It’s all about the Anointing

Dear friends,

I am sure you’ve had the same experience:

You listened to someone preach or teach and you were just SO amazed about their wisdom, insight and it was as if they were radiating and emanating pure knowledge and one revelation after the other with a depth that is truly hard to find elsewhere.

Yes?

The person was a true anointed man or woman of GOD.

And when you listened to them, did you perhaps have thoughts like:
“Oh, I wish I could preach, teach or speak like them.”

Did you perhaps even ask GOD to give you the same gifts they have as well?

I guess you know the saying that you need to be careful about what you are praying for, because the anointing of a person always comes with a price!

Nobody is born wise.

Nobody comes into this world knowing everything.

No person on this earth has a deep understanding of life or of life’s most complicated issues without having been through MANY of them, without having been through a LOT, without having fought many, many battles.

And not only that, also GOD, OUR FATHER, HE doesn’t give wisdom and understanding and knowledge just in an instant, neither does HE give all levels at once –  this is a snare and a lie of the devil in disguise of a false prophet or false teacher who wants to sell you something!

It is not the case with GODLY knowledge or wisdom.

Don’t believe me?

Let’s take a look at some the most anointed people in the bible.

King David for instance.
Why do you think that David was a man after GOD’s own heart –  even though he fornicated, had many wives, committed adultery and even killed Bathsheba’s husband, only because he wanted her for himself?
David had done many things which were wrong during his life. But he always came to GOD and repented and he never, ever forgot who was the HIGHEST KING – and when he had the chance to kill Saul, a king anointed by GOD, but not only that, also a man who had sought to take his own life on many occasions, he refused to do it, because Saul had been anointed by GOD and David believed that he had no right to take away his life, but only GOD should do that.
He chose to submit to GOD over taking revenge – and this pleased OUR FATHER.

Or before GOD made Abraham the father of all nations, what did he have to do?
He had to prove his obedience to GOD by agreeing to sacrifice his own son.

Take the story of Elisha and Elijah as our next example.
Before GOD was about to take Elijah up to heaven, which they both knew was coming (not only they knew, the other prophets foresaw this as well), Elijah wanted to bless Elisha and asked him what he could do for him. And when Elisha wanted a double portion of “his spirit”, in other words, of Elijah’s anointing, he answered “thou hast asked a hard thing”, but he agreed that it would be so if Elisha would see him be taken up.

Why would he have said that?

Well, Elijah knew that there is a price to pay for the anointing.

The prophet Elijah (his story is told in 1 Kings 17-19 and 2 Kings 1-2) is one of the most interesting and colorful people in the Bible, and GOD used him during a very significant period in Israel’s history to oppose the wicked king Ahab and bring revival. Elijah’s ministry marked the beginning of the end of Baal worship in Israel. Elijah’s life was filled with turmoil. At times he was bold and decisive, and at other times fearful and tentative. He was a living example of how hard it is to be one of THE LORD’s highly anointed people, because like other highly anointed an favoured characters in the bible, Elijah was not only very successful and doing great signs and wonders for THE LORD, he also went through phases of depression, had to hide because people sought after him to kill him and he also experienced times of doubt and fainting.
Elijah first appeared on the scene when he challenged King Ahab, who had been evil and disobedient to THE LORD.
Elijah prophesied that there would be no rain upon the land as a consequence for Ahab’s evil deeds. Elijah then had to hide near the brook of Cherith in the wilderness, where GOD had the ravens feed him. As the drought and famine in the land deepened, Elijah met a widow in a neighboring country, and, through her obedience to Elijah’s request, GOD provided food enough for Elijah, the woman, and her son and Elijah even raised her son from the dead. Miraculously, the widow’s barrel of flour and jar of oil never ran out.
The next event Elijah was involved in was the big demonstration of GOD’s power on Mount Carmel, where he showed that he is so much more powerful than the false gods of the prophets of Baal, who called upon their god all day long to rain fire from heaven to no avail. Elijah, however, built an altar of stones, digged a ditch around it, put the sacrifice on top of the wood and had water to be poured on his sacrifice thrice.
He then called upon GOD, and GOD sent fire down from heaven, burned the sacrifice, the wood, and the stones and licked up the water in the ditch. GOD proved He was more powerful than false gods.
After the great victory over the false prophets, rain once again fell on the land and even though he had been victorious, Elijah entered into a period of depression. Ahab had told his wife, Jezebel, about the events on Mount Carmel and about how GOD had displayed HIS power and Jezebel vowed to kill Elijah.
So Elijah fled to the wilderness, where he prayed for GOD to take his life. But GOD refreshed Elijah with food, drink, and sleep instead. Then Elijah took a forty-day journey to Mount Horeb. There Elijah hid in a cave, still feeling weak, uncertain and afraid of Jezebel and even confessing his belief that he alone was left of the prophets of GOD.
It was then that the LORD instructed Elijah to stand on the mountain as the LORD passed by. There was a great wind, an earthquake, and then fire, but God was not in any of those. Then came a still, small voice in which Elijah heard God and understood Him. GOD gave Elijah instructions for what to do next, including anointing Elisha to take his place as prophet and assuring Elijah that there were still 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed to Baal. Elijah obeyed GOD’s commands. Elisha became Elijah’s assistant for some time, and the two continued to deal with Ahab and Jezebel, as well as Ahab’s son and successor, Ahaziah. Rather than die a natural death, Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind.

John the Baptist’s ministry was marked by “the spirit and power of Elijah”, fulfilling the prophecy of (Malachi 4:5–6) and as we know, John the Baptist, too, was one of the most anointed people in the bible and as we also know, he was thrown into prison and beheaded.

Paul, one of the most anointed teachers of the gospel of JESUS CHRIST, had great successes, but he also had to endure great tribulations and he, too, was executed.

Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den for refusing to renounce his faith and his friends, Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace for refusing to bow down to Baal.

And of course, last, but not least, but greatest, OUR LORD JESUS HIMSELF.HE was GOD in the flesh walking upon the earth, and we all know what they did to HIM.

So do you really believe when you see or hear someone who has a great anointing of GOD upon their life, that they are merely blessed?

Do you really believe that they just “happen” to be good preachers and the depth of what they were saying came from out of nowhere? Or do you really think that a prophet can “just like that” hear GOD’s voice so clearly and discern it from the voice of the enemy “out of the blue”?

I don’t believe you can think so if you really study GOD and HIS word, because that is not HIS nature and it is also not biblical  – the enemy, on the other hand, he tries to tell us that we can be successful, rich, famous and become great teachers to the masses just by saying a few affirmations (and perhaps booking a few of “their” courses and buying a few DVD’s), that’s not how it works, that’s not how GOD anoints HIS people.

They have to go through the fire for HIM and with HIM again and again and again –  if you take a closer look at ALL the anointed great men in the bible, not many of them had a happy family, most of them had no family at all, almost none of them even had a steady home, all of them were wanderers for GOD, going to wherever HE sent them – I have not seen one of them having a great mega church and being rich and building one house after the other in the bible – at least not without being corrupted and straying away from GOD and having a bad ending – have you?

And don’t get me wrong, I am not saying this to you from a higher perspective.

I am only saying this because I came to see that the highest anointing may not be a thing to strive for too much, because GOD will necessarily put many obstacles on the way of a person HE chooses.

And I am not even sure if enduring trials and tribulations necessarily leads to a higher anointing – it can also lead to us fainting and even losing our faith, can’t it?

Me myself, I have been greatly tried and I went through many tribulations and many years of extreme darkness, ever since I got saved, but I am in no way saying that there is a high anointing over my life, because I don’t even know… in fact, I even believe if there was, I would have seen or performed a miracle, which I haven’t.
At this point, I don’t see any miracles, not even much fruit, I have not been successful or effective in any way for GOD so far –  I can relate to being hated, ostracized, rejected and tormented by the devil day and night for many, many years for serving GOD, yes, but I don’t know if I am anointed for anything…
Not yet, not until I see what GOD wants to do with me, how HE wants to use me…
I am doing my best to write for HIM here, yes, and of course, I hope that this will help someone and touch the life of someone, but there is no evidence so far that even one soul got saved from these writings here…
And in my job, yes, I am doing my best to pray for everyone and to love everyone with the love of JESUS, but there is no positive outcome visible yet, on the contrary, a lot of hatred and aggression from my colleagues is coming my way every day and it seems to grow…
The “guys”(prisoners) I work with respond quite well, but none of them has ever said to me that they are now going to change their life because of what I said to them or that they found THE LORD because of our conversation…
And take my offender, the warlock who has been trying to kill me for many years, he hasn’t changed, not even though I wrote him so many emails, sent him scriptures, prayed for him, fasted for him – there has been no visible, tangible or sensible change in his behavior, he is still into the same “New Age crap”, still cursing me, still trying to cast his spells, still trying to cause nightmares and penetrate my dreams, still trying to cause sickness and all kinds of stuff to my body, still trying to astrally rape me…

So what I mean to say is I do not know anything about a very high anointing from my own experience (if it was so high, I would definitely see more results than I am currently seeing!), but I came to understand this from studying the men in the bible who HAD this great anointing of GOD, their lives were anything but easy!

These great men of GOD we can see in the bible, the great leaders, the prophets, the teachers and even THE SAVIOR HIMSELF, that they all had to pay a very high price for their anointing.
And I do believe that on “the other side of the rainbow”, they had their reward.
In fact, I do believe that everybody who did their best to work for THE LORD (and this includes me) will be rewarded after this life…
But I also believe that in this life, there will be trouble, hardships and great opposition, perhaps even martyrdom for those who truly serve GOD and speak HIS truth.

One last thought:
anointing sheep’s heads with oil was supposed to keep deadly insects away from them.
And it is true, in the end all GOD’s anointed were and will be safe.

Anyhow, I meant to say, let us all think and pray about what we ask for before we ask for someone’s anointing, let us not even envy the men and women we see who obviously stand in GOD’s glory, because they have been through a LOT to get there and we may not want all of what they had to endure to receive a similar crown!

 

I hope and pray that this will inspire, heal and bless you and that THE LORD will bless you abundantly in all areas of your life, that HE will keep you and shine HIS face upon you and bring you peace. In JESUS’ name I pray. AMEN.

Picture shows the Painting “The Anointing of David” by Paolo Veronese