Anointed by Consumation

Consumed on the inside or consumed by the outside

Acts 28:1–6 KJV 1900

And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.

We see two perspectives, one that comes from the world, and one that has been commissioned to us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

First - When the barbarians saw the viper fastened on Paul’s hand...they said to themselves... vengeance sufferth not to live. In other words, they cast judgment on Paul. See, the world does this; they forecasted Paul’s fate. Many of us do this to ourselves, and we also do it to others. Instead of trusting in the Lord, we begin to trust in ourselves. Then we start to think we know best, and then we begin to forecast the fate of others with an expectation of failure..with an expectation of infirmity...with an expectation of financial issues..with an expectation of finality!?

In other words, death! The Malta or Melita natives thought Paul was going to die! And when he did not, they thought he was a god. That is the power..the presence..the promise of God in our lives! He brings salvation. Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

It does not matter how bad a situation may appear. Or how terrifying. Or how large a situation is in our life. Isaiah 10:27 “And it shall come to pass in that day, That his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, And his yoke from off thy neck, And the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.”

When the anointing is present, the burdens will be lifted off your shoulders and the yoke will be removed from your neck. The Word of God says the anointing destroys the yokes in our lives. That is the yoke of depression. That is the yokes of despair. That is the yoke of financial burdens. That is the yoke of anger. The yokes of manipulation. The yokes of famine. The yoke of poverty. The anointing destroys the yokes in our lives! Amen! God is good! Hallelujah!!

Scripture says in 1 John 2:27 “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”

That means the presence of the Holy Spirit abides in you, and that same anointing teaches you all things and is truth, and does not lie, and there is a promise in the Word of God that we can abide in the presence of the Holy Spirit!

Scripture says in John 12:46, “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.” There are trials of darkness that come against us, travails of pain and grief, and mockery, disbelief, and trials of evil that hit us in ways we could not expect. We feel like the vehicle is stuck on a railroad crossing as the train barrels towards us. Sometimes, the attacks feel like a trash bag that is slowly suffocating us, and we are gasping for air. Sometimes the attacks feel like we are going through a fire. We look around, and everything is burning down around us. We think of Isaiah 43:2 “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” But when you are in the thick of it, there are those around you forecasting failure, forecasting your infirmity, forecasting your finality! Just like the natives rendering judgment on Paul, they waited for him to die! Think about that...the truth is some wait for us to fail, wait for us to fall, wait for us to flail in our flesh, and every time we are flailing on the firing line - God is reminding us He is on our side, we have authority, and maximize the anointing in our lives.

I want to stop right here, right now - there has been a forecast of a death of failure in our lives. Right now, someone has been going through a trying time, a hard time, a destructive time, a despairing time.

But Christ Jesus has given us life! Scriptures say in John 1:4 “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

I love how Paul placed sticks on the fire, and scripture says the fire revealed the viper, which then fastened itself around Paul’s hand. When the presence of the anointing is near us, within us, and around us, we will see manifestations of the enemy in our lives. The devil will walk around like a roaring lion, seeking who to devour (1 Pet 5:8). The enemy will attack us because of our anointing! I am not talking about the hardships in our lives that we create. I am not talking about how we make our lives more difficult and declare the enemy is against us. No, the enemy is not against you; you are reaping what you sowed! Scriptures say in Hosea 8:7 “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: It hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: If so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.”

The first point was how the natives forecasted Paul’s death. The second point is Paul was untouched. Paul was unfazed. Scriptures say the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand. The viper was hanging and Paul shook the viper into the fire and felt no harm!

In Mark 16:15–18 “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

The words of Christ Jesus in the Great Commission found in Mark 16 gives us marching orders when working in the power and authority of the anointing, keeping on the firing line! See that is why the devil does not want us to be baptized in the Holy Ghost and Fire! Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

On Fire for God!

When you are on fire for God, you are a threat to hell. One of my favorite passages is found in the book of Judges, where Samson tied 300 foxes together and placed a firebrand between them and sent them out in pairs to burn the Philistines' fields! What a type of Christ we see here in the book of Judges.

Judges 15:4–5 “And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.”

See, the foxes by themselves are just a nuisance, but when FIRE is with them, the Philistines represent an external enemy that opposes God and God’s people and God’s truth! But when Fire is added to the equation, these little foxes became a nightmare to the Philistines - And that is what the power of the anointing does in our lives!

Ye shall receive Power: Strongs definition of Power = Force, ability, strength, violence, specifically miraculous power. This is what happens when you are baptized with the Holy Ghost and Fire. (A supernatural force and ability, strength, violence, and miraculous power come inside you).

The Fire of God is an energizing force

The fire of God is a sanctifying and purifying agent

John said: His fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor. His floor is where he walks, He walks in you, and he walks in me. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. (See 1Co 6:19)

When the Holy Ghost comes, and where the Holy Ghost lives, and where he rules.

He will burn up everything that is of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

He will glorify Jesus in your life.

He will give you the power to say no to the flesh.

He will give you power to crucify the flesh.

He will give you power over the devil in your own life.

You will be able to put the devil under your foot.

He will give you power to be a witness.

He will give you power to help others.

He will make you a blessing to others.

You will be a channel through which the miraculous life power of God flows.

God is looking for those of us who can stand up, those of us who will stand in the gap and make up a hedge of protection before him and the land where the devil is living and operating in.

God doesn’t need a church or a congregation that is stiff-necked, but a church that will stand between the gap of hell and the kingdom of God on earth. Standing in the presence of the anointing, ready punch the devil in the face with prayer and fasting, and intercession!

Out of your bellies shall flow rivers of living waters.

The key to any anointing in your life, relies solely on the Holy Ghost’s presence in your life.

It stirs up the anointing and the giftings that God has put inside of you

It quickens and stirs up that supernatural dimension in your life.

It builds up your inner man. (Jude 1:20) Building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.

It stirs and quickens your faith.

All of the Kingdom of God is in the Holy Ghost… “For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Romans 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

Healing, deliverance, miracles, signs, and wonders, and supernatural joy and peace, these are all manifestations of the Kingdom of God. And they are all the product of the power and the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Jesus was entirely dependent upon the Holy Spirit. The Apostles were entirely reliant on the Holy Spirit.

And we must be entirely dependent upon the Holy Spirit.   “This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Zech 4:6) All the miracles, signs and wonders and demonstrations and manifestations of the power of God from Genesis to Revelation are all the operation of the Holy Spirit.

I’m going to speak now about something many believers may not fully comprehend. I want to discuss with you what the Bible refers to as unction... (1Jn 2:20) “But ye have an “unction” from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” We have come to know the word unction and the anointing as the same thing, but there is a difference between the unction upon and the anointing within.

First, there are four operations of the Holy Spirit as they pertain to our lives as followers of Christ.

1. With us.

2. In us.

3. Upon us.

4. Through us.

The unction or the anointing of the Holy Spirit is not only referring to his indwelling, but rather his coming upon us for service, for ministry, for doing the works of Jesus, for healing, for deliverance, for preaching the gospel, and for casting out devils. It is the Spirit upon us that causes the Spirit within us to flow out of us, or through us. We should desire not only the spirit within us, but also the anointing upon us.

Isaiah 10:27 “And it shall come to pass in that day, That his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, And his yoke from off thy neck, And the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.”

(John 7:37–38 “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” )

It is this anointing upon us, and this unction upon us that is thrusting power. This anointing upon us engages the Spirit within us to flow through us as mighty rivers of healing, miracles, signs, wonders and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Ye are of God little children and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. 1 Jn 4:4

If the Holy Ghost is not consuming you on the inside, than you are being consumed by the outside.

Benediction

Jude 24–25 KJV 1900

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.