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Keys to the Anointing: Key 2–Understanding What God Wants to Anoint

Many people seek the anointing.  Less people look to become the vessel God wants to fill.

In the last Key we discussed overcoming inner obstacles, these are the things in our lives that God has told us will keep Him far from us. I have found that tearing down your God blockers does not attract the Presence and Power of God in your life. You need to be a vessel He wants to fill.

Jesus told His disciples to learn of Him because He was, “meek and lowly of heart.”  He did not tell them to learn of Him because He was perfect, the Son of God, or even because it would keep them out of hell.  Jesus qualified Himself by being meek and lowly.

Becoming meek and lowly is not something that happens in the absence of outward sin, it is a state you have to strive to become. You have to set your heart to humble yourself and look for the situations God will give you to avoid gaining notoriety from man so you can get it from God in His timing.

If God’s grace is drawn to the humble then we need to look at humility as a grace (God’s power) magnet.  Those who want the anointing for the reasons God wants them to be anointed will do whatever it takes to be magnetized by the humility magnets of self-sacrifice, self-denial, and self-immolation (ok, not that last one, I just wanted a third self-hyphen).

This sounds like a super-spiritual and difficult task for people who hate themselves or monks in a mountain somewhere but it really isn’t. As you get free from pride you discover more peace. The more you live in that peace the more you want to readjust your life to keep that peace. The more you readjust your life to keep the peace the more grace God gives you to bring His peace to the earth. The more you operate in it the more it becomes a lifestyle.

If you want, you can learn to manipulate the anointing to have some power but you will never have it and the anointing without identifying with being meek and lowly of heart.

Keys to the Anointing: Key 1 – Overcoming Inner Obstacles

There is no special formula for the anointing.  What many people fail to realize is that God wants you anointed.  He sent His Son to die so you could be a Kingdom agent on the earth.  Too many people never come into the anointing they were called to walk in because they never allowed God to transform them into a vessel capable of carrying the anointing. Many get touched.  Few are capable of ministering.

You receive the anointing by touching and spending time in the presence of the Anointed One.  The more you open your life to the Anointed One in His presence, the more of His presence and anointing you get to carry.  Many people get near God, but don’t have anointing-carrying encounters because they are unqualified to stand in His holy place.

The formula for encountering God has not changed since David penned Psalm 24:3-4:

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?   He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.

The difference between many believers and a demon is that the demons believe and tremble. Every Pentecostal preacher will tell you sin is an obstacle but only give a quarter of the solution.

The foundational part of overcoming inner obstacles is found in the second part of our verse; clean hands, pure heart, no idolatry, not a liar.  Get this in your spirit and watch God ignite you!

Clean hands:  This is where most holiness tradition folks stop.  This is referring to the obvious outward sins against your body and other people.  Peter talked about, “doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties.”  This is the easy stuff.  If you are wrestling with these things give up the quest to be anointed, you would be destined for a life of altar calls and disappointment.

Pure heart:  Wow!  This is a little more challenging and this is why so many folks don’t get past clean hearts.  The key to a pure heart is humility.  The majority of the issues Paul enumerates in Romans 1 stem from pride.  Pride is the killer of the anointing.  Whenever I start a discipleship class, prophetic ministry class, leadership class, healing school or ministry training I spend a good long time rooting out pride.  Pride is a killer.  Pride transforms you into someone God resists.  That should freak out any person who longs to be used by God.  Humility not only draws God near, it instantly qualifies you for more of God’s power.

Though many people think that the first step is dealing with outward sin, I firmly believe that it is the heart issues that are to be dealt with aggressively.  Outward sins flow from the heart.

Stop thinking you are so great and you will become great.

Idolatry (lifting up your soul to what it false) – Why do you dress the way you dress?  What is cool to you?  Where does that come from?  What or who do you have to be to be admired by people?  What is that thing, experience, recognition you are looking for so that others will see you as you see yourself?  The answers to these questions are the shortcuts to your idol identification.

Swear Deceitfully – If God can’t trust the words that come out of your mouth He won’t put His words in them.  Simple as that.

In short, if you desire to walk in the anointing of God, the first key is to drive pride and rebellion out of your life.  Do you you really want that worked out?  Ask a friend if they see either of these characteristics in your life.  Ask your pastor.  If you don’t have a pastor the answer is clearly yes.  Get clean relationships with people who love you but are willing to speak the truth and open your life so it can become a clean anointing-carrying vessel.

One of My Favorite Things Happening Right Now at The Mission

From March 4, 2012

If you know me you know I go after the anointing.  I go after miracles, healings, signs and wonders and I make no apologies for it.  I believe the bible commands us to.  If you disagree take it up with the author, not me.

But I was looking at a video of intercession from a couple weeks ago and right there at the end, after intercession was over, a couple was standing at the front and  a wife was hugging her husband.  They were just standing there, talking to other people, while embracing.

When I started The Mission this was something I never thought about but I am really excited about how many couples at The Mission who really love one another and have good, healthy marriages. 

There is no such thing as a perfect marriage.  But a marriage where both people love each other and want to display that affection to one another is a marriage that is going to make it through the trials.

Father God wants to display His love to you and He commanded that we display that to one another.  A marriage that has people growing closer to God is a marriage that grows in love and in turn grows stronger.

We have this in abundance at The Mission and it is one of my favorite things that is happening right now.

Why I Love Jesus But Reject Islam

Why I Love Jesus But Reject Islam.  I really like this.

It is a response to someone saying Jesus was a prophet of Islam.

While you are at it, check this out:

I LOVE Being Part of a Good Local Church, And So Should You

I am sitting in my office right now on Sunday afternoon. I worshiped with, preached to, and ministered at my church.  I did not do it at any local church, I did it at MY local church. 

The Mission is not my church because I am the pastor.  The Mission is my local church because I love being a part of this community of believers.  I love the people I am living life with and walking out my call with.

I love my local church and I feel sorry for people who don’t have a local church to go to.

Some people don’t have a local church because they live in an area where the church is persecuted and gatherings get raided by authorities.  But that is not true for most folks.

Most Christians without a local church don’t have one because of pride.  They feel they have somehow graduated from being a part of the Body.  They now want to be above other people.  When I see this I want to disengage from the conversation because nothing remotely godly follows the “I am not a part of the local church” pronouncement.

Other people are no longer part of the local church because the fellowship they were once a part of hit the rocks.  I know from experience that when a church jumps the tracks it can deeply hurt.  It can rock your faith and make it harder to trust again.

But guess what?  Deciding that you are not going to be part of the local church, have a pastor, and be forced to live out your walk with other people is not an option that Jesus gave.

When I had to leave a church that I helped plant because the doctrine went south of loco the first thing I had to do was repent to people I hurt while I was there.  I then had to come to the realization that I could not be deceived without some level of complicity.  I was a leader in that church and I had to take responsibility for my part in what had happened to me.

People who have bad past church stories rarely take responsibility for what happened to them and because of that they never get healed.  I sometimes think they would rather stay bitter then get healed but that is for another post.

My wife and I decided that regardless of my experience, the local church is at the center of God’s plan for the earth and we were not going to miss out on it.  We found a church we could agree on, got plugged in, and watched the grace of God change out lives.

After that we were able to start a church that is far more healthy then the first one we helped plant.

Which leads me to the fact that I love my church.  I love the people I minister with.  I love the people who are like family to me.  I love the presence of God.  I love how Jesus shows His love in it.  I love my spiritual sons and daughters.  I love watching lives get changed.  I love watching people grow in the faith.  I love my church.

If you can’t say the same, do whatever it takes to position yourself to find the church God has for you.  You will be really happy you did.

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