If you had access to a full professional tool kit but only ever used one screwdriver, would you blame the tools or the person using them? What stops people from using everything available to them?
Jesus chose to lay aside His divine "omni" powers and minister as a Spirit-filled, sinless man. The gifts of the Spirit He used are the same gifts available to every believer. His ministry was not a special case; it was a model for ours.
Before we can understand how Jesus ministered, we need to understand what He chose to lay down. He did not perform miracles simply because He was God in the flesh. He made a deliberate decision. He "emptied Himself", setting aside His omniscience, His omnipotence and His omnipresence, and came in the likeness of men (- Phil 2:5-8). He was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin (- Heb 4:15).
This is not a small point. If Jesus healed the sick because He was God and could do anything, that has no application to your life. But if He healed the sick as a righteous man filled with the Holy Spirit, that changes everything. Jesus' ministry was the ministry of a sinless man, empowered by the Spirit, as a pattern for us to follow.
After returning from the wilderness in the power of the Spirit, Jesus went to His home synagogue in Nazareth. He unrolled the scroll of Isaiah and read His own mission statement: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed" (- Luke 4:18-19). Then He sat down and said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
Notice what drives every part of that list: the Spirit. The anointing is not for the person carrying it; it is for the people receiving it. Every gift of the Spirit in Jesus' ministry was pointing outward.
There are three distinct types of spiritual expression in the New Testament. The gifts that Jesus gave to the Church: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher (- Eph 4:11). The motivational gifts that reflect how God has wired each person: prophecy, serving, teaching, giving, leading and mercy (- Rom 12:6-8). And the manifestations of the Spirit, which are the practical tools for ministry: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues and interpretation (- 1 Cor 12:4-7).
These last ones, the manifestations, are what Jesus used in His ministry every day. When He knew what the Pharisees were thinking without being told, that was a word of knowledge (- Matt 9:4). When He perceived that power had gone out from Him as the woman touched His garment, that was a gift of healing in operation (- Mark 5:30). When He prophesied in detail what would happen to Jerusalem, that was prophecy at work (- Matt 24). When He drew out the past life of the woman at the well in conversation, the secrets of her heart were made plain (- John 4:16-19).
The gifts of the Spirit are not spooky or mystical. They are tools, and like any tool, they exist to get a job done. Jesus received the Spirit without measure (- John 3:34), and yet He never acted in a bizarre manner. Ministry does not need to be strange to be effective.
With all of this, there is one underlying principle that holds everything together. Jesus said it plainly: "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner" (- John 5:19-20). His ministry was not His own agenda. He was following what the Father was already doing and stepping into it.
This is the model. The Spirit is activated during times of genuine compassion and ministry to bring people from darkness to light. Walk closely with God, keep sin from quenching the Spirit's work in your life, and you will begin to see what the Father is doing around you. Then step in.
Jesus ministered as a Spirit-filled man, not as God acting alone. The same Spirit and the same gifts are available to me right now.
This week, I will ask God to show me one person around me who needs what He carries. I will pay attention and be willing to step in, even if it feels small.