There are different dimensions of the anointing of God.  There is the anointing within a believer, and the anointing that can come upon a believer. There is an anointing connected to spiritual gifts and an anointing connected to the Word of God. Are you hungry for the anointing and the move of God in your life? But, how does the anointing come?

Isa. 55:1-2
1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

• Being in continually contact with the Anointed One Jesus is how the anointing increases in your life.
• Because the anointing comes by association.

The Anointing Comes Into Your Life by Association

• It comes by proximity, by being near it.
• God’s anointing comes into your life by the relationships and the associations that you have with other men and women of God who are anointed.
• Stay close to people that Jesus anoints.

The Anointing, is Timeless.

• An anointed word from God spoken 100 years ago to a man and recorded in a book, you will find, is just as anointed today as the first day that word was spoken.
• There is nothing special per se about the human vessel that God uses.
• There is nothing special about the Bro. Hagin’s, the Smith Wigglesworth’s and the John G. Lake’s of Christian lore.
• What is special about them is that they spent a great amount of time with the Anointed One and God deposited into their lives.
• Those deposits, those anointing’s transcends generations of men.
• So…
• If you soak in that anointing;
• If you apply the principle of saturation, and you soak in anointed thoughts and you immerse and read anointed words;
• • If you pursue the anointing’s of God with intensity that anointing will come upon you and become part of the fabric of your life.
• The anointing is contagious!
• It is a highly contagious phenomenon.
• Here is an example of the principle in the New Testament.

Acts 4:13 (KJV)
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

• The similarities that the religious leadership saw in the disciples were not physical or personality (soul) areas.
• They were spiritual.
• These men saw Jesus and heard Jesus speak and now these disciples look and sound just like Him.
• Where did they get that from?
• They got that from 3 ½ years of walking with Him. They got that through the principle of association.
• There are many examples of this in the Bible, this is just an introduction into this series.
• Mark it down, coming to Jesus connects you to the Anointing.

John 3:34 (KJV)
34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

• Jesus had the Spirit without measure.
• The more you come to Him, the more measure you have.

Notice these words of Jesus.

John 7:37–39 (ESV)
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

John 6:35 (KJV)
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

• Sometimes these verses in John’s gospel do not have the impact on us that they should have.
• The reason why they don’t affect us as they should is because we have inadvertently added a couple of words mentally when we read this.
• We added …’he that cometh to me THE FIRST TIME.’
• ‘The first time’ meaning the day that you were saved.
• We inadvertently thought that coming to Him meant ‘the salvation experience.’
• But it cannot just mean that.
• How do we know this?
• Now, we know that the Bible is not just referring to our first encounter with Jesus because the language of food is used; hungering and thirsting.
• The nature of food is such that it is not a one-time event.
• If you eat once, you have to eat again.
• If you drink once, you have to drink again.
• Since eating and drinking is a continually thing, then ‘coming to Him’ must be a continual thing also.
• According to this verse in Isaiah 55 and these verses in John’s gospel, there are good things to eat that will satisfy you.
• What kind of good things?
• Are they physical things spoken of here?
• Aren’t you glad there are good things physically to eat?
• But, He is not talking about physical things that will satisfy here.
• In fact, Jesus tells us exactly what it is that will satisfy us.

John 7:37–39 (ESV)
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit,

• So, it is not what will satisfy, but WHO!
• The Holy Spirit will satisfy your heart.
• His ministry is engaged as you engage the Anointed One.
• If you are hungry, Jesus said, “Come to Me”.
• If you are thirsty, Jesus said, “Come to Me”.
• When you do the anointing will start flowing out of your heart.
• The act of ‘Coming to Him’ engages the anointing.
• There is more to this Christian walk than just being born again.
• Denominational churches are full of stagnant Christians who haven’t maintained constant growth.

ILLUSTRATION: Rocking Chair Christians
Some Christians show no movement or growth in their life. They are like people who sit in comfortable rocking chairs. There only movement is back and forth; a lot of motion but no forward progress. All they ever seem to accomplish is to wear holes in the carpets of their churches.

• Churches are full of Christians that sit there and soak the Word all in but never do a thing with it.
• It’s amazing that we talk about those who sit in undeveloped churches and denominations and listen to sermons that lack revelation and enlightenment.
• All the while, we sit up and listen to good sermons and don’t do a thing with the information.
• The end result is the same.
• Bad sermons acted on are almost equal to good sermons not acted on.
• In fact, bad sermons acted on are better than good sermons not acted on.
• Because God will give you credit for being true to your convictions even if you what you are acting on is incorrect.
• It is your heart intent that the Lord looks on.

Maintain a Constant Spiritual Experience.

• A constant coming to Him.
• This experience is supposed to be a continuous living one.
• We don’t just commit ourselves to Jesus the day we get saved.
• We don’t just come to Him one time.
• We come to Him constantly.
• We say yes to Him constantly.
• How easy it is for us, though, to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and even be involved in good things.
• And yet, you wake up one morning and you find that you are dry spiritually.
• If you are dry, you are not drinking.
• You walk around throughout the day feeling empty.
• If you are empty, you are not eating.
• Could it be that we have in the hustle and bustle of trying to get things done, we have traded in the benefits and the anointing of God that we experience in His Presence?
• Have we traded in our anointing for a plan of our doing?
• Have we caused the anointing to diminish in our lives trying to operate our plan?
• Have we traded in the potential benefits of His Presence and His Power for the busyness of accomplishing earthly goals?
• Have we put earthly ahead of spiritual?
• We are talking here about the anointing, about understanding it, about flowing with it.
• We are talking about the Spirit of God in you, the Spirit of God on you and the Spirit of God through you.

A Potential Locator Question

• Is God’s empowering Presence more important to you than your net worth?
• Does God’s Holy Spirit power have more value to you then your valuables?
• Let’s start by looking at a verse that speaks of the anointing.

Isaiah 10:27 (ESV)
27 And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”

• KJV has ‘the anointing shall be destroyed because of the anointing’
• One translation uses the word ‘fat’ the other uses the word ‘anointing’.
• What does ‘fat’ have to do with the anointing?
• The word ‘fat’ here has a tie-in to olive oil which was used to consume as food and used to anoint.
• Isaiah inspired by the Spirit of God is using a metaphor in connection with an oxen.
• This is not the only time this metaphor was used.

Deuteronomy 32:15 (ESV)
15 “But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.

• Jeshurun is another metaphor, a poetic reference to Israel as an oxen.
• In Isaiah 10, the yoke being spoken of was a yoke of oppression coming by the hands of God’s enemies; the Assyrians.
• The Spirit of God uses this picture of an oxen that is both carrying a burden on it shoulder and yoke around its neck indicating a double problem.
• The problem Israel had was twofold.
• First, they were burdened.
• Second, they were yoked.
• Yokes and burdens are connected but they are also different.

The Burden

• Since the burden is spoken of first let’s address it first.

Isaiah 10:27 (ESV)
…‘his burden will depart from your shoulder AND his yoke from your neck’.

• A yoke is an instrument that causes an ox to stay in place.
• While an ox is yoked you can lay anything upon it.
• You can hitch anything to an ox once it’s yoked.
• The owner can hitch a garbage truck to the ox once it’s yoked.
• Are you seeing any spiritual imagery here?
• Do you see the fact that the enemy has a hold on people, he has them yoked; once he has them yoked, he lays all kinds of burdens, all of kinds of garbage on them.
• Sometimes people pray that God will remove the burden, remove the weight, remove the garbage, when, in fact, it is not really the burden at all that is keeping them in check, it is the yoke.
• Say, for example, that you are under a ‘burden of debt’.
• The burden is weighing you down.
• Someone may hand you a pile of money.
• And, in fact, you may praying for a pile of money to ease the burden.
• The truth is if you don’t deal with the yoke, if you are still yoked up after the burden has been lifted, it won’t be long until you end up right back in the same situation.
• You’ll end carrying another burden.
• Just because a burden has been removed or lightened does not mean you are really free.

The Yoke

• Notice again the oxen used in this metaphor and let’s look at the ESV version of this verse in Isaiah 10.

Isaiah 10:27 (ESV)
27 And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”

• Notice that this oxen in Isaiah has an eating problem!
• It got so fat that it broke out of its yoke.
• How did this oxen get so ‘fat’ in the first place?
• Only one way, he ate a whole lot.
• He ate a ton!
• Constantly eating; constantly drinking.
• This ox gets so full and so fat and, consequently, its neck gets so large that it pops its yoke right off its neck.
• You don’t get fat by eating nothing, you know.
• Spiritually speaking, there is a tremendous truth here.
• Do you see it?
• What about this verse now in the Psalms?

Psalm 81:10 (ESV)
10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

• Why would you open your mouth wide?
• Would it not be to eat?
• When you were a baby learning to eat, didn’t your Mom say to you, ‘Now honey, open your mouth wide, take a big bite?’
• That verse is about eating.
• The Lord saying, “Open your mouth wide and I will feed you all you want.”
• If you are not eating, it’s your fault not the pastor’s fault, not the ministers, not the Sunday school teachers fault.

Now we come full circle to Isa. 55:1 again.

Isa. 55:1-2
1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat;… let your soul delight itself in fatness.

John 7:37–39 (ESV)
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit,…

• Do you see it?
• Do you see that by a constant continual association with the Anointed
• One, you can so cause the anointing of God or ‘the fat’ to increase in your life to such an extent that you become huge in Him, so huge that the stuff you are yoked to just disintegrates.
• Mark this down, don’t ever forget it.
• There are some problems in life that you cannot pray away.
• The only way to overcome them is to grow out of them.
• The only way to handle them is to develop.
• Some problems can only be overcome by growing your way past them; by destroying them with development.
• You have to grow up to get free.
• How do you get fat in God’s economy?
• By eating and drinking constantly.
• By constantly coming to Him.
• By getting so huge in Him that you will actually burst or pop the problem right off of you.

Call to Action:

The nature of things is growth. We are supposed to grow and develop in Him. We are supposed to ‘get huge’ and ‘fat’ in God’s economy. Take steps along this line. Make growing a priority.

Question: In maintaining a constant spiritual experience, what areas of growth have you experienced in this last year? Please share and leave a comment below to help others.