Dear Ones, join us every Tuesday at 6am PDST (1pm, Accra, Ghana; 4pm Kampala, Uganda) for an hour for our English language ZOOM video conference. Make friends with saints all over the world! Contact Yahna at admin@lightbearers-ministries.
Veuillez vous joindre à nous le jeudi pour notre vidéoconférence ZOOM en français à 19h30, heure de Paris. C’est merveilleux! Veuillez contacter Yahna à admin@lightbearers-ministries.
Join me daily for Facebook Live! Monday through Friday at 10am PDST @LightbearersMinistries. This month we are studying today’s topic, THE ANOINTING! Be there! Ask questions, make comments, have fun!
THE ANOINTING
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. John 9:5 NKJV
What makes Christianity attractive? Is there a definable reality that makes the gospel of Jesus Christ so enticing to a world lost in sin and hopelessness? Is it how we treat the poor? Lots of religions reach out to the poor. The first responders at the American embassy bombing in 1998 in Nairobi were not the Red Cross, but the Red Crescent. I know because I was there!
Is it our impressive churches and cathedrals? With the exception of the original Temple in Jerusalem, no building related to the true God would rank in the Top One Hundred of impressive religious structures around the world. Is it our wealth, our political power, our great philosophical wisdom? No. The one great definable reality that makes the Gospel so real, so satisfying and so singular in all of creation is what we call…the anointing.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Cor 3:17 NKJV
Like a great wave crashing upon a swimmer at the beach, the gospel isn’t heard so much as it is felt, as it is experienced. One of my mentors, Pastor Douglas Mentze, who understood the anointing as few men I have ever met, who built a huge beautiful church in a tiny logging town called Lyons, said that people will come from miles around to watch a man burn. What was he talking about? The anointing.
Bill Hamon in his great book SEVENTY REASONS FOR SPEAKING IN TONGUES talks about the great Pentecostal evangelists of the 20th century like T.L. Osborne, Aimee Semple MacPherson, Smith Wigglesworth, Oral Roberts, and Kathryn Kuhlman, because he knew them all, saying that they would all spend hours praying in tongues before they preached so that one thing – the anointing – would be on them in the services. And, they won millions, and their fruit abides today.
And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 1 Cor 2:4-5 NKJV
Like a frosty cold mug of fresh water on a thirsty day, like a warm campfire in the forest on a cold summer’s night, like the taste of honey on a hungry man’s palate, the anointing of the Spirit of God makes the Word of God penetrate deep into a man’s soul. As a minister of Christ, Paul sought one great reality – to be a demonstrator of God’s grace and practical intervention in the hearts of men. He understood the anointing of God.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Heb 13:8 NKJV
Is the anointing an arbitrary reality, reserved for the chosen few? No. Is it just for apostles? No, emphatically no! Is it just for Americans, or Africans, or Europeans, or whoever you are not? Strange as it may seem, because of the stories we hear, we all want to go some where’s else to find the living God. Americans want to go to ‘the mission field,’ not realizing that they live in the third or fourth largest mission field in the world. Africans want to come to America because somehow ‘tithing’ works in America, but not where they are!
Let me say this, especially for you guys who are so enamored of grace…there is a price to be paid for the anointing of God. Moses had to go to the top of Mount Sinai twice for forty days, even after being exiled from Egypt and his own people for forty years. Paul had to go three years into Arabia. Even the Lord Himself had to go forty days in to the wilderness. Samson sacrificed his anointing for the love of a woman, and he lost the anointing, the woman and ultimately his life.
The price you pay is determined by Him and you. As long as you continue to pay that price, you’ll continue to walk and grow in the anointing. This reality explains a lot of things, especially why ministries ‘hit a peak’ and then go downhill. May we all observe and learn, in humility knowing that we all could become an object lesson as well!
Let me briefly explain how the anointing works, and then I can share some practical advice about accessing the anointing. Read these verses carefully!
…which is Christ in (IN) you, the hope of glory. Col 1:27 NKJV
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon (UPON) you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 NKJV
Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, IN you is eternal life, which can’t be lost, can’t be sinned away, because it is permanent. When you are born again, your eternal life begins right then, at that very moment. You are born and adopted into the family of God. Why is adoption such a big deal if you are born? Under Roman law, sons who were born could be disinherited, but sons by adoption could not, because they were chosen to be sons. (Ohhh, I could stop and preach this now because I’m feeling it! Can I ‘burn’ in your living room?)
I have been anointed with fresh oil. Ps 92:10 NKJV
The Holy Spirit coming UPON you is not permanent. It is the coming UPON you that brings the power, the gifts, the miracles. Theoretically, you could receive the Holy Spirit upon you and maintain it because that is what Jesus did. From His baptism through His resurrection the Holy Spirit continuously abode upon Him. But even for the Lord there was a continual price to be paid. There were things He had to deny Himself, and things He had to do, like whole nights in prayer. The key to maintaining the anointing is to be continually bathed in fresh oil, which by the way, is the purpose of the weekly SHABBAT!
Now, you want to learn to access the anointing every day. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Don’t live in the future or the past. Seek the anointing for today!
Awake, my glory! Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn. Ps 57:8 NKJV
Let me give you some advice, which may be the greatest advice you’ve received since someone invited you to be filled with the Holy Spirit, advice I wish I had been given forty years ago – start your day with God!
Let me tell you how I start the day six days a week. I get up before dawn and get in my backyard which has a fountain in it. For the first half hour or so I walk around the fountain, called ‘the fountain of living waters,’ and I praise the Lord in tongues and with my mother tongue. I awaken the dawn with my praise. Our dog Rex follows me around the fountain!
After that first phase I go in, give Rex a cookie, and sit before my computer and read the Word while still praying in tongues. Isaiah has been plowing deep furrows in my soul as I wonder in amazement at the word of God. After a delicious hour or so in the Word, I am ready to ask the Lord about the day, and especially listen to Him.
Dr. Jack Tuls, another of my mentors and the father of our schools of ministry, taught me to listen to God. I’ll tell you one of my favorite ‘Dr. Jack’ stories, of which I have a bunch. We had gone to Niamey, Niger to plant a school of ministry. We actually planted the school very quickly, and we wanted to go home because Niamey was very, very hot. But we couldn’t change our tickets! So, we were stuck in our room because it was the only place with air conditioning. Jack would lie on the bed with a smile on his face and say, ‘I think I’ll just listen to God!’ while I paced back and forth like a caged animal. Guess who got the revelation about where to go to plant more schools of ministry? Jack. Guess who got no revelation? ‘the caged animal.’
So, I’m listening all through my praise time, and my time in the Word, but now I’m really listening. My soul is quiet and He has my full attention. Then He can impart gifts of the Spirit with revelation instruction, and I’m ready to roll. All day long I’ll flow in that anointing that I received in the start of the day. Do you see it?
You may say, I don’t have time. We all have the same amount of time. Get up earlier. Go to bed earlier. Pay the price!
…And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil. Isa 10:27 NKJV
The yoke destroying power of God is available to you today. Every cursed thing that seeks to enslave us, every ungodly reality that seeks to be a ceiling in your life, every miserable wickedness of man or spirit can be crushed by the yoke destroying power of God. The anointing crushes idols, drives away demons and causes wicked men to run like cowards. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As He abode upon Yeshua so He will abide upon you. He is the anointing of God. Love you!
Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business