Read The Bible The Book Of Luke 15 by Rev. Christie Bature: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you

Luke 4:16

Even Jesus always went to church. It was his custom, as he always did on the Sabbath

Luke 4:18

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you

You may not recognize it. You may not utilize it. You may not deploy it. But the Spirit of the Lord is upon you as it was on Jesus

The Spirit that quickened Jesus is the same Spirit on you Romans 8:11

The challenge: preach the gospel. Speak to people about Jesus

Psalm 90:12

God is telling you to number your days

Ecclesiastes 12:1

When you are old, you won't have the strength, the courage or the eyesight to go preach to anybody. So while you are young, number your days and preach the gospel

The gospel is for the poor, not just the rich. God is not forgetting the rich and he is not forgetting the poor. Everybody has equal access, equal rights, equal opportunities for the kingdom

So talk to people about Jesus. Sometimes you may not be able to say Jesus loves you, but your conduct, your life, your love for people

We are the living epistles of Christ 2 Corinthians 3:2

Illustration: the grace tank

When I was praying about the theme of the conference, new dimensions of grace, God said: people are always looking to you to receive grace from you. In this conference, turn it around.

Of all the grace you have been receiving, how much are you releasing to others?

The title of the message was, How is your grace tank? Do you even have a grace tank? Has it become a reservoir, or is it a conduit through which God is reaching other people?

The gospel is for everybody. Nobody is excluded. The poor, the rich, the down and out, the up and about, the sick, the despairing, the depressed

Announce pardon to prisoners

Luke 4:18

If you are in any form of prison, whether physical, financial or a relationship prison, I come in the name of the Lord Isaiah 52:7

My God reigns in that situation. He reigns in the prison, and I announce the opening of the prison doors

• You have a relative in prison and everything is going against that person. The Lord said to tell you that miraculously your relative will be released.
• It will make no sense, but there is coming a proclaiming of liberty to that person.
• But God wants you to do something before the release. Go to the prison and speak to the person about Jesus.
• God wants to save the person before he releases him, because that person is a servant of the Most High.
• The person's life has been nonsense. Your mind says, that one can never be a preacher, he's too terrible. God says he is my servant.
• He will give his life to Christ and God will miraculously release him to preach the gospel. That is the condition.

If there is anybody you are holding captive because they have done something to you, anybody you have found impossible to release and forgive, God is speaking to you

He has anointed you to be able to do it. You have been saying, "I can't. They hurt me too much."

Release the prisoner you are holding in your emotions, in your mind, in your heart.

Release the person

Recovery of sight to the blind

• If you are blind in any way, I speak the recovery of your sight.
• If you are spiritually blind, recover your sight.
• If you are mentally blind, recover your understanding.
• If you are emotionally blind, get back in touch with your emotions.
• If you are physically blind, may the hand of the Lord touch you and restore your sight.

He has anointed us to preach the recovery of sight to the blind, to decree it

One of the reasons we don't experience miracles is because we don't step out. If you don't pray for the blind, how would you know the blind can recover their sight? Go try it.

You are not the one doing the healing. It's God. He can just decide to honor your faith

If you don't lay hands on the sick, how will you know the sick can recover?

The challenge for this week: find somebody and pray for the person, whether they are physically sick, mentally sick, emotionally sick or financially sick. This is what we have been anointed to do.

As the Lord's hand was on Jesus, the Lord's hand is on all of us

When you see people tormented by the spirit of depression, call it by name and command it to go

When you see people overcome by the spirit of fear, rebuke it, command it to go and speak the boldness and courage of God into the person

When you see people afraid of an exam, speak the understanding of God into their lives

When you see people working hard and nothing is coming out of it, rebuke the evil spirit of toiling and labor without reward

You don't have to have the gift of healing to pray for people for healing. It's a lie that unless you have the gift of healing you cannot pray for the sick

Testimony: many years ago God told me to go to hospitals to minister to sick people. I do not have a healing ministry. But as I obeyed God, I began to see incredible healings.

I would go with my guitar or keyboard, just sing, and people got healed

There is nothing like a gift of healing. There is a call to pray for the sick

Mark 16:17 to Mark 16:18

He did not say if they have a healing gift, they shall lay hands on the sick and the sick shall recover. He said they that believe

Someone prayed for a sick person and the person died instantly. That person may have been praying in his heart as you were praying, and died and went straight to heaven

It's very possible God wanted you to pray at that time because the devil was trying to snatch him into hell and God snatched him to heaven. We never know.

When we stand before God, many things will make sense

All that matters is that you obeyed God and prayed for somebody who was sick

Set the burdened and the battered free

Luke 4:18

If you live around women or men in physical battery, husbands beating the woman, wives beating the man, if there is anything you can do to help, do it. Help

What if the signs of death are visible? Do you pray for healing or for God's will to prevail?

Don't think ahead about what you will say when you are faced with the situation. God will put what you should pray in your mouth

There is nothing wrong with praying for healing and God's will to prevail at the same time. The devil will never tell you to pray for God's will or for healing.

So if your heart is saying pray for both, it is the Spirit of God. Pray for both

Where there are people bruised, burdened and battered around you, whatever you can do to remove them from that atmosphere, to protect them and save their lives, do it

• If you are the one burdening another, the one battering another, may the Lord deliver you.
• May the Lord teach you a different way to deal with your upsets and your offenses.
• If you are a narcissist, may the Lord deliver you from the spirit of narcissism and flood your heart with his love.

Delivering people who are burdened and battered is part of your anointing. Don't say, "It's not my business, it's a husband and wife matter"

You will be the same person standing there looking at the dead body when they have been killed, or rushing the person to the hospital when they have removed one eye.

Make up your mind to do the work you have been anointed to do

Proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord

Luke 4:19

This is God's time to shine

Whatever it is you have been praying for, this is the acceptable year of the Lord

Every day you wake up is the day the Lord has made Psalm 118:24. The devil didn't create that day, so he does not have the power to determine how that day will go.

No matter how you slept yesterday

If the Lord made every day, what do you think happens to the year? He owns the year

• This is the acceptable year of the Lord for your healing.
• This is the acceptable year of the Lord for your deliverance.
• This is the acceptable year of the Lord for the intervention of God.
• This is the acceptable year of the Lord for your marriage.
• This is the acceptable year of the Lord for you to have your baby.
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Rev. Christie Bature
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• This is the acceptable year of the Lord for you to go into the ministry he called you into.
• This is the acceptable year of the Lord for your business to flourish.
• This is the acceptable year of the Lord for your promotion to come.
• This is the acceptable year of the Lord for you to give your life to Jesus.

This is your calling. I don't know what God has called me to do? This is it:

Luke 4:18 to Luke 4:19

This is your ministry full time. How God chooses to express it is up to him.

Maybe through a teaching ministry, a pastoral ministry, a job in a very influential position, a field where there are not many Christians. This is the purpose of the calling and the anointing

Don't chase revelation

What do you do when you no longer have revelation as you used to, you have prayed and God seems silent?

God leads us in seasons. Why rely on revelation all the time?

Why must that be the only way he speaks to you or leads you to do his work? Don't put him in a box

If he has moved on from the season of you getting revelations, put your eyes in the word and see where else he is talking to you from

When we get stuck on one way that God will talk to us or lead us, we can get into error

Illustration: the prophet who pretended

A pastor shared with me that he invited a very prophetic minister to his church. The first day the man operated so powerfully in the prophetic that the accuracy was scary

The pastor who invited him also operates in the prophetic, so he knew the flow of God's Spirit is powerful

The next day there was no prophetic unction on the man of God, and he started putting it on. He was acting

After the service the pastor asked, "Why were you pretending today?"

"Oh, you noticed. It was not flowing today." "Then why did you have to force it? Why didn't you just preach the word of God?

Must the prophetic flow every day?"

The pastor told me that was the last time he invited him. He doesn't want anybody pretending about the Holy Spirit in his church

The Holy Spirit you are pretending about knows that you are pretending. Anybody who can do anything just to keep the show going has already left the will of God

So don't be chasing revelation. We are just reading the Bible. Getting acquainted with the Master and Savior. Getting conversant with the word of God. Comfortable with just having his word enter our hearts

Sometimes when I'm preaching, revelation comes out, powerful. But I will not come waiting for revelation so that every time people say powerful. I don't have to be powerful all the time.

Even Jesus slept, in a boat that was capsizing

It's not every time that you do revelation, revelation. That's how we get into error

Just sit down with the word of God. His word is revelatory. It is self-revelatory

This happens especially if we are leaders in a church or fellowship circle and it's usually about people. They say, "Wow, that pastor, always revelation," and then pride enters our heart

Be acquainted with the word. Otherwise the tendency for error will increase. I never want to operate in error in this life until I stand before my Master

Jesus sat down

Luke 4:20

Sitting down says something. If a king is sitting down and you come in, he does not stand up. You come and bow. When a person is sitting down, he is exerting authority.

He is in charge

He had read what his purpose is. It is settled. In mathematics it is called QED

Another reason Jesus sat down: God is the drama king. There is no bigger drama king than God

He allowed the three Hebrew boys to be threatened, the fire to be heated up, and then they were thrown into the fire. The people who threw them got burned Daniel 3

The boys entered the fire and began to praise and worship. Then Jehovah showed up in the fire. He is the greatest drama king

Jesus was exhibiting that attribute here. He read that powerful scripture, gave it back, and sat down. Everybody was looking at him. When all eyes were on him, then he started.

He is the master game planner

Choose your battles. Plan when you open your mouth. Decide when to engage

If you are walking on the road and there are dogs in different houses all barking, and you stop to tell every dog to shut up, you will not get to where you are going.

You will be late

One of the people whose dog you are abusing may just get vexed and open their gate. Do you have the liver to stand when the dog is released? You run

Jesus didn't make noise. He read the scripture, sat down and caught their attention

Ask God to show you strategies. Especially for people you have been trying to preach to who are shunning you and turning their back.

Ask God for a strategy that will force their eyes to look at you so you can say what you have to say

Testimony: food as strategy

On my birthday, September 1, we went downtown to reach out to homeless addicts. We took food, drink and water.

When we came out of our cars they asked, "Who are these?" When we brought food they began to smile

I said, "Today is my birthday. Can I share food with you? Can I pray with you?" You will eat, but you will eat prayer too

Some said, "I don't do prayer," but they didn't walk away. They stayed as I prayed for the others. If anybody attempted to walk away, I raised my voice.

It's not by chance that God gave me a big voice. I have gone for crusades where the speaker and the microphone failed and they heard me from the back

Food became my strategy. They accepted for me to pray with them, to talk with them and to ask them a few questions

Jesus finished reading, sat down and didn't say a word, and that commanded the attention of everybody. Don't always be in a hurry to talk. Divine wisdom, divine strategy

Scripture makes history

Luke 4:21

Scripture had been read in Israel from its very existence. They had been hoping for the Savior, the one about whom these words were spoken. Now they were privileged to see scripture make history

I wish I was in that room to see scripture become a living thing, scripture taking on physical life. What an epoch moment. It came true just now in this place

Wherever you go, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you to do the things in Luke 4:19. Everywhere you go and speak the word of God, scriptures come true

Matthew 25:35 to Matthew 25:40

When I went downtown with nine other people, we were bringing scriptures to life. Scriptures were making history that day

When are you going to make the scriptures come alive? When are you going to take your eyes off yourself and do the work of the ministry you were anointed to do?

So many expressions of ministry in one verse of scripture. I don't know my calling? This is your calling, spelled out straight up

Recovery of sight to the blind could be a teacher, an educator, an inventor, however God decides to give expression to the anointing he has already given you. That is up to him

Print it out on a piece of paper and put it on your bathroom mirror: this is my calling

Every time you do that, scriptures come alive. Scripture becomes a living, breathing, moving thing

Gracious words

Luke 4:22

Pray for yourself: God, make me well spoken. Not just when I'm preaching the gospel, but when I'm relating with human beings.

Make me well spoken to the point where people will bear witness that the words that come out of my mouth are gracious

If you have been told you have a bad mouth, a bitter mouth, that you are harsh, that your words are heavy, this prayer is for you

• Make my words gracious. Make me a person of gracious words.
• Make me a woman of gracious words. Make me a man of gracious words.
• Let your anointing rest upon me and make me well spoken.
• Let the anointing change the way I talk.
• When I open my mouth, let grace come out.

The anointing doesn't only come for you to express God's power to people. It comes so that your words will carry grace, seasoned with grace Colossians 4:6

Don't mistake it. Does this mean I will not scold people? You can scold people in honor. You can scold people with respect.

You can scold people with grace, such that it's easier for them to take your scolding

You cannot call someone "you are very stupid, you are a dumb idiot."

I can speak to the same person with the same anger and say, "There could have been a better way to do this." Next time, ask somebody to show you another way

I can see that what you did is idiotic, but because of grace I'm not going to say you are an idiot. When you rebuke someone in the right way, the person will be encouraged

Those who rebuke their children and call them names: "You this child, you will not kill me. You are the worst child I have. You are the most badly behaved."

Make me a woman of grace

Once good comes, the enemy shows up

Luke 4:22

Once good comes, the devil shows up to count. Sometimes you are celebrating a victory and something bad comes out of nowhere and knocks you. This is the enemy

The same people who acknowledged the grace he carried then said, "Isn't this Joseph's son? The one we have known since he was a kid. We saw him when he used to run around naked"

God can use a kid to save you. Kid here is not necessarily age. It is somebody who knows less than you, is lower than you, is less experienced than you.

God can use them to save you

1 Samuel 9

When King Saul's father sent him to look for donkeys, he left the house carelessly and took his servant with him. That was the best decision he made in his life

After three days Saul said, let's go back. The servant is the one who knew there was a prophet in the city. The king did not know. The servant said, "I have money, take it"

1 Timothy 4:12

Don't let anybody despise your smallness. Don't let anybody despise what you carry. Don't let anybody despise the grace upon your life. God gave it to you

They say, if he is that powerful, why doesn't he have 100,000 followers on TikTok or Instagram? Is followers the measure of the value of what you carry?

1 Samuel 17:28 to 1 Samuel 17:30

David's brother was angry at him for asking a question. I love what David did. He turned away from him and asked another person

Turn away:

• From people who despise you
• From people who belittle you
• From people who demean you
• From people who doubt you
• From people who want to knock what you carry out of you
• From people who are always criticizing you and never have anything constructive to say

2 Kings 20:1 to 2 Kings 20:2

Hezekiah turned away from man and faced God

What if you can't physically turn away?

Turning away is not necessarily physical. Sometimes you have to physically leave the place, but sometimes that will be dangerous because somebody may attack you

Then you spiritually shut your ears to their conversation. You don't internalize what they say. You externalize it

When they say, "Look at your sloppy work again," don't say, "Oh my God, oh Lord." Say, sloppy or not, it has been accepted by the boss.

Sloppy or not, there is room for me to get better

You are putting up a wall. You are not internalizing their criticism, their rejection, their demeaning behavior, their demoralizing words.

You are not accepting them, not agreeing with them, not allowing them to change the tone of your inside

Testimony: somebody typed, "You always look younger and younger." I said it is the peace of God. God has taught me to dwell in peace no matter what is happening outside

That includes people looking down on me, belittling what I carry, shunning me, rejecting me, excluding me from certain circles, behaving as if I don't matter, and saying things about me

Illustration: the post

Somebody put a big picture of me on social media attacking a message I preached: "You are not righteous unless your spouse says you are righteous, because they are the ones who live with you"

He added a laughing emoji and said, "Wow, I thought our righteousness is of Christ." He tagged his wife: "Am I righteous?" People came and abused me. I looked at it and laughed

Someone who saw that post told me, "I know this man and his wife. He beats his wife. He cheats on his wife. Tagging her was in mockery." His wife did not answer

When I heard that, I understood why what I said was annoying him. It is the finger of God pointed in his eye

Don't come and tell me you are a good husband. Let me hear it from your wife. Don't come and tell me you are a good wife. Let me hear it from your husband.

If I hear it from your spouse, then I know you are good. They live with you

I'm not talking about spiteful, wicked spouses. Your pass mark will come from the person relating with you, not from you

I understood the man's pain. Imagine if I had spent hours angry, sad or doubting the word God put in my mouth because somebody being judged by what I said is reacting

Even with your spouse, raise up that wall that does not allow you to internalize their abuse and their neglect

Psalm 42:5

1 Samuel 30:6

When Ziklag had been attacked, David encouraged himself in the Lord. Learn from David. Encourage yourself in the Lord