How to qualify for the Anointing

It’s one thing knowing how to operate in the anointing, but you can’t unless you’ve first “qualified” for the anointing. What must you do in order to qualify for the anointing? Here are seven things that must be present:
(1) You must be humble. Proverbs 16:19 says, “Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.” Proverbs 29:23 states, “A man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honour.” Basically, to be humble means to be submissive - in submission. It means taking your authority, success, power, talents and independence and yielding them to God. It is the act of deliberately stepping down in order to look upward - to where your help comes from.
If you are going to enjoy the success that the anointing brings you, you will have to remain humble. By humbling yourself and allowing the Holy Spirit to exalt you, you demonstrate the right attitude. An attitude that’s pleasing to God. James 4:6 tells us that God resists (opposes) the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Humility and grace are a perfect match, and the anointing flourishes in such an environment.

(2) You must be consistent. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8). Consistency is stability and stability is something the Holy Spirit loves.
If you are constantly being drawn in opposite directions you can never operate in the anointing. God cannot trust you with it! Why? Because your alliance is divided, you have two masters, and this violates God’s trust in you. This is why the anointing is drawn toward people of faith. Faith is consistent because it is totally reliant of the trustworthiness of God.
(3) You must do things with excellence. Exodus 35:31 says, “He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts.” When the anointing is present so is the spirit of excellence and whatever you do under the authority and inspiration of the Holy Spirit will be flawless. Verse 35 says, “He has filled them with skills to do all manner of work.”
(4) You must be in submission to authority. Being in submission to God keeps you humble, but when you submit to an anointed authority you share in the very same anointing. By choosing, and then submitting to, an anointed ministry, you will be “covered” and this covering will also protect the individual anointing you have. The Holy Spirit loves to operate in an ordered and well governed situation, and this means honouring the correct God-given structure.
(5) You must practice generosity at all times. 2 Corinthians 9:11 states, “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” The Holy Spirit will never manifest the anointing through a mean spirit. Generosity brings about thanksgiving to God and the anointing untimely glorifies God. A generous and liberal heart attracts the anointing because the anointing is to be given and shared liberally.
(6) You must be prepared to pay the price. The anointing is not some cheap merchandise; it may cost you something real. It may cost you time, effort and dedication to God. Being in constant fellowship with God is costly. You may even be persecuted for the results of the anointing. Every great man and woman of God has willingly paid the price for the anointing on their lives. The greater the cost the more anointing will flow. For example, look at the life of our Lord Jesus. He had the Spirit without measure - an unrestricted flow of the anointing.
(7) You must founded and grounded in love. The more you love God, the more you will be able to love His people, as well as the lost. This is the first and most important criteria for the anointing to manifest. 1 John 2:5 in the AMP says, “But he who keeps (treasures) His Word [who bears in mind His precepts, who observes His message in its entirety], truly in him has the love of and for God been perfected (completed, reached maturity). By this we may perceive (know, recognise, and be sure) that we are in Him.” The anointing has just one source, just as true love has only one source, and that is God. God doesn’t possess love, He is love. Likewise, God doesn’t posses the anointing, He is the anointing.