“how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38).
Anointed preaching and teaching are the means by which God reveals that Jesus is alive and releases great grace on His people, thereby enabling them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously, and godly in the present age (Acts 4:33, Titus 2:11-12).
The anointing is the expression of God’s power through a human personality. It is only when the minister is anointed that he or she is useful to the people. The degree to which the minister is anointed is the degree to which he is useful. The more anointed he or she is, the more useful he or she is to the people and vice versa . No minister can impact lives beyond the level of the anointing of the Holy Spirit he carries.
It is the anointing that makes the difference, and without it, like Samson after his fall, the minister is powerless. Powerlessness and ineffectiveness in ministry are all traceable to the absence or waning of the anointing in the life of the minister. No amount of going through the motions of ministry and putting up appearances and theatricality, will make up for the absence of the anointing. In fact, eloquence and oratory are ineffective without it. Hence Apostle Paul said, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1Cor 2:4-5).
The anointing is a must, if fruitfulness in ministry is to be experienced. Otherwise, the whole attempt at ministry will amount to an exercise in futility. It is the anointing that destroys the yoke and squarely and adequately addresses the problems of life (Isa 10:27). Excellence in ministry should mirror the apostolic model: “And with GREAT POWER the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And GREAT GRACE was upon them all” (Acts 4:33) (emphasis mine). When a minister delivers God’s word with great power (the anointing), great grace rests on those who hear him or her. Remember, it takes grace to obey or experience truth: “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn 1:17).
Ministers, should, therefore, neither be empty of the anointing nor low on it. The futility of a ministry without the anointing is graphically illustrated in the Biblical account of the seven sons of Sceva recorded in Acts 19:13-16. Every minister of the gospel should “Look to the LORD and his strength; [and] seek his face always” (Ps 105:4), just like Jesus who, in order to be effective, “… often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed” (Lk 5:16).
When the anointing comes upon a man or woman, the evidence is unmistakable. The anointing produces results that nothing else can. It is the anointing that separates the wheat from the chaff. Elijah, as a result of the anointing power that came on him, gained both supernatural strength and speed, the resultant effect of which was that he outran a royal chariot that had a headstart overtime. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is intended to convince people of the reality of Jesus in a way not possible without it. Oh Lord, fill your ministers with fresh anointing. Shalom.
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