“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,
   To preach the Acceptable Year of the Lord.”  Luke 4:18-19

If you are unfamiliar with the Old Testament, or the significance of the phrase, “The Acceptable Year of the Lord” I would like to share with you what I learned about what this means. I have read the Old Testament and the prophetic scriptures of the New Testament, but I was uncertain at the time I noticed the scripture and I was moved to look into what Jesus meant by “The Acceptable Year of the Lord”. While I considered the phrase from Luke, I sought the Lord about it, but had no clear word, initially. Yet, I could not stop thinking about that phrase from the Bible, as it was heavy on my heart. I was sure the Lord had something to reveal to me about it, but I hadn’t tapped all available resources for looking into it. When the Lord has something important to show us about His Word, he may require we do some digging and research before he will make it clear to us. It is also good to seek out those who are mature Christians who are of like faith to get some support. After all, the scriptures exhort us to labor in the Word so we can gain understanding. 

Upon consulting my concordance and a few Bible dictionaries, I found two references to the “acceptable year”; the one cited above in Luke and one from Isaiah 61:2 which also goes on to speak of “the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;”. This mention is key to understanding what God was saying about “The Acceptable Year” at the time of the end and worthy of consideration.

Apart from the two scriptural references, a little insight can be found in the available reference materials. But to really gain understanding, how does one receive the fullness of this truth in their heart? It requires a willingness to receive instruction from the Holy Ghost. That is necessary to receive inspiration and insight from the Holy Ghost, who is the one that will lead you into all truth for all of God’s inspired Word. At the time of my search, I shared my desire to look into this particular truth about Jesus with my stepfather and my husband and we discussed it. My stepfather who has since gone on to his reward, was an avid reader and scholar of Biblical works and commentaries and other spiritual writings. He told me that he had read some scholars believe that “The Acceptable Year” implies the year in which Jesus began his ministry because as it happened, it was also a Jubilee year in Israel, (This happened every 50 years in Israel to give the land a rest and to give the Jews a chance to restore their relationships and their brethren by forgiving debts and restoring land to those who had become oppressed or indebted.) and many people were not working during the Jubilee at Jesus’ time in Israel as they normally did, in observance. This enabled many to follow John the Baptist and later Jesus in that first year of his ministry on Earth. My stepfather mentioned that some teachers have proposed that Jesus ministered for only one year because of this. We agreed at the time, that it would be a mistake to take it as a single year of ministry for Jesus on Earth, literally. It would contradict the scriptural account of Jesus’ ministry while he was here and it sets limitations on what Jesus was preaching in “The Acceptable Year of the Lord”. Evidence at hand points to a more far reaching interpretation, if one searches it out.

When my husband and I talked about it, he believed that personally, it implied the year in which you receive Jesus into your heart. Without putting it into those terms, I had gotten a similar leading about it, in part because of what I read as the definition of “acceptable” in my Bible Dictionary. I will quote from, Unger’s Bible Dictionary. “To accept is to receive with pleasure or with kindness and is the opposite of to reject, which is a direct refusal with disapprobation. An accepted or acceptable time is the time of favor, a favorable opportunity.” I believe that the following scripture supports this interpretation, as well. ( II Corinthians 6:2) “For I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.”

In prophetic terms, as referenced in Isaiah, “The Acceptable Year” is that time in which Jesus fulfills God’s prophecies about the salvation of Israel at the end of the Great Tribulation. Rev. 1:7 “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”  At last Israel recognizes their Messiah for who he really is. In Zechariah 12 it goes on to say they will mourn for what they did to Jesus as one who mourns for his firstborn.

Today, as when he was on Earth, only an elect group recognize the truth about Jesus, the Messiah.  At his first coming, people could see that he preached with power and authority, never seen before or since. He performed miracle upon miracle, in healing the sick and afflicted and delivering those bound in sin. But even after witnessing all of these things, many still were blinded in their hearts to who Jesus really was, not unlike today. (People often want the blessings or healings or other consumable things from Jesus but not a real living relationship. e.g. An example of this, is the account of the ten lepers, only one came back to express gratitude.)   Luke 17:12 “And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood far off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” 

The religious leaders of Israel attributed Jesus’ power to some satanic force because his preaching and teaching convicted them of their own hypocrisy. His own family thought him to be insane in declaring who he is, because of the hardness of their hearts. However, he was able to make converts and devoted disciples of The Gospel, one heart at a time. I found the conversion of Nathaniel to be a beautiful illustration of this.

“Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
    Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of
whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
   And Nathanael said unto him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
   Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
   Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith unto him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
   Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
Nathanael answered  and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.”   John 1:44-49 

If we really consider Nathaniel’s conversion, it is like so many other’s testimonies of conversion. In the beginning, Jesus uses something very personal to reveal that he knows us. In the revelation to our heart, the conversion process can begin, that leads to our acceptance of our Messiah (Savior) and begins our true conversion to Jesus Christ. “The Acceptable Year” for an individual believer is two-fold. First is our believing in Jesus’ emergence as the fulfillment of prophecy as Messiah or savior, and second, when we truly accept him into our heart as such, and allow him to convert us from corruption and conform us to his image.

In truth, the greater meaning is the prophetic significance to it. It is the year in which Jesus makes his return to reveal that he is the fulfillment to everyone of the things that were his mission on Earth, the things prophesied about him, including those things previously mentioned from Isaiah 61.2. To gain some more insight into the prophetic significance of “The Acceptable Year of the Lord” please read this article; Christ’s Death Is A Jubilee By Eloise Gardenier

In sharing this process with you, it has become a testimony about how the Lord will enlighten those who will ask him for knowledge and understanding. When my interest was peaked about what the significance was in Jesus preaching “The Acceptable Year of the Lord” I had to do some work in searching it out.  Then, I had to receive those teachings the Holy Ghost wanted me to really apprehend in a prophetic sense. Exercising your spirit through delving into God’s Word and seeking instruction and understanding from the Holy Ghost will bless you and enrich you.

“For Bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” I Timothy 4:8