Lee Grady: Like Barabbas, Jesus Released Us From ‘Death Row’
Lee Grady is very familiar with the Holy Spirit. As an evangelist, Grady allows the Holy Spirit to lead him to spread the Good News of Jesus every day, and through his writing or his preaching. He has traveled to several where others are unfamiliar with the gospel, but he has seen made breakthroughs and multitudes of salvations, all inspired by the work of the Holy Ghost.
Grady says the Holy Spirit does “things on the inside of us.” But there’s one thing, he says, that not too many preachers of God’s Word have focused on concerning the Holy Spirit. It’s something he says is crucial, especially in today’s chaotic world.
“Jesus said the Holy Spirit came into the world to convict people of sin,” Grady told Charisma News’ John Matarazzo in a recent interview. “The Spirit of God is actually convicting people who are not Christians. I really believe that is happening.
“I believe the Spirit is working in America right now. I believe that people have been going to that movie, ‘Jesus Revolution.’ They are being drawn to it, and they’re being drawn back to church. They are calling up their family members and saying that they are interested in Jesus. And I’m expecting to see that happen over this holiday of Easter.”
With Resurrection Sunday coming up in a few days, Grady says that, despite the extreme polarization that is happening within our country today, he believes people are spiritually curious and hungry.
And, he says, he believes a spiritual harvest is coming.
“There are a whole lot of people who are just curious about reality, spiritual reality,” Grady says. “They’re struggling with anxiety, they’re struggling with depression and they are dealing with and listening to the news headlines.
“There’s a war in Ukraine, we’ve got economic instability and the threat of China. All of these thigs are causing people to question whether there is anything else after this. And so, I’m expecting to see harvest.”
With that harvest comes repentance, and Grady needs only to be reminded of the Easter story that Jesus released us from the punishment we all deserve through His death on the cross and his subsequent resurrection.
But repentance is a key word, and many must confess their sins to God and turn away from them to receive that salvation Jesus shed His precious blood for.
“When Jesus was arrested and was to be crucified, there was this man named Barabbas who was on death row,” Grady says. “The people asked if Barabbas could be released and so, yes, a criminal was released to the people. Jesus, the innocent Son of God was crucified instead of Barabbas, which reminds every one of us that we deserve punishment; we deserve to be on death row.
“That’s exactly what happened at Easter. God released us from our punishment and He let the punishment fall on Jesus. I just pray that the message will be preached powerfully throughout the Easter season and that people will begin to realize that God in Christ gave us this amazing gift of mercy that we can receive from Him if we ask Him to forgive us, that we can receive salvation. That is what Easter is all about, and I just pray that people will be freshly reminded of that.” {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
