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There is something that can block the power of the anointing, and I want to warn you about it. I want to put you on alert against it so the devil can't sneak up on you and rob you of the glory that's ahead.

What is this evil thing? It is taking offense at the message of Jesus.

The Old Covenant prophets had the anointing on them. But in many cases, God could not send them to His own people because if they said anything about being anointed, the people would reject them. They'd puff up like a bunch of religious toads and say, "Who are you to say you're anointed?" The anointing can't get through to people like that. Their offended attitude and unbelief short-circuits it.

It's important for you to understand that because there's been a great deal of misunderstanding about it. Religion has taught us, for instance, that God withdrew His power from the folks at Nazareth because He didn't like their attitude. It was as though He said, "Listen to that ungrateful bunch making wisecracks about My Son. I believe I'll just turn off the anointing so they won't get any."

But that's not what happened. Jesus was anointed at Nazareth. He said so. He also had such a strong desire to minister to the people that He laid hands on them in spite of their attitude toward Him. Nobody received much, however. Their offended, unbelieving hearts kept the anointing from getting through to them. Being offended is a resistor to the flowing of God's power.

If you'll read the gospels, you'll find that attitude of offense is the only thing that successfully stopped the flow of the anointing. Sin didn't stop it. "Unworthiness" didn't stop it. We know that's true because in more than one case we see Jesus ministering to a whole multitude and healing them all.

Don't you think there were a few scoundrels in those multitudes? Don't you think there were a couple of people who had so much sin in their lives they didn't have any business getting healed? Certainly there were! But that's the good news. Jesus has come to destroy the yokes of sin, sickness, and every other damnable curse of the devil not only in the lives of those who are good and righteous and deserving, but in the lives of all who will simply dare to believe.

That's the gospel of Christ. That's the gospel of the "Anointed One and His Anointing!"

But there is one more fact about the anointing that we haven't yet mentioned, and it is this fact that offends religious minds today. Jesus isn't the only One anointed anymore! It was never God's intention to simply anoint Jesus with His power and leave it at that. God on one man was not enough!

That's why He sent Jesus to the cross and then raised Him from the dead. He wanted to open the way for us to get born again and become a whole race of anointed men and women. He sent Jesus to be the anointed head over an anointed body of people who would take God's devil-busting, yoke-annihilating power to every corner of the earth.

That's been God's plan from the beginning. When He first raised up the nation of Israel, He wanted every man and woman among them to be a priest unto Him. He wanted to anoint everyone in the nation. But they said to Moses, "No, we don't want to hear God's voice. You go meet with Him and tell us what He says" (see Ex. 20:19).

God agreed to their request. He didn't anoint anyone in Israel but the prophet, the king, and the priest. But He didn't give up on His plan. Instead, through Jesus the Anointed One, He raised up a whole nation of kings and priests and called them His Church.

That's what we are! We are "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

We are anointed with the Anointing of the Anointed One! When we preach the gospel, we not only tell people that Jesus was "anointed...with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil," but we also tell that "we are witnesses" (Acts 10:38-39).

In other words, we're living proof that Jesus is anointed with yoke-destroying power because as His servants, that anointing is on us. We lay hands on the sick now, just like He did, and they recover. We cast out devils. We speak the Word of God in faith and set the captives free!

Through our religious traditions, the devil has tried to steal that truth from us. He talked us into a false humility that says, "Oh, no. I'm not anointed. I'm nothing more than an unworthy old sinner saved by grace."

That is an ungodly lie! We're not unworthy sinners. The Word of God says we're joint heirs with Christ, sons of the Most High God. We're the Body of Christ. Translate that and you'll see we're the Body of the "Anointed One and His Anointing!"

It's time we quit backing off from that fact. When someone says to us, "Do you mean to tell me you have the power to heal?" we should answer them boldly and say, "Yes, thank God because greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. I have the Anointing of Almighty God in me and the Father within me, He does the works!"

What's more, when someone we know stands up in church one day and says, "The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me with the gift of healing," we'd better not be offended. We'd better not jump up and say, like those people in Nazareth did about Jesus, "Oh, Joe's not anointed. I've known him all my life." If we do, we'll short-circuit the power of God.

Why are so many believers offended when a man or woman of God says or behaves as though they're anointed? After all, Jesus did it and He's our pattern. In fact, our primary calling is to protect that anointing and keep it flowing through us and among us. Read the following verses from Ephesians 4, translate the Greek word Christ and insert its English counterpart the Anointed One or the anointing, and you'll see exactly what I mean:

But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Anointed One and His Anointing...and he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of the Anointing: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Anointing (vv. 7, 11-13).

According to this scripture, we're headed toward a time when we'll be walking in the anointing to its fullest expression! I want to see that, don't you? I want to see the whole Body of Christ flowing in the anointing so powerfully that the whole earth is filled with God's glory. I believe with all my heart, we're the generation who will see that!

But before we do, we must lay aside the things that block that anointing. We must rid ourselves of religious traditions that cause us to take offense at the idea that ordinary believers like us, or the fellow across the street, or the pastor of our little church can operate in the Anointing of Almighty God.

We must tell the devil to shut his mouth when he comes to us during a service and starts whispering, "Hey, that guy isn't really anointed. He said the dumbest thing you ever heard just last week. And anyway, those people aren't falling down when he's laying hands on them, he's pushing them down. He's just trying to draw attention to himself." We must slam the door on him and say, "You're just trying to stop the anointing, devil. You just want to put me out of the flow. But I'm not getting out, you understand? I refuse to take offense!"

I asked the Lord once what was the greatest problem in the Body of Christ. Here's what He told me: "It's your dogged determination to correct one another."

It's time for us to change that. We must stop the strife, stop the criticism, and stop taking offense at one another - and we must do it now because the end of the age is at hand. The anointing needs to flow in measures we've never before seen or even dreamed were possible.

So let's rise up in unity and show the world that what was once true in Jesus' own life and ministry is now true in the lives of His servants throughout the earth. Let's dare to believe the Word of God and say, "Because I belong to Jesus, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and He hath anointed me!" Let's preach - and live - the gospel of Christ.

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Author Biography

Kenneth Copeland
Web site: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
 
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God’s WORD to their lives.
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