"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.