REFRESHING THE ANOINTING!

Lightbearers MinistriesUncategorized

Dear Ones,

THE HOLY SPIRIT ENCOUNTER

MARCH 22-28, 2020

IN LEBANON, OREGON

Is full! But you can join our second ENCOUNTER June 21st through the 27th, also in Lebanon, which is also filling up fast. A HSE is like NOTHING you have ever experienced! You can contact Yahna at admin@lightbearers-ministries.com for more details. Love you!

REFRESHING THE ANOINTING

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Rom 11:29 NKJV

The call of God is a lifelong adventure that grows and grows, and crescendos with an entry into Heaven, bless God forever. The call of God is such that the more you grow up in God, the more He reveals of Himself to you. He made known His ways unto Moses; the children of Israel only saw the acts. The Lord Himself is the man or woman of God’s reward. You can quickly sacrifice way too much to religion, but you can never out give God.

But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil. Ps 92:10 NKJV

Along the way, the anointings in your life have to be continually refreshed. The great failure of any servant of God is to run out of oil. Sometimes people by their faith draw out an extra reservoir of oil in you, but most times when your oil has run down, it is time to step back and be refreshed.

One time we had been ministering as a team in southern Uganda. It was towards the end of the trip, miracles had been happening and well over a thousand dear one ones had been filled with the Holy Spirit, among healings, salvations and other fun stuff. We were going to a meeting, and I knew I didn’t have the anointing to do the meeting. I said, “Gentlemen, we are going into this meeting but I do not have the anointing to bring the goods.” Michael spoke up and said, “I have it, God spoke to me this morning!” And, indeed, he did!

That was the meeting where the young village girl spoke in tongues and spoke in ATESO, which was a known language to one of our team members, just like out of Acts Two. I was so impressed by the miracle that I had our guy write out the whole thing for me, which I now have framed on the wall in my office, among other testimonies. In her first words in tongues she said, “I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC AND THE GOD OF ISRAEL. I HAVE COME INTO YOUR MIDST TO DO GREAT THINGS. I AM POURING OUT MY SPIRIT UPON YOU ALL.” And, indeed, among the three hundred or so present, that is exactly what happened.

That miracle refreshed me, and continues to encourage me to this day.

On our teams, we don’t go with who is SUPPOSED to speak, we go with the ‘hot hand.’ Who has the anointing; who has ‘the goods’? They are the one who is up…

If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. 1 Peter 4:11 NKJV

Imagine if every preacher spoke, every time they spoke, with the fresh anointing of God – whole continents – just like Australia in the natural – would be consumed in heavenly fire in a matter of weeks!

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 1 Cor 13:3 NKJV

Pastor Mentze used to say, “People will come from miles around to watch a man burn!” What was he talking about? The fire of God! For pastor Mentze, indeed they did! He built a huge beautiful chapel in a tiny timber town through his faith and fire. There is nothing wrong with giving your body to be burned as long as you get refreshed and renewed. Sin festers in the dark without the cleansing, purifying fire of God.

Rather than get into a listing of ‘do this, don’t do that,’ to maintain the fire of God, to refresh the anointing – you know what you need to do – lets look at some of the great fruit of fire well maintained.

One of the great records in Acts, that is so worthy to be studied and imitated, is in Acts Nineteen.

So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. Acts 19:20 NKJV

We are going to see in this record how the Gospel prevailed across a whole section of the world in an extremely short period of time. We are going to see some of the principles of why it happened, and how it can be duplicated today. To get to the context you have to go back to Acts Eighteen. This helps us understand what happened in Acts Nineteen…

Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. Acts 18:24-28 NKJV

Ephesus was a tough nut to crack! Paul went there originally and apparently had no fruit. But he left Priscilla and Aquila there. Then Apollos comes down, and actually has some fruit, but not knowing the baptism of the Holy Spirit, only leads them through water baptism, a wonderful ministry in itself, but not the fullness of what God really intends. So, P&A, having been mentored by Paul, give him a little more teaching and send him on his way. Interestingly, though, P&A don’t lead the new believers into the baptism. That seems to be reserved for Paul.

And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” Acts 19:1-2 NKJV

Heartbreaking, isn’t it? I actually had this happen to me in south Sudan, where a pastor told me he never heard of the Holy Spirit. I said, “Sit down, brother, and I will tell you about Him!”

Paul’s first question to the new believers was, Have you received? We will see that the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the fervent approach to speaking in tongues, set the foundation for the great revival in Ephesus.

And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now the men were about twelve in all. Acts 19:6-7 NKJV

This was the breakthrough…these key men, most likely heads of households, getting filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, to have a synagogue, you had to have at least twelve households…

And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. Acts 19:8-9 NKJV

Ephesus was tough! Among the Jewish leaders some got hardened and spoke evil of the Lord, Who is the Way, Truth and Life. Just as an aside, I wonder how much money was involved. Did Paul refuse to pay off leaders, because in religion and politics – religious leaders paid Judas, paid witnesses to testify against Jesus, paid off the guards of the Tomb – no matter what they say, its always about the money. There’s nothing new under the sun…

And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. Acts 19:10 NKJV

WOW! Here’s what I think happened in the school of Tyrannus…It wasn’t some small group studying for two years. I believe he brought in young saints, immersed them in the things of the Spirit for a few weeks, then sent them out as firestarters, like Samson’s little foxes. That’s my anointing – I’m a firestarter. One group for three weeks, then a week off, then another group for three weeks, then a little time off. The first group comes back, learns more, gets corrected, gets encouraged and then they go and lead other groups…the fire spreads. Pretty soon, the whole countryside is on fire!

This pattern of evangelism – no stadiums, no big names (do you realize the only names we know of in this great move of God are Paul, Apollos and P&A?), just the fire of God – set the pattern for the early Church. Of course, the believers probably memorialized that first school in Ephesus like some people treat the first Starbucks in Pikes Market in Seattle, or how we treat Azusa Street, because they were just people. But, what advanced the Kingdom was the fire of God…

And Paul kept the fire burning by being continually refreshed in the oil of God. You can be, too! Love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about the Father’s business…