A Remarkable Experience and Insights From Luke
- Pastor Jay Christianson
- Dec 5
- 7 min read
I just had a remarkable experience.
It happened on November 28, 2025, around seven o’clock in the morning. I was lying in bed, reading the next portion of my Through-The-Bible-In-A-Year program. I had been a bit lax with the reading schedule and had fallen behind. I decided to kick it up a notch and finish the New Testament in a month, about nine chapters a day. Since I had finished the Old Covenant scriptures, I decided to take a running start on the New Covenant side.
On that day, my reading covered Luke 2-10. I always keep a notepad on the nightstand next to my bed because, for some reason, my thinking is clear and uncluttered as I wake up. Perhaps during the night, my brain cells sift the previous day’s information, saving some in various mental folders like “Insights,” “Good Experiences,” “Things To Do,” and “Yucky Things To Delete.” So, when I hit God’s Word, my mind feels like a blank canvas upon which the Holy Spirit writes notes and pictures.
Here is what I read from that section (I’ll leave perusing those verses up to you, dear reader) and some of the things the Lord impressed on me:
· Jesus expects us to go above and beyond when it comes to doing what’s good.
o Luke 6:28 – When it comes to our enemies, those who hate, curse, and mistreat us, we are to do good to them, bless and pray for them.
o Luke 6:29 – If they abuse us with insults, we are to wave off those insults. If they compel us to give them things, don’t give the minimum. Give more or do more than what our enemy demands of us. Above and beyond, remember?
o Luke 6:30 – We must be willing to give to all, which includes our enemies. If we’re willing to give to some, we must be willing to give to all. Jesus expects us to treat everyone the same. What we give shouldn’t be expected to be returned. It is our “open hand” ministry to the world.
o Luke 6:32-35 (I just noticed this, so I’ll throw it in for free) – We are to love, do good, and lend freely to everyone, expecting nothing in return. That applies especially to our enemies, who we’re pretty sure will take advantage of us and not pay us back.
o Luke 6:36 – Why? Because that’s how our Heavenly Father treats the ungrateful and evil people. He dishes out love, goodness, kindness, and mercy above and beyond what we can fathom. Be like Him.
· Luke 7:1-17 – Jesus heals the centurion’s servant and raises the widow’s dead son. Why don’t we see the same healings in numbers and magnitude today? I mean, c’mon! Spontaneous healings from a distance? Raising the dead? These actions were part of Jesus’s regular work. What’s needed? Well, one thing we’re not doing is spending time talking with our Father like Jesus did. All-night prayer sessions? Forget it. Most Christians can’t be bothered to gather for ten minutes before a church service, much less spend extended time understanding the Father’s desires and will. Furthermore, we need the Holy Spirit’s power, something we can’t just drum up with exuberant worship music, smoke machines, and stagecraft lighting.
Ministry demands we do the Father’s will, which assumes we know His will, which assumes we’ll align ourselves with His will in thought and attitude. If we’re anointed and aligned, shouldn’t we expect the Father to work through us as His Son did?
What about ministries that are anointed with power, but off-track theologically or struggling with righteousness? When it’s the Father’s will, even a flawed vessel can hold some oil. How much more a vessel that’s been mended, strengthened, and sealed for service?
· Luke 8:4-15 – The Parable of the Sower. “Let him who has ears” (8:8) means, “If you understand God’s word, then pay attention, take it to heart, and act on it.” The entire parable is about hearing, embracing, and doing what the Father says.
· Luke 8:26-39 – Demons and the man of Gadara. I believe that demons are not the fallen angels. From what I’ve studied, they’re most likely the disembodied, earth-infesting spirits of the Nephilim (giants, Genesis 6) that were wiped out in the Flood. They dislike being disembodied. According to Jesus, their disembodied existence is roaming “through waterless places looking for rest” (Luke 11:24).
For this account, these demons inhabit living creatures—people (with souls) and animals (without souls). I wonder if these demons can inhabit inanimate objects, like machines, or use them? Anyway, they yearn to be embodied. Perhaps because living bodies are water-soaked (composed mostly of water), and that’s their original state, a spirit in a human body. Just musing.
· Luke 8:40-42, 49-56 – The young girl raised to life. In light of the previous account, it’s interesting to note that when Jesus called out to the girl, “Child, get up!” her “spirit returned to her” (8:55). So, Jesus drove out demonic spirits from the man and recalled the girl’s spirit to her “empty” dead body. Furthermore, many demons can cram into a person (“Legion,” he said, because many demons had entered him, Luke 8:30), and the Holy Spirit takes up residence in a believer, “But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him” (1 Corinthians 6:17), i.e., united with the believer. Wow! The human body can hold more than one spiritual being.
· Luke 9:1 – Authorizing and empowering the Twelve disciples. Jesus gave His crew “power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.” Hmm, all the demons. I bet those guys had fun “storming the castle” (hat tip to The Princess Bride). Again, why don’t we see this epic deliverance and healing ministry today? 1) Is it the Father’s will or not? That certainly would be an issue. 2) We have the exact source of power that Jesus had—the Holy Spirit—so that’s not the issue. 3) As the Holy Spirit once impressed on me, “It’s hard to chop down a tree with a dull axe.” Are we disciples undisciplined, untrained, unwilling, or unaware that it takes more time and effort, if we can do these things at all? 4) Does the fault lie in unbelief, the refusal to believe what the Lord has clearly told us? 5) Do today’s disciples need to get serious about fasting and prayer for consecration and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit? That goes back to #3.
· Luke 9:7-9, 18-20, 21-22 – Herod’s curiosity about Jesus. King Herod heard about this amazing miracle-worker, Jesus. Why did some say Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead (remember, this same Herod had beheaded John not long before)? Some said Jesus was Elijah, who had lived some six hundred years earlier, had been taken to heaven, and must have returned. Some said Jesus was one of the “ancient prophets” risen from the dead. Why all this “dead people returned” stuff? They failed to see and take into account that God does new things, even if those things bear resemblance to the past. Focusing on the past can cause us to mistake the new things God is doing now.
(vss. 18-20) The disciples parroted the same line in 9:19, but Peter saw the new thing because God had given him the “eyes” to comprehend the spiritual reality. Understanding what God is doing now is something we should pray for.
(vss. 21-22) However, God sometimes doesn’t clue people in about what He’s doing because they may get in the way or possibly derail His plan.
· Luke 9:11 – Feeding of the 5,000. Jesus “spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.” Information backed up by confirmation. Healing is physical evidence of God’s kingdom, a manifestation of the Father’s power and authority, His rule and reign. Miracles are flashes of the coming Day of the Lord when Jesus returns, and the world is transformed under His kingship.
· Luke 9:23 – Self-denial for Jesus’ sake. Self-denial helps us see and participate in the new thing the Father is doing, without getting in His way or threatening to derail His plan.
· Luke 9:30-31 – Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration. Speaking of old and new things of God, the old, dead prophets (Moses/Elijah) talked to the new prophet (Jesus) about the new way of God’s kingdom and the plan of Jesus’ death as the start.
· Luke 9:32 – Peter woke up. Did he ever! He saw and heard the old and new parts of God’s single plan.
All of the above were an unusual flood of insights and applications that spoke to me that day. I have to tell you; this amount of stuff doesn’t happen to me all the time. But it was different that morning. The scriptures seemed to break loose and flood my mind.
That wasn’t the remarkable part. This is.
When I was done, I turned the page in my notebook. The very next page wasn’t blank. My wife, Jeanne, had already written on it with these words:
“To my sweet Jay-
I pray that God gives you confidence in your spirit today as you write down His inspiration for you to share with others. May you see renewed faith in those you teach. May the day you find this note be full of God’s blessing! - Jeanne”
I was stunned.
She had written this on August 12, 2025, nearly four months earlier.
On the very day the Lord flooded me with insights, revelations, and questions, I found her note, and her answered prayer.
I pointed this out to her as she was getting ready for work. Tears filled her eyes because God inspired her to write that prayer for that very moment in the future.
God is good.
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Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts