Question of the Day

Question: What is the importance of ministering to the poor?

Answer:

When Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61 concerning the anointing that was on His ministry, He read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:16-18).

Jesus was declaring His Anointing to meet specific needs for specific groups of people. If He preached to the blind, they didn’t have to be blind anymore; to the brokenhearted, they didn’t have to have broken hearts anymore; and to the captives, they didn’t have to be bound anymore, what did He preach to the poor? Not just the new birth. It seems obvious that He preached they didn’t have to be poor anymore.

When we give to the poor, we enter into the anointing that was on Jesus to fulfill the covenant promises of prosperity that God gave to Abraham and expanded on in His promises through Moses in Deuteronomy 8:6-18 and 28:1-13.

When you give directly to the poor, or to those who minister to their needs and get the gospel to them, you are sowing into good soil. Psalm 41:1-2 says, “Oh, the joys of those who are kind to the poor! The Lord rescues them when they are in trouble. The Lord protects them and keeps them alive. He gives them prosperity in the land and rescues them from their enemies.”