Thoughts for Life: #82 The Anointing is for You

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: When the Holy Spirit gives you new birth, you receive His abiding presence. "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" (Rom. 8:9).

The Spirit witnesses to your salvation (Rom. 8:16; 1 John 5:6, 10). But you also have the Spirit's ministry in many other ways. One of these ways is His anointing of your life and service. (Google image, Worshiping God, God's way).

The degree to which any Christian receives this anointing and is conscious of it depends on the closeness of his walk with the Lord and the extent to which, by faith, he appropriates it. It already remains in Him, but may not be powerfully active. As in all of Christian experience, faith is the appropriating means.

You as a leader have been chosen by God and His people to lead your fellow-believers. You are, in a special sense, set apart to represent Christ, the Anointed One. You need a special and discernible anointing properly to represent Christ and bring glory to Him.

You are a marked person. Of all people, you can bring honor or dishonor to Christ. Of all people, you are to be Christlike and anointed in your life.

You must also be anointed in your leadership. Since Christ has provided the anointing for you by His grace, He expects you to be constantly anointed by the Spirit in all aspects of your leadership role.

Your responsibility as His leader for His people is so great that you dare not function without constant experience and repeated renewals of His anointing upon you. You are also responsible to your people. They look to you above all else as their spiritual leader. You owe it to them to keep anointed for your responsibilities by repeated new touches of the Spirit of God.

The anointing of the Spirit, in the words of Bounds, "is heaven's knighthood given to the chosen true and brave ones who have sought this anointed honor though many an hour of tearful, wrestling prayer."

He terms it the "one divine enablement" by which a leader of Christ's people is equipped for his leadership. Without it, he says,"there are no true spiritual results accomplished."

God has provided divine enabling for you. Scripture gives repeated examples of His leaders receiving this special equipping. This is the age of the fullness of the Spirit.

Any lack of the Spirit's role in your leadership is not due to God's unwillingness. God longs to make you all that you can be by His grace, a leader clothed, anointed, guided, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

He longs to make you a far more effective leader of His people than you have ever dreamed possible. By His special touch, He can draw out the outstandingly important potential that He sees within you. His anointing in all its fullness is for you.

I quote Bounds again: "The unction, the divine unction, this heavenly anointing is what the pulpit needs and must have. This divine and heavenly oil put on it by the imposition of God's hand must soften and lubricate the whole man—heart, head, spirit—until it separates him with a mighty separation from all earthly, secular, worldly, selfish motives and aims, separating him to everything that is pure and Godlike."

Anointing [in the Old Testament] was always for a sacred purpose and done on behalf of God, indicating God's favor. It sealed visibly the special endowment of the Holy Spirit for the responsibilities of the office and conferred the divine enablement needed for the service.

It made a significant difference in the one anointed (1 Sam. 10:6, 9-10). Of David's anointing we read, "From that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power" (1 Sam. 16:13).

Anointing in the will of God meant an induction into a continuing experience of the outpouring of the Spirit to empower for sacred responsibility.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana. Creative reading style by Jean.

Ablaze for God
#82 The Anointing is for You
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 252- 255) ZondervanPublishingHouse

Woman praying

Father, when we first believed that Jesus paid

the price for our sins, and we received His

Salvation personally, Your Spirit came to live within us.

We now have His ministry in our lives as

believers, so may we understand that He anoints us

for our particular life and service.

Help us see the divine enablement equips us for

leadership, and that it is vital for our effectiveness.

Please help us realize the outstanding

potential that You see within each of us.

May we submit to the anointing in all its

fullness to Your glory, and for Christ's Kingdom.

We ask this in His name. Amen.

Today's Bible verses-

Ps. 103:10-14 (KJV) "He hath not dealt with us after
our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
(11) For as the heaven is high above the earth, so
great is his mercy toward them that fear him. (12)
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he
removed our transgressions from us. (13) Like as a
father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them
that fear him. (14) For he koweth our frame; he
remembereth that we are dust."

Prov. 16:32 (KJV) "He that is slow to anger is better
than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he
that taketh a city."

Prov. 15:31 - 33 (KJV) "The ear that heareth the reproof
of life abideth among the wise. (32) He that refuseth
instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth
reproof getteth understanding. (33) The fear of the LORD
is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility."

Today's quote-

~ Steven Smith- "You can trust your Father. He is good. Until you believe that, you will not surrender. Even when you do believe, it is easy to forget God's goodness as life goes on. At key junctures in life, you pull back from surrender because you again assume you know best. You must continually remember that God always knows best. And His will, no matter how painful, will bring the greatest fulfillment and fruit in the end . . . Unconditional surrender is a joyful enterprise when you trust that God has your welfare at heart." (pp. 64, 66 in Spirit Walk).

Today's popular post-

How Long do we Need to Percevere?

Dr. Lesley L. Duewel: " 1. Persevere in prevailing prayer as long as Christ does. You are chosen to be Christ's prayer partner. He has seated you in the heavenlies beside him on His throne.

You are to join His rule of intercessory grace by joining your prayers with His. He still loves. He still longs. He still intercedes. You dare not give up while He is praying."

Upcoming posts-

Power of Prayer
25th- Saturday's post by Lee Forbes

#83 The Anointing is Knowable
28th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

#84 God's Anointing Confers Blessings
30th- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

Where is God?
9/1- Saturday's post by Jean Oathout