Greetings this morning in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the Lord Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
I trust you had a good night, last night, [and] got a little sleep. And a good morning this morning. I fell a bit overwhelmed with my subject as I am walking down the road day by day in preperation. I want to tell the truth, Amen? I don't want to tell you what you think you ought to hear, or what everyone thinks we ought to hear; I want to tell the truth. I'll have to stand before the Lord someday, and he will hold this book up for me, for what I've said. I want to say the right things.
So, let's have a prayer and go on, let's just bow for prayer. Our god and our Father, you know our hearts as we're here before you this morning, everyone of us Lord we joy in the opportunity to sing, to be together with all these men. Lord we do count it a privelige that in our day we can be with a whole bunch of men and love you, who want to do nothing else but be here, and seek your face, and sit under the ministry of the word, and worship you, and sing, and confess, and repent, and all of those things, Lord, Holy exerscised. I thank you father that I can be here. Oh, Lord we pray that you would send a comforter down in our midst this morning, God. This doesn't make any sense at all if we just sit around here talking about somebody who was not here. Fill us with the Holy Ghost this morning God, please, Father. And minister to us, bear witness to the truth of your Word in our hearts, in Jesus Christ's name, Amen.
While finishing up from yesterday, we saw yesterday that the terms used through the scriptures concerning the Holy Ghost are synonomous. That means that God uses several different words speaking of the same thing. It seems to me that God's people had taken those terms one by one, developed them into different doctrines and developed them into different and points to stand on to try to prove their particular theological understanding of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but as we go down through the scriptures and just look at them in simplicity like our brother Ken showed us last night, just the simple man, take[s] the Bible and open it up and see what it says. You know, if we take it that way it seems these terms are synonomous.
So in light of that, I want to give you just a little simple definition here this morning of what I believe what God means. If we would take all of those verses together and put them together, what I believe God means when He speaks about being endowed with power from on high, the Holy Ghost coming upon you, being baptized with the Holy Ghost, being filled with the Holy Ghost, all of these terms. What God simply means by that is being overwhelmed with the presence of the Living God. Being overwhelmed with the presence of the Living God. And so if I can use the term that Paul used when he met the disciples at Ephisus, you know, he said to them, "Have you recived the Holy Ghost since you believed?". He wasn't asking them a theological question, there in Ephisus. He wasn't checking out their theology to see if the understood the doctrine of the Spirit of God, when he comes, how he comes, and all that. He just simply asks them a very frank question: "Have you been overwhelmed with the presence of the Holy Ghost since you believed?"! And so, I just want want to give you that question this morning. We're all sitting there this morning. We're in different places in our Christian lives, we're in different places before the Lord. I just give you that question today, "Have you been overwhelmed with the presence of the Holy Ghost scince you believed?"
I want to give you another question. How long has it been, scince you were overhwhelmed with the presence of the Holy Ghost?
These are good questions for us to come to grips with as we are here today.
I know there are many confusing things happening in America. I know that. And they cause people to be afraid, and to react, and all of those things, but dear bretheren, I'm afraid we're going to be shocked when we stand before God if we go through lives and never know what it is to be overhwlemed with the presence of the Living God. I believe we're going to be shocked when we stand before God and find out all that was available, all that was bought and paid for. I don't want to stand there and say, "Lord I was afraid. You know what the charismatics did and you know what the barkers did, the ones that bark like dogs, and Lord you know what the laughing revival did, you know, and I don't want to stand there and throw all of those things in God's face," when in reality, God will turn back to me and say, "Is it not revealed in My Word what I meant?"
And I know we're concerned about having an emotional experience, and I'm not here talking about an emotional experience, I'm not wanting everyone to get all worked up in a tizzy and in their emotions and have tingles running down their back. I'm not here to do that, but listen bretheren, some of us are so afraid of having an emotional experience, we haven't had any experience. Come on! We haven't had any experience, and somehow we've settled ourselves down, living a subnormal Christian life in saying, "We have the Spirit! We have the Spirit! We have the Spirit! Why? Oh, I read the theology books and the theology books say that the Spirit of God is in me, so the Spirit of God is in me!", but I ask you this morning: Is the living God living inside of you, and you know he is there? Not because you read it in the Word, but because you sense his awesome presence moving in your heart. This is the life of a Christian, brothers.
I was thinking about Wesley a little bit this morning, and those sixty men in that all night prayer meeting, you know, that they had in back there in 1727 or 8, I don't know when it was, but I think they had an experience in that room, what do you think? I read the account of it. They fell on their faces in response to the awesomeness to the presence of God. They fell on their faces and shook like leaves in the presence of God, and they were all filled with the presence of the Living God and Methodism was born.
I want to encourage you this morning, God is, in spite of all the confusing things that are going on in this land where we live which, by the way, don't interpret things by what is going on in this land. But want to encourage you that God is pouring out His Spirit upon whole churches in other places around this world, in faraway places; in places where persecution reigns; in places where martyrdomism is the norm; in places where people live in poverty and do not hardly have any money; in places where people live where it's filthy, and they hardly have any money, and there's not doctors around to run to, and they don't know what a drug store is where you can go and buy something and take it to get well. God is pouring out His Spirit in places like that upon his people, and for this we should earnestly desire the same. We should earnestly desire it.
My testimony is this, I refuse, I refuse to settle down into the we-have-it mode. I refuse to settle down into that mode, and I grieve over the theological gymnastics that take place in this land of ours as people find ways to explain away their powerless lives. I'm not going to do that. Maybe I'll be unhappy the rest of my life but I'm going to do that. I'm not going to be satisfied! I have read too much. Too much learning has made me mad [laughs]. It has made me mad. I have read too much, I read the Acts of the apostles, and I've seen how God worked in their hearts and their lives, I've seen the results of the coming of the Spirit of God upon them, and I can't be satisfied with some subnormal experience where I go around dreaming about the fact that I might have a little. I can't be satisfied with that.
I was reading Menno Simmons a bit in preperation for these teachings here, and I thought, "Wow!", Yeah, ok, so you don't like Wesley and you're not sure about Charles Finney. Well bretheren, we've got a long way to go catch up to the anointing that was upon Menno Simmons. Have you checked in on that one lately? Hey, forget about those other fellas, let's just go after that one for a while. We're so far away from the anointing that rested upon that man, that Anabaptist, and many of us say we're Anabaptists, I tell you, we're so far from what the Anabaptists were, we've just got the shell. So, hey, just pursue that one. Lay all of the other ones aside, just pick that one up for a while and sigh and cry before the Lord. But I've read too much. I've read Asa Mahan and Charles Finney and Andrew Murray, and William Law, and even some of the old Pentecostals, way back, you know, 1900. And I refuse to settle down into that mentality: "This is all there is." I refuse that.
I am glad for a measure of God's anointing. I think I have a measure, but I'll tell you this: I'm not happy. I am not happy. That's my testimony and I stand up here on the basis of my hunger, and not on the basis of my attainment, and share with you this morning. I want you to know that, I don't think I should be up here, but I'm up here because I'm hungry.
Have you been overwhelmed with the presence of the Living God? Let's open our Bibles to Exodus chapter 33. Now we're moving into today's subject, all of that was yesterday's.
Moses was overwhelmed with the presence of God. Do you want to look at a couple of Old Testament examples as we keep our focus on the Word, and examples in the Word. We come to the Old Testament example of Moses. Reading in Exodus chapter 33, Moses had quite a discussion with God. He had been up on the mount for forty days and forty nights reciving the Ten Commandments. God had written them on tables of stone. While he was away, the children if Isreal made a golden calf, sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play, and Moses was sent back by God down off the mount, and there is quite a discussion going on there. And Moses was pleading with God not to forsake His people, and in the middle of that, he makes a request to God, and that's what we want to read in Chapter 33 in verse 18. He, Moses, said, "I beseech thee, show me Thy glory. And He said, I will make all of My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to on whome I will show mercy. And He said...," (This is God speaking), "...'Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see Me alive'. And the Lord said, 'Behold, there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock and it shall come to pass while My glory passeth by, that I shall put thee in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover thee with My hand, while I pass by, and I will take away my hand and thou shall see My back parts, and My face shall not be seen',".
Now that's a beautiful portion of scripture, there. A conversation that Moses is having with God and I don't know about you but I'll take that. I'll take the hinder parts. God speaking to Moses [says], Moses, you want to see My glory but you don't understand what My glory is. You don't know how awesome it is. You won't be able to live if you see My glory in all of it's fullness face to face, so this is what I'm going to do for you: I'm going to put you in a cleft of a rock and hide you there, and I'm going to come back passing by in all of My awesome presence and glory. And when I come by I'm going to put My hand out there to block so you can't see my glory, and when I get past you and only the hinder parts are left, I'll move my hand away, and you can get a glimpse of me as I'm passing by, Moses.
Chapter 34 in verse 5 through 8, "And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord,". Now Moses received a revelation of God, here. [A] Revelation of God that he had not seen before. A revelation of the character, the majesty, the Holiness, the purity, the righteousness of the character of the Living God, and God proclaimed His name to Moses today, and those weren't words that He proclaimed. He revealed His Holy character to Moses. And the Lord passed by before him, before Moses, and proclaimed... What did he proclaim? The Lord, the Lord God, merciful Lord God, Lord God gracious, Lord God longsuffering, Lord God abundant in goodness, Lord God truth, Lord God keeping mercy for thousands, Lord God who forgives iniquity and transgression and sin, Lord God in what will by no means clear the guilty, Lord God who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children and unto the third and unto the forth generation. And Moses made haste at this revelation and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. Moses was overwhelmed with the presence of God that day, and he was never the same. He stayed up in the mount for forty days in the presence of God. That will change your life, Amen?
Did you ever hear of William Duma? How many ever heard of Wiliam Duma? No! Only one or two! He was a black preacher from South Africa. A Zulu, a Baptist Zulu, but he was anointed with the Holy Ghost. He went into a cave with his Bible and some water, and he came out twenty one days later a totally different man. He was a powerfull man, he was an anointed man. He had a ministry in healing. A lot of Baptists don't even belive in healing, but he had a ministry in healing. He was a powerfull preacher, fearless, nothing bothered him. Well he went back into that cave every year for twenty one days. All the years of his ministry he went back into that cave with a Bible, and some water for twenty one days.
Well while Moses was up there for forty days... It's very interesting what happened to him in Exodus chapter 34 again and reading from verse 29, "And it came to pass when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, it came to pass that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. And when Aaron, and all the children of Isreal saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh unto him,". Moses was overwhelmed with the presence of the Living god, and we are told if we continue to read here that Moses from that time there on the mount alone with God, from there forward, every time he got into the presence of God, he took this veil off of his face, and the presence of God so permeated his face, his skin, that he shined. He shined a little bit like Jesus did on the mount of transfiguration. So much so that the children of Israel were afraid of him. And in order to relate to them, heput this veil over his face after he came from the presence of God. Moses was affected by the presence of God.
Turn with me to Numbers chapter 11.
In Numbers Chapter 11, we have another beautiful account to consider here, this morning. Numbers 11, verse 16, Moses is overwhelmed with the workload. He's burdened down with all of these people and all of their problems, and everything that needs to be done. And he's having a hard time bearing all of it, and he comes to God, and talks to God about it, and God talks to him, and it says in verse 16 and 17 of chapter 11, "And the Lord said unto Moses, gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation that they may stand there with thee, and I will come down, and talk with thee there, and I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee and will put it upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone,". Now I want us to remember the Spirit that is upon Moses. We were just looking at the Spirit that was upon Moses. Now God is saying, Ok Moses, too much for you to bear? No problem. You chose out seventy men, let them come and stand with you in the tabernacle I'm going to come down, and I'm going to take the Spirit that is upon you and put it on them. Beautiful. An extension of the kingdom is going to take place. [God says] I'm going to extend the work, and I'm going to share the burden upon others.
Numbers 11 in verse 24 and following, "Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and set them roundabout the tabernacle. And the Lord came down in a cloud and spake unto him and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and gave it untp the seventy elders, and it came to pass that when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied and did not cease. And there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other was Midad, and the Spirit rested upon them, and they were of them that were written but went not out unto the tabernacle and they prophesied in the camp, and there ran a young man and told Moses and said, 'Eldad and Midad do prophesy in the camp,' and Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men answered and said, 'My lord Moses, forbid them,' and Moses said unto him, 'Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them',". And May I add the word... "all,". Upon them all. But we see from this account that when the Spirit of the Lord was placed upon those seventy men, they were overwhelmed with the presence of the Living God and they couldn't help themselves, they prophesied. That is, they were speaking forth the mind and will of God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That's what it means to prophesy. They were speaking forth the mind and the will of God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Here they are, all around the tabernacle, God comes down, puts His Spirit upon them, and all of them start prophesying, even the two that weren't even in the area, there.
Oh, we can take many lessons from this, but what I want us to see this morning is there was an affect upon those men when the Spirit of the Lord came down upon them and there will be an affect upon us when the Spirit of the Lord comes down upon us! And would God He would send all five hundred plus of us home, prophesying! And like those early apostles were when they were warned, "Don't you speak in His name anymore," that was like foolishness to them. Those words didn't mean a thing to them. They said, "Hey, you decide whether it seems right in the sight of God or not for us to be quiet, but as for us, we can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard,". Why? Because the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, that's why. We can't help ourselves. Do it, Lord, do it.
You say, "Brother Denny, I'm not a preacher,". I don't care if you're a preacher. God wants all of His people to be anointed and speak forth the mind and will of God. God wants them all to do it! Yeah, sure, some of them may be gifted to stand and minister and teach and preach, bring the Word to the others. But I tell you, I know it's God's will that every single man in this room have such an anointing upon them that they cannot help but speak about the things of God! I know it's God's will! I know it! So it doesn't matter who you are, and it doesn't matter wether you have have a stammering tongue or not, in fact, God likes stammering tongues! He chooses them.
Oh dear God, He would rest upon all of us, and send us out of here, totally different. Totally different.
There are many examples in the Old Testament, and we could look at many where the Spirit of God came upon individuals, but these are enough to show that in each case we see the influence and the effect of the presence of God, and what influence it had upon these people, and that is the point I'm wanting to make here, this morning.
Now let us move into the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, or, Jesus the Christ, if I could give it in that order. Jesus the Christ. Israel waited for, looked for, dreamed of the coming of the Anointed. The coming of the Anointed, the Christ. We look at the response of the disciples as they beheld His life. Shortly after he was anointed by the Holy Ghost, they beheld his life. This was their response: "We have found the messiah!", which is, being interpreted, the Christ. Which interpreted, again, is the Anointed One. "We have found the Anointed One,". That is the best translation of what they're really saying. "We have found the one who is anointed." That's what they were saying! The prophesies in the Old Testament promised an Anointed One, and we have found the Anointed One! Come and see for yourself! Come watch his life and you will know he is the Anointed One.
Isaiah 11, I just want to look at a few of these prophecies. There are many prophecies about Christ, but I want to look at the ones that speak about His anointing. Isaiah 11 verse 1, "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of council and might," (that word is power), "the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make Him of quick understanding," (What will the Spirit will?) "the Sprit of the Lord shall rest upon Him and make of him quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and He shall not judge after the sight of the sight of the eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of the ear, but with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth, and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth and with the breath of his lips shall He slay the wicked,".
Chapter 42, "Behold," (verse 1... 42, verse 1), "Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delightest. I have put my Spirit upon Him, He shall bring forth judgment to the gentiles, He shall not cry or lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth, He shall not fail, not be discouraged, till He hath set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for his law," (and the last one, which is famous, Isaiah 61), "...The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and they day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn," and we could read on and on there, but we won't, for time.
The point I'm making is, these prophecies are the heart and the expectation of Israel. There will come the Anointed! When will the Anointed come which was spoken of by the prophets of old? When will he come? And the early disciples said, "We have found the Anointed One, come and see! We have watched His life, we have seen His living. We have watched Him move, and he is the Anointed One. We have found Him!"
We see in these verses the balanced nature of this anointing and power that came upon Him. We see that the anointing was there with a plan and a purpose in mind. We see that that anointing gave Him supernatural character. We see that that anointing gave him a supernatural ministry. We can get all of that out of those verses in the Old Testament, but we will also see it as we see these verses lived out in the reality of the life of the Christ while He walked upon the earth. A supernatural character and a supernatural ministry.
Now let's forget that anointing, turn to Luke, Luke chapter 2.
We want to look just a little bit at Jesus as a Child, and the reason why we want to look at Him before His anointing is so that we can see that there was a definite marked different in his life, before and after the anointing was put upon Him. In verse 40, we read these words, "The Child," (that's Jesus), "The Child Jesus grew, and waxed song in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him,". A little bit further down into the text we come to that place, remember how they came into Jerusalem when he was twelve years old, and if you understand Jewish customs there, when a young man comes twelve years old, he goes through what they call "bar-mitzvah", which means "bound to the commandments". He makes his choice to serve God, and serve the law of God, and Jesus was twelve years old. I don't know if all of that is connected in here, but it is interesting that it happens when they're twelve and Jesus is twelve years old. But, Mary and Joseph head back home and Jesus stays in Jerusalem. We know that story, they find him, they're shocked, and He's shocked that they're shocked! Amen? And you can imagine from their perspective three days, I mean, I've lost my children a couple of times, you know, and wondered where they are, and you know what goes on inside of you. You don't know where they are or what's gong on. You know, three days they're looking for this young fella, and then He says to them, "Wish ye must be about my Father's business?" Hey, this is what it's all about! This is why I'm here! Well, "He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them, but His mother kept all of these saying in her heart, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man,". So that's about all we get into the life of the Lord Jesus before He was anointed, but we'll see a little later here in Luke that he people were even surprised, you know, they would say thing like, "What is this?! Isn't this Joseph's son? I mean, we know Joseph's son, He's been around for years! What is all this he's doing?"
All right. Luke chapter 3, verse 21, "And when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized and praying the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him. And a voice came from heaven which said, "Thou are art my beloved Son. In Thee I am well pleased,". Baptized with water, and Baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 4, verse 1. We're going to skip the genealogy, but this verse follows that verse that we just read: "And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness," so we have a different Jesus, now. He is anointed, now. His ministry has begun, and after His baptism, that dove rested upon Him, and He, being filled by the Holy Ghost, was led in the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. We'll skip the temptation, and go down to verse 14, "And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit, after the temptation," He returned in the power of the Spirit.
All right, let's go to verse 18 and read from verse 18 to 23.
Now Jesus is in His hometown. He's been there many, many times. All of these years growing up, he's been in that synagogue. He's been there many, many times, and now He's here. And He asks for the book, the book of Isaiah, and He opens it up and he reads these words, and by the way, He reads them with all the umption that they were breathed out with, Amen? This was not a normal reading of the book of Isaiah that took place in that synagogue. The Anointed One is now standing in the synagogue, and He opens up the book of Isaiah, and He begins to read those words in the spirit that they were breathed out by the prophet Isaiah. He reads them, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent me to heal the broken heated, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord,", and He closed the book and gave it again to the minister, and he sat down. Silence. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. Why? Because He just read those verses in the umption and power of the Holy Ghost, and they are all looking at this guy and saying, "What is this?". "And He began to say unto them, 'this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.' And bear Him witness and wonder at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth, and they said, 'Is not this Joseph's son?'" Isn't this Joseph's son? What is this? It is the Anointing of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus. That's what it is.
Well, they got pretty upset in there, and tried to throw Him off of a cliff and kill Him, and He went on to another synagogue, and it says in verse 32, "They were astonished at His doctrine for His word was with power,". He spoke words, and those words were with power, and it arrested everyone's attention, and they were astonished at the things He was saying because of the power that was behind the words.
Well, "In the synagogue they had a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice saying, 'Let us alone, what have we to do with thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God,' and Jesus rebuked him, saying, 'Hold thy peace, and come out of him', and when the devil had thrown him into the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not, and they were all amazed and spake among themselves, saying, 'What a word is this? For with authority'," (that's Exusia), " '...and power' ", (That's Dunamis), " He commanded the unclean spirits and they came out."
We're looking at the anointing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, The Christ, needed to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Jesus, The Christ, needed the anointing upon Him. He was overwhelmed, immersed, covered, engulfed in the presence of the Spirit of God, and the implications of this are far reaching, brethren. He lived under a continual anointing of the presence of His Father. He had to. It was His name. He had to! It was His very name!
If The Lord Jesus Christ needed it, how much more, brethren? How much more? How foolish we are to think that it's going to be ok at judgment day that we've frittered our life away without the anointing of god upon us? That's foolishness to think it! If the Lord Jesus needed to be anointed with power of the Holy Ghost do we, His followers, need that anointing upon our lives? He lived under that continual anointing. Christ was very careful to maintain that anointing. Those times alone, those all-nights up there on the mountains, what do you think he was doing up there? Do you think He was putting in His time for His devotions? "I've got to get up there and cover my prayer lists. I've got to get so many chapters of the Bible read. See you later, disciples, I've got to do go my devotions. See you later." How many of you think that's the way he went up into the mountain? We know better, don't we? He wasn't in up there doing His devotions, He was up there bathing himself, immersing Himself in the presence of the Living god, His Father. Listening to his voice, breathing out prayers that were inspired by the Spirit of God. That's what He was doing alone in that mountain alone in that mountain all night long. We know that's what he was doing! But what was He doing, why was He doing that? He was maintaining the anointing of God upon His life, that's what He was doing. He needed to do that. He was a man, he needed to do that. If Jesus needed to do that, oh, how much more we need to do that! And we will not be able to do it just putting in our time, Amen? "Oh, I've got to get my thirty minutes in before I get of to work today!" No, no, no, no. "I must go and get in the presence of the Living God to maintain the anointing of the Spirit of God upon my life today,". That's why he was up there in that mountain. His daily ministry flowed out of His anointing, and I know we can't match His anointing, for He was not given a measure of the Spirits, but all. I know that, but yet we can follow His example. And I believe we are bound to follow His example.
Ephesians 5:18 says, "Be filled with the Spirit,". Ephesians 5:18 says be, being continually filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 says be, being continually filled and controlled with the Spirit. That's the best amplified translation of Ephesians 5:18. what was Jesus doing? Jesus was being continually filled, controlled and powered, and led by the Spirit of God. Jesus lived His life, His ministry, those three and a half years under the anointing of the Spirit of God. He walked in the Spirits. That's what he did. He's our example, isn't He? Thank god for that. That's a beautiful challenge to everyone of us. It's a good example for us to consider the anointing that was on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus said in John chapter 5 in verse 30, "I can of Mine own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. Well, there is a wealth in that little verse right there that Jesus is making. That statement, "I can of mine own self do nothing." Wait a minute! You're Jesus Christ! You're the Son of the Living God! What do you mean you can't do anything on your own?! What he was saying was, I am bound by the spirit of to do only what my Father would tell me to do. That's what He was saying. And I'm not doing any of these things on my own, everything I do I'm doing it because I hear My Father telling me to do it. In another place He said it this way, "My Father works and hither to I work. What I see my Father doing, I do,". He had a connection to his Father, the anointing that was upon Him, kept the heaven open over Him and He herd the voice of His Father. He would walk up to somebody, he would see a lame man there by the wayside, He didn't didn't just walk up to that lame man and respond on His own and say, "Oh. The poor lame man. I think I'll heal him today,". Jesus didn't do that. He walked with His Father in the anointing o the Spirit of God, and when He walked up to that lame man His Father's compassion was overflowing in His heart, a He saw His Father's heart going out to that lame man, and He reached out and touched the lame man, and the lame man jumped up and began to walk. That's how Jesus lived his life. It's a beautiful example for us. I mean, think about Him, He was so free, so free in the Lord. Here come the messengers telling your friend Lazarus is sick, He's about to die. You're a healer, he's your friend, go and heal him. "Father?"
"No, son."
"All right disciples, I think we'll go over this way for a couple of days," [whistling]. What's happening over there? Lazarus, he's dying, you know. Jesus?! Isn't He your friend?! Why, aren't you going to and heal him?! Don't you know you can heal him?! "Father? Ok, Lord, Ok, Father." [whistling] Just as free as a bird, and His friend's over there, dying! How can He do that? He was bound by His Father's will, and His Father said, "Not now, Son. Not now."
"Ok, must be something better coming." Amen! Something better's coming! And of course, we know, He showed up four days later after he stinks, and gave him a personal invitation to rise from the dead [laughs]. "Lazarus come forth!", and he rose from the dead. Oh, what a challenge to everyone of us.
"My works and hither to I work. I am living by my Father," Jesus said. "I am living by my Father,".
Tuck this one away for your meditation: The name Christ, which means anointed, it appears sixty times in the gospels before Pentecost. It appears five hundred time from Pentecost to the end of the Bible. I'll let you chew on that one a little while. He is the Christ now. He is the Christ now! And ye? Ah, ye are the body of Christ. The body.
Have you been overwhelmed with the Spirit since ye believed? How long has it been when last were you enveloped in His presence, brother? You say, "Well, brother Denny, I believe that you grow into it,". Ok, you've been growing for ten years, and still there's not powerful anointing upon you. So if you grow into it, where is it? Even if you grow into it, where is it? Are you confessing your disobedience? Have you grown mighty anointing of God upon your life? I know that we don't want to get all wrapped up in emotional experiences. I know that. But you know something? Chris was experiencing his Father every day, and for that I want. That I want. I'm not seeking tingling feelings. I want an anointed life. A practical, Holy life. A life filled with divine character, and a life that speaks words that influence other when I speak. That's what I want. I'm not looking for some tingling that goes up and down my back, although, sometimes when you're in the presence of God, your back does tingle, and the hairs will stand up on your back, too. But that's not the point.
The point is, Jesus had an anointed life, and an anointed, divine character, and a supernatural ministry, and a voice which was powerful, and for these things, brethren, everyone of us should be longing for them. These things we long for. Let us seek God to this end, as we are here these days. Let us open up our heart to the workings of the Spirit of God in our hearts, let us get honest like we heard last night. Let us get honest. God, what is standing in the way of that anointing upon my life? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves, and we will get into it further in the days ahead, [and] how to pursue these things, but it's good for us to ask that question even here this morning.
Ok, the presence of God is far away from reality in my own life. Why? That is the question, "why". Have you been playing games with God? Have you gotten caught and caught up in this American Christianity? Have you overreacted to all the weird things that happen in some churches these days, and because of that you've just settled down into nothing? Whatever it may be, these are days of examination. These are days when we should open our heart to the Spirit of God and say, "Lord, show me. Show me where I'm at. Show me what my needs are. Show me what stands in the way. Show me where I lost my way. If, in fact, you do remember some sweet times when you were overwhelmed in the presence of God, but you have to say as you sit here today, it's been quite a while since I was enveloped in the presence of the living God. So I leave that challenge with you, this morning, as we make our way through another day seeking God together.
Let's just stand to our feet and ask God to examine our hearts throughout this day, and the days ahead. Let's do that together.
Our God and our Father, we bow down to Thee. We acknowledge you. We acknowledge your word. We acknowledge the testimony of Your Son, The Christ. He is The Christ, even this very moment, He is The Christ, and we rejoice in that, Father. We open our hearts to you this morning, and pray. Plow on them, Father; deal with us. Open up the eyes of our understanding. Yes, Lord, even as we heard last night, give us the gift of a revelation of our own heart, Lord. All of us, Father. Let us see like Isaiah saw, the Lord high and lifted up, and woe is me, I am undone. Lord we ask you for these things, trusting you, believing your promises, and we ask them in Jesus' name, Amen.
