REPORT ON WEDNESDAY'S BIBLE CLASS

Mark chapter 1, verses10-13
The Gospel of Luke records the event of Jesus at the age of 12, being lost and found by Mary and Joseph in the temple at Jerusalem, sitting among the Teachers who were astounded at his wisdom. After that, nothing is recorded about Jesus until the age of 30, when the Gospels record how John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the river Jordan. When Jesus came up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the Holy Spirit descending upon him in a beautiful, majestic way, as gently as a dove. Then Jesus heard His Father’s voice come from heaven saying, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This event was a wonderful revelation to us of the interaction between the three Divine Persons. Pastor said that after our own baptism, we too should hear the Father say these same words to us. After baptism we are protected by Him and He will say to Satan, to every sickness, to every curse, to every evil that tries to attack us “Keep away, this is MY child!”

Jesus’ earthly ministry began on this very ecstatic note. Then verse 12 tells us that immediately, that same, gentle Holy Spirit, led Jesus into the wilderness for forty days where He fasted, was among the wild beasts and was tempted by Satan. Jesus’ wonderful baptism experience was immediately followed by a period of testing! Pastor then took us back to our own situation where we may have experienced an initial euphoria soon after our water baptism. But not long after that, we have all gone through times of severe testing. Many of us may still be in that period. We may find ourselves among the “wild beasts” of today’s world in the form of people around us who are ready to pounce on us and tear us apart. We may experience this in the society in which we live, in our work place or even in our own families. The “wild beasts” may also come in the form of evil thoughts and tendencies that we have to fight against.

Jesus Himself overcame the testing period triumphantly by the Power of The Holy Spirit (Christ) in Him and the “Word of Scripture” that He was familiar with. We too are provided with these same weapons. So we see how necessary it is to equip ourselves with The Word of God. If it is already within us, it will come to our assistance at the right time and enable us to overcome every attack of Satan. Jesus did not turn stones into bread and never did that at any time of His ministry. Pastor said that he too would never try to do that, taking stones figuratively as referring to people or other obstacles in our lives. We may be holding onto them trying to change them instead of moving them out of our lives. Jesus always moved stones out of the way, as He did at Lazarus’ tomb. Many of us may be still in the wilderness, going through our period of testing. All of us may be at different stages of growth in our lives and before every major step ahead, there will always be a period of testing as in any system of education. At a really high level at which Pastor is, the testing will be far more severe than for some of us who may still be at a primary level in the spiritual life.

Before Pastor could appear on stage for the Bible teaching, the Lord had given him a “Word of Prophecy” that said, “Your time of testing is over!” When Jesus’ time of testing in the wilderness was over, verse 13 ends with “and the angels ministered to Him.” When our time of testing is over, God will send blessings and deliverance upon us through His angels. At that moment, Pastor said he could see the hall full of angels! While everyone closed their eyes and raised their hands toward heaven, Pastor prayed and began to sing a new song: On the Wings of Angels, deliverance is coming to you!” Many began to weep and cry loudly, many got slain in the Spirit, many were delivered from evil spirits and some began to laugh uncontrollably with joy. Praise the Lord!