"The anointing of God part 2"

In my previous blog I began to speak about the anointing of God and of the crucial need to determine to experience it more fully in our lives.

The anointing of God is not something mystical or magical it is the very quickened life and presence of Jesus the Son of the living God working in and through his people to accomplish his purposes upon the earth.

I mentioned in the previous blog that one of the first steps that we must be prepared to take in order to function within the anointing that God has given to us is to discern where our place is within the body of Christ and to 'be ourselves'.

This may seem to be easier said than done however in reality the Lord does not lead us into confusion but he does say that he will lead us into paths of righteousness for his names sake.

Jesus said in Johns gospel that "my sheep know my voice" so we should not be strangers or aliens to the will of God for our lives.

It may take some considerable time spent in prayer and spending time in Gods word however I am persuaded that the Lord will always answer the sincere cry of a persons heart who desires to find and walk in His perfect will.

Why is this so important?

Because every one of us has a place to occupy within the church ;a place that is unique.

And God will not anoint us to be disobedient to the place of our calling, rather we will have to resort to natural human reason and natural human strenght if we fail to discern the place of our calling.

I have had to discover this the hard way.

Twenty years ago I received a calling to preach and when I preached there was always a sense of purpose and of unction that flowed out of my heart.

Over the years however I moved into circles where I began to conform to the mould of that which I expected was required of me,and tried to occupy a place of ministry to which I was not ultimately called.

Outwardly people may still have been blessed, the word was being preached but inwardly I was in disarray, and though I did on occasions touch the anointing of God it was nothing like it should have been had I been obedient.

There is a great difference between operating in a gift in this case a teaching gift which will always function even when things are falling apart,because it operates by grace.

There is as I say a great difference between manifesting a gift and walking in the anointing of God; and the primary difference is the measure of fruit you will produce.

The anointing of God is tangible it can move people to tears in its presence even if they do not know why; it can dismantle pride and unbelief in its presence and can fill people with more of God.

If there is a single word that would describe the anointing of God it is liberty.

Paul said that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.

That simply means freedom.

Freedom from something and a freedom to something.

The anointing will dissolve yokes and destroy burdens that attempt to hold people in bondage.

Remember what Jesus said to the religious leaders of his day concerning the woman who was bowed down "Ought not this woman be loosed from this infirmity seeing that she is a daughter of Abraham?"

I can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit challenging us with these same words today to everyone whom the enemy has held in bondage.

Ought not this son of mine or this daughter of mine be loosed from this snare and deception seeing they are a the seed of Abraham?

When the anointing of God is in evidence freedom will always be the end result.

The importance of finding our God assigned place of ministry is so essential because it is only there that as Ephesians 4 says we are compacted together by that which every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share for the edifying of itself in love.4 16

The effective working described is the anointing and that will most effectively be released when we are in our place of ministry.

One of the tell tale signs that we are operating within our anointing is that what we do seems natural to us.

I realize that this can be a provocative statement.

However I believe that when we are functioning in the place of our anointing then that which we are doing appears to be 'natural to us'

Certainly we may labour hard at our goals however it is labouring in a place of rest, and the sense of divine enablement keeps us from finding our task an excessively heavy burden.

However if we stray out of our place of calling to take on a role or roles that Jesus has not called us to then we shall certainly find the weight of the work difficult for us to carry.

Some people may well contest this I know but in truth I believe that we have accepted a widespread model of ministry within the church that is more based upon human reliance and strengh than upon the inward enabling of the Holy Spirit.

That is why Paul could say speaking of his apostolic labours " I laboured more than them all yet not I but the grace of God that was with me"

Whatever place of service that God has called you to occupy stand in that and be faithful to what God has called you to do, and the anointing of God will be free to operate through your life.

I mentioned in the last blog that the anointing is that which essentially flows from within, out of our innermost being, for it is their that we have the indwelling of the Spirit of God.

You can always tell the difference between a sermon that is mind centered and coming predominantly out of someones mind and that which flows from within.

The former may be impeccably well thought out very biblical and an impressive presentation.

But it will without the anointing leave you more conscious of the impressiveness of the speaker, it will inform you it may impress you but it will not impact or change you.

Conversely you may hear someone speak who cannot speak confidently but when they are ministering they are imparting something of Gods life to you, something of Christs nature is being imparted to you.

You find yourself being stirred and challenged and inspired and strenghtened, you find yourself receiving something of God.

I do not wish to imply that sermons that are well thought are only mind orientated.

Rather I am highlighting the difference between tying to rely upon and to reach predominantly the mind (which is where most of Conservative evangelicalism is operating) and ministering out of the spirit, with a reliance upon the quickening of the Spirit of the living God.

The anointing is where the grace of God most naturally flows through our lives and imparts something of Christs presence and His nature and essence to others even if we are not conscious of that process going on.
It is the place where the gifts flow most easily because our heart is at rest when we are using them.

There are two foundational pillars upon which the anointing functions and by which it operates and they are simply faith and love.
Without our operating in either a spirit of faith or of love we will enviably be prone to either seeking experiences all the time and measuring our success by that which we can feel of Gods presence, or we will resort to formalism and to duty going through the motions hoping but never expecting that the power of God is at work in and through our lives as we minister to others.

Faith is so essential because it looks to God and takes hold of his word against all other contrary evidence that we may see with our five physical senses.
Really faith is not to difficult for any believer as Paul says it is not requiring us to go up to heaven to gain the knowledge of it more fully, neither is it in the depths of the earth.
No Paul says the word is near you in your heart and in your mouth that is the word of faith which we speak.
The word of God in our mouths and in our hearts is the way to consistent faith and when it comes to our expectation for the anointing of God to be in operation through our lives it is essential that faith is our governing force.

For example if the Word of God says that believers will lay hands upon the sick and they shall recover than that is my duty to believe that.
I lay hands upon the sick not by my own power or godliness and certainly not because I feel the anointing but in obedience to Gods word.

I cannot heal a fly but God can heal through me and does heal through me so my job is to be a doer of the word and to fully release my faith that when I pray for the sick the Holy Spirit is working through me to minister to that other persons needs.
I may feel something or then again I may not but that is irrelevant the fact is that I believe that the Spirit of God and His anointing is in operation through me as I step out upon Gods word.
Much of the ministry in the church today is being conducted without any reliance upon Gods anointing and without purposeful faith being exercised that as that person ministers the anointing of God is working to minster grace, whether they can see it or whether they can't.
You see we have to release our faith deliberately and on purpose, and we do that as we walk in obedience to Gods word.

Then it becomes something more than just a wishful hope, but is founded upon the truth of what God has said.

If God has said that in Christ I have been enriched in every way in all utterance and in all knowledge, then whenever I stand up to minister I make that conscious decision to believe in the sufficiency of the saviour who has already enriched me to manifest his goodness and grace through me.
I have to exercise my faith in what he is able to accomplish through me.

When I was at college studying theology I studied at an institution that to all intents and purposes stated that it believed in the baptism of the Spirit and in the present day ministry of Spiritual gifts.
They said that however in reality there was "a great gulf " fixed between what they said and what they practiced.

Caution and fear where more the order of the day all under the guise of sound theology and balance.
No one was contending for the exercise of the gifts of the Spirit through their ministries neither was anyone exercising greater faith for the release of the Spirit through their lives.

The practical model that we were taught was that if you read as much as possible and studied as many commentaries as possible in preparation for a sermon and scripted a sermon as skillfully as possible then you should pray for the Holy Spirit to bless your labours.
How different this is from a model of seeking God and praying for wisdom and revelation to be given; to praying in the Spirit much and to meditate as long as is necessary until the word is full to overflowing in your heart,
Then and only then to listen or read to sharpen what God has already given you.

The truth is that most of the ministry model is a tokenism at best: we approach the speaking and sharing of Gods word with the same cool efficiency that a public speaker would at a political rally, except that his presentation may have more colourful anecdotes in it.

It is filling the mind to feed the minds of others but it is not preparation to minister Gods life.
The reason why it is so important that we minister in the anointing of God is that it is the way in which we impart the Grace of God to one another.
It is only then that we can be fitly compacted together.
Thus we have churches and Christians whose heads are well informed but whose lives are dislocated from one one another.
There are of course many different kinds of anointing.
The bible says that God has set in the church first apostles, then prophets, thirdly teachers, than the working of miracles, then healings, helps, administrations and varieties of tongues.
If your calling is to apostle than all of the works that you accomplish will be wrought in you by God and your lasting fruit will be produced only by the anointing.

There are also in that list the calling and gift of helps and the gift of administration.
The anointing is just as necessary to those who find a place within the "helps " as it is for the apostle.
If I am called to a practical place of service and yet I know that God has placed me there be it welcoming or opening the church or keeping the books or administration of any other kind of pratical assistance then I will operate in the supply of Gods grace.
We get into difficulties only when we rely upon our own human strenght and resources.
Just as faith is essential to walking in the anointing so also is love for in reality it is faith that works through love.
There are few things calculated to hinder and shortcircut the anointing of God from flowing as the Lord intends as the entering in of strife.
Proverbs says that the beginning of strife is like the releasing of water therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts.

When we walk in a commitment to love we are in effect making a quality decision to keep our hearts free from all ill will, ill thought, and ill feeling towards another human being.
Love is the track that the locomotive of faith runs on if you are sloppy in love you will be feeble in faith.
The enemy of our lives delights to attempt to sow tares of strife misunderstanding irritation and unforgiveness, in particular unforgivenesss in the church.
To function in heart faith and to maintain the anointing we have to maintain a vigilance over our hearts in this area.
We cannot have control over what someone else may think or feel or how they may acts towards us.
But we can determine how we will respond and how we will think and how we will speak concerning them.
The snares that the enemy lays for us in the body of Christ in this area are I believe very sutle and insidious if we have not made walking in the love of God a law of commandment from which there is no retreat and from which we seek to make no allowances for our selves.

I know a minister who has been a spiritual father to me because of his teaching and influence of his life and of his faith.
He has made a standard of integrity concerning not only what only what comes out of his mouth but also what he allows to enter into his ears.
For all too often what we may allow others to whisper into our ears is going to infect us just as much as if we were responsible for saying it our selves.
On one occasion this minister was in a restaurant with a group of ministers and the conversation as it so often does got round to some other ministers who were not present.
In due course the conversation deteriorated into a slandering of these other men and enjoying some cheap humour on their behalf.
The minister whom I respect picked up his plate and walked to the other end of the restaurant and sat down to finish his meal.
For him to even be party to that kind of activity was a violation of the commandment of love.
Some may consider this kind of reaction as extreme however this minister in question has maintained a powerful anointing throughout his ministry that has only got stronger and more fruitful as the years have passed.
In this case wisdom is proved right by her children.
I think that a failure to forgive is probably the number one reason why many have lost the anointing in their lives.
For to maintain the anointing we have to become skillful in love.

In these days in which we are privileged to be alive the greatest harvest of souls that the earth has ever witnessed is going to be reaped.
All of us have a part to play.
And all of us need to find and to contend in faith for that anointed place of service to which Christ has called us.
The Glory of God will be seen in the land and Jesus will receive His inheritance of a worshiping bride of wholehearted lovers.
Never has the need for wholehearted anointed ministry been as great as now.

"The anointing of God" Part 1


The following message that I am about to post is one that is very dear to my heart.

It also is an area of biblical truth that the Lord has reignited within my own spirit in part by leading me through a process of losing sight of certain things for a season only to have their value restored as exceedingly more precious in my life.

Today I have no doubt in my mind that what stands between us in the church and the lost in the world and the need to bring the harvest in, is not a lack of ingenuity or organization or mobilization or zeal or lack of it, or training or education but simply this; a lack of manifestation of the anointing of God which alone can destroy yokes and quicken life to the dead.

The ten million dollar question therefore is how do we get more of this anointing to be made manifest in our lives and within our church services so that we can bear more fruit?

I will answer this question as honestly as I can however first I would like to show how this vital area of new testament teaching has been put in a place of obscurity where it is not clearly understood or if it is discussed it is in such a manner that has had a tendency to exalt people rather than the Lord Jesus Christ whose anointing we are the recipients of.
The biggest reason for this obscurity is in a failure to properly translate the word Christ from the Greek in our English language.


For in reality every time that the new testament speaks of Jesus Christ it is referring to the fact that he is the One anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with power(acts 13 )


The word Christ rather like the word baptize is taken directly from the Greek, and as to baptize simply means to immerse so the word Christ simply means to anoint.


So what does the word anoint mean?


It is a word that is best translated by several concepts which include "to pour over to smear all over and rub into, or to quicken and to make alive to empower and to energize"

It is the released and quickened presence of God, sometimes a person or a congregation may 'feel it' sometimes nothing is felt however its effects are aways evident for all to see.

It is the anointing only that will destroy the yoke(Isaiah 10v27 ) and there are as many yokes in the church as there are in the world.

There are yokes of religious pride, bondage to lust or mans approval or fear or sicknesses or diseases or unbelief


Part of the difficulty of seeing the anointing in a fuller and more open manifestation is that so much of the church has associated it and tried to understand it through the lives of those who have evidenced it in their ministries to a larger degree, however since some of the most anointed individuals in church history have also been larger than life we can end up attempting to discern the anointing through the lenses of personality and presence rather than upon the firmer ground of what the new testament teaches us upon this subject.


For in truth many things that may be supposed to be the anointing may in fact be human traits or quirks where as many of the vital hallmarks of the anointing of God that we need to encourage and to cultivate people can be ignorant of.


It is a fact that just as we need to learn to become skillful in handling the word of righteousness so also we must learn to acquire skill in handling the anointing of God.


And no two of us are anointed the same,therefore it is important that we learn to discern what our area of calling is, and to develop in the anointing of God in that area of our lives.

The anointing of God centers and revolves around Jesus Christ, he is the one anointed by God with the life of God and the Spirit of God without measure.

Therefore every gift and grace and manifestation of the anointing given among men comes from Jesus and flows from him.


Sometimes I feel that we lose the sense of the picture of great anticipation that builds through out the whole of the old testament of the messiah or the Christ who would come to bring Gods saving power into this world but would be recognized by one thing- that he would carry the anointing of God more than any other person ever has or ever would.

Isaiah paints a magnificent picture of Jesus as the one specially anointed by God when he states in Isaiah 61

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me

Because he has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor

He has sent me to heal the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives


And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;


To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."


This of course is the precise passage that Jesus launched his public ministry with identifying himself with Gods yoke removing, darkness overcoming ,sickness destroying power and the people who knew him only in the flesh took great offense that day.


But later in the gospels we find even John the baptist whom Jesus described as the greatest of all the prophets succumbing to momentary doubt when he sent messengers to Jesus from his place of imprisonment to ask "are you the one or should we look for another?"


John had already on several occasions identified Jesus as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, so what is he needing to settle in his own heart and mind before death?


Simply this "Are you the coming messiah?", which is the Hebrew word used to describe the same word in Greek Christ 'the anointed one'


It is fascinating what Jesus immediate response to this request is


"Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:


The blind receive their sight and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

And blessed is he who is not offended because of me"

Remember how the man born blind challenging the Sanhedrin in Johns gospel when they tried to dismiss the fact that Jesus had healed him by saying "Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind" He spoke the truth.


No one had ever healed the lame or opened the eyes of the blind or unstopped the ears of the deaf until Jesus.


And Jesus describes these kingdom acts as the primary evidence of the anointing of God being upon him and of his being the one to whom God gave the Spirit without measure.


Peter sums up the ministry of Jesus as succinctly as possible in acts 13 when he says "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holt Spirit and power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him"


God was with him meant that God was poured all over smeared into and flowing to fullness out of Jesus life.

And he still is.

There is a single statement in the book of Isaiah that does more to describe what the anointing of God is sent to do than possibly any other place in scripture.

It is found in Isaiah chpt 10 and vs 27 which says,

" It shall come to pass in that day

That his burden will be taken away from your shoulder

And his yoke from your neck,

And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil."

It is the anointing of God that destroys the yoke. It destroys every yoke.

The Hebrew word used here to speak of the yoke being destroyed is a particularly strong one. It speaks of complete annihilation, of something that has been binding being not just overcome but rather completely obliterated.

I think in my minds eye of the old agricultural heavy solid oak yokes that they would fasten securely to two oxen and drive those beasts with a stick or with a whip in whatever direction the farmer wished them to go.

Those animals had no choice they could not break themselves free or change direction willy nilly rather they were under the burden of that heavy yoke and it not they determined the direction that they could move forward in.

Many people are living their lives in a similar way under the reality of a heavy yoke of bondage.

The devil who is a legalist has found some point of access to their lives and they are not free, He is driving them cracking at the whip and though they may try to break free of their own volition they remain bound.

Only Jesus the anointed one can set them free.

If we could see into the spiritual realm we would witness these yokes as tangible forms of bondage that they have been carrying driving them relentlessly into further misery.

But the moment that they turn to Jesus and call upon Him, the moment that they learn to receive from him of his anointing those yokes are not just broken they are destroyed, completely obliterated.

They are so totally destroyed that there is no remaining evidence that they ever existed to begin with,and with the power of Christs cleansing blood even the memory of them can be completely wiped away.

Again I visualise the fist of Jesus the anointed one coming down full force on those yokes and shattering them to fine dust and powder that is blown away by the wind.

No wonder that satan so fears the anointing, for in reality he fears it as much as he fears Gods word.

For he knows what it can do.

He knows that the anointing of God can in a second undo a lifetime of bondage and seriously mess up his plans for peoples lives.

Actually the anti Christ spirit in the church today is best discerned when we understand what its objective is.

It is simply anything that seeks to hinder hamper persecute and oppose the anointing of Jesus from operating in our services as he would wish it to.

And the Pharisees and the Pharisaical spirit (or religious spirit) has always be the primary veil behind which this evil spirit seeks to hide.

What is a tragedy today is the extent to which churches are functioning with unanointed ministry.

People go into a service bound and come out the same.

People go in with depression and come out with depression.They go in with fear and come out with fear.They go in with torment and find little or no relief.They go in with some form of addiction and come out only more condemned.

They are not encountering the life changing yoke destroying burden removing presence and power of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

And yet the anointing is available for us today the Lord Jesus Christ has never removed it from the church.

If it is not being seen in the church it is only because the people in those situations have not learned how to receive it and to release it. The fault therefore is entirely on our side not on Gods. His arm is still not to short to save nor his power to heal.

Much of the ministry in the church of the west today is about leaving people better informed in their minds and letting them get on with the business of living their lives by encouraging the exercise of the will and determination to do what is right; in most cases by being informed by what they have heard in a sermon or studied in a book.

Certainly studying has a valuable place in our growth as Christians however it is certainly true that the overwhelming emphasis today is placed upon feeding and informing the mind and intellect and little is spoken of the human spirit let alone the cultivating of the anointing of God which resides inside of our regenerated spirit.


The art of biblical meditation which is the key to increasing our spiritual strenght and the development of the presence of God within our hearts is almost totally neglected.

And yet the book of proverbs says that we are to guard our hearts with all diligence for out of it flow the issues if life.

The word issue is translated as stream, or flow or spring, speaking of the location of the Spirit of God within us, and indicating that our life force is that which flows out of our spirits not predominantly out of our minds.

I intend to write about this subject over two parts however it is important to state in this initial blog that is vital we understand and grasp that all of Gods people are anointed.

Every single one of us is a possessor of Gods anointing to some measure and to some degree.

We may not yet be walking in the realization of that anointing and we may not have learned how to release that anointing but all of us have been made inheritors of the anointing of Jesus who is the anointed one.

If you are in Christ then you are in the Anointed One and in his anointing and if Christ is in you then the Anointed One and his anointing is dwelling inside of you.

I started this blog by saying that the ten million dollar question is how do we learn to access and to release this anointing within our own lives?.

And my honest answers to this question is that which I shall endeavour to share over this and the next blog.

However it is also important for us to understand that scriptually the anointing of God has a twofold revelation.

It is both that which dwells within us (which is what every christian as a child of God has inherited) and is also that which comes upon us for specific tasks and works of service in the ministry.

Firstly then the anointing of God is that which dwells within us.

In 1 John 2vs20 says "But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things"

Every born again child of God has the Spirit of God resident within them to teach them and to guide them into all the truth.

That unction within also will enable them to speak about the truth as they share it with others.

1 corn 1v says that "you have been enriched in Christ or in the Anointed One and in His Anointing in everything in all utterance and in all knowledge."

This is saying precisely the same thing as John is writing in the verse quoted above.

No christian should be tongue tied or should be easily misled away from the truth.

Often with a newborn baby christian they may lack the understanding of what God has given to them but even a brand new christian will know the alarm bells going off in their spirits when they hear falsehood, if they are taught to listen to their hearts.
But what is important for us to realize is that the anointing of God is the Spirit of God living inside of us and that Jesus said that the Spirit of God within would flow out of us as rivers of living water.

When we were born again we received eternal life and the Holy Spirit came to reside within our spirits.

However there is also a greater fullness of Gods presence that he intends for us to experience which is when we are filled with the Spirit or baptized with the Holy Spirit.

This experience should be normative to every child of God, however this is never portrayed as an end in itself in the scripture but as the door through which we walk into a greater fullness of the things of the Spirit.

That is why in the book of acts the first disciples were filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and yet we find them only two chapters later being filled with the Spirit again to enable them to withstand the threats of the Jewish authorities and to give them greater boldness.

That is also why Paul exhorts the Christians in Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit and the literal Greek is continuous presence tense meaning that it would be more literally translated as be being filled with the Holy Spirit.

After the initial experience we should cultivate a life of be often refilled with the Holy Spirit and the scripture is very clear in giving us instructions on how we should do this.

This life of being filled with the Holy Spirit is the way in which the anointing of God most freely flows through our lives not only to refresh ourselves but to minister grace to others.

Many Christians therefore have the Spirit of God dwelling inside of them but have not learned how to release the Holy Spirit through them to others.

And the scripture is explicit in how this is achieved

Ephesians 4 says "be not drunk with wine where is excess but be filled with the Holy Spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Colossians chapter 3 says that we should speak to or admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.

So whether it is speaking to ourselves or to one another or whether it is singing to ourselves or to one another we maintain this fullness of the Spirit by saying things and by singing.

Simply put we release what is in us with our mouths.

This puts us in a place where the river of grace within our hearts is always ready to be released and it is I believe the primary manner in which the anointing of God is released through our lives to edify and to encourage others in the church.

It is evident however that the anointing is not just evident in what we say or in what we sing but it is also the manifestation of the power of God also to equip us for works of service.

This include healings deliverances and the release of the Spirit and of the gifts of the Spirit into others lives.

Most of these I will talk about in part two of this blog.

But let it be said and said well that Jesus is still the one anointed by God to do good and to heal all those who are oppressed by the devil.

And he is looking for those who will be willing to let him use them to manifest his power through their lives regardless of the cost.

The last point that I wish to make in this discourse on the anointing is the importance of the role of faith.

For many christians the great pitfall to their being confidently used to minister the anointing to one another is that they tie so much to their five senses, what they 'feel' or what they do not 'feel' of the presence of God.

This may be natural to a young christian but it is not acceptable to one who has grown out of spiritual babyhood.

For in reality our feelings are fallible and faith always precedes our feelings and enables us to be consistent not as those who are constantly looking for some evidence of their physical senses that God is working or moving in their midst.

If God does give such evidence we can rejoice but even if at the time we minister we see no evidence that does not or should not alter what we believe.

Neither does it alter the faithfulness of God and of Gods word which works in every situation where we minister it with faith.
Smith Wigglesworth who is one of my spiritual heroes coined the famous phrase that "I am not moved by what I feel I am not moved by what I see, but I am moved only by what I believe"
He probably saw more of the anointing of God and of the miraculous then any other person in church history I know, however his attitude when he walked into a service was that he would judge nothing by how it might appear but act only in the light of what he knew Gods word declared about the issue.
He was a man totally governed by his faith in God.


Recently I spoke at my grandmothers funeral, and shared some recollections concerning my grandmothers life.

I also read from the scripture both in the service and at the graveside.

Since I was not preaching a sermon or even giving a message I simply prayed that the anointing of God would be upon me (and the others who spoke )and that the word of God that was spoken as it was read would not return void but would accomplish what God pleased and prosper in the thing for which it was sent.

The anointing of God is always on His word and when we speak that word with faith in our hearts it will always bear fruit.

We may not see the evidences of that fruit straight away but God is not a man that he should lie and He has said that His word will never return to him fruitless.

I released my faith that the anionting would be manifest and though I did not especially feel anything the number of people who commented to me or to my family subsequently that they had been greatly moved was amazing.

What was it that they were responding to?

The Anointing.

When a person is ministering under the anointing of God you feel that you could keep on listening to them all day. You dont get bored or weary.

Likewise when a person is singing with the anointing of God you feel ushered into the presence of the Lord you do not sit there thinking about how gifted this person is.

When the anointing is operating through a ministry in a service you feel refreshed invigorated. You leave feeling encouraged and lifted.

When the anointing of God is operating in a service people are ministered to spirit soul and body.

They do not leave the same.They have been quickened in the presence of God.

Today we stand at a crossroads.
The greatest harvest of souls is about to be reaped.
The church is facing her greatest hour but in order to be the instrument of blessing to our families and to our towns and villages and cities we must begin to make this resolve.
We will do nothing without the anointing of God
But as we begin to grow in our confidence of how to flow in the anointing we shall see greater friuts and we shall fruitfully exercise those gifts that Jesus has entrusted us with.

"The fivefold ministry and a personal word about Jan and I "
I wanted to write this blog to convey where Jan and I are at this time and the direction that we are looking to go in the near future.
As such this is less of a teaching blog although there is an area of understanding from the word of God in Ephesians that I do have burning upon my heart to share, however in general this is more a' posting' of what we are about to do.

In Ephesians 4 Paul speaks of five distinct leadership gifts sometimes named the five fold ministry v7 "But to each one of us Grace was given according to the measure of Christs gift.

Therefore he says "When he ascended on high He led captivity captive And gave gifts to men"

v11 And he gave some to be apostles, some prophets some evangelists,and some pastors and teachers"



So the risen and exalted Christ has continued to apportion grace in the form of an ascension gift which when received calls equips and anoints men (and women) into one of these five ministry offices.

Now the church has often been confused in its conception of this, and there are indeed large segments of the body of Christ that insist that the first two categories of these ascension gifts have been struck off the list.

In part they believe this because they have been taught that eph 2 v20 states that the apostle and the prophets ministry was to lay the foundation of the church.

Thus they erroneously conclude that part of their task became all of their task and that once the foundations were laid their purpose was expended.

Other traditions of theological reasoning have taught that since the cannon of scripture was closed; meaning that the bible in its current form was finally accepted by the church as the unalterable and inspired word of God, there is no further need for apostles because many of them were used to write inspired scripture.

To me both of the above arguments are unconvincing and are at heart quite contrary to the clear meaning of the scripture.

Simply put the bible gives us no such leeway to chop off the list of eph 4 those gifts that we assume have fulfilled their purpose already, on the contrary I believe that all of these gifts are vital to the present and future maturity and equipping of the church.

Eph 4 v 12 continues to state the purpose for these ministry gifts "And he gave some", by saying that it is for "the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
That we should no longer be children carried about by every wind of doctrine and by the cunning craftiness of men by which they lie in wait to deceive.

But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into Christ who is the head from which the whole body jointly knitted together by that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."

This is a very concentrated statement but nowhere does it suggest that the fivefold ministry gifts have been suspended or withdrawn until the job of perfecting the saints has been complete(and this will only happen when the Lord returns for his church)

On the contrary to disbelieve in the validity of some of these gifts is to guarantee our perpetual immaturity and our tendency to be swayed by winds of teaching that do not cause us to grow up further into Christ.



On the practical side I believe that the church in this country is woefully negligent in its understanding of the role, validity and purpose of the ministry gifts and that ignorance is costly to us.

On the one side you have the conservative Evangelical world who for the most part deny the existence of contemporary apostles or prophets and say that the ministry today should revolve around the pastor who is the teacher and called to do the work of the evangelist.
Some however would acknowledge the distinct calling of an evangelist.

On the other side you have the charismatics many of whom believe passionately in the many membered ministry, but often imply that every gift and ministry is as necessary as the other and have so emphasised that every christian is called to the work of the ministry that they have often failed to distinguish and to discern that only some are called into one of the five fold offices.

On both sides the unbelief or the immaturity ensures that the place and provision of those operating in the ministry gifts often is overlooked or neglected in many churches.
This does not prevent the Lord from raising up those whom he has appointed to these offices and using them for his purposes but it does mean that many churches and individual churches are spiritually robbed of the blessings that could be theirs if they were more open hearted to believe.

One of the major stumbling blocks that we must remove in order to mature in our view of the ministry gifts is to remove the mystique that surrounds the calling to be a prophet or an apostle.

For many people to say in all good conscience "I am called to, or so and so is called to be a evangelist or a pastor," requires no explanation and elicits no controversy. However should those same people say that they or someone that they know is called to the office of a prophet their assertion is met with scepticism at best and scorn at worst.

In reality each one of these ministry gifts are less about the personalities or people who are the recipients of these callings rather they are about the ministry of the risen ascended Lord Jesus Christ who is fulfilling his ministry and working through these gifts to mature and to perfect the church.

To be a pastor means that the calling and the grace to occupy that office is manifesting in the life of the one called to occupy that office, which in turn quickens the ability in that person to minister the Grace of God in a particular way to Gods people.

In a similar fashion to be called to be a prophet means that the grace of God and the anointing of Jesus Christ is operating through and flowing through the person called to occupy that office.

It is usually accompanied with a manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit especially in the areas of the word of knowledge and the discerning of spirits and the gift of prophecy.

None of these gifts are intended to have a sort of spiritual kudos attached to them but we should get to the place where we can discern those ministry gifts among us and receive them for who they are.

Jesus said that he that receives a prophet receives a prophets reward so it is clear that to harden our hearts towards one called to an office of ministry is to fail to receive the benefits and blessings of that gift.

In fact even if someone has a wonderful anointing their effectiveness can be severely impeded in any given situation by the failure of the people that they are ministering to to receive the gift of God that is working in them to minister to the saints.

Why is there this rampant unbelief in so much of the church today?
What ever the reasons it has impeded our growth, however it is also encouraging to see how much more understanding the body of Christ has gained in this area in the last thirty years.

I believe that in this next generation all of the ministry gifts are to going to operate in tandem together to a higher level than we have seen since the early church.
Infact it is my settled conviction that we will go beyond the early church not in terms of revelation which is already set in the scripture for us, but in terms of the scope and reach and fruitfulness and effectiveness of the anointing of God and the manifestation of His Glory in these last days.
And the purpose?
To preach this gospel to the ends of the earth and then the end shall come.

As an illustration in church history which highlights to me this movement away from seeing the ministry gifts for what they are during the Scottish reformation there were certain individuals who clearly operated as apostles or prophets. One of these men was a man by the name of Alexander Peden who demonstrated a powerful prophetic ministry.
Whilst this period of history would not have been noted for accepting the restoration of the ministry gifts in a wholesale way there was an open and frank acknowledgement of the way in which the Spirit of God moved through certain men in ways that gave them the unambiguous title of being called prophetic or apostolic.

For instance Robert Flemming who lived in the seventeenth century wrote a book called the fulfilling of scripture in which he included many first hand accounts of the miraculous events surrounding the lives and ministries of many of the key men in that Scottish reformation.

He unambiguously asserted that God had released an apostolic and prophetic Spirit upon the lives of many of his servants who were contemporary ministers of Flemming.



In 1755 John Howie wrote a book entitled Scots worthies in which writing of one of the key leaders of the reformation in Scotland George Wishart , Howie wrote that,
"He possessed the spirit of prophecy to an extraordinary degree"

However when this same book was republished over seventy years later the publisher could not bear to reprint such 'primitive beliefs' and changed the text without license to read that Wishart possessed "an extraordinary degree of sagacious foresight"

This is a single small example of the way in which there has been a veil of unbelief concerning the supernatural, except with relation to the new birth .

However it is my conviction that in these days in which we are privileged to be alive we are going to see the wraps coming off and the Glory of the Lord being displayed in extraordinary ways.

All that I have said above brings me to share where Jan and I are at this point and what we believe that our future holds.
Many of you who read this blog regularly have been stalwart supporters of Jan and I in your friendships and in your prayers for us, and still others of you in your financial generosity.
We do genuinely appreciate all of these displays of kindness and support and thank you for them.
Twenty two years ago I had a life changing encounter with Jesus Christ that turned me from the path that I was pursuing and the worldly success that I had envisioned for myself.
I did not then know then that I was called to preach, but I did have a burning desire to serve the Lord in any way and in capacity that he would lead me into.
As a point of interest that same year of 1988 was the time that Jan was also filled with the Holy Spirit and awakened to her calling.
When two years later God called me to preach, or empowered me to preach it was my desire to walk out this calling as faithfully as I can.
And it has been my desire in the subsequent years to continue to do so.
What has become evident to both Jan and I over the last few years is that we have been trying to fit into a mould that we could never fully obey God whilst remaining in, not just in terms of the constrictions that I have felt in that environment, but also in terms of trying to occupy a ministry office to which I am not called.
This decision is not a snap one but rather the culmination of many years of hearing God and of endeavouring to cultivate a more obedient ear to his heavenly calling.
In reality sometimes it is easy to get sidetracked by circumstances that seem expedient or by the desire to see a measure of financial security coming in so that the uncertainties and need for faith are diminished.
But we have known that our calling lay on a different path and that knowledge has lay at the root of much of our unhappiness over the last decade, not with standing many peoples kindness towards us.
I spoke recently on the phone to a minister friend of ours and said that in my view there are three tell tale signs of a person trying to pastor who has not been called to be a pastor.
Firstly there will always be in that man himself a great measure of restlessness.
Inwardly he will remain a frustrated man because in reality he cannot enter into his rest until he finds the place of ministry that the Lord has called him to.
Secondly he will always seem to be contending against a 'cap' over his church with regards to church growth.
Even if he is very gifted and able and anointed it will seem that the church just continues on the same level more or less of attendance but never experiences real significant growth.
This is partly because part of a true pastoral anointing is the God given ability to gather.
And lastly a person not called to the pastoral office will never see the fruitfulness in their ministry that they would if they were true to their anointing and stayed true to that.
So what do we believe that God is saying to us?
Well ultimately we believe that our calling and the next step for us is to go to Spain and to begin a work in Barcelona.
That is what we are praying towards, sowing towards, releasing our faith towards and working towards.
But in the mean time we believe that we need to actually begin the ministry that God has called us to, and to do so by making ourselves available now and taking every opportunity that God grants us to minister his word to his people.
That will we believe involve travelling and as such I am now beginning again to make it known to my contacts that I am available for ministry, trusting that the Lord will open doors of utterance to us ,especially to open new doors now into the more Spirit filled church scene.
My calling is to be a teacher and to minister with a prophetic anointing as God leads.
For years I have been to embarrassed to state this clearly and unambiguously, for fear of being misunderstood, but now I know that I must obey God rather than man.
That means that we look to the Lord as he develops this ministry to meet all of our needs, but our purpose now is to devote ourselves fully in terms of our time talent and energies to the discharging of this ministry that we believe that God has called us to.
I have applied for jobs over the last few months that I would have considered myself very qualified for and did not even get as far as an interview.
Recently as we took communion Jan and I prayed that if I did not get offered the job that I had most recently applied for which looked potentially good that we would take this as his indicator that we were to entirely trust him to embrace our calling to an itinerant ministry.
Subsequently we heard that I was not given an interview.
I am still applying for jobs to supplement our income but it does seem to us that thus far the Lord has not opened up or blessed these endeavours which has only served to focus us more concertedly upon the ministry that we believe that we are called to.

The issue of our trusting God now to step out fully into this ministry calls into question whether we will need to combine this initially with some secular work or to entrust ourselves to live by the ministry alone, and that will become evident by the extent to which the ministry develops over these next few months.

I know that as we begin to launch out in the freedom to minister the way that God has anointed me that the fruitfulness will be considerably greater and we will be far happier.

I believe that as we say a big yes in our hearts to fulfilling this itinerant role of teaching and encouraging Gods people the Lord will manifest the open doors of ministry to us and will pave the way for us to get to Spain.
For in reality we know that Barcelona is to be our future base and that we will continue to consider ourselves as travelling ministers of the gospel, both in Spain and abroad.
For those who have stood so faithfully with us over the past few years we thank you and encourage you to pray for us as we pray for you daily, that the Lord will anoint us and use us in these days to testify of the gospel of his Grace.

As a postscript I have just published our ministry website which is extremely basic and still being finished.
However it is a point of contact with the wider public out there to introduce them to who we are.
The web adress is malachi4heartsofthefathers.weebly.com.