Creflo A Dollar - The anointing to live : accessing the power ; avoiding the pitfalls

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good , and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. (Acts 10:38)

It would be easy to think that everything one could possibly say about the anointing of the Holy Ghost has already been said Countless books have been written about it. Untold sermons have explored the topic. And, especially in recent years, fresh revelation from mighty men and women of God has come forth on the anointing.

The fact of the matter is, however, the subject of the anointing is as deep and inexhaustible as the power of God itself.

A few years back I wrote a book about the anointing which incorporated most of what I knew about the subject at the time. It was called Understanding God's Purpose for the Anointing. Looking back, I realized I only scratched the surface with that book.

There is so much more we haven't begun to apply to our lives. So much we don't understand. And if we, the body of Christ, are to get where we need to be in these last days, we must have a greater understanding of how to live in the anointing and how the anointing enables us to live.

The End of Yokes and Burdens

In the fourth chapter of Luke, we find one of the most remarkable and important passages in all of scripture:

And he [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet [Isaiah]. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted , to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:16-19)

Why are these verses so important? Because, in them, Jesus states His mission and identifies Himself as the Anointed One prophesied in scripture. The one whose anointing will remove the burdens and destroy yokes.

When Jesus sat down in the synagogue and read the above passage from Isaiah 61, He was declaring to all the world that He was "anointed." He declared that the anointing meant good news for poor people, healing for the sick or brokenhearted , plus deliverance and freedom for anyone oppressed or captive in any way.

After reading that passage he sat down and made what, for his Jewish listeners, was an earth-shaking statement:

...This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (Luke 4:21)

Just a few weeks earlier Jesus had been baptized by John in the Jordan River. At the moment of His baptism, the Spirit of God descended like a dove "anointing" Him with the power of the Holy Ghost without measure.

This anointing was the same one the prophet Isaiah foresaw:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that his [Satan's] 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. (Isaiah 10:27)

The anointing of Holy Ghost power that rested upon Jesus is the power to remove burdens and destroy yokes.

The terms "burden" and "yoke" are words that relate to beasts of burden. They refer to images of oxen in heavy wooden yokes pulling heavy loads, and donkeys trudging along with backs piled high.

This is precisely how most of the world lives. Satan is described in the Bible as "the. god of this world" and those who live under his domain live life shackled by yokes of bondage such as addiction and fear. They labor under crushing loads of sickness, lack and relational strife.

The anointing Jesus announced comes to remove those burdens and destroy those yokes. In fact, the Hebrew word translated "destroy" means to progressively corrode until something is reduced to powder. The anointing doesn't just break yokesit disintegrates them.

Learning to live in the freedom, joy and power the anointing provides is what this book is all about.

CHAPTER 1 THE COMING OF ANTICHRISTS

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. (Isaiah 10:27)

"The anointing destroys the yoke." This phrase has become a familiar one in many Christian circles. I've personally done a lot of teaching over the last few years about "the burden-removing, yoke-destroying power of the anointing."

That teaching has centered on the truth that the term Christ, literally translated, means "the Anointed One and His anointing."

In other words, the power of the Holy Spirit which rested in and upon Jesus is now available to us because we are "in Christ." (2 Corinthians 1:21; 5:17)

So, what does the anointing do? It removes burdens and destroys yokes. Are there any burdens the anointing cannot remove? Any yokes it cannot destroy? No. The anointing of God is the most powerful force in the universe. There is nothing in this world or in Satan's domain that can withstand it.

There is, however, a force at work in the earth with the specific purpose of trying to stop the anointing from operating in your life. It is an anti-anointing force.

Now, keep in mind that the biblical word for the anointed one and His anointing is Christ. So what do you think the Bible calls this force that sets itself against the anointing? Antichrist, of course.

The Anti-Anointing

When most of us hear the term "antichrist," we immediately think of end-time prophecy and the evil person the book of Revelation calls "the beast." While this term certainly does apply to the individual mentioned in prophecy, the term antichrist has a broader meaning.

Look at 3 John 2: 18, and you'll see what I mean:

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

According to John, there were already many "antichrists" present in the earth in his day. By that we know he certainly couldn't have been referring to the beast of revelation.

He was talking about those people, things and evil spirits that are against the anointing. The name antichrist literally means "anti-anointed one and his anointing."

Anything in your life which tends to quench or hinder the anointing of God is an antichrist to you. That thing is anti-anointing.

Unforgiveness is anti-anointing. Bitterness, lying and gossip are anti- anointings . So are lust, slothfulness and lasciviousness. Anything that goes against the anointing has an antichrist or anti-anointing aspect to it.

Satan and his demonic spirits are not only out to keep you from operating in the. anointing , but they also bring a form of anointinga supernatural empowerment acting on human fleshthemselves.

Take, for example, the account of the "madman of Gadara" found in Mark, chapter five. There we see a supernatural demonic power working in the flesh of a man.

And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by hint, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. (Mark 5:2-4)

What was the source of this man's supernatural strength? A destructive anointing from the anti-anointed one.

The Anointing in the Last Days

Notice the verse in 1 John concerning antichrists talked about knowing we're in the last days. He said, "...even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time."