Manifesting The Anointing Part 1
MANIFESTING THE ANOINTING -- PART 1
Revivalist Todd Bentley
This is a three-part teaching entitled Manifesting the Anointing. In Part 1, we will examine how having a ‘God consciousness’ helps to us understand who we are and what we have available to us in our inheritance because we are children of God. We will discuss what it takes to be a people who manifest the anointing and those who dispense the glory of God in the earth. Then in Part 2, I will explain how God gives believers creative abilities and how our gifts and talents can reveal the Lord’s heart to lost humanity and how we can tap into our creative abilities for the glory of God. As well, we will take a look at the scope of our authority and dominion in the earth and how the church can be a manifest expression of what Jesus looked liked 2,000 years ago. In Part 3, we will discover some practical keys that will release God’s power and how the word of knowledge works to bring healing and deliverance in peoples lives.
Before we begin this week’s teaching, I want to invite you to join with me in prayer. Just let the Holy Spirit descend on your heart, bringing a fresh revelation of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).
God, we want to ask you for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Jesus, please give us a revelation of your presence, a revelation of your power. God, we want to know who you are, who we are and what we have. So God, I pray today to receive a much greater awareness of you. Thank you, in Jesus mighty name.
WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE HAVE
Before we examine how to manifest the anointing, we need to understand who we are and what we have available to us as an inheritance because we are sons and daughters of God. Three scriptures spoken by the apostle Paul in the Book of Romans in the 8th chapter lay a foundation concerning this.
1.
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (v. 2).
2.
“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’” (v. 15).
3.
“And if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (v. 17).
We can see that we are children of God, heirs, set free from the law of sin and death and we have an inheritance in Christ. (I’ll speak more about our responsibility to set people free from the law of sin and death later in this teaching.) We need to come to understand who we are and what we have by developing a God consciousness. This awareness will give believers the first key they need to unlock God’s power concerning manifesting the anointing.
Also, I believe that a time is coming when God will reveal and manifest His glory in us. So let’s continue in the Book of Romans with more revelation by the apostle Paul.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:18-23).
Paul explains that creation itself and those who are gripped by sin (sickness, disease, death, and decay), long to be set free from sin’s evil power. But before deliverance can come, the body of Christ needs a revelation of who we are and what we have. We need to understand what it means to be set free from the law of sin and death, which is: sickness, disease, poverty and what it means to be joint heirs with an inheritance. This understanding and revelation is “the revealing and the manifestation of the sons and daughters of God.”
BEING SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD
God wants to put inside our hearts the revelation of what it really means to be His sons and daughters. As believers, when we come into a greater understanding of this we will step into the kind of ministry that brings the earth and the world that’s in corruption into what we call “the glorious liberty of the children of God.” This glorious liberty means freedom from the law of sin, sickness, disease and death. And so there is a deliverance that is taking place in creation called “the glorious liberty of the children of God” where the sons and daughters of God are being revealed as they walk in the manifestation of the anointing. In fact, this is what it means to be ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:19-20).
Ambassadors have a job to do: set the captives free, break the curse of the law and expose/destroy the work of the devil. They help others come to understand the magnitude of their inheritance as sons and daughters who are adopted by the Father and those who are destined to manifest the anointing. Ambassadors for Christ don’t want people to focus their attention on them, but rather that people would see and feel Jesus and His presence being released through them. God wants His sons and daughters to walk victoriously, triumphantly, conquering and overcoming the enemy. His desire is to see his children walking in God consciousness, possessing and manifesting the anointing like the apostles Peter, Paul, Moses and the prophet Elisha.
Jesus is the Son of God, who perfectly modeled the manifest anointing. His anointing for healing touched many people, sometimes through His personal laying on of hands, or when someone touched his clothing. “And they begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well (Mt. 14:36). Power actually manifest on the clothes of Jesus and that’s why, when the woman with the issue of blood touched the hem of his garment, she was healed (Mt. 9:21-22). He was carrying the power of the Lord which is present to heal because He was carrying substance on His life, the manifest anointing.
The apostle Peter was a son of God who possessed and understood the manifestation of the anointing. In Acts 5 we read how Peter carried such a great anointing that when people brought the sick on their beds and couches out onto the streets of Jerusalem, the shadow of Peter would heal their sicknesses. I’m not referring to the natural shadow of Peter, but rather to the same shadow that came upon Mary and overshadowed her with the power of the Most High when she conceived Jesus. It’s the overshadowing of the presence and canopy of the Holy Spirit.
Also, the apostle Paul was another son of God who carried the manifestation of the anointing to such a great extent that God worked unusual miracles by his hands (Acts 19:11). Paul took the anointing and the substance that he possessed and put it on handkerchiefs or aprons (v. 12) and when the cloths were carried from his body to the sick and demonized, they were healed and set free because of the resident anointing on the material.
I don’t believe the handkerchiefs or aprons were merely a point of contact. I believe that the substance of God—the living, manifest, tangible, transferable anointing of the Holy Ghost that Paul carried—was transferred to these cloths because they were in contact with the manifest presence of God on/in Paul’s body. Scripture doesn’t give details concerning the exact kind of contact the material had with his body, but it would be reasonable to imagine Paul laying hands on the material before it was carried to the sick. The Bible doesn’t give a lot of detail, but we feel that desperate family members of the sick and demonized brought handkerchiefs or aprons to Paul so that he could touch and pray over them. Many people must have been healed and delivered because scripture says “and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them” (Acts 19:12).
As well, Elisha the prophet, was a son of God, who not only possessed a double portion of the spirit of Elijah (2 Ki. 2:9, 12), but he also carried the manifest anointing of God. The Bible records that a deceased man was about to be buried, but he was cast quickly into the grave of Elisha rather than his own grave because of sudden danger from a marauding band: “…and when the man touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood up on his feet” (2 Kings 13:21). The man was resurrected! Why? Because the manifest anointing, the lingering presence of God still lived in the very bones of Elisha, even after his death.
CHRISTIANS RECEIVE AND DISPENSE GOD'S GLORY
What amazes me is that the tangible presence of God manifests on man’s flesh as well as in his bones! So I want us to consider just how much of God’s glory we can receive and manifest in our flesh as we look at this aspect in the life of God’s servant, Moses. After Moses encountered God’s Spirit (for 40 days and 40 nights on Mt. Sinai) he had to put a veil over his head because the radiance of God’s glory shone through his face so brilliantly the people were afraid to come near him (Ex. 34:29-35).
We need to remember that Moses was a human being (just like us) who carried the manifest glory of the Lord because he had an intimate relationship with God and he was continually in His presence. He is such a great example of someone who manifested the glory of God. And today, I believe there is a place being prepared in our hearts to receive and manifest the glory of God in a much greater capacity than ever before.
Listen! The glory of God will be seen on our flesh too if we’re serious about seeking the Lord concerning this. I believe our capacity to receive and manifest the glory of God on our flesh is increasing. As our faith for this manifestation intensifies, there is great potential for God to touch us mightily with His glory on our flesh. When God’s glory shines in us and on us we’ll be like lights shining in a dark world. The prophet Isaiah describes this:
“Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Is. 60:1-3).
As Christians begin manifesting the glory of God, they’ll be so filled and impacted by the presence and the anointing of the Holy Spirit that when they step into a city, literally they’ll take the ground for Christ. Charles Finney, born in Connecticut in 1792 (died in 1875) was one powerful believer who took the ground when he stepped into factories carrying the manifest anointing. All he would do is step into a factory, not saying a word, and the presence of God that he carried brought such a conviction of sin that the workers got saved. He was a dispenser of God’s glory.
I’m waiting for Christians, who carry the manifest presence of God, to cause demons to manifest and flee! You know, all I have to do in some crusades is start talking and the demons manifest because of the presence of God. For instance, in Israel, at one of the holy sites we visited, as I preached and the team began to pray and minister, the on-site Jesuit priest began to manifest a demon, speaking out in demonic tongues and doing a demonic dance. Our tour guide who’s been to that particular place about twice a month for many years, said that she had never seen him act this way before. It was obvious that the anointing of the Holy Spirit agitated the enemy. As sons and daughters of God we can take authority over demons and bring deliverance to those who are affected by them.
And did you know that in the Welsh revival there was such an anointing on that revival that in the bars patrons couldn’t even get the beer up to their mouths because there was such a permeating, convicting power and presence of the Holy Spirit? That’s the kind of anointing that I’m talking about; it will take place when we develop a God consciousness. When we see the manifestation and the revealing of the sons and daughters of God who understand who they are and what they have, they will take responsibility to defeat sin (corruption, sickness, disease, death, poverty) and to bring the glory of God with them wherever they go. Because of the glorious liberty of the children of God, believers will carry the revelation of who they are and what they have and they will be dispensers of glory.
As well, I believe God is going to bring the body of Christ together in unity, positioned to receive a corporate revelation concerning the fact that “… it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” (Gal. 2:20). We need to be possessed by the Holy Spirit in such a way that we know it’s no longer us who lives, but Christ who lives in us. And we’ll be walking in this reality when Jesus actually lives through us like He wants to; through our eyes, ears, words, touch and our presence. Then the body of Christ will have a deeper revelation of what it really means to be sons and daughters of God. They will be possessed with so much of the fullness of God that they will dispense God’s glory through their prayers and worship, filling the very atmosphere with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14).
The glory will be seen like it was when the Shekinah glory filled the temple. And not only that, the glory will also be revealed in us. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rm. 8:18). It’s not just in us and to us but through us because those who He has called, He has justified and those He has justified He has glorified (Rm. 8:30). And if we have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor. 4:7) how much of a capacity do we have as mere men to receive and manifest the glory of God? As I said earlier, I believe we will be saturated with that glory just like Moses was.
Listen, the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mt. 10:7). And when we look at the world and the world system we need to understand that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ (Rev. 11:15). It’s done. The world just doesn’t know it yet! Instead of looking at how defeated the world is, let’s look at the potential there is for the world to become the kingdom of God. We need to understand that it’s the knowledge of the glory of the Lord released through us as sons and daughters of God and the dispensers of His glory that will cause His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.
Next week, in Part 2, we will examine God’s plan to release His Kingdom on earth through Christians who are expressing the creative powers He has given to them. Also, we will examine the depth of our dominion and authority in the earth and how the body of Christ functions as an expression of Jesus in our world.
GENERAL INQUIRES - PO Box 2525, Abbotsford BC, CANADA V2T 6R3, TEL: 604.853.9041 FAX: 604.853.5077
MISSIONS TEL: 604.853.9041 Ext.235 FAX: 604.853.5077
© Freshfire Ministries 2003 all rights reserved
Revivalist Todd Bentley
This is a three-part teaching entitled Manifesting the Anointing. In Part 1, we will examine how having a ‘God consciousness’ helps to us understand who we are and what we have available to us in our inheritance because we are children of God. We will discuss what it takes to be a people who manifest the anointing and those who dispense the glory of God in the earth. Then in Part 2, I will explain how God gives believers creative abilities and how our gifts and talents can reveal the Lord’s heart to lost humanity and how we can tap into our creative abilities for the glory of God. As well, we will take a look at the scope of our authority and dominion in the earth and how the church can be a manifest expression of what Jesus looked liked 2,000 years ago. In Part 3, we will discover some practical keys that will release God’s power and how the word of knowledge works to bring healing and deliverance in peoples lives.
Before we begin this week’s teaching, I want to invite you to join with me in prayer. Just let the Holy Spirit descend on your heart, bringing a fresh revelation of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).
God, we want to ask you for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Jesus, please give us a revelation of your presence, a revelation of your power. God, we want to know who you are, who we are and what we have. So God, I pray today to receive a much greater awareness of you. Thank you, in Jesus mighty name.
WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE HAVE
Before we examine how to manifest the anointing, we need to understand who we are and what we have available to us as an inheritance because we are sons and daughters of God. Three scriptures spoken by the apostle Paul in the Book of Romans in the 8th chapter lay a foundation concerning this.
1.
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (v. 2).
2.
“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’” (v. 15).
3.
“And if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (v. 17).
We can see that we are children of God, heirs, set free from the law of sin and death and we have an inheritance in Christ. (I’ll speak more about our responsibility to set people free from the law of sin and death later in this teaching.) We need to come to understand who we are and what we have by developing a God consciousness. This awareness will give believers the first key they need to unlock God’s power concerning manifesting the anointing.
Also, I believe that a time is coming when God will reveal and manifest His glory in us. So let’s continue in the Book of Romans with more revelation by the apostle Paul.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:18-23).
Paul explains that creation itself and those who are gripped by sin (sickness, disease, death, and decay), long to be set free from sin’s evil power. But before deliverance can come, the body of Christ needs a revelation of who we are and what we have. We need to understand what it means to be set free from the law of sin and death, which is: sickness, disease, poverty and what it means to be joint heirs with an inheritance. This understanding and revelation is “the revealing and the manifestation of the sons and daughters of God.”
BEING SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD
God wants to put inside our hearts the revelation of what it really means to be His sons and daughters. As believers, when we come into a greater understanding of this we will step into the kind of ministry that brings the earth and the world that’s in corruption into what we call “the glorious liberty of the children of God.” This glorious liberty means freedom from the law of sin, sickness, disease and death. And so there is a deliverance that is taking place in creation called “the glorious liberty of the children of God” where the sons and daughters of God are being revealed as they walk in the manifestation of the anointing. In fact, this is what it means to be ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:19-20).
Ambassadors have a job to do: set the captives free, break the curse of the law and expose/destroy the work of the devil. They help others come to understand the magnitude of their inheritance as sons and daughters who are adopted by the Father and those who are destined to manifest the anointing. Ambassadors for Christ don’t want people to focus their attention on them, but rather that people would see and feel Jesus and His presence being released through them. God wants His sons and daughters to walk victoriously, triumphantly, conquering and overcoming the enemy. His desire is to see his children walking in God consciousness, possessing and manifesting the anointing like the apostles Peter, Paul, Moses and the prophet Elisha.
Jesus is the Son of God, who perfectly modeled the manifest anointing. His anointing for healing touched many people, sometimes through His personal laying on of hands, or when someone touched his clothing. “And they begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well (Mt. 14:36). Power actually manifest on the clothes of Jesus and that’s why, when the woman with the issue of blood touched the hem of his garment, she was healed (Mt. 9:21-22). He was carrying the power of the Lord which is present to heal because He was carrying substance on His life, the manifest anointing.
The apostle Peter was a son of God who possessed and understood the manifestation of the anointing. In Acts 5 we read how Peter carried such a great anointing that when people brought the sick on their beds and couches out onto the streets of Jerusalem, the shadow of Peter would heal their sicknesses. I’m not referring to the natural shadow of Peter, but rather to the same shadow that came upon Mary and overshadowed her with the power of the Most High when she conceived Jesus. It’s the overshadowing of the presence and canopy of the Holy Spirit.
Also, the apostle Paul was another son of God who carried the manifestation of the anointing to such a great extent that God worked unusual miracles by his hands (Acts 19:11). Paul took the anointing and the substance that he possessed and put it on handkerchiefs or aprons (v. 12) and when the cloths were carried from his body to the sick and demonized, they were healed and set free because of the resident anointing on the material.
I don’t believe the handkerchiefs or aprons were merely a point of contact. I believe that the substance of God—the living, manifest, tangible, transferable anointing of the Holy Ghost that Paul carried—was transferred to these cloths because they were in contact with the manifest presence of God on/in Paul’s body. Scripture doesn’t give details concerning the exact kind of contact the material had with his body, but it would be reasonable to imagine Paul laying hands on the material before it was carried to the sick. The Bible doesn’t give a lot of detail, but we feel that desperate family members of the sick and demonized brought handkerchiefs or aprons to Paul so that he could touch and pray over them. Many people must have been healed and delivered because scripture says “and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them” (Acts 19:12).
As well, Elisha the prophet, was a son of God, who not only possessed a double portion of the spirit of Elijah (2 Ki. 2:9, 12), but he also carried the manifest anointing of God. The Bible records that a deceased man was about to be buried, but he was cast quickly into the grave of Elisha rather than his own grave because of sudden danger from a marauding band: “…and when the man touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood up on his feet” (2 Kings 13:21). The man was resurrected! Why? Because the manifest anointing, the lingering presence of God still lived in the very bones of Elisha, even after his death.
CHRISTIANS RECEIVE AND DISPENSE GOD'S GLORY
What amazes me is that the tangible presence of God manifests on man’s flesh as well as in his bones! So I want us to consider just how much of God’s glory we can receive and manifest in our flesh as we look at this aspect in the life of God’s servant, Moses. After Moses encountered God’s Spirit (for 40 days and 40 nights on Mt. Sinai) he had to put a veil over his head because the radiance of God’s glory shone through his face so brilliantly the people were afraid to come near him (Ex. 34:29-35).
We need to remember that Moses was a human being (just like us) who carried the manifest glory of the Lord because he had an intimate relationship with God and he was continually in His presence. He is such a great example of someone who manifested the glory of God. And today, I believe there is a place being prepared in our hearts to receive and manifest the glory of God in a much greater capacity than ever before.
Listen! The glory of God will be seen on our flesh too if we’re serious about seeking the Lord concerning this. I believe our capacity to receive and manifest the glory of God on our flesh is increasing. As our faith for this manifestation intensifies, there is great potential for God to touch us mightily with His glory on our flesh. When God’s glory shines in us and on us we’ll be like lights shining in a dark world. The prophet Isaiah describes this:
“Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Is. 60:1-3).
As Christians begin manifesting the glory of God, they’ll be so filled and impacted by the presence and the anointing of the Holy Spirit that when they step into a city, literally they’ll take the ground for Christ. Charles Finney, born in Connecticut in 1792 (died in 1875) was one powerful believer who took the ground when he stepped into factories carrying the manifest anointing. All he would do is step into a factory, not saying a word, and the presence of God that he carried brought such a conviction of sin that the workers got saved. He was a dispenser of God’s glory.
I’m waiting for Christians, who carry the manifest presence of God, to cause demons to manifest and flee! You know, all I have to do in some crusades is start talking and the demons manifest because of the presence of God. For instance, in Israel, at one of the holy sites we visited, as I preached and the team began to pray and minister, the on-site Jesuit priest began to manifest a demon, speaking out in demonic tongues and doing a demonic dance. Our tour guide who’s been to that particular place about twice a month for many years, said that she had never seen him act this way before. It was obvious that the anointing of the Holy Spirit agitated the enemy. As sons and daughters of God we can take authority over demons and bring deliverance to those who are affected by them.
And did you know that in the Welsh revival there was such an anointing on that revival that in the bars patrons couldn’t even get the beer up to their mouths because there was such a permeating, convicting power and presence of the Holy Spirit? That’s the kind of anointing that I’m talking about; it will take place when we develop a God consciousness. When we see the manifestation and the revealing of the sons and daughters of God who understand who they are and what they have, they will take responsibility to defeat sin (corruption, sickness, disease, death, poverty) and to bring the glory of God with them wherever they go. Because of the glorious liberty of the children of God, believers will carry the revelation of who they are and what they have and they will be dispensers of glory.
As well, I believe God is going to bring the body of Christ together in unity, positioned to receive a corporate revelation concerning the fact that “… it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” (Gal. 2:20). We need to be possessed by the Holy Spirit in such a way that we know it’s no longer us who lives, but Christ who lives in us. And we’ll be walking in this reality when Jesus actually lives through us like He wants to; through our eyes, ears, words, touch and our presence. Then the body of Christ will have a deeper revelation of what it really means to be sons and daughters of God. They will be possessed with so much of the fullness of God that they will dispense God’s glory through their prayers and worship, filling the very atmosphere with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14).
The glory will be seen like it was when the Shekinah glory filled the temple. And not only that, the glory will also be revealed in us. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rm. 8:18). It’s not just in us and to us but through us because those who He has called, He has justified and those He has justified He has glorified (Rm. 8:30). And if we have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor. 4:7) how much of a capacity do we have as mere men to receive and manifest the glory of God? As I said earlier, I believe we will be saturated with that glory just like Moses was.
Listen, the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mt. 10:7). And when we look at the world and the world system we need to understand that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ (Rev. 11:15). It’s done. The world just doesn’t know it yet! Instead of looking at how defeated the world is, let’s look at the potential there is for the world to become the kingdom of God. We need to understand that it’s the knowledge of the glory of the Lord released through us as sons and daughters of God and the dispensers of His glory that will cause His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.
Next week, in Part 2, we will examine God’s plan to release His Kingdom on earth through Christians who are expressing the creative powers He has given to them. Also, we will examine the depth of our dominion and authority in the earth and how the body of Christ functions as an expression of Jesus in our world.
GENERAL INQUIRES - PO Box 2525, Abbotsford BC, CANADA V2T 6R3, TEL: 604.853.9041 FAX: 604.853.5077
MISSIONS TEL: 604.853.9041 Ext.235 FAX: 604.853.5077
© Freshfire Ministries 2003 all rights reserved
posted by KFF at 8:06 PM
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