Archive for John

Passover: The Sacrificial Lamb

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Gospel, Prophecy, Spring Feasts with tags , , , , , , , , , , on April 10, 2022 by paulthepoke

Exodus 12:5-6 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

The lamb is without blemish or tamim in the Hebrew. The lamb is complete or sound per Strong’s Concordance.

Multiple people bear witness to the fact Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. The first example is a quote from John the Baptist in the Book of John. The identification of Christ as the Lamb of God took place in the Jordan River at the baptism of Jesus.

John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

A day later, John the Baptist again identified Jesus as the Lamb of God.

John 1:36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

While Philip was with the Ethiopian, he equated Jesus as the referenced lamb from the reading of Isaiah 53:7.

Acts 8:32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.”

The Apostle Peter states the blood of Jesus is as a sinless lamb.

1 Peter 1:19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

In these four cases above, Jesus is referred to as an ἀμνός/amnos in the Greek. A lamb with innocence and sacrificial considerations is the idea per Strong’s Concordance.

In the book of Revelation, John refers to Jesus as a lamb or ἀρνίον/arnion. This is a small, little, or diminutive lamb. This type of person has the purest of intentions. HELPs Word Studies indicates the essence of innocence or virgin like intentions. Twenty-nine times (29) Christ is labeled as an arnion only in the book of Revelation. The context is the throne room of Heaven in the presence of the Father, Spirit, millions of witnesses including apostles, elders, believers, martyrs, creatures, and angels.

Revelation 5:12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

Revelation 14:1 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

Revelation 17:14 They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.

Jesus Christ is the sacrificial Lamb of God as foreshadowed by Moses in Exodus 12.

https://www.amazon.com/Paul-Lehr/e/B09W8FB77N

All the Way Up! Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2020 by paulthepoke

John 16:28 I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.

Jesus went to be with the Father where He is today at the Father’s right hand—as the Father’s right hand. He is the King of glory siting on the throne of glory in the Kingdom of Glory—the Kingdom of Heaven. Everything that Jesus did along the way to His destination, the Father, was all a part of the Father’s plan to restore us to Himself by placing us in Christ.

Jesus is the way to the Father (John 14:6). He came down from the Father and went back up to the Father. He finished the work the Father gave Him to do (John 17:4). He lived a perfect, sinless, obedient life as a Man born under the Old Covenant (John 8:46). He restored the glory of the Old Covenant and released the glory of the New Covenant which is greater. He proved the Father sent Him and was working through Him by the words He spoke and the works He did.

As the Lamb of God, He took all of our sins and sicknesses upon His own body as He was crucified until death on the cross. He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. He ascended to heaven as our High Priest presenting Himself to the Father as the Wave Sheaf offering. He preached the kingdom of heaven on earth for forty days afterward. And then He ascended in His glorified body to the Father to sit at the Father’s right hand where He is now. Those of us who put our faith in Jesus are there now too with Him where He is. Not if or when we die, but now.

From the position of the Father is where Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father upon us and gave the same glory He had with the Father since the foundation of the world to make us One with the Father as He is One with the Father (John 17:5, 22-23). When we know that we are seated in Christ and Christ is with the Father, we can operate in “greater works” which come from the Father. We do the works that we see Jesus do and greater works because He is with the Father (John 14:12).

Our minds are being transformed into the image of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). We are promoted from one level of glory to another level of glory as we overcome one suffering to another turning all darkness that we face into light as we are taught and led by the Holy Spirit in each experience (Romans 8:18). So, learning to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and to “separate the precious from the vile” is extremely important (Jeremiah 15:19, 2 Timothy 2:15).

Jesus, The Way to The Father -Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , on March 4, 2020 by paulthepoke

rodnalight“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” – John 14:11-12

He who believes (aka whosoever) in Jesus will do the works we see Him do. Imagine all the works Jesus did in the Bible—we are to be doing those; AND greater works. The greater works come from the Father where Jesus went and where we are seated in Him.
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“I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.” – John 16:28-30

jesus-right-hand-1

Jesus started with the Father and ended with the Father. He didn’t sit down on the ground outside the tomb after the resurrection. He sat down on the throne after He ascended to the Father’s right hand of glory where we are seated in Him NOW. Our perspective must change to where we sit now. Not from the earth as a victim looking up with only a hope of glory. But we are seated in Christ now in the Father looking down with all principalities and powers and rulers of darkness under our feet, victorious and able to go in and out of the Father’s Presence taking “home” with us everywhere we go in the realm Jesus has assigned us to operate in on earth. We do the works Jesus did and greater works (which is way more than saving people’s souls but it does include that) because The Father loves us in the very same way He loves Jesus. The words we speak and works we do are powered by the Father so they manifest and prosper where He sends them.
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“And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” – Ephesians 2:6

Where is Christ Jesus? In the Father! We are seated with Christ as joint-heirs.
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Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. – John 14:6

Jesus is the Way to what? He is the Way to the Father. And He leads us there NOW, not after we die. He does lead us there after we die if we want to be a “Resurrection Christian”—Christ in us, the hope of glory. But if we want to be a “Living Christian” then we can go to the Father now—us in Christ, He is our Lord of glory. That’s what it means to be “in Christ”.
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Cling to Jesus Christ Who Is In the Father… Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Gospel, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , , , , on September 18, 2019 by paulthepoke

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ “- John 20:17

After Jesus was resurrected from the dead, He commanded Mary to not cling to Him, to not fasten or adhere herself to Him. Not because there wouldn’t be a time when she couldn’t do that, but because the time for clinging to Him was not yet. The reason He gave her was that He had “not yet ascended to My Father”.

I’ve heard many a sermon in my life surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and every one of those sermons that I can recall clings to Jesus either at the cross or right after He was raised from the dead outside the tomb. But they don’t cling to Jesus where He commanded us to cling: in Christ who is in the Father after having ascended to Him. Clinging to Him there includes all other access points, including the cross and the empty tomb along the way to the ultimate destination.

Do NOT adhere to me—for I have not yet ascended to my Father!

The implication being that we CAN adhere to Him AFTER He ascends to the Father.

To ascend doesn’t appear to have meant a physical ascension at that point, because we see the disciples handling Him and perhaps clinging to Him before the mount of ascension event occurred. So during the time between His first appearance to Mary at the tomb and when He allowed His disciples to handle Him, Jesus ascended to the Father in some way spiritually, but likely not physically—not yet. He spent 40 days on earth first preaching the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus used this ascended kind of language even before the cross…

Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. – John 17:13

No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.- John 3:13

Another way to say this is: There is only one person who has already ascended into heaven, Me, the Son is Man, and I’m in heaven right now.

When Jesus revealed the Father plainly to His disciples, He left out of His explanation all the stuff He did to redeem us. As important as all of that is, Jesus focused on the reason He did everything and where He took us—our ultimate destination. Here are His words,

“I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”- John 16:28

This is the purpose of the Gospel: to show us the Way to the Father. The Father is the destination, and we follow Jesus all the way there, where the power exists to do the greater works, where the glory exists that makes us ONE with the Father in Christ in the same way that Jesus is ONE with the Father (John 17:22,23).

“…he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”- John 14:12

Greater works… because I go to My Father.

That’s how we do them. The power for greater works comes from being restored to glory, to the Father, right now. Our minds are still being transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18), but we are still fully restored now because we are properly positioned in Christ.

We don’t continue only clinging to the cross or clinging to Jesus standing outside the empty tomb. We cling to, fasten ourselves to, adhere to Jesus Christ where He is now: in the Father. The Father is the clinging place—where His glory makes us ONE.

That’s not to say that we don’t carry about the dying of the Lord Jesus which puts to death the old nature so that the new nature in Christ wakes up within us. It’s not to say we don’t rise with Jesus from the dead by the same glory of the Father that raised Him. And it’s not to say that our minds are not being transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18) as we overcome one suffering after another (Romans 8:18).

But for this post I’m just bringing into focus the actual purpose of the Gospel which has not really been understood. That Jesus restored us to the Father in Himself. He restored us to glory where we learn to cling to Him and never let go again: where we have the ABILITY to cling to Him and never let go again. Because from the place of the Father is where Christ holds us. He clings to us, we cling to Him. He abides in us, we abide in Him. That’s the point of everything Jesus did and it’s vital that we know this and are intensely aware of it. Perfect peace is the strongest and most obvious indicator that we are in Christ.

Have a blessed day everyone! ❤️🙏🏼

Do You Feel The Glory ?

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , on December 3, 2018 by paulthepoke

tastytreat_frontWhat do you think about when you hear about someone being glorified or hear the word glory? When I look this word up in Webster’s dictionary, glory is defined as worshipful praise, honor and Thanksgiving. We use the word glory when we refer to God or Jesus. We give Him glory because He is the One that deserves the worship, honor and praise and is the provider of all things. What about people or yourself? Do you ever feel glorified? Is it right for you to feel or be glorified? Do you try to glorify yourself?

Here’s what Jesus said in John 8:54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.”

Interesting. Jesus who deserved the glory didn’t try to glorify Himself but indicated that His Father, God gives Him glory. Hear what Jesus prayed, (John 17), when He knew His time was coming to an end.

John 17:1 Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify You.
John 17:5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began.

Jesus is asking His father to glorify Him. Do you think it’s ok to ask Dad to glorify you? In the same prayer, Jesus prays for ALL believers. These are people like you and me. Here is what He prays in John 17:22 “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one.”

Did you catch it? Jesus said that He gave you, me and ALL believers the same glory that God gave Him (Jesus). Jesus, God the Father wants unity and a very close relationship with us. Be Thankful and Feel that Glory!!

Dave

www.SoaringSaxman.com/tasty-treat

Straight Talk, Born Again… Rodna Epley

Posted in Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on November 28, 2018 by paulthepoke

Rodna LightHello Saints!

I had someone ask me this morning as she was reading in John 3:1-21.

“Rodna, Jesus speaks of some things in the Bible that I don’t understand. 1. He says unless we become like a child we can’t enter heaven. 2. Unless we are born-again we can’t enter heaven. Which one is it?”

I thought I would share my revised 😉 answer here in case anyone else needs to know!

We don’t have to understand everything we read. God will give us understanding for the things we need this day. That’s why Jesus prayed “Father give us this day our daily bread”. He didn’t say give us every days’ bread all in the same day. However, when we begin to receive knowledge on the glory, understanding of the Word comes in much higher and easier. The whole Bible begins to make sense as if a veil has lifted from off its pages. So, seek knowledge on His Glory above all things, which can only come through Jesus Christ.

“How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44)

 

Both statements that my friend asked me today are true.

1) We have to become like a little child to enter heaven where we believe all things are possible, we look to God (our Father) with wonder expecting from Him. As we grow, we learn how to release to others what we receive from Him, which brings glory back to the Father full circle. As a child in spirit we look to Him to meet all of our needs. We believe everything He tells us and that everything is possible. We have hope always and look forward to a day when He will make all things new. But that day begins here today, not after we die. Because hope deferred makes the heart sick, but glory revealed through answered prayers, and through our declarations that the Father backs up, makes our joy full.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

“…you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:24)

In this intimate relationship with our Father who always hears us and responds, as we hear and respond to Him, we know our Father has our backs. And He loves us in the same way He loves Jesus. We don’t have to worry if we don’t look like a child in all areas yet. His glory is making us one by restoring our innocence and childlike wonder to totally trust God and trust His glory in everything… without fear. We know only His love.

kingdom heaven

2) We must be born-again by His Spirit to enter the kingdom of heaven. Both ideas happen together. When one is born-again, He begins the process of becoming a little child again haha! We go backwards in innocence and forward in the knowledge of God! It’s like a backwards birth LOL. Inside out! Right-side up! God is flipping everything around! Imagine taking a long-sleeved sweater off the floor and flipping it inside out. Born again! Who we are in Christ is working its way to the outside where we are transparent and His glory is revealed completely in every aspect of our lives!

It isn’t stoic religion. It’s a living reality of Christ revealed through us. Christ in us coming out with our personalities where we become the light of the world like He is.

Our relationship with our Father in heaven becomes dynamic and authentic. This is where His power to transform all things into light comes out through us (in the flip) as His sons and daughters of glory are revealed! We then have the “Midas Touch” where everything we touch turns to gold! Haha! We work with Him by saying “no” to wickedness and “yes” to His promises and His Word.

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope–the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” (Titus 2:11-13)

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” (2 Corinthians 1:20)

We become a child in innocence and mature in the knowledge of His glory. This is knowledge of the Father and the power and light from His throne, which Jesus Christ occupies. It transforms our entire lives as we learn that we are seated with Christ as joint-heirs, and sons and daughters of glory. Remade in His image! Transformed by the power of His glory! And not by our own efforts.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Blessings to everyone! Love and grace and glory to y’all!

Rodna

 

Straight Talk, A Diet of Works… Rodna Epley

Posted in Rodna Epley with tags , , , , on October 17, 2018 by paulthepoke

Rodna LightJohn 4:32-34 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work…”

Now let me tell ya about the food! You will forget protein shakes ever existed once you taste the food! Food in the kingdom of heaven is a full course meal where the kitchen is always open 24/7 for anyone who is hungry and knows how to GPS the location. FYI: the GPS location is very similar to the wedding garment because once you put it on…you’re there.

The Father’s kitchen has a name too. Well it does now that I named it. It’s called the “Glory Kitchen”. The food in the Glory Kitchen has already been paid for by the King (Jesus) and it’s anything you want.

Food Revati Upadhya

Photo: Revati Upadhya

Food in the Glory Kitchen is doing the Father’s works. Don’t slap the menu away just yet. That may not sound tasty to you until you hear what those “works” are. Jesus showed us what they are when He was on earth.

John 14:12-13 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

 

 

 

Jude: Called, Loved, & Kept

Posted in Jude, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , on October 9, 2018 by paulthepoke

Jude 1:1b To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

…those who are called… In the original Greek, the word for “those” is the definite article τοῖς. It is the plural form of what would be translated as “the”. Definite articles are a big deal in the Greek language. The koine Greek of the New Testament has no indefinite articles like we do in English. There are no “a” or “an” in the language. A definite article is a point of emphasis.

God the Father describes “those” as called or κλετοσ/kletos. The idea is called, invited (to a banquet); invited (by God in the proclamation of the Gospel) to obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom through Christ; called to (the discharge of) some office; divinely selected and appointed.

Everybody is ultimately invited to the call of Jesus Christ. Salvation is for all of humanity.

1 Timothy 2:3-4 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit…

…beloved… “Those” are “loved”. This is αγαπαο/agapao. This is God’s love for us. Defined as love, affection, good will, benevolence, to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly. This love is the nature of God.

The concept is God has loved us from the past and His love will never end. His love for us is eternal. It is God who has shown us what love is and how to love.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

 

…in God the Father… The verse states “those” are “in” God positionally. As believers in Jesus, this is our place. We are in the body of Christ. Believers are sealed with the Spirit. Jude states we are fixed in the Father. This position is confirmed by John as well as others.

John 10:28-29 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

 

and kept for Jesus Christ: The Father has looked upon “those” and τερεο/tereo or “kept”. Tereo means: to attend to carefully, take care of or to guard. Metaphorically to keep, one in the state in which he is; to observe or to reserve: to undergo something.

The point is God has always “kept” us and He will continue to “keep” us. The Father does not change in the way He views us.

We are “kept” for Jesus Christ. The language is vague. But is there an implication something is coming to “those”???

1 Corinthians 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

 

Definitions provided by Strong’s Concordance.

 

 

Market Forces: Demand is the Problem

Posted in Christine "Clarity" McDonald, Culture with tags , , , , , , , , on October 6, 2018 by paulthepoke

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Christine McDonald

Featuring Christine Clarity McDonald

Christine works for legislative change in Missouri metro areas and across the state.

Regardless of how a person ends up in prostitution, one fact is for certain: the purchasers and predators possess the power. Prostitution exists because a demand for sex exists, because purchasers are willing to pay for it. And predators are willing to procure it.

Would you be surprised to know that the purchasers (commonly referred to as the “johns”) tend to be mostly upper middle class, married men? Most are educated. This stands in stark contrast to the position of those being sold. It is, no doubt, a power play.

It is not just the purchasers who are the problem. Ultimately, it’s a story of predators seeking the vulnerable, the weak, the impoverished—the ones others have forgotten. There is an equal evil in those who see people strictly as a product to be sold. These predators home in on their targets, invest time to build trust, and lay a foundation of control. They are often in no hurry, as they know it is an investment. Just as a hunter lies quietly waiting for his kill, a trafficker invests time waiting for the key moment to expose the reality of what he is. By then, it is too late for the prey.

bling

With all of these factors combined, once a person is in the world of prostitution, there is little chance of a way out. They are stuck, at the mercy of greedy individuals who look at them as objects of selfish pleasure and plump coffers. To be stuck in a situation with little (or no) power to get out is to be the victim, not the perpetrator,
regardless of how you arrived there in the first place.

“Love your neighbor, all of ’em.” -Christine Clarity McDonald

Read more at…

Straight Talk… Kingdom Dining Hall, Featuring Rodna Epley

Posted in Rodna Epley, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , on October 2, 2018 by paulthepoke

Rodna LightThis morning I had a vision from the Lord: I saw a measuring scoop of protein powder. All of this came from that…

God doesn’t give out meal replacements, so there are no protein shakes in heaven. While the shaker cup, wire whisk, and protein powder may sound like a good idea on earth, in truth it only measures up to a watered-down version of a real meal in Heaven. Now I’m a fan of protein shakes so I can say this. Even when milk is used instead of water, the meal replacement will never taste like Filet Mignon. Neither will man’s religion ever come anywhere near tasting like real Food on the Father’s Table. white powder of whey protein

First, let me tell you a little about His Kingdom where The Father’s Presence (His glory) saturates and lights up the atmosphere through Christ with eternal power where all things are truly possible to anyone entering in… and then I want to tell you about the food!

Heaven Banquet

Most of us who are believers are just sitting barely inside the door to the kingdom. We are saved. We didn’t realize that we stopped just inside the door. No one told us that our Father has prepared an amazing never-ending meal that we can enjoy now. They did tell us we can enjoy it after we die. But Scripture tells us we can enjoy it now. We have an Usher (the Holy Spirit) who can show us the way to the table. He is much more than an Usher, but we don’t know how to receive Him, or work with Him, or hear His voice. God isn’t condemning us. He’s just saying we need to start learning. After 2,000 years it’s time to come up higher, for all of us. Our Father wants us to go “in and out”, to find our room in the mansion, be with Jesus where He is and learn to see through His eyes of glory.

John 17:24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

 

He wants us to come in and dine with Him at His table.

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

John 14:23 Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Come to Jesus. It will result in answered prayer, fulfilled dreams, and flipping all darkness into light… now on earth.

Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 9:35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

Acts 10:38 …how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

 

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