One early morning, shortly
before the break-of-dawn, I had a dream. In it, I was rebuking a demon. I was really doing it, too. I had the mean face on, my voice was raised, and I even had a hint of the “sista’-neck”
going, but it was not working. In my frustration, the demon continued with its appointed task. Then, in the midst of this fiasco, the LORD clearly spoke to me,
in a beautiful, full, audible voice and said: “It’s not by might, nor by power, but it’s by My Spirit.”
In an instant,
the Spirit of the Lord came upon me so much so, that in my sleep, I felt the power of the LORD all over me. Then in the dream,
not loudly, but with authority, in the name of Jesus Messiah I rebuked the demonic spirit and it literally shriveled up to
nothing.
Now the word of the
LORD spoken to me, of course, was the same word spoken to the Prophet Zechariah in reference to the rebuilding of the LORD’s
temple, a “mighty” undertaking. (Zechariah 4:6) But what I love about the beginning of Zechariah 4
is the vision of the Gold Lamp stand and Two Olive Trees. Clearly the olive trees provided a constant flow of ‘Fresh
Oil” in the lamp stand which provided the “anointing” or “power” needed in order to keep it
lit, continuously.
It is this anointing or “Power” provided from the constant flow
of the Fresh Oil of the Spirit that is necessary keep us “lit” to carry out His Will.
We cannot accomplish the Will of God without His
anointing, or power flowing through us and on us. It just
will not happen.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus promises that we “will receive
power after the Holy Ghost comes upon us.”
“This promise is essential in understanding the anointing.
When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we are in God’s presence. But God’s presence is not the same as His anointing.
God’s presence is His glory and His person; His anointing is His power. In Hebrew, the word “anoint” is
mashach, which means “to rub in.” The Greek word is chrism and means “to smear.” When we receive the
anointing, we are, in a sense, “smeared ” with His power, which means that He is not only upon us but within us,
as oil would be rubbed into and absorbed by the skin. Simply put, the anointing is God’s power. It is the manifestation
and the result of his presence. Without God’s glory, we will never have His power. At the same time, the power without
the presence will destroy a person; it will become an enemy. So we must have the presence with the power. The glory is given
as long as a person is faithful. The power is the gift we receive as a result of the glory of God. Thus, a person can lose
the glory and keep the power, for example, Sampson and Saul.” -Benny Hinn - Operating in the Anointing – Lesson I “You Shall Receive
Power”
Amazingly, the dream comes at a time, when lately, I had been literally asking the LORD, according to Mark 16: 17-18,
“Where are my signs and wonders?” –
“And these signs will follow those who believe: In my name they will cast out
demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means
hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.”
“I don’t want to just keep reading about them Father- believing- knowing that You are
the Mighty, All-Powerful God, I want to be used to perform them!”
Well, I’ve believed God for physical healings to my body and I am a living witness to miracles in my life.
I have also been a part of, and witness to, miracles in the lives of others through prayer and fasting. But I know there’s
much more to do! There is more for the Lord to accomplish through his people because we are his hands in the earth.
We are the Body of Messiah. To have his mind, be full of his Spirit and to do the Father’s will in the earth is
His plan for us. And it is all to the Glory of God.
Let's Reminisce.
Remember Moses… Remember Joshua and the walls of Jericho!!
Remember
Samson, a Nazirite to God? He was sanctified and separated as vowed, and he was to never cut his hair as was told
to his mother by an Angel:
“For behold, you
shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb;
and he shall deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” Judges 13:5
“and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord
began to move upon him at Mahaneh Dan (Camp of Dan) between Zorah and Eshtaol.” Judges 13:25
We all know that Samson did many awesome things in his life, and as we read here,
Samson was born to deliver Israel out of the hand of their enemies, the Philistines- something one would consider to be a
mighty task. But Samson had supernatural strength through the LORD’s Spirit. Yet even after Samson
sinned in the eyesight of God, lost God’s Glory, and had his hair cut deceitfully, the LORD’s anointing, His power,
manifests in Samson’s life through his one last feat when he, as a blind captive, “with one blow,” took
vengeance on the Philistines:
“Then Samson said, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’
And he pushed with all his might and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed
at his death were more than he had killed in his life.” Judges 16:30
Remember David, when he defeated Goliath? Though
Goliath was massive in size, David trusted in the Power and Might of the Almighty God.
“Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin.
But I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel,’” “Then all this
assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give
you into our hands.” I Samuel 17: 45
& 47
Yes, the stone provided the blow but it was the LORD’s Spirit that
gave David the “mind” to use the stone, where to aim, and to trust in Him only
to prevail!
Incidentally, in I Samuel 16, the chapter just prior to this victory for David and God’s
people over the Goliath and the Philistine army; God had used Samuel to anoint David as King, and the Bible states “the
Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward.” Is there any question as to why or how he prevailed?
I think not!
Remember the Prophet Elijah,
as he out ran Ahab and the chariot on foot?!
“Then the power of the LORD came upon Elijah; and he girded up
his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.” I Kings 18:46
This would be impossible for a man
to accomplish in his own strength, but with the LORD’s Spirit, with His power; it became a reality
in the earth.
Remember Jesus, Our Lord and Savior.
Yes, who is Immanuel, God
with us, but who also took on the form of a man. Because of this, He did everything with, by, and through the Spirit of God,
even unto His death and then His resurrection!
“Then Jesus, when He had been baptized,
came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove and alighting upon Him.”
We all know of the mighty, numerous miracles Jesus performed back then, and still perform today.
It is by the same Spirit in which He operates in the earth realm that He has given to us to go on to do even “greater
works!”
"Truly, I tell all of you
with certainty, the one who believes in me will also do what I am doing. He will do even greater works than these, because
I am going to the Father.” –Jesus John 14:12
Remember the Apostles.
“And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”–Jesus
The Apostles
went on to do mighty deeds and miracles in the Lord.
Remember in Acts 3:6-8 when Peter
healed the lame man at the “Beautiful Gate,” and in Acts 5 when many were healed:
“And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people.
– And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the sick
out into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of
them. -Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented
by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.” Acts 5: 12, 14-16
Remember Paul.
The Bible says
that God worked “unusual” miracles by the hand of Paul, so that even when handkerchiefs or aprons were brought
from his body to the sick, the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Acts 19: 11-12
Do
you know any modern-day Dorcus’s?
That’s the woman raised from the dead in Acts 9:37-42. Well, I do.
We could go on, and on and on!
By the
Spirit of God all things, absolutely ALL things are possible. The Spirit of the LORD
is here and moving in the earth today doing powerful acts through His people. With miracles, signs and wonders
performed many will see and believe in Him just as it was with the early church.
But…
I would be remiss if I did not offer an example of those operating in their own flesh in seeking to do mighty, supernatural
acts without the power and anointing of the Lord. (In addition to the example in the opening
paragraph, of course)
Check out Acts 19:13-16:
“Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the
name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘We adjure (command) you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.’
Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said ‘Jesus
I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?’ Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered
them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”
See, even evil spirits recognize and fall under
the power and authority of, and only, the Spirit of God. This is why the evil spirit stated “Jesus
I know and Paul I know,” because it was the same Spirit by which Jesus and Paul operated.
Likewise, in my dream, the LORD was illustrating the same message to me; that if not by His Spirit and
His anointing, I have no power.
Finally...In the words of a dear sister in the Lord, "It's not Hocus Pocus!"
We cannot say a few words and wave some type of wand, blink our eyes, twist our necks, point our fingers, raise our
voices, be wishin' and hopin,' etc., and expect the power of the LORD to show up. No. It is
only by His Anointing, His Spirit in, on, and through us that we can go on, just like the anointed ones in the past, and the
many other anointed vessels today, and do mighty deeds in the
name of the Lord!
Hallelujah!
