1) Heaven was opened. The supernatural realm of the spirit became open. He had free access to intimacy with God, the Father.
2) The spirit of God came on Him, and remained on Him.
3) He started to hear the voice of God. Notice what the voice of God said - He hasn't even begun His ministry, done no great action - and the voice of God says: “This is My beloved Son. I'm pleased in Him.”
So He had the Father confirming His identity. He has moved from being a child, unrecognised, and now He is standing clothed in the spirit of God, ready to engage the world in His ministry. Straight after that - Luke 4:1 - we find Him being led by the Holy Spirit. So that's the example of Jesus.
Now Jesus made a promise. As we look in the life of ministry of Jesus, you have to notice that everywhere He went, there was supernatural manifestation and demonstrations. If you follow Jesus' ministry, you will notice these characteristics:
Firstly, He continually seemed to have access to the Father. He continually seemed to hear from the Father, so much so, that He said: “what I see Him showing me, that's what I do”. What I see Him doing, I do it too. What I hear Him saying, that's how I judge things. So He continually flowed in a flow of the presence of God, speaking to Him.
Second thing you notice is: the supernatural around His life. The two went hand in hand. When you look at the ministry of Jesus relationship with God: access into the realm of heaven; and the flow of the spirit, characterised His life and ministry.
Now what did Jesus promise? I want us to look at a couple of scriptures. First of all look in John 20:21. Jesus has finished His course on the earth. He died for our sins, after three days rose from the dead. Now He's appeared to His disciples, and He's about to commission them, and so this is what He says, in Verse 21 – “As the Father sent Me, I'm sending you. And when He said this, He breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit."
At that point it was like He was replicating what God did with Adam. God breathed into Adam, and Adam became a living soul. Jesus breathed into them, the spirit of God entered into them. They were now born again. They were now children of the living God. Of course some point after that they must have got baptised in water.
So what happened then? They were joined to God. They were now born again, but their experience wasn't complete. Jesus had a mission for them to accomplish. He had a purpose for them to accomplish on this earth, and in order to accomplish His mission, they needed access to the supernatural. Why? Why did they need access to the supernatural?
It's very simple. We live in a Western culture here, but the majority of the world doesn't have a Western world-view. It has a spirit world-view, and in cultures where you go to in the world, some of the things that are evident in every culture I've gone to, is the evidence of witchcraft, of cultism, and strong manifestations of spiritual power originating from evil spirits. Jesus was sending them into such cultures, to change the culture. To change the culture, they needed to have power to overcome evil spirits, and power to heal the sick. They needed power to go with their message. The kingdom of heaven is not just hot air and talk; it's also in power. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2 – “I didn't come preaching in fancy words, but in demonstration of the spirit and power of God”; so it was essential before they went to witness, that they had power in their life.