God Reveals His Will
When we have accepted Christ as Lord and Saviour of our lives – and know how much we are loved and cared for by Him – our natural desire is to want others to come to know Him as we do. We want God to do that through us and so we desire to serve Him in any way that we can. To be effective in reaching others, however, we need to understand that God has a specific plan, both for each one of our lives, and for every ministry.
God has specifically designed and gifted each one of us for His purposes and for the plans He has for our individual lives and ministries. For us to try and do anything else, results in much frustration and ineffectiveness in our Christian walk. We are most fulfilled when we are operating in the gifts God has given us and doing the very things He has designed us to do. It is vital therefore, for each individual person, and for each ministry leader, to be hearing very specifically from God as to what God’s individual will for their life or ministry is.
- God’s will is revealed to us in the form of a prophetic vision or call.
God Speaks to Our Spirit
It is through the anointing of God that God imparts to our spirits, the knowledge of His will for our lives and ministries. We cannot know in our natural minds what God is birthing in us or specifically calling us to, in terms of His individual will for our life or ministry. It must be revealed to us, from God’s Spirit to our spirit. This is the anointing of God at work in us.
- The anointing of God in our lives causes the prophetic vision from God to be conceived within us.
- Each of us has an anointing from the Holy Spirit within us.
- It is this anointing of the Holy Spirit within us that guides us in the truth.
“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.”
1 John 2:20 & 21
- The anointing teaches us.
- The anointing enables us.
- The anointing causes us to hear from God at a personal level.
“As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit – just as it has taught you, remain in Him.”
1 John 2:27
Let His Spirit do The Work
This means that each one of us can hear the same message preached, or read the same passage of Scripture, or hear the same prophetic word, but the Holy Spirit will speak to each one of us in a very individual way, concerning what we have heard. God is a personal God. His heart is to meet our very personal and individual needs. However, what God speaks to us about our individual situation, will always line–up with the word of God in the Bible.
- God may speak to us according to what He is doing in our lives at that time.
- God may also speak to us regarding the future.
- God speaks to us through His ‘rhema’, or quickened personal word to us.
- The Holy Spirit impresses what God is saying to us upon our spirit.
The things the Holy Spirit speaks to us are revealed to us, from His Spirit to our spirit. Because these things cannot be known by our natural or carnal minds, but by our spirits, they must be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit or the anointing of the Holy Spirit within us.
“But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:10 and 11
God Wants Us to Understand
The prophetic vision that comes to us by the Holy Spirit is so important that God wants us to fully understand it.
“Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.“
Ephesians 5:17
“We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit Who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
1 Corinthians 2:12
God clearly tells us that the wisdom of this world is foolishness to Him. Mankind’s carnal wisdom is tainted by our own desires, worldly values, presumption, prejudice, past experience and pre–conceived ideas.
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.”
1 Corinthians 3:19
So God has chosen to teach us, by the connecting of His Spirit to our spirit, through the anointing of His Holy Spirit within us.
Trust God to Teach You Well
- God wants us to learn to be taught of Him.
- God wants us to see as He sees and to understand as He understands.
- It is God’s word that accomplishes His purposes, not ours.
“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.'”
Isaiah 55:8–11
We Are to Speak What we Hear from Him
God wants us to also speak the things we have been taught by His Spirit, not what we have learnt through carnal wisdom or the presumption of man. The Lord more recently said to me, “Do not teach on anything I haven’t given you a personal revelation of.” This keeps me safe in the heart of the Father.
“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
1 Corinthians 2:13 and 14
The Birth of the Vision
Prophetic vision is not something that has been conceived in the heart or will of a man, but is fully conceived in the heart of God and initiated by Him through His Holy Spirit. We need to understand then, that it is also vital that the anointing of the Holy Spirit helps us to fully bring to birth that vision in and through us. We must allow the Holy Spirit to enable us to successfully continue walking in that vision. We can never become complacent or apathetic about our need for God or for His anointing to be continually and actively working – both within us and through us.
God Initiates
To use an analogy; there is a naturally occurring hormone in women produced by the pituitary gland called oxytocin. Its purpose during labour is to increase the contraction of the womb, eventuating in the birth of the baby. Sometimes the labour needs to be induced in order to protect the life of the mother and/or baby. In these situations synthetic oxytocin can be given to initiate the labour artificially.
This is much like the need for the Holy Spirit to initiate and bring about a spiritual labour for the birth of a prophetic vision. The vision was conceived by the Spirit of God and therefore must be initiated by the Spirit of God. But because prophetic vision is not conceived in the heart of man, it is unknown to him. So at the right time, before God initiates it, God will announce it prophetically.
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9
“See the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.”
Isaiah 42:9
- God announces
- God initiates.
The Increased Anointing
To continue the analogy, sometimes during a natural labour, it does not progress as quickly as it should, which can compromise the safety of the mother or baby. At these times the choice may be made to hasten the occurrence of the labour, again, by giving synthetic oxytocin. This can be disconcerting for the mother, as shortly after the oxytocin has been administered, the contractions very quickly increase in strength and duration and are placed much more closely together. At this time she may feel that things are happening much faster than she is comfortable with.
Just as the doctor may choose to hasten a natural labour, God may cause an increased anointing from the Holy Spirit to come upon a person or ministry to more quickly bring about the birth of the prophetic vision He has given them. But just as a sailing ship catching a strong wind in the right direction does not suddenly drop anchor, we too, must choose to flow with the increased anointing if that is what God is doing.
- The Holy Spirit’s anointing enables the vision to be birthed more quickly and with much more ease, than would be possible in the natural.
- God’s Spirit brings a holy ease.
The Anointing Releases the Rhema Word of God
After a baby is born it has a natural instinct to suckle. As the baby suckles from its mother, oxytocin production is stimulated in the mother’s brain and more milk is released as a result. But the converse is also true. If the baby doesn’t suckle well, less oxytocin is stimulated and therefore less milk is released. In some babies this means they are under–nourished and may not get enough sustenance to grow well.
Just like milk production caused by the release of oxytocin, the anointing of God will cause the ‘rhema’, or quickened, personal word of God to come to us. This may happen when we are in a quiet place, while hearing the words of a song, while reading the Bible, during worship, or when listening to somebody preach or prophesy, etc.
Our Response is Critical
There is a response, then, that we must make to the ‘rhema’, or personal word of God given to us. When we respond with an act of obedience based on our faith, our act of obedience will cause things to change in our circumstances. It ministers life into our situation – or that of another – and nourishes the body of Christ.
- It is important for people to actively respond to God’s ‘rhema’ word, to enable the vision once birthed, to grow.
- The Holy Spirit causes God’s ‘rhema’ word to be multiplied in those we minister to.
- The more we respond, the more the ‘rhema’ word flows from God, back to us.
- But if we do not act, the vision will not grow.
In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25), Jesus teaches us that we must do our part in using the talents or gifts that God has given us, whatever they may be. We then trust God with the increase. We are not to be afraid – like the one who buried his talent – that we will not have enough, or that we will lose what we have by responding with an act of faith. Our faithfulness in responding by using what we have, no matter how small, pleases God. He will cause what we sow to be multiplied and will bless our obedience by entrusting us with more.
“The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Master’s happiness!'”
Matthew 25:22 and 23
God Will Supply the Seed
In Isaiah 55:10 (mentioned previously), we see the anointed word that God speaks being likened to rain falling from heaven to water the earth, providing seed for the sower and bread for the eater. We can be greatly encouraged then, that it is God Himself who supplies this anointed seed to be sown into the lives of other people. This happens every time we give of ourselves, our talents, or whatever we have.
- Under the anointing, God will continue to supply and increase our store of seed so that we will never lack.
- The harvest of righteousness our sowing produces will continue to enlarge.
- We will be able to give generously on every occasion, with what He has given us to share.
- This in turn prompts others to give thanks to God as they recognise Him as the source of what has been given.
“Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
2 Corinthians 9:10 and 11
Everyone is a Minister
Although the call of God on our individual lives differs – and we each have different gifts according to the grace of God given to us – each one of us is a minister. Every one of us is an ambassador of Christ to minister God’s love to other people. Every one of us is to bring the life of His word, His truth and His Kingdom into the lives of others as much as possible.
- Our effectiveness is as great as our obedience!
Our obedience to act, and to take a step of faith, according to the ‘rhema’, or personal word that God has spoken to us, provides for the needs of others that are on God’s heart. The ability each one of us has to do this comes from the grace of God and is a gift from God.
“This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the Gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
2 Corinthians 9:12–15
Release the Anointing
Wherever we are at in our journey, we need to pray for a release of the anointing of God in our lives, our ministries, and in those we are praying for or ministering to. And as we seek God and respond to Him – by taking the steps of obedience in response to what He asks us to do – His anointing will continue to increase. We will continue to see more and more breakthrough in our lives, in our ministries, and in the lives of many others. In this way, the prophetic vision that God has revealed to us will come to pass in all its fullness.
Step Back and Let God Move
When we step back and allow God’s anointing to flow, it is not us doing the work, but the anointing which flows either through us, or into the situation, person or people God is ministering to. It is then God’s power that does the work.
- Let the anointing do the work.
- God receives the glory.
“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
1 Corinthians 2:1–5
- The anointing breaks the yoke in people’s lives.
- The ‘burden’ of ministry becomes light under the anointing.
- We begin to do with ease what we could not do in the natural.
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.”
Isaiah 10:27, KJV
This gives us great peace. We know that God will never ask of us more than we can give. When God asks us to respond in obedience, He will provide the required anointing to do what He asks. When God reveals His prophetic vision, He will provide the anointing to enable it to be fulfilled. Amen.
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