By Apostle Isidore Agoha
Everything the Lord Jesus did in ministry was purposeful.with God the Father and out of their relationship He got to know the Father’s purposes and the strategies adopted by the Father to meet such needs. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing" John 5:19. In other words, when the Father initiates His purpose in heaven, Jesus the Son implements the purpose on Earth. This principle guided all of Jesus’s ministry action and strategies.
One immediate purpose of God id to undo Satan’s work of corruption in humanity that began in the Garden of Eden and to restore us to our place of glory, authority, victory, prosperity and dominion through fellowship in fellowship with Christ. It can be safely said that this was a major purpose of the ministry of deliverance as revealed in many verses in both the Old and New Testaments. John, in his first epistle, clearly indicates this purpose, "The Son of God (Jesus) appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil" 1 John 3:8. The manifesting of Jesus from divinity and eternity to humanity and time was not a random demonstration of God’s counsel and miraculous power. It was a purposeful, sovereign act. The purpose was to destroy all the works of darkness being perpetrated by Satan and his forces.
Satan himself is also very purposeful and strategic. Jesus exposed Satan’s purpose, saying, "The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy" John 10:10. This evil purposed expressed as stealing, killing and destroying inspires and motivates all of Satan’s forces to carry out diabolic activities against humanity. However, within the same verse of Scripture, God’s glorious purpose for us is also revealed: "I (Jesus) have come, that they might have life and have it more abundantly."
The Lord Jesus also elaborated on this aspect of Hid deliverance ministry when He appropriated the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the coming Messiah and His Ministry. On a visit to a synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth on a Sabbath day, the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Jesus. In that context, he found where His purpose was expressed in the following words, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."
The above declaration in all its ramification speaks of deliverance. This was of such importance that the Father by the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus in order to fulfill such a ministry. The purpose of Jesus’s ministry is summarily reviewed by Peter after Jesus had ascended and poured out the Holy Spirit, "God anointed Him (Jesus of Nazareth) with the Holy Spirit and with power and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." - Acts 10:38.
The above is a clear indication that Jesus was invested with the Holy Spirit and divine power for the purpose deliverance. This mostly resulted in the practical manifestation of God’s goodness and diverse provisions, especially healing of sicknesses and freedom from demonic bondage.
Apostle Isidore Agoha is the Senior Pastor at Triumphant Life Church in the Bronx, N.Y.
www.tlcny.org | http://twitter.com/apostleagoha
By Apostle Isidore Agoha
Jesus did various ministry activities such as teaching, preaching and working miracles such as deliverance, healings, raising the dead and the divine provision of material needs. Invariably, all these were done to accomplish God’s purposes in people’s lives. However, upon closer examination , the ministering of deliverance was central to Jesus’s ministry in two ways.
First, Jesus spent most of His public ministry time dealing with demons; rebuking them and casting them out. Apart from the many specific or named individuals who received deliverance through the ministry of Jesus, there are also several places in the record of the New Testament where Jesus dealt with demons in the lives of groups or masses of people simultaneously.
Second, another fact that underscored the place given to the ministry of deliverance in Jesus’s campaigns is that He employed this ministry at the beginning of and continued with it through the entire course of His ministry. He never contemplated backing off or modifying it. Towards the end of His earthly ministry, when some Pharisees sought to discourage Him from fulfilling His purpose of going to Jerusalem, they tendered an intimidation, "Herod is seeking to kill you." Jesus’s answer was no less intimidating, not only to Herod but also to the demonic forces behind Herod’s motive: "Tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today, tomorrow and on the third day I reach my goal" - Luke 13:32.
This answer not only reflects the vital place that deliverance occupied in the Lord’s ministry, it also reveals that deliverance as a ministry strategy was given a continuing practical emphasis. Furthermore, there is a goal to which the Lord aims to reach through the deliverance ministry.
Apostle Isidore Agoha is the Senior Pastor at Triumphant Life Church in the Bronx, N.Y.
www.tlcny.org | http://twitter.com/apostleagoha
By Apostle Isidore Agoha
The ministry of Jesus is God’s benchmark. No person in the human history can lay claim to any kind of service to God that can compare with the ministry that Jesus the Son rendered to God the Father by the Holy Spirit. God’s servants in the Old Testament were called to primarily foretell the unique ministry that God had anointed Jesus to fulfill in the fullness of time. Likewise, all of God’s servants in the New Testament, beginning from early church till the end of the age, are called not develop new ministries or standards of ministry but to build on the ministry of Jesus. Thus, the ministry of the Lord Jesus is God’s solid foundation for all present and future ministries called to the service of God and God’s people.
Human involvement in Christian ministry is only a manifestation of God’s grace, the endowment of a human vessel with the power of God to do something that only God can do. The only person who is qualified on the basis of His own personal merits to do ministry for God is Jesus. But out of His love and grace, He invites and shares His ministry with redeemed humanity. This vision of grace was not fully grasped by believers in Corinth to the extent that Apostle Paul had to sternly address this shortsightedness 1 Corinthians 3:1-10.
The Lord Jesus Christ is indeed God’s foundation and God never hesitated to testify to this at every critical point in His earthly life and ministry. Consider this incident which occurred at Transfiguration. Jesus had just being transfigured before three of His apostles, Peter, James and John., when two of the most outstanding prophets of the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah appeared. Peter, basking in the excitement of the moment, suggested that three tabernacles be built, one each for Moses, Elijah and Jesus. This would have implied the building of the foundations of the law (Moses), the prophets (Elijah) and of grace and the kingdom (Jesus. It also indicates an equality of these three persons and ministries, which Peter thought was correct. However, God’s response clearly defined the uniqueness and divinity of Jesus as His Son. Moreover, it sets apart the ministry of Jesus as most pleasing to God, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him" - Matthew 17:5.
Notice that God had to interrupt Peter and overshadow all that were present with a bright cloud, which was a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, God’s attestation about Jesus was made in the presence of an unusual audience, the combines gathering of Old and New Testament saints.
If, therefore, we want to understand God’s purpose, plan and method for any form of biblical ministry, Jesus is our perfect, unchanging pattern. The ministry of Jesus, while He was on earth was both broad in its scope and deep in its intensity and degree.
Contemporary Christian ministry, therefore, should not depart in any way from the pattern and methods employed by the author and finisher of the Christian faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, in numerous ministries and in many sections of professing Christendom, there have been grave departures form the ministry methods and patterns of Jesus. There are many possible factors that could lead to such fruitless departures. The most common are unbelief, dependence on the flesh or self, fear of man (the desire to be accepted by others), ignorance about the promises of God in His Word and also pride. Interestingly, all these attitudes are motivated by demons.
No one can improve upon the ministry of Jesus. And since Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith, wisdom demands that we learn from Him and continue to use the blueprints He designed, tested and proved in His earthly ministry. It was His lifestyle of obedience and desire to do God’s will in His personal life that gained Him God’s approval, abiding presence and supernatural attestation.
Apostle Isidore Agoha is the Senior Pastor at Triumphant Life Church in the Bronx, N.Y.
www.tlcny.org | http://twitter.com/apostleagoha