Thoughts for Life: #88 You Can be Anointed for Service

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: The Holy Spirit is given you to anoint you for effective living and for effective service. These can be real, and they are interrelated.

1. The anointing gives you liberty and skill.The Spirit's anointing frees from any kind of fear — fear of failure, of the future, and of your overwhelming task. He frees from fear of Satan and of people, which is always a snare (Prov. 29:25). He gives strong confidence in God, His Word, and in His wisdom and
power. (Google image, The anointing oil)

As He touches and anoints, giving added skill and guidance, we begin to realize that our task is really more His responsibility than ours. The church is His church, the cause is His cause, the name that must be exalted is the name of Jesus.

The Spirit enables us to cast our anxiety on God (1 Peter 5:7), and depend on God for all we need to make our ministry effective. As we prove the Spirit's faithfulness and power, our ministry becomes in a new and wonderful sense not only a solemn duty but a holy joy.

We begin to anticipate with eagerness how He will help us in the next aspect of His work. This frees us to be at our best and to receive His best. The anointing thus brings out our natural skills and God's gifts in us, and adds to them His supernatural "extra" — extra blessing, extra wisdom, extra power. He teaches us the "Immeasurably more" than He is able to do with our efforts (Eph. 3:20).

2. The anointing illumines God's Word. The anointing of the Spirit may bring special illumination upon the Scripture both while you prepare and while you are speaking, teaching, or explaining Scripture.

Finney tells us, "I almost always get my subjects on my knees in prayer; and it has been a common experience with me, upon receiving a subject from the Holy Spirit, to have it make so strong an impression on my mind as to make me tremble, so that I could with difficulty write.
When subjects are thus given me that seem to go through me, body and soul, I can in a few moments make out an outline that enables me to retain the view presented by the Spirit. I find that such sermons always tell with great power upon the people."

Jesus promised concerning the Spirit, "He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you" (John 16:14-15).

He also said, "He will guide you into all truth" (v.13). The Spirit answers the prayer, "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law" (Ps. 119:18). He shows us that beautiful unity of Scripture and how one verse shines light on another. He inspired the Scripture originally, so He is the One now to help us understand its depths. There are whole dimensions of meaning that we will miss unless He illumnes us.

The Holy Spirit guides us in how to apply the Word to our own hearts and to the needs of others. This is the aspect of His ministry that strikes home like the blows of a hammer (Jer. 23:29), that effectively pierces the heart like a sword, and penetrates the thinking of the hearer (Heb. 4:12). This also makes the encouragement of the Scriptures blessedly real (Rom. 15:4).

3. The anointing teaches. The teaching ministry of the Spirit as He anoints is closely related to His illumination. "The anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as the anointing is real, not counterfeit — just as it has taught you, remain in him" (1 John 2:27).

Jesus is your great Teacher, He was called Master, i.e., Teacher, during His earthly ministry. His teaching included interpretation of Scripture, impartation of new truth, application of Scripture to the daily lives and ministry of the disciples, and practical instructions for their ministry.

The Holy Spirit was sent to continue the teaching ministry of Jesus (John 16:12-15). This an important aspect of His anointing. He guides us into all truth (John 16:13).

The Spirit must not merely guide and teach us in our goals, strategies, and action; He must guide us in our attitudes, our positions on issues, and even in our words (1 Cor. 2:10-14). Not only when we are standing before civic authorities; but in many leadership activities we must be given answers by the Spirit (Matt. 10:19-20).

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

Ablaze for God
#88 You Can be Anointed for Service
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 265- 268) ZondervanPublishingHouse

When prayers are tears

Father, we thank You for giving us the anointing of Your Spirit, as He frees us
from fears of failure, the future, and our overwhelming tasks.
He frees us from the fear of Satan and of people, giving strong confidence in You, Your Word, and Your wisdom and power.
As we cast our anxiety on You, depend on You for all we need to make our ministry effective, we prove Your Spirit's faithfulness and power.
We find that Your Spirit guides us in how to apply Your Word to our own hearts and to the needs of others.
Thank You for sending Your Spirit to continue the teaching ministry of Jesus. It is an important aspect of His anointing, as He guides us into all truth.
We ask for Him to teach us good goals, strategies, and attitudes, positions on issues, and even our words.
We pray for His help in Jesus' name. Amen.

Today's Bible verses-

1 Sam. 12:22 (KJV). "For the LORD will not forsake

his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath

pleased the LORD to make you his people.”

1 Peter 4:12 "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the

fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as

though something strange were happening to you."

Matthew 5:10-12 (NIV) "Blessed are those who are

persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs

is the kingdom of heaven. (11) Blessed are you

when people insult you, persecute you and falsely

say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

(12) Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward

in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the

prophets who were before you."

Today's quotes-

~ Lisa Buffaloe- "Need a tune-up and a tune-in to God? God’s word is Truth, and Jesus says the truth sets us free (John 8:32). Even in the noise and distractions, soul balance can be found in God. Read God’s word and ask the Holy Spirit to teach the things that will comfort you, counsel you, help you, intercede for you, advocate for you, strengthen you, and stand by you so that you may learn the deep things of God. Whatever is out of tune will be brought into correct pitch and pure harmony with the freedom found in the truth of God’s word."

~ Theodore Isaac Rubin- “Happiness does not come from
doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that
comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded
our best.”

Today's popular post-

Giving God the Time of Day

Leah Meahl-
"Are you done with your three days of silence yet? A girl on my hall asked.
Then a guy texted, "Did you find God?"

Three days earlier, I had told my friends not to text me. Other than attending classes, I would be spending time alone in my dorm room.

Upcoming posts-

The Lord Speaks
6th- Saturday's post by Philip Yancey

#89 The Anointing Confers Spiritual Authority
9th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

#90 The Anointing Places God's Seal Upon You
11th- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

The Tsunami
13th- Saturday's post by Ron Hutchcraft