Spirit work in our lives so that others will see and know that Jesus is Lord and Savior of our lives.
donnasmusings 