The Year of the Lord’s Favor

by Bryan Craig 

Day 1: The Calling 

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me.”Isaiah 61:1a 

Brothers, in the past year, as I have been praying about the ministry I lead, Influencers, and God’s direction, two passages in Isaiah, which are very similar, keep coming in front of me from the Holy Spirit.  The first is Isaiah 42:1-9, which has a heading in my Bible which states, “The Servant of the Lord.”  The other one is Isaiah 61:1-11, which is entitled, “The Year of the Lord’s Favor.”  As I have meditated upon these scriptures, I believe God is telling me that this is the calling of all who are disciples of Christ.  However, as I read the verses over and over again and the fantastic descriptions of this “servant of the Lord,” I thought, “These are Messianic prophecies which describe Jesus.  Surely Isaiah can’t be writing about me. ”I challenge you to take a few minutes and read them for yourself.  To help make it easy for you, here’s a link to each one:

Isaiah 42:1-9

Isaiah 61:1-11

I pondered these verses for quite some time, and then, God showed me something.  He is so good, how He rewards our earnest seeking of Him in His Word.  I was reading in Acts 26, where Paul is speaking before King Agrippa.  He is giving his testimony about his “Damascus Road Experience” where God blinded him and spoke directly to him.  For some reason, I didn’t remember the words the Lord spoke to him, but they helped me understand that the “calling” mentioned in Isaiah 42 and 61 was not just describing Jesus.  The Lord said to Paul, 

“I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen of Me and what I will show you.  I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles.  I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” Acts 26:16-18 

I firmly believe the “higher calling” described in Isaiah 42 and 61 describes Jesus, but I also believe those prophecies describe the calling for those of us who are walking in Jesus.  Paul was called to the mission and so are we.  As we go about making Disciples of Christ who abide in Him, we are living out a Holy mission.  I want to take this week to explore some of the amazing things we should see as we make disciples and live out our calling as servants of the Lord.