FACTS OF THE ANOINTING

1. Anointing makes the difference in the ministry. Without the anointing you will be among the rest and not among the best. 2. Where there is anointing, there can be no annoyance. Anointing subdues all the works of the flesh and shuts-up the mouths of the opponents against you and your ministry. 3. Anointing can be lost through sin, pride, carelessness and negligence. Samson is a good example of this. Without carefulness, watchfulness and self-denial, it quickly leaks away. 4. Anointing must be kept fresh always. Leave the oil in a place for a period of time and it dries up. You must do everything to preserve the freshness of the anointing. There is always the need for constant check up and renewal.

5. Anointing can grow stale. You will always need fresh anointing everyday. Yesterday's anointing can never be sufficient for today. 6. Anointing does not make anyone reckless. Character and personal growth will keep you longer in the anointing and without them, recklessness and exuberance will ruin you fast. 7. Growing anointing demands efforts and sacrifice. Your level of anointing will continually rise as long as you are ready to pay the right price for it. 8. More than the anointing, you need the Holy Spirit Himself. He is not only the personification of divine energy, but a wholesome person that desires our fellowship, communion and interaction. His presence will always produce greater power in your life. VISION AND THE ANOINTING God will only anoint you for what He has called you to do. There can be no anointing outside of God's call and purpose for your life. Everyone that has operated in the true anointing of the Lord must have discovered and worked according to God's vision for his life. God's anointing upon your life will be commensurate with the work He has committed into your hand. Many who are seeking God's anointing must stop and discover God's call and purpose for their lives first. Without discovering and working according to God's call for your life, you can never enjoy the benefit of true anointing of God and success. Everyone has been given a task, assignment and a ministry to perform (John 17:4; Eccl. 4: 17: II Tim. 4:5). Jesus recognized His calling and He fulfilled it. Paul knew the call of God upon his life and he was devoted to it till the end (Acts 20:22-24). Paul also wrote to Timothy and a certain Achipuss that they should fulfil their ministry. You are not here by accident. You are an original, not a photocopy. There is a call, a ministry, an assignment that God has designed you to carry out. It may be in teaching, writing, preaching, praying, giving, counselling, leading, supporting capacity et cetera. You must first discover that particular calling that is unique to you and. then seek God's anointing to carry it out to the fullest. God will be committed to what He has commanded. He will equip and empower you for the assignment He has created you to carry out in this life. Working outside God's calling, vision and purpose for your life is to be deprived of God's strength, power, enablement and empowerment. It is the fastest road to failure and disappointment. THE GIFTS AND THE ANOINTING Part of God's equipment for every called child His is the gifts of the Spirit often released to operate upon such a person. The gift of the Spirit allows us to be effective in the assignment that God has given to each of us. However, the gifts cannot truly operate and be effective without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The gifts will not be efficient when the anointing of the Holy Spirit is not there to lubricate them. Powerless prayers and ordinary preaching and teaching will be the order of the day without the manifest presence and power of the Holy Spirit. But is it possible to have the gifts of the Holy Spirit without His anointing? Of course yes! The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Many who are out of touch with God still operate in the gifts. They are therefore deceived by the devil to think that they are still under God's anointing. This singular error hasruined so many gospel ministers, especially those in the prophetic, music and deliverance ministries. Simply because one can still prophesy, sing powerfully, see visions, correctly diagonise a particular problem in someone's life does not mean one is still under the anointing of God. So many who are living in one secret sin or the other still exhibit gifts in these areas. Though their gifts are functioning but without the true anOinting of the Holy Spirit backing it. No wonder many ministers who are in this delusion are shallow, carnal, fickle and empty of God's word. We must realize that the gifts of the Spirit will only become effective, result oriented and of true blessing to others when they are operated under the genuine and fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit. ILLUSTRATION OF THE ANOINTING In what ways really is the anointing of God shown in our lives and ministries?: 1. When God goes beyond the natural abilities of a person and gives supernatural ability to preach, teach, lead and counsel. 2. When a person preaches an entire message spontaneously as quickened by the Holy Spirit (totally different from what he had planned) and the congregation is moved spiritually in a special way. 3. When there is a conscious sense of God's abiding and moving presence. 4. When a preacher's message brings spiritual results in the lives of its hearers even though it might be grammatically faulty, unhomiletical, disorganised and unprofessional. 5. When a preacher senses God is nearer to him and he is broken or repents of some sin, and then ministers to his people in the same Spirit. 6. When God heals the sick, delivers the oppressed, saves sinners, and shows His power through His yielded vessel. 7. When some Christian songs or music has the touch of God's presence and power upon it even though all the singers or musicians are not professional. 8. When a leader is lifted up in his spirit and ministers the word of God by prophetic illuminationand speaks directly to the needs of the people. 9. When a spirit of prayer and intercession comes upon a congregation and they pray in unison and spontaneously as God puts particular burdens on individual heart. 10. When we become sensitive and obedient to the inward leading of the Holy Spirit (which are not contradictory to His word). 11. When inwardly we sense through the Spirit the specific spiritual or physical needs of a congregation in a church service and minister to them with tangible and God-glorifying results.