Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
Understanding The Anointing 3
In this message, we unpack the three dimensions of spiritual anointing that transform ordinary Christians into world-changers. Starting with the foundational "inward anointing" that dwells within every believer, we explore how this internal compass helps discern truth from error while requiring constant development through Word and Spirit
Lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Say this together. Say Heavenly Father, I'm glad to be here today, in your presence, is fullness. I'm hungry for the fullness. I want all that you have for me. I want to be filled to overflowing so I can be a blessing to this world. Thank you for choosing me to live in the last of the last days, and I will accomplish that for which I'm called in Jesus name, amen.
Speaker 1:Let's turn in our Bibles to two places, and Zechariah and Isaiah, and these are our foundation scriptures for understanding the anointing. And the last part of Zechariah 4, 6 is not by might or by army, nor by power that is, man's power but by my spirit, saith the Lord. And we've discovered that the word spirit, the Holy Spirit, it's interchangeable with power, with glory, with presence. They're all equivalent terms. So not by army, not by man's might, but by the anointing. Saith the Lord. And then, of course, isaiah 10, 27,. The last part of that verse the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. And so we've been discovering and understanding the anointing. It takes faith to operate in the anointing. You have to believe that it's for you, you have to believe you receive it and that you're included in it. And so we've established some Bible truth about the anointing First of all the inward anointing, and then and then, or the anointing within, the outward anointing, or the anointing upon, and then the corporate anointing. And so a lot of times people just throw the anointing into one place and just, but it's different, it's got different aspects to it. So that's what we've been teaching. All believers, all born again Christians, have the anointing within.
Speaker 1:First John, chapter two, verses 20 and 27, talks about that that the anointing which we have received abideth in us, dwelleth in us, and it's there specifically to help us. It's there to help us discover the truth from the error. You know, when you've got the anointing on the inside, you don't have to go by what it looks like, what it seems like, what it feels like. You don't have to even go by what somebody on the internet is saying. You can look to the inside and trust the anointing within and it will discover for you and show you the difference between truth and error, between truth and lies, and you don't have to be a victim. You don't have to be a victim. I mean, you know many Christians. They let their spirits shrivel up, they don't gain maturity.
Speaker 1:The Bible teaches that we should grow up into him, and so we talked a lot about the inward anointing, how part of our responsibility is to improve that inward anointing. We can do that by the word and the spirit. We have a word life, we have a spirit life, and then we have to convert that over into our life the way we the Spirit. We have a Word life, we have a Spirit life, and then we have to convert that over into our life, the way we live it. We have to live a life that's comparable to what we see in the Bible. We hold ourselves accountable, we don't give ourselves permission, you know, and so we talked a lot about that in week one.
Speaker 1:Week two, we talk about the anointing upon, and that's a gifting that God gives us. With the baptism of the Holy Ghost, you shall receive power, you should receive the anointing, you shall receive the glory, you should receive his presence after the Holy Ghost comes upon you. So there's a subsequent experience. We had several people filled with the Holy Ghost last week. Wasn't that great to see them just freaking in tongues. I mean, they came up and then I mean they left speaking in other tongues. Their lives are forever changed, but, even more importantly, the lives of those who they will touch because of this anointing upon their lives. And so it's so important. And of course, the anointing within is a support for the anointing upon their lives. And so it's so important, and of course, the anointing within is a support for the anointing upon you.
Speaker 1:Know, when you become anointed with the Holy Ghost upon you and you begin to use that power that, on behalf of other people, the devil's not going to lay down and take it. He's going to attack you. The anointing upon you and upon your life will bring tests and trials all by itself. And how are you going to overcome those? Well, you need the anointing within you. I've seen this happen many times. People are greatly anointed of God to do a certain thing, but they shrivel up on the inside. Their inward anointing doesn't keep up with the anointing upon them, and so eventually, something's going to happen to them. Either they're going to fall in a very public manner and then their, their, their, their integrity is exposed. Their lack of integrity, their lack of character is exposed, and now they don't have a standing anymore to bring that anointing that was upon them.
Speaker 1:You know, paul said you know, I keep under my body less. While having preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. So yet the King James, in other words, what he's saying is that I keep my body under subjection to my spirit. I don't give my flesh permission to do just anything it wants to do. Your flesh wants to do things that it always did. You're not. Your flesh isn't saved. Your flesh is the same flesh that that was there when you were lost. The only part of you that's going to heaven is your spirit. And then what is so? You've got to? You've got to got to reign in your flesh and you've got to be renewed. Your mind has got to be renewed to God's plan be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Speaker 1:There's two things that have to happen in your Christian walk. You know you've got to keep your flesh under subjection and you've got to get your mind renewed with God's way of thinking. That's my job is to give you God's perspective, to give you God's way of thinking. That's my job is to give you God's perspective, to give you God's way. If I have to watch over your thinking, your soul is one that gives an account. I have to watch over how you're thinking about things in the, in the now. The nasty now and now is right now. A lot of people are deceived and so my job is to keep you in the truth. Amen.
Speaker 1:And so we talk about that. I mean Paul said, you know, in first Corinthians he said he that has establishes me with you and hath anointed me is God. So God had to establish Paul as the voice to each of his churches, and the and the Corinthian church. They kept, you know they were, they were just in and out. He had to write them two letters because they're so carnal Some of them were bragging that Paul baptized him. He said I didn't baptize anybody, a couple of people. God didn't send me to baptize people, you know. And so they were. They had, you know, they, they were bragging about their different associations, and he rebuked them for their carnality. And he said God is the one that established me. And so when the anointing upon you establishes you in a ministry that God calls you, whether it's a ministry of helping out at the church, maybe he establishes you in the gatekeeper role. I mean, that's an important role in our church Hospitality. There are no unimportant roles in this church. There aren't any. But God is the one that establishes you, and then so if you let your flesh get away from you, if you let your thinking go stinking, what's it going to do? It's going to rock your establishment and people are going to notice. Now they can forgive you and they're going to try to come alongside you and they're going to try to help you and they're going to help you grow and hopefully they won't look down their nose at you.
Speaker 1:But sometimes it does happen that people get so far out of whack that there's no place left. I mean, I had a guy that's been with me a long time. It left the church not long ago. We had to ask him to leave because he just kept going against us. He got deceived beside. With all of my efforts to try to appeal to him, everybody talking to him, coming alongside him, trying to get him to change his mind, he just wouldn't listen and so his establishment was destroyed. There's no place left. He didn't leave. We didn't kick him out. He left essentially by default or y'all. That sounds oh bastard. This is sounding really well.
Speaker 1:You need to understand these principles because we're living in the last days and the devil hates your guts, he hates the church. He hates Jesus and he's trying to get in the church to create trouble. And so you be the solution to that Amen. Stay strong in your inward anointing so that you can stand the tests that are gonna come upon you because of the anointing, so that you can stand the tests that are going to come upon you because of the anointing upon you. And the anointing upon you I mean we all need to be anointed. The anointing upon us has to be there. I mean not just for the pastor and the staff, but it's for every single member of Glorious Way Church or the body of Christ all over the world. They need the anointing. God never intended for the church to go through life without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The anointing upon we can't really reach the whole world with the good news without the anointing upon us, amen. And so we all have that important part. And so today now I want to get into, and so if you weren't here for the last couple of weeks, be sure and get the media Also.
Speaker 1:Wednesday nights I've been backing these messages up. I've preached some. This past Wednesday night I preached on reasoning versus revelation, which really bears right into these messages that I'm preaching on the anointing, because your reason is carnal. Your reason is not how you're designed to operate. You're designed to operate by revelation of the Word of God and revelation. Jesus said it's by the rock of revelation I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The gates of hell will prevail against reasoning. Our puny brains are not. They're just not big enough. I'm all for education, but education won't do it. It's not enough. We need revelation, and so revelation is the rock upon which Christ has built his church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Speaker 1:Now let's look at some verses here today on the corporate anointing and get into what I'm talking about, what I mean by the corporate anointing Ephesians, chapter one, the great Ephesians prayers and the last part, ephesians 1119, we're praying for a revelation and understanding of some principles. And verse 19,. We're praying and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies? Far above all, principality, power, might and dominion and every name that's named, both in this age and that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to his church, which is his body, the fullness of of him, which filleth all in all. The Ephesian prayer there in Ephesians one and two. That's a prayer for understanding of what I just said. He wants you to understand how great the power is in the church, what a powerful name it is.
Speaker 1:We sang that song. And who has the use of the name of Jesus? The church, only the church. No one else has the ability to use the name of Jesus and the power God has given the church, this great power. All things are under his feet. Jesus is the head, the body is on the earth, and really under the feet means authority over Satan, authority over the spirit of Antichrist that's unleashed in the world. The spirit of Antichrist got really hit right in the face with this last election, because we had a whole bunch of people in our nation finally wake up to what was going on and a lot of people voted, uh, you know, right for the first time in their lives. Right, amen, get out of the left and get on the right. Amen, all right. So, um, ephesians, chapter two.
Speaker 1:Now, everybody say all things under his feet, and while that's true, you know you're the feet, but yet, corporately, we're the feet. We're the feet. What are? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? What feet? Well, individually, but corporately, we're marching across this country. We've got six states now engaged in capital worship. We started with Texas, the lone star state, then we came last year on board with Louisiana and Oklahoma. Now this year we've got Maine, and Michigan is about to start. Indiana is starting. Oh, I'm telling you, man, this is growing. Six down and 44 to go. Praise God, I call that revival. See how precious are our feet. See, our feet are walking. Are you with me now? All right.
Speaker 1:Chapter 2, verse 19. And Paul is speaking to the Ephesians and to us. Now, therefore, you're no more strangers and foreigners, but you're fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, fellow citizens of what? Fellow citizens of heaven. We're proud to talk about being citizens of America, but we're greater than that we're citizens of the household of God. We're citizens of the household of God, we're citizens of heaven and are built, not will be built. We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. So here he's talking about the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost in the church. Corporately, we're a holy temple. Your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, but then the body of Christ is also a temple of the Holy Ghost. Each individual, I mean this church, is the temple of the Holy Ghost. I mean we're the temple collectively, corporately, all right.
Speaker 1:Now then let's look at chapter four. Ephesians is chock full of revelation Verse 14. He's talking again to the same group of people. That we henceforth be no more, verse 14. That we henceforth, from now on, be no more children. See, you start out as children, but don't stay a child. Grow. Growth is change, continual change.
Speaker 1:You know you can't start off at the top rung. You know I was a home builder for 25 years and you know most of my houses were two story houses, and so they had to have stairways in them. And when I first started building, all my houses were eight foot ceilings downstairs, eight foot ceilings upstairs. So in order to get from downstairs to upstairs, you had a set of stairs. Each step is, you know, no more than seven and a half. Really, seven and a quarter was ideal. Seven and a quarter inch rise. So if you're eight foot ceilings plus another 12 inches of floor joists, that's a total of nine foot. To get from the floor to the floor of the upstairs is nine foot. And so that's what nine times 1,200 and eight divided by seven and a half inches, that gives you how many steps that you've got to make. You can't make it upstairs with one step, right, so you've got to take one step at a time. And when you get to that, after you've taken that step, all of a sudden this foot comes up, and what's it going to do? It's going to hit the riser. You can't go any further. Until what you lift that foot up and go to the next step, and then you go to the next step and finally, after you know 12 steps, or so 13, I don't know, I didn't do the math. Some of you math wizards can tell me how many steps are in an eight foot ceiling. And so then that's how many steps it takes to get to the second floor.
Speaker 1:Some people never did get off the bottom floor. They didn't even take the first step. They're still babies, slobbering with a passy in their mouth. They've been in church 15, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. Well, you know, god can't use somebody like that. No, you have to grow, you have to take a step, you have to take a step, every step.
Speaker 1:And then I went to nine foot ceilings. You know, after a while, you know, it got to be more popular. Eight foot ceililings were out of style and now nine-foot ceilings. So what did I have to do? I had to put bigger stairs in. And it takes more room, see, because when you're going up you're also going out, see. So I mean it takes more square footage, you know, out of the floor plan downstairs to put that stairway to go up to nine foot. And now, you know, I ended up my career in West U. Over there we're all 10 foot ceiling. That's a big stairway, it's a big long stairway. Some of them were circle and uh, you know, and the circle stairs they have on the inside of the circle, the step, you better not be walking on the inside, because it's just barely enough to get your foot on it. In fact, it's just your toes can get on it. You better be out here on the outside of the stair going up where your handrail is.
Speaker 1:Are y'all following me? I'm talking about spiritual growth. We've got to grow. Amen. He's talking about that right here.
Speaker 1:Don't be children. What happened to children? They're tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. The mark of immature Christians is they fall victim to people who are liars and cheats. Listen, there's lots of liars and lots of cheats and the only way out is to mature in the word of God and the Holy ghost and and start and come to church and have a maturity in your relationships, because you know when you have good relationships, you know you can. You can gain knowledge from people that know the Lord a little better than you. Are you with me now, but speaking the truth in love may grow up. Everybody say I'm growing up Into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies.
Speaker 1:That word joint is like ligament. See, a body has got joints. I mean, how could a body move without joints? I mean, if a body was like this? I mean, where are you going to go? You know you can't even hop. You know you're frozen solid. That's a lot of churches are the frozen chose. They're frozen solid. They don't. They don't have any. They don't have any joints. Their joints are frozen solid. Are you with me now? No, a healthy body has got all kinds of movement. I mean, you know, you've got ligaments and joints and you've got, you've got body parts that move in coordination with each other.
Speaker 1:What good is your little finger if it's not attached to your hand? What, what good can your little finger do If it's laying on the carpet? There's my little finger down there. Wow huh. Pretty soon it's going to rot, the skin's going to fall off of it and it's just going to be a bone-looking, bony-looking thing laying down there, and then the little ligaments that were in your little finger are going to rot, and so then it goes into pieces. It's not even connected anymore. It's just, you know, got this part and this part and this part and it's all. It's three parts instead of. It used to be one part because it had ligaments in it.
Speaker 1:Are y'all with me now? I'm talking about growth. I'm talking about a body from whom the home body. See, jesus is the one that's authoring this, he, everything comes from him, down through the structure of the church. The body From whom the whole body, everybody say the whole body, see, that means every single person, not just a few, not just a high muckety mucks, not just a pastor and his staff, it's everybody, everybody, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies. You are a supply, you're a connector. Without you we're not going to move right. Are you with me? According to the effectual working, in the measure of every part, maketh, increase of the body unto the edifying of itself and love.
Speaker 1:According to the effectual working, inner Gale, working, inner Gale, supernatural movement. It's not the Rotary Club, that's not supernatural. Gathering of people, they have a purpose, not supernatural at all. The Chamber of Commerce is a gathering of people. They have a purpose, not supernatural at all. The chamber of commerce is a gathering of people. They do things, but it's nothing supernatural about it, it's all natural. A corporation, it's a gathering of people. You got a head, you got CEO, you got all this superstructure, not supernatural law. But the body of Christ has inner gao, it has supernatural movement, and that is supplied by every joint, every ligament, every member of the body of Christ. Are you with me now? Are you getting this Glory to God? All right.
Speaker 1:And then 1 Peter. He has some revelation about this too. He got a hold of it. Wasn't just Paul, they all were witnesses of the power of the body of Christ. 1 Peter, 2. Verse 5.
Speaker 1:Christ. First Peter, chapter two, verse five you also as living stones, see. Jesus is the chief stone, the cornerstone, but we're all lively or living stones. So that was his revelation of the building blocks of the church. You also, as lively or living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, hallelujah. So we're being built as a holy temple, as a place where the Holy Ghost abides or the glory abides.
Speaker 1:And we could really literally feel the atmosphere this morning during praise and worship, because we got into the throne room with those songs. We're singing the right kind of songs. They have redemptive truth. They're not a bunch of woe. Is me? I just fell, please pick me up. I'm a victim, poor me, oh God, I'm so lonely. Oh God, I mean, you know that stuff is not going to get you in the throne room. It won't get you there. Why? Because there's no redemptive truth, it's victimhood. You're, you're, you're coming out of your victimhood.
Speaker 1:We're supposed to come into the church with a supply. We're not supposed to come looking for a supply. We're supposed to come filled, ready to bring the anointing upon us into the corporate place. That way, you know, the sum of the whole part, of the whole church is greater than the sum of the individual parts You've got. If I could measure the anointing upon each one of you, it'd be this, this, this. I add all that up, it's not as much as what we wound up with, because God just multiplies the whole thing.
Speaker 1:When we all come with that kind of heart Now, I know not all of us are in the same place, some of us go through tough times you should feel free to come to church and have a need met. I'm not trying to say don't get your needs met. I'm saying, though, the goal for you is to get your inward anointing so developed that you're able to stand on your own two feet and believe God in your own life, to have the blessing operate, and that way you're free when you come to church or if there's something that's quite not right. You just put that aside and say well, you know God's taking care of that. I'm going to go and I'm going to bring a supply this morning, I'm going to forget about myself and I'm going to think about everybody else's needs. See, isn't that what love is? Love is putting the other person first, and that's when the glory comes. I hope you're getting this. I hope you're getting this.
Speaker 1:So, when we grow in the anointing, all spiritual growth comes from understanding, a revelation of the Word of God. That's why I'm preaching this. And when you realize that, individually, all things are under your feet, just think about how much greater all things are under our feet. When we get together and we start saying some things and we agree, I mean the corporate anointing is so much greater. I pray for people. I mean, sometimes people approach me and they need prayer. I'll pray for them when I'm out and about and whatever. I don't mind.
Speaker 1:But in the church I've often said you know, pastor, would you pray for me? I said, well, come up to the altar on Sunday morning. See, I learned a long time ago that I've got an anointing. I've got an anointing upon me and it's powerful and I have confidence in that anointing. I don't take it for granted, I thank God for it every day, but it's nothing compared to what's here. The corporate anointing is greater. The corporate anointing is powerful because it's all of us together Praise God so collectively, corporately, we're growing into a holy temple to offer spiritual sacrifices. What are those? To worship god in spirit and in truth? You know I could turn back there.
Speaker 1:But uh, john the jesus told the woman at the well, you know the woman at the well, uh, you know, she came, uh, looking for water, natural water, and he said you know, if you just asked me, I'd give you water where you'd never thirst. And so she's a samaritan woman and she, uh, jews not supposed to consort with samaritan, well, any woman, but especially samaritan women. I mean, it was kind of scandalous that jesus talking to her. And uh, and he started talking to her and he, he said you know, you worship what you don't understand, but we, you know the time is coming when God is going to seek true worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth. God is seeking people who will worship him in spirit and in truth, people who will worship him in spirit and in truth. So worship at a church service is probably the most important thing, because when we give God what he wants, when we give God what he wants, what is he seeking? He's seeking worshipers. How powerful it is for you to worship God in your prayer time, but how much more powerful it is for us to worship in our corporate time. Now we have to have both. See, if you don't ever worship God in your prayer time, you're probably not going to enter in when you come in here. Your worship is never going to get past about right here. You're going to get about two or three steps off of ground zero. Going to get past about right here. You're going to get about two or three steps off of ground zero when we try to get up to the top floor corporately.
Speaker 1:I've lived through this church since the beginning and you know we've many times have gotten up on the top floor. We don't always get there. Why? Why don't we always get there? Well, there's a lot of things that impact it, but mainly you Could be me. If I miss God and what he wants to do in a service, if I'm not prepared for some reason or another. If I'm, you know, whatever happens, we might not get all the way to the top floor. We might just get halfway up. Well, you know, it's not that we didn't have anything, but we didn't have the maximum. I'm telling you, we're growing into the maximum. We're getting to the place where all of you are developing in your personal anointing. Your inward anointing is getting bigger and bigger. Your outward anointing, you're flowing in that more and more. You're bringing that to church with the right heart and the love and unity and all of a sudden, things are, man, things are. We're going to get to the top floor. In fact, we're going to blow the roof off of this place. What if you kept going? You hit the second floor and you just kept going right up through the attic and right out the roof. Come on, lift your hands. Right now we're going to blow the roof off of this place. Jesus Christ, hold your place there.
Speaker 1:Let's go back to Genesis 11. Talking about the corporate anointing so important, it's vital and you have to know something about it in order to contend for it. This is after the flood, noah's day. God destroyed, you know, he, he, he. The earth was filled with violence and he preserved Noah and his family and had the ark. You know the whole thing. And then after that, you know, there was a generation. They started multiplying.
Speaker 1:In chapter 11, verse 1, the whole earth was of one language, of one speech, and it came to pass. As they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar. That's Babylon, modern day Babylon, and they dwelt there and they said one to another go, let's make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime for mortar. And they said let's build a city and a tower that top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men built it. And the Lord said behold, the people is one and they have all one language. And this they begin to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do, be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. What are they doing? They're getting another way to heaven. That's what they were doing. They're building another way to heaven and God said it's going to happen if we don't do something. So the power in humanity is great, because that's how God created human beings. He created human beings with a certain amount of authority and if enough people get together and say the same thing and do the same thing and say the same thing, there's great ability that they can bring to bear.
Speaker 1:So in communist countries, what do they do? They limit free speech. They, they have propaganda and everybody speaks the same thing and it's all lies, and they are able to accomplish a great amount of damage. This country has been under that for decades. It's just now coming out that the CIA has purposely and you know, obama overturned one of the guardrails that we had that made it illegal for the CIA to come back and do propaganda. But under Obama, obama basically effectively finished weaponizing the government and what we call the deep state and against its citizens. We've been censured, we've been persecuted, we've been lied about. It's time for that stuff to change.
Speaker 1:Thank God this is part of revival. I mean this thing is getting rolled back now, but we can't quit now. We've got to keep on. We've got to keep the pressure up. As long as you've got crazy people that will go out and burn Teslas and think that they're doing something significant. I mean that's just about the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. I just you know, last year they thought Tesla was a hero and they were just all for it, and now they're putting swastikas on it. And it's crazy. People are mentally ill. Why are they mentally ill? Because they haven't had all the information.
Speaker 1:So, really, chapter 11, this is really a picture of the corporate anointing in reverse it's the corporate anointing without God. How much greater it is then when people get together and speak with one voice, in one accord, and going up and giving honor to God in worship. How much more then. How much more then Are we going to be effective at doing what God calls us to do? Hallelujah, oh, praise God. So when we all get together, we all get together in one place, in one accord. So I'll just quote these. You can look them up later.
Speaker 1:Acts, chapter 2, they were all together in one place, in one accord the upper room. Suddenly, there came from heaven a sound of a rushing mighty wind. It filled all the place where they were seated, cloven tongues, like as the fire, came and sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they all began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And on that day when Peter went down and said you know, the people said what meaneth this? He said these men are not drunk, as you suppose, see, and it's just nine o'clock in the morning, but this is that spoken by the prophet Joel, and began to preach and 3,000 Jews got saved that day, many of them, the same people that said crucify him, cruc them, got.
Speaker 1:I mean, talk about the power of unified speech. When they all spoke in other tongues, what were they doing? Well, everybody else heard them magnifying God in their own personal language. But the power of unified speech and it made a huge difference and they did what Jesus couldn't do. Jesus didn't have that kind of result ever. He healed a lot of people, but he didn't change a lot of hearts. I mean, there wasn't enough hearts changed to keep him from being crucified. Are y'all with me now? Y'all are looking at me kind of no. I mean, that's how powerful the church is.
Speaker 1:And then you know, if you keep reading there and I'm in Acts right now in my normal reading you know, after that day, and those 3,000 people got saved. You talk about a bunch of people. They had 120 before that. Now they got 3,120 members of the church. How would you like to have 120 people at your church and all of a sudden you got 3,120. What would you do? Where would you put them? How would you minister to them?
Speaker 1:And so it it talks about what they did in Acts chapter two. It says in verse uh, in Acts chapter 2, it says in verse 42, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, that is, teaching and fellowship and breaking bread and prayers. They continued, they kept on. They couldn't all be at one place. At one place, you know, they didn't have a big enough place for all of them to get there at one time. They all were gathered in houses. And the big enough place for all of them to get there at one time. They all gathered in houses. And the apostles there's 12 of them. They split up and they started ministering to these people and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles and they all believed. All that believed were together and they had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. You see, once these Jewish people got saved, they were put out of their own houses and their own families. Whatever inheritances they had were canceled. It happens still today. They had were canceled. It happens still today.
Speaker 1:If you're Jewish and you get saved, I mean your family many times will disown you. In some cases they try to deprogram you. If you're a young person, they'll hire people to kidnap you and torture you and get you to deny the faith. I mean that goes on. We don't like to talk about it, but it's true. We're for Israel, we love them, we love Israel.
Speaker 1:But you know, parts of them are really like they've always been very religious and very, you know, close to the gospel. The veil is over their heart and so they were in one accord. So they had their needs met, they had miracles, they had growth the Lord added daily such as should be saved. I mean they grew every day. They added people every day. And then you go down to Acts, chapter 4. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1:In that prayer meeting they started getting persecution because they were teaching and preaching in the name of Jesus and they had a big prayer meeting together and they said, lord, behold their threatenings and grant with all boldness that we may speak your word and that signs and wonders may be done in the name of your holy child Jesus, and the place where they prayed was shaken. I mean, just think about sitting in this church and all of a sudden, the whole place goes. That's power, that's corporate anointing, are y'all, are y'all? Y'all are looking at me kind of strange, are y'all getting this now, this morning? I mean, it's so important because we're we're in a year of milestones and I'm telling you that one of the milestones this year is we're going to see more and more of the glory in our services and it's going to propel us outside and we're going to see more results. Your family members are coming into the to the kingdom and people that you love and you've been praying for a long time. It's a milestone year. Now Get ready, get ready for growth.
Speaker 1:And then verse 32, acts 4.32, it said and the multitude that believe were of one heart and one soul or one thinking. The multitude were of one heart, spirit and one soul, one thinking. Just think about the unity that was. It's rare now, because in America we're all different. We're America.
Speaker 1:I've got a right to say my piece and I'm going to. I have a right to you know, I've got freedom of speech and I'm going to tell, I'm going to complain about that. I don't Shut up. You're welcome not to have an opinion. Why don't you just have the opinion of the whole? See, have god's opinion, get on god's side, get away, get away from being a right fighter and being having your way. Amen, listen, I mean, we've been here 30 years. I've seen every kind of attitude, but we're coming into a time right now where we've got to pull all together, real close, and start thinking right, thinking alike, speaking alike, walking alike with one. I mean we go from state to state. We're going to have to make some steps together. Are y'all with me now? Praise God.
Speaker 1:Neither said any of them that all of the things which he possessed was his own, but they all had things common and great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Great grace was upon them all, mega grace. This is the year of exceeding abundantly above. This is a year of grace upon grace. I see that right here in this verse. Neither was there any among them that lacked. I mean nobody lacked, all right.
Speaker 1:And then in chapter six, they started, having had so many people there, and now they have Grecian widows. They've got the Gentiles getting saved and they're coming and hanging out around with people that had the Jewish background. And you know, jews and Gentiles didn't get along very well, and just because they get saved doesn't mean that they still get along very well. They don't get along that well. I mean, you know, they're kind of different culture, different background. You know it's kind of hard to meld that together at first. And so the Grecian widows got upset that they didn't get their pancakes on time and they didn't have any maple syrup. All they had was K-Row.
Speaker 1:I'm making that up, that's not in the Bible, that's a Griner translation. And the apostles said I'm making that up, that's not in the Bible, that's a Griner translation. And the apostle said you know, it's not reason that we should leave the word of God and wait on tables. Look you out among you, pick somebody out, get you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, and point them over this business so that we can give ourselves continually to the word of God in prayer. I mean, it's just not. We don't have time to wait on the tables and solve all these people that have got a problem with what they're eating. Y'all do it, y'all take care of it.
Speaker 1:And they did. They found seven men, two of them were Stephen, and so they had the seven first deacons and they had divine order. See, divine order came into the church when they began to delegate authority to the deacons. Philip and Stephen were two of the seven, and later on you find out that Stephen went and preached to the Jews there in Jerusalem and he boy I mean he was. He did great miracles and signs in their presence, but they still doubted him and they wound up stoning him to death. And then everybody was scattered abroad except the apostles, and so believers were scattered all over the area.
Speaker 1:And then you see how Philip went to Samaria and preached Christ unto them, and he was an usher. He was not an evangelist yet, he was simply an usher at that time. He became an evangelist later, no doubt he had a calling on his life, but he wasn't really sent to be an evangelist, he just. They were all scattered abroad and they gave heed to the things that Philip preached, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did, because he had certain miracles he had palsy was healed, lame were healed. No, blind people were healed. No, lepers were cleansed. You see, he didn't have a broad anointing, he had certain things that happened and then nobody baptized in the Holy Ghost. He had to get Peter and the apostle to come, and they're the ones that laid hands on people and they got them filled with the Holy Ghost. He didn't have an anointing to get people filled with the Holy Ghost, so he didn't have an all-encompassing anointing, but the church supplied the need and there was revival in Samaria. Amen, are you with me now Talking about the corporate anointing?
Speaker 1:So then you find in Acts, chapter 12, that Herod killed James, the brother of John, and had arrested Peter and was intending to kill Peter after Easter and prayer was made by the church without ceasing unto God for them and an angel, one angel went into the prison and broke Peter out of jail. And jail. He comes walking out of there. The chains broke off, the doors open by themselves. I mean, he goes back to the prayer meeting where they're praying for him and Rhoda comes. You know he's knocking on the door and she leaves him out there in the cold and runs back in there. It's Peter. Oh, it can't be Peter, it must be his angel. See, they didn't even have any faith to believe what they were praying.
Speaker 1:But the corporate anointing are y'all with me now? Do you realize how many times we've prayed in this church? We've cried against evil, we cried against Obama, day and night, every day and every night, almost his whole term. And also, you know, biden Can't even talk about his name. Well, it did something, didn't it? I'm talking about the corporate anointing. And so there's great power when we all get together in one place and one accord, and the cornerstone of that is giving God what he's looking for, and that is true worship, worshiping in spirit and in truth. Praise God, Come on, lift your hands right now, lord. We thank you. Thank you, lord, thank you. So I just became aware of something that I want to share with you, just briefly.
Speaker 1:In 2009, obama had taken over and he was coming after the church. He had hired a bunch of IRS agents to make additional rules. We already had some rules that were passed under Bush and under Clinton. You know it funny. And they they want to put shackles on the church, but they don't care, because we're in a we're, we're separation churches, so you cannot get involved with politics. Oh, no, no, no, no. If you do that, we're going to punish you severely, but they don't do anything about hospitals. They're the same thing. They have lobbies. They pay millions of dollars to lobbyists to lobby congress for for rules to help hospitals, and these hospital administrators ride and work in a limo and fly around the state and the country in a jet and nobody talks to them about their deal. How about the universities and all of those people and the billions of dollars of money they have? That's federally funded student loans that made all of them rich and all of them are supposed to be non-profit, but they you can't tell it by looking at their five thousand dollar suit that they're non-profit, but they want to come against the local church. And so, um, our attorney, uh, and at the time we hired him in 97 to help us navigate the waters of the IRS and keep them out of our church business, and he's been a fighter against the IRS for decades. It came that I was invited to write an article or write a letter that was going to be in an IRS periodical, and so I wrote that letter in protest of what they were doing and told them that separation of church and state is not in the Constitution and we were not going to abide by any interference in what we preach and what we do. You know, I just wrote a pretty bold thing and it was published there in the IRS deal. And then they had a hearing and so we were invited to go to the hearing. I think we were the only pastors at the hearing.
Speaker 1:Jay and James and I went to Washington DC. We walked right into the bowels of the IRS, went into their meeting room and the meeting room of course our attorney was sitting right by me and this lady walked in, big, tall lady, woman, all dressed up and middle-aged lady, and he elbowed me. He said you know who that is? I said well, I don't have a clue, I don't know anybody here. She's the attorney for the Catholic Church of America, all the Catholic churches in America. She's there at that meeting to hear what the IRS is wanting to put out there and to put her two cents worth in. So there was some testimony different ones and our attorney testified and said some things.
Speaker 1:At the end of the meeting it was adjourned and I walked up and there were three IRS commissioners. They all happened to be women and two of them had gotten up to talk to some other people and I found one that was not occupied. So I went right to her and I pointed to her, which is rude, and I knew it. I didn't care. I didn't feel very Christian at that moment and I just said you know what you're doing is wrong. God's not on your side. We're going to see to it that doesn't succeed. We're going to pray day to day against this. It's not going to happen. Just want you to know you're just, you're just creating smoke and it's nothing's going to happen. And she just kind of looked at me, like you can tell she's not used to being talked to that way. I see I know my boss, her boss, I'm her boss, I'm. You know you work for me, don't forget that. You work for me, I don't work for you. See, they've forgotten that in Washington. They think we work for them.
Speaker 1:This is 2009. Now we lost track of our attorney. We have other attorneys. He sold his business and we moved on and I haven't heard from our attorney in 15 years probably. And he called james the other day out of the clear blue sky. He lives in houston now and he said uh, and so you know, told us what he was doing and we're going to meet with him about some things that he's doing. And he said what are y'all doing? We've talked about my God votes. He just went off the rails. He just was absolutely thrilled. This is his right down his alley. He can't. He is so excited about what we're doing with my God votes, having corporate worship in in the capitals and uh, he said you know, when y'all went with me in 2009,.
Speaker 1:The IRS has not audited one church. Not one church has been audited since then, until 2024. Biden on his way out, he had the 80,000 IRS agents. He unleashed them on some churches in Florida and some of the churches in Florida were suddenly under subject to IRS audit. They're coming inside and trying to create trouble.
Speaker 1:Of course, we know what Trump is going to do with the IRS. He's going to eliminate the IRS. I'm saying death to the IRS. It should be gone. We shouldn't have to pay income taxes. I mean there's plenty of money for everybody that wants to come do business in this country. They can pay the taxes we can. I mean we shouldn't be having to finance all these crazy things that they're putting money into. But see, what I wanted to show you was the corporate anointing was at work. I said the corporate anointing is work. I just really believe that in 2025, we're going to see more and more. You know Jesus said in John 11, 40, didn't I tell you that if you believe, you'll see the glory of God? We're going to see the glory of God more and more manifest, not only in our midst, but in what we're doing all around the world. Come on, lift your hands and receive today. Praise God, the corporate anointing. Hallelujah, glory to God. Thank you, jesus. Hallelujah, thank God for the corporate anointing.