Rejoicing in the Spirit
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. Luke 10:21
Have you ever rejoiced in the Lord or been so thankful that it bubbled out of you in a voice of praise and thanksgiving to your heavenly Father! When you had an answer to prayer or when He worked something out in your life circumstances for so much good that you couldn’t help but bless His name? When you stretched out your hands to heaven and said: Thank you Father for your amazing grace and works! For working out every detail of my concerns and worries. I trust you with all that I am and all that I have! You just couldn’t hold it back!
Many times, when that happens, the rejoicing will produce a knowing in your spirit of something God revealed to you in that moment. Whether it is peace or faith to take the next step in your walk with Him, something happened and now you are encouraged to step up to the next mission in your life.
Many places in the gospels, Jesus got away by Himself to spend time talking with His Father. He often went off by Himself in the mornings to pray. However, in today’s passage, Jesus rejoices in the Spirit, right in the middle of the activities of the day. After the 70 disciples came back to report to Jesus about what happened on their mission trip, Jesus told them to rejoice that their names were written in heaven and then He begins to rejoice by talking/praising His Father in heaven.
So, now I know exactly what it means to rejoice in the Spirit because I have an example of what Jesus did. He started thanking God in heaven, His Father for things that He knew about Him and the plans that He knew God was doing. He isn’t guessing and wondering what God is like and what He might be working on. On the surface, I saw this as Jesus is the Son of God and He knows all that God is up to. But on looking closer, I realized that Jesus is just talking to and thanking God for what He already knows about Him from walking with Him and learning His Word throughout His lifetime.
He started out thanking God for hiding things from the wise and prudent, those who seem like they should be the ones to get all God’s attention. Then He said that it seemed good to God to reveal His hidden secrets to babes or people who were hungry for God no matter what their education was.
After rejoicing about God revealing Himself to the disciples through their ministering, He takes the disciples aside privately and tells them what had been revealed to Him through rejoicing in the Spirit. This was the knowing or the message that was dropped into Him because of His rejoicing in the Spirit. He told the disciples they were the blessed ones and how the prophets and kings before them had desired to see what they were seeing and hearing as they walked with Jesus. I’m sure they didn’t get it at the time, but those words of encouragement stuck with them as Jesus’ ministry progressed and they were able to realize how blessed they were to be chosen.
This is still happening today! Each one of us are called by Jesus to “follow Him”. When we accept the call and receive His salvation, we step into a place where we have every opportunity to rejoice in the Sprit! To thank God for all He has done and all He is working and doing right now in our lives. Sometimes in life it doesn’t seem so obvious that God is at work, but if you begin to rejoice even in the slightest of victories, that is when the peace for the future will come. He will supernaturally drop that assurance into your spirit and you will know, God’s got this! He will never let you down!
Today I want to encourage you to rejoice in the Spirit of God that lives inside you! Thank Him for His wonders. Even the things that He did way back in historical times. Know that He is the same God today and He will work these wonders in your life as you surrender them all to Him. Rejoice and worship Him until you receive that release of all anxiety. Let His peace come flooding in and allow your rejoicing to open up the way to victory in your life today.
Today’s scripture reading: Luke 10:21-24
21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.
22 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
23 Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see;
24 for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.”
The Daily Dose 