The Anointing Upon | Understanding the Anointing 2 | Pastor John Greiner

Part two of the series on understanding the anointing turns from the anointing within to the anointing upon, the outward equipping the Holy Spirit gives for ministry and impact on others. Drawing from Luke 4 and Jesus' own declaration that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, the teaching traces how Jesus ministered as a man anointed by the Holy Ghost rather than purely as the Son of God, then moves into the baptism of the Holy Ghost as the gateway to walking in that anointing. From there the message unpacks the gifts of the Spirit outlined in 1 Corinthians 12, covering the utterance gifts, power gifts, and revelatory gifts, and how every believer, not just those in formal ministry, carries a call that requires this outward anointing to fulfill.

Transcript

Welcome And Faith Declaration

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Reach down and pick up our Bibles and lift them up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad. Good to see everybody today. It's back to school and back to church. Hallelujah. I'm so glad. Glad y'all came back. I mean, really, we missed you. Messing around with you. All right, let's say this together. So, Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be in the house of the Lord with people of light, precious faith. This is an atmosphere of miracles. I intend to tap in to the Word of God and the Holy Ghost who leads me in victory to victory, from faith to faith, from glory to glory, from strength to strength, and I'm bearing forth fruit for your glory, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. Let's turn in our Bibles to a couple of places. Zechariah chapter 4 and also Isaiah 10.

Why The Anointing Matters

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And I'm teaching a series, a three-part series on understanding the anointing. And you know, my Zechariah 4, 6 is the first one that we'll read. And it says, not by might nor by power, my margin says by army. Not by might, nor by power, nor by my uh my might, not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. By my spirit. So, you know, for purposes of what we're talking about, really the anointing is what the Holy Spirit does. The anointing is an it and the spirit is a person. It's a he. So he anoints. So when you see the word anointing, anointing is the only way you have one is the Holy Ghost did it. So by my spirit is the same thing as saying by my anointing. And so that's exactly what Isaiah 10, 27 says. It says the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. And so to understand, we're going to talk about understanding. That's to build your faith in the anointing. And we've got three broad categories we'll talk cover. Last week we talked about the category, the anointing within. Today we're going to talk about the anointing upon. And next week we'll talk about the corporate anointing, which is the anointing in a church, or it's an anointing in the church. There's only one church, but yet at the same time we have local assemblies, local churches. There's a corporate anointing that's here this morning. And that corporate anointing is controlled really by the anointing within the corporate body. So individually, each one of you has an anointing within you. And the more faith you have to walk in that anointing, the greater it's going to be. So that when we get together, I mean the total of the anointing is greater than the sum of the individual parts. You can see that it starts to grow, it starts to multiply. And it's the same with the anointing upon you, which we'll talk about today. When you have those two maximized, then you're going to have a corporate anointing that is going to bring manifestations of glory. I'm going to say that again. When you have both of those maximized, you're going to begin to see manifestations of the glory of God. You're going to see people get healed without anybody even praying for them. They just walk in the door. People get delivered, walking in the door. Are y'all with me now? So the anointing within, the anointing upon, and then the corporate anointing. The word anointing means grease, perfumed oil. It means smearing or rubbing. So when you're anointed, then you're smeared. You're rubbed. With what? The anointing, which is a type of the Holy Ghost. So the Holy Ghost, I mean, will mark you. You're marked on the inside as a Christian. Everybody, we talked about that last week. Every believer's got the anointing within you. If you didn't get the anointing within you, then you're not saved. But as soon as you got saved, the Holy Spirit took up residence and you became, you had the anointing within you.

The Anointing Within Guides You

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And then it's in there for every believer, it's in there to teach you. It's in there to reveal truth from error. I mean, I had, when Gladys and I were first saved, started going to Lakewood Church, and we both baptized in the Holy Ghost. You know, you're just starting out, and some people kind of got around us, and this lady just all wanted to dominate Gladys' time and take her outside and prophesy over. And, you know, something in me said, you know, that isn't right. I mean, you know, I don't need some lady I'd never heard from. I don't know anything about her, and she's in there prophesying over my wife and telling her all kinds of things, and I just put an end to it. Why? Because my spirit, I didn't know anything up here, but my spirit wouldn't rest. I couldn't, I what was that was the anointing within me. We all have that. Later on, we went to, we were invited to go to a Bible study over in Spring Branch, 30, 35, 40 people there. Pretty big Bible study. We didn't know a soul there. We were just invited, another couple took us, and you know, yeah, I'm young in the Lord. I'm gonna go see. I've never been to a Bible study like that. I'll go. And the guy sat in the middle of the room and just kind of opened his Bible and just kind of taught out of the book of Ephesians line by line. It was boring. It was like watching paint dry. I mean, it was just boring. I'm sorry. I mean, I didn't get a thing out of the, I didn't, I knew not to be critical, but I'm just sitting there observing, okay? And I was guarded because of my previous expansion. I'm a little bit guarded, you know. I don't know these people. Most of them went to Lakewood, but you know, Lakewood's a huge church, 5,000 people on Sunday morning back in those days. You don't know who you're in church with. And uh, and so he's teaching along. I didn't hear anything that I could take issue with, but it was just, and they said, okay, it's time if some of us here need deliverance. And so they brought these people up, and I mean, it was all kind of crazy stuff went on. Puking in bags and screaming and hollering, a bunch of stuff. And I just, I didn't, again, I wasn't critical. I didn't criticize it. I watched it, I noted it, and so we were uh road with this other family or this other couple that invited us to it. You know, we didn't say a word. I think I said, Well, that was interesting. That's about as close as I could say, and uh, and so then, you know, we and we let the other couple off, and Gladys and I drove in into the garage, and and before I shut the motor off, I said, honey, I don't think we'll ever go back there. She said, Oh no. Now, what was that? See, well, that was the inward anointing to let us know that that's flaky. And three years later, three years later, so I'm in Utopia, Texas on a Saturday morning, visiting my brother who lived down the road in Banderpool. And we went to the store. And by that time, my brother and his whole family had gotten saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. So we were there having a wonderful time and all that. And uh, so we the next morning we went to go, the girls needed some groceries, so we went to town. And coming out of the grocery store came this couple into there, and it's that couple that had that Bible study, that flaky Bible study. It's oh yeah, I haven't seen you in a long time, you know. And then we shook hands and I forgot the name. And uh said, Well, uh, uh, what are you doing? Well, I'm just visiting my brother, you know, we just came for the weekend. Yeah, well, we live over in such and such Bandera, I think they said. Live over in Bandera, oh, okay. Uh he said, Well, are y'all still at Lakewood? I said, Oh, sure. I never leave Lakewood until the Holy Ghost tells me to leave. I would never leave. Oh, well, we we left there a long time ago. I said, Well, what do you do now? He said, Oh, we just have church in the house. And I thought, man, I'm so glad I didn't get hooked up with these goofballs. Well, we just preach what Paul preached. I said, Well, there's a big Bible besides what Paul preached. I mean, you just you just define how about John or how about Peter? No, just what Paul preached. We only preach the Pauline. I mean, so I'm talking about flaky now, folks. And so what am I saying? I'm saying the anointing within me. See, that's why, that's why you don't need anybody to teach you that. I mean, you have it on the inside. Everybody, everybody go like this. See, I've got, everybody say, I've got the equipment to keep me straight. See, learn to listen to it. All right. And he's in there to help you, he's the helper, and he's in there to help you overcome the world. Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. So those things. And so, how do we grow in that? We talked about the word of God. You need to get into the word, be a you have to have a word life, you have to have a prayer life, be full of the Holy Ghost, speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. I mean, I can't emphasize how important it is to be baptized in the Holy Ghost. But beyond that, the baptism is really for other people, but the basis of that is for you to be full of the Holy Ghost in your in your inward man for your own benefit. Later on today, when I'm talking about the anointing upon you, that same, I like to say it this way, my my private devotions fuel my public ministry. See, a lot of people just try to try to have an anointing upon them. They've got a ministry gift. Maybe they're good preachers, maybe they're good teachers, but they don't spend any time praying, they don't spend any time on their own inward anointing, and guess what? It's gonna finally blow up on them. We need both. Amen. All right, so um, you need the word, you need the spirit, and you need to maintain the glow. I mean, let's let's act like we're saved. Let's look like we're saved. Let's not go around looking like we lost our best friend. I mean, you know, really, there ain't no sad Holy Ghost. Now, I'm not saying you won't go through tests and trials, but you ought to, you ought to listen, you ought to just wipe your face clean, put anointing oil on there if you have to, and get a smile on your face. I mean, why do you want to wear that? Everybody knows you're happy, you know. Come on. I tell you, Glass and I were going through some of the toughest times we could ever go through. And you know what? We just wore a smile at Lake. Nobody knew we had any problem. Of course, if they could have seen the bottom of my shoes, they'd have seen holes on the bottom of my shoes, so I'd have to be careful not to cross my

The Spirit Upon Jesus For Ministry

SPEAKER_00 10:40

leg. All right, so now today we're going to talk about the anointing upon or the outward anointing. Let's look at Luke chapter 4, verse 18. This is Jesus. In verse 14, it says, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit unto Galilee, and there went out of fame of him through all the region round about. And then he landed in his hometown. And uh and he stood up in his hometown synagogue, and he said this in verse 18, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. See? The Spirit of the Lord, or you could say he could have said, The anointing is upon me. For this purpose. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me, he smeared me, he marked me, he greased me. This is Jesus talking. Well, isn't Jesus the Son of God? Yes, Jesus is the Son of God, but he only ministered on this earth as a man anointed of the Holy Ghost. He didn't do one miracle as the Son of God. He was born the Son of God in Bethlehem, the little baby. I mean, you know, he was he was when he was eight years old, he was he was the son of God. Uh he did not raise any uh squirrels from the dead, he didn't cast any devils out of rabbits. There's no record of him ever doing anything supernatural till right here at 30. And we'll talk about that in a moment. He was baptized in the river Jordan, the Spirit of God came upon him. So he's saying it in public. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. First on the list. I mean, all these people against rich preachers. Well, why don't you read your Bible? I mean, Jesus is rich. Rich means having an abundant supply. He never ran out of money. He had so much money that they stole some of it. And he didn't even miss it. Judas was busy stealing out of the bag and Jesus didn't miss it. They still had plenty. So don't tell me about a poor Jesus, because he wasn't. Besides that, he was endowed when he was a child. He had gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So he had a trust fund. All this business about, you know, oh, it's a well, you sure don't go work for free, do you? Amen. I mean, it's God's will for you to be prosperous. That's the good news. And he's anointed to preach it. That Jesus preached it. He talked a lot about finances. He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He's sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach. There's that word again, deliverance to the captives, and the recovering, preach, the recovering of sight to the blind. The word preach is understood as the verb. So, really, all of a sudden, now he's he's healed the brokenhearted, but there's there's three preachings that is talked about with the anointing. See, the anointing has to do with your mouth. I said the anointing has to do with your mouth. What are you doing with your mouth? What's coming out of your mouth? The anointing upon you. I mean, it's going to do something about what you say to people. It's going to do something. Uh, uh, when you talk about start bragging on Jesus, start telling people what Jesus has done for you. See, you're anointed to do that. He sent me to preach the deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty, them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The Amplified says the acceptable and accepted year of the Lord, the day when the free favors of God profusely abound. That day is still going on right now. It's really Jubilee, is what he was talking about. He's preaching the Jubilee. The Jubilee is permanent until Jesus comes back and takes the church off the face of the earth. Back in the old Testament, Jubilee was every 50 years. But now we're living in permanent Jubilee. If you only knew that, you would not settle for lack and poverty and sickness and disease. Are y'all with me now? Wouldn't be anybody's slave. You wouldn't be anybody's servant like that in the matter of indentured servant, in other words. I mean, that's still going on, by the way. I say that's still going on, by the way. Some of these people are paying immigrants to come over and they pay all their expenses and they're expected to be their servants for a long period of time. This stuff has got to be undone and outlawed. It's horrible. They're not talking about it. They don't want anybody to know about it. Alright. So, five, everybody say five groups of people. See, Jesus ministered as a man anointed with the Holy Ghost. Let's look at Acts 10.38. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power, who went about doing good and healing 49.8% of those healing all who were oppressed to the devil, for God was with him, or the anointing was upon him. You could say it that way, couldn't you? So Jesus again did not do any miracles as the Son of God. He did the miracles and manifested the Spirit of God as a man anointed to God. He is our example in that area. Alright. So uh in uh let's turn back over here in Luke chapter 4, verse 1.

Baptism Then Testing In The Wilderness

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Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned unto Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. So let's back up now the nether chapter, chapter 3. This is where he got filled. Alright. So uh now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying, verse 21, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove, not a dove, but like a dove. And a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son, and thee I am well pleased. And see, Jesus is now 30 years old. Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age, and he gave his lineage there, who his father, and all the way, all the way back to Adam. All the way back to Adam. And uh and then verse chapter 4, being full of the Holy Ghost. See, when did he get filled with the Holy Ghost when the when the Spirit of God came upon him at baptism and marked him, and God marked him publicly and said, This is my belief, this right here is my seed, right in front of the devil. Devil, you've been looking for him. Here he is, right here. And then the Bible says the Spirit drove him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil 40 days and 40 nights. It used to bother me. I said, why? You know, because you think about driving like an animal with a whip or something. But really the word drive means he was unleashed like a raging flood tide. He went out there to defeat the devil. He there was never any doubt what was going to happen. Now he legitimately was tempted because he's a man. But he resisted every temptation, the three major temptations, the world, the flesh, and the devil. He said, It is written, it is written, it is written. And finally, the devil's the Bible says the devil left him for a season. So the so the infilling and the baptism or the the Holy Ghost coming upon him, the Holy Ghost coming upon Jesus at that time brought, began to bring tests and trials against him. And it'll do the same for you. When you receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and the anointing comes upon you to do your ministry, and every one of us has a ministry, every one of us has something that we need God to help us with. This is the terrible part of the church, is most of the churches is not very effective because they haven't received this power. And they're just walking in the natural. They might be saved all right, but they don't have any power from on high. We need the power from on high to do anything. So he began to have tests and trials. Let's look at Luke 24. A lot of people, you know, they, man, I just pray that I'd be delivered from all these things. Well, look, I'm telling you, the more you grow in the things of God, the more bigger threats you are to the enemy, and the more he's going to try to concentrate forces on you. So learn how to overcome him. Learn how to smile doing it. Amen.

Power From On High Is Commanded

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All right, Luke 24 in verse 46. This is after the resurrection. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, and you are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. And then the very next verses, he led them out of town and he was ascended into heaven. So this is the last words that he had to the disciples while he was after the resurrection. He was here 40 days after the resurrection. These are the last days. So he said, he said, go and know all, preach the gospel to every creature and so forth, but don't leave Jerusalem without it. Don't leave home without it. Don't leave home without being filled with the Holy Ghost. He said that in Luke. All right, let's turn over to Acts chapter 1, verse 4. I'm talking about the anointing upon. Verse 4. And being assembled together with them, see it the same, he's writing the same, this is the same moment we just read about in Luke. Being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days from now. Verse 8, but you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. My margin says you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you. The power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, the anointing upon you comes with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. What is baptism? Baptism is immersion. Baptism is immersion. So we're baptized in water to show forth the death, burial, and resurrection. We're baptized into the body of Christ. When we're saved, the Holy Ghost takes us and plunges us into his body, and we're all members in particular of the body of Christ the minute we're saved. And then the third baptism is a baptism of the Holy Ghost, where Jesus takes you and plunges you into the Holy Ghost, and you are filled every cell of your body. I mean, if I could take a cross. Section of your body, every cell would be filled with the Holy Ghost. Why? Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. And then, of course, your spirit is filled with the Holy Ghost. But that's something that has to be maintained. Why? Because if you give it out, you've got to receive it back again. So a lot of people, they got, they spoke in tongues 40 years ago and they haven't stayed full since. They just kind of just exist. They don't think anything much about it. They just walk as mere men. No, we're we ought to be we ought to be habitually and continually filled with the Holy Ghost all the time. Amen. Everybody say the anointing upon. So in order to be effective at obeying the Great Commission, and what is that? Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. Well, Pastor, I'm not a preacher. I'm just a believer. Well, that's really your ministry anyway. It's not just the preachers that are supposed to do it, it's believers that are supposed to do that. And until the believer's ministry is activated and people start flowing in the anointing upon them, we're going to still see a lot of trouble in this world. And Jesus is wanting to come back, but he can't because the church isn't doing its job. I mean, the preachers aren't the only ones that get people saved. They're just, they're teaching, their job really is to teach you how to do that. That's really their job. The evangelist, his job is not to get a whole city saved. His job is to get the church so turned on to the power of God they'll go out and win their city. This whole idea that God is going to do everything. No, you're going to do it. Oh, God, heal our land. No, he's not going to heal it because he's already come down here and done all he's going to do. But he left us to take charge. And we haven't done it. And that's why we've got communists that are being elected in the primaries. All across and all these Islamists. Notice they're Islamists and communism kind of joined up together. But at some point down the road, you know, the Antichrist will kill off all the Islamists because he won't stand for anybody worshiping Muhammad. He will kill them, just like he does Christians. Good news for all the Muslims that think that they're joining up with the Antichrist. No, he's going to demand to be worshipped himself. And so there's going to come a schism. There's going to come a bloodbath after we're gone. The church will be gone by that time. But I'm just, it's just amazing to see these totally incompatible people getting together. Because in Russia, they persecute Islam. They kill them. So how you know, but in America, see, they're they're they're friendly to each other so they can gain power. That's what it's all about right now. The church has got to stand up. Quit waiting on God to heal our land. We need to heal our land. Alright, here you go. So he says here in Acts chapter 2, you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost after it comes upon you, after you've been baptism of the Holy Ghost. So you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days from now. And they were on the day of Pentecost. And they were all in one place and one accord, Acts chapter 2. And they heard a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. It filled all the place where they were seated. Cloving tongues came and sat on each of them. Cloving tongues of fire as of fire came and sat on them. And they were and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And they went down the stairs and fell out. They were drunk in the Holy Ghost. And Peter standing up, and everybody's saying, God, these guys are drunk. It's nine o'clock in the morning. Look at them. They're all drunk. And they're speaking in our tongue. He said, these are not drunk as you see. Peter standing up among the crowd. He stood up. See, where was he standing? How did he stand up? He's on the ground. That's why he's drunk. What is that? A manifestation of the spirit.

Physical Manifestations And Order

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That's a physical manifestation. There's lots of physical manifestations of the spirit. Then there's spiritual. We're going to get into the spiritual manifestations of the spirit today. But there are physical manifestations. Sometimes people run around the church. I mean, sometimes I'm not talking about dancing to the music like when the music is running. I'm talking about when people's feet start moving real fast and they twirl around. And I mean, I've seen it. And the Holy Ghost gets in their feet. That's the kind of dancing in the Spirit we need to have. The other's not wrong, but it's not what the Holy, when the Holy Ghost gets in your feet, you don't have any control of what your feet do. They just go twirl around like I don't know if you've ever seen it, been in a meeting. Brother Hagin used to have lots of meetings like that. He went through with all of his churches. He got them introduced back, introduced back to the Spirit of God manifesting in services. So the anointing upon. So the baptism, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. He commanded them to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. So we've got this attitude that it's optional. Well, it's not optional if Jesus is Lord. If Jesus is your Lord and you see it in the Bible and you say, no, I don't need that, well, then you really are in disobedience. And there's a price to pay. Now you know some people are just ignorant of it and they don't know because they've never heard. Well, you're not ignorant. I'm going to tell you. And I'm going to demonstrate it too. And so once you've been in this church, you have no excuse not to receive the baptism. It's not optional. It is not optional. It's optional to go to heaven. But it's not optional as a believer. You are commanded to receive that because that's the only way you can really be an effective witness with evidence. A witness has to have evidence. Are y'all getting this now? So the anointing upon. Everybody say the anointing upon me. So the anointing within, again, sustains and helps us overcome the corresponding tests and trials that come our way when we start walking in the anointing upon. I'm telling you, when you start walking in that anointing, when you start witnessing, when you start getting people saved, when you start laying hands on the sick and getting them healed, when you start, you know, uh making an impact in the spirit realm, the devil will not take it laying down. He will come against you. I said, He will come against you. You've got to just settle it right now. You're not going to be intimidated when he comes around. You're going to resist him and you're going to defeat him. So the anointing within is for us, the anointing upon is for others.

Gifts Of The Spirit Explained

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Now let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12. You get anything out of this? Well, some of you have heard this, and maybe you've heard it a lot. Well, then this is water for what you've heard. It'll help it grow more. And for those of you who never heard it, now it's seed that is planted, and you'll you'll have to watch over that seed, not let the devil steal it out of your heart, because we all need the baptism of the Holy Ghost. We all need to have a functioning faith in our anointing upon us. You have to have a confidence that you've got the anointing upon you. I was uh traveling uh one time to the Philippines, and uh it was a place uh called Porta uh, let's see, was that where was that? That was in um uh Porta Princesa City. No, that was in a hotel. I had I had a meeting where I was traveling in a big city. I think it was Porta Princesa City, Porta Princesa. And uh that's a big city of over a million people, and uh uh anyway, it's wrong city, but I can't think of the name of the city. But it was a big city, and each night, during the day, we had 1,300 preachers, ministers, full-time ministers that we ministered to in the morning. My team ministered in the afternoon, and and taught and ministered to them, demonstrated, laid hands on them and all that. Then at night we had uh healing campaigns in three different neighborhoods where they would erect a, like in a basketball place, and you could be five, six hundred people seated out there in the local church, there were 40 local churches that were joining in with my meeting. And uh, and so we handed out rice and said, you know, if you come to the meeting, here's a ticket, and if you come, you can turn the ticket in and get, you know, 10 pounds of rice. And of course, you know, that that we paid for the crowd to get there. And there's five, six hundred people there on each of these three different nights. The first night we're driving in the car, and it's just they're just not not a lot of lights. There's no street lights, just the lights from the little buildings and little houses that they live in. It was dark. And I'm on my way and I'm just nervous, you know. I'm thinking, oh, how's this gonna be? What in the world? How did I get in this position? You know, you know, you're you're on the line. I mean, you're gonna get out there and you're gonna, you know, you've got to get people healed to get people saved. It's a healing campaign. You've advertised that God's gonna heal the sick. And now it's it's, you know, it's I've got to perform. Well, then I had, you know, I'm thinking that and I just start laughing at myself. I said, Well, I'm not the one that's performing. It's you're the one. I'm just here as a vessel. I'm just a FedEx man. I'm just here to make a delivery. It's no big. So I just started preaching to myself all the way over there and praying in other tongues. And by the time I got there, man, I was ready to go. And that whole time, I think we got like a couple of thousand people saved, a whole bunch of people healed those three nights. Praise God, what was that? The anointing upon. Well, Pastor, you're a that's that, well, I know that's that's my office, but you've got something similar in your world. You can bring that presence in your world. So um, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 1. Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. So that's the King James, and in the King James the word gifts is italicized, so it does not appear in the language. So basically, what he's saying, now concerning uh the spiritual, I would not have you to be ignorant. And really, if you keep studying what it what it really means, now concerning the things of the wind, concerning the things of the breath of God, I would not have you ignorant. See the wind of God. He's really talking about the wind, he's talking about the flow of the Holy Ghost. I don't want you to be ignorant. He's talking to church people there, and he's talking to the Corinthians who had a working knowledge of the spirit realm because they came out of the occult. They were very uh adept at witchcraft. They knew the spirit realm. They knew how to move in the spirit realm in the dark side, but now he said, I want you to know, I want you to be fully acquainted with the spirit of the of the of the wind, the wind of God. I want you to be ignored, I don't want you to be ignorant. See, ignorant can be total ignorance, which is a lot of the church is totally ignorant. Some of the church is partially ignorant. And some of the church ignore it. They just ignore it. They know it's there, but they don't want to, they don't want to participate and they're too busy, and they don't want to be embarrassed if they fail. They they take all the ownership of uh of the results. You know, the results are not my problem. That's God's problem. My responsibility is to distribute the whole the gift, and and his part is to perform it. I don't have anything to do with the results. Are you with me now? So uh I don't want you to be ignorant. So uh the word gifts does appear down in verse nine uh to another, the gifts of healing by the same spirit. So all these nine gifts, they doesn't use the word gifts until verse nine, but there he is talking about the gifts of the spirit. Anybody ever heard of the gifts of the spirit? So the word gifts there is charisma, and it means again, it means a um a smearing. It means a uh uh it really what it is, a charisma, a gift of the spirit is a manifestation of the outward anointing. I I that's that's the best definition I can give you of a gift of the spirit. It is a manifestation of the outward anointing on a vessel, on a person. You know, God doesn't anoint a dog or a cat, he anoints people, okay? And so the anointing of God upon a Christian will have a manifestation called a gift of the Spirit. And so it talks about these gifts of the Spirit, and there's nine of them, and there's three main divisions: the utterance gifts, the power gifts, and the revelatory gifts. And the gifts of the Spirit are for every believer. Some people think, oh no, the gifts of the Spirit just for the apostle, prophet, abandoned, pastor, teacher. No, the gifts of the Spirit are available to every believer. In fact, in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 3, let's look at that real quick, a couple of pages over. Verse 14, verse 1, follow after charity or love, agape, follow after agape, and desire spiritual gifts. Again, gifts is italicized. Desire the wind of God. Desire it. Desire the ruach. You know, Adam walked with God in the cool of the day. The word cool there in the Old Testament is ruach, it means breath. And so, really, when you manifest the anointing upon you to other people, it's like God is breathing on them. Come on, lift your hand right now, God. I mean, I'm telling you right now, it's not about you, it's about Him. And you've got to have faith that that's gonna work for you. I mean, uh the I had to develop my faith and confidence in the anointing upon me before I could ever do what I do. If I didn't have confidence in it, I wouldn't be able to do it. And just break down. I'm trying to do it in my flesh. You can't do it in your flesh. So there's three main. So he goes on, says, desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you prophesy. So prophesy is one of the utterance gifts. The utterance gifts are prophecy, which is a uh uh an utterance, uh God uh giving an utterance uh to people through a man or woman in a known tongue. Known language. And then the the complementary of that is the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation. See, people get tangled up, the gift of tongues is not your prayer language. Oh, I have the gift of tongues. No, when you get baptized in the Holy Ghost, you get a new language, you pray in other tongues, that's glossolalia. That's not a that's not to be interpreted, really, that's for your own edification and strength, strengthening your own spirit. But when you give a message in tongues, the best example I can give you of Brother Mark and Trina, they'll be coming in a couple of weeks, and they manifest that gift a lot. She'll have a message in tongues, and he'll do the interpretation. And you'll notice sometimes that the tongue is longer than the interpretation, vice versa. See, it's not a translation, it's an interpretation. And so the two of them working together, the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation. Sometimes I've had the gift of tongues and interpretation myself. Every great once, very rare. Most of the time, when I have an utterance gift, it's the gift of prophecy. Just a simple gift of prophecy. And so we're told to desire that. Why? The he that prophesies speaks unto men to edification, exhortation, and comfort. He that speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself, but he that prophesies edifies the church. See? So when you pray in tongues, it's not negative, when you pray in tongues, you edify yourself. But the way to edify the church is through prophecy or and or tongues and interpretation. We ought really all the gifts should edify and strengthen the body. We ought to all be a supply to the body of Christ. Are y'all with me now? Talking about the different kinds of gifts. And the gifts are always motivated by love, not by by uh, you know, by wanting to be seen. I had to sit people down. I had a guy one time that just wanted to prophesy, wasn't a lick of lick of it, he just wanted to impress everybody with his Bible knowledge, which was terrible. And I mean, he didn't live the life to go with it. I knew he was struggling in his life, and I ministered to him on my. And then he gets up and wants to prophesy. I sat him down. I said, Don't prophesy. You don't have a gift, and you're not living right anyway. There's nothing you've got to add to this congregation. And he and went and, you know, and I and then his wife, well, is he still, yeah, he's still restricted until I say so. Just quit asking me. Now I've got to add on, I've got to add on because it's obvious that you want to be seen. See, she's encouraging him. I, you know, I deal with all kinds of stuff. But let's let's be motivated by the love of God. We we don't prophesy to be seen or heard or known. We we're just obeying the unction of the Holy Ghost upon us. Are y'all with me now? And you ask for it, you better get ready because he's gonna give it to you.

Learning To Yield In Prophecy

SPEAKER_00 39:46

And so, you know, way back when I first got baptized in the Holy Ghost, I knew at that time, I knew when I got saved that I was called as a pastor. I knew that was my future, but I certainly wasn't living that yet. I'm just a you know, go to Lakewood. But I never will forget the first time that God used me to prophesy at Lakewood on a Sunday night. A couple of thousand, three thousand people there, man. I tell you what, I was nervous as a cat. Very nervous. And I didn't, my microphone was shaking like this. And uh I was sitting way over on the side of that old building, you know, way on the side of it, and kind of in the middle of it, and I had to get my usher, you know, and I waved at him, and he waved at another usher at the top, and they got Brother Osteen's uh attention, so I stood up and gave it a prophecy, you know. But uh, you know, and I began to give myself, and every great once in a while I would prophesy, every great once in a while, but I knew guys that would prophesy, and it's just the same old thing every week. They prophesy, and I think, well, that's not God. I could tell it wasn't God, it wasn't anointed. And I told the Lord, I said, I don't ever want to be an empty tin can. I mean, if if I'm gonna speak, you've got to come and sit on me. I've got to have the anointing come on me real strong. And especially after I got to be promoted to where I was opening the services in prayer. And so that had happened in 1987. I got promoted, and suddenly now I'm the guy that's opening all the services in prayer. So I went to the Lord. I said, okay, Lord, but now that I've got a voice that I'm hooked up to this microphone, every service to open it in prayer, I've got an outlet. I can speak things that I know you want spoken without saying, thus saith the Lord. And I said, if you want me to prophesy, you're gonna have to really manifest the anointing on me. I mean, you're gonna have to come because I'm not gonna just be like an empty tin can up here because I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea that I'm trying to steal the show or trying to shine for wrong. Are y'all getting this? Are y'all understanding what I'm saying? So here I am, you know, 87. I mean, we're we're struggling financially. I mean, we're just barely, you know, breathing financially. But, you know, that's a different story. That's my personal life. You see, that anointing upon me is bringing a lot of trouble. Now, a lot of the trouble came from stupid uh decisions I made too. I can't give the devil all the credit. I'll take some of the credit for some of the trouble. Don't look so innocent, like you've never made a mistake. So, um, so anyway, Brother Osteen is gonna have this minister's conference at the Galleria, Weston Oaks Galleria Hotel. And we were honored, Gladys and I were honored, to kind of be host, just to go and not not really be an usher, but be a greeter, kind of, and be in the in the room where about 300 pastors came from all over. And our former pastors, when we spent a year and a half in Corpus Christi, uh Dean and Renee Garner were there, and that, and you know, which we knew them very well because they were our pastors in Corpus. Dean was uh uh uh Sister Ruthie's uh son, Ruthie Deerman. And uh and so they were all there, bunch of pastors, and so we were, you know, we're supposed to greet, shake hands, make sure everybody's got the coffee, make sure everybody was a morning meeting. And so then it was time for the meeting to start. So we came out of that that gathering room into the main ballroom. It's about a thousand chairs in the middle and a couple couple of three hundred on one side where all the pastors sat. And Gladys and I sat in the middle, about 10 or 15 rows from the front row, you know, and it was so cold you could hang meat in there. It's dark. But the light was on the table. They had a table up uh in the front where Pastor and Dotie and the family were sitting, elongated table, and then here, Gladys and I way, you know, way back far from here to the back row, really, from them. And uh and so it's dark out here, but light up here. And so he starts preaching, and I mean the Holy Ghost comes and sits on me. I mean, I could hardly stand it. Plus the fact it's cold. So it's cold anyway. But then the Holy Ghost comes. So it's like it's like you're trying to get comfortable on a On a flat top griddle or something. I mean, you know, it's hot, it's cold, but it's hot. And I mean, I just can't. I said, God, what is it? And I heard, I have commanded the blessing to come upon you in your storehouses and all that you set your hand unto. Deuteronomy 28. And I thought, and it's obvious he wanted me to prophesy that to the preachers. And I said, now, Lord, you know, I'm not in the ministry. I'm not ordained. You've got all these preachers over here. If I get up and prophesy to them, I mean, it just doesn't even seem like it's in order and it didn't matter to him at all. I mean, I ever argued with the Holy Ghost. You ever tried to get him to change his mind? I mean, it just, he just turned up the heat that much more. I mean, I could hardly sit there. I'm just squirming and I just, when isn't this gonna be over? I can't. And I just I'd pause a little bit and then I'd try to try again, try to make my case. Please use somebody else. Nobody, no way, no way I could. And so finally I yielded. But it took me 15, 20 minutes to yield. I said, all right, God, no matter what, if I'm accepted or unaccepted, I can't even worry about that. I'm gonna obey you, period. That's it. I know this is you, I'm gonna get up. Now, folks, don't sit there and try to construct a prophecy. I only had the opening line. And I know enough about not trying to make a prophecy up before I get up. See, some people you can tell they did that. They they made the whole thing up and it it falls flatter than a flapjack. I mean, it just doesn't go. Don't do that. Go with what the Holy Ghost says and then speak in the inspiration of the moment. That comes from faith. I said, that comes from faith. So that's what I did. I didn't I didn't know any further. I just knew that first part in Deuteronomy 28. And so Brother Osteen took about 30 minutes. I could hardly stand it. Finally, he he wound it up and everything. And uh and so I thought, well, it's time. So I raised my hand. I stood up, and I raised my hand. He couldn't see me because it's dark. And so uh somebody over here on the other side, Usher, was over there and he saw me. So he got Brother Osteen's attention and he looked and he said, Oh, John, you got something? And I nodded. He said, Well, come on up here. I said, Oh, God. But by the time I got it, I gave, I gave the preachers both barrels.

unknown 46:23

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

Thus saith the Lord, have not I commanded the blessing to come upon you and your storehouses and in all that you set unto your hand unto, therefore arise. And then I took off from there. I mean, I went and I knew not to go very long. Brother Osteen said, you know, stand up, speak up, and shut up. Sit down. I mean, that was his, that was his, and so I knew that, and so that's what I did. And I thought, oh boy, and they didn't respond. I mean, the prank the preachers responded, the the crowd responded, and I felt a little relieved that they responded. And so I went and sat down after the meeting. Brother Osteen sought me out, and he said, John, he looked at me, he said, John, that was powerful. And he wasn't, he he he just looked at me eyeballed. John, that was powerful. Let me know that he received what I said as from God. And from that day forward, I received another promotion. See, the utterance gift upon me shut me up into a place where I started traveling with Brother Ostein. I started not only opening but closing the services. I mean, in a few months' time, I was ordained into the ministry. Are y'all with me now? I'm talking about the utterance gifts. My heart was to be a blessing. If that's your heart, God is gonna bless you back. Are y'all getting anything out of this today? And see, we're challenged to desire that gift. And the utterance gift really, that's the gateway into all the other gifts. If you don't have utterance gifts, you're not gonna have much else. So, um, and then uh, so Mark chapter 16, let's look at that real quick. All these gifts, uh, I forgot the main divisions, utterance gifts, the power gifts, the gifts of faith, miracle operation of faith, not just normal faith. It's the kind of faith you need to raise the dead. That's the gift of faith. The gift of working of miracles is raising the dead, and the gifts of healings is raising the dead, because if you're gonna raise somebody from the dead, you've got to have the gift of faith. You've got the gift of working of miracles, and you have to have the gift of faith to heal them of whatever it was that killed them. So when you raise the dead, like we've got Dr. Pei coming in September, and he's a man that's got, I don't know, six or eight people raised from the dead, one by telephone. So you want to hear about gifts of the Spirit and those kind of things. I mean, he manifests that. And I just believe we're gonna come up, come on, let's lift our hand. We're gonna come up another notch right now. Coming up another notch. So uh, Mark 16, Jesus again, this is that same time when he's fixed to leave the earth and he's challenging his disciples. That's the reason I like the gospels, because they all have different uh, they have different uh perspectives. And so in Mark 16, he said, verse 15, he said unto them, Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned or condemned, and these signs shall follow them that are apostles in the first century, and after that it'll all pass away. These signs shall follow them that believe. Every believer should have signs following. Every believer should have witness be a witness with evidence. That's what the whole thing is, being a witness with evidence. And these signs shall follow them in them believing. In my name, see, in the name of Jesus, they shall cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. He's not talking about taking up snakes in a church service. He's talking about the fact that you can remove demonic uh obstructions. If you drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt you. I mean when you go on the mission field, you go travel anywhere, you're you're subject to being poisoned. You can you can get stuff happen to you. I mean, I've eaten things, you know, that I didn't wasn't sure what it was made from, and I had to rely on this right here. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover in the name of Jesus. They see these are believers, lay hands on the sick. Is that what 1 Corinthians 12 is talking about, the gifts of healings?

unknown 50:38

No.

SPEAKER_00 50:39

This is just talking about believers. Any believer doesn't have to have a special gift. Any believer, any believer, even one that's not filled with the Holy Ghost, can lay hands on the sick potentially. But I never see it. They don't do that in the Baptist church. They don't teach the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the Baptist Church. They don't teach about miracles, signs, and wonders. They just teach about how to get saved or they teach about how to Christian living, which is fine. But really, the church has got to have a supernatural, we've got to have the supernatural. We've got the devil is going crazy right now. We've got to have the supernatural power of God released on this generation. Are y'all with me now? It's not optional. And so then, uh verse 19, so then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, sat on the right hand of God, and they went forth and preached everywhere. The Lord working with them and confirming the word besides following. So he, so they're still spreading the good news. See, the anointing is for speaking. Well, I'm not a preacher. Well, preacher just means proclaim, teacher just means explain. That's all it means. It doesn't mean that you're going to teach a Bible study. It means you can explain the Bible to some people or you can proclaim the word to some people. Just speak the word only. And sometimes that's enough to knock a devil of unbelief off of somebody where you can lay hands on. Are y'all with me now? So uh so laying on of hands, see, is is all believers, but then there's the gifts of healings. And you know, I've seen believers have the gifts of healings. They weren't preachers, they weren't pastors or anything, but I've seen people just, they just obviously had the gifts of healings, and I mean to tell you right now, they had it.

A Healing Anointing On Gladys

SPEAKER_00 52:27

Gladys was one of those. Because this thing that I was telling about in 1987, and I gave that prophetic word, and then three months later, Gladys and I were both ordained into the ministry. That just a few, just within weeks of that happening, we went to a Billy Brim meeting across town, Brother Hilly's church in Dayton. And she was there for some meetings, and we uh we went to her uh meeting that night, and we sat kind of in the back of the church, and uh uh she was uh having words of knowledge and she was bringing people up to the front and and ministering to them by the Holy, it was a Holy Ghost service. And uh and so we were sitting back there, and and Gladys leaned over to me. She says, My hands are burning, they hurt. And I looked at her hands, and her hands were laying in her lap like this, and I was startled because the left hand had uh a purple, dark purple. I'm not talking about just barely can see it, I'm talking about dark purple mark in the middle of it, right here. And on this side, it was all the way to the bottoms of the fingers and all the way to the thumb. It was all the whole palm was engorged with dark red, it looked like a port wine birthmark. And it was dark purple. And she said, My hands hurt, they're burning, they're hurting. And I'm I'm looking at that and I'm trying to think of what am I doing, what am I supposed to do? You know, what do we do now? You know, and this young lady comes across the aisle, and she's the daughter of a friend of ours that we'd gone to Mexico with a couple of years before, and she's a pastor's wife in Winnie, Texas. And she she came over behind us and looked at Gladys's hand. She said, What's going on over here? And I said, Well, look at her hands. I said, They're burning. And she said, So you're the one I prayed for all afternoon. I said, What? She said, I was standing at my kitchen sink at lunchtime washing the dishes, and all of a sudden my hands started burning real bad. I thought I'd messed up and poured bleach in the dishwater or something, and and I washed my hands real good and they didn't help any. And I realized I was in intercession. I dropped to the floor and I laid on the floor for two or three hours, groaning in the spirit and travailing in the spirit. I said, Well, so you gave birth to this, huh? She said, Well, I don't know, but that's what happened. And she said, My hands burned all afternoon laying on my kitchen floor, and here you are. See, I'm telling you, we need each other. I mean, the body of Christ is it's amazing. I barely knew this lady. And God used her. So I, Gladys and I, we went up front. We were not called up front. I mean, it was not really, it was kind of risky. I thought we would get kicked out of the meeting. I mean, you don't just you don't get up and walk up to the front when somebody's ministering to the Holy Ghost, you know. She's a guest preacher in that church. I knew Brother Hilly, but I don't know if he knew me that well. But I walked up there and she looked at us like she was about to rebuke us. And you know those eagle eyes, you know, stern. And I said, uh, look at her hands. They're burning. And she looked at her hands, looked at Gladys, looked at me. Looked at her hands, looked at Gladys, looked at me. Did that three times with those eagle eyes, never smiled, never, I mean, I thought she was gonna kick us out of the meeting. And then she finally said, That's God.

unknown 55:50

That's God.

SPEAKER_00 55:51

I said, Well, thank God. I'm so glad. I'm glad it's God. But see, the gifts of healings was distributed to her. And it wasn't even at Lakewood, it was at a different meeting. Go figure. But for years, I mean, after that, I mean, when she'd lay hands on anybody at we, and our job was to lay hands on the sick. You know, we were we were prayer partners, and we were not, now this was after ordination, all right, but nobody knew that much. I mean, nobody knew that she was an ordained minister. But I'm gonna tell you something, when she laid hands on people, man, they fell out. And uh Gladys, they made a rule nobody falls out. And I and so I thought, Brother Osteen, I don't know if that's you better get somebody to help her because she can't catch. They're gonna fall and try to drag her down with them. And I said, you and so, you know, they had a young man that was assigned to Gladys and was her catcher. Are y'all with me now? I'm talking about the anointing upon you. And I tell you, you know, it's coming back on her hands. It's waned the last couple of years because of the stuff that she's been through. But I I am not willing for her to go uh the rest of this time. We need that gift to manifest again. I need that gift to manifest. We minister together much like Trina and uh Mark do. I mean, we we always minister. Most of you have been here a long time, you know that's how we how we roll. You know, I'd get a word of knowledge and her hand would burn. And I mean, we would it this would work all the time like that. Everybody say the anointing upon.

Your Call Needs The Anointing

SPEAKER_00 57:31

So, uh number one, the anointing upon is for others. Number two, uh, the anointing upon helps you fulfill your call. And what is your call? Everybody's got a call. I don't care who you are. You've called a witness. You have a witness with evidence, and you have a call to supply to the body of Christ. You're supposed to be a supply. And the anointing upon is the only way you can fulfill that supply. If you don't have that, then you all you've got to all you've got to supply is your talent. And your talent ain't worth much because your talent's natural, and what's needed is the supernatural, and it only comes from the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It's the only way it goes. Well, I don't understand that. Well, look at Acts chapter 6 real quick. I want to back it up with a word. Acts chapter 6. I believe when the more the church gets a hold of these things and starts putting them into practice, we're gonna see not just revival but awakening in our land. We need an awakening. Verse 6, those days when the uh chapter 6, verse 1, when the number of disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It is not reason that we should believe the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look you among you. See, you you do the selecting, you you find, and who do you need? Seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom you whom we may appoint over this business. What business is that the kingdom business? Waiting on tables, feeding, really serving breakfast, serving lunch and dinner. I mean, they they had to feed these poor widows. They were Grecian means Gentiles. They, you know, they they they're not familiar with how how to receive from God like the Jews were, and so they had to feed them. And uh, it's not right for us to have to do that. So they were doing that. They were taking away time away from uh being in the Word of God in prayer, and they were doing the job that believers should do, but the believers need to be what? They have to have an honest report, live right in the community. Number two, be full of the Holy Ghost. See, the anointing upon and wisdom. And wisdom. To do that, and then we will appoint them over this. See, so that's what so they selected them. They had seven men, and two of the seven were Philip and Stephen. Ever heard of them? They're ushers. Their anointing upon them was to be ushers, they're there to clean tables, to why, you know, to wash dirty dishes. That's their the anointing. They needed the anointing upon them to do that job. But next thing you know, in the next chapter, here goes here goes Stephen preaching and doing great signs and wonders among the people and uh and preaching to the Jews. They got so mad at him, they stoned him to death. And then the next chapter of after that, you see that the church is scattered because of all the persecution over Stephen's uh death, and and so that it riled up all the Jews, and so they were all scattered abroad. And uh and that's where you see Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ unto them. What's it the anointing upon his life? Well, yeah, but he was an evangelist. Not then, he wasn't an evangelist, he's an usher. That's what he was. He the anointing upon him was an usher. So the anointing upon you is more than just being a greeter or being a life team member or being on the gatekeepers. It's really for your entire life. And we need that right now. The church needs it, America needs it. Are y'all with me now? And so the anointing upon is for others, it helps you fulfill your call, which is a witness and supply to the body of Christ. In other words, the helps ministry. Even the praise and worship ministry is a helps ministry. And the anointing, just look at what we gained out of the anointing upon them this morning as they they prepared. They got in. Carol and Derek flew in, or Carol, I guess, flew in all the way from Tulsa early this morning to get here. I mean, she nobody asked her to do that. We we we we're not making her do, but she got up real, I don't know, four o'clock in the morning, I guess, to get here. So she could be here to do what she does. And and so what we get the benefit, what is that? That's the anointing upon. And then finally, uh, the anointing upon is yours for the asking. See? Desire spiritual gifts, especially the utterance gifts. Desire them. And verse 12 and 13 of 1 Corinthians uh 14 says, seek to excel to the edifying of the church. That's our our our motive. Our motive is that we want to build up the church. We want to build up the church and be a blessing to the church. The anointing upon. Amen. Did you get anything out of the day? You're gonna lift your hand and receive today. Praise God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank God for the anointing upon. Thank God for the anointing within. I mean, it was all for naught if you don't have the anointing within. But boy, when we get the anointing upon, that's when the church begins to shine. And I said begins because then next week we've got to talk about the corporate anointing, it's so vital.