Chapter 3 - Became Strong in Spirit
Many people think that because Jesus was the Son of God, he knew everything from birth – He knew who He was, what he was going to do, and the complete and total will of God. Not so. He had to learn the plan and will of God just like you and I do because in His earthly ministry, He ministered as a man anointed with the Holy Ghost. Look at Luke 2:40; “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him.” Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, the Bible says that the Child grew and became strong in spirit.” Now, if He became strong in spirit as he was growing, that means He did not start of as strong in spirit as He was later. You do not become something if you are already it. To become something means going from on state to another state. Saying that “you became rich” means you did not start rich. So when the Bible says, “Jesus became strong in spirit,” it means that He was growing and maturing in spirit.
Now, the Holy Ghost was within Him from His birth. He was born of the Spirit of God, an yet – just like you and me – as He grew and matured, He had to start receiving the revelation of God’s will out of His spirit so he could know the plan and will of God. Many people think that from six years old Jesus knew He was going to die on the cross. What kind of brutal, vicious Father would God be to bring a child here and from a very young age have Him know he is going to die? No, He grew. Just as He grew from the revelation of the Word and the Spirit of God within Him, you and I must grow in grace and favor by the revelation of the will and the Word of God within us. That is why you will not get saved one day and then have the total will of God come to pass in your life immediately on the next day. The reason is, you have not gotten the revelation of His will in your spirit; therefore, you have not yet started framing your world by the Word.
People who got saved yet steady want everything tomorrow. But the fact of the matter is that your tomorrows are the product of what you were speaking the days before you got saved. Remember this faith principle is a law. Like the law of gravity. Whether you are saved or unsaved, you are receiving what you have been speaking. Through salvation God gives you access to the God-Kind of Faith. He says, “If you will start speaking My Word instead of your words, your world will start changing, and your circumstances will start coming into line with My will.” Some of you right now have what have been saying since being saved because you have not yet established the discipline of saying what God has said, instead of saying what your circumstances says.
Now, as He grew, Jesus was receiving the revelation of God’s Word and God’s will coming out of his spirit and illuminating His mind. Remember when Jesus was found in the temple at age twelve?
So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Look Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:48-49)
At age twelve, he was getting the revelation. What was deposited in His spirit was now coming to His mind, and His mind was coming into agreement with what was in His spirit. And He was saying, “You know what? I know now I am supposed to be about My Father’s business. I did not know this at five, but I know it at twelve.” This was someone who was growing in the knowledge of God’s will. “But they did not understand the statement which he spoke to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:50-52). Increasing in something means getting more than you had before. Notice, it says, “Jesus increased,” not Christ. Christ is the inner man – the spirit on the inside of Jesus; but Jesus, the man (the natural man) increased.
