If you remember, John was the person the Prophet Isaiah spoke about, the one who would be popular preaching to everyone about God in order to make the Savior of the World known to the people.
As you know, John the son of the priest Zacharias and Elizabeth, a man of God because before he was born, God sent the Angel Gabriel to tell his father, Zacharias, and God also sent the Angel Gabriel to Mary, Jesus’ mother and told her about Elizabeth being pregnant with John.
So, this means that John was born to do God’s work, but John had to learn not to listen to the devil, not to listen to friends telling him the wrong things, but to just have fun and to forget about God, and he had to learn not to listen to his heart which would tell him not to do what God wanted him to do.
John was to tell everyone about the Savior, the lamb of God, and that the Savior was already here and many understood and wanted to be right with God, but many did not understand that God was about to show off; He was going to show the people who He is and He used John to start telling everyone. Many people learned how to get right with God and to stop doing the wrong things so they could go to heaven.
So, baby John grew to be a man and he loved God; I can just see his mother and father always talking to him about God. One day when John was an adult, while he was still learning how to do what God wanted him to do and not what he wanted to do, God spoke to him and basically told him that is was time for him to start preaching about the Savior of the world, but he still did not know who was the Savior of his own soul and the world, so God gave him a sign on how to recognize the Savior of the world—how to recognize God’s Son.
When Annas and Calaphas were both high priests, the Word of God came to John in the wilderness.
What does it mean, “The Word of God Came to John in the Wilderness”?
It means, John was staying or living in the rough country or in the wasteland away from the main city which is Jerusalem, but it also means that John was in a dry spiritual place in his mind, in his emotions, and in his heart and he had to be totally right with God. So, John had to learn how to fight the devil so he could preach the Word of God and this is the wilderness or what I call, God’s boot camp as in the military.
Now, let me explain, before a person goes to boot camp he already knows how to fight, but not in a smart way, and in military boot camp, a soldier learns how to fight, he learns how to defend himself from the enemy, he learns how to think and plan to defeat the enemy, and he also learns how to use weapons.
God also has a military force with soldiers and ministering messengers who are the people who love Him and the angels who love Him. The people of God have to go to God’s boot camp before working for Him. In God’s boot camp, we may not feel God is with us and we may even feel bad and think that we cannot do what God is asking us to do, but in God’s boot camp, we learn how to fight the devil—God’s and our enemy, we learn how to defend ourselves from the devil, we learn how to think like Jesus and not like the devil with bad thoughts, we learn how to plan and defeat the devil, we also learn how to use the Word of God—the Bible and the Blood of Jesus, we learn how to do the right things and be obedient to God and how to stop doing whatever is not pleasing to God, and we learn how to love the people who hurt us; and that is where John was before he started preaching for God and baptizing in the Jordan River.
- John was getting ready and learning how to be obedient to God,
- He was learning how to listen to God,
- He was learning to understand and know God, and
- He was forcing himself to do what God wanted him to do and not what he wanted to do.
Here are Some of the Things John Taught the People When Jesus Walked on Earth and is also Teaching us Today:
- He showed the people their sins
- He told the people to do the right things
- He taught the people how to love God and be obedient to Him
- He taught the people to repent (to be sorry and to ask God to forgive them of their sins and not to sin no more)
- He taught the people to share things—stuff and food
- He told the tax collectors (the people who collected fees, money or a toll) to only charge the right amount not extra since it was not fair or right
- He told the soldiers in the military not to bully people or say lies about someone, but to be happy with their paycheck
- He told the people that the Savior was already here
- He told the people that the Savior will go to hell for their sins so they do not have to
- He told king Herod that he was wrong taking his brother’s wife, Herodias, while his brother was still alive and marring to her. Herodias did not like what John said and put him in prison.
- He also told the people that he was baptizing with water (which also means the Word of God and the Holy Spirit), but that the One Mightier than him would baptize with the Holy Spirit of God, (which means, God Himself living in us when we ask Jesus to live in our lives—and the Bible calls this “Born Again”).
You see, we need Jesus which is the Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God to be full of God to know and understand God. Without both, we will not know how to do the right things and without both, we will continue to do the wrong things and not make it to heaven.
While John was teaching the people the right way to live for God, some people thought he was the Son of God, the Savior, who would die for the sins of the people, but he was not the Savior and he let them know that he was not the Savior.
Now, even though, John was mighty in God’s power, he was a humble person—someone honest and gentle—but very powerful with his words because it was God living in him and talking for him. You see, John realized that God was more powerful and mightier and he knew God’s Son, the Savior, was about to make Himself known to the Jewish people and to the world.
John said, Jesus was going to clean His people with His blood and bring His people together to Himself, but the disobedient, would not be with Him, instead, He said, that the disobedient would go and live in hell forever.
All of the sudden, as John was baptizing, Jesus walked over to him to be baptized in the Jordan River and while Jesus prayed, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit of God came down from heaven in body form, so it could be seen, and rested on Jesus and completely covered Him inside and out to protection Him and to guide Him. When this happened, a Voice from heaven said, “You are My Beloved (favorite who He Adores) Son; in You I am well pleased (God is happy, thrilled and delighted with Jesus because He had no sin and was obedient to God—His Father).”
Q: Is the Holy Spirit of God in sinners?
No, however, the Holy Spirit of God is everywhere helping people find God and helping people do the right things, but it is up to the person (Christians and people that are not Christians) decide to do the right thing.
Q: Why did God say, “My Beloved Son, in you I am well pleased”?
Jesus was his favorite and only Son and He did not sin and was always obedient to the point of leaving heaven to live with God’s creation as a hero to rescue us from our sins to keep us from hell and to show us how to go to heaven by being like Himself—Jesus Christ.
Q: What should we always ask ourselves?
What would Jesus do or what would Jesus want me to do
Q: Do you want to hear God tell you He is pleased with you?
Q: Do you want to hear God’s Voice talk to you?
