UNDERSTANDING THE ANOINTING BY PASTOR PETER TAN

THE ANOINTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT SERIES

1.   DEFINING THE ANOINTING

There are two books for our reference in this teaching series. The first is the book that I have written called “The Anointing of the Holy Spirit.” The second book is “Understanding the Anointing” by Kenneth E. Hagin. We will teach on this subject matter systematically.  We will go into practical areas when we talk about tangible anointing. (For this written transcript, references to “The Anointing of the Holy Spirit” will be indicated in italics and denoted by AHS. References to Kenneth E. Hagin’s book, Understanding the Anointing will also be in italics and denoted by UA. - Ed.)

In our first lesson, we are going to touch on defining the anointing. In this teaching series, we hope to cover this subject of the anointing of the Holy Spirit as thoroughly as possible. What we teach would probably go further than what our reference books have touched on. However, we would still recommend that you get hold of the books, if you have not already done so.

We have to define what the anointing is.

The impartation of God’s ability into our lives to do His work is called “the anointing.”

All through the Bible, we read about God calling and anointing people to do His work.

Aaron and his sons were anointed to the priesthood (Ex. 30:30; Lev. 8: 12). Moses had an anointing of God’s Spirit upon him (Num. 11: 17). Joshua had the anointing imparted upon him through the laying on of hands (Deut. 34:9). Saul was anointed to be king (1 Sam. 10: 1). David was anointed to be king (1 Sam. 16: 13). Jesus was anointed to manifest His Messiahship (Acts 10: 38)     [AHS]

The word anointing has been used in Old Testament many times even before the New Testament uses it. We see the word anointing in the book of Exodus when it mentioned that Moses anointed the whole tabernacle.

Lets look at Isa. 61:1The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

The Lord Jesus used this phrase in concerning Himself in the book of Luke 4: 17-19. This phrase spoke about God’s Spirit coming on Jesus Christ. Now the word anoint in the Hebrew language speaks about a rubbing in and an impartation of oil. In the Old Testament, Moses used oil to anoint that whole tabernacle. Then at a later time, we see how Samuel the prophet took that anointing oil and came to David the son of Jesse and poured it on him. The word anointing in Hebrew speaks of a rubbing and an impartation. Now the anointing can strictly be spoken of as an impartation. Something is transacted. There is an impartation of something. You cannot say, “I received an anointing,” and then you cannot show it. An impartation and transaction have taken place. Something has been given in the supernatural and spiritual realm.

A common Christian cliché is, “God does not look for our ability, but He looks for our availability.” So many people avail themselves to God who does not have the ability. Later on, what happens is they try to do God’s work without any ability and they don’t succeed. God not only wants our availability, He wants us to receive His ability too. To avail ourselves is one side of the story. The other side is to learn to receive an anointing from Him. 

If you know God well enough, He does not give the anointing that easily. He chooses you and tests you before He gives the anointing to come on your life. The anointing is precious. A lot of people cry out for the anointing but fail God’s tests so it never comes on their lives. Many people ask God to anoint them to prosper but they have never proven themselves in every test in their lives and hence block God’s blessings in their lives. Many people desire to do great exploits and miracles in God but they never pass the tests. Hence, the anointing never comes on their lives. Even though God may have a call on your life, the anointing does not come until you pass the test. In other words, the anointing is not automatically given to anyone. The anointing is not something automatic.

Some say, “If God has designed that I will be an evangelist, when the time comes that I should be an evangelist, I will be an evangelist. The evangelistic anointing will drop on me in whatever I do and wherever I am.” I am sorry to say this - it will not happen. People called to be evangelists have lived and died without moving into that office. The anointing to operate in an office or ministry is not automatic. You may be called, chosen, and predestined to function in certain offices and ministries but the anointing is not automatic. Too many people are looking for automatic anointing. There is no such thing. There is a price to pay in order to get the anointing. Even when God has chosen and predestined you, the anointing is so precious that you must be tested before it comes on your life. Therefore, to make ourselves available is only half the story. When we avail ourselves, God tests us until we are ready. O glorious day when that anointing comes.

The anointing that God puts on His servants is such a precious commodity that God expects consecration from His vessel before He puts it upon them. Aaron was told that the anointing he received was so holy that he could not leave the tabernacle for seven days or he will die (Lev. 8:33-35). When a sad event happened in his family, he was not even allowed to cry! (Lev. 10:6) The anointing is holy!  [AHS]

Too many people look at the wrong side of anointing. They see the anointing seems so easy on some ministers’ lives. They can quote many stories of men of God whose characters and lives were not up to the mark, how they fell and disgraced the name of Christ.  Remember this: before the anointing came on them they paid a price. After it came, they became complacent and slowly lost the anointing. The gifts and calling of God are given without repentance but the anointing to function in these gifts and calling of God can be taken away. Although there is a grace period for such fallen ministers to repent and change, the grace period is not forever. So remember this whenever you hear stories of fallen ministers, don’t think that the anointing is cheap. It is not cheap. It is very expensive, priceless.

Why is it so priceless? The anointing is the supernatural ability of God imparted to human beings.  There are many types of anointing as we are going to see in this course. You could be the skinniest tiny little lady but if Samson’s anointing comes on you, you could lift an elephant with just your small finger. It doe not mean that when the anointing came on Samson, that he suddenly became like the Incredible Hulk and performed superhuman feats. Samson may look like an ordinary person. He may be muscular but not that muscular like people imagine him to be. Every children cartoon I see of Samson shows him about six feet four with muscles bulging up. Every Christian cartoon and video show Samson as huge, muscular, and macho man. He may not be that way. The anointing gave him the superhuman strength.. He accomplished great victories over the bear, the lion, the foxes, and the Philistines just by the anointing and ability given by God.

How do we know that? When the anointing came on Elijah, he too experienced supernatural strength like that of Samson. Remember how when he came down from Mount Carmel in the book of I Kings chapter 18 after the slaying the four hundred false prophets, he told king Ahab to rush back to Jezreel because rain is coming.  King Ahab started riding in his chariot and suddenly comes this sound. He turned and looked at his commander and asked, “What is that?” The commander replied, “It is Elijah.” Under the anointing, Elijah was running as fast as King Ahab’s chariot. An anointing came on his life. A supernatural ability caused him to do tasks beyond human and physical capabilities.

Many people share stories to show that the anointing is not important. Some key church leaders in Malaysia recently told me after being in the Charismatic movement for the last ten to fifteen years, they have seen too much emphasis being placed on power and anointing.  They say that God now wants them to emphasize on character building.  Hold it there. God does not want us to emphasis one truth in opposition to the other. Character building has been an emphasis for eons of church ages. Why should we start emphasizing on character building when it should have there all the time?  If it was neglected, it does not mean that now is the only time to re-emphasize it. You see it would be very wrong for us to emphasize a truth to the neglect of another truth.  We may like hotdogs and French fries but we do not eat hotdogs and French fries all the time.

Now without a doubt, we realize the body of Christ needs to emphasize on developing Christian character. However, let me tell you, if today you emphasize on character to the neglect of power, in five years time you will regret. Now you may not see it. Just look at many historic churches that have disregarded the anointing and power for ministry. Many of them are in a poor spiritual state. Their numbers are declining.  The bible puts an equal emphasis on power and love. Some say they want quality and not quantity. They have not been growing for the past forty years. They started with four and now they have three members – the pastor, his wife and their son. Grandpa has just died. They say, “That’s alright; we want quality people.” The only problem we ask is this: What kind of quality are they talking about if that quality does not produce disciples and growth? True quality produces quantity. Their kind of quality is not productive. Thus, it is not a question of either quality or quantity. It is the question of having both quality and quantity. In the same way, we need to have an equal emphasis on character and anointing. We are also going to see that character is crucial to the anointing too. There need to be an understanding of the supernatural.

Let me tell you there is no way we can reach this world without the power of God or the supernatural. You could emphasize character for the next forty years and you will win only a handful of people to Christ. You just raise up a dead person to life and you can win the whole city for Jesus Christ. Therefore, we cannot neglect power just because now we see so many failings of men and women of God. Remember people have a lop-sided view because they see from the outside and not from God’s view. They do not understand that some of these so-called men or women of God who once upon a time were anointed and later fell did pay a heavy price to get the anointing. Some think that these fallen generals of God got the anointing easily and that is why they failed. That is not the reason. The only reason some men and women of God fall is that they began to give less time to the Word and less time to prayer. Before a person fall, they start neglecting the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the meditation on the Word and prayer. If you keep these tools strong all the time, you are immoveable.

I could name everyone of them who have fallen and I can tell you the price they paid to get the anointing. Some of them were proven and tested. Finally, the anointing came and with the anointing, came success.  Then they did not have enough Word and prayer in their life. The anointing is costly and a heavy price must be paid before it comes.

Kathryn Kuhlman paid a heavy price. She would turn to Jaime Buckingham many times because he was the one chosen to write her biography.  She looked him straight in his eyes with tears running down and said she would have given anything to be just an ordinary country housewife having a nice little farm somewhere with a husband and kids. She said because of God’s call she had given up much.

The anointing is costly and precious. It is God’s supernatural ability that He imparts to His chosen ones who passes the test. That means that God could have a prophecy hanging over your head that may say that you are going to be anointed to be and do something. There are things in life that are free but they are not cheap. They are free because somebody has paid the price. When I speak to many people who are coming up in the ministry, they have this idea that when God has called it will come in its own time in spite and despite of what they do. It will not. God will prove and test and only when one passes His test then the anointing comes. What happens if they fail the test? They may live and die without entering and receiving the anointing. The anointing is so important since it makes you what you are. You can have a million people prophesy over you that you are a prophet. They can lay hands on you until they wear off the crown of your head and make you look like Ezekiel but it will not make you a prophet until the actual tangible anointing comes then you are one. You may be predestined to be one but you are not one until the anointing comes and hit you and is imparted into your life. The anointing makes the difference. You could have a call of God to be an evangelist and you are doing all you can to get into that ministry. You could have the best mission board to support you. You could have arranged for twenty sponsors to support you financially and spiritually. You planned, write, begged or borrowed to get a place.  You could knock on doors and beg to minister there. If the anointing is not there, you could very well fold your ministry up like an umbrella and be kept aside. What is lacking is the anointing. The anointing makes you what you are in God’s kingdom. It is very dangerous to move into any ministry without an anointing.

Lets define what an anointing is and what it actually does and its importance. We realize that all through the bible the secret of God doing anything is the anointing. Think about the vast difference the anointing makes. Jesus in His thirty years had the Spirit but did not have the anointing on Him as a Messiah yet. He was called, He was chosen, He was predestined, He was obedient, and none of us could doubt the flawlessness of His life, the integrity of His character or the blamelessness of His walk. None of us could question His life. Yet, in all His thirty years there was not a single miracle. In all His thirty years, there was no impact on the world that He lived in. Can you imagine there are people who want us to believe that all you need to do to impact the world is to be a man of integrity. I know that will affect some people but it is not enough. Think about it the problem that we have for the world to be won to Jesus is not the problem of a lack of integrity or character. Although we have people who have fallen here and there in the kingdom of God, they are only a handful. Many others are faithful. Think about people like Billy Graham. You cannot doubt his integrity. Think about many others who are men and women of character. It does not take character to win the world for Jesus. Jesus lived a blameless life for thirty years and the world around Him did not know about God. Once the anointing of God came upon His life, within a few months the Word of God says His fame was spread abroad. What was the difference? Was His character different? No. He was still having the same character. Was His love different? No. He was still having the same love. Was His integrity different? No. He was still having the same integrity. Was His holiness different? No, He was still having the same holiness. The difference was the anointing had come on His life. When the anointing came, the power was present in His life to impact the world.  Just imagine people were talking about winning the whole country to Jesus. We will never succeed in winning nations to Jesus unless we show the power of God and the demonstration of the Spirit of God before their eyes.

Can you imagine ten people with amputated limbs growing new arms and legs? Ten million people will come to know the Lord. Imagine the impact that signs and wonders can have. It can only come through the anointing of God. We are not undermining the importance of character. This is a course on the anointing.  To maintain that anointing, we need to have godly character and integrity. Deep in the heart of every born again man or woman they know the power of God was the key to change them. For example, a philosopher, an atheist, and a scholar could out argue and out talk everybody. They are skillful in the art of oratory. However, if they see one miracle, they are won to the Lord where one million arguments have failed to convince them. Just one work of God could win that whole person to Jesus. You do not come to God by argument. You confront them with the supernatural. The world’s greatest minds have broken down when they contact the supernatural. When they come over to God’s kingdom, they realize and begin to understand the relationship of God’s love, which they never understood before.  The breakthrough point for them to come to God many times is not through some fantastic arguments you give them. They cannot explain the power of God, no matter how brilliant they are. We need to confront the atheism of this world, the unbelief of this world, the technology of this world, the complacency of this generation with the power of God and anointing of God. The anointing breaks the yoke over people’s life. Seeing is important.

The anointing is an impartation of God’s ability. Therefore when it comes there must be a change and difference. A person may not change and differ in personality although they may.  There must be a change when the anointing comes. You cannot say that you have received an anointing from God and not be able to affect the people around you. The anointing affects something. There will be a definite change. It depends on the measure we receive. Sometimes it is a lesser measure and sometimes it is a greater measure of the anointing we received.  The anointing effects a change in you so that we could say you are changed to another person. Now if we are without ability but we give our availability to God, and He gives us the ability, isn’t it reasonable to say that there should be something different. See something was added. You came in minus the ability; then the anointing is a plus to you. Something was imparted to you. So, when you walk out there must be a plus there. Something different shows up after the anointing came. Whether it is of a greater or lesser difference, there must be something.

Lets look at I Samuel 10:1 Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him and said: “Is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander over His inheritance? When you have departed from me today, you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you, The donkeys which you went to look for have been found. But now your father has ceased caring about the donkeys and is worrying about you saying, What shall I do about my son? Then you shall go on forward from there and come to the terebinth tree of Tabor. There three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine.  And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall receive from their hands. After that you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is.  And it will happen, when you have come there to the city, that you will a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp before them; and they will be prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.  

Notice there was a symbolic anointing where Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it over Saul’s head. Saul was literally drenched with oil. In the Old Testament days, that was how they pour the anointing oil. Psalms 133 tells us the anointing of God was like the oil that flowed down from Aaron’s beard down to the border of his garment. If I were to pour just a little bit of water over you, it wouldn’t even get beyond your eyebrow, let alone reach your beard, if you have one. Now there is plenty of oil flowing all over Aaron. Some men of God try to follow it literally. It is not very practical to do it. Can you imagine if I were to do it with everybody that way? I would have to use gallons of oil. The way the Old Testament folks used plenty of oil was symbolic of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

As Saul went ahead, he saw everything taking place as prophesied by Samuel. People carrying the goat and the wine and then he goes there. Here comes the Spirit of God on him.  He turned into another man. What does it mean, “turned into another man”? What did he become like? When the bible says, “turned into another man,” it must be dramatic. Something must have taken place. In other words, Saul was never the same person after the anointing came. The anointing has the power to turn you into a different person. That is why when you move and operate under an anointing you feel like you are a different personality altogether. Kathryn Kuhlman described her experience under an anointing as being out of the body experience. She says she feels like she is just outside and somebody else was speaking through her when the anointing is operating. That is a very high level of anointing of God. The anointing is like another part of a personality taking you over so that literally when you yield to it, you could be like a different person. Now the anointing does not force us but we have to yield to it.  If you really yield to that anointing, you are like a different person.  What happened in the yielded stage was his first experience. Saul yielded to it and he was a different person.

Now the next statement made by Samuel is important. Verse 7 And let it be, when these signs come to you, that you do as the occasion demands; for God is with you. This is a powerful thing about the anointing of God. When the anointing of God is over your life there are things that you say and do that carries the weight of God’s power that you may not even be worthy of. Remember when God’s ability is working through your life, you may do things you would normally never do or is foreign to your character. Some people think that the anointing will work with your personality. It may be different from your personality. I am not talking about a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where both the good and evil force resides in one person.  It can seem like two different personalities.  As we go through this course, we need to learn how to harmonize the two personalities together and let it flow as one. It can be like having two personalities. You could be a soft-spoken lady but when the anointing comes upon you, you preach like a machine gun. People do not understand the impact the anointing can have on your personality. You could be different when the anointing is upon you. It could turn you into another man or another woman.

Now Saul’s problem was his inferiority complex. In spite of his big size, he felt as inferior as a tiny little kitten. When he met Samuel and Samuel said, “God has chosen you,” the first thing Saul said is, “Who am I? Who is my father’s house?  I come from the smallest family of the smallest tribe.” He was just a little kitten. As we study through this course, we will find certain men in the bible who do not know how to conform their personality to their anointing. The anointing and the personality will appear to be diametrically opposing. Samson was a powerful man under the anointing but when the anointing is not there, he was easily influenced, easily falling for women because he did not know how to rein his personality and subject it to his anointing.

The anointing is the supernatural ability imparted by God to a yielded human vessel to perform His task. When the impartation comes, we need to understand the change that is involved. It could change you to a totally different person. We sometimes experience the difference between our spirit and our soul. Good thoughts and bad thoughts struggle inside us and we have to make a choice in God. As you mature in God, you keep making the right choices.

Now the anointing is like another factor working inside you, speaking to you, influencing your life, when it comes upon your life. It’s a tremendous factor that can influence your life. It is sometimes like another person’s voice speaking in you. The anointing depends on the degree your personality yields to the Holy Spirit. In order to convey the strength of it but not to in any way degrade the value of the personality of the Holy Spirit, I will use the negative illustration. Sometimes you got to use a stronger illustration to give people the impact and understanding.

When demons possess or attach themselves to persons, they begin to manifest their personalities. If a person is perfectly normal and a deaf and dumb spirit gets into this person, that person becomes deaf and dumb. If a person is bold in the natural but the spirit of fear attaches itself to that person, that person becomes a timid and fearful coward. Now not all fear comes from evil spirits. There is a human and emotional aspect of fear. Some sicknesses are demonic in origin but some are organic. When a demon spirit possesses a person, the degree they possess a person will be the degree they manifest their demonic and evil nature. In other words, lets says a spirit of fear or a spirit of suicide comes on a person. At first the person experiences just oppression. Under oppression, a person only has those thoughts occasionally. So occasionally, they have a strong feeling to commit suicide.  They do not want to commit suicide so they resist it.  Occasionally, the suicidal thoughts come back again.  When the spirit gets into a person and literally possesses a person, within twenty-four hours that person will be trying to kill him or herself. This is what we call total possession. Possession can be in different degrees. 

What is the positive illustration? The anointing is the Spirit of God, with due respect to Him, “possessing you.” His personality is so powerful that He could possess you until you become an extension of His being. Stephen was described as being full of wisdom in Acts 6:5 whereas Jesus was described as coming in the power of the Spirit in Luke 4: 14. So, the anointing is actually the Spirit possessing us. Think about that – it is powerful. The anointing is not just a sword He gives you and then you go and fight. No, it’s the Spirit all over you, and possessing you. You are carried by the flow of the Spirit. Just flow along with the Spirit of God. Just be carried by the tidal waves of the Spirit of God.  Just go along with that.

Now from time to time, Saul flowed into that. In one of his first good things that he did after he was proclaimed king in I Samuel 11:4 So the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the news in the hearing of the people.   And all the people lifted up their voices and wept. Now there was Saul, coming behind the herd from the field, and Saul said, “What troubles the people, that they weep?”  And they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused.

That was not the ordinary Saul. Remember under normal circumstances, he was just a timid guy always looking down on himself. He did not want to be in the limelight. The Spirit of God came on him, and the Bible even uses the word, his anger was greatly aroused. That is a very natural comparison. An angry person does things he normally would not do. If someone videotaped you during your moments of anger and you replayed it later, you will be so ashamed. O my, I was like an animal. We realize that under anger people do funny things that are completely out of sync with their personality. When the Spirit of God came on Saul, he began to show traits out of character with his personality.  He made the decision under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Now demonic possession is the different. Demonic possession eradicates your free will and subjugates it all together. Holy Spirit possession gives you freedom. That’s what I like in 1 Samuel 10:6-7, “Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.  And let it be, when these signs come to you, that you do as the occasion demands; for God is with you.

When the anointing is on your life, you are sort of possessed by the Holy Spirit. To a certain degree, you could pray for people. Although the Spirit of God possesses us, our free will is intact. Lets say you are ministering under an anointing and there are some persons waiting to be ministered. God gives you some free choice. We are going to talk about some specific instructions that He may give at times.  Sometimes He does not give you specific instructions. Even if He tells you to lay hands on the people, there are many styles of placing hands on people, like by placing your palms firmly on a person’s head, or placing it on the person’s shoulder. Either way, the anointing still works. 

Sometimes God does not give you any instruction and that gives you some freedom to move according to a style comfortable to you. When the anointing of the Spirit of God is there whether you shout or speak softly, it works any way. That is an interesting part about God’s anointing. When you are possessed with the anointing of God, you are given certain liberty. Here is where we have to be careful about passing judgments on some ministers’ styles of ministering under the anointing. Some may be flamboyant and may take their coats off and wave them at people and they start falling left and right. Some may be stiff, glued to the pulpit, speak in a monotonous tone and are downright boring. In either extreme of personal styles, if the anointing is there on their lives, they will still do God’s work.  Within the liberty is what I call personal preferences and personal styles. What happen if people do not differentiate between the personal style and preferences and the actual anointing. Many people think that when the anointing comes on a man of God, they become robotic - that every move and word they make or say is God. No, it is not so. A certain amount of liberty is given to you to channel the anointing of God.

When a demon possesses a person, there is no more free will.  When the Spirit of God and the anointing of God rises within your life you got a certain amount of free will or movement within a certain boundary. A certain freedom is given to you to move within the framework of the anointing. 

However, there may be some specific commands He gives. My soft-spoken nature would make it difficult for me to obey if the Holy Spirit gives me a hard command. I remember once the Spirit told me to hit a person’s stomach three times. The phrase “hit the stomach” three times could be interpreted differently. If you were a boxer like Mike Tyson, you could punch that person three times but you had better be sure that you are under the anointing. Otherwise, you may be sued for ministerial abuse and be thrown into prison.  “Hit the stomach” could mean hitting with an open palm.  Within His instruction is a framework you could move about. 

His instruction sometimes makes you function beyond your personality. The Holy Spirit does not limit to just your personality but beyond your personality. Sometimes He tells you to shout.  It may not be your nature to shout but then you have to shout because He tells you to shout.  For some other people they are just looking for the time to shout. Their personality is rather loud and glitzy and they would love to shout anytime. However, the Spirit of God may tell them to whisper, which is foreign to their personality. Is that possible? Yes. The Lord told Moses to take the rod and hit the rock. He hit the rock and the water came out. Then the next round the Lord told Moses to speak to the rock.   Moses hit the rock instead and the Lord said, “Alright, no Promise Land for you.”

The anointing can transform our personality altogether when it comes upon us. That is the impact of God’s anointing. That is what the anointing does. We are defining what the anointing does to our life. The anointing will change us to be like a different person. When you have the anointing on your life and you learn to flow with it, you have the potential to become a totally different person.  The anointing need not change your personality but it can. You could flow into it so much so that the anointing becomes your nature and you become part of the anointing. If you do not flow along with the anointing, your natural personality and the personality that comes with the anointing of God may be so diametrically opposed that you will look like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and you would feel like one too.

In case you have not read Robert L. Stephenson’s novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, let me digress here. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are one and the same person. However, he had two different personalities: the outside world saw a serious hard-working doctor known as Dr. Jekyll, but there was also a fun-loving, young man in him known as Mr. Hyde. He wanted to find a drug that could give each side of his character its own separate face and body. So, he mixed a liquid and drank it. In the beginning, he enjoyed the strange new thoughts and passions, but as time passed, Hyde became more and more evil and stronger than Dr Jekyll. He needed larger doses in order to stay in Jekyll's body. Eventually the chemicals he used were no longer prepared, and so Mr. Hyde committed suicide and sent Jekyll off of his body.

There was once a well-known healing evangelist in the US who had problems with alcoholism. Outside of the anointing, he was an alcoholic but under the anointing, he was a powerful evangelist and faith healer. During the service, he would sit in his chair drunk. When it was time for ministering, he would get up and start ministering powerfully under the anointing. After the service is over, he would get back into his inebriated state. It is quite possible for a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ministry because such ministers have not learned to harmonize the two natures in them.  On one hand, they desire to serve God but on the other hand, they have not died to their flesh. They may have paid the price to secure some levels of anointing by earnest and constant praying and fasting. However, they have not taken care to uproot strongholds from their flesh. In the weaker and unguarded moments of their private lives, they give in to their strongholds and indulge in secret sins.

We are showing the impact and power of the anointing that God gives. The anointing that comes is so powerful you can even feel like separate personality that God gives to you to be a part of your life. Notice here in I Sam. 10:6 again and I want to emphasize the fact Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.  And let it be, when these signs come to you, that you do as the occasion demands, for God is with you. You do as the occasion demands for God is with you. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you are turned into another man. There is the possibility of taking a different personality, different thought pattern, different emotions as if a new personality is added to you.

That is why under an anointing you can feel God’s emotion to a certain extend. Like for example under the anointing you could sometimes feel a greater special love for people. Outside of the anointing, you do not feel as much. This is what Kathryn Kuhlman said in her biography, “A Glimpse of Glory.” When she is under the anointing and she sees a sick person like a sick child the feeling inside her is so immense that she feels like she could give her life so that this child could live and she dies. That is not a natural human emotion. There is something else coming out now through the being of a person.

We have to look at the negative side when a demon possesses a person to really understand what makes a person a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. You could be a respected professional by day and a shadowy underworld figure by night. You could be an angel in church but a devil at home. What causes this? The demon. The demon literally gives the person a different personality and a different set of emotion.

Now seeing that in the negative lets understand the positive side. The anointing is such that it actually has the potential to change you if you keep flowing in it long enough. It is like a habit is formed if you keep repeating the action for a long time. If you keep yielding to a certain characteristic of the anointing, it can become a part of your life and change and transform you. I have seen through the past years as I slowly yield to one type of anointing after another that my personality is totally different from where I was before. People who had seen me in action when I first started tell me I am completely different today. When I started ministering, I was different from today. In those days when I preach, people would stare at me. I would preach on repentance, hell and judgment. I would point out the people’s faults and sins. That was probably why they stared at me. Either they were seething with anger in their heart or else, they were mentally scrutinizing my life to see whether I had the same faults and sins I was preaching against. Somehow, when the pastoral anointing came over my life and when I preach, people do not stare any more. I began to develop an understanding why people has failings and faults and began to teach the Word as an antidote and solution to their problems. Somehow, as you grow older in the ministry, you find that you grapple with some of your own difficulties that also plague your congregation. I have changed, not the people.  Now when I preach, the people laugh. At least laughing is better than staring.  I do not prepare jokes purposely to be a comedian and entertainer. No, I prepare my sermons but I do not prepare the jokes. It just comes out naturally in the course of my preaching. When God gives you an anointing, He literally wants to become a part of your nature through time. In the end, you personify the message and the message is preached through your life. You and the message are one and the same. That is the wonderful part of the anointing. 

It would be just like one of David’s mighty men who fought until his hand cleaved to the sword. He fought so hard and so long that he and the sword were like one. That is what happens when the anointing changes your personality. I have seen how the anointing can change a very introvert guy into an extrovert. I was an introvert before. Even my personality has changed. In those days, if I were to sit in a house meeting where there were many people around, if you want to talk to me, you will have to come to me. I was too shy to make the first move. Now it is different. I do not even make myself do it. It comes naturally. When I see a person I would start a conversation and get to know that person. If somebody is alone with no one to talk to, I would go to that person.

That gives us hope. Many have a wrong picture of the anointing. We always think that the anointing has to flow with our personality. It does not have to. Our anointing may be indication of our personality but it does not have to because the anointing has the power to turn us into another person.  When it does, we still have our personality and we have to differentiate the two.

There may appear to be a little contradiction here but it is not. In the book of I Sam. 10:6-7 it says here, And then the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. And let it be, when these signs come to you, that you do as the occasion demands; for God is with you.

Notice in 1 Samuel 13:8-9 Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel.  Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me,” And he offered the burnt offering.  However, God did not approve Saul’s offering.

My question is why is it that I Sam.10:7 Saul was told to “do as the occasion demands” and here he did whatever the occasion demanded at that time and it was considered a wrong thing. Saul waited seven days for Samuel to show up and there was supposed to be a sacrifice before they go to war.  He did as the occasion demands. He made the sacrifice. He did everything possible to help the situation. When Samuel came after Saul made his sacrifice, he gave him a strong rebuke. Why was it not possible for Saul to make that sacrifice when I Sam. 10:7 gave him the allowance for that?

There are two differences. I Sam.10:7 is qualified by verse 6. Only when the anointing comes you do as the occasion demands. If the anointing does not come and you do what the occasion demands, then it is not of God.

The second thing is the anointing never contradicts the written law and the written Word. The written law the Word of God in Saul’s time did not permit him as a king to offer sacrifices. Even though I Sam. 10: 7 says to “do as the occasion demands,” it takes for granted that you understand that it is within the context of the Word.  Doing as the occasion demands does not mean that you go against the written Word.

Just like some people read Mark 11: 24, Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. What happens if someone asks for the wrong things that are against God’s Word? It takes for granted that you understand the fact that your prayer must be based upon the Word. If you do things contradictory to the Word, your prayer is completely cancelled out. The “do as the occasion demands” is not automatically operative in all situations.

Saul failed to recognize two factors. He failed to recognize that he must wait for the anointing to come upon him; and he failed to realize that the anointing does not give you permission to contradict God’s Word. In other words, if the anointing is on your life and if you are a man it does not give you permission to lay hand on a woman’s sensitive parts. If you are a woman, it does not give you permission to lay hand on any part of a man that would embarrass him. Having the anointing does not give you the license to contradict the Word. You cannot give an excuse that you were operating under the anointing of God.  The anointing will change your personality and you have certain liberty to operate a certain context. There are boundaries set by the written Word. 

Secondly, the anointing must come. If the anointing does not come, it will make no effect. When the anointing is not there and people are not falling under the power, some ministers deliberately push the people down. I have been in the ministry long enough to know when a person is pushing where the average person do not know. There are many skills of pushing people down. Normally when the anointing does not come, Kathryn Kuhlman will not minister. Some people say she is long winded but she cannot help it because if the anointing does not come, she cannot do anything. 

However, if you read her biography, you would find that towards the end of her ministry, her anointing seems to have stopped and in her services, she started pushing people down. Her biographer, Jaime Buckingham felt sorry for her in her latter services when he too saw that the anointing has already stopped. He stepped forward to be ministered by her and fell deliberately on the floor - not under the anointing but to save her face, so to speak. Kathryn Kuhlman also suffered from cancer and despite many anointed men and women of God praying over her, she was not healed. A recent report from a visit to heaven clarified this matter. Some Christians from a local church had made a study trip to heaven under the direction of the Holy Spirit. One of them spoke to Kathryn Kuhlman and she said the reason why the anointing stopped towards the end of her life and ministry was because God wanted her to retire and spend her remaining years with Him. However, she still insisted on serving God despite the anointing being stopped. When she persisted in her willfulness, the Lord had to allow cancer to afflict her in order to slow her down. That was why she was not healed, despite being visited by so many anointed men and women of God. God is always gracious to His servants. After laboring so many years for Him, God may grant a period of rest to His servants to spend time with Him before they depart from this earth. However, some do not take heed to God’s desires and in the end, are afflicted with sicknesses and diseases.

Kenneth E. Hagin has a very interesting insight in his book, Understanding the Anointing. He quotes Isaiah 10: 27, And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed BECAUSE OF THE ANOINTING.

Sometimes we turn that phrase around and say, “It’s the anointing that destroys (or breaks) the yoke.” That’s saying absolutely the same thing: The yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

This is true in our lives and ministries as well: The yoke of sickness or anything else that the devil tries to put on us will be destroyed because of the anointing.                                          [UA]

In Kathryn Kuhlman’s case, the anointing was lifted up in her latter years to enable to take a rest from her ministry. Unfortunately, she did not heed the Lord’s request, and the enemy took advantage of the situation by placing some sickness upon her. As the anointing was already lifted up from her, there was no more anointing to break the yoke of sickness upon her.

William Branham can preach a sermon but he had to wait for the angel of God, before he could minister. The angel of God is the manifestation of his anointing on his life. I saw a film of him in one of his services. After he preached, he walked up and down the stage waiting for the angel of God to come. For several minutes, he kept everybody waiting. Why, because he was waiting for the manifestation of the anointing. For him the anointing was the manifestation of an angel. You can only do as the occasion demands when the Spirit has come. If the Spirit does not come, do not try to fake it. So many men of God sometimes do as occasion demands when the Spirit did not show up yet. It looks like they are creating an impact but it is a big bluff. If you have about thirty guys lining up there for you to minister, you could start praying over them one by one. The problem is the anointing only came over you when you reached the fifth or sixth guy.  Then people started falling under the power. However, the first few people you pushed down will get disappointed with you. 

The funny thing is the response of people. You can fool those who cannot sense the anointing. However, you cannot fool me since I am familiar with the anointing. Whether people fall or not is not the criteria. You could push two hundred people down but if the anointing is not there, it is not there. What happens is this. That is what I call the law of percentages. If you push down the first four persons, the rest will become more yielded. They become more expecting. It helps them but did not help the first four. The general people do not see the things that are going on. When they see people falling, their faith level rises. So, the “skilful” minister pushes the first ten percent down in order to get the ninety percent to believe. This is not the way. Some people stand so close to you that you just want to go backward. Anyway, this is not the way that God wants you to minister. I mean if they fall praise the Lord. If they do not fall, also praise the Lord. They will receive if there is an anointing there. I know it when the anointing is coming upon me. I know the anointing comes on people even though they did not fall but their tears were running down. They know something has come on them. For some it may take some time before they fall.

So we are talking about this anointing of God and how it flows. If its not there you cannot do what the occasion demands.  In I Sam. 10 verse 6, And then the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon you qualifies verse 7, do as the occasion demands. Only when the Holy Spirit comes, then you do what the occasion demands. Let me tell you, you realize in I Sam. 11 Saul did what the occasion demands even though he was in a fit of anger. Why because the Spirit of God was on him. That makes the difference. Whether he was in perfect or imperfect state of emotion, still the anointing took place. In I Sam. 11:6-7 Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused.  That tells me the rest of the things he did had some anger involved. Now the Spirit of God was on him that was O.K. but the anger part I am not sure about it. I do not think it is quite O.K.  Yet in spite of that God still works. God works in spite of the anger that Saul had.

It was the same way with Samson. Samson did certain things that were not from the Lord but when the Spirit of God came upon him, he was able to work mighty exploits. When the Spirit of God comes upon you, there will be some blessings coming forth. You can be sure of that.  That is why some people do not understand about the anointing of God and they would think that a person really had to be that perfect before he can receive something. No, as long as there is a genuine anointing upon you, you can receive something from God. You can receive what the anointing came to do and to bring.      

Demonstration of the Anointing

The following types of anointing were demonstrated in another church service by another pastor but this verbatim report is added here to expand on the above teaching (Ed.).

Spill Over Anointing

            After the pastor has given his teaching, he told an elder sitting in the front pew to stand up. He said, “This brother here has been sitting in front here throughout the service. Unknown to him, he was absorbing the anointing that is present on me. This is called the spilt over anointing. This anointing won’t last long.” He then called a man who had persistent coughing to come up and touch the elder. Straightaway, the man with the persistent cough was slain. When he got up, he found that his throat has returned to normal and has no more irritations.

            “That is why some people attend some Christian conferences and were imparted some anointing by the anointed minister of God. They come back to their churches and they operate in the anointing for about six months or so. After that, their anointing wane and they are back to their former selves. Actually, what happened is that these ministers did not know how to maintain their anointing by faithfulness in their communion with the Holy Spirit and in their prayer life. “

            “In the end times, there will be an accelerated mountain of anointing on chosen vessels. God will take the anointing on these chosen vessels and transmit it to their co-workers during the service. They will then multiply the work all over the place during the service.”

            “To be able to absorb such an anointing upon a chosen vessel, make sure that the power is first on them. It is not only a matter of faith, but you have to make sure that there is a source of power in that vessel. Never try to build your faith on the Word by your mind, but let the Holy Spirit reveal the truth to you. Do not overemphasize the act of stepping out in faith when you know that there is no anointing on that particular minister. If there is no anointing on a particular minister, there is no point stepping out in faith to absorb any anointing from him or her. You will get nothing.”

“How do we touch the source of power?  You must observe the ways of God.”

 

Anointing Upon an Object

            Pastor now touched the mike to transmit the anointing onto it. He selected five persons in the congregation who have coughing problems and told them to prepare themselves spiritually by asking for forgiveness and for grace. Each of them goes to the mike and holds it. They reacted as if they were experiencing some electric shock and were slain in the Spirit. When they got up, they found their coughs gone. Later, many others who wanted healing for their coughs too lined up, touched the mike, and were healed too.

            Pastor commented, “The point is this: the healing is done by the anointing and not by the human vessel. The anointing can be on the human vessel and it can be on any material thing. If you want to receive such an anointing from God, you must prepare yourself. God is faithful and He will bless you accordingly. Some ways of transmitting this kind of anointing have been declared in the Word. For example, the woman with the issue of blood had the wisdom to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed. She touched the source of power. However, some ways are not declared in the Word. I will show you.”

            Pastor then stood on a red mat for a while and then walked away. He then asked two men to stand on the mat, one by one, and as they stood, they manifested violently and the demons left them.

            Pastor then stood again on the red mat and increased the anointing on the mat. He said. “This anointing on this mat will make you paralyzed like a statue.” He then called two men and one woman to stand on the mat. As each one of them stood on the mat, they suddenly froze and became like statues. The elders lifted one by one like they were carrying statues and laid them on the floor. When the pastor clapped his hands, they came out of their frozen state and became normal. After that, they were trembling and crying because of the fear that they may not come out of the frozen state.

            “In the end times, the Lord will release a special anointing for protection over His chosen vessels. People may come in numbers to attack these chosen vessels, but when they get near to them, they would be frozen on the spot. Their friends and relatives would have to carry them away like they were carrying statues. It would be a matter of weeks or days before they die. The only person who could release them from their frozen state would be the chosen vessel that they tried to attack. If he comes and prays over them, they would be healed. If he chooses not to come, these people would perish.”

            “These types of anointing that the Holy Spirit are revealing to you will become the norm for the chosen vessels that the Lord is preparing and raising up in secret. What can hinder you from flowing in such anointing will be the man-inspired teachings and doctrines of your past. The devil will use the wrong teachings implanted in your mind as certification to block these types of anointing from flowing in your life and ministry. The Holy Spirit takes time to undo the wrong teachings in your mind and heart. If you do not give time to the Holy Spirit to teach you now, your mind and heart will be a major block to these new types of anointing that the Holy Spirit has prepared for the end times. The second blockage to the anointing is sin in your life. The third is when you are not prepared properly and spiritually. The fourth blockage will be an external one and will come from your loved ones, like your spouses. The fifth blockage is the wrong attitudes in your spirit and it is not easy for the Holy Spirit to undo if you are not willing to change. The devil will bombard you by reminding you of this scripture and that scripture and this teaching and that teaching in order to prevent these new types of anointing to flow in your life. If you do not have the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the truth about these scriptures and teachings, the twisted interpretation and deception given by the devil and his agents will hinder you.

Stationary and Flowing Anointing

            “We must also observe the flow of the anointing. Sometimes the anointing does not flow and nothing will happen, even though the anointing is present on a vessel or on a object.”

            Pastor touched the pulpit and says, “I have transmitted the anointing onto this pulpit but the anointing is not flowing. It is stationery.” He called a woman to come forward to touch the pulpit. Nothing happened.

            Now he touches the pulpit again and says, “The anointing is now flowing. This anointing has the spirit of joy.” The same woman comes up and touches the pulpit. She started laughing hysterically in the Spirit.

            “You not only have to be sensitive to the anointing but you also have to be sensitive whether the anointing is flowing or not. If the anointing is not flowing, you cannot do anything. You have to wait until the anointing begins to move, and then you act accordingly as the Holy Spirit directs you. There is such a thing as a stationary anointing and a flowing anointing in the same service.”

            “Now the Holy Spirit wants to move the anointing of the Spirit of joy over the congregation. Those on the right side of the aisle raise your hands.” The people on the right side of the aisle raised their hands, and as soon as pastor waved his right hand over them, they burst out laughing.

            “Those with pain in your hands also raise your hands.” When they raised their hands, they went into coughing. Later, many came to the mike to testify of healing of various pain in their hands, like bone ache, arthritis, joint pain, muscle pull, etc.

Power Shot Anointing

            “This anointing is very powerful. It will be like receiving a cannonball in the stomach and you will be flung behind for several feet.” Pastor then called out Andrew and told him to prepare himself, ask for forgiveness and grace. Andrew then stood in the middle of the aisle about twenty feet away from pastor. The pastor pointed his finger at Andrew, and Andrew let out a scream and was flung several feet down the aisle before collapsing on the floor. “This power shot anointing is for blasting away very deep-rooted strongholds or strong demonic presence in an instant. What would have taken several praying over sessions before a person experiences complete deliverance can be done in an instant with this power shot anointing.”

Anointing Through the Vessel’s Eyes

            “Demons screamed when they saw the Lord Jesus Christ because the anointing was flowing from Him.” Pastor then called out a woman to the front. Then he asked her to quickly look into his eyes. She screamed and fell to the floor. When she got up, she went to the mike and told the congregation, “When I looked into pastor’s eyes, I saw they were like balls of fire. Some bright laser light shot out from his eyes and entered into my body and I saw some black shadow leaving me.”

            Pastor then told the congregation, “When I say, ‘Look at me,’ look at my eyes immediately.” After pausing for a few seconds, he looked up and said, “Look at me.” Everyone in the congregation quickly looked at his eyes and started to cough violently and many demons were expelled from them.

Anointing Through Cloth        

            Pastor then asked for a white piece of cloth and wrapped himself with it. He took it out and asked for anyone in the congregation who wants deliverance to come forward. Those who came forward and wrapped the white cloth around themselves manifested violently and experienced deliverance.

Breathing Anointing

            “God breathed the Spirit into Adam. The breath of God blew over the valley of dry bones, and it became a mighty army. Jesus also breathed the Spirit into His disciples. There is a breathing anointing too. I will breathe the Spirit of joy into this pot of flowers.” He called out some people to come forward and breathe in from the pot of flowers. When they breathe in, they burst out laughing. Pastor said, “The more you breathe in, the more Spirit of joy you will get.” They breathe in even more and burst out laughing hysterically. Everyone in the congregation also laughed. “God can breathe into you, or into material things.”

Transmitted Anointing

            “This anointing is a very high level anointing. You can pray for people thousands of miles away and God can touch them.” Pastor then tells the woman monitoring the P. A. system in the room at the back of the hall to get ready. He said, “I am going to touch this pulpit here in front, and the anointing is going to bounce onto the lady in the P.A. system room at the back.” He touched the pulpit, and the woman in the P.A system room screamed and fell on the floor. The congregation caught the whole action on the TV sets placed at various points of the church hall.

2.   THE INFLOW OF THE ANOINTING

In the first lesson, we defined the anointing. In this second lesson, we will touch on the impartation of the anointing in our life. Every anointed person receives the anointing and impartation in a slightly different way from others although there may be some common similarity. We will discuss the receiving of the anointing into our life and what it feels like.

Saul received his anointing in a different manner although he had a different response. In I Sam. 10:6-7 Samuel said when the Spirit of God comes on you, you will prophesy. Now Saul was not a prophet at all. He never had any call of God to be a prophet. He stood only in the office of king. The anointing on his life was not supposed to be a prophet’s anointing.  Yet, when he came among these prophets the Spirit of God was imparted to his life and he prophesied. Was it a prophetic anointing? No, he received the kingly anointing but he experienced and manifested that anointing through prophesying. In those days, tongues had not manifested yet. So, he was not speaking in other tongues. They spoke in the Hebrew language. It could have been an outburst of praises onto the Lord. That was his physical experience of it. The bible did not describe what he felt.  The bible merely recorded what he did. He prophesied in his language. It was in words. Can you imagine what it was like? What did he say? He may have uttered praises to God. He may have poured forth words in great ecstasy and emotions. I could imagine him walking by that terebinth tree near Tabor. The prophets were playing cymbals, harps, and all kinds of musical instruments around that area. They were worshiping God. As Saul was coming, the Spirit of God came on his life and he says, “O, the Lord is good. He is so wonderful, etc.” Now that is his physical experience. He may have had a burst of great emotion welling up on his inside. He was like another man. I do not think he was even a good singer. He sure had the experience of his life.

The anointing is like electricity. If you wear rubber shoes and a small current of electricity flows through you, it will not flow out of you and harm you. As long as there is no connection to the earth, you are safe.  However, according to the laws of electricity, some semiconductors become good conductors at a very high voltage. Before electricity can flow, there must be an inflow and an outflow. A battery has electricity stored inside it. Batteries have a certain shelf life since the chemical ingredients inside will react and stop the flow of the electrons.  A battery has a plus and a minus sign.  As long as the plus and the minus ends of the battery are not connected, storing your battery in a dry place would allow it to last longer.  As long as the plus and minus cannot connect each other there is no outflow.  The moment you put a wire from the plus to the minus end, there are electrons flowing through.

Now when the power of God flows into our life, there will be an outflow of manifestation. There is no inflow without an outflow. It is impossible even in the natural. Your tank could be filled up to the brink until it cannot take in any more inflow.  The moment you open any tap, the water in the tank starts flowing out through the tap and then the water from the main reservoir starts flowing into your tank. If there is no outflow there is no inflow. The amount of outflow is proportional to the amount of inflow.

When Saul came near these prophets the Spirit of God came on him like electricity and it needs to flow to something. Since it flows in, it must flow out.  When it flows out, there is always a manifestation. People may fall under the power. It is not limited to that since there could be new manifestations. Falling under the power is very common. Why do people fall under the power? There is an outflow of anointing. I know what it is like since I have fallen under the power before. You feel like this force comes on you and your body cannot take it. When the power touches you and goes through you, that is when you fall. It is not just a matter of the anointing touching you. Sometimes, different people fall under the power differently. Some people fall forward.  Some people tell me, “The bible says we must fall forward.” They quoted Daniel who falls prostrate before God. That’s the misuse of the scripture. They say the only time people fall backward is when they are crooks. Imagine there must be a lot of crooks in church then. Easily more than 90% of falling under the power is backwards. They say when the soldiers came for Jesus at Gethsemane, He said, “I am He,” and they all fell backward. What an interpretation. When Paul fell off his donkey, he most probably fell backward. Whether you fall forward or backward does not indicate whether you are good or bad or whether it is from God or not from God.

Sometimes when the power touches people, it has not gone through them yet. It is just still working in their life.  You began to see some effects. Some of them do not fall. Some shake but the moment the power goes through them, and then they fall. It depends on the degree of the anointing and the response of the recipient. It is not possible to say that you have been baptized in water by immersion and come out dry as a duck. If you have been baptized in the sea, your hair and body would be wet. When a heavily anointed minister laid hands on you, it is not possible to say you have received the anointing from him without experiencing some effects. I am not talking about strong effect. Sometime it could be a tangible sensation inside you. Some people sense warmth; others a cold chill and still others feel like needles poking them. Whatever it is, there is a tangible substance received. That is an outflow. If you touch electricity, you would feel something. Your body gets a jerk whether you like it or not. The power of God is no respecter of person – there will be an effect.

Just a few weeks ago, I met this guy for lunch. He has not been to this church for about a year or two. He just came once or twice.  I said, “I haven’t seen you in church.” He said, “Yes.” “Why?” “Because when I entered the place, I don’t know why I started crying. My tears could not stop from beginning to end. I am scared.” I said, “That’s alright. Come and let the tears flow. After sometime you will adjust to God’s presence and you will find your life is changed.”  It is something that needs to take place whether a person falls under the power, or a person shakes. At least you know they have received a little bit and something did happen. Some people would start crying when the anointing starts moving in their life.

See there is an outflow depending on the different degree of the anointing and the receptivity of the recipient. Now how much it outflows through our life depends on a different factor. In the law of electricity, it depends on how good the conductor is. Under normal circumstances, water is a bad conductor and will not conduct electricity.  However, if the electricity reaches a very high voltage, even water will conduct electricity. Actually, water does conduct electricity but only small amounts of current.  When the voltage is too high, water becomes very dangerous since even that weak conductor can carry enough current to kill a person. So there are two sides to it - it depends on the amount of current transmitted and it depends on the conductivity of the material.

Likewise, each person in the spiritual realm has a different conductivity level. For whatever reason or background we come from, some people are better conductors than others of the anointing of God. The anointing flows easily in some people. Some people are poor conductors of the anointing and are just like dead wood. They could stand before the power and the anointing of God and they are touched only a little.  The wonderful thing is that our spiritual conductivity level can change with time and relationship with God. If you are well related to God your conductivity level could reach to hundred percent. There are very few men if any who have reached that level where they could conduct the power of God a hundred percent like Jesus. Jesus was such a perfect conductor that the power of God goes through Him a hundred percent. 

When we receive the power of God, there would be a manifestation. Sometimes that manifestation happens once during the first time and that person may never experience it again. An important key to the growth of an anointing in your life is the first manifestation. It is the symbol of the work of the Spirit in your life and the continuity of it. For example in Acts 19:6 it says that when Paul had laid hands on them, they prophesied and magnified God.  Whenever somebody receives an anointing, there is an outflow of the anointing and a manifestation of that outflow. As you yield to that outflow, you would continue to receive an inflow of the anointing into your life. Some people may manifest the anointing in a more obvious and powerful way than others.  

I remember there was a greater anointing that came upon me to do the work of the Lord in my life. I remember what it was like. The evangelist was laying hands on me and he happened to be one of those evangelists who push you a little bit. He was pushing me until I was literally curved backward. I did not want to go down because I felt the presence of God. If I had gone down, I felt I might miss the whole thing. Then I felt a warm sensation slowly coming out from me. I felt like laughing. I knew that if I let the spirit of joy out, I might not stop laughing.  I also knew that if I did not yield to it, I might not receive fully what God wanted me to have. I had to make a choice between the two. See if I had not let it out, I would only have received that degree of impartation that day - up to the degree that I could sense the warmth. Maybe the Lord had designed me to receive twenty volts but I would have received only two volts that day if I kept resisting. I was resisting Him since I did not want to go down. Then in the end, I could not hold it any more, yielded to the spirit of joy, and went down to the floor. I made a choice. Now that is the outflow. The outflow comes by choice also. You could choose to stop the flow or to yield to the flow.

Many of you have prayed for lengthening of arms and legs and you have seen results. Have you notice that depending on a person’s choice and yieldedness, you could command the growth of limbs and release the power of God? We could do such commanding prayers to a certain extend depending on the yieldedness of a person under anointing and power of God. I could command a person’s left hand to shorten and be pushed back in Jesus’ Name to conform to the person’s original blueprint found in heaven. For example, if the Lord has created you to be 5 feet 10 inches, and you are slightly deformed and is only 5 feet 8 inches, then under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, I can command your backbone to be straightened up and reach your ideal height according to the blueprint God made you to be. However, I cannot pray that you grow to be 6 feet because that is not your original blueprint in heaven.

However, if inside you, you determined that you are not going to respond, the anointing would not work either. Some people think that the Spirit of God will just work without any response or decision in you. God honors your freewill. You may think that it is all make believe.  However, you could literally feel a force moving you. In the depth of our hearts, we need to say, “Yes, I am going to yield to that anointing when the evangelist prays over me.” When you say yes, the power can flow through you. The moment you say no, the power is cut off. See there is an inflow and there is an outflow.  The outflow is controlled by our freewill. You could have the most anointed man of God praying over you but if in your heart, you were reluctant or resistant, you will not be able to receive anything. You went forward to be prayed over not because you were hungry for God. Your wife or your grandma dragged you to the altar. Do you think God will violate a person’s freewill if he or she does not want God?  Sometimes people come up for prayers but inside them they say, “I am not receiving.” You might as well pray for the chair - it makes no difference. God respects our freewill.

So in the same way as I was stand there at the stage to minister to people, I have to decide whether I allow the anointing to flow out to the people or not. I control the outflow. Sometimes in a prayer meeting, worship service or during devotional time with God, you felt like crying but you can make a decision to release or not. I have said no many times too. Just as you felt your tears were about to trickle down your cheeks, you told your tears to stop. You won’t let them out. You made a decision in the wrong way. You say, “No, I cannot cry because my friends are next to me. What will others think of me?”  Therefore, you said no. You know what happened. The Spirit came on you and wanted to flow out through you but you made a decision to stop the flow. Hence, as you did not yield to the outflow of the anointing from you, there is no inflow of more anointing into you.  Imagine the many blessings we missed.  Those who are pliable to the Lord receive a lot of things from the Lord. Nowadays, after learning all these things, I say, “Lord, I am not going to resist You.” If I sense the Lord’s sweet anointing and feel the tears coming, I would let them flow. If I sense the spirit of joy, I would yield to it and laugh it out. You say, “If that is the case then everyone of us would look like inmates of a mental asylum. There will be some laughing; there will be some crying; another guy will be on the floor. Why do you think? In Acts 2, the people thought that the disciples were drunk. There is no more inflow of God’s anointing into your life if you keep resisting the outflow of an anointing from God.

I still have not finished my story. As the evangelist’s hands were on me, I was bend backwards with a warm feeling and a desire to laugh.  God came right at that moment and said, “Alright you decide. Do you want to let go or not? I made the decision and said, “Yes, I let go.” The laughter came out of my deepest being. The moment I let the laughter out, a few thousand others in the congregation also burst out laughing. Suddenly, I felt that warm flow – it is almost like the warmth you feel when you are next to a fire - became hot like boiling oil.  It overwhelmed me. That burning boiling oil feeling lasted for three days.  I knew one thing – I received the full measure of the anointing that God wanted to give me that day. I knew I had received an anointing in some particular area that I may not understand yet.  I knew God had put something there that no one can take away.  Something was imparted to my spirit man. Notice there is no outflow without inflow.  The amount of outflow you allow will limit the amount of inflow you let in.

I remember when I was in one of our prayer meetings here, suddenly I felt this great desire to cry and cry but no tears came yet. See it is not just a matter of emotions. No tears came yet because inside me was the decision maker that says to yield or not to yield. I could decide, “No, I am not going to yield to this.” On the other hand, I could decide, “Yes, I am going to yield to this.” God is so wonderful; He is such a gentleman He will not force it on me if I do not want.  Inside of me, I said, “Lord, I don’t care what people think but I am going to yield to this.” The moment I decided, the tears started to flow like a river. This time I experienced a different thing. Before the tears came and all I had was just a flicker of it, I just had a sensation of His presence.  The moment I decided to let go and let the tears flow, it was literally pouring out. I understood what Jeremiah the prophet meant when he said that his head was as waters.  The moment I allowed the outflow of the manifestation of the anointing, there is an inflow of the anointing. I felt a hand with five fingers over my chest.  It was there for the whole one hour while I was crying. I did not understand what I received.  I knew I had received some more of that anointing. Now I learned to recognize that hand from time to time when I feel it.

In our next lesson, I am going to touch on how to continue to know Him as He reveals Himself in the outflow. That is why we say that there must be an outflow before the inflow.  We cannot run away from that. If there is no sort of release in you, then there is no inflow coming from Him.

Sometimes it can be very gentle. I remember when I asked John Osteen to lay hands on me. I knelt down before him and I felt his hands touched me. I did not fall under the power.  I felt warmth going through my body. That was all the anointing wanted to do. What I am saying here is do not try to work it out if it is not there.  If it is there, flow along with it.

 

I had another experience. This time I was in my house praying while sitting on my sofa. I am not quite a great shaker. As I was lifting up my hands to God alone in the house, and worshiping God, I felt a power wanting to shake me up. Now there was no devil around. Remember anything can be imitated. I am talking about the real presence of God with the real blessing of God. I felt my hands wanting to shake. Of course, the Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He goes down and speaks to the decision maker in our spirit man, “Would you or would you not?” I know that unless there is an outflow there is no inflow. Since it was in the privacy of my own home, well, I decided to shake my hands. Suddenly both my hands started shaking. Then from my fingers it went to my elbows, from my elbows it went to my shoulders, from my shoulders it went right through to my legs.  I was sitting with my legs up by that time.  My legs were also shaking. There I was from the top of my head to the tip of my toes shaking. Even my head was also shaking. So there, I was sitting on my sofa shaking from my hands to the tip of my toes. Do you know how long God kept me there? It was two hours. When my hands wanted to shake all I felt was warmth. Now the warmth was my first normal sensation. It is my individual peculiarity.  That was all. The warmth is only about two volts of anointing.  When I chose to yield and allow the outflow, this was what I felt. I felt like liquid fire in waves flowing from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. When one finished, another came along. Two hours of that. By the time you come out of that, you know that you had become a different person. You know that the anointing of God is on your life.  Every time I allowed the outflow with the inflow coming in, the ministry has changed through greater anointing. So that sometimes when I minister when the anointing comes, I feel like a cup of boiling oil.  Whenever I point at a person, I could literally see that oil coming on them. The problem with most people is that most of the time they have their entire outflow stuck up.  When the tears were coming out, they want to dam up the floodgates and quickly get the tissue paper. In every way, we pull out all the stoppers. Then after many years of doing that we ask God, “Lord, I wonder why I never have your anointing.” God answers, “Sorry, there is no inflow of the anointing if you do not yield to the anointing and let it outflow.” No inflow without outflow, it is as simple as that.   

Demonstration of the Anointing

            The following two types of anointing were demonstrated in another church by another pastor. This report is added here to expand on the teaching on the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Anointing Through the Eyes

            Pastor says, “Somebody on the left side of the congregation is having a throat problem. You are feeling very hot and comfortable in your throat.” Somebody that fits the description stood up and went to stand in the middle of the aisle. Pastor continues, “The anointing will descend on the vessel and now the vessel will look at you.” The moment the pastor looked at that person, he let out a scream and fell to the floor.

            Later the person came to the mike and testified, “I saw fiery power coming from the vessel’s eyes, and there is immediate relief in my throat.”

            Pastor said, “There is somebody on my left with a leg that is numb and hot. Can you please stand up?” A lady stood up and went to stand in the middle of the aisle.

Pastor continues, “Kathryn Kuhlman was also known to look at people and they flew under the power coming from her eyes. That is a foretaste of new types of anointing that will be released in the body of Christ. Jesus Christ told someone who was taken up to heaven that He will do new things through the vessel. Actually, the Lord is raising up a new breed of ministers who will move in new types of anointing. The Holy Spirit wants to accomplish great things in the end times, and the way to do this is to release new types of anointing. The Holy Spirit has expressly said that many great men of God that are serving God today will be taken home soon. They have been serving God well but they only knew the old types of anointing. It is their dispensation. Now the new dispensation calls for new types of anointing. The Holy Spirit has to remove them so that new servants of God will arise with new types of anointing to accomplish the last great revival. The Holy Spirit cannot put new wine in old wineskins. The old wineskins will burst and the new wine will be lost. Thus, the Holy Spirit will have to take home these great men of God first so that they will not be a hindrance to the new anointing. Millions of non-Christians will come to know and accept the Lord Jesus Christ when this new work begins. However, if Christians do not have fellowship with the Holy Spirit, they may oppose this new move of God and find themselves working against God, just like the Jews did not know God and opposed Jesus Christ when He came in their midst.”

            “Are you ready, sister?”

            “Yes.”

            “Now, look at my eyes.”

            The moment she saw the vessel’s eyes, she bend forward and a force seems to push her as she backpedal uncontrollably to the end of the hall before collapsing on the floor. She later testified to the congregation that her leg was healed.

            Pastor also said, “There is a person whose lungs feel very tight. Can you please stand up?” Jonathan stood up. He commented, “The major problem in the church today is that Christians are not listening to God. They are doing their own thing. If you ever want to see the anointing of the Holy Spirit, you must listen to the Holy Spirit. First, you must have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, you must wait for His instructions and directions. You cannot do as you wish. If you persist in ignoring the Holy Spirit’s instruction, you will be taken out of ministry. Finally, when you obey the Holy Spirit, there will be a manifestation. The Holy Spirit will bear witness to you. The Holy Spirit is showing us these types of anointing to prepare us for the end times. The end times anointing will be at a very high level.”

            “Now, look at my eyes.” Jonathan looked at the vessel’s eyes and a force pushed him backwards to the end of the hall. He was screaming.

            “Powerful forces are binding his lungs. The power of God hit at the powerful forces and they reacted. This eye anointing has blasted the demons inside the person and the demonic forces behind the person will try to put the problem back to him.”

            Later Jonathan testified, “I felt a powerful force from vessel’s eyes hitting my lungs. I now feel energized, powerful and very strong.” Pastor added, “The after effect of this anointing is that your spirit man will feel very strong. Your born again spirit man will respond.”

Healing Anointing Through the Finger

            Pastor said, “This healing anointing through the finger overlaps with the glory finger. The working is different. The glory finger is through the Glory of God. It is Glory healing. This finger anointing literally points the finger at the root problem. The healing through the finger operates in this manner. A person with a heart problem may have 5-6 symptoms. The root problem is in the heart. The finger anointing points to the root problem and once the heart problem is healed, all the symptoms and side effects will disappear. Even indirectly related problems will disappear. This anointing must be directed by the Holy Spirit, or you will be in trouble.”

            “There is a man with a back problem. You are experiencing sharp pain in both your legs. Your throat is hoarse. Your stomach is easily churned and you tend to go to the toilet often. Your back problem has affected your nerves and your blood vessels. That is why you have pain in other parts of your body.”

            Several stood up to indicate they have the abovementioned problems. Pastor told the elders to examine one by one to see which one of them has all the symptoms mentioned. As they were checking them, pastor continues, “The very essence of serving God is taking instructions from the Holy Spirit. Too many people who claim to be serving God are actually doing their own thing. They do not fellowship with the Holy Spirit. They know not the Holy Spirit. They are actually lawless. If you fill your ears with the darkness of gossip and slander, how can the Holy Spirit speak to your ears? “ The elders finally determined that a man fitted all the descriptions and presented him to the pastor. Pastor said, “Yes, he is the one. Now, get ready – prepare your heart, confess your sins and ask for grace.” He points his finger at the man and he falls to the floor.

            After he woke up, the elders examined him. However, he was not completely healed. He still had some pain in his body although his back pain is gone. Pastor paused for a moment and then said, “The Holy Spirit has opened his file in heaven and checked his records. The reason why he received partial healing and not complete healing is because he did not keep his word that he made to God. Many people forget the promises they make to God. They promised to obey God but at critical moments, they disobeyed God and went on their own way. This sin has blocked him from receiving the fullness of his healing. God wants to highlight this: confess all your sins before you fall asleep. Don’t keep your sins overnight.”

            “There is a person with heart conditions. You have general weakness over your body. You are experiencing heaviness in your head. Your leg movement is slow. You feel sleepy and tired all the time.”

            An Indian woman stood up and claimed all the conditions. Pastor pointed his finger at her, and she ran backwards the full length of the aisle, screaming at the top of her voice uncontrollably.

            “The finger anointing is very powerful. It has blasted away the evil spirits that are causing these physical problems to her. The evil spirits were immediately sucked out by the anointing.

            After she got up, she went to the mike and testified, “I saw a ball of fire coming from the vessel’s finger. My whole body was set on fire. I could perceive some dark forces outside blasted away. I feel very nice in my feet, legs, and heart. All glory and thanks to the Holy Spirit.”

            “There is a person with a womb problem. You experience contractions in your womb, and sometimes you feel your stomach so flabby. Because of your womb problem, you suffer loss of appetite and dizzy spells. Your torso is uncomfortable and you have aches all over your body.

            Theresa, a Chinese woman stood up. Pastor pointed his finger at her, and she collapsed to the floor. As she lay there under the power, pastor continues, “All the lawless ones who do not listen to the Holy Spirit when they serve God will go out of business. The Holy Spirit has no more patience with those who are playing church but who are not listening to Him. When that day happens, then the people of God will know the real from the false.”

            “If you have problems in your life, pray hard to the Holy Spirit. Healing is the children’s bread. That is a very good point to use in your prayer petition to God. Do not go before God and talk nonsense. God will not tolerate it.”

            Theresa woke up and found that all her womb problem is gone.

3.   INDIVIDUAL PECULARITIES

In our previous lesson, we have defined the anointing. We have talked about the manifestation of the anointing. We are covering more grounds than our book, “The Anointing of the Holy Spirit.” On page two of our book, we wrote:

We can define and understand the anointing by watching its manifested work upon the lives of those it comes upon. Bezaleel and Aholiab received special skill in metal works, jewellery and embroidery (Ex. 31: 1-6).                                                                                                                                                                  [AHS]

In the last session, we touched on yielding to the outflow in order to receive an inflow of the anointing. When the anointing comes, there is an inflow and there is an outflow.  That is what causes the manifestation. You cannot say that you have the anointing when there is no outflow, or visible sign or some experiences. See God is an experience. I know that we walk by faith in the Word of God and not by sight or feeling. Yet, we do not ignore the fact that there are spiritual experiences in the spirit realm. We have said that the amount of inflow will be proportional to the outflow of the anointing of God. When we release the anointing of God then more of the anointing of God will flow into our life.

Let us see in the life of David how the anointing came upon his life and what was manifested in his life. Turn to the book of II Samuel 23:1 Now these are the last words of David. Thus says the man raised up on high. The anointed of the God of Israel; The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, “The Rock of Israel spoke to me: He who rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, like the tender grass springing out of the earth, by clear shining after rain.” 

David was a man of war. However, we see that his life was marked with a tremendous outflow of worship and psalms. Remember we said that where there is an inflow there is an outflow.  Unless we release the outflow, there is no further inflow of the anointing into our life. Whenever the anointing comes upon David’s life, he would always sing or speak forth God’s praises in songs and psalms. He expressed himself in worship onto God. There is an outflow from his life. There could be many types of outflow in different lives or even in the same life, there could be many types of outflow but some outflows would feature more prominently than others. In David’s the outflow of the psalms and worship stand out strongly in his life. He is known as a sweet psalmist of Israel. In other people’s life, the outflow may be strongly manifested in other areas. In some people’s lives, the outflow is shaking. They may not be that good in singing and worshiping. That is not their field.  When the anointing comes into their life, they get into a shaking.  I am not saying that the Holy Spirit causes all types of manifestations. There could be demonic imitation. Or it could be just simply the flesh.  However, that does not rule out the fact that there are genuine ones. The problem is not whether there is a manifestation or not. It is a matter of discerning the type and origin of the manifestations. A manifestation of shaking comes on some people. For some people, the anointing is manifested through prophesying.  Some people would just rock to and fro when the anointing of God comes upon their life.

Do not make whatever manifestation into a doctrine. The Spirit of God once started moving on a group in Africa. Whenever the anointing hit the people, they would dance. Then after some time, they came out with a doctrine that unless you dance, you do not have the Holy Ghost. That is not what it should be. People began to box the Holy Spirit in. It does not mean that when you dance that, that is the only evidence of the Lord working in your life. Neither does it mean that the Spirit necessarily inspires dancing - it could be in the flesh too. What we are saying is that there is an effect caused by the anointing of God. Therefore, do not take it too far and make statements like, “If you don’t rock, you don’t have the Holy Spirit.” “If you don’t shake, you don’t have the Holy Spirit.” “If you don’t prophesy, you don’t have the Holy Spirit.” We are judging people’s experience by our own experience. That is the unfair thing to do. There are many types of manifestation of the anointing. We have not exhausted every type of manifestations. Sometimes it could be just very quiet. 

One thing we can note. The way you received the anointing will be peculiar to you in your situation. There may be similarities with others but the way the anointing comes on your life will be special and peculiar to you. Some people get warm when the anointing comes on their life. Some people feel their legs moving. Some people stand up a bit. Some people believe that when the anointing is there, your hair stands up. Remember we are dealing with what we call side effects of the manifestations. Therefore, do not take the side effects and build some theology upon these side effects. However, we need to touch on this subject so that we could have some understanding of the various forms of manifestation of the anointing.

During George Fox’s time, the phenomenon of shaking among his people was called the Quaker movement. There are similar manifestations today. When the Spirit of God gets on the people, they began to shake.  Scorners and mockers have attended these meetings and derided the anointing of God. When those same phenomena came on these hecklers, they would feel their heads and bodies about to shake and vibrate. They would resist it. They resisted the force that was shaking them.  George Fox’s journal contains a record of a man who resisted the shaking so hard that he broke his neck. These are what I call side effects. Some people will not make much of side effects but since we are dealing with this subject matter thoroughly, we will touch on all these areas. 

Now the point that we are driving at is this - we must learn to recognize how the anointing manifests in our own life. We can thank God for how He manifests in others’ lives. We must learn to recognize how He manifests in our life. If He manifest in your life through a warm sensation then that is peculiar to you. If He manifests through shaking, that is another individual peculiarity. I met one prophetess from India who loves to wear white. She is very sharp in her word of knowledge and word of wisdom. Some people accept her ministry but some did not. The problem was her side effect. When she ministers, both her hands would shake. Some people think that she had gone into a trance. Some people think it was a demon. I picked it up in the Spirit and found that it was a genuine gift of God working. She is very accurate and very sharp in the operation of the gift. She brought many people to the Lord. She passed all the tests on the Word. She passed all the tests on the fruit. The only thing that is strange is her peculiar manifestation of her anointing. There is such a thing as peculiar anointing. Some types of manifestation of anointing are very dignified.  Some may not look so dignified.

There is another sub-law that we bring into this.  Our experience of the Lord can change as we grow in the Lord. You must add in that factor. Once we learn to recognize His manifestation and how it comes be aware of this sub-point - as we grow in Him and walk with Him through the years, His manifestation in our life can change. In other words, He may not exactly manifest the anointing like He did to you two or three years ago.  You will know the change as it comes. Usually the change comes at each phase.

We are going to look at phases in ministry in this study. God divide our life into phases.  Usually when we move from one phase to the next phase, the sensation changes. You experience changes in the anointing upon your life when you enter a new phase in your life and ministry. You know that is a different phase and anointing of God that you are moving in.  We keep growing from glory to glory; phase to phase in a different anointing of God. You must not forget this sub-clause. Otherwise, you may keep looking for the old manifestation and familiar anointing when God is bringing you to a new phase and new working in your life. Why is it that way? There are so many varied anointing each of them have a different effect on our life. It causes a slightly different manifestation.

Let us go back to the main point. We all must recognize the anointing coming in our life. You must know when it comes. Recognize the sensation; recognize the tangibility, and how it comes to your life.  God is not against us analyzing this thing. He is only against our unbelief. If you are seeking to analyze for the sake of flowing better God is not against that. God is against unbelief. You must have an open mind to learn from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we need to recognize how it comes into our life. If every time the anointing comes upon you and your hands feel like shaking, you know the anointing is there for you.  

Let me repeat this so that people do not take this kind of teaching wrongly. This type of teaching is easy to take out of context and build something funny out of it. For example, someone may have a particular sensation of shaking when the anointing comes. He then goes around, saying that you must have feel that shaking when the anointing comes upon you. Do not take your individual peculiarity and make it universal for everybody else. In other words, you cannot tell people that if they do not shake, they do not have the anointing. It would be just like the guy who received the baptism in the Spirit while he was in the bathtub. One day he met another guy who said, “I want the Holy Spirit. I have been seeking the Holy Spirit for years.” He said, “No problem. Come to my house. Now go to my bathtub. I received it there - so can you.” An anointed bathtub ministry has started. That is how this kind of teaching can easily be misunderstood.  Understand that extreme teachings can arise. If you understand the peculiarities and the specific tangibility of the anointing in your life and you know that it’s God not the flesh - do not try to do it when you are still in the flesh and no anointing has descended upon you yet.  When you know that is God, then you release yourself into them. It becomes your way of knowing when the anointing has come.

See we have to recognize how the anointing comes on our life. The interesting thing about teaching on the anointing is that the anointing is on one side and moving in faith is another.  We have to learn to move in both avenues. Sometimes it looks like moving in faith and moving in the anointing is diametrically opposed but they are not; they are complimentary to one another. If you preach the Word and tell the people not to go by their feeling but by the Word of God, you are ministering by faith.  If you are ministering under the anointing, you cannot do that. You have to sense not with your five senses, not with your feelings, not with your mind, but with your spirit. You have to move into the realm of spiritual sensory perception where you would know the anointing peculiar and particular to you coming on you. 

Let me give some of my personal experience. You may not copy it but it is good to see how it is happening in another person’s life. In the early stages of my ministry, I know the anointing only through a warm sensation in my heart. I felt like Lk. 24 when Jesus was walking with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus.  After Jesus disappeared and when they realized it was Jesus, they said to one another, “Did not our hearts warm when He spoke?” I felt that sensation. That was my first recognition in my life. That still occurs from time to time.  Another different sensation is now added to that warmth in my heart. I want to show the progressive increase of anointing. Every time when the anointing is there, I feel this warm glow coming. Whenever I am doing the right things and the anointing of God is flowing, I could feel His warm glow all over on the inside. Of course, when you have a sensation please check it out first. Do not take this teaching to confirm that every sensation is God. For example, you could be sitting in a room, praying and seeking God and you feel warmth all over your shoulders. First, check whether the radiator is behind you. Check in the natural. Do not reach a point where anything different is attributed to the anointing.

I remember this brother who was sharing about how he was in this house and they were praying for this lady who was sick. As they were praying and everyone had their eyes closed, his eyes were partially opened. This lady had a cat. While they were praying the cat just came from one side of the room and jumped on top of this lady and jumped off. The moment the cat jumped on the lady, the lady said, “I accept it, it’s the anointing,” and she got up and was healed. To this day, he dare not tell her that it was the cat in case she lose the healing.

Some people need some help like that but check first whether it has some natural causes. If suddenly, you feel a strange feeling on your left shoulder, check whether your shirt or blouse is too tight. Do not just jump to conclusion. Sometimes it is not the anointing. There is a natural cause but we think it is the anointing. Check all possible natural explanations first before arriving to a conclusion. However, there is this warm glow, which I know it is not naturally caused. I first began to experience it when I spent a lot of time praising God. Then the tangibility of it is there. Some people are very frustrated because they could have started their Christian life with hardly any sensation - like me. I do not know why everybody else seems to have sensations of the anointing. They come to the Lord and they could cry, weep, and be touched by the Lord. However, when you come before the Lord, you do not feel anything. You wonder what is wrong with you.

We know the reason for the problem now. I did not know the reason earlier in my ministry. Your batteries are flat. They need charging. It is just like a tape recorder that runs on six volts and if your batteries are about three volts, you would not have any sound coming from the tape recorder. You have to add additional fresh batteries. Then you have the sound back. Therefore, what happen is people’s Word and faith level are not to the point where they could begin to experience spiritually the things of God. If that is your situation, be encouraged you have many others for company. Just be faithful to fellowship with the Holy Spirit; get more Word into you; just be faithful to spend more time in praise and worship; just be faithful to spend more time in prayer. When you spend a lot of time before the face of God, you will build your spiritual voltage to the level where you could sense the tangibility of the anointing. We touch a point to cover those who do not seem to feel any manifestation of the anointing.  When you reached a stage where you have a tangibility that is where we must recognize its tangibility and manifestation, pinpoint it, and understand what it is telling you.

After that, the anointing began to operate a little bit differently, where I not only sense a warm over my chest area, I sensed a warmth all over my shoulders. Therefore, it increased. Together with that, I get a few other peculiar signals for different types of sicknesses, diseases, and problems. I learn to recognize the peculiarity of these manifestations.  I moved into that for some time. Later on, the Lord changed it again and now I feel warmth from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. For Kenneth E. Hagin, the anointing is like a coat thrown over him. Each person has a peculiar way of experiencing it.  However, peculiar and particular you must learn to recognize the anointing of God in your life. How does it come and what does it do? That is the first area - recognize your individual peculiarity of your anointing.

See in the book of II Kings chapter 3. Elisha was asked to prophesy because the three kings had problems and Elisha said in verse 13 Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.” But the king of Israel said to him, “No, for the Lord has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.” And Elisha said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you, nor see you. But bring me a musician.” Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said thus says the Lord.

See he recognized the anointing coming on him.  Before that, he recognized that it was not there. I can observe that Elisha knew what the anointing was like in his own life. He knew it when he came.  He knew it when it was not there. He must have some way of knowing. Therefore, he has reached that first point where he learnt to recognize the peculiarity of his own anointing. That takes experimentation. These things that we teach you got to put into practice the next time that you move into the anointing. Sometimes when you start and you are not sure but you examine it after everything is over to see how was the anointing. To see whether there was really an anointing, check the result. See the anointing produces results.

Notice on page four in the book. It says the anointing produces power and conviction. Therefore, there will be a demonstration of the Spirit. There will be a demonstration that it was the anointing. As in Isa. 10:27 the anointing breaks the yoke. You could see the results of the anointing. This is something you cannot miss. Sometimes as you move into it, you may not be so aware.  Later, when you hear the testimonies coming back you began to realize what it was. Then you began to check yourself how it felt; what was it like; how did it come; it takes a lot of experimentations. These things that we learn you need to keep practicing them until it become a part of you. The after several times you learn to recognize it. Learn to recognize its peculiar sensation in your life.

Elisha had firstly learned to recognize his individual peculiarity of his anointing.  Secondly, he also learned how to get the anointing when it is not there. He learned how to stir up what was called to be upon his life and what was rightfully his to function in. He learned to stir it up. He purposely asked for a musician. While the musician played, it must have helped him to get into a certain stage where he could move into the anointing of God.

David was a psalmist. In the anointing upon, (we are not talking about the anointing within) the anointing upon comes and goes as the Spirit wills. The anointing upon does not remain permanently on our life. When the work is over that it has come to perform the anointing is lifted off.  There are times where there is a demand made on the anointing and when it is not there we need to learn to stir it forth. Elisha has learned it. Suppose David wanted to draw on a greater measure of the anointing. I know the first thing that he would do. He would take his harp and play it until the anointing comes upon him. Music plays a big role in the anointing upon. If you watch Kathryn Kuhlman’s videotapes, you will find that music played a big role in her moving into the anointing upon her life. Kenneth E. Hagin has also mentioned that. You could be ministering under the anointing upon but if suddenly the musicians play the wrong music, the Holy Spirit is grieved and the anointing is lifted up. There is an anointing upon that we learn to recognize.  David learnt to get it by music. Notice he says in one of his psalms that songs of deliverance encompass him.

Lets look at the book of I Samuel 10:5 After that you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is. And it will happen, when you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp before them and they will be prophesying.  

Notice the word there “they will be prophesying.” Now this is a group of prophets.  They were stirring the anointing upon their life through music.  The anointing was definitely upon them.  As Saul passed by, the anointing that was upon their life jumped off them and came on Saul. There was an anointing upon. The question is why were they doing what they were doing. Why won’t  this group of prophets sit cross-legged under the terebinth tree waiting on God? It was not their way to stir up the anointing of God. The way that they had discovered for their lives was to constantly play music.  It stirs the anointing on their life. They have reached level two.

Some people only moved into level one. At level one, we learn to recognize how it comes. At level two, we learn when it is not there how to bring it about. We are going to touch on this level a little bit - how to discover your particular way of bringing down the anointing. How do we discover the way in which the anointing can come in our life? By examining your particular manifestation when you first receive the anointing. When you first received the anointing and you prophesy you can be assured that you keep on prophesying to maintain it. If the anointing came upon you and your hand shakes, the next time you want the anointing of God, wait on Him, get into the atmosphere you learn and you stir and you sense that little hand shakes coming.

Now this kind of stirring is a little bit like Samson. Let us look at Samson as he operates in the anointing. In the book of Judges, Samson he has a particular way of moving in the anointing and his anointing was tremendous. He had such a powerful strength that came supernaturally. I want to point to you the fact that when his head was shaved and his covenant was broken, the anointing was lifted up from him. In Judges 16, a phrase there gives you an incident that could point to how he did it in verse 20. And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Therefore, he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!”  But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

When Samson had the anointing come upon his life, he seems to have this shaking.  When he wants the anointing, he seems to get it. Let me point to some local kind of situation that you could identify it with. There is a sense where you know that the anointing is bubbling forth you just have to release it for it to come forth. In any meeting or in any situation where you know that the anointing is hovering and ready to be released, you know exactly when it will be released. You could sense it.  You could withhold it also.  On the other hand, you could release more of it when you learn how the anointing comes on your life and what are its side effects. Although that is not the perfect kind of illustration but it will be in line with what Smith Wigglesworth said in his book. “When the Holy Spirit does not move, I move the Holy Spirit.” That is a very strange statement to say. When you take that statement out of context, it can give rise to dangerous ideas. The Holy Spirit is God, and we cannot arm-twist Him to do our bidding. However, Smith Wigglesworth is saying that he has learned to recognize how the Holy Spirit moves.  He knows like Elisha how to get into the anointing when he has a need. He knows how to move into the anointing when he needs it. That is where we say we need to understand our own peculiar sensation and know how to stir the anointing.

What other ways could it be experienced? Some people may not experience that kind of warmth. They may experience it differently. They may experience a kind of cold wind blowing. It does not mean that it always has to be hot. Some people say that since God is hot, then cold sensation is from the devil. Hell is hot too.  We cannot use that as a theology. For whatever reason sometimes when people sense the anointing they feel this cold shower over them.  It comes in waves. Therefore, they have to learn to recognize when it comes, how it comes.

If you observe Kathryn Kuhlman very carefully, she always lifts up her hands. Some people would need to lift up their hands before they get it. For example, in your first experience, you sensed the bubbling of the anointing of God and found that the anointing was released when you just lifted up your hands. Then the next time you sense the bubbling, you release it by lifting up your hands again, and the same anointing comes. Your particular anointing is released through what I call a release of faith God has given to you. It is just as if God has given you a teaching anointing you would have the confidence to operate in it even though at that time you are invited you don’t have the anointing upon you. Lets say suddenly you are called to teach. You could depend on that teaching anointing to bring forth the Word through your life. You could allow it to have demands made on the anointing of God. You developed a confidence in the grace and the gift of God in your life.

Let me repeat that statement again. What we are saying here in this level two is that not only do we learn how to stir it, the way we learn to stir it is to recognize the peculiarity of how it first outflow through our life. When first outflow of the anointing happened when you praised and worshipped God, or lifted up your hands, or playing your guitar, maintain what you did. Remember in all these outward manifestations, it is assumed that your relationship with God is fine. If your relationship with God is not fine, you will be like Samson - thinking that since you have been moving in the anointing regularly by a particular release of faith, it will come automatically. However, if you have left the Holy Spirit, and you tried to release the anointing by your usual release of faith, nothing will happen.

Let me rephrase those last few words. When you know there is a peculiar way in which it always comes you could rely on it as long as your relationship with Holy Spirit is right. You could rely on it as surely as you rely on a weapon in your life, which you have learned to use. You could definitely rely on that when you learned to operate in that and you know the anointing is on that.  When your relationship is not right and you try to rely on that, you will be like Samson. You go through all the motions, the right actions, but if you have no relationship with the Holy Spirit, nothing comes forth but the flesh. It works if you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit but it does not work if you do not have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

There are quite a few subjective experiences, divided into the four types of experiences.

Engulfed in His presence

Many believers experience being engulfed in His presence by reading the Bible with an open heart and being willing to let the Word speak deeper into the spirit man. In doing so, the Holy Spirit turns the logos into rhema. This may also be experienced by personal communion with the Holy Spirit in prayers, praying in the spirit, singing in the spirit with high praises, faith confession and meditation on “rhema” word.

 

Feeling His Holy Presence

            Many have also experienced a very clear state of mind, which is the seeming inability of their minds to think ungodly thoughts when they have ascended into the manifested presence of God. For the presence of the Lord is a holy presence. The scripture assures you that when you sow in the spirit, you will not reap in the flesh (Gal. 5: 6-7). When you have overcome the resistance of your soul and your flesh and moved into the presence of God, you will not hear the voices of the devil and the flesh (Gal. 5: 16).

            Some experience conviction of sin and forgiveness from God. Some others experience the removal of bondages such as fear, anxiety, resentment, unforgiveness, negative attitudes, and sins. In the holy presence of the Lord, you are often led into repentance and restoration.

Overflowing in the heart

            There is also a very strong level of faith and confidence when your spirit touches the manifested presence of God. There is sometimes a strong urge to give heartfelt thanks to God for things that you normally neglect to appreciate Him.

Physical sensations

            Some people feel tingling sensations on their palms or even over their arms when they have ascended into the presence of God.

            Some may feel a layer of heat over their necks, faces, shoulders, or backs. You need to find out the significance of each of them.

            Some people can see a very thin haze (once I saw it golden, other times white) in the atmosphere that is visible to the physical eyes.

            Some experience a “drunk” sensation in their head, which is a kind of soft and peaceful feeling that is not eerie at all. Their arms become weak, or the legs become so heavy that they have difficulty moving them. The presence of God is a weight of glory (2 Cor. 4: 17).

            Some can even momentarily smell a sweet aroma. (The presence of God is a very pure and delightful presence.)

A little illustration before we close. Stand before me and close your eyes. As we stand here, I pick in my spirit where I sensed the anointing is moving. As I pick it up, I could sense a pull in my spirit. I do not just simply lay hands on the head of a person. Before I lay hand or point to them, I want to sense what the Spirit is doing.  Therefore, what the Spirit do I just co-operate and then it flows. In other words, I do not make the decision when I move in the anointing. If I am not moving in the anointing, I forget all these things and  just lay hands.  When you are moving in the anointing you got to be sensitive to that anointing that is there. I move my hands into that area. As I move my hands into this area, I sense it building up. As it built into certain level, I know that it is just the right time to release it.

Demonstration of Anointing

            Another pastor in another church service gave the following teaching and demonstration of anointing. This verbatim report is added here to expand on the teaching on the anointing of the Holy Spirit. (Ed.)

            Pastor says, “The Holy Spirit would like to shed more light on the healing anointing. We have seen the finger anointing and the eye anointing. The finger healing anointing destroys the root cause of the sickness or disease and all the symptoms together. It is useful for complex cases where there are so many symptoms, you are not sure what is the root cause. Doctors may even run several diagnoses before coming to some conclusion. Even then, doctors may disagree with one another when diagnosing a particular patient. The finger healing anointing literally puts its finger on the root cause and heals the root cause. Once the root cause is dealt with, all the other symptoms are dealt with too.”

            “The eye anointing is also powerful. It is one of the “greater works than these” mentioned by the Lord Jesus Christ that the body of Christ will do. During His life and ministry on earth, there is no record of Jesus using the eye anointing to heal the sick.”

            “There may be overlapping benefits between the finger anointing and the eye anointing. However, there are main features associated with the eye anointing. In the spiritual realm, there are different demonic forces with different abilities. God gives different types of anointing to tackle the different abilities and powers of Satan. In the natural realm, we see that certain medicines are made to tackle certain types of physical problems. Likewise, the eye anointing is useful for blasting away strongholds in a person that came through his or her eye gate. Jesus Christ said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6: 22-23)

            “If your eye gate is given over to works of darkness, you will allow the enemy to plant his strongholds in your body until your whole body is full of strongholds. When you yield to the enemy’s strongholds in your body, you will accumulate sin and darkness in your being. The Holy Spirit wants to expose the work of the enemy in infiltrating your body through your eye gate. When your eye gate is dark, your heart will also be filled with darkness. These are immense powerful forces of darkness. The only way to attack them is through the eye anointing. You can lay hands on the sick but certain diseases and sicknesses are best dealt with by the eye anointing. God has antidote for every kind of problems but you must learn from the Holy Spirit. If you do not fellowship with the Holy Spirit, how can the Holy Spirit teach you the deeper aspects of the healing anointing? You may learn from men and from books. However, many of their teachings come from their own intellect and not from the Holy Spirit. That is why men’s teachings bring a lot of confusion to the body of Christ.”

            “One of the works of the enemy on the eye gate is creating of fears and phobias. Seeing unpleasant, frightening, and evil things provoke many types of fears in people. They can be dealt with by the eye anointing.”

            Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, pastor calls out six ladies who are having fears in their lives. When they came up to the stage, the anointing caused them to suddenly relive their fears and they were crying and shaking from their fears. Pastor told them to prepare spiritually to receive the eye anointing. “Now, look at my eyes.” The six women looked at pastor’s eyes, screamed, and fell backwards to the floor. After they came up, each one of them came up to the mike to testify.

           

            First lady: “I had a fear of lizards and fear of death especially after seeing an accident. I felt the full force coming from the vessel’s eyes enter my eyes and destroying the fears. I do not have these fears anymore.”

            Second lady: “I had a fear of heights, of entering lifts and escalators alone. I also had fears of high achiever men and the intellectual type of men who are clever at talking. I also had fears of snakes. Now, I can think of them and I do not fear them anymore.”

            Third lady: “I had fear of lizards. I felt a great force coming upon me and there was a struggle in me. I felt the stronghold has been yanked out of me.”

            Fourth lady: “I had fear of driving since I always visualize accidents. I also had a fear of flying cockroaches. Now I do not have these fears after receiving the eye anointing from the vessel’s eyes.”

            Fifth lady: “I must look at something until I am satisfied. Otherwise, I will fear that particular thing. I also had a fear of coffins. Now these fears are gone after I was slain by the eye anointing from the vessel.”

            Sixth lady: “I had fear of cockroaches, caterpillars and snakes. Now I can think of them without any fear after the eye anointing came upon me.”

            Pastor commented, “Fears are an outward sign of demonic control. Many are suffering and not getting breakthroughs in their lives because they do not have this knowledge of this eye anointing. How can you deliver God’s people if you do not have this knowledge?”

            Pastor called out another woman who was seeing images. He said, “Some see images and they think they are visions from God. That is not true. It can be the work of the enemy too.”

            The woman said, “I see a pair of eyes staring at me all the time.”

            Pastor said, “Prepare yourself. Now look at my eyes.”

            She looked at his eyes and fell down, screaming. Pastor said, “She is not the one screaming but the strongholds themselves which are present in her. These strongholds have their own defenses. Hence, there must be a measure of anointing to break their defenses. There are both internal and external forces attacking her and the eye anointing has destroyed both. In her case, the pair of eyes staring at her all the time was inherited from her ancestors who dabbled in the occult. This caused her to see demonic visions. Some Christians who have not dealt with this kind of demonic eyes inherited from their ancestors claim to see visions. However, their visions are not from God but are from these demonic eyes. External forces are aiding the internal forces in her because there is bond between the two. The external forces are the atmospheric demons that aid and supply power to the internal forces in her.

            The woman shouted in pain to the pastor, “I cannot see you.” Pastor said, ‘Now the Holy Spirit is releasing a double eye anointing.” There was a powerful reaction in her as she seems to put up a violent struggle. “Even the dark underworld also exercises the power of the eye anointing, for example, the sorcerers, shamans, witches and warlocks. They use their eyes to release evil powers and spells on their intended victims and cause death to them. In the eye anointing, there are many levels. For this woman’s sake who is experiencing powerful evil forces in her eyes, the Holy Spirit has to release a very high level of anointing. Sometimes, people see figures staring at them when they look at themselves in a mirror. God will release this eye anointing when the time comes.”

            The woman now got up and testified at the mike, “I felt a force from the vessel and felt something broken in me. The pair of eyes that used to stare at me is totally gone.”

            Pastor now called out those who have constant giddiness. He said, “Doctors normally correlate giddiness and dizziness to high and low blood pressure and diabetes. The invisible link of giddiness and dizziness is however related to the eye gate.”

            He also called out those who suffer from constant migraines and not just headaches. He said, “Through the eye gate, a lot of powers of darkness are kept in secret. They are hiding in the person’s eyes and from there, they launch their attacks from time to time. That is why some people have migraines from time to time. When your eye is dark, your inside will also be dark.”

            He then called out those who are hearing voices in their minds. He also called out those who hear ringing in their minds even if they do not want it.

            Several persons came forward to the stage. Pastor told them to look at his eyes. The anointing came forth from his eyes and broke the strongholds lodged in the people’s eyes. Many fell to the floor and there were many reactions. Some were screaming; some were staring at the pastor; some were still reacting while on the floor which pastor said were due to external atmospheric demons assisting the internal forces to resist the eye anointing.

           

4.   THE ANOINTING UPON JESUS

We are now going to chapter two of the book, “The Anointing of the Holy Spirit.” In this chapter, we have several areas to cover on the anointing on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ was anointed as can be seen from the gospel of Luke 4: 18 and 19 when He Himself said that the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him. What type of anointing functioned in His life and how did it operate in His life?

Our Lord Jesus Christ stood in all five offices. He was an apostle (Hebrews 3:1). He was a prophet (Mark 6:4; Acts 3: 22-26) Peter said that Jesus was a prophet whom Moses spoke about. He was an evangelist as we can see from Mark 1:4 that He went about preaching the kingdom of God. He was a pastor as John 10: 11 says that He is the good Shepherd. He was known as a teacher in John 3: 2 where Nicodemus said that “we know that You are a teacher sent from God.” The Lord Jesus Christ was anointed to stand in all the five offices.

Very few people stand in all five offices. Even the apostle Paul stood only in three. He was an apostle, a teacher, and an evangelist. Others may just stand in one particular office. Some have one and some have two. In fact, the more offices we stand in, the more careful we have to know which offices to give priority to. Kenneth E. Hagin stands in two offices – prophet and teacher. He was supposed to give priority to the prophetic office over the teaching office.

Notice Paul knows the priority. When you stand in more than one office, what are the priorities? Notice in the apostle Paul’s writing he knows the priority in his life.

Let us look at the book of I Timothy 2:7, For which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle – I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying – a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Also in II Timothy 1:11 To which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. Notice he was very consistent in his listing. Preacher speaks about the evangelist office, then as apostle and then the teaching office. Paul was very specific. This order of priority of the three offices in Paul’s life – evangelist, apostle and teacher - is not in the same order of the five offices as listed in Eph. 4:11 and 12, which is apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. If Paul had followed the order in Eph. 4: 11-12, he would have called himself an apostle first, then evangelist and teacher.

How did Paul function in his offices? In spite of his listing in I Timothy and II Timothy, Paul primarily functioned in the evangelistic anointing first. When the other two offices’ anointing arises, he would give room for them. See there is a priority in his life. The main purpose given to him is to evangelize the Gentiles. Once he has found a group, who has accepted the Lord Jesus, then he functioned as an apostle to plant a church among these new believers and then he taught them as a teacher. Do you notice that this is the order he followed all through his life? He would always evangelize first; then he would seek to fulfill the ministry as an apostle and then he would teach. He followed this order in his ministry.

Let us look at the starting of Paul’s ministry in Acts 11. We are looking at the anointing of Jesus but we have to compare it with a human being like Paul. Acts 11:22 Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul.  And when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. And it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people.  And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.  

Notice that when Paul started his ministry, he only had one office. He was merely a teacher. He did not evangelize the people in Antioch. Somebody else did the job there in Antioch. He was called by Barnabas to help teach the church in Antioch.   When Barnabas took Paul to Antioch, he only stood in one office and one anointing at that time and that was the office of a teacher. It is easier to function in one type of anointing than in many types of anointing. It is easier to function in one office than in many offices because of the priority one must make. Just like it is not easy for a man to wear many hats. It is easier to just wear one hat. If you have a lot of offices to function in you have to prioritize your time. How much time do you spend in each office and what are the principles involved in the prioritizing the time? There is a difference between standing in many offices and functioning in many anointing. You could stand in one office and function in many types of anointing. You could stand in three offices and function in those three types of anointing.  You could stand in one office and function in one anointing.  There are a lot of combinations involved.

Paul started as a teacher and functioned in that area for one and a half years or two.  As time went on and he served faithfully as a teacher, in Acts 13, there was a promotion for him when they were all gathered together in prayer. The leadership of the church of Antioch in verse 1 and 2 Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. Saul was not among the prophets. He was among the teachers. It says there were some prophets and teachers who gathered. See Paul himself said in I Timothy chapter two and II Timothy chapter one that he stood only in three offices – that of a preacher, which is an evangelist, an apostle and a teacher. That means he was never a prophet. Let us not put something on him that he never said he was. Let us realize where he stands. He was not among the prophets. He was among the teachers in Acts 13. That tells you he still functioned in the one office. One office can have many types of anointing. Verse 2 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ”Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

As they started Paul in his journeys traveled very far. Notice the moment they traveled, they went to the island and they confronted Elymas the sorcerer.  In verse 13 Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylla; and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem. Then from there they went to synagogue after synagogue, place after place to preach the gospel.  After that prayer meeting, Paul went full steam on his missionary journeys. Do not underestimate small prayer meetings. Do not underestimate any meeting that people gather because they love the Lord. Out of that prayer meeting with only a handful of people came forth the first missionary movement that the church saw.  From that day onward from Acts 13: 2, I believe Paul moved into the other two offices. He was an evangelist and he was an apostle too. He was already a teacher. Notice also he started as a teacher but in the end in I Timothy chapter two and II Timothy chapter one, the office of teacher was relegated to the lowest priority in his ministry. His highest priority became evangelizing. He wrote to the church in Rome how that he desired to visit them and they will help his party on his way to places where the gospel had never been preached. In I Cor. he mentioned very clearly he wants to lay a foundation where nobody has laid.  He wants to reach new people as an evangelist but with the additional ministry of an apostle, which is to establish churches in places he visited.

That means as he stood in three offices, Paul had to be very sensitive to give appropriate attention to his office of teaching, office of an evangelist, and office of an apostle as the occasion demands. The list in I Timothy chapter two and II Timothy chapter one indicates the way he moves. Now it still is important to be sensitive to the order that God has given in Eph. 4:11-12 and I Cor. 12:28-30. Hagin stood only in two offices.  Most of the time, he would just move in the teaching anointing. However, whenever the prophetic anointing came, he was supposed to move into that. He did not want to move into that because prophets receive a lot of criticism and he had to do things that a teacher may not need to do.  Because of that, he realized that he moved into the permissive will of God and in his book “I believe in Visions,” he mentioned that he fell and was taken to the hospital. Jesus visited him and said that he had been in the permissive will for some years. Not because he sinned but because he did not prioritize the offices carefully that God called him to.  It is important that when we stand in whatever office God has given to be faithful and if you are given more than one office you have to be very sensitive to the anointing. When the anointing comes for you to move into one particular office, move into that. If you are a bit slow, the pillar of cloud will move ahead of you and you will be without a covering and protection. We have to move when the pillar of cloud moves. You have to flow where God is leading.  Be faithful to the offices that He has set upon your life.

Sometimes human beings out of their good intention do not understand these things and they would prefer that you stay in certain types of offices and anointing that God did not ask you to stay there. Most people would have prefer to move in the teaching anointing because when you move into the prophetic anointing, sometimes you may have to give prophecies that are painful to accept. The prophecies may be positively constructive but it can also be corrective.  Because of that, Hagin’s teaching ministry was more accepted that his prophetic ministry.

Having established all these in the different offices we look at the Lord Jesus Christ and see how the Lord Jesus Christ stood in five offices. One reason why we do not see many people flow like Jesus flows is because very few people stood in five offices. No doubt, someone who stands in a few offices will demonstrate a more powerful ministry than those who stand in only one office. Jesus stood in five offices. He was faithful to God, heard God, and He functioned in the anointing of all five offices. 

We got to clarify some facts in Jesus’ life. Firstly, the anointing upon His life was without measure. The anointing could be measured and you could apportion it.

Let me read from the book, “The Anointing of the Holy Spirit,” in chapter two page nine.

God told Moses that He would take the Spirit that was upon him and put the same anointing upon the seventy elders (Numbers 11:7). Here is an example of a man having a great anointing of the Holy Spirit, and a part of the power being taken from him by the Lord, to be divided and used to anoint seventy others (Numbers 11: 25). The anointing can be measured!

In fact, it was said of Jesus by John that He had the Spirit upon Him without measure (John 3: 34). The word ‘measure’ being used here implies that the anointing had been given in measures to people before but now is given without measure to our Lord Jesus Christ.                                                         [AHS]

Let us look at the book of Numbers. During the forty years period in the wilderness, Moses was under pressure as he led the people of God. The call of God upon his life was too heavy. In Numbers 11, the people started murmuring. Moses said to the Lord in Numbers 11: 11-15, And Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You afflicted Your servant?  And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that you should say to me, “Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child, to the land which You swore to their fathers? “Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep all over me saying, Give us meat, that we may eat. I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. If you treat me like this, please kill me here and now – if I have found favor in Your sight – and do not let me see my wretchedness.”

 Moses was complaining that the burden of the people was too hard for him to bear.  He asks the Lord to take him away. The Lord told Moses to appoint seventy people. The seventy people were numbered and on the day when the anointing was to come, one of them was absent. In verse 16, And the Lord said to Moses, “Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the leaders of the people and officers over them. Bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you. Then I will come down and talk with you there, I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone. Verse 25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders.

In fact, although two men were missing from that gathering, they also had the Spirit come upon their lives because they were numbered among the seventy. We see that God did not send a fresh measure of anointing. Instead, He took part of the anointing upon Moses and divided it among the seventy elders. Remember that when God calls He gives the ability. The anointing is the ability of God that He gives to perform a task. He is a fair God. He does not call you to do something without giving you an anointing for it. When He calls, He gives an anointing. That anointing upon Moses was sufficient for him to fulfill the task. However, human nature is such that sometimes it is not easy to draw the anointing.  That tells us something. The anointing does not just work automatically. You could have an anointing. Moses actually had an anointing to fulfill the task of managing the problems of the people under him but it was not working automatically because Moses experienced the human feeling of rejection, loneliness, pressure, and stress that an overburdened person would go through. Besides that, there were the constant murmuring, resistance, rebellion, willfulness, stubbornness, slandering, and accusation coming from the people.  We need to consider all these things. 

Moses had an anointing upon his life. It was there all the time although it was not automatically functioning. Let me tell you there is pressure of two million fellows there complaining. It is not easy to take that burden, humanly speaking. Leadership may seems to be in the limelight but it is not as glamorous as people think that it is. Yet God gives the grace. Sometimes, when the anointing is there we do not know how to tap it. You functioned in a manner that revealed your inability to flow with the anointing. What happens if a person die without flowing fully in the anointing? That person’s anointing will go to somebody else. See God gives an anointing to get a job done. If the job is not done, the anointing will go to somebody else who is willing to get the job done. God is interested in results and not in decorations. Leadership is not just decoration. If someone gets into a leadership position and does not have the anointing, that person becomes a tyrant and an oppressor of God’s people. Holding a position without anointing is dangerous. On the other hand, there are some situations where a person could be called and anointed for leadership but he or she do not draw on the anointing given for assuming that leadership. They would also be crushed under the weight of the position since the anointing is not activated to accomplish God’s work.

Moses came to the point where he wanted to die. Elijah also said the same thing after Jezebel started chasing him. He ran for his life. Ironically, he could come against four hundred prophets but he could not deal with one woman. He told God to kill him. The moment he said that, God told Elijah to choose another guy because God was going to select somebody else to get his anointing. That was when God told him to go and choose Elisha. The next time you are in leadership position and you are thinking of complaining - watch out, you may lose some of your anointing to others. The next time God called and anointed you for something, do not complain of pressures coming from the people. Human pressure will always be there. We are spirit beings but we also have a human nature. God did not take away our soul. You have feelings too. However, if you allow them to dominate you and you ever say, “Lord, this is too much, Lord take me home,” that’s the time some of the anointing is going to be taken off you. When the anointing is taken off, you would have less responsibility too.  Less responsibility comes with less reward. You do not fully meet what God wanted you originally to do. This is a possibility because God honors free choice in our life.

The point we want to show in this incident is how God could take the anointing of the Spirit and divide it in measures. Some may be frightened at this like John Wimber was at first. He thought that if he kept imparting his anointing to others, after sometime he would have no more anointing left. Imparting is different from God taking it off you. As you impart your anointing, it never runs out. After all, it is more a stream of supply that flows.  You could impart the anointing to people and it will never run dry. It is a different matter altogether if God takes your anointing completely off you and distribute it to others. The point that we are seeing here is that there are different measures of the anointing; there are different degrees of the anointing. Two persons may stand in the office of a prophet but both receive different measures of anointing. It is the same office but there are different levels of anointing. As was given in the book there, “The Anointing of the Holy Spirit,” Elijah has the anointing but Elisha has a double portion of the anointing. Both men occupied the same office but they each had a different measure of the anointing. Some ministers are more anointed than others. That is a true because God gives different measures of anointing.

We need to learn how to increase the measure of the anointing. Before we look into that, let us look at the anointing on Jesus and see the statement made by John the Baptist of Jesus. John 1:32, John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”   He says he sees the Spirit coming upon Him and remaining upon Him. That was supposed to be for John to know that he is going to be the One the giver of the Holy Spirit. The anointing can be measured. Notice in Jn. 3:34 it tells us that Jesus had been given the Spirit without measure. He had the Spirit on His life and it was measureless. For He whom God has sent speaks the word of God, (now “He” is capitalized since it refers to Jesus) for God does not give the Spirit by measure. Now that statement applies only to Jesus’ situation. If John made that statement and it applies to everybody then it cancels out what II Kings 2 said where Elisha asked for double measure.  God had given the Spirit in measure. Numbers 11 there was the measure taken from Moses and given to the people.  The word “He” particularly refers to Jesus who received the Spirit upon His life without measure.  He stood in apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher office in full measure. Some evangelists stand in a certain measure of anointing and other evangelists have a greater measure of the anointing. Even among the five-fold ministry, there are different measures.  Jesus stood in all five-fold and had all the full measure of all the five-fold. That is why Jesus was so powerful in His ministry. The anointing makes the difference. Since the anointing was on His life without measure, that verse is also in a sense prophetic of a time coming when God intends to give people a very high level or measureless anointing in the offices. The book of Acts 2 says in the last days God will pour His Spirit. God intends to release a measureless measure of the anointing upon this earth in the last days. God will pour His Spirit upon all flesh. It is the intention of God to release the measureless measure. If God calls you to be a prophet, you could tap into the measureless measure in that office. There is a possibility of moving into that area. God could call you to be a teacher and you could tap into that measureless measure of anointing in that office too.

Now there are key principles to learn how to tap into the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We are establishing the principle that the anointing can be measured. Jesus had it on His life without measure. The book, “The Anointing of the Holy Spirit,” tells you how the anointing can be increased measure upon measure. Before we move into learning how to tap into the anointing, we have to know when the anointing comes upon us, how to yield to the outflow of the anointing to receive the inflow of the anointing as we were teaching in the past three lessons. Jesus had to flow by the same laws of the inflow and outflow. Jesus had to know the tangibility of the anointing upon His life.  He had to declare the anointing upon His life.

Let us look at some examples of Jesus’ life. In the gospel of Mk. 5:27 When she heard about Jesus she came behind Him in the crows and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.  Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that the power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?” Jesus knew that there was a flow of anointing through His life. He knew there was this presence upon Him. Then we see chapter 6:4-6 But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.  He marveled because of the unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit teaching. 

The very next chapter we see that although the anointing was upon Jesus’ life was measureless, it was not operative at all. He had to come down to the point of laying hands. Why was that so?  The people were not receptive to the anointing in His life. He could not flow through to them. Three areas are mentioned as a possibility of stopping the flow of the anointing - His own country; in His own hometown and in His own house. The non-receptivity of the people in these three areas indicates that familiarity in the wrong sense hindered them from receiving Jesus as a prophet. They did not receive Jesus as a Messiah. Due to their lack of belief, they thought that Jesus the carpenter was trying to masquerade as a prophet. They said, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son.” Jesus had more to offer them. Jesus knew that the anointing was operating for them. He did not purposely force Himself into it. However, He refused to flow into that anointing in the midst of an unbelieving crowd.

In gospel of Lk. 4 after He declared in verse 18 and 19 that the anointing was on Him, He rolled the scroll, sat down and all the eyes were on Him. In verse 21, He said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Do you know they did not receive Him as the Messiah or the prophet of God? But they said in verse 22, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” They received Him indeed but they received Him just as an ordinary person. The bible tells us, and notice what He said in verse 23. It has reference to Him choosing not to flow.  He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.”  He was saying that some of them were going to say to Him to do that all the mighty works He did in Capernaum. The people’s words were said more in the sense of mockery and sarcasm, rather than in faith and belief. The people of Nazareth tried to put pressure on Him to perform.  Jesus said in verse 24 Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. Please do not go around and claim that as a biblical promise. He was talking about a purely human phenomenon that can be overcome. Even Kathryn Kuhlman did not have full reception in her hometown. The people would still look down on her. When her ministry went international, she still got the same old critics in her own hometown. Some in her hometown accepted her and wanted to build a memorial landmark in her hometown but there was opposition too to that project. This may be due to some natural human tendencies to put down others out of envy and jealousy. 

We see that the anointing was there but He knew that there would not be any flow at all in that place. But subsequently in Lk. 6:6 Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught.  And a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the Scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him. (Now these people did not believe Him.) But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, “Arise and stand here,” And he arose and stood. Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to go good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy? ” And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, “Stretch out you hand,” And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.

Now an interesting thing about this incident is that it was contrary to what happened in Jesus’ hometown. On this Sabbath, people, namely the scribes and Pharisees, were also going against Him. However, in the midst of their unbelief and accusations, Jesus demonstrated the anointing. Does it not look opposite to what happened in Nazareth, His hometown? In this other place, these guys were staring at Him like vultures waiting to devour Him anytime. They were looking for fault. Let me tell you if you are going to find fault you can find it in anybody and everybody. A major portion of criticism is fault finding. I mean if you do not like someone you just keep quiet. Some people will always find fault with others. “I do not like this.” “I do not like that.” They will find things that they do not like. “I do not like the shirt you wear.” “I do not like your hair style.” You could always find practically a reason not to like somebody. Let your conscience be your judge and do not feel oppressed by other people’s unfair criticisms. You may not be the one at fault. That critical guy may be having a spirit of slander and gossip on his or her tongue.

Now here is the contradictory situation. In Mark 6 and Luke 4, the people of Jesus’ own hometown rejected Him and He could not do any mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. In Luke 6, the scribes and Pharisees were watching him like a hawk. Verse 7, So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him. Despite their unbelief and vulture-like stares, Jesus performed a miracle in front of them.

That is where we have to differentiate between a miracle and a sign and wonder. The bible does not use all these words emptily. A sign and wonder can be a miracle but it can be more than that. A sign and wonder is an anointing that God gives to cut through unbelief. However, a normal miracle and an anointing to do the miraculous may not work under certain circumstances. In other words, if God gives you a certain anointing to perform a sign, you could have everybody staring down at you in unbelief and you could still do it because the anointing was given to cut through that thick unbelief that is present.  Sometimes the anointing is just in the miraculous realm and you got to meet the conditions involved. Sometimes, the anointing is a sign and wonder that can be used in what I call a demonstrative manner. You could use it as a challenge.  However, you better be sure that the anointing is going to flow. Otherwise, you could be run out of town. If that miracle does not happen, you could possibly be crucified.

William Branham was ministering in Africa in the midst of many followers of false religions. He pulled out a man with a withered hand. Now that is a sign but it is also a miracle. A sign works in the midst of unbelief. Sometimes God gives signs. Signs are to challenge and to cut through unbelief so that you will believe. It is not just a normal anointing. Signs are at a different level of anointing.  He named all the religions present and he told the people, “If your god is real, come and restore this man.” There was silence in the stadium. Then he says, “To show you that Jesus Christ is the true and only living God, in the Name of Jesus, be healed.” The withered hand healed instantaneously and he became a normal man. After that, you do not need a sermon. He gave an invitation and everybody ran up.  That is a sign.

Do you notice God gave Moses three signs. Why did God give him a sign? Moses said they will not believe. Because of the unbelief, God said, “Alright I give you three signs.” One of the signs was putting his hand into his bosom, taking it out, and turning into a leprous hand. He puts his hand back again, takes it out and it became a normal hand.  Moses also took water, poured it on the ground, and it turned into blood. He took a stick, threw it down and it became a snake. A sign is to confront unbelief and to create faith in God and those whom He has sent. These are days where we need to reach out to God for signs. Now signs do not just come easily. A sign has a purpose.

You hardly hear about William Branham today although he was very powerful in his days. Why? In the 1960s, he turned into wrong teaching and error. As a result, people do not just reject his ministry but they also rejected the purpose of God’s calling on his life. A portion of his ministry was genuine but some portions of his ministry were also bad.  People did not differentiate the two. You could have served God for fifty years but if you missed God for the last five years, people are not going to acknowledge your ministerial labor for the first fifty years. They will say that you have been a false prophet all along. 

Now here is the thing to watch it. A sign has a place and a time. It is different from anointing upon all the time. If God gives you an anointing upon you could flow in it all the time when there is demand made for that ministry. However, a sign may be used for some time and then passed away. You do not find Moses always going around performing the three signs God gave him – the sign of the hand becoming leprous, the sign of the water turning into blood, and the sign of the stick turning into a snake. Now as they crossed the Red Sea and the people started questioning his leadership, Moses did not quickly start his magic show again - putting his hand in and taking it out leprous; turning water into blood and changing the stick into a snake.  No, a sign does not come just like that. He never uses it anymore; he used it once in his lifetime. You cannot call up a sign anytime. However, some signs are persistent to a ministry.

William Branham has a particular sign of working with the angel. He ministers to people by holding their hand with his left hand because certain signs operate in his left hand. Some signs are quite consistent but they only come as the Spirit wills.  A sign can operate in the midst of unbelief but when it functions in a normal anointing, it goes by the normal laws. There is no exception.  The only exception to what we are teaching and flow in the anointing is the category of sign.  If God gives you a sign to take to the head of state, you better make sure it is truly from the Lord. Otherwise, you will start a prison ministry. However, if you demonstrate the sign, then you could bring the whole nation to the Lord.  Signs are powerful. Let us not ignore the fact. Jesus Christ moved in both categories. There are times when this unbelief is present. God may use you like He used William Branham. He called up a man who had withered hand and he used that man as a challenge. He challenged the people. That is the purpose of signs. Signs are used to challenge unbelief. However, you do not find that at all in Mk. 6. In unbelief, He did not do anything. Instead, He just prayed for a few simple cases. He did not operate any sign.

 

There is another case that we want to consider in the gospel of Mark 8:11 Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven. It does not mean that if you operate in signs that when people challenge you, you do what they want. You do not do things in the ministry because somebody tells you to. You better settle that in your life and in your heart. You do not do anything because somebody tells you to. Whether it is from somebody in high status or in low status; whether it is because you are under high pressure or low pressure; whether it a popular thing to do or not a popular thing to do - in the ministry if God has called you, you do not do anything because somebody asked you to do it. You do it because you know God has asked you to do it. I had that settled in my early days when God called me. I settled in my heart that I would not do anything if somebody pressurizes me. However, if you prayed and you sensed God is saying something to me and you allowed me to check it out with God, that is different. I fear no man and I fear no devil. In fact, I despise pressure being put on me. I despise people trying to corner me and telling me to do something. When people do that, they are not depending on the Lord. God does not put you into this kind of situation. What you will not do to Jesus do not do to the leaders in your fellowship or in your church.  

 

Jesus Christ was always cornered. He had the ability to do signs if God so will. There are times when thunder from heaven and a voice spoke. He did not ask for it but it came. Here they put Him in a fix by asking Him to show them a sign and they would believe. That is a ridiculous request. Even if He did, they would not have believed. Jesus said no sign would be given except the sign of Jonah. The sign of Jonah pointed to and prophesied His own death and resurrection. He determined never to do anything under pressure from men.

 

That is an important thing as you learn to move into the anointing of God. If you go to a home group to preach, if you go to a place and do anything you do not do it because you are under pressure to perform. You only do what the Spirit of God tells you to do. Obey the Holy Spirit and do exactly what He tells you to. Do not try to please men but please God with all your heart, mind, and strength. That is what each one of us is training to do - to please God. We are here to please God. If God tells you something, that is final.

 

We want to point to a particular thing in His ministry to a blind man in Mark 8. In verse 22 Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him.  He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he say anything.  And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking. ”Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. Then He sent him away to his house, saying, “Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town.”

 

 I find this incident to be extremely interesting. For the first time you see how one touch from Jesus is not enough. Obviously, He operated by the anointing here. You know what He did. He spat on his eyes. You better make sure it is an anointing.  The man looked up and said, “I see men walking like trees.” The interesting is this is Jesus Himself. I mean if this is another preacher or one of His disciples we can understand. But this is the Lord Jesus Christ and He ministered the anointing and this man was partially healed.  The bible says in Isa. 10:27 the anointing breaks the yoke. It did not mention that the yoke would be partially broken or partially healed. You know what Jesus did? He put His hands on this man again and ministered the anointing. See Jesus here is flowing by the anointing. He is ministering the anointing of God on human lives.  He could sense like what we have shown yesterday how the anointing can flow.  As the anointing flowed, it must be the Holy Spirit and the anointing of God that caused Him to spit and take that saliva and put it on the man’s eyes. He flowed in a certain way in the anointing of God.

 

Then why is it that the anointing does not give a perfect complete healing? It is because the anointing may need time to operate on a person. I know there are people who say, “If the Lord tells you to pray for people you just pray.” You can do it but there are times when it takes a longer period. Why? Different principles operate when you channel the anointing.  Here, Jesus was channeling the anointing again to this man. Let us face it we are not moving even at Jesus’ level now. Here as we are still trying to reach Jesus’ level and seeking to do what He do, a lot more is required from both the minister and the person being ministered to. Like for example when you are ministering to somebody, you may have to stand and let the anointing flow through you. Sometimes the anointing just flow easily; sometimes it is fast as lightning and sometimes it is like a slow current.  Sometimes it bounces off a little bit. You flow along with the anointing of God as it flows in your life.

 

There are two causes for the flow of the anointing - the minister’s side and the recipient’s side for the anointing to flow. The level of differential of the positive and the negative points of a battery determines the amount of current flowing through.  In the same way, there is the flow of anointing from the minister to a recipient. The amount of anointing flowing depends on the level of anointing upon me and the level of hunger in that person.  In Jesus’ life, there is no question of the level of anointing. His is hundred percent anointed all the time. He is always flowing at peak performance.  We cannot question His side. We only can question the recipient’s side. There are more issues involved on the minister’s side, for example his yieldedness to the Lord. 

 

Then we need to consider the amount of measure flowing at that time. As you notice, you look at the fluctuation in the anointing. The anointing can fluctuate within a person’s ministry and it can fluctuate within the same meeting. It can fluctuate from meeting to meeting and it can fluctuate from within one meeting, depending on the level that is flowing. Sometimes when it is flowing very fast you got to move very fast. I sensed sometimes that people minister the anointing there is a heavy flow coming forth. When there is an anointing that is heavy and strong, you got to be quick. You do not delay. Sometimes when the anointing is there, you have to be quick. You notice sometimes when I call pastors to minister together with me to the congregation, I would mention that the anointing is ready. Suppose they start dragging their feet, putting their bibles down, adjusting their dress or shirt, combing their hair and then coming out to position themselves in front of the people. By the time they finished all these the level of the anointing begin to fall. You got to start all over again.  All these are facts to note about the flowing of the anointing of God. You have to be sensitive to the level to the anointing that is flowing. You minister and you flow along according to the level of the anointing.   

Demonstration of the Anointing

            What follows is an account of some actual demonstration of the anointing conducted in another church by another pastor. This verbatim report is added here to show some new dimensions of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. In this particular service, the anointing was used to unmask the dark powers causing problems to individuals. (Ed.)

            Pastor said, “In the end times, God will unleash more of the Holy Spirit to accomplish His plans and purposes. Not everyone will be caught in the rapture. Only those who obey God and do God’s will. God wants to release the anointing through the Body of Christ, but now it is in the initial stage. God expects accountability. All gifts belong to God and God will manifest through us to accomplish His job and purposes. God gets all the glory, not any church or organization. God is a jealous God. He is the God who performs the miracles, not you and me.”

            “There is an anointing to set you free and see to your needs. This anointing will zero in on the root cause. It will summon the dark powers behind your problem and they have to manifest themselves.”

First Case        

Pastor walked down the aisle and points to an Indian woman to go up to the mike. He then asks her, “What do you want from the Holy Spirit. Think carefully – you have only one request.” She said, “I find it difficult to walk with God. I find myself going further and further from the Lord.”

            Pastor shouts, “Damo.” The woman started manifesting and a demon began growling through her throat.

Pastor asks the demon in her, “Is your name Damo?”

            “Yes.”

            “Are you responsible for her spiritual condition?”

            “Yes.”

            “Tell us how you did it.”

            “I make sure she will forget God. I make her lazy and tired so that she does not have to spend time with God. I make her happy with her life and give her a lot of work to do.”

            “How did you enter her?”

            “I entered her through her stronghold spirits and through her mind. Her ancestors did a lot of wrong things.”

            “Like worship you?”

            “Yes. People who do not believe in strongholds are stupid. They get the enemy to come into their lives easily. They open doors to us to create havoc in their lives.”

            “Alright, all your legal rights stripped. Go to your assigned place in hell.”

            Pastor continues, “Some demons are subtle and are not unruly or violent. You will be surprised that some demons are like gentlemen but they are evil. In the spirit realm, they even dressed up in coats and ties. Not all demonic manifestation are violent.”

            Now pastor asks the woman, “How do you feel now?”

            “I feel light and my mind is very free now. I have no more thoughts of going far from God. Something has left me like a shadow. I feel liberated. I sense God now, and I will spend more time with Him.”

Second Case

            Pastor calls out an Indian man to the mike and asked, “What blessing do you        want from the Holy Spirit?”

            The man replied, “I feel something is disturbing me and making me feel that I won’t make it to heaven.”

            Pastor summoned the evil spirit out, “Razi, come out.” The man now is writhing in pain and groaning.

            Pastor asked the demon, “Where were you before this?”

            “I was in an elephant’s body. I am known as Rajagabeli and I reside in a mountain in India.”

            “How did you come here?”

            “Fiery angels brought me here. I could not fight them.”

            “What did you do to this man?”

            “I troubled him by providing him opportunities to yield to temptations. I made him feel that he will not make it to heaven. I planned to bring him to hell.”

            “Why are you crying now?”

            “I am frightened because of the judgment of God.”

            “Did you receive the document from the Lord Jesus Christ?”

            “Yes, I did receive that document. It says that I have been judged and my time on earth is up.”

            “How did you get into this man?”

            “Through his ancestors’ worship of idols. It is not easy for such people to get out of this trap. We tie a large coil around his family. A large anointing can only break it. Many Christians think that after their baptism, they have no more strongholds. This is not true. This is worldly wisdom and understanding. We create circumstances to drag them down. Can I go now?

            “All your legal rights stripped. Go to the place in hell assigned to you.” The demon left with a loud scream and the man fell to the floor.

            Pastor continues, “If God gives you a breakthrough, He gives you a definite breakthrough. A lot of people do not understand deliverance. They impart from their soul. God’s way is the way of the anointing. “

            The man gets up and testifies at the mike, “I felt something coiling around my body has left. The thought that I won’t make it to heaven has also left.”

Third Case

            Pastor calls up a Chinese woman to the mike, saying, “What do you want from the Holy Spirit?”

            She says, “I have pride in my heart and mind and I want deliverance from this pride.”

            Pastor says, “Behind negative and wrong thoughts and feelings are dark forces.”

            Pastor called out loudly, “Lin Lai.” The demon in the woman starts groaning and moaning and it appears tormented. “Are you behind the pride in her heart and mind?” The demon refused to answer and kept silent. Pastor then consigned the demon to hell, and it left with a low moan. He continues, “Demons have a right to remain silent, but the Judge has the right to pronounce judgment. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of law, order and rules.

            After the woman gets up from the floor, she goes to the mike and testifies, “I find my heart and mind have lowly thoughts. Something took control of me. The “thing” was angry and was forcefully removed.”

            Pastor added, “God’s workings change lives and character.”

Fourth Case

            Pastor calls out Sam to go to the mike. “What blessing do you want from the Holy Spirit?” He said, “I want healing for my low blood pressure.”

            Pastor called out loudly, “Zalia.” The demon started manifesting in Sam. “Where were you before this?”

            “I was in a temple in India, guarding the gate. I am a beast but I can’t reveal more.”

            Pastor exercised a word of knowledge and said, “You are a wolf spirit. You make sounds of lies. Because of your attitude, you are sent to a place of wrath. Go.” The demon screamed and left.

            Pastor continues, “Sometimes, you encounter different attitudes of demons. You have to heed the rules and laws of the spirit world. You cannot do as you like. Even a cop has to conduct himself in line with the laws of the country. If a cop misbehaves, he is charged and discharged. Similarly in the spirit world, you can be charged and discharged if you are lawless.”

            Sam goes to the mike and testifies, “I feel something has broken and left me.”

Fifth Case

            Pastor calls up Steven, an elderly Chinese man to the mike. “What do you want from the Holy Spirit?”

“I need deliverance from doubts that keep creeping up in my mind. I even have doubts despite seeing the miracles in the sanctuary.”

            Pastor then summoned the evil spirit causing this problem, “Addi.” The demon manifests but refuses to answer. Pastor then consigned the demon to hell and Steven was set free from incessant doubting.

Pastor continues, “These spirits of doubt make you skeptical. However, they would have a foothold in your mind when you know the truth but you are reluctant or not ready to yield to the truth. These spirits see your uncertainty of mind and they come in to furnish you dark reasoning as to why you should not yield yourself to these truths. The Bible says that the serpent was most subtle. The first attribute pointed out by God regarding the devil is his subtlety. When the evil spirit takes over a person’s spirit, there is one problem. It is easy to cast out that evil spirit by a simple deliverance prayer. But when it overtakes the soul and its intellectual, emotional and volitional faculties, then the problem becomes complex and the person’s character changes. It has become a very serious case. When you yield to the devil’s suggestions, he enters your soul. Temptations come and you yield to them, and the evil spirits overtake your soul. The devil forces the temptations on you, not God. God can deliver any problem but if the person does not want God, He will not come in and help. If you want God to set you free, you must pray. If you do not, God will not. “

            “You want the truth, but what is truth? To some, truth is what is acceptable to their mind, to their theology and to their sentiments. That is not the truth. Knowing the truth is the key to your breakthrough. Jesus is the Truth. The Holy Spirit is the Truth. You cannot perceive God’s truth without God’s grace. Man cannot perceive truth without God. Man’s intellect and reasoning cannot perceive truth since it is filled with strongholds and sins. The devil has taken the opportunity to entrench his thoughts and ideas in our minds and reasoning. In that condition, you cannot perceive truth. If you keep entertaining doubts, you will suffer insanity. You do not discern what Satan has in plan for you. Truth comes from God. Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” The Holy Spirit will lead you to the truth. He will teach you the truth. In the spirit world, darkness can shield you from the truth. You do not know the dangers of ignorance of the truth. I lean on the Holy Spirit and God showed that behind my personal doubting is the enemy. God gave grace to crush the enemy and give me personal breakthrough in my thought life and my faith life.”

            “Some people’s problems are complicated because they have a long line of ancestral curses behind them. That is why some cannot have breakthroughs even after praying for so long. God is powerful but He exercises power according to laws. Some demons have powerful grips over individuals because they hold documents over them. Their ancestors have sold their families to the devil in return for demonic power during their lifetime. These demons then hold the title deeds to the souls of their descendants. Such documents are high documents. That is why the demonic control over some people is so strong. It has spilled over to their soul – intellect, emotion, and will. That is why some people are hardcore criminals. Some people are in multiple bondages of the devil. However, it can be done, if the individual plead for grace from God. There is a law in heaven that anyone who asks for grace will not be denied – they will be granted grace. Now you know what grace is. Grace is able to deliver you from terrible bondages and problems inherited from your ancestors.”

            “However, the individual must ask for grace from God to be delivered. If he does not, God will not. Why did God not deliver Judas? It is because he willed to betray the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave a timeframe to Judas to change his ways but he did not. Satan then asked God for Judas, and God told Satan that he could have Judas. The individual who asks grace to be delivered from his or her individual problems must be humble and upright. The Holy Spirit will do the rest.”

            “However, after you have asked for grace, you must wait for the blessings in faith. God gives certain blessings at certain times. You have to wait for God’s timing. There is a time factor for deliverance. In heaven, there are many legal cases brought by Satan against us. Jesus has to defend us. All legal suits in heaven are settled according to righteousness and justice so that nobody can accuse God of unrighteousness. Only when the matter is settled in heaven, can it be settled down here on earth.”

            “When the enemy attacks your mind, reject his thoughts immediately. If you entertain the devil’s thoughts, you can be entrenched in them and you will be led to eternal doom. There was once a law case in heaven involving one of our church members. The Holy Spirit revealed this case to me to let me know what is happening among the people here. Satan told the Judge, “I want this man because he thinks dirty thoughts.” God answered, “I know this man – he hates these thoughts.” Then Satan replied, “If that is so, then why did he not reject them? God had to reply, “You can have him.” However, I pleaded with God for him and God granted my petition and spared him, for my sake. When a pastor walks closely with God and pleases Him greatly, God will have regard for him. When he prays for a troubled member of his flock, God will hear him and spare the member because of His regard for him. You must know God’s ways in order to please Him. However, if the pastor is unrighteous and lawless, God will not have any regard for him. Even his prayers are an abomination to Him, how much more if he prays for anyone of his congregation. That is why, under such lawless pastors, their congregations are suffering and do not have breakthroughs. You should know your pastors and those who labor over you.”

5.  DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ANOINTING

We have seen how Jesus functioned and flowed in the anointing.  Obviously, Jesus was flowing according to the will of God. He also determined how much anointing to flow in at a particular time and place. Sometimes when God tells Him to flow in a sign, He will demonstrate a sign. In Mark 5, when the woman with the issue of blood for twelve years touched His garment, the anointing flowed out of Him and healed her. We see that Jesus knew that the anointing had flown through His life. He knew how the anointing came upon His life and how the anointing can flow out of Him. The fact that Lk. 4:18 Jesus said the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him, tells us that He knew the anointing was upon Him. He was announcing it. He was telling it to the people using scriptures from the prophet Isaiah that the anointing was upon His life for the people. It is for the people to exercise their faith, believe it, and then receive the anointing of God into their lives.

In the same manner when people are not sensitive to the anointing of God, they would not know what it is like when it is flowing. We have to learn to be sensitive to the anointing. In the anointing of the Lord Jesus Christ, we mentioned how the anointing upon Him is without measure. However, He gives the anointing by measures to us. The anointing upon our lives is increased measure upon measure, as we prove faithful to the anointing. The fullest potential of the anointing we can aspire to in whatever office we stand in is the anointing without measure – the same as the anointing upon Jesus’ life. That means if God called you to be a prophet aim to reach the measureless anointing in that office. If God called you to be a teacher, aim for that. Seek the anointing upon your life to increase until it is measureless. Now that is your aim.

Jesus made a statement in Jn. 14:12, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to the Father. This implies that now the Holy Spirit is sent without measure. The Holy Spirit has been sent in Acts 2 as prophesied without measure. He is now pouring out on all flesh.  The potential is there for people to reach into that measureless anointing that Jesus had. Some people have moved in their respective office to a realm quite close to that.

I was reading the book, “A Man Sent From God” written by Gordon Lindsay. It is the biography of William Branham when he moved into the thickness of the anointing that was on his life as a prophet. He was called to the prophetic office.  As he moved into that, he was called to be prophet and evangelist. Kenneth E. Hagin is a prophet and teacher - a different combination from Branham. As William Branham moved into that sign and wonder ministry, he would speak in the same measure like Jesus. He was late for one of the meetings and the crowd was filled to overflowing.  As he was slowly inching his way through, the people did not know that he was William Branham.  He came across a blind girl. The compassion of the Lord welled up inside him for the girl. She was just seeking and asking where that man of God could be. When she found that it was he, he only said the specific word almost like Jesus. He said, “According to your faith be it onto you.”  She was healed. She asked him first, “Do you believe that you are sent from God?” “Yes, according to your faith.”

When you move into the ministry of signs and wonders, you have to be very precise to follow instructions from God. There is another incident in William Branham’s life when he was called to pray for a sick person. That person was just lying on the bed.  Nothing happened when he prayed over him. He did it again and nothing happened. They were wondering what was happening. Then he just sat around. There was a grand mother and the parent of the child there.  Then finally after some time, he wondered why nothing was happening and he was waiting. He was just sitting down. Then after a while, he came and prayed and then it worked - a miracle took place. That person got up immediately. When asked why, he said the Lord gave him a vision. He saw the grand mother sitting on this chair and the father sitting on that chair. Then he saw himself coming in and laying hands and pronouncing that healing, then walking off. The first time when he did it the grand mother was in a wrong position. She was in a different place and not exactly fitting the vision. That is why nothing happened.  He was waiting and waiting for them to get into the position that he saw exactly in the vision. Then only the healing took place.  That was the position that you got to be in.  These are what I call peculiarities.

As we move into the anointing, you have to move exactly as God showed you - no less, no more.  There have been men and women who have moved into levels of anointing close to the level of Jesus Christ in the office God has called them.  Every minister called by God should aspire to reach into that anointing without measure. However there are principles to move into that measureless anointing.

We all start with a measure of anointing God placed on our lives. God is not going to give you the measureless anointing immediately. There must be testing; there must be proving and there must be faithfulness shown.  God will give a deposit of anointing upon our life up to a certain level. Then as you are faithful to flow in it, as you are faithful to function in it, then God gives another measure. Then at that greater measure God will test your faithfulness. God will see whether you flow in it. What happens if you are not faithful? You remain at the measure you have been last given.

Let me illustrate with something you could identify with. Let say that you have been given the measure of the anointing where you would be able to prophesy in public. However, every time the anointing and the Word of God came, you resisted it.  Do not think that when the anointing comes, it is going to force you to do something. It does not force you. It just prompts you and the obedience must be yours. As the anointing comes, the person resists it the first time. Later in a different meeting, the same thing comes again. That person resists the prompting of the Holy Spirit again. That would be quenching the Spirit of God. That person can go on out of shyness, out of fear of publicity, out of whatever reason. He could justify his disobedience but that is not acceptable to God. He could give a natural reason and God would not accept it.  The years could pass by and that person will still be the same. The measure of the anointing given to him was not allowed to function. The gift of God in such a person’s life can never be perfected. You have to grow into the perfect operation of the gift.

The Corinthians had the gifts of God but they were not operating them perfectly. This shows us that the operation and perfection of the gift depend on us not on God. Paul never question that the gifts that the Corinthians had were not from God. He acknowledged that they were from God but he wrote that he would show them a more perfect way to operate those gifts.  The operation and perfection of a gift depends on us not on God. It is our responsibility.

Let us say the same person with the measure of anointing to prophesy publicly began to flow in that gift regularly whenever the anointing is there. Sooner or later, God is going to promote him or her. He is going to give you a greater measure of anointing to move into something else. God tests and proves us to know whether we are faithful or not.

Now for those in the ministry, when you stand to minister, God may give you words of knowledge.  You resist giving them since you rather just preach and teach. Perhaps it is in a home fellowship or in a smaller meeting and the word of knowledge comes to you.  You resist giving the word. You ask, “What happens if no body respond?”  For the next ten years, you remain that way until you obey. When you obey and you are faithful in that gift, a greater measure of that anointing will develop in your life. You could flow into a greater measure. It will grow from measure to measure, faith to faith, glory to glory. We must not stop. We must grow until we arrive at the perfect function of a ministry that God has for us.

God could give you a ministry of prophesying over people and every time the anointing comes, you could sense God telling you to act on the prompting. However, all these things need a human response. You may say, “No, I do not want to do that. I do not feel like doing that.”  You resist and you quenched the Spirit of God. If you keep on doing that ten years later you will still be where you are. You would not have progressed. If you are not even faithful to the measure God gives to you, there is no point in talking about the measureless anointing. Unless you are faithful to the measure God gives you will not have more.

Growth in the anointing comes with faithfully moving in the measure you already have. For example, when God first started operating the word of knowledge in my life, I have to faithfully give it. When it comes, I will say, “All right God is showing that this is the category of the sickness He wants to heal,” and I faithfully gave it. Whether people respond or not, that is their responsibility. Whether you respond or not is your responsibility.  You have to faithfully give it.  I found something started happening. The more I give the more it came.  The more it came and the more I give out, it gets sharper and sharper. As I continued in it, later, I found out that it began to operate with another side effect. At first it operates with what I call the side effect of tangibility - I sense it on my body. Later it operates together with vision. It reached a certain point where it started operating with vision. When that operates with vision, it reaches a greater form of accuracy that can take place. That comes because of faithfulness.

In the natural, it is the same way. If you expect to be very good at music, you have to discipline yourself to sit down at those instruments and play it and practice. In the natural, practice makes perfect. In the spiritual, you also need practice to make the gifts of God perfect. You just have to practice it until you are accurate in your flow of the anointing of God.  Faithfulness is a tremendous key to grow into the next level of the anointing that God has on our life. This helps us to move into a different phase of ministry that He has for our life. We have to be faithful in those areas.

The anointing can be measured. The anointing enables us to do the works of Jesus. The anointing can be increased. Just as we grow from faith to faith, from glory to glory, and from grace to grace, we also can grow in the level of anointing in our life. In addition, the Holy Spirit is received in measures. We can measure the amount and the level of anointing that operates in our life. There are different degrees, different measures of the anointing. That measure of the anointing we are talking about here now is the measure of the anointing that God gives you to operate.

Lets illustrate: God could call you to operate in the measure of ten volts of anointing.  You have a ten volts measure of the anointing.  As you move in your anointing, sometimes you find that you were not up to it. You did not spend enough time with God. Alternatively, the response from people to your ministry fluctuates. Sometimes they have more faith in you but sometimes they have less faith in the anointing that God has placed in your life. In some meeting, they have high expectancy but in some meetings low expectancy.  Although the anointing in your life is about ten volts, sometimes it flows at eight volts, sometimes at three and sometimes at ten. The level of anointing depends on the type of meeting that you are conducting, the expectancy level of the people and the level of your own preparedness. 

Three factors affect the level of the anointing in a meeting.

The Will of God

Although the will of God is for you to operate at ten volts, it does not mean you will operate at the level of ten volts everywhere you go. The anointing upon is not twenty-four hours. When the anointing upon is not functional in your life, it will be lifted off you. It will not be upon you all the time.  If the anointing is upon you all the time, you cannot sleep.  Even if the measure of anointing that you have is ten volts, remember, it still has to function according to the will of God. It depends on the will of God whether God wants you to operate at that type of meeting. If there is no need for the anointing to manifest then the anointing will not manifest. For example, if you are going for supper, obviously the need for the anointing is not there. Otherwise, if the anointing of ten volts is upon you, you could hardly order your meal. Every time you want to say something, you utter, “The Spirit of the Lord.” The anointing comes only when there is a need for it. It depends on the will of God to manifest the anointing although the fullest potential you could move in is the measure of anointing God has given you. The first cause is the will of God.

Preparedness

Then the other cause is your preparedness. Sometimes you may not be more prepared than the other times. Sometimes you may be able to spend time waiting on God more than other times.  During that time, you have spent more time waiting on God. In your preparedness, you are more able to tap into the full measure of the anointing on your life. If you have done all the necessary preparation that you could for a meeting and if you are a ten volts anointed minister, you will flow at the level of ten volts subject to the other third reason.  You have these ten volts in your life. Sometimes maybe during the day you are running about and doing too many things. Perhaps you have an evangelistic meeting in Japan. You flew all the way there. You had a good rest and the meeting is the next night.   In the morning of the next day, you go all over Tokyo sight seeing. In the afternoon lunchtime, you had a large helping of Japanese delicacies for lunch. Then you go and do all your shopping. Just about an hour before the meeting, you rush back into your hotel. You washed yourself quickly and go to the meeting. You may have ten volts but you may be able to flow only in about five volts of anointing since you have lowered your preparedness. You did not shut yourself aside to consecrate yourself to the Lord.

See there is a price to pay in ministry. Sometimes people do not realize the price you pay. I only share this with bible school students. Most of you want to know what goes on behind the scenes. Many people do not know I sleep very little on Saturday night.  I get up early on Sunday morning and wait upon the Lord for the congregation. You pay the price. The sacrifices you made for the body. Sometimes when I travel if I minister, I consecrate myself onto the Lord. My wife knows we do not have any sexual relationship at all when I minister. I just shut myself up onto the Lord. It is the price you pay and people sometimes do not appreciate the sacrifices you make. They do not realize the cause of pain behind the scene and the sacrifice you made. Praise God He will reward you in other ways.

We should realize that preparedness is necessary. By preparedness, I mean your personal relationship with God. There is a degree of preparedness. When I travel to places, I hardly go sightseeing. The only time I could do so is when the meeting is over. Then I relax a little bit and I just let people take me around. A mission director told me how he took a group of foreigners to Singapore.  He had this team of bible students. The moment the plane landed in Singapore, they started shopping. Everyone started discussing how to plan their shopping. They shopped till they dropped and they ended up suffering a series of misfortunes. Somebody lost his passport; some were delayed here and there. Why, their minds were not on ministry.

Preparedness affects the anointing of God in our life. If God calls you to minister in some way, God will expect you to give yourself. That is what we mean by giving yourself to your office and ministry. There are some things which I have said that those not in the ministry can never understand. Only those who have been in the ministry understand what is involved. Those who have never lived by faith do not understand what is involved. Sometimes I feel grieved with people who are not in the ministry passing comments on those in the ministry.  Wait until you get into it, and then you will realize what it is like.  A person who is successful in the world does not mean he will be successful in the ministry. It is a different thing altogether.

Now the opposite is also true - a person who is successful in the ministry may not be successful in the world. The fact is that of all professions, the ministry has the highest price to pay. It is easier to work in a secular job, give an encouraging word now and then to the pastor, and have a little home fellowship in your house. If you have never been in the ministry to give yourself to it, you do not understand the sacrifices that will be involved, the preparedness that is required and the sacrifices at home.

Just to share a little bit of my personal life. We have this washer lady that comes to help us. She said, “You sure have many clothes to wash.” For two weeks, we did not have any free time from morning till night to wash clothes.  Some people may think a minister must be humble. If I were working in the world, I would need only four pairs of pants and that would be sufficient.   In the ministry, you have to have ten pairs of pants. Some church members cannot accept that. They feel that pastor should not have more clothes than them. People get that kind of concept. They do not understand that the pastor is so busy, he has no time to wash his clothes, so he need many spares. You will have more time if you are not in the ministry. In the ministry, you require a consecration and preparedness. My wife sometimes had to keep the children from me while I am in that kind of situation. She will have to be with the children all the time while I am spending my time alone with God. The sacrifices you make behind the scene, people do not see at all.

For that reason Jesus in Jn. 17 says for this purpose, I sanctify Myself. He consecrated Himself because He has such a high mission for us. He gave Himself entirely to the Lord.