A Fresh Anointing Part 6

He came from the bosom of the Father to the earth, and took my place and became my Subst.i.tute. And defeated the enemy in his own domain.

Jesus arose victorious with the keys of heaven and the keys of h.e.l.l and death, and invited all to come and go with Him to heaven.

Bubbling Up on the Inside

Stay filled with the Spirit! Stay in G.o.d's Presence and stay full of the Word until you get a fresh anointing. Stay in G.o.d's Presence until the anointing just comes bubbling up from inside of you.

Have you ever heard a whistling tea kettle? When you put water on the stove to heat in a tea kettle, that water is not hot enough just because the tea kettle lets off one or two little whistles. To get that water really hot, you let the teapot stay on the fire until that water just begins bubbling up and there's a steady flow of steam coming out!

If you'll stay in G.o.d's Presence long enough to get anointed with fresh oil, the anointing will come bubbling up on the inside. Then a steady stream of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving to G.o.d will flow out of your lips! Speaking in psalms comes up out of your spirit. It may be that you'll speak in psalms by the simple gift of prophecy in your own language. Or maybe you will speak in tongues and the interpretation will be in psalms. But it will all come flowing out of your spirit as you stay in G.o.d's Presence and get a fresh anointing!

Notice another aspect of Ephesians 5:19: "... singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. " When you speak in psalms and hymns and you are singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, you're ministering to the Lord.

G.o.d wants us to maintain a spirit of praise to Him continually because as we saw in Chapter 3, the Bible says we are priests unto G.o.d; priests are to offer the sacrifice of praise to G.o.d continually. We are to continually have a song in our hearts so we can offer praise unto G.o.d. That is ministering unto the Lord.

Because you're filled with the Spirit, you're singing - you've got a song in your heart. In other words, you've got a song on the inside. And if you stay filled with the Spirit, you will have a fresh anointing in your life, and nothing can stop you from singing!

It may seem that you just got the worst news that you could ever get, but if you're filled with the Spirit, you've got a song in your heart no matter what the circ.u.mstances of life may be. If you have a song in your heart, nothing can stop you from singing. You'll laugh right in the face of the devil. You'll laugh and sing and be happy, not because of the trials you might be going through, but in spite of any trials or circ.u.mstances, which would defeat ordinary people.

But we're not ordinary people. We're Spirit-filled people. We're supernatural people. That word "supernatural" means we're beyond the natural. The natural shouldn't affect us as it does folks living in the natural. The natural course of events doesn't have to pull us down; circ.u.mstances can't get us down if we're filled up with the Spirit and we have a song in our hearts. Because we are supernatural people, we are to get a fresh anointing and maintain the glow right in the midst of adverse circ.u.mstances.

Chapter 7 Maintaining the Glow In Adverse Circ.u.mstances

Some folks who have taught the so-called "faith message" maybe haven't put the emphasis where it should be put. Some people seem to think if you believe G.o.d, nothing bad is ever going to happen to you. Some people have taught that if you have faith, you're just going to float through life on flowery beds of ease.

But if you live for G.o.d, sometimes you've got to swim upstream, not just float downstream! In life there will be those times you will have to swim upstream! Sometimes it seems that everything else is going the opposite way and you have to swim upstream! Walking by faith is not always easy.

I remember some experiences I've had along this line after G.o.d called me into the field ministry in 1949 and 1950. In those first few years, G.o.d told me for a while just to stay and preach in the churches. I'm out to obey G.o.d, so I stayed in the churches and held what we call Church meetings or revival meetings.

I remember one particular pastor asked me to come and hold a meeting for him. I thought, Dear Lord, I don't want to hold a meeting for that pastor. At a convention right in front of everyone, I had heard him criticize people who taught about faith and healing, and for ministering in the Spirit like I did in healing services by the gifts of the Spirit.

At the time I thought, Doesn't he know I minister like that? Some time after he said that, he invited me to come and hold a meeting in his church. I prayed, "Lord, I don't want to go minister at his church because I know that

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what I teach about faith and healing would be plowing his field crossways. He's been making furrows up and down one way, and if I come to his church I'm going to make furrows up and down the other way. Surely you don't want me to go to his church!"

The Lord said, "I want you to go."

"Dear Lord," I said, "don't send me there. Please. Just send me anywhere, but I don't want to go there. Besides that, this man is an older minister - he's old enough to be my daddy. I just don't want to go."

The more I prayed, the more the Lord said, "I want you to go."

Finally, I said, "All right. I'm going." So I went.

A young man and his wife who were graduates of a Bible college went with me to help me. The woman played the piano and her husband sang and led the congregational singing. They also sang special songs.

After I preached the first night at this pastor's church, this couple told me, "We wondered if you were going to teach on faith and healing, because we know this pastor and we know he doesn't understand biblical faith and healing." (The pastor used to be this woman's pastor.) I had put it off as long as I could. Finally, I couldn't put it off any longer. I knew in my spirit what G.o.d wanted me to teach on. I announced that I'd be teaching the Bible along a certain line on a certain night.

Usually, this young man and his wife sat on the platform because the building was full, but that night they sat down on the front row. They told me afterwards, "We wanted to sit down front so we could see the pastor's face. He was sitting right behind you."

It's the most difficult thing in the world to preach faith and have a pastor sitting on the platform in back of you breathing the hot breath of unbelief down your back. You don't even have to look back there; you can just feel it. That's tough sledding! But experiences like that in life do you good. They toughen you up.

Endure Hardness as a Good Soldier of Jesus Christ!

Paul said to Timothy, a young minister, "... endure hardness..." (2 Tim. 2:3). Oh, it's easy enough to endure when everything is going good - when things are easy. You don't have to endure much then. As long as everything is going good, it's easy to endure and to maintain the glow. But Paul told Timothy, and this goes for every Christian, "... endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

Preaching when you can feel the pastor's hot breath of unbelief down your neck, is enduring hardness! That's when you really see if you can maintain the glow! I could feel that pastor's unbelief as he sat behind me. I didn't dare turn around to look at him. Actually, I could almost see the pastor's reactions on the faces of those in the congregation, because they were watching their pastor, and I could almost read every one of his reactions by how they reacted!

Endure hardness as a good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ! I just kept plowing for about forty minutes. I just kept on going. Finally, after about forty minutes, the pastor sitting behind me came alive. Suddenly he burst out and said, "Amen!" and he jumped up. "Amen!" he said, "Folks, Brother Hagin is right. Bless G.o.d, what Brother Hagin is teaching is right! He's right!"

This wasn't the only time I had to preach or teach under these kinds of circ.u.mstances; it seemed like this happened to me a lot back there before people understood biblical faith and healing. Do you think that was easy? No! But you've got to maintain the glow in spite of the circ.u.mstances, because circ.u.mstances won't always be pleasant. Sometimes G.o.d will require you to do things that may be tough sledding for a while.

I remember another experience along this same line. Again, the pastor who had invited me to preach in his church was old enough to be my daddy. He was a leader in his particular denomination, and he had announced to his congregation some time before I got there, "The very idea of ministers calling people out and telling them what's wrong with them! The very idea of telling people that they've got a hernia or a rupture, or something else wrong with them! Don't they know G.o.d doesn't heal like that?" (Of course, he was talking about ministering by the gifts of the Spirit.) Although this pastor had invited me to hold a meeting in his church, I knew he didn't understand certain biblical principles of faith and healing. I knew when I started preaching I would be plowing his field crossways, but I also knew the Lord had sent me there, so I just kept plowing. I just kept teaching and plowing.

One night there was an older gentleman in the congregation whom the pastor had said was the finest Christian he'd ever known. This older gentleman was more than eighty years old. The pastor himself was in his fifties, and he'd been pastoring for about thirty-five years, so to say that this older gentleman was the finest Christian he'd ever known was quite a statement.

That night I just pointed to this older gentleman. (I didn't know him personally, except that the pastor had briefly introduced me to him.) I said to him, "The Lord shows me you have a double hernia. You've been operated on twice and it came back on you again, and now you have a double rupture. If I'm wrong, just say so."

"No," he said, "you're right."

"The Lord told me to tell you to come down here," I said, "and that when I lay hands on you, both ruptures will disappear instantly." He came down to the altar, I laid hands on him, and both ruptures disappeared instantly.

You see, the pastor didn't understand this kind of ministry; he had told his congregation that G.o.d wouldn't heal people this way. The next night, however, he got up and announced to his congregation, "Folks, listen. I want you to hear me. I've been wrong. What Brother Hagin is teaching and the way he is ministering is right. What he's teaching about faith and healing is right! If he calls you out, just come on down to the front. And if he calls me out, I'll come down here too!"

But you think that was easy? No! But you've got to maintain the glow regardless of circ.u.mstances. You've got to maintain the glow regardless of what people say about you. You've got to be fervent in the Spirit in season and out of season - whether you feel like it or not!

If you'll be fervent in spirit no matter what happens, no matter what the circ.u.mstances of life are, you'll have a song in your heart and you'll be able to maintain the glow of the Holy Spirit in spite of difficult situations.

Chapter 8 Second Characteristic of Those With a Fresh Anointing

Let's look at a second characteristic of one who is constantly being filled with the Spirit.

Giving Thanks

EPHESIANS 5:20.

20 GIVING THANKS always for all things unto G.o.d and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Does the Bible admonish us to give thanks for a few things? To give thanks if it suits us? No, we are told to give thanks for all things!

This doesn't mean that we are to thank G.o.d for what the devil is doing. But in the midst of every circ.u.mstance, no matter what it is, we can thank G.o.d for His goodness. We can thank G.o.d that we have another opportunity to believe Him and trust Him. We can thank G.o.d that we have another opportunity to exercise our faith and to see His faithfulness and righteousness performed on our behalf.

Those Christians who are full of the Spirit are also full of thanksgiving and praise. They are full of song; they sing and make melody in their hearts to the Lord, and they are full of thanksgiving and praise to G.o.d.

Nowhere in the Bible do I find that G.o.d tells Christians to grumble, gripe, complain, and fuss. No! He tells them to give thanks.

"Yes, but no one ever recognizes me in the church! No 71 one thinks I'm important." Thank G.o.d for it! "Yes, but no one ever asks me to sing a special song." Thank G.o.d for it! "No one ever asks me to serve as an usher." Thank G.o.d for it! Give thanks to G.o.d for all things! That means in every circ.u.mstance maintain a heart that is full of thanksgiving and praise to G.o.d.

Too many times folks want to be seen and heard by others. That's their motive for wanting to do things in the church - they want to be noticed. They want to sing, so folks will notice them. Maybe they can't even sing! You ought to thank G.o.d no one asked you! If you're not qualified to sing, you're liable to get embarra.s.sed and embarra.s.s everyone else too.

No one ever asks me to sing either. Of course, if anyone ever heard me sing, you'd understand why! I don't sing unless everyone else is singing and then I just do what the Bible says, I make a joyful noise! I even took voice lessons at one time, but the voice teacher said to me, "I've been teaching voice for 39 years. I never told this to anyone else, but if I were you, I believe I'd quit trying to learn to sing." That's about the only thing you'll ever hear me say I can't do. I just can't sing, but I can have a song in my heart and make melody unto the Lord.

"No one ever asks me to do anything!" Thank G.o.d for it! No matter what happens, maintain a thankful att.i.tude. I'm going to praise G.o.d regardless of circ.u.mstances.

I've said for a good many years that if someone told a he about me, I wouldn't even take time to deny it. I'd just say, "Praise the Lord!" and go on down the road praising and wors.h.i.+pping G.o.d. I'm not going to let anyone or anything steal my joy. I just refuse to do it!

And I'm going to praise G.o.d whether I feel like it or not. The Bible talks about offering up the sacrifice of praise - that's part of the function of a priest and as we saw, we're all called to be priests unto our G.o.d. One thing about it, if you stay filled with the Holy Ghost, it's the easiest thing in the world to offer up a sacrifice of praise to G.o.d. Praising G.o.d becomes just automatic; it becomes a lifestyle.

If you're full of praise and thanksgiving, you're full just like a sponge when it's full of water. You press that sponge anywhere, and water comes out. It's full! Just squeeze it the least bit and water comes out. If you're full of thanksgiving, no matter what happens, thanksgiving comes out. I don't care how much pressure the devil puts on you to try to squeeze you, thanksgiving comes out. That comes with maintaining a fresh anointing in your life - be being filled with the Spirit.

Praising G.o.d Puts the Devil To Flight!

When you are born again and baptized with the Holy Spirit and you're continually praising G.o.d, that brings the anointing and puts the devil on the run! Satan won't hang around where people are praising G.o.d. The devil can't stand that!

I remember a church we pastored during World War II. There was a young man in the congregation who recounted the following story: This young man was going to Bible college to prepare for the ministry. In the summertime he would go out and preach so he would have enough money to pay his tuition in the fall. Then in the fall he would return to Bible school. One fall he was traveling back to the Bible college by bus.

The bus was crowded - it was so full of people that there was only standing room.

The bus was running late, and this young man had to make a connection and transfer to another bus. If he missed that connection, there wouldn't be another bus he could take for quite some time.

As the crowded bus he was on was approaching the bus terminal, this young man thought to himself, Oh, dear Lord, this bus is going to pull in and the other bus is going to pull out before I have time to get off and transfer. He was sitting toward the back of the bus where it was crowded and many of the people were swearing and telling vulgar jokes. Also, many people were standing up blocking the aisles, making a quick exit almost impossible.

About that time the young man saw the other bus pull into the bus station. He was the only one who had to get off at that particular stop, and he had to make a quick exit, but too many people were blocking his exit. Although he didn't mean to do it, amidst all this swearing and vulgar talk, without thinking he said out loud, "Praise the Lord! Thank G.o.d I'm saved!" He thought to himself, Dear Lord, Did I say that out loud?

Immediately, everyone stopped talking and looked at him. Then very quickly everyone backed out of his way! That whole crowd just parted and stood back and let him get off the bus! He marched down the aisle and as he began to get off the bus, he thought to himself, Well, I've already done it anyway! I might just as well do it up right! So as he was stepping off the bus, he said loudly, "Hallelujah, glory to G.o.d! I'm glad I'm saved!" and went out the door unhindered and transferred to the other bus before it pulled away!

That crowd reacted just like the devil does when we praise G.o.d! Once you begin praising G.o.d, the devil will shut up, step back, and get out of your way! When this young man praised G.o.d, those people on that bus didn't have anything else to say! The devil won't either because he doesn't like to hear Christians praising G.o.d!

I sometimes tell the story about an incident that happened to Rev. John Osteen and me. I was preaching in Houston, Texas, and Brother Osteen came to my meetings. After one of the meetings, Brother Osteen asked me to go to lunch with him and to stop by one of the local auto dealers.h.i.+ps so he could finalize a deal on a car.

We went into this dealers.h.i.+p and there was one automobile in particular that Brother Osteen was interested in buying. As we walked up to look at it, the manager approached us and asked us if he could help us. Brother Osteen said, "Yes, I want to buy this car," and he handed the manager a business card with the name of a salesman on it who had quoted him a price on that particular car.

The manager looked at that figure and started swearing. He said, "We can't sell you this car at this price!" Brother Osteen told him that was the price he had been quoted by the salesman, and he'd come to buy that car!

The manager let out another long string of curses. This manager was a tall man, but Brother Osteen who's not so tall, got right up in his face and began saying, "Glory! Hallelujah! Praise G.o.d! Glory to G.o.d! Praise the Lord!"

As soon as Brother Osteen did that the manager immediately stopped swearing. Brother Osteen said, "I demand equal time! If you're going to curse Him, I'm going to praise Him!" That manager instantly changed the way he was talking and acting! After that, you'd have thought he was the most religious person in town. (Incidentally, Brother Osteen bought that car for the price that was originally quoted him!) The devil can't stand it when we praise G.o.d either! Every one of us is anointed to pray and to praise G.o.d. If you don't feel anointed when you start praying, stay in the Presence of G.o.d long enough and wait for the anointing to come. If you will offer the sacrifice of praise, that is, if you will praise G.o.d even when you don't feel like it, the anointing will come.

A Lifestyle of Praise

P.C. "Dad" Nelson made a great impression on my life. One reason he did was because of his Baptist background. I was born and raised Baptist. Dad Nelson had been in the ministry for 32 years as a Baptist and had 12 years of higher education. At that time, he was one of the most educated men in the world. I personally heard him say that he could read and write 32 different languages. Linguistics, or languages was his major in college.

I heard Dad Nelson give this testimony. He said one of his college seminary roommates was a pastor of a First Baptist church, and he invited Dad Nelson to come and preach for him. He got there just in time for the morning service. Dad Nelson said, "Sitting there on the platform, I said without thinking, 'Praise G.o.d!' " He had just recently been baptized with the Holy Spirit. He had been born of the Spirit before, but he'd just recently been baptized with the Holy Spirit. When Dad Nelson said, "Praise G.o.d!" his former roommate jumped and looked at him, because they didn't do that in the First Baptist Church.

I could relate to that because for the first 17 years of my life, I went to a First Baptist church, and I never heard anyone say "Praise the Lord!" or "Glory to G.o.d!" in a service. There was a time or two that some of the older men sitting over in the corner sounded like they grunted. Momma said one of them said, "Amen" one time.

Anyway, Dad Nelson said, "I thought nothing about it. Several different times I praised G.o.d out loud." Then he was introduced and came to the podium and preached his sermon. After the service, he and his seminary friend went out to eat. As they were sitting there waiting for their order to come, every so often without thinking, Dad Nelson said, "Praise the Lord!" or "Glory to G.o.d!" or "Hallelujah!"

Finally, his friend spoke up and said, "I believe that's just a habit with you." Dad Nelson said, "What do you mean?" He didn't even know what the fellow was talking about. He wasn't conscious of the fact that he'd said anything. You see, when you get full of the Holy Spirit, giving thanks is such a way of life to you, that you are unconscious of the fact that you are doing it. It's so much a part of you, that praise and thanksgiving just come out as a natural expression to G.o.d.

Dad Nelson asked his seminary friend, "What's just a habit with me?" "Well, praising G.o.d all the time like you do. I believe that's just a habit with you." "Well," Dad Nelson answered, "it's a habit I never used to have before I got filled with the Holy Spirit!"

Dad Nelson not only got filled with the Holy Spirit, he maintained a constant experience of staying filled with the Holy Spirit! That's why the praises of G.o.d were continually flowing out of his mouth!