"Not by might, nor by power but by My Spirit says the Lord of Hosts" (Zechariah 4:6)
One of the things that can get overlooked in the day to day rigors of a church our size is the anointing of God. How crazy does that sound? On hearing that one should ask "what could possibly be more important in the work of the church than securing God's anointing?" The right answer is "nothing." But reality is that many large churches place a lot of emphasis on organization at the expense of other things. And one of the first things to go is securing the anointing of God over the work of the church. That's what one definition of "institutionalism" is: "an emphasis on organization at the expense of other factors" (Don Cousins, Experiencing Leadershift. David C. Cook, 2008. Page 184).
Don't get me wrong, I feel we need sound organization, planning, programming and effort in the church today. But when a church becomes program driven and results focused (meaning that she is obsessed with counting nickles, notches and noses), and not so much with being Spirit fed/led then it has become institutionalized. When the primary focus is on doing the latest and the greatest to get people into seats to hear the talking head speak each week then the church has become institutionalized. When a church resorts to shaming or bribing people into service rather than out of a call of God and a passion for meeting the needs of others then she has become institutionalized.
The anointing of God ... It's God's felt presence and manifest power in ministry. It's when He shows up in and through a believer's life and bestows His blessings on others. God's anointing puts the believer in a place of faithful, fruitful and fulfilling ministry.
So the question is: How does a church body acquire God's anointing? What say you?
Thanks for stopping by!
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Adrian
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Maybe there is nothing that WE can DO...its more likely by giving up...acknowledging that it is HIS POWER and HIS ANOINTING...that by humbly asking God to have HIS way in our presence. When we get out of the way and ALLOW HIM to show up WHEN, WHERE and HOW HE wants. When we give up our pre-conceived ideas of what that looks like or feels like or has been manifest in the past. The Holy Spirit does not, in my opinion, force Himself on any person or group of persons. When He is welcomed...that's when He will reveal Himself in power and might.
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ReplyDeleteIndividually.
ReplyDeleteEzekial 36:22-29.
In these verses God is telling us what He is going to do. He introduces us to the treasure of the New Covenant.
He starts by telling us in verse 22,"'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name..."
His reason for Redemption is Himself, not Mankind. It's all about Him!
Verses 24-30 is a list of actions God Himself "will do".
These are the promises of the New Covenant, the "I wills" of God
36:22-29 - "For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will.....(bless you).
Each of us must claim these promises.
Each must walk in this Light and allow God to accomplish His desire to work His will into us.
Once He has fulfilled His desire to re-create us His annointing becomes ours because He lives in and thru us.
Most believe that once the alter call is accepted and the sinners prayer is muttered everything is finished and it's time to embrace the process of growth and slug it out as best we can until He takes us home.
It's rubbish.
We are a Holiness church.
Time to get back to basics.
God anoints those "HE" chooses to annoint, if we aspire to be annointed, we're missing the point.
The focus must be upon Him and our passion for Him working Himself into our Hearts and minds, not so we can work for Him or be fruitful or anything. Just because of Him.
Nothing else matters.
I thought it had been decided that doctrine was obsolete, divisive, and irrelevant to the young, postmodern Christian.
ReplyDeleteMonkey, I do not believe that is true. I believe what some are proposing is that the heavy emphasis on doctrine to the exclusion of love and service is what has been detrimental to the Body. People, in my opinion, are clamoring for a real experience with God and many churches have not been providing avenues for that to take place for their people. Thus, one of two things will happen, people will seek it elsewhere (other churches that offer this such as emergent or house churches, or worse yet, cults) or they will drop out altogether and piece together their own brand of spirituality which may or may not involve Jesus. I think there is a need for both doctrine and practice. I'm not sure why it's so hard to do both. We need prayer for balance.
ReplyDelete