Honor The Anointing | James Buntrock

In this message titled Honor the Anointing, the speaker explores the power and responsibility of carrying both the anointing within, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the anointing upon, grace given for specific assignments, offices, and callings. Drawing from Scripture, church history, and even the legacy of the 1599 Geneva Bible, the message calls believers to treat God’s Word and His presence as sacred and precious. Through practical examples, from parenting and marriage to ministry and government, the episode challenges listeners to cooperate with the Holy Spirit rather than work against Him, likening the anointing to catching a jet stream that produces supernatural results. Ultimately, it is a compelling call to value, protect, and step boldly into the anointing God has entrusted to every believer.

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening Prayer And Theme
• 0:39 Church In State Capitols Story
• 3:06 Honoring The Anointing Explained
• 6:27 The Anointing Within: Scripture Foundations
• 10:45 Pentecost And Tongues As Evidence
• 15:20 Staying Full: Repentance And Worship
• 18:20 The Anointing Upon: Purpose And Power
• 21:13 Jet Stream Analogy And Breakthrough
• 24:12 Saul And David: Losing And Gaining Anointing
• 28:09 Cherishing The Word: Geneva Bible
• 34:10 Liberty, Pulpits, And Nation-Building
• 38:20 Believer’s Anointing And Daily Roles
• 42:02 Parenting With The Word And Spirit
• 46:01 God’s Order And Governmental Offices
• 50:06 Fivefold Ministry And Receiving Well

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

You got your Bible. You can lift it up and let's just say these words, Heavenly Father. Thank you for this precious word. Thank you for your Holy Spirit that breathes life on this word. Thank you for your anointing. Thank you for your grace. Lord help me to hear all the things that I need to hear. And I give you praise for the fruit. In Jesus' name. Amen. Y'all can be seated. And uh I've got a message tonight titled uh Honor the Anointing. And Lee, if you do you have that ready to go? Okay, I didn't I I threw something on him last minute I didn't know until I walked in here, and the Holy Ghost prompted me. And and I just wanted to share a little piece out of uh our my last trip to uh Boise, Idaho, went to the state capitol there where they were having their church service in their capitol. And uh I said some of this this morning, but uh I'll briefly tell you. Uh, when we started holding church services in the Texas State Capitol in 2023, it wasn't a plan that we developed, it wasn't something that we thought this is a great idea and came up with the concept and all the details and started working it out before we did it. It was a legislator that asked, I wish we could have church in our Capitol. We're running dry, we're working all week, we're away from our family, away from our church. It would just be encouraging and help us get filled up and stay full if we could just have church in our capital. And we said we wanted to help. And he said, How do you do this? And I said, You get the room and we'll get the pastor and we'll start. And so 19 weeks of that, a different pastor every week, and that wrapped up 2023 in the Texas legislative session. What I did not know is that at the same time in Boise, Idaho, with the same exact story, a legislator wanting to have church in her capital, and somebody saying, I'd like to help with this. How does this work? What do we do? I don't know. You get a room, we'll find a pastor, we'll start. And they did it at the same time that we did it here in Texas. It was the same Holy Spirit there that that seeded that that thought there as well as here. And we did the same exact thing, not knowing. And so they've been doing this the whole time since then in Idaho. And uh, I got to go be with them last week and minister uh at one of their services. And uh the the lady that really administers this there, um she had just been doing it on her own tab, on her own nickel. And we were able to hire her. So we've hired her as our capital coordinator. She's part of My God Votes. That service is part of My God Votes. They were so excited to be part of something that's so much bigger than the one state, but now it's in eight states and growing, and they want to help it grow. And they were so excited and uh that they they took an offering and sent us back with an offering. And so that's never happened before. We go and we sow a seed, we plant, we raise money here, and we're planting there, and that's how this has worked. But the first time, you know, it's a new thing. And they were so excited to be a part of it. So, Lee, I'd like you to go ahead and and roll this. And I just want you to see a little bit of the worship in their capital and what that looks like and sounds like whenever you're ready, is I'm I'm I'm good with that. Do you need a little extra time, Lee? It's not working. I tell you what, at any point during this message that you decide that it's it might work again, um, we can give it another shot. All right? Um, because this is I'm I'm just gonna be loose and easy with this tonight. We're talking tonight about honoring the anointing, and uh, there was an anointing present in that capital, and I want you to see that. And and and Lee is anointed to do the job that he's doing tonight. And so what he's doing tonight is not on his natural capability, but it's on the supernatural help of the Holy Spirit. And when you lean on the Holy Spirit, you can do things like this. Where this is done, this is a new thing, this is historic.

unknown: 6:09

Praise God.

SPEAKER_00: 6:12

And so I just wanted to share a little piece of that with you. How they honor the anointing there. Um, by the way, their capital is called the capital of lights. That's a thing. And look at how bright, and they're bringing light into that place, they're bringing the light of the Holy Ghost into that place. But tonight we're talking about honoring the anointing, and there are two types of anointing that we'll talk about uh the anointing upon and the anointing within. And in the Old Testament, you had the priest and the prophet and the king that stood for God, and they had an anointing upon them. They were spiritually dead men, they could not contain the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was something that came upon them and later uh dwelt in the temple that was made with hands or was carried about uh uh in on the Ark of the Covenant in that form. But uh the flesh could not handle really the full presence of God, the full presence of the Holy Spirit. But we have been brought into right standing and made right, made righteous, and and we are now capable vessels to carry the Holy Spirit wherever we go. And so there's the anointing upon that they had, and there's the anointing within that comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So we'll talk about uh first the anointing within. Um let's begin with with Jesus getting baptized. So I'm just looking here in Luke chapter 3, uh verse 21. It says, When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. And while he prayed, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him. And so again, the Holy Spirit descending upon, and then the voice came from heaven that you are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Uh the next chapter over, Jesus is beginning his ministry at the age of 30. Uh, it says in verse 4, Luke chapter 4, 4, it says, Jesus being filled with the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit was upon him, and he was baptized when he was baptized, and now the Holy Spirit is filling him. Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit, it says, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus was the very first, spirit-filled and spirit-led person on the earth. Um, he was also the Christ, he's called the Christ, which is a title, and it means the anointed one. We are Christians, which means Christ-like, but it also means anointed ones or little anointed ones after his image and likeness. And so he is the Christ, and we are Christians, we are also anointed ones. Jesus told his disciples uh at the point of his departure, he said, I am not going to leave you orphans. Uh, he talked about the helper, the helper of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. He will teach you all things, he'll bring things to remembrance that I have said to you. Uh so he teaches, he reminds you of things, he and and and he'll show you things to come. Um Jesus in John 14 said, I've got so many things that I would love to tell you, but I can't, and you're not ready to hear them all. Um, he said, However, talking about the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and whatever uh he tells it, and he'll tell you things to come. And so the Holy Spirit doesn't operate on his own authority, but whatever the Heavenly Father shows him, shows Jesus, the Holy Spirit, we get to know stuff and we get to have him on the inside. And so this is futuristic. Jesus is saying the helper's gonna come and he's gonna do all of these things, and there's still so much more I can I should tell you, but I can't even tell you because you're not ready to hear it all. Um, in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, but you shall receive power. This is Jesus talking again, but you shall receive power when that the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, and the end of the earth. So Acts chapter 2 happens. They were all gathered in one place, it was the day of Pentecost. They were all in one accord, that's not a Honda. Um, one place, one accord, and it said, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound from heaven, a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. So they were told to go and wait for something, and they obeyed. They waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit. He came in, and it was a wind blowing through there, a mighty rushing wind. It filled the whole house where they were sitting, and it said, and then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire that sat on each one of them on top of them. And then they were all filled with the Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And so that the speaking in other tongues is the evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. If that's the evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit, then back up to Jesus, he was the first Spirit-filled person, Jesus spoke in tongues. There is no recording of Jesus speaking in tongues. You know why? Because he said there are so many things I'd love to tell you about, but you're not ready to hear them. I believe that was one of the things that his disciples were not ready to receive or hear or know about. It would have been too much for them. But think about how many times Jesus got away from his disciples and went to go pray. And you know, speaking in tongues is not something for other people around you, it is a communication between you and the Holy Spirit. It's your spirit praying in an unknown tongue. It bypasses your brain, and I believe Jesus did that on a regular basis, off in private, away from his disciples, because they weren't ready to hear it. But it is the evidence of the believer being filled with the spirit. So that's one nugget of truth for you tonight. The anointing within, um, you know, I mean, really, it comes with salvation. You get the Holy Spirit, it's part of the deal. Jesus doesn't come and dwell on the inside of you, he's seated at the right hand of the Father, but the Holy Spirit is the helper, the one that he sent, and he dwells on the inside. It is tough to lose that anointing. You got to go really far for a while and absolutely reject the entirety of salvation to lose that. So when I talk about losing the anointing tonight, that's not one that's easily lost. In addition to the anointing within, the Holy Spirit within, uh, we can have the anointing upon us to do certain things. And that's something that we can lose or lose the benefit of or or just not operate in. And and you can, and that comes, and you've you can even interrupt the benefit of the Holy Spirit on the inside of you, because you carry the Holy Spirit wherever you go, and you can interrupt the benefit of that by not fellowshipping with God or breaking your fellowship with God. And sin is something that'll do that, it will separate you from God, it it pulls you away, it it creates a gap there. And so the the answer to that is to repent and turn around. And the moment you turn around and go the other way, you run into the Holy Ghost who never left you. He's just right there, and you you turned around from what you were doing and looking at and and and how you were operating, and you run right into the Holy Ghost. And so, if if your fellowship is interrupted, if the benefit of the Holy Spirit is interrupted in your life, then repent, turn around and run right back into him. And he is right there. Uh Hebrews 13, 6 said that he would never leave us nor forsake us, so that we can boldly say, I will not fear. What can man do to me? In Psalm 23, if we follow where the Lord leads us, he is the great shepherd, he is always leading us someplace if we follow. And so where does he lead us? He leads us in uh uh beside the still waters and the green pastures, he restores your soul. It says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And then comes the verse, yea, though I walk, where he's not leading me into the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because he's still with me. And your rod and your staff, your correction and your guidance comfort me and bring me back. That's what that scripture is saying right there. And so, you know, we can we can get out of position and lose the benefit of the Holy Spirit, lose the benefit of the anointing in our life, but there's an easy remedy to get right back into it. And so we're talking tonight about honoring the anointing, uh, honoring the anointing within, keep short accounts with God, be quick to repent, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, obtain mercy, read your Bible, pray in other tongues, take time to worship and pray and praise. Ephesians chapter 5 talks about walking in wisdom. Uh in verse 15, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of God is. Um, don't be drunk with wine, whereas it's excess. But and and the alternative to being drunk with wine is to be drunk with the Holy Spirit or filled with the Holy Spirit, but be filled. And that verse says, be being filled. It's a continuing filling that happens. And so if you get filled once and then never again, you're gonna run dry. So stay thirsty, my friends. Be being filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, and giving thanks for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and submitting to one another in the fear of God. Those are ways to stay full and to maintain the benefit of the Holy Spirit, the anointing within. Now let's shift over to the anointing upon. Um, and and the anointing upon or the anointing that you operate within. So this is not something that will maybe be on on you all the time, uh, but it's for unique purposes and positions and offices and assignments. You will know when you step into the anointing to do or say something, and when you're not. When you're doing things on your own strength and your own ability, it's not that there's anything wrong with that. I mean, we do things in our daily life, He's built us to do things, and we operate that way. You can only do what this body can do, what it's built to do. As soon as you step into the anointing for a particular task, a particular assignment, a particular office or role, as soon as you step into that anointing, that anointing is upon you to do something that your body is not cut out to do. And so in the Greek, uh, and and and I'll look at Acts 10.38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth. He wasn't Jesus of heaven, he was Jesus a man, how God anointed a man from a place, an earthly place, and so we're we're all from an earthly place. You know, I'm as of right now, I'm James of Tombaugh. I used to be James of Corpus Christi, but I'm from a place, and God anoints me to do some things, and he anoints you to do some things, and so we can operate in that anointing just the same way Jesus did, the person. So anointed in the Greek, uh, it means to smear, to rub with oil, to consecrate to an office or a religious service. Um, if we go back to the the Hebrew and the Old Testament and places where uh the word anointed was used in the Old Testament, it means to consecrate, to paint, to pour on, rub with oil. The two definitions are just almost a match from the Greek and the Hebrew, and so it's a very accurate thing in the Old Testament and the New Testament talking about the very same thing. If I had to equate it to anything in our life, it would be like smearing butter on toast. Toast by itself is just burnt bread, and then you put butter on it, and then it's good. It's so much better. Butter makes it better, the anointing makes it better. Zechariah 4.6, talking about a vision uh uh Zerubbabel had, and and and the angel of the Lord is describing or translating the vision to Zerubbabel. This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but mine by spirit. So we can do things in the natural, or we can do things in the supernatural, we can have a supernatural result. Claire was prompting me on a uh on an example for tonight. Um, John Dyer, uh, our famed pilot who's now being inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame in April, um, knows a little something about weather patterns. And how many heard of the jet stream? All right, so it's a big air current that that runs from west to east across the United States and really other places in the world, but we don't care about those places because we're America first, and so we'll talk about the jet stream over America. And so sometimes the jet stream will take a big dip to the south, and we typically get some colder air, and then it might sweep up to the north. Pilots pay attention to the jet stream because the jet stream, you know, it's at least 100 miles an hour, maybe more. And if they can, you know, without getting too far off course, if they can ease over their aircraft and get in the jet stream, they may be doing 350, 400 knots through the air until they get in the jet stream, and now they're still doing 350 knots or 400 knots through the air, but they have a hundred-knot tailwind behind them, so you got to add that to their ground speed. So 400 miles an hour or 400 knots over ground plus 100, they're going 500 knots. They're getting places faster, they're burning yet less fuel. There's a super efficiency when they get in the jet stream and go with the flow. And so we have the same capability to go with the flow of the Holy Spirit, and we can get in his stream. The anointing is there to uh uh do the hard work for us. In Isaiah 10 27, it shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be, and this is talking about Israel, but the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing, not because of any natural plan or scheme or capability of man. Because of the anointing, the yoke will be broken. So if there are things in your life that need to be broken and you're trying to break them and it's hard, you're doing something on your own, or you can have the Holy Spirit and the anointing upon. If you're if you're stepping into an office or in a role or an assignment, you can have this, you can get the jet stream behind you and have a spectacular end result. I mean, why go 400 knots when you can go 500? Also, if you work against the Holy Spirit, if you work against the the anointing, it's like trying to fly against the jet stream. You're flying 400 knots into the wind, and you've only got 300 knots over ground, and you're there late, maybe too late for whatever it is you needed to get there for. Don't work against the Holy Spirit. So, in anointing a pond, an example out of the Old Testament, you've got Saul who was anointed king. Uh, the Israelites wanted a king, they wanted a king just like the other nations. Up until that point, they had had uh judges and prophets uh that spoke for God, and God was their king. And the communication line happened through the the judges and the prophets. And uh Samuel was the prophet of the day, and the Israelites didn't like the judges that were appointed, and they said, We want a king, and and and And Samuel didn't want to, but God said, give him a king. And so Samuel anointed the one that God drew his attention to, and that was Saul. He was a handsome man. He was a tall man. He was head and shoulders above the rest of Israel, the Israelites. And so man looks on the outward appearance, and they thought, this is a great fit. This is what we want our king to look like. God looks on the heart and he sees other things, but he let them have what they wanted to have. And he warned them what they were going to have with a king and all the tyrannical things that go with that, all the taxes that you're going to pay, all the land that you're going to lose, the people and the servants that you're going to lose, your family members you're going to lose, all the things that come with having a king. And then ultimately, uh Saul uh disobeyed God's order. He violated a command. He ended up uh presenting a burnt offering where really that was the role of the priest. So he stepped out of his office of king into the office of the priest, and that was a violation. That was one strike right there. Another one was where God told him to destroy the Amalekites, and he didn't entirely do that. In fact, he kept some of the best back. And so he violated God's command, and God was done with him. And he took the anointing from Saul. And he told Samuel who to anoint, and that was King David. And so in Samuel, 1 Samuel 16, um uh it said that Samuel took the horn and oil of oil and anointed him that is David in the midst of his brothers. And it says, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. When he was anointed upon, the Spirit of God rested on him. He wasn't even in the office of king yet, he was just anointed to do that. And so the anointing is the power of God on our flesh again, to do what our flesh does not have the ability to do. And I'll tell you that the anointing upon, once again, it's associated with a place of function or an assignment or an office. Um how many believers do we have in here tonight? Good news. There's a believer's anointing that comes with being a believer, and you can walk in that every single day. You don't have to walk outside of that. As a believer, there's an anointing that goes with that. We have the Holy Spirit on the inside, but there is something else upon us that will, and He'll come upon you from time to time in a tangible way, and you'll know because there are assignments that you just absolutely cannot do on your own. Like cast out demons, raise the dead, heal the sick. Like there are some things that we can't do on our own, but there's an anointing upon our lives to do that. The anointing exists on the believer. Um, you could call it a sweatless victory. We've already won, and there wasn't any effort that goes with that on our part when the anointing's at work. And so we ought to cherish the anointing. It's a sacred and precious thing. We ought to cherish this word. This word is a sacred and precious thing. Derek, I want you to come up here, please. And we're going to do a quick show and tell. And I want you to see something that is very precious and sacred. And maybe some of you have seen this before. And if you have, you can take a quick look and a quick put your hand on it and let somebody else spend a little more time with it. If you've never seen this before, I want you to cherish this. This right here is a Geneva Bible that's dated 1599. Now, the Geneva Bible was the first Bible printed in the English language with chapter and verse and commentary, so the common man could read and understand God's word for the first time. And when you open this up, you'll see on the on the very first page, the title page here, it says imprinted at London, 1599. I want you to know that that's not true, that's a lie. And let me tell you the story. This is what's called a Pirated Geneva Bible. It has a very unique uh story that goes with this. Uh, the Pirated Geneva Bible. King James printed the King James Bible in 1611, and then he outlawed the printing of these Bibles in England. He said, Puritans, you can no longer print your Geneva Bibles. I have an authorized version, and it's the King James Version, and mine's the only one, so you have to stop printing yours here. They said, No problem, and they took the printing plates to Amsterdam and they kept printing them. And then they brought them into England. They imported them right back in. So he said, by 1617, you can no longer import or print these Bibles in England, and they said, No problem. And so they kept printing them in Amsterdam, and they put a fake date of 1599. So it's like year 1630, and they're still printing these things in Amsterdam and smuggling them in with a 1599 date, so that if they got caught with one, they could say, Oh, King, this is before your order. And so this one's okay. That's the pirated Geneva Bible. But this is someone's sacred Bible, their precious Bible. This was a very prized possession, three to five years to print one of these Bibles. They put their life at risk to have one of these Bibles. They brought a Bible just like this one. In fact, the same printing plates that printed this Bible printed the first Bibles that came to America on the Mayflower. We have a nation because they cared about this word. It was precious, it was sacred to them. They left a nation to go to an unknown place so that they could be free to read this and worship God, and it was precious. The word and the anointing was sacred to them. And so, Derek, I want you to show this around, let them touch it, but don't open this up, you know, more than about like that right there. Don't open it real wide. I don't want to break the spine on this thing. But you can flip some pages and you can see some stuff and put their hands. The cover is original, the spine's original, and the back is a newer cover that's been repaired. So you can walk it up and down, let people. I want you to put your hand on it. And I'm gonna keep talking, and you can keep listening, but I want you to just see and put your hand on that. I want you to think about all the hands that have touched that through history. That's 400 years old, right there. A lot of people have have owned that Bible, maybe, and maybe families and and uh and cherish that Bible and cherish the word. And so the word, there's an anointing on the word. When we send the word, there's an anointing. In fact, the word always accomplishes the thing whereunto it is sent. And that word right there, I mean, you think about how do we have that word right there? You know, the the predating versions of that, uh, before the Geneva Bible was printed, uh, Tyndale was on a translation project with the Old Testament, completed the Old Testament translation into English, and was starting on the New Testament when Queen Mary um had him strung up and burned over that. And so another guy who who used a name, uh uh believe it was Matthew, um paired it up, and it's the Matthew Tyndale Bible, if I have my verbiage right, and completed the translation of that in the in the New Testament. So now there was the first English translation. This one right here uses that translation. So it's from the original Hebrew and Greek texts. People lost their lives to have a translation. Um, this word was spoken all the way back in the beginnings of history. There wasn't a Bible like that in the beginnings. The Jewish people didn't have the written word of God, they they communicated the word of God through speaking it on a regular basis, and then ultimately it was written down. And so this word was originally spoken so that it could be written, and it was written, and you have a written piece of it right there so that we can speak it here in this nation. One of the most spoken verses out of that Bible and in the colonial times was uh Galatians 5 1, which says, Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty whereby Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. So they were in a place of bondage. And they came out of bondage, into a place of freedom. And then bondage came back and dogged their tracks and was here in America, and they were back under bondage again. And so stand fast in the liberty whereby Christ has made you free, and don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. And so the pulpits during the colonial times preached that message. That's what united the pulpits. To stop being a pacifist and to take up arms and go to war against the British, the greatest military power on earth. We have a nation because they brought that word to America. They cherished that word, they spoke that word, and then they did that word. And I'm so grateful that we have a nation and we're in the 250th year of the nation. The word of God is precious. Now, as I'm looking at you guys handling this 400-year-old book, I see how careful you're handling it. And you're it's you're you're you want to hold it, but it's you're it's it's delicate and and and it's precious, and you don't want to touch it too much, but it's a precious thing. Why don't we treat this word with the same level of sacredness? I mean, this is a modern printing, but it's the word of God. And it's precious, and it's sacred. We ought to love it. You got it on your iPhone and all kinds of versions, and it's we it's so easy to be flippant about God's word. It's so easy to just pick it up and and read a few words and and put it down in mid-verse and and and we can just be flippant and careless with it, even, but it's precious. His word is sacred, his word is anointed. There's an anointing on that word, there's an anointing on that book. The history of that word right there is anointed. And so then there's the anointing of the believer, and these signs will follow those who believe in my name. They'll cast out demons, speak with tongues, other tongues, they'll take up serpents, and if they eat or drink any deadly thing, it will by no means hurt them. And they'll lay hands on the sick and they will recover. The anointing of the believer. How many people are married in the room? How many people have children in the room? There's an anointing for a husband and a wife. There's an anointing for a mom, for a dad. There's a precious and sacred anointing. You know how I know that there's anointing because it's what God ordained. He set things in order in the beginning. He set a man and he set a woman, and he said, the two shall be joined together and become one flesh. He told them to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, to subdue it, and have dominion over it. There's an anointing to do all of those things. I know Adam lost his position, but Jesus has reinstated us back to the original content, condition for the original intent. And so there's an anointing, the the position of a mom and a dad. There's an anointing to do that. We can do things in the natural and have a natural result, or we can step into the anointing for that office, for that role, for that position, for that purpose, and experience what the Holy Ghost does when He comes upon you to be a mom, to be a dad, to be a husband and a wife. It's his ordained order. And there's an anointing for that. We talked about not working against the Holy Spirit. So, you know, the common thing is uh for people to pray for help. Things are not going right in my home, they're not going right with my kids. My kids are rebellious, they're not obeying, they're fill in the blank with whatever level of trouble someone might have in their home. My kids are not doing whatever, or they're doing all of these things and they ought not be. Oh God, help my help these kids do not do these things. Oh God, bless my children. Oh God, and we pray these prayers for our kids. Yet at the same time as parents maybe, you know, this is a self-checkup, but there are parents who pray these prayers for their kids, and at the same time, they are letting their kids watch whatever they want. They are letting their kids listen to whatever they want, they're letting their kids do whatever they want. They're busy at work, you know, in an eight to five job every day, and they're letting a public school system raise their kids, they're letting other people pour things into their kids, they're not following up, they're not checking up on their kids, they're letting, letting, letting. That's not cooperating with the Holy Spirit. We're here to operate under the anointing of a parent and to train up a child in the way they should go, not let other things happen. And you know, the Holy Spirit will never help us do anything that violates his word. The anointing works in cooperation with this word. When you mix the word and the spirit together, things will work like the jet stream in a super efficient fashion. You know, there's other offices, there are governmental offices. Um, in Romans 13, and I won't spend a long time on this, there's more to this than than government and politics, but Romans 13 talks about uh government and the roles of government, and it's it the the heading there says submit to government in my King James, my new King James Bible in verse 1 of chapter 13 says, Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. And I I put some notes on my phone the other day about this because I had a legislator ask me about this. Um and so let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. The Greek word for authority there is exusia. The definition of that Greek word is jurisdiction, office of authority, it's a delegated influence, and so that's not a person, that is a position. And so let every soul be subject to a position, for there is no position except from God, and the positions that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the positions resists the ordinance of God or the arrangement or the structure of God. So, in other words, God has designed and built the structure of government, and we're not talking about a person yet. We ought to be subject to the structure that God ordained. Now, if if people are operating, if nations are operating outside of a structure that God ordained, then that structure is out of order and doesn't fit here. But I'll tell you that this nation has a divine order to its structure. The three branches of government come from uh our Old Testament. It comes from Isaiah. I'm not sure I have it in here, but uh Isaiah 33, 22. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, and the Lord is our king. Three branches of government right there. Our nation is formed based on that model right there. Our nation is formed on a divine line of authority. Jesus said in the Great Commission, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. All authority in heaven and on earth, that's all of it, has been given to Jesus, and Jesus turns around to his disciples and says, Go, therefore. I'm gonna delegate some of my authority. You disciples are gonna be delegated representatives, you're gonna have some authority, you're gonna do some things on my behalf. So the believers, I'm gonna call them believers now, have delegated authority from Jesus. That's us. We're believers, we have delegated authority. Then we turn around and then we elect somebody into office and we give them a piece of that authority with some instructions that go with that. And so the line of authority is from God to Jesus, to us, and then to the person who stands in the office that has part of the structure that God has ordained. Verse 3 in Romans 13, for the rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority or the position? Do what's good, and you will have the praise from the same. For he, talking about the person who is in that position, is God's minister to you for good. Calls him God's minister. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. There is an anointing on people who serve in an ordained office or a structure, an office that fits the God model, the God structure, and we have these in our government. We've got plenty outside of the God structure. That would be the whole bureaucratic side, the unelected side, where they have usurped authority, stolen things that don't belong to them. That does not fit this. But the ones that are part of our representative form of government, as it was designed in the beginning, we're delegating authority to them, and they are God's minister, and there's an anointing for them to serve in that office, and they can step into it every time they come to work, every time our legislator steps into that role. It's available to them. They can also go contrary to that. They can also cooperate with a demonic anointing to do things. So we're just talking about the anointings that are available here. The fivefold ministry. You can find this in Ephesians chapter 4. Um, I have a verse 11 through 13. Um, this talks about the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastor, and the teacher, for he himself gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, for this purpose, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And they're needed until we all come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. These fivefold ministries, apostle, prophet, evangelic, pastor, teacher, are there for the equipping of the saints, for the work, so that the saints can do the work of the ministry. It's there to edify the body of Christ until we're all in the unity of the same faith. And so when your pastor comes and stands up here and ministers from here, he starts out on the floor level, and he's John Griner, and then he steps into Pastor John Griner, and he's in the anointing, and he operates from that position. And he actually steps into that anointing long before he gets here, but that's just the example. And so when he's operating in the anointing, you know, we don't want to do things to take him out of that position, to distract him from that. It is easy to be distracted out of operating uh with the Holy Spirit helping upon us, the anointing. Now I've got a quote here about the anointing from Dr. Orl Roberts. He said this about the anointing. He said, The anointing is the time when God separates you from yourself, fills you with his glory, so that you can speak. When you speak, it's God speaking. When you act, it's God acting. It's not that you've taken leave of your senses, but rather you become keenly aware that you are under God's divine unction, God's divine guidance, and God's divine power. When the anointing comes on you, it removes all fear and doubt. It fills you with a whole holy boldness, it causes your compassion for the hurting and the sick people to be multiplied a thousand times more. Your desire for these people to be set free literally consumes you. And your urgency to see them rid of the tormenting power of the devil is what moves you when you're under the anointing. And you'll see that in ministries. You'll see when somebody is operating, when they're speaking under the anointing. There's a power that goes with it. There's a boldness that goes with it, there's an uninhibited side that goes with it. Now, I'll tell you what I'm doing here right now, this exact moment, and I'm not bragging, but it is, I'm reporting it is under the anointing. And I know this more than any of y'all because I know who this body is. I know who this flesh is. I know who this soul is. I never wanted to be a preacher. My dad was a preacher. I wanted nothing to do with that. I ran from God, I went the other direction. How many know you can't really run or hide from God too long? It's like, you know, you play in hide and seek with God. He's like, okay, I see you again. Okay, let's play again. All right, you hide. Okay, I still see you. Like it doesn't work. It's no fun. And so I'm running from God and I can't get away from him. He's everywhere all the time. And I just had to give up on me and surrender me. I did not like people, especially large groups of them, in any one place at any one time. I hate public speaking. That's my natural. And now I do things outside of my natural under the anointing of the Holy Spirit on a regular basis. I get to go to states and walk into capitals and go places not knowing what to expect. I don't get the whole battle plan. I just get a next step, and I have to operate with that and obey and just take another step, not knowing. God has never let me down. He has never failed, not once. It is spectacular to go these places and see how God moves, how this stuff is operating. And I'm just in the middle of God doing stuff, and yeah, I'm a yielded vessel. I don't even feel that useful in the middle of it because I'm just more I get to watch God show off. I get to watch all these things come together, all the dots get connected, all the things get lined up one after the other, and it doesn't happen until I go, not knowing, and take another step, not knowing. And then I walk into what he's already ordered, and it just falls into place and works. And I could never make that happen. And that's the anointing. And so I'm bragging on the anointing. I'm bragging on the Holy Ghost and what He's doing on a regular basis. I'm getting better at cooperating with that. I'm getting better at functioning in that. And I try to stay in that more and more. It's just so much, the butter on the toast is so much better than dry toast. And if you got somebody preaching and they sound like dry toast, well, they might not be operating under the anointing. Or there's also a supernatural hearing. You might not be in a position to hear. You might be disgruntled or gripey, or maybe you've been complaining about something. You'll never receive from pastor if you're busy complaining about him. And I'm not talking about anybody here tonight. Very likely not. But we've got other people that come on a Sunday morning. And I want you to help people get over the hump and get into a place where they can receive from the anointing. I want you to be the people that come in on a Sunday morning and help them shake off and shed some of the things. And if there's a complaint coming out of their mouth, help turn that complaint into something better. Complaining caused the Israelites to miss out. In fact, it limited God. And in Psalm 78, they're constant complaining and they complained about God. They complained about the ministry. They complained about Moses. They complained, complained, complained all the time. And it says they limited the Holy One of Israel. They limited God. Not that God can do whatever he wants to do, but he limited him being right in doing something for them. He couldn't do it for them. He couldn't help them because it would have been out of bounds, out of play. It would have been a foul on his side. And he's not going to do that. He won't violate his word. He won't help you violate his word either. So when we pray, we got to pray according to his word. When we come into this place, we need to be sensitive to and motivated to receive from the anointing. You got to respect the anointing, honor the anointing. When Pastor comes in here, you know, sometimes people gather up around him, they want to be seen, they want to greet. And they have nice things to say to him. But if he's moments away from stepping up here, maybe we need to not be having casual conversations. I'm not saying every conversation's out of bounds, but like the casual conversations. Hey Pastor, how you doing? And you know, it's almost like a buddy. He's not your buddy. If you want to call him John, you're going to get John. He'll tell you that. You want to call him Pastor, and you're going to get a shepherd. Who's going to be as best he can and walk in the anointing as best he knows how to, and he's going to be a whole lot like Jesus in that shepherding role. He's going to lead you into some good places by some still waters. He's going to give you something that's going to restore your soul. He's going to feed you something that's going to help strengthen and nourish and encourage and build you up and bring you up out of the trouble that you're in. He's going to be down here ready to minister to all those who have a need. But if we're having casual conversations with them or interrupting or just doing things unrelated and distracting things around, you can get somebody out of their role, out of their position, and out of the anointing, and then it just breaks the entire service. Cheree, you're anointed. Hatcher, you're anointed on the sound system back there. I hope whenever y'all come in here, you're stepping into the anointing to operate that sound system at a level that you have never operated it at before, that you're unfamiliar with. You might not know what everything does. You might not be completely confident in your knowledge of how this thing works, but the Holy Ghost is an expert in all sound systems. And he will help you. And you'll do things supernaturally that are beyond your capability and beyond your knowledge. And we'll have a service where it's uninterrupted, without distractions, without sound problems, without any other problems. I mean, there's an anointing available for every job in this church, for every role that's ordained by God. The Holy Spirit is orderly, and so we ought to do things in order and help keep things in order. You know, we ought not come in here and be dumping problems. Pastor is not a dumping ground to dump problems on, but you know, during the the altar time, if you have a need, that's a time to express what you need. It's not dumping at that point. There's an anointing for you, and he's ready to dispense that for you on your behalf. So it's not dumping at that time. But there's a time and a place for that. We ought to put a value on the anointing. And it ought to be priceless. In other words, we ought to cherish it so much and value it so much that we're just unwilling to do without it. That every time the doors of this place are opening, we're here. We're coming in. We can't wait to get here. I can't rate wait to receive from the anointing. Be ready to receive. If you value the anointing like that in your life, then you're going to take time to pray for your pastor. Pray for his physical needs, his mental needs. Pray that he hears what he needs to hear, that he's receiving what he needs to receive out of this word. It's for your benefit, it's for our benefit. And we'll get so much more out of it if we're holding him up in prayer. So pray for your pastor. Honor the anointing. Cherish it. Just like people have cherished that Bible for 400 years. It's precious, it's sacred. His word is precious, it's sacred. So you have an anointing. And we can operate in that. Now when you get up in the morning, I want you to step into that in whatever role you're in. The highest roles that I see in this room right here are the believer's ministry, the husband and wife, and the mom and the dad. And if you'll step into those and say, and I'm stepping into my office, I'm stepping into my position. I put on the whole armor of God, and Holy Spirit, I believe you're here to help me today to do these things at a level that my body, my flesh, my soul doesn't know how to do. And you're going to step into that and you're going to have answers and capabilities to do things. They're going to be going 500 knots instead of 400. You're going to get there early. You're going to get there easier. It's a sweatless anointing.