Take Nothing For Your Journey

"Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. And he said unto them, Take nothing for [your] journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. "And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart." "And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them. And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where." Luke 9:1-6

The commentator lets us know that up until this time, Jesus was doing the miraculous works of healing and casting out devils, just Himself. Now we see Jesus has empowered His disciples to Minister Healing and deliverance. We see this sending forth of His disciples, an example throughout all ages of those who will work for Christ. Notice in this sending forth, the first step of a minister is to come to Jesus, then He empowers the Minister or if not, they go in vain. This speaks to being called by God for the work of Ministry, which is entire lesson. We see here the work that God intends for His Ministers to accomplish. We as Minister's must preach the gospel, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and by the foolishness of preaching (see 1 Cor. 1:21) they shall be saved.

In the 14th chapter of John beginning with the 12th verse, we see that these disciples and the Lord's ministers today must heal in the name of Jesus. It is not in the minister's power that heals or saves, but the power of God, in the name of Jesus Christ. The scriptures tell us to "Take nothing" for our journey, not to be encumbered by the cares or things of this world. The disciples were not to be carrying baggage for the journey, but merely to go with the clothes on their backs. We see here, that these ministers are not to be self-sufficient. They are to depend on all of these necessities being furnished to them by the people they minister to. Of course, God is their real provider, as He moves upon the hearts of the people. Also, the ministry would actually be headquartered in each city in someone's home. This is the way it was in early Church, even as late as in Paul's day, church ministry was held in homes such as the home of Lydia's. (Acts 16:14,15) Please know and understand, that, this was a missionary journey that Jesus sent his disciples on: a time of training, so to speak, while He was on this earth and after He was gone away they would know exactly how to conduct themselves, when preaching the gospel, which is the good news of Jesus Christ.