Manifesting The Anointing Part 2
MANIFESTING THE ANOINTING -- PART 2
REVIVALIST TODD BENTLEY
In Part 2 of this three-part teaching entitled Manifesting the Anointing, we will discuss the scope of our dominion and authority in both the natural and spiritual realms. Then we’ll briefly examine how our creative abilities reveal the Lord’s love and salvation to mankind. Respecting God and the authority and dominion He has given to us is of great importance and we will discuss this topic as well. Next, we’ll be encouraged to go the distance with God as we study a segment from the life of John G. Lake. Also, by examining a portion of Moses’ life, we’ll see that manifesting the anointing is not just for a few individuals, it’s for the Body of Christ. And we’ll close this week’s teaching with an exhortation to open our hearts to receive all of the fullness of God.
MANIFESTING THE ANOINTING
BY TODD BENTLEY
Part 2
Last week, in Part 1, we discussed what it takes for believers to manifest the anointing; they must know who they are and what they have available to them as sons and daughters of God. We discovered that creation is longing for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God who will come to understand their kingly authority in the earth (Rom. 8:19). This week we’ll continue to examine who we are and what we have by taking a look at creation when God made Adam and Eve.
THE SCOPE OF OUR DOMINION
When God spoke creation into existence in the beginning, He created Adam from two substances, flesh and spirit, not just a natural substance and five-fold natural senses. So God brought two realms together, the natural realm and the heavenly realm. When He formed man from the dust of the earth (symbolizing flesh/natural) and when He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (symbolizing spirit/heavenly), He created man (Gen. 2:7). Later the Lord God fashioned a woman from the rib of the man so that he would not be alone (Gen. 2:18,22). God named the man Adam and the woman Eve. Both would rule, reign, execute God’s plans, and subdue and fill the earth (Gen. 1:28). In other words, Adam and Eve would have dominion in the earth. But their mandate had nothing to do with dominion over sin.
But much later, because of what Jesus accomplished for us through His death and resurrection, man’s dominion changed so that now we have a better dominion than in the beginning. First of all, we have the opportunity to make a decision for Jesus Christ now. When we make a decision for Christ we’re born again and we become new creatures (2 Co. 5:17); it’s like we become a second creation, in the image and likeness of God. And that’s when we really tap into all the inheritance and power that’s available to us as sons and daughters of God. Then we have authority in the spiritual realm over sin, which includes: sickness, disease, death, poverty, Satan, demonic scorpions and serpents, every power and every evil principality. Our kingly authority and dominion includes two realms (the natural/physical realm and the spiritual/heavenly realm) and it is much broader than the dominion Adam and Eve had in the earth in the beginning.
As born again believers we have more than the breath of God in us, the Lord Himself is in us (Col. 1:27)! It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Ga. 2:20). So God wants us to live and have dominion, rule and reign. We are sons and daughters, ambassadors who execute the government of His kingdom over sin, sickness, disease and death. This is our role as sons and daughters of God; we are to bring the earth, with its corruption and decay, into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:21)!
As well, we need to take responsibility to bring the glory and the kingdom of God into the earth the same way that Jesus did 2,000 years ago. In fact, Jesus’ ministry is a model of the kind of kingdom that we need to bring into the earth today. He said, “He who believes in me will do the works that I do” (Jn. 14:12). “It’s to your advantage that I go away for if I don’t go away the Holy Spirit won’t come” (Jn. 16:17). What did Jesus mean? The answer is that He wants us to model the kingdom and to be the kingdom of God in the earth today.
So let’s think about the greatness of God, His majesty, and go on to read another passage of scripture.
“O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens… When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps. 8:1, 3-5).
Not only is the Lord so mindful of us that He visits us, He also cares for us when He knows our frame is but dust. And there’s more! When He made us, He gave us a place of honor; He made us a little lower than the angels. The word “angels” in some versions of the Bible is actually translated as the word “God.” So I believe we have more stature than the angels and they are actually excited about what we have in Christ because they don’t have what we have. They don’t have the standing that we have with Him.
God put some of His honor upon us and He employs us in His providential government of the world just like David did with his sons when he made them chief rulers (2 Sam. 8:18). God made us chief rulers in the earth and He has bestowed upon us some of the glory and the honor of His kingdom (Ps. 8:6-8). As I said earlier, He has employed us as ambassadors in the earth to have dominion and to bring the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We have dominion, not only in the natural (that’s where it started in the beginning with Adam and Eve), but now because we’re born again we have dominion in the spiritual realm and we become citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20). Actually, we’re citizens who are more involved in the heavenly realm than this earthly realm. We’re just living in our ‘earth suit’ (body) and that’s going to come off after a while anyway! We’re a spiritual creation.
OUR CREATIVITY REVEALS THE FATHER'S HEART
God has invited us, His spiritual creation, to partner with Him in revealing to mankind His great love and plan of salvation. Our partnership with Him began to unfold thousands of years ago when He carefully created us in His image (Gen. 1:26). We have the nature of God, the genes of God, the very DNA of God and the substance of God from heaven because we are created in His likeness.
As well, from the very beginning of creation, God put the essence of Himself, His creative ability and power into the heart of every man and woman. This ability to create is the essence of who God is and what He has! He gave these gifts to everyone, whether they believe in Him or not. Listen! The moment we were conceived in our mother’s womb the Father put an ability to create inside each of us. And even though creative ability is available to every person, the power to create is especially meant for the sons and daughters of God (born-again believers). When we submit our gifts and talents to God for His glory, we’re in the right position to reveal the Father’s heart to mankind without fleshly motives.
Man wants to be creative and is always creating—inventions, music, sound, writing, kingdoms and new vision—to name a few. But when creative ability is activated in the flesh without Christ, such as happens through the New Age movement, then the results can be spiritual, but there’s no real life or “Zoë.” Those in the New Age Movement want to become their own God and they have this idea that the creative power of God is within them and that they’re gods. That’s a bunch of baloney. But it is true that God has put His creative ability in each one of us.
When there is real life, when believers use their gifts and talents to advance the Kingdom of God, there is great potential to influence people to make a decision for Jesus Christ. Our gifts and talents are creatively expressed both in the visible and invisible realm. For instance, oil paintings or sculptures would be examples of expressing creativity in the visible realm. Instrumental music, or a pastor’s sermon are, creative sounds expressed in the invisible realm.
Now let’s look at the creative power we have in the invisible realm concerning our speech. We hardly ever recognize that our speech is creative. When God spoke, creation happened. “Let there be light and there was light” (Gen. 1:3). Power in His words! Words of His authority! It was Elohim, the God of creation, that spoke. And Elohim, in His likeness, has created man; his likeness is in the area of the mind, will and emotions. And He created us with the ability to speak. Now here’s what I want us to take to heart. Our words can bring life or death (Pr. 18:21), so we need to be careful concerning what we speak because there is creative power in what we say. Whether we are saved or not, life and death is in the power of the tongue.
RECEIVING OUR INHERITANCE
Creative ability/power is part of our rich inheritance from the Father. He has so much for us to tap into. As chief rulers and ambassadors, everything that He has in His kingdom is ours. But we must receive it! Remember the wayward prodigal son. The older brother got so mad because their father threw a party for his wayward little brother. The older brother complained to his father. “Aw, come on! You never gave me the fattened calve, the party, the robe and the ring!” And his father replied, “All that I’ve ever had has always been yours” (Lk. 15:31). But all along, the older brother didn’t get it! He wasn’t tapping into his inheritance—the love and generosity of his father. He didn’t understand who he was and what he had as a beloved son with full rights to receive great benefits from his father. His father’s kingdom was always right there for the asking!
You know, so many of us are just like that older brother. We’re afraid to be chief rulers and ambassadors and so we aren’t enjoying all the rights and privileges that God intended for us. And so, because we still don’t really understand who we are and what we have, we aren’t transforming cities and nations with the glory of God. Because the Lord has employed us and given us a place of dominion, we need to realize that we have a right to be ambassadors, those who execute everything that He has given us to accomplish in His kingdom.
RESPECTING GOD AND OUR MANDATE
Concerning our position of dominion and authority, let’s take a look at Psalm 82:6: “I said, "You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.” [Notice that the word “gods” starts with a lower case “g.” So before anyone gets all freaked out, it’s a small “g”!] I feel the word “gods” pictures our position or rank as chief rulers and ambassadors. This passage of scripture means that we are above all the creatures in the lower world. We have precedence over all the inhabitants of the natural earth. God made it that way. We have authority in the natural realm—authority over the wind, the waves and the natural elements. We understand that. But now, through Christ, God has given us a dominion in the spirit, over sin, sickness, disease, death and poverty; this is our inheritance. He has also given us a mandate to maintain this inheritance.
Now this passage of scripture goes on to say, “But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes" (v.7). You know, if God really wanted to, He could take away our mandate in a moment. This verse says that we shall die like men. It’s like God is saying, “Be careful in the midst of everything that you do. It’s My name and My authority and everything that you have is only yours because I gave it to you. But you shall die like men. You shall return to the earth like dust. Yes, I visit you and I’m mindful of you. I want you to have dominion; not just dominion in the earth, but dominion in the spirit over sin, sickness, disease, death and poverty. I’m going to make you chief rulers. I want you to understand that. I’m going to give you everything; all that I ever had in the kingdom. I made you a joint-heir; our inheritance is equal. I’ve given you the keys to the family car. I’ve given you money and the cheques to the family business and I want you to manage it. But any time… if you’re not being a good manager and steward of what I’ve given you, if you’re not representing the kingdom in a godly, righteous way, I can come back and say, ‘Give me the car. Give me the keys. Give me the cheques.’” So we need to be careful to respect the Lord God, the One who made us who we are and the One who gave us what we have.
ONENESS WITH GOD
Yes, God wants us to respect Him and our mandate; to be dispensers of glory and those who bring creation itself into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rm. 8:19-29). He wants us to know that we are chosen to do the works of Jesus and even greater works than He did (Jn. 14:12). So now I want to discuss a segment from the life of John G. Lake because he was a dispenser of God’s glory and one who knew who he was and what He had. He understood the greater works that Jesus spoke of.
In the early 1900’s John G. Lake began a powerful healing ministry. When he ministered in Spokane there were so many people healed that the authorities declared Spokane to be the healthiest city in America! God did amazing feats through this man. Over 100,000 documented healings and miracles happened in just five years of his ministry in that city. “Healing parades” were organized. Trucks would be loaded up with people who were healed of different infirmities. One truck would carry those healed of cancer; another truck would carry those healed of deafness, and another truck with those who had been blind and so on. The hospitals were almost put out of business!
Many of us not only respect John G. Lake’s ministry, we respect John G. Lake, the apostle. In South Africa, as a result of his ministry in that region, over 600 churches were planted in five years. The healing anointing he carried literally touched people from all over the world. Even his ministry-newsletters carried the manifest presence of God. Before his newsletters went out in the mail, his staff would bring them to him. Then, with great conviction, John G. Lake would say, “I want to pray and I only want men who are in contact with the Living God to pray with me, nobody else. Together we’re going to lay our bodies on these newsletters like Elisha the prophet laid on that dead child’s body” (2 Ki. 4:34).
As everyone prayed like he commanded, the power of God literally permeated the very paper until the very fabric of that paper was saturated with the power and presence of the manifest anointing. The lightenings of God would flash through the souls of those who prayed and the power of God would be released on those newsletters. Then Lake’s ministry would send them out all over the world. When some people touched their newsletter, they would fall under the power, speak in tongues and get healed! So, when people asked Lake what the secret was to his anointing he said, “It’s God consciousness.” I believe it’s possible to know and practice, like John G. Lake did, the secret to manifesting the anointing through God consciousness.
As well, we need to understand the depth of what Jesus meant when He prayed “…Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are” (Jn. 17:11). I believe we can experience oneness with God, just like John G. Lake did. Jesus prayed that we would be one. When we really comprehend Jesus’ high priestly prayer (v.11), then we’ll feel His heart beat. We’ll understand what He’s doing and what it takes to partner with Him.
MANIFESTING THE ANOINTING IN THE BODY OF CHRIST
John G. Lake believed that Christians should minister in the same type of power that Jesus did while He lived on earth. The church is supposed to be a living, visible expression of what Jesus looked like 2,000 years ago! The church is the body of Christ (1 Co. 12:27) and it needs to emerge in the earth today as a company of people who are manifesting the anointing. God wants us to realize that the anointing isn’t just for a few individuals, but rather, it’s available for the body of Christ!
Listen! The church is His body! So it’s like God is saying, “I want the body, the church, not just the evangelist, pastor, prophet, teacher, Todd Bentley or Benny Hinn manifesting the anointing. It’s the corporate anointing. It’s the five-fold training and equipping of the saints to do the work of the ministry until we all come into the unity of the faith. So what’s God’s plan? It’s that we all come into the unity of the faith, into the fullness, into the maturity, into the stature of Christ (Eph. 1:17-23).
You know, the nations of old would look with dread at the children of Israel and say, “Oh my goodness! Moses is coming! He’s leading a vast company of people!” The terror that came upon the nations was because they were a race of people emerging as a nation accompanied by the presence of God (Deut. 26:8). And wisely, Moses didn’t want to go anywhere without God’s presence because it made the children of Israel distinct from all other people (Ex. 33:15-16). Moses knew that one major distinguishing mark (that made them different from any other nation and religion) was the fact that God was with them. When the nations looked at the children of Israel they saw, not just individuals, but a whole company of people led by their God. Listen! They saw God!
BEING FILLED WITH THE FULLNESS OF GOD
Today, when the secular world sees the body of Christ manifesting the anointing, they’ll see God too! But if we’re not taking our place or taking our authority (as chief rulers and ambassadors) to advance God’s kingdom, then the world will just see the church as an ineffective institution and lump us in with all the other religions. The world needs to see our distinguishing marks!
One distinguishing mark is that the presence of God leads us and goes with us. Another mark is that the body of Christ is a living expression of what Jesus was like 2,000 years ago when he cast out devils, preached the gospel, healed the sick, raised the dead and moved in kingdom power. The church is meant “to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God “ (Eph. 3:19).
So the church is supposed to be all the fullness of everything that Jesus is. But we’re not. Yet that’s God’s will. All the fullness of God! Can you imagine what that looks like? Now listen. Why would Paul the apostle pray that we would be filled up with all the fullness of God? He’s talking to Christians already filled with the Spirit and already moving in the anointing. But what if the Spirit is given in measure? Paul spoke about the measure of our full stature: “until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Jesus had the Spirit without measure (Jn. 3:34). So that means the anointing comes to us in measure.
Yes, we have the Spirit with measure, but there is more of the Spirit available to us. That’s why Paul was praying that we would be filled with the fullness of God because we’re still not walking in the fullness of everything that we can receive and manifest on the earth now; there’s great potential for much more. We still need the revelation of what it means to be filled with the fullness of God and to understand who we are and what we have.
Jesus Himself had the fullness of the Godhead in the flesh (Col. 2:9). In Jesus dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 1:19). The apostle John said “And of his fullness we have all received…” (Jn. 1:16). God wants us to enter into more of the fullness of everything that He has for us. Sometimes our limited mindset and understanding concerning how deep we can go with God hinders us from enjoying the great inheritance that is ours in Christ Jesus. Believers will often set limits concerning the fullness of who God is. Then they never really tap into their inheritance and the power that God wants us as his sons and daughters to receive and manifest.
In fact, the kingdom of God is within us (Lk. 17:21) and I want to declare that the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mt. 10:7)! Because Paul the apostle prayed that we would be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19), it’s obvious that we aren’t yet filled with all the fullness. That means there is always more available for us. I’m never satisfied with where I’ve been or what I’ve had in the past. I want more and I’m pressing in for more because I know I have a great capacity inside of me that longs for the fullness of God. I believe that our capacity for more of the fullness can be stretched far and wide until we’re walking in the kind of anointing that Jesus walked in 2,000 years ago. The anointing that Peter and Paul had is also for us! We can have the same kind of anointing that Moses walked in; our faces can shine with God’s glory so when the world rubs shoulders with us they come close to the presence of God because He is with us (2 Co. 3:7-8).
When the body of Christ manifests the anointing so strongly that bar patrons can’t get their beers off the bar table to their mouth, then the world will see Jesus in us, the hope of glory! When we understand what it takes to be sons and daughters of God in the fullness of the Spirit of God, like Finney, we’ll walk into a factory and without saying one word the whole factory will be saved. Let’s press in to receive a whole lot more of the fullness of the Spirit of God in our lives!
In closing, I want to invite you to open your hearts wide so that the Holy Spirit can prepare you for our final teaching next week on Manifesting the Anointing. We will discuss several practical keys that will release God’s power. As well, we will examine some of the benefits of the word of knowledge and how this gift works to bring healing and deliverance in people’s lives.
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REVIVALIST TODD BENTLEY
In Part 2 of this three-part teaching entitled Manifesting the Anointing, we will discuss the scope of our dominion and authority in both the natural and spiritual realms. Then we’ll briefly examine how our creative abilities reveal the Lord’s love and salvation to mankind. Respecting God and the authority and dominion He has given to us is of great importance and we will discuss this topic as well. Next, we’ll be encouraged to go the distance with God as we study a segment from the life of John G. Lake. Also, by examining a portion of Moses’ life, we’ll see that manifesting the anointing is not just for a few individuals, it’s for the Body of Christ. And we’ll close this week’s teaching with an exhortation to open our hearts to receive all of the fullness of God.
MANIFESTING THE ANOINTING
BY TODD BENTLEY
Part 2
Last week, in Part 1, we discussed what it takes for believers to manifest the anointing; they must know who they are and what they have available to them as sons and daughters of God. We discovered that creation is longing for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God who will come to understand their kingly authority in the earth (Rom. 8:19). This week we’ll continue to examine who we are and what we have by taking a look at creation when God made Adam and Eve.
THE SCOPE OF OUR DOMINION
When God spoke creation into existence in the beginning, He created Adam from two substances, flesh and spirit, not just a natural substance and five-fold natural senses. So God brought two realms together, the natural realm and the heavenly realm. When He formed man from the dust of the earth (symbolizing flesh/natural) and when He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (symbolizing spirit/heavenly), He created man (Gen. 2:7). Later the Lord God fashioned a woman from the rib of the man so that he would not be alone (Gen. 2:18,22). God named the man Adam and the woman Eve. Both would rule, reign, execute God’s plans, and subdue and fill the earth (Gen. 1:28). In other words, Adam and Eve would have dominion in the earth. But their mandate had nothing to do with dominion over sin.
But much later, because of what Jesus accomplished for us through His death and resurrection, man’s dominion changed so that now we have a better dominion than in the beginning. First of all, we have the opportunity to make a decision for Jesus Christ now. When we make a decision for Christ we’re born again and we become new creatures (2 Co. 5:17); it’s like we become a second creation, in the image and likeness of God. And that’s when we really tap into all the inheritance and power that’s available to us as sons and daughters of God. Then we have authority in the spiritual realm over sin, which includes: sickness, disease, death, poverty, Satan, demonic scorpions and serpents, every power and every evil principality. Our kingly authority and dominion includes two realms (the natural/physical realm and the spiritual/heavenly realm) and it is much broader than the dominion Adam and Eve had in the earth in the beginning.
As born again believers we have more than the breath of God in us, the Lord Himself is in us (Col. 1:27)! It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Ga. 2:20). So God wants us to live and have dominion, rule and reign. We are sons and daughters, ambassadors who execute the government of His kingdom over sin, sickness, disease and death. This is our role as sons and daughters of God; we are to bring the earth, with its corruption and decay, into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:21)!
As well, we need to take responsibility to bring the glory and the kingdom of God into the earth the same way that Jesus did 2,000 years ago. In fact, Jesus’ ministry is a model of the kind of kingdom that we need to bring into the earth today. He said, “He who believes in me will do the works that I do” (Jn. 14:12). “It’s to your advantage that I go away for if I don’t go away the Holy Spirit won’t come” (Jn. 16:17). What did Jesus mean? The answer is that He wants us to model the kingdom and to be the kingdom of God in the earth today.
So let’s think about the greatness of God, His majesty, and go on to read another passage of scripture.
“O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens… When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps. 8:1, 3-5).
Not only is the Lord so mindful of us that He visits us, He also cares for us when He knows our frame is but dust. And there’s more! When He made us, He gave us a place of honor; He made us a little lower than the angels. The word “angels” in some versions of the Bible is actually translated as the word “God.” So I believe we have more stature than the angels and they are actually excited about what we have in Christ because they don’t have what we have. They don’t have the standing that we have with Him.
God put some of His honor upon us and He employs us in His providential government of the world just like David did with his sons when he made them chief rulers (2 Sam. 8:18). God made us chief rulers in the earth and He has bestowed upon us some of the glory and the honor of His kingdom (Ps. 8:6-8). As I said earlier, He has employed us as ambassadors in the earth to have dominion and to bring the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We have dominion, not only in the natural (that’s where it started in the beginning with Adam and Eve), but now because we’re born again we have dominion in the spiritual realm and we become citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20). Actually, we’re citizens who are more involved in the heavenly realm than this earthly realm. We’re just living in our ‘earth suit’ (body) and that’s going to come off after a while anyway! We’re a spiritual creation.
OUR CREATIVITY REVEALS THE FATHER'S HEART
God has invited us, His spiritual creation, to partner with Him in revealing to mankind His great love and plan of salvation. Our partnership with Him began to unfold thousands of years ago when He carefully created us in His image (Gen. 1:26). We have the nature of God, the genes of God, the very DNA of God and the substance of God from heaven because we are created in His likeness.
As well, from the very beginning of creation, God put the essence of Himself, His creative ability and power into the heart of every man and woman. This ability to create is the essence of who God is and what He has! He gave these gifts to everyone, whether they believe in Him or not. Listen! The moment we were conceived in our mother’s womb the Father put an ability to create inside each of us. And even though creative ability is available to every person, the power to create is especially meant for the sons and daughters of God (born-again believers). When we submit our gifts and talents to God for His glory, we’re in the right position to reveal the Father’s heart to mankind without fleshly motives.
Man wants to be creative and is always creating—inventions, music, sound, writing, kingdoms and new vision—to name a few. But when creative ability is activated in the flesh without Christ, such as happens through the New Age movement, then the results can be spiritual, but there’s no real life or “Zoë.” Those in the New Age Movement want to become their own God and they have this idea that the creative power of God is within them and that they’re gods. That’s a bunch of baloney. But it is true that God has put His creative ability in each one of us.
When there is real life, when believers use their gifts and talents to advance the Kingdom of God, there is great potential to influence people to make a decision for Jesus Christ. Our gifts and talents are creatively expressed both in the visible and invisible realm. For instance, oil paintings or sculptures would be examples of expressing creativity in the visible realm. Instrumental music, or a pastor’s sermon are, creative sounds expressed in the invisible realm.
Now let’s look at the creative power we have in the invisible realm concerning our speech. We hardly ever recognize that our speech is creative. When God spoke, creation happened. “Let there be light and there was light” (Gen. 1:3). Power in His words! Words of His authority! It was Elohim, the God of creation, that spoke. And Elohim, in His likeness, has created man; his likeness is in the area of the mind, will and emotions. And He created us with the ability to speak. Now here’s what I want us to take to heart. Our words can bring life or death (Pr. 18:21), so we need to be careful concerning what we speak because there is creative power in what we say. Whether we are saved or not, life and death is in the power of the tongue.
RECEIVING OUR INHERITANCE
Creative ability/power is part of our rich inheritance from the Father. He has so much for us to tap into. As chief rulers and ambassadors, everything that He has in His kingdom is ours. But we must receive it! Remember the wayward prodigal son. The older brother got so mad because their father threw a party for his wayward little brother. The older brother complained to his father. “Aw, come on! You never gave me the fattened calve, the party, the robe and the ring!” And his father replied, “All that I’ve ever had has always been yours” (Lk. 15:31). But all along, the older brother didn’t get it! He wasn’t tapping into his inheritance—the love and generosity of his father. He didn’t understand who he was and what he had as a beloved son with full rights to receive great benefits from his father. His father’s kingdom was always right there for the asking!
You know, so many of us are just like that older brother. We’re afraid to be chief rulers and ambassadors and so we aren’t enjoying all the rights and privileges that God intended for us. And so, because we still don’t really understand who we are and what we have, we aren’t transforming cities and nations with the glory of God. Because the Lord has employed us and given us a place of dominion, we need to realize that we have a right to be ambassadors, those who execute everything that He has given us to accomplish in His kingdom.
RESPECTING GOD AND OUR MANDATE
Concerning our position of dominion and authority, let’s take a look at Psalm 82:6: “I said, "You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.” [Notice that the word “gods” starts with a lower case “g.” So before anyone gets all freaked out, it’s a small “g”!] I feel the word “gods” pictures our position or rank as chief rulers and ambassadors. This passage of scripture means that we are above all the creatures in the lower world. We have precedence over all the inhabitants of the natural earth. God made it that way. We have authority in the natural realm—authority over the wind, the waves and the natural elements. We understand that. But now, through Christ, God has given us a dominion in the spirit, over sin, sickness, disease, death and poverty; this is our inheritance. He has also given us a mandate to maintain this inheritance.
Now this passage of scripture goes on to say, “But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes" (v.7). You know, if God really wanted to, He could take away our mandate in a moment. This verse says that we shall die like men. It’s like God is saying, “Be careful in the midst of everything that you do. It’s My name and My authority and everything that you have is only yours because I gave it to you. But you shall die like men. You shall return to the earth like dust. Yes, I visit you and I’m mindful of you. I want you to have dominion; not just dominion in the earth, but dominion in the spirit over sin, sickness, disease, death and poverty. I’m going to make you chief rulers. I want you to understand that. I’m going to give you everything; all that I ever had in the kingdom. I made you a joint-heir; our inheritance is equal. I’ve given you the keys to the family car. I’ve given you money and the cheques to the family business and I want you to manage it. But any time… if you’re not being a good manager and steward of what I’ve given you, if you’re not representing the kingdom in a godly, righteous way, I can come back and say, ‘Give me the car. Give me the keys. Give me the cheques.’” So we need to be careful to respect the Lord God, the One who made us who we are and the One who gave us what we have.
ONENESS WITH GOD
Yes, God wants us to respect Him and our mandate; to be dispensers of glory and those who bring creation itself into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rm. 8:19-29). He wants us to know that we are chosen to do the works of Jesus and even greater works than He did (Jn. 14:12). So now I want to discuss a segment from the life of John G. Lake because he was a dispenser of God’s glory and one who knew who he was and what He had. He understood the greater works that Jesus spoke of.
In the early 1900’s John G. Lake began a powerful healing ministry. When he ministered in Spokane there were so many people healed that the authorities declared Spokane to be the healthiest city in America! God did amazing feats through this man. Over 100,000 documented healings and miracles happened in just five years of his ministry in that city. “Healing parades” were organized. Trucks would be loaded up with people who were healed of different infirmities. One truck would carry those healed of cancer; another truck would carry those healed of deafness, and another truck with those who had been blind and so on. The hospitals were almost put out of business!
Many of us not only respect John G. Lake’s ministry, we respect John G. Lake, the apostle. In South Africa, as a result of his ministry in that region, over 600 churches were planted in five years. The healing anointing he carried literally touched people from all over the world. Even his ministry-newsletters carried the manifest presence of God. Before his newsletters went out in the mail, his staff would bring them to him. Then, with great conviction, John G. Lake would say, “I want to pray and I only want men who are in contact with the Living God to pray with me, nobody else. Together we’re going to lay our bodies on these newsletters like Elisha the prophet laid on that dead child’s body” (2 Ki. 4:34).
As everyone prayed like he commanded, the power of God literally permeated the very paper until the very fabric of that paper was saturated with the power and presence of the manifest anointing. The lightenings of God would flash through the souls of those who prayed and the power of God would be released on those newsletters. Then Lake’s ministry would send them out all over the world. When some people touched their newsletter, they would fall under the power, speak in tongues and get healed! So, when people asked Lake what the secret was to his anointing he said, “It’s God consciousness.” I believe it’s possible to know and practice, like John G. Lake did, the secret to manifesting the anointing through God consciousness.
As well, we need to understand the depth of what Jesus meant when He prayed “…Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are” (Jn. 17:11). I believe we can experience oneness with God, just like John G. Lake did. Jesus prayed that we would be one. When we really comprehend Jesus’ high priestly prayer (v.11), then we’ll feel His heart beat. We’ll understand what He’s doing and what it takes to partner with Him.
MANIFESTING THE ANOINTING IN THE BODY OF CHRIST
John G. Lake believed that Christians should minister in the same type of power that Jesus did while He lived on earth. The church is supposed to be a living, visible expression of what Jesus looked like 2,000 years ago! The church is the body of Christ (1 Co. 12:27) and it needs to emerge in the earth today as a company of people who are manifesting the anointing. God wants us to realize that the anointing isn’t just for a few individuals, but rather, it’s available for the body of Christ!
Listen! The church is His body! So it’s like God is saying, “I want the body, the church, not just the evangelist, pastor, prophet, teacher, Todd Bentley or Benny Hinn manifesting the anointing. It’s the corporate anointing. It’s the five-fold training and equipping of the saints to do the work of the ministry until we all come into the unity of the faith. So what’s God’s plan? It’s that we all come into the unity of the faith, into the fullness, into the maturity, into the stature of Christ (Eph. 1:17-23).
You know, the nations of old would look with dread at the children of Israel and say, “Oh my goodness! Moses is coming! He’s leading a vast company of people!” The terror that came upon the nations was because they were a race of people emerging as a nation accompanied by the presence of God (Deut. 26:8). And wisely, Moses didn’t want to go anywhere without God’s presence because it made the children of Israel distinct from all other people (Ex. 33:15-16). Moses knew that one major distinguishing mark (that made them different from any other nation and religion) was the fact that God was with them. When the nations looked at the children of Israel they saw, not just individuals, but a whole company of people led by their God. Listen! They saw God!
BEING FILLED WITH THE FULLNESS OF GOD
Today, when the secular world sees the body of Christ manifesting the anointing, they’ll see God too! But if we’re not taking our place or taking our authority (as chief rulers and ambassadors) to advance God’s kingdom, then the world will just see the church as an ineffective institution and lump us in with all the other religions. The world needs to see our distinguishing marks!
One distinguishing mark is that the presence of God leads us and goes with us. Another mark is that the body of Christ is a living expression of what Jesus was like 2,000 years ago when he cast out devils, preached the gospel, healed the sick, raised the dead and moved in kingdom power. The church is meant “to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God “ (Eph. 3:19).
So the church is supposed to be all the fullness of everything that Jesus is. But we’re not. Yet that’s God’s will. All the fullness of God! Can you imagine what that looks like? Now listen. Why would Paul the apostle pray that we would be filled up with all the fullness of God? He’s talking to Christians already filled with the Spirit and already moving in the anointing. But what if the Spirit is given in measure? Paul spoke about the measure of our full stature: “until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Jesus had the Spirit without measure (Jn. 3:34). So that means the anointing comes to us in measure.
Yes, we have the Spirit with measure, but there is more of the Spirit available to us. That’s why Paul was praying that we would be filled with the fullness of God because we’re still not walking in the fullness of everything that we can receive and manifest on the earth now; there’s great potential for much more. We still need the revelation of what it means to be filled with the fullness of God and to understand who we are and what we have.
Jesus Himself had the fullness of the Godhead in the flesh (Col. 2:9). In Jesus dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 1:19). The apostle John said “And of his fullness we have all received…” (Jn. 1:16). God wants us to enter into more of the fullness of everything that He has for us. Sometimes our limited mindset and understanding concerning how deep we can go with God hinders us from enjoying the great inheritance that is ours in Christ Jesus. Believers will often set limits concerning the fullness of who God is. Then they never really tap into their inheritance and the power that God wants us as his sons and daughters to receive and manifest.
In fact, the kingdom of God is within us (Lk. 17:21) and I want to declare that the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mt. 10:7)! Because Paul the apostle prayed that we would be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19), it’s obvious that we aren’t yet filled with all the fullness. That means there is always more available for us. I’m never satisfied with where I’ve been or what I’ve had in the past. I want more and I’m pressing in for more because I know I have a great capacity inside of me that longs for the fullness of God. I believe that our capacity for more of the fullness can be stretched far and wide until we’re walking in the kind of anointing that Jesus walked in 2,000 years ago. The anointing that Peter and Paul had is also for us! We can have the same kind of anointing that Moses walked in; our faces can shine with God’s glory so when the world rubs shoulders with us they come close to the presence of God because He is with us (2 Co. 3:7-8).
When the body of Christ manifests the anointing so strongly that bar patrons can’t get their beers off the bar table to their mouth, then the world will see Jesus in us, the hope of glory! When we understand what it takes to be sons and daughters of God in the fullness of the Spirit of God, like Finney, we’ll walk into a factory and without saying one word the whole factory will be saved. Let’s press in to receive a whole lot more of the fullness of the Spirit of God in our lives!
In closing, I want to invite you to open your hearts wide so that the Holy Spirit can prepare you for our final teaching next week on Manifesting the Anointing. We will discuss several practical keys that will release God’s power. As well, we will examine some of the benefits of the word of knowledge and how this gift works to bring healing and deliverance in people’s lives.
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posted by KFF at 8:05 PM
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