YOU ARE ANOINTED!
Imagine a shadow of a preacher falling on someone and them being healed; a Handkerchief bringing healing over someone; a word going forth and the preacher never laying hands on or even seeing a person; Or someone in town, complete crazy, naked, and breaking off chains when he was put in them, being sent as a minister to his old town—to declare what God has done!!
You and I are anointed. Period. End of discussion. Everything else we want to add to that is a lie. We have already been Anointed: set aside for a special purpose; covered in the oil of His presence; God has smeared His scent, His color, His mark on our hearts; empowered, filled with great power already, to accomplish our life purpose; and filled fully with Holy Spirit presence and power.
Everything we touch has the potential to become anointed.
- Your Voice could be anointed.
- Your story of sin and depravity has the potential to become Anointed (powerful, full of presence, etc.) if you allow it (Brian Welch of KORN
- Your story of being abused, physically, sexually and mentally has the potential to become Anointed IF YOU WILL… (see Jonnathan Truong’s book).
- The Dollar Bill you give in offering becomes anointed as it works the purposes of God in the life of orphans in India, needy folks in Tomball thru TEAM and TRC, as well as thru preaching the gospel.
- Your Art, Cooking, Dancing, Financial skills can all be anointed.
- Your home; work; students; salsa (both dancing and spicy salsa!)
- Your FB Posts, your conversations over coffee and your _____ can be anointed.
YOU are ANOINTED. Simply put, you have been Set Aside for a Special Purpose; therefore, it follows that whatever you DO could be considered part of that Special Purpose.
Preaching is not more important than you going to work. Studying scripture, while important and I want you all to be reading/studying daily, is not more important than cooking a meal, cleaning your home or taking a walk.
Declare: I am Anointed! Set apart, looking like Jesus, smelling like Holy Spirit and full of my Father’s Power to do great things.
God Loves to Use What We Think is Common (a boy throwing a stone to kill a giant, a virgin teenage mother, a brutally crucified and humiliated Savior; as well as bread, wine, oil, and mud!).
Paul was a tentmaker by trade and the handkerchief and workman’s aprons or tool belts, was probably worn by him when working on tents and not preaching in the temple or in house churches.
These would be very common items for a working man.
There is divine power and we are connected to it (and connect it to others) through Faith. The common things WE DO, and I want to emphasize, WE DO, can be greatly used by God IF WE BELIEVE.
What is our most used tool across all types of work? Your Cell Phone! Is there any way that your phone, FB usage and Instragram can convey the power and presence of God?
Our Words May be the Most Common thing that God can move through; however, as I was thinking this week, I thought about music. Music is basically, at its core, as simplistic as us making a sound with our mouths. The beating on the drum; the strumming of the guitar; the plucking of the harp; the pressing of keys on the piano; the blowing air through a reed.
The Shepherd Boy David, played the simple harp–sort of like in mandolin in contrast to the guitar…nothing fancy and something you could travel with.
God engages with us when we take a risk (there is no indication that Paul or God told the people to send away the handkerchiefs or aprons)
When is the last time you took a risk upon a word from God? Or, the risk taken was based upon a scripture? What would change have to change within us for us to extend our small seed of faith and take a RISK? (we would have to believe more?)
We have two more examples in scripture where a person’s clothing was anointed and healed someone. Remember when the Woman with the Issue of Blood touched the robe of Jesus, power went out from Him and she was immediately healed?
On another occasion, a crowd brought to Him “all who were sick and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment.” The account ends with Matthew’s telling us, “As many as touched it were made well” (Matthew 14:34-36; Mark 6:56).
‘And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.’ (Mark 6:56 NIV)
‘And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.’ (Matthew 14:35-36)
I want to end with 3-questions this morning.
- What common thing in your life would be anointed if you would simply believe?
- In what area of your prayers/hopes do you need to take a risk?
- Where specifically do you need to persevere in your faith?