Anointed By Association | Pastor John Greiner

In Anointed by Association, the message explores how the anointing flows through divine relationships, from Paul and Timothy's spiritual fatherhood to David's mighty men who committed themselves fully to his leadership. Personal stories illustrate the cost and reward of these connections, including a life changing dream interpreted by a mentor, and a touching moment of tenderness from a spiritual father learning to value the anointing on those under him. The teaching also acknowledges that not every divine association lasts forever, pointing to Paul and Barnabas as an example of a partnership that ran its course. 

Transcript

Opening Confession And Scriptures

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Stand together, pick up your Bibles, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil bad. Let's get into the word together. Thank God for this time that we've had tonight and Holy Spirit. And at the end, I'll I'll uh we haven't prayed for your general needs, but we'll do that just after we get through sharing the word. Uh but let's say this together. Say, Heavenly Father, glad to be here tonight. Thank God for the Holy Ghost. I'm one who values the anointing. I want the anointing to operate in my life on my behalf and through me on behalf of others. And Father, I thank you. The Holy Ghost is my ally. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 2. And 2 Corinthians 8. We'll start with Timothy first. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 1. Paul writing to his son in the faith. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Oh, let me read it to you in the Passion translation. I like the Passion. Timothy, my dear son, live your life empowered by God's free-flowing grace, which is your true strength, found in the anointing of Jesus and your union with Him. And all that you've learned from me, confirmed by the integrity of my life, deposit into faithful leaders who are competent to teach the congregations the same revelation. Verse 3. This is has to do with Macedonia, the church at Macedonia, and that that Paul is raising an offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem. And he's talking about that church. And I think I really ought to read it in the Passion as well, but I'll read it here first in the King James, 2 Corinthians 8, verse 1. For to their power, that is the power of the church in Macedonia, to their power I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves, praying us with much entreaty that we should receive the gift. So you received the offering that they were given, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. And so 2 Corinthians 8, verse 3, let me get it in the in the passion. For I can verify that they spontaneous, talk about the church in Macedonia, and he's talking, bragging on that church to the Corinthian church. And he says, For I can verify that they spontaneously gave, not only according to their means, but far beyond what they could afford. They actually begged us for the privilege of sharing in this ministry of giving to God's holy people who were living in poverty. They exceeded our expectations by first dedicating themselves fully to the Lord and then to us according to God's pleasure. So they dedicated themselves to the Lord and to Paul.

Anointed By Association Defined

SPEAKER_00 4:04

And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled Anointed by Association. Anointed by Association. Divine Associations. I mean, you could, this is a record of divine association. You could call an association between Paul and Timothy a quite a divine association. That's father and son. And then all the people that Timothy in turn was connected to on his end. That's another divine association, once removed from Paul. And then you've got the churches under him. See, Timothy was an apostle, so he was responsible. And he planted churches, and so he's got other people, so you've got a chain there, three, three, three down the line from Paul that's affected by Paul and this association. This uh anointing that Paul was able to distribute to Timothy, and now Timothy to faithful men, and now the faithful men to the congregation. And uh so, you know, he said, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Share your divine associations, let them be progressive, let the anointing don't get it all bottled up in just one or two. Get the anointing flowing down from me to you, to your faithful men that have given themselves to the Lord and to you. See, notice that that's what happened in uh in Macedonia. They they gave themselves to the Lord and to Paul. I mean, it's there's no way you can ever function in the anointing like we had tonight if you're not willing to commit yourself to a flesh and blood father. It just doesn't work that way. A lot of people nowadays are trying to relate to God without the church. COVID just kind of threw a big rock in the middle of the church world, and people quit going to church, and now they just, well, I'm saved. I just go to God, I don't need him. Well, you're wrong. You're you're gonna wind up hurting at some point, and there's nobody that's gonna be able to help you because you've broken fellowship. Now you're you're at risk. It's not that God is mad at you, it's that you have opened the door to Satan to kill, steal, and destroy. Guess what he's gonna do? He knows how. You know, he knows how. So uh so the Macedonians, they committed themselves first to God and then and then to Paul by the will of God. Commit means to surrender, to yield up, to put in prison. Well, that's kind of extreme. That sounds like a cult. Well, see, cults are a counterfeit of what God has in mind in the local church.

Church Commitment Versus Control

SPEAKER_00 7:00

I mean, you know that back in the 60s, 70s, there was a, after the charismatic renewal, right at right at the same time the charismatic renewal started, what was the charismatic renewal? It was the Holy Ghost invading the denominational churches. So, so when the when the Holy Ghost was poured out on the Baptists, you know, that Brother Ostein was a product of the charismatic revival. And so, you know, you had you had, he was one of the first Baptists that that left. He was a bleeder in the Baptist denomination, Southern Baptist denomination. And that happened in all of the denominations, Church of Christ, you know, and then that gave rise to the full gospel businessman, which I was, I'm a still a lifetime member. I I joined, you know, I'm a lifer. I don't go anymore, but I was faithful for it for a season. And uh you had an amalgamation of guys that came out of very, we had a guy from Methodist Church, guy from Episcopal Church, some Catholic guys, you know. I remember one Catholic guy was arguing with me about praying to Mary and all that kind of thing. And I tried not to argue, but I he was trying to make the case. Well, Jesus, you know, she told the men at the at Cana, uh, she's the one that told the men to do all that he tells you. You know, he she listened, she talked Jesus into doing his first miracle. So that's why we ought to pray to Mary. He's gonna talk Jesus into doing something. I said, well, you know, that's it's just against the word. I said, you're you're talking about the Old Testament. That's the Old Testament. I said, we live in the New Testament. He's risen from the dead now, and there's only one man that's a mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. And Mary's not a mediator. Well, he got so mad at me, you know. So you had that kind of going on, you know, you had all these. And in that, you had the shepherding movement. You had people that uh would preach the hard line of submission, and you do what I tell you to do down to the down to the point where you couldn't buy a car, you couldn't even go and pick out a washer and dryer, and and you'd had to check with a pastor. I mean, that's stupid. Plain, just plain and silly. I mean, I there was a big church, it was a house church in in Houston, and they had like 1,500, 2,000 members. And uh they had lots of houses, they'd have these house churches, and one pastor would travel around. It'd take him six months to go around to all the houses. They never saw the pastor. So you had all this flaky prophesying over each other, and you had this one guy that's collecting all the money and putting it in his pocket and telling them what color, washer and dryer, and oh, you can't have an avocado, you have to have harvest gold. And you'd think I'm kidding, but that's that's what so what is that? Well, that's the devil, but I mean, there is truth in what I'm preaching here tonight. There's a there's a place where you put yourself in prison when it comes to committing yourself to uh a pastor, and you do it by the Holy Ghost. You don't do it by manipulation, you do it because the Holy Ghost tells you to commit yourself. Are y'all y'all following me? I'm talking about divine associations. So you could say they were bondservants to Christ through Paul. See, a lot of people just want to go direct. Well, you can go direct in your prayer life, you can go direct and believe in God for healing. You can you don't need me to get healed, you don't need me to tell you everything. But at the same time, you know, there is a commitment or a, you know, there's a surrender that needs to take place so that the anointing can flow from me to you to others. Are y'all getting this now? Everybody say divine associations. Or as Brother Mark calls them supernatural relationships. He's got a meeting once a year, it's an invitation only. We've gone to a number of them. We haven't gone the last couple of years, but uh it's called supernatural relationship. We get up and it's it's a wonderful set of meetings. You get to rubbing up against people and sharing testimonies, and it's it's very valuable. So my life has been spent as far as I could be honoring my divine associations. You know, I had to recognize these divine associations and then on my side be faithful to them. And

Mentor Story And Dream Lessons

SPEAKER_00 11:29

so uh one time I had uh a young uh man from Kentucky that uh was coming and he liked Brother Osteen, saw him on television, I got acquainted with him. He was a prophet, and so we got to be uh friendly with each other. So when he came to town, I just opened our house and he came to stay with us. He'd stay, he'd be in, he'd be in town for a couple of weeks, maybe he'd stay with us. And uh but he was a he was he was a prophet, and uh he had a gift, uh, a gift. Uh he wasn't really word of faith. I back then I didn't really I didn't really value the word of faith. I mean, I believed it, but I didn't think about it in in when it came to other ministers. I mean, I just kind of lumped the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues all in one basket. But you know, there's a lot of different streams. I'm more discerning now and I'm more demanding now, and I don't want to fool around and spend a lot of time with people that don't believe like I do about the word of faith. I mean, that means Brother Osteen and Brother Hagin and the people that I cut my teeth on. Those those divine associations, you know. So, uh, but anyway, he he spent the time in my house, and one morning he was teaching me on dreams and kind of talking to me, testifying, and and we were looking at the Bible, you know. Well, that night I had a dream. First dream I'd ever had from the Lord. I called it my ship channel dream. In the dream, I was I was on this uh boat and I knew it to be a uh a cargo vessel. It had, it was low, there was no superstructure, just a flat boat. I'm standing in the very back of the boat, right here in front of me, right in front of my feet is the engine hatch. I could I could feel the vibration, hear the engine, big old diesel engine underneath me. It's about a 40-foot long boat. And there were three hatches in front of me, like this, and I knew in the dream that they contained oil because I could look over there and see the refineries and all that. And so I knew this this vessel was a uh container of oil. And uh I was in the dream, I felt the wind in my face, you know, smelling the diesel fuel, and being like an engineer, I thought, man, I want to take a look at this motor. I want to see how big this engine is. It seems like it's pretty powerful, not going very fast, but it's got a pretty big weight of oil in there. So I lifted the hatch, and you know, all the heat from the manifolds came up in my face, and the smell of the diesel fuel and all of that, and I was kind of marveling at that big old engine, you know, and and so then I looked up, and when I looked up in the dream, when I looked up, I wouldn't look it up from the boat anymore. Now I'm in the cab of an 18-wheeler, I'm looking over the hood of a, you know, a Peter belt or something, you know, one of these big old tractor trailer rigs. Same sound, you know, same vibration, big old diesel engine, and yet I'm looking over a hood and I'm driving, you know, I'm going 60 miles an hour down a two-lane road. I'm on higher level now, I'm not on sea level. See in the ship channel, I'm at sea level. Now I'm on a highway, so it's a higher place. And uh and then I'm coming up on another 18-wheeler in front of me, and in the dream I had to take my foot off the accelerator. In fact, I had to, he was going so slow I had to break, and I was irritated in the dream, and then I woke up. And so the next morning I talked to my prophet friend, and I said, and gave him the dream, and he so he helped me to interpret it. And uh, it was really instructive, and it helped me a lot. And I'm talking about divine association. That was a divine association I no longer have. I mean, we it it ran its course and we no longer have that association. Does that is that bad? Well, the Bible's filled with those kinds of things. They don't always last forever. They're they're seasonal. Many times an association like that is just for a time, just for a season. That's why we're in the year of the news. Sometimes these associations become obsolete now. God's done with them. It's time to move on as long as you're hanging on to something or someone. I'm not talking about your wife or husband, uh, you know, as long you're hanging on to somebody, that God's done with that. I mean, you know, you're not going to get the new influx. Are y'all with me now? Divine associations. So on my side, I mean, I was honorable and and and was faithful to that one that I had that association with. So the interpretation of the dream was this, you know, that the the boat uh is containing oil. He said, you've got a mixture of oils from all the ministries that come to Lakewood Church. You know, we had Brother Osteen would have all the ones that you've all been heard about. Brother Hagin would come. Every time Brother Hagin had come in those days, man, I mean, I took off work. I had my own business. I just, I just, I'd come to the morning meeting, I came to the afternoon meeting. If there wasn't that, usually there wasn't an afternoon meeting, just a morning meeting and a night meeting. I came all I came to all of them when he was in town. He's there usually a week. I'd sit at his feet and I read all his books. Now, it's not superior to Brother Osteen. I always put him at the top. He's my pastor. He's number one. I listened to everything and read everything of his first, but then Brother Hagin was second. And then, of course, you know, Brother Shambok. I listened to him on the radio, I listened to uh Derek Prince on the radio, I listened to uh Charles Capps on the radio. We got Charles Capps books out there. And uh in the process of time I got to meet all those men. It's amazing. I mean, here I am a little shmuck. I just got saved, and I'm listening to the radio, and my and years later, here I get a chance to sit down with these men and talk to them. I mean, it's just amazing. Because why? Because I fed at their feet. I listened, I read their books, I sent offerings. I was, I mean, I got in partnership with them there for a while for some of them. So anyway, so I was, he said, you know, when you looked at that at that engine, you were discovering the power of his anointing, this blend of anointings. Oil stands for the anointing, this blend of anointings that you have. You're discovering, you're in the discovery phase right now. You're discovering the power of that anointing. That's 1990, is when that happened. And I'd been ordained into the ministry in 1988. So it was early in my ministry that was recognized by Brother Osteen. I got tickled at James. He said, you know, Pastor, it depends on when he starts. How long has he been in the ministry? It depends on his start date. Brother Osteen always started his start date when he got saved. And so when his 50th anniversary, you know, his 50th anniversary of his ministry started with the day he got saved. You know, I'm not going to do that. I'm starting it when I got ordained. But I'm still, I ministered a lot before I got ordained. But that was the time it was officially recognized. So I feel like I'm safe to say I can count it from 1988. It'll soon be, you know, 40 years. So um, but anyway, I'm discovering in that this range of oils. And I said, well, what about that 18-wheeler? He said, that's futuristic, it's not applied, it doesn't apply it. I didn't understand that. And I guess I didn't like it, but it just was, see, dreams sometimes are in segments. He taught me that. Segments, and so one segment might be for right now, and the next segment can be later on. You'll find out later what that's for. And so I began to be able to, and from that moment I began to have some dreams. I began the prophetic, that's that's discerning of spirits. And uh and I began to have dreams that I could know that was God. I just didn't write them all down, and and I didn't call him and say, hey, interpret this dream. I started interpreting my own dreams. I I found out that a vessel like a boat is your ministry: a car, a boat, a train. There's been many, many uh dreams that I've had that had a vessel of some sort in it. One time it was a train. Remember the caboose. I was in a caboose, you know, and I come out of the bathroom, and I'm thinking, boy, that this thing is rocking back and forth. I I better get out here and see what's going on. And I'm in the caboose, and here's this young man, and he's got the steering wheel like this. I look out over the, and we're going across country, there's no tracks. I mean, whoever of a train led by the caboose? But I was in the, and the Holy Ghost was a guy, you know, he was driving my train. See, the train has to do with your ministry. And over here was a big old train, must have had 200 cars and about six big old locomotives, and they were pouring out black smoke, and they were doing all they could do to drag this big old load, and they were under a load, and we were passing them like they were standing still. And see, that that was all the churches that have all these programs, and they've got all these psychological classes that you go to to learn about blah, blah, blah. You know, they're just loaded down with man's stuff. And over here was another train that was ahead of me that had derailed and it had and it was in smoke. And this was sometime after a bunch of people left our church, went to another church, and that church fell apart. The pastor was arrested for a crime, and the church fell apart, and 20 some of our, 20 some families of my of our church had gone to that church, and then it just fell apart. So God was letting me know that you're on the right, you're not on a track. You're you're going according to the Holy Ghost across country. And so, you know, from that one uh uh divine association, God was able to impart into me a gift that I don't know that I would have gotten any other way, except just spending time with a young man that wanted to take time to pour into me and give me uh some teaching on things that I didn't know about. And I got to meet his mentor later. Later on. I got to meet the guy that mentored him years later, and we sat and had coffee out at Hobby. And uh and so I'm talking about divine associations now.

David’s Mighty Men And Costly Loyalty

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Uh let's look at uh first Samuel twenty-two and uh verse one. David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Dulum. See, he's on the run from Saul, Saul got mad at him, Saul was jealous. You know, Saul uh didn't like the women singing over David. Uh Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands. So Saul was jealous, so he was trying to kill David. So David had to flee, escape to the cave of Dulam. And when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. Remember, his brothers weren't for him. His brothers, you know, made fun of him, his brother mocked him. He was not the favorite son, but all of a sudden now they're under pressure because they're kin to the guy the king doesn't like, and the dad is the dad of the guy the king doesn't like, so they can't hang around and wait for the king to send a group over there to kill them all, so now they're forced to go hang out with David at the cave. In verse 2, and everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and uh, everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over them. And there were with him about 400 men. Now, sir, I want to remind you, now David had been anointed as king when he's like a teenager. You know, uh Prophet Samuel came to his house and he started with, he asked, asked the father, you know, where's your sons? He brought the oldest one out, you know, he was a good-looking guy, and that's not him. The second one, not him, not him. All the way through. He's he got any more sons? Yeah, there's a run out there at the back 40. He's washing my sheep. Bring him here. And that was the one, that was David. And he poured the horn of oil over him, and he was anointed king before Saul had left the scene. Saul's still sitting in the place of the king, but he's no longer anointed. He's been disqualified. He's been disqualified. So as far as God's concerned, here's your king. Well, he's not king yet. So here, when we see this happen, here, he becomes like a king to this group of men. I mean, it didn't sound like a real great group, you know. They're they're uh in distress, they're in debt, and they're discontented. And uh, then he's got his family. And they're not too cool either. So he became, everybody say he became. Let's say it three times. He became. He became, he became. He became a captain. See, I mean, they didn't just they didn't just come in the door and say, hey, we're just gonna put ourselves in prison. We're gonna commit ourselves to you. We're gonna just, yeah, just tell us what to do. Oh, you're our captain. No, he became. That meant that it took a while. A captain. I mean, while he had been busy fighting, they'd been out there failing. You know, he's killing Goliath and everything, and they're out there failing left and right. So captain means Lord, master, prince, ruler. You can see how the devil counterfeits it with cults. He counterfeits this whole thing. You get somebody like a Saul, like somebody that is insecure, and they've got to have this hold over a group of people. They've got to have control over them, they make merchandise of them. They they they they demand all this quote unquote submission. You know, that's that's not the way it ought to be. We ought to do this willingly. We ought to do it by the Spirit. By the Spirit. And so uh they eventually committed themselves to Him. And uh about 20 years later, let's look at 1 Chronicles 11. Everybody say 20 years. You know, remember who these guys were. They were what? You know, they're distressed and debt and discontented. They were. All right, so um 1 Corinthians, I mean 1 Chronicles 11. They became mighty men. Verse 9, David waxed greater and greater, for the Lord of hosts was with him. See, the house of of Saul waxed uh lesser and lesser, the house of Saul. See, Saul died and Jonathan died, and now his house is still, you know, competing, trying to win this battle of Israel, and that house got less and less, that David's house waxed or increased greater and greater, for the Lord of hosts was with him. And these also are the chief of the mighty men. Everybody say mighty men. So see, all these men, after 20 years, they turned into mighty men. It's not what happens in the first six months or the first year, it's what happens over a period of time. They became mighty men who strengthened themselves with him in his kingdom and with all Israel to make him king according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel. And this is the number of the mighty men whom David had. He lifted up his spear against 300 slain by him at one time. That's a pretty mean motor scooter. You don't want to mess with him. He killed 300 by himself. After him was Eliezer, and uh he uh he defended a ground full of beans, and uh the people fled from before the Philistines. I mean, he he defeated them. They tried to get land from him, and he killed them, and uh, and then so forth and so on. So he goes on about these captains. And so then uh let's look at uh so you know, when I when I saw these mighty men, I was asking the Lord one day, I said, you know, they they developed from, you know, just the rough edges, and now after 20 years, they're mighty men. I mean, all of them, I mean, they could shoot the bow with either hand, I mean, they could sling a stone with either hand. They they were masters at battle. You didn't want to mess with any of them. That's why they call mighty. And there was 30 of them. And then you had the three at the top of that, and then you had the next three, so there was a difference in them. And I said, Lord, just what is it? How is it that they committed themselves like that, being the way they were, are powerful men? I mean, they're men's men. How did they commit themselves to David? What made them do that? I don't know if you read your Bible like that, but I do. And uh, what do they see in David that compelled them to this commitment? See, they were anointed with David's anointing. David killed the Goliath at 18. I mean, he he was a warrior, buddy, and he was smart. He knew how to fight somehow. I mean, he killed the lion and the bear. I mean, he's he's anointed in his own right, and he had he had transferred that anointing once these young, these men committed themselves. And so I said, Well, how is it that they got anointed by this divine association? How do they commit themselves? So let's look at 2 Samuel 23, and this is how the Lord showed it to me. In all my years at Lakewood, I mean, I had to learn how to put myself in prison, as it were, and to commit myself to Brother Osteen, and to be there for him no matter what. And he had to come above family. I'm not talking about my immediate family, I'm talking about my distant family, brothers, sisters, cousin. I mean, we our family's always getting together, and I just do, I mean, we didn't have time to get together with him. It just wasn't time. I mean, I there's no time to leave and go. I have a I have a class to teach. I've got a ministry, uh, opening the closing of the services. I'm not gonna leave and get somebody to fill in for me. I'm gonna be there. And so, where did I get all that? See, I got it from right here, the Word of God. He didn't tell me to do that. I told, I just got it out of the word. I I felt by felt compelled by the Holy Ghost to do it. So in 2 Samuel 23, have you found it? So um, still talking about the mighty men here. And uh verse 14, David was then in hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. So he's he's hiding still. See, he's over here separated from Philistines. And David longed and said, Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. See, he's a shepherd. He knows where all the good water is. And the water in that well at Bethlehem is really good water. I mean, it's cold, it's clear, it tastes good. Not all the water they're drinking out there is that good. I mean, some of it's kind of muddy, and some of it's kind of, you know, got algae in it. I mean, just regular old water that's in a pond or something, sometimes it doesn't taste that good. It's got, you know, decaying things in it, turtles and you know, leaves and stuff like that. It's nasty tasting. They gotta drink water though, don't they? He's saying, man, oh, if I could. Now he wasn't trying to get anybody to go get them the water. He's just talking, he just, he just kind of says it out, you know, he didn't mean anything by. Oh, if I could just have a drink of that water, man, that's at the gate of Bethlehem. And so that's all he had to say. And the three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines, verse 16. And how did they break through the host? They killed them, that's how they did it. They killed them and got through the they broke through the watchman and got over there and they drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, and it was by the gate, and they took it and they brought it to David. And here, here, David, here's some water. Here it is. But nevertheless, he would not drink it. He would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men. They and and and uh he would not drink it, but he poured it out unto the Lord. He poured it out. See, he worshiped God. This was so precious. He said, verse 17, be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this, that I should drink this water. Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? See, this water is their blood. This they risked their lives to bring me this water. How dare I drink this water? I cannot do it, I will not do it. Lord, I pour it out before you, I worship you. And he poured that water out to the Lord and worshiped him. And uh therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men. And so I uh, you know, God was began to tell me, you know, for number one, how did what did they see in David that made them uh commit themselves to him? First of all, he he was sorry that he spoke inadvisedly. He he didn't mean for them to go get that water. If he did, he would have drank it. Boy, you guys didn't write. Good for you. No, there's no way. And so he he repented. God, I can't drink this water, I'm not gonna drink it. He kept his flesh under, number two. He did not, you know he wanted that water, but he wouldn't drink it. So two things. See, he he repented of speaking inadvisedly, he kept his flesh under, he worshiped God when he poured that water out. And number four, he was tender toward the men under his authority, tender toward them. Now you say tender, well, he's a king, he's got to send him into battle. But you see, they risked their lives, but they never went into battle without the Holy Ghost, so not one of them ever died. You can't find one time when any of the mighty men died in battle. None of them died. Why? Because the Lord of hosts was with them. That's the value of the anointing when the anointing is distributed out there and received under the commitment and the dedication that is necessary for it to flow. Is you getting anything out of this tonight? Praise God.

Seasonal Partnerships And Guarding The Anointing

SPEAKER_00 36:05

So I mentioned earlier that not all commitments are permanent. Uh, you know, there's lots of examples. Think about Paul and Barnabas. They had a divine association. Barnabas vouched for Paul when he was Saul of Tarsus and he'd gotten saved, and he everybody knew who he was. He'd hailed Christians to their death. I mean, he he held the garments of the ones who stoned Stephen to death. He was there holding their garments. He hated Christians, and everybody knew it. And all of a sudden you're saying you got saved, all of a sudden you're saying Jesus appeared to you. They didn't trust him. They didn't trust him at all. Peter and all the rest of them didn't trust him at all. It was 15 years before they had very much fellowship. They just born at night, but not last night. You better prove something out before you get us to trust you. But Barnabas saw something in him. Barnabas, you know, uh introduced him in Barnabas. No, he's he's genuine. I've been with him, you know. And so he was his kind of his mentor in all of it early in the book of Acts, it's Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul. That's not random. If Barnabas is in charge, Barnabas is the guy that's been around longer. Barnabas is the guy that knows the ropes. Barnabas is is is really a little bit ahead of Saul. But all of a sudden, Saul's name has changed to Paul. Now that's his real name, his name with both Saul and Paul. But all of a sudden he dropped the Saul and adopted Paul, which was the Roman name. Why? Because he's the apostle to the Gentiles. He's the apostle to the Gentiles. It behooved him to have a Roman name so that they would listen to him. As long as he got that Jewish name, they're not going to give him the time of day. But it became Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas. There's a shifting. You see, their relationship kind of changed, and God began to promote Paul a little ahead of Barnabas. So that all happened on the first missionary journey where John Mark, who was uh Barnabas' nephew, his wife's, his sister's son, his sister's son, uh left him in a lurch. I mean, he just couldn't bear the trouble that they had on the trail. And that was very inconvenient for because then now uh Barnabas and Saul then had to had to do all the dishes, they had to do all the cooking, they had to break camp, they had to pitch the tent and unpitch the tent, they had to carry it off. They had a young man there to do some heavy work, and he left them in a lurch. So now they're fixing to go on the second missionary journey, and Barnabas decides, oh, well, we're going to take John Mark. And Paul said, No, you're not. He's not ready. Oh, he's fine. No, he's not. They had a sharp contention. And so then Barnabas just gave himself permission to break fellowship and break apart that uh divine association. And you never read about Barnabas again. He falls off the pages of the Bible, but you see Paul on and on. Miracle after miracle, right in two-thirds of the New Tower. Are you getting anything out of this now? He on his side, he was faithful, but he's not going to be faithful to flesh. I mean, you know, poor Barnabas, he's just too impressed with his family name. He's too impressed with his nephew. What does it matter? We're in the family of God. That's more. Your divine association is way up there. And you you can't you can't have favorites. And so uh, and then of course you have uh 2 Timothy 4, 16. Here's another one. I'll just give you a verse. That's a series of verses in Acts. You can read that for yourself. But 2 Timothy 4, talking about commitments that don't last. I mean, some of them are temporary, and it's because the person doing the committing decides to be uncommitted. Or the other way is that God informs you that okay, you can release that person and get on down the road. I've they've served their purpose. It's not that you have a fallen out, you just don't go that direction. 2 Timothy 4. Uh 2 Timothy 4, 16. At my first answer, no man stood with me. Okay, here we go. Let's look at this. Verse 14. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. Notice he didn't pray for him. Oh, bless him. Bless him. No, the Lord reward him according to his works. That's going over like a lead balloon. Hey, you forgive him, but you know what? You're not gonna, you're not praying for the blessing. You're you're God let him let him reap what he sowed. And so he said, um Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil, Lord reward him according to his works, of whom be thou aware also. Beware, for he hath greatly withstood our words. In other words, he was interfering in the church's business. He was doing damage to the congregation. Part of my job is to run off wolves. This man was a wolf. At my first answer, no man stood with me. See, I mean, here he is, apostle. He's standing against this guy, and nobody agreed with him. Nobody said, You're right, Paul. We're with you. Whatever you want us to do, we'll disfellowship this guy, we'll we'll forbid him from coming in our assembly. We're not gonna let him back in the door. He said, At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. So there was a group, there was a group that he had poured into, and when he took a stand against a wolf, they all agreed with the wolf and not with the man of God. Are y'all getting this at all? So some of these are not lifelong, some of them are temporary. Uh

Pastor Osteen Testimony And Closing Vision

SPEAKER_00 42:42

so I received my anointing by association. I I'm so it's so wonderful, it's humbling to think about all the men and women that God has allowed me to uh be around that have contributed to the anointing that I carry. Of course, Brother Osteen's the main one. Uh give you a small testimony about that. So we uh I'd already been uh ordained, so this little testimony is probably 1992 or so. Uh been ordained in 88, so I'm teaching every week in Family Life Institute. And you know, I traveled with Brother Osteen some. And uh so he said, Look, I I want to go to India and I want to uh send you ahead of time. I've got your ticket on Continental Airlines, and he always flew uh uh Air France. He had a uh a lot of miles with them, and so his travel agent always worked out deals with him. And the way he would travel to India, it's a long, tough trip. And so as his age, he would he would fly first class from Houston uh to New York, spend the night in New York, then get a car and go to the you know, JFK, catch another plane, you know, over the water to Paris. And you know, spend another night and then you know then get up and fly to wherever in India he's going. And so it it took several days for him to get there. And and Paris was the place, you know, uh the intermediate place. So he said, look, I've got I've got your tickets. Uh there's a nine-hour non-stop flight from uh Continental Airlines, you can fly that, and you uh fly it from Intercontinental to Orley nine hours, and then just wait for me and I'll get I'll be there, you know. So he gave me his itinerary. So uh great, Pastor, I'd I'd be honored to go. I'd I'd be can you go? Yeah, I can go, sure. I'm I I'm available, made myself available. I just I just shut my business down and tried to do what I could before I left town, and then I'd leave, I'd leave town. So uh I got to the hotel. Of course, I was no, I'm getting ahead of myself. So I got on the plane, and I'm sitting, you know, and this is a big wide-body plane. I don't remember if it's a DC-10 or 747. I think it was a 747. And it got all these seats on either side, and the middle aisle has got like four or five seats wide, then you've got five or six seats on each side, and just a lot of seats. And I'm in the middle of Africans from uh Cameroon. They all speak French. And they're in the front of me, they're behind me, and I'm in the middle, and they're talking French over me, and and I mean, it's just like overwhelming, and they don't believe in deodorant. And I tell you, it didn't take long for me to get really miserable. And by the time that flame's lifting off the tarmac, I'm thinking, how am I gonna get and that plane, I mean, it had lots of seats. I mean, why do you make me sit here? Oh, the whole middle is open. I mean, there's all kinds of middle, you know, there's no reason for me to have to sit right there in the middle of all these guys. And I mean, they're loud and they're boisterous, and you know, I don't understand a thing that they're saying. I'm wondering whether they're talking about me. Anyway, so I flagged the turret to the stewardess, yes, okay, flight attendant. Stewardess, I flagged her down. I said, Can I just move right over? Oh, yeah, sure. No problem. See, you couldn't do that today. But uh I just I just got up and I moved across. I turned got all the all the armrests up and I laid all the seats down and I stretched out and laid down. I belted myself in. I laid down and got a nap in during that. It's a nine-hour flight. I got to Paris, you know, got to the hotel. Jet lag still, so I went to bed, got up that afternoon, and uh Brother Osteen's coming in later that night. So I'm hungry, hadn't eaten, so I walked across the street and got a Big Mac meal for $13. That's back in the early 90s. We could get a Big Mac meal here for $3. It's $13 in Paris. I don't know what it must be now, $53. I don't know. And so uh I got back to the room and he's getting hit, getting there. I've calculated by the time he lands, he gets a car and gets to the hotel. He'd probably get there about 10 o'clock, my time. 10 o'clock. So I said, I'm gonna get down there. I'm gonna be there when he gets out of the car. I'm gonna be standing right there and I'm gonna salute him. I'm just gonna, welcome to Paris, brother, Pastor Osteen. And uh what I used to call him was pastor. I thought I didn't, most people call him Brother Osteen, but I called him pastor. So I said, Welcome to welcome to Paris, Pastor. So I had this jogging suit on, you know. I back then I didn't travel, I didn't, I didn't dress up for the occasion, I just had this, because it's cold. And uh and so I'm waiting, and sure enough, in ten minutes, here he comes. Here's his car comes up, he gets out of the back seat, driver gets out, pops the trunks, get his bags, you know, and he puts his foot on the curb and steps up on the curb, and I'm standing there just a few feet from him, and I come to attention, I swear to him, I said, Pastor, uh, welcome to Paris. And he said, Oh, John, and he he teared up. And I was just doing it for kind of a joke. I'm just joking around. I mean, I wasn't, I didn't mean it, but you know, just trying to be loose. And and uh, but he he was so serious, he said, John, he said, I just I feel so bad. I said, Oh, why, brother? What's the matter? He said, all the way here, I just couldn't believe it. I sent you ahead uh to fly a coach, and here I am flying first class. He said, John, that was wrong. That was wrong of me. You should, uh from now on, when we travel together, you're traveling with me anywhere I and just that let me know we're gonna be traveling together. I didn't know that. But I mean, he was so tenderhearted toward me. And the Holy Ghost had kind of uh maybe, you know, just let him know that I didn't do the right thing. He said the workman's worthy of his hire. You should have been on that flight with me. You should have flyed. I I don't know what I was thinking, John. I'm I'm so he apologized. I mean, kind of, Pastor, you don't have to apologize to me. I didn't think. No, I do. I have to. Well, I had to shut up because it was between him and the Lord. Are y'all getting this now? I'm talking about a divine association and why you can, how you can be so committed to somebody. Well, you can be committed to somebody that loves you and what's the best for you, and he always did. And uh, and so at a separate time, uh, a different, a different trip, he said, John, do you value the anointing? I said, Yes, sir, I do. I absolutely do. He said, Do you love yourself? He said, Yes, sir. He said, Well, always protect the anointing. Always believe God to travel first class. I said, Yes, sir. And we have. We've traveled business class and first class. I told that story to people that worked at Continental Airlines and they left the church. I mean, I thought that they would kind of like that idea, but they didn't. They thought that I should be in the back of the plane. They didn't value the anointing on my life. They didn't value what they were sitting under. But I know you do. You wouldn't be here on a Sunday night, and you're receiving the benefit of this wonderful anointing that God has given me. I didn't earn it, I didn't ask for it. I just showed up and he gave it to me, and now you're receiving it. And now you're gonna be able to pass it on to others as you come across them, especially coming up. I believe we're gonna see the greatest harvest we've ever seen, and your anointing is gonna come into place, and you're gonna be used mightily with our uh people that are coming that haven't showed up yet. So, anointed by association, pray but praise God. Let's just lift our hand and receive. Hallelujah.