The Anointing Pt 2

CCI Fellowship's podcast discusses the concept of anointing and its importance in fulfilling one's purpose. The anointing is described as the power of God working through individuals to accomplish things they couldn't naturally do. The speaker shares a personal experience at SeaWorld where the anointing was evident in a non-church setting. The anointing can either draw people closer to God or reveal their rejection of Him. The sermon concludes with four steps to experience the anointing: believe it's real and for you, ask for it, be expectant, and depend on it daily. Welcome to CCI Fellowship's podcast. Thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. Open your Bibles to Luke chapter 4. Last week I was talking about the anointing. What is the anointing? Am I anointed? The better question is not, am I anointed, but what am I anointed to do? In Luke 4, verse 18, Jesus, reading from Isaiah, says, As the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we magnify your name and we anticipate, Lord God, this time in your presence. We come with expectation, Lord God. I thank you, Father, for all that you have accomplished in this congregation over the years and what is yet to come. But Lord, we pray for the right now. We pray for this moment, Lord God, that we have before your throne, this moment that we have, Lord God, for the Holy Spirit and the anointing to flow in this place, Lord, that you would have your way and that you would accomplish what only you can do. In Jesus' name, amen. The anointing is the power of God working upon or through a human doing only that which God can do. Or we could say it this way, that the anointing is the power of God working through an individual doing what that individual could not in the natural be able to do. I told a story last week about a Christmas concert where the lady got up to sing and it could have been a very anointed moment and it was not. And I was reminded this week of a very not church setting where the opposite happened. Where we as a family with my extended family, we were at SeaWorld getting ready to watch the big fish swim and swim through the water and jump out and do all of these tricks. And it was not church. We were at a place of amusement. And yet, before the show started, I just got this feeling, you know, when you're familiar with the anointing and when you're familiar with the spirit of God, you know when he's getting ready to sing. You know when he's getting ready to do something. You know when it's there and when it's not. You're able to recognize it. Just as Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. They know my voice and they hear me is because we become familiar with his voice so that we can recognize it. And the same is with the anointing and the Holy Spirit. And so I looked at Adriana and I said, I don't know why, but I feel like we're getting ready to start church. Like it felt like pre-service prayer here at CCI Fellowship. And this group comes on stage and they begin to sing and the song that they sang was There Can Be Miracles. It's a song from a movie. It's a song from a Disney movie. And yet, they came out to sing this song about there can be miracles if you believe. There is nothing about Jesus in that song. There is nothing evangelistic in that song whatsoever. But the phrase is true. There can be miracles if you believe. It's obviously what are you believing in and where are those miracles coming from. But they began to sing and let me tell you, in that unsanctified place, I mean SeaWorld is owned by Anheuser-Busch, the beer company. In that unsanctified place, a group of individuals got up on stage in a very sanctified way and under the anointing of God. And let me tell you, there were some interesting reactions in the crowd at what was going on. Some were like, man, that's awesome. They were in it. You know, the ones that believed in God and were God's people, they were like, yes, you know, raising their hands. It was an awesome time. And yet, there were others who were not God's kids that were just complaining and got up and walked out and, you know, were saying all manner of things. You know it's the anointing when that happens. It's not just these people can't sing. I don't want to listen to that, but it caused some to draw closer to God and it caused others who were already apart from God to just that that ugliness to spew out of them. In fact, there is a verse in the New Testament that says that we are a fragrance. We are a pleasing fragrance to those who are being saved and we are basically, in my translation of it, we are a stench. To those who are dying and perishing. And that anointing, when it flows, will have one of those two reactions from people. Either people will be drawn closer to God or the ugliness that is in their heart, the absolute rejection of who God is, will be displayed. Either way, that's not something that we can accomplish on our own without the Spirit moving. I want to finish this message in some brief moments here because, as I mentioned last week, we want to have a time of prayer. And this is something that we have had in fellowship before where we would line up in the front with the intercessors and people would have an opportunity to come and get prayed for. It's something that we haven't been able to do in a long time, but since I was able to split this message into two, this other part is pretty short. So it's going to give us some time to pray. And we're going to have the worship team come back up, but we're going to pray for the anointing to flow. So if you have never felt that anointing in your life, have never come to the realization of, I can be anointed to do whatever it is my assignment is to do so that God can change somebody's life, if you've never thought of that, being anointed in marketing, being anointed as a teacher, being anointed as a businessman, being anointed in media or whatever, there's anointing for that. So if you have never thought that, never believed that, we want to pray with you. We're going to have, like I said, people up front. But the other thing about the anointing, as it says, as we read last week, is it is the anointing that breaks the yoke of bondage. It's the anointing that sets people free. It's the anointing that takes what is impossible to get free from in the natural and brings freedom in the spiritual. So my last question in this sermon is, how do I get this anointing flowing in me? How do I get this anointing flowing in me? The first thing is, believe that it's real and that it's for you. Believe it's real and believe it's for you. In John chapter fourteen, verse twenty-six, Jesus speaking of the Holy Spirit, of the helper that is to come, he says, the Holy Spirit will teach you all things. The Holy Spirit will teach you all things. He is able to teach us to do whatever. Remember our examples from last week about the two workers that were skilled in all manner of stonemasonry and metallurgy. It's not always in the spiritual things of preaching and teaching that the anointing comes, but the anointing in the natural things that we do sets us up for the opportunity to impact somebody's life on the spiritual. In first John chapter two, verse twenty-seven, it says, this anointing which he gave you, or this anointing which is in you, will teach you concerning all things. This same author, the same one that wrote the gospel of John, wrote the first letter of John, and John relates directly the Holy Spirit and the anointing. And he says the same thing about both of them. The Holy Spirit will teach you, the anointing will teach you. So what does that tell us? That when the Holy Spirit is there, his anointing is there, too. His Holy Spirit abides in us. His Holy Spirit resides in us. We can all agree on that, that Scripture tells us that when we receive Christ, that God deposits in us his spirit as a down payment of what is to come. So his spirit lives in us and abides in us. We just need to believe that he also wants to empower us and anoint us. The second thing is, ask for it. These are very deep steps. Believe, ask. Luke eleven, verse thirteen says, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Sounds like a promise to me. Sounds like an assurance to me, through Jesus, of the Father, that if we would simply ask him, he would give us the Holy Spirit. One of our missionaries in Honduran Fellowship, whom I have talked to before, and we have butted heads about things regarding the Holy Spirit and the anointing, he was very much adamant that it was not for today. Sent me a message last week and said, I'm searching, I'm seeking, and I'm seeing that this verse is true, that the heavenly Father will give the Spirit to those who have asked him. Just simply because he asked. He chose to begin to believe, and he chose to ask, and now he's seeing that God is answering that, as he receives more and more understanding and more and more empowerment from the Holy Spirit. Just like receiving the gift of salvation through faith, we must, through faith, accept the anointing God has made available to us, to do what he has called us to do. The third thing is, be expectant. We came today with great expectations of what God is going to do as we pray for people. James 1, verse 7, talks about a person that prays without expectation. It says, he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. It says, let not that man think that he shall receive anything when he lacks belief and lacks expectation. If you come up for prayer today, come up with expectation. Come up with anticipation that God is going to do something for you. The fourth thing, depend upon it. As we're talking about the anointing in our daily lives, we need to depend upon it. Wake up each day praying, God, cause your anointing to flow in me as I trust you for the strength to accomplish what you have called me to do. Like I told you last week, I don't come up here without praying, God, let your anointing flow through me. The only way that Pastor Jose and I can pastor you is through the anointing of God. The only way it can have an impact on your life is because of the Holy Spirit of God. I know I'm not the best speaker. I'm not the most eloquent. I'm not the one who can weave together scripture in such a magnificent way. We listen to people, other preachers, who are able to do that and are astounded by it, but it's not about how you weave it together. It's about what the Holy Spirit wants to tell us and it's about his anointing. I depend on the anointing when I get up in front of you, when I pray for you, when I talk to you on the phone, when I message you. I'm trusting in the Holy Spirit and his anointing to help me. Whatever you do during the day, whatever you do in your life, depend upon the anointing because he has anointed you to do it. So one, believe for it. Two, ask for it. Three, be expectant. And four, depend upon it. Not just to heal, not just to set free, but to live life. Living life in God's anointing is so much better than when we try to do it in our own strength. Are you ready for the retreat that we just had? Adriana and I looked at each other multiple times. You're anointed for this. You're anointed for this. In fact, this guy that I just mentioned, he sent me a message last night. He said, I'm praying for you and your service this weekend. You're anointed for this. You are anointed, but you can choose to walk in your own strength or you can choose to walk in the anointing. When you walk in the anointing, the stresses, the difficulties, the obstacles, the problems, the attacks from the enemy, they're all a whole lot more bearable and able to gain the victory over when we do it in God's anointing than when we just get frustrated over it and we get defeated by it. Thank you for listening to this week's podcast. If you are ever in the Tegucigalpa area and looking for an English-speaking congregation, please join us on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. in the main auditorium of Iglesia CCI in Colonial Trapeze, just off Boulevard Sollapa near Una. If you'd like prayer or more information about our church, contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com. That's fellowship.cci at gmail.com. Or follow us on social media. We hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings.