There are anointing(s) of the holy spirit that occur after salvation, that empowers the believer to live a life filled with the presence of Jesus,and to deliver the message of heaven.

To understand this, we will look at the lives of those spiritual forefathers that have come before us and then apply their experience to our own lives.  The lives of John Wesley and Billy Graham were empowered by the Holy Spirit after they came to salvation.  They wanted more…they wanted the presence of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

JOHN WESLEY

John Wesley was a missionary to America, and he returned to England in 1738 having failed as a missionary in America. On the trip back, the ship ran into a fierce storm, and he was impressed with the faith and peace of the Moravians on board the ship during that storm.  He was determined to secure that same faith.

On May 24, 1738 he attended a service at Aldersgate Street.  He was moved during the service and recorded the event “In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change that God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Wesley continued his contact with the Moravians and on New Year’s (January 1, 1739) his Holy Club gathered for a love feast on Fetter Lane.  At 3 in the morning Wesley received an anointing of the Holy Spirit, here are his words “Three in the morning the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground.”    

That subsequent anointing empowered Wesley and helped spark the beginning of the Methodist church.

BILLY GRAHAM

Billy Graham accepted Jesus as his savior at the age of 16 in a Charlotte revival held by Mordecai Ham during the fall of 1934.  After seminary, he worked with Youth for Christ and was in England in October 1946.  There he heard Stephen Olford preach a sermon on James 5:18 – “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the spirit.”  Billy was moved by Olford’s preaching, ”I was seeking for more of God in my life, and I felt that here was a man who could help me. He had a dynamic, a thrill, an exhilaration about him I wanted to capture.”  Graham spent several days with Olford which culminated with an anointing of the Holy Spirit. Billy recorded “ My heart is so flooded with the Holy Spirit! I have it! I’m filled”. 

That subsequent anointing empowered Graham and helped lead to the Billy Graham Crusades in 1947

Time to pause, because we aren’t John Wesley, and we aren’t Billy Graham, are we?  So, God probably isn’t going to anoint us for ministry as he anointed them. Wrong, ABSOLUTELY WRONG.

He has placed you in the middle of a people that are spiritually lost.  And it’s getting worse.  They are in your family, they are your friends, your coworkers, the checker at the grocery store, and the person sitting next to you in church.  But we are afraid we will offend them, so we say nothing (over half of Christians in America never talk to others about Jesus and Salvation) we talk to them about other things, trivial things like the weather or ball games and they are still lost forever. 

They are the lost sheep that Jesus went after.  John Wesley and Billy Graham can’t do it anymore, so it’s up to us.  He will empower you to speak his words and he will give you a boldness filled with love to reach them.  But like Wesley and Graham, we have to seek his anointing for we cannot do it on our own.  We would fail, just like we are failing now by doing nothing.   We need the touch of the Master, then we will bloom where we are planted.  It’s the parable of the Sower & the Seed or the Master’s Gold, it’s the Abundant Life, it’s the fulfillment of the Great Commission, it’s The Great Adventure.

At the end of this earthly road is a gate. He will meet us there and he will ask –

“What did you do with the gift I gave you?  Did you share, did you tell the others?”

SELAH

 

SCRIPTURES:     Acts 2

                        Matthew 13:1-12

                        Matthew 25:14-30

                        John 10:10

                        Matthew 28:16-20                     

PRAYER FOCUS:   Anointing of the Holy Spirit.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:  The apostles were told to wait until they received power.  Then they were to GO!

~ Written by Gene Bennett