- Today, I want to start
a series called the anointing. And I want to start
the first message today that will talk about
what is the anointing, why we need the anointing,
how to receive the anointing and how to walk
in the anointing. The title of my first message
today will be called, stay on fire. Somebody say Amen. Stay on fire. Touch your
neighbor say stay on fire. Turn to your other neighbor and
say, it's time for you to get on fire. Anointing really
makes the difference. In the Bible, prophets were
anointed, kings were anointed priests were anointed, sometimes
they even anointed objects where Jacob anointed
a pillar and he said that this will be the house of God. Priests would anoint
different objects in the temple to consecrate them to God. The word anointing simply means
to smear anointment on something. We know that Jesus was anointed. Jesus Christ, Christ
is not Jesus' last name. Christ is just the
Hebrew word for anointed. So Jesus Christ thought it was
necessary for Him to be anointed. How much more it is for you and I
to be anointed by the Holy Spirit? Jesus had no sin and He still
needed anointing on His life because the Bible says that
He was anointed to preach. See, without the anointing
you are a motivational speaker; with the anointing you are
a preacher with a difference. Without the anointing you
are a singer with a talent with the anointing you are a
worshiper with a difference. Without the anointing
you have a title of a father with anointing you are a
dad that makes a difference in the life of your kids. Without the anointing, you
know, we just preach information with the anointing we release
impartation, revelation, manifestation, and every other -ation that is
there in the Book in Jesus' name. Can somebody say Amen? Anointing makes the difference.
Anointing is not about the numbers. Anointing is not about the looks. Anointing is not about the
eloquence, emotionalism. Anointing is not really
about the manifestation. Anointing is the unction. It's the power
of God that moves through a person. You can write this down: Anointing
is the overflow of the life of God that's flowing through
His dedicated servant. Anointing of the Holy Spirit is
the overflow of the divine life of God through you as a consecrated
servant of the Lord. Really what anointing is, is
when the overflow of God's life comes through you on
every area of your life. It's very important to understand
that Satan fights anointing. The spirit of antichrist
that is at work today and eventually that
will be the antichrist - a person that's going
to fight the anointing. But right now what's at
work is the spirit of antichrist. The spirit of antichrist is
a spirit that typically works through religious people to
fight and to try to belittle, make fun or mock anything that
has to do with genuine move of God. Satan is afraid of the anointing
because the anointing is his only threat. The Bible says that talents don't
break the yoke, anointing does. Emotionalism don't heal
people, anointing does. You know, screaming and
yelling as great as that is passion, it's not what
really changes people's lives. It's the anointing that
changes people's lives. And Jesus was anointed
by the Holy Spirit. He went about doing God's work and the Bible says destroying
the works of the devil. The anointing is a threat
to the kingdom of the devil. And that's why what he will
do is he will raise accusations, he will raise all kinds of
Google stories and news stories against anyone who is anointed
to try to blemish their reputation so that people will be
intimidated and frightened by them. It's a spirit of antichrist.
He fights the anointing. He's okay with you knowing
that Jesus is a good teacher. He's okay with you knowing
that Jesus is a good Man. But the moment that you start
going to the side that Jesus is full of the Holy Ghost and
you can be full of the Holy Ghost, Satan trips over that. And he will do whatever it
takes to try to stop from that. But we are going to
be an anointed church. We are going to be
anointed Christians. We are going to have
anointed home groups. And we are going to have
anointed houses, anointed cars. Everything we touch will be anointed
because we are full of the Holy Spirit. Can somebody say Amen? When we were in the world
we were full of darkness. That's why we cussed,
that's why we lied. That's why we slept
around, smoked, got drunk and did all that stuff.
We were full of the devil. Being in church, we
are not full of religion We are full of the Holy
Spirit and therefore we will live in the anointing of
God. Can somebody say Amen? Put your hands
together for Jesus Christ. [Applause] I want us to open
1 Samuel 9:19-20. We will tackle the story of
Saul. And it says the following: "Samuel answered Saul
and said, 'I am the seer. "Go up before me to a high place,
and you shall eat with me today; "and tomorrow I will let you go and
will tell you all that is in your heart. "But as for your donkeys
that were lost three days ago, do not be anxious about
them, for they have been found." I want you to see something. Samuel meets Saul. I want you to see this: Saul
comes to Samuel about the donkeys because they were lost. And Samuel tells him, he
says, "I will tell you tomorrow what's on your heart." Means
that donkeys were not in his heart. Oh, by the way, he says, "The
donkeys, they've been found." That means the donkeys were
on his mind. What was on his heart? The next day, Saul sends the
servant away. Anoints him with oil and says, "You are the next
King of Israel." That's incredible. Saul carried inside of his heart
a dream to be a king of Israel but he was so
embarrassed to tell anybody. And the reason why he
hid it so deep in his heart because Israel has
never ever had a king. Does anybody here has a dream
that has never happened in your family? Do you carry something
that is so radical and so crazy that if you tell other
people they will say, "You are nuts.
You are crazy. "What, you have a dream
that you are going to do this, you are going to do that?" And
Saul had a dream to be a king. He carried that dream. He comes
to Samuel because he has problems with donkeys. And so Samuel
says, "I'm going to tell you tomorrow what's on your heart. But your
donkeys, they've actually found." So the donkeys were
never really on his heart. What was in his heart was
his dream and his destiny. See the problem many
times in our lives is that the donkeys cloud the destiny. Sometimes the enemy uses
our circumstances to cloud the real dream and the real
vision and the real purpose that you and I
have in the heart. Because see, the devil wants
you to chase donkeys of your life. Means he wants you to just live
your life from paycheck to paycheck just finish school, literally,
get a girlfriend, get a car get a new iPhone, get the
new watch, get the new shoes, get this and get that. He
wants your life to be spinning in the donkey world but deep on the
inside you were born with a destiny. And sometimes that destiny
inside of you is something nobody ever has
seen in your family tree. [Applause] And you close your eyes when
you get in the presence of God and you see the
picture of your dream. Tears rolling down your eyes,
but there is a fear in your heart because what you are dreaming
about is beyond your wildest dreams. That means that
dream is from God. Because if that would have
been from you, it wouldn't fit in your tiny small
little limited heart. But if it's from God, it will
bury deep, deep in your heart. Never apologize for the
dreams deposited by God. Never shy away. You might not
be able to see them come true today or tomorrow but you have to
understand true prophetic ministry is not to tell me what
my donkey problems are. True prophetic ministry
cuts through the donkeys and gets into what's
buried inside of your spirit, which is a dream from heaven. It doesn't take a prophet
to tell me what my sins are. They are pretty much the
same. All of us struggle the same. But it takes a prophet to cut
through the sin and get into your spirit where there is a dream
that is laying there from God and pull that out and say,
"What you think is crazy is God." See, when I worship
and I close my eyes, I see this large
stadium full of people. Tears begin to roll down my eyes
when I see that because I know this is so scary. I see
literally a row of wheelchairs and I see as I'm
walking up pow, pow, pow, people just getting up from
their wheelchairs. I open my eyes and I realize we just have
ten people at morning prayer. But see, the Holy Spirit will
always get through the mess you are in right now into
what's in your spirit and say, "Listen, that which you
carry in your heart is from me." Some of you here in your
spirit right now there is an idea to have a business. But
the very of having a business throws you in a cold sweat.
The very idea that you will be free, the very idea that one
day you will be a millionaire and that you will sponsor
build orphanages, that idea-- but today I'm struggling and
asking God, "Where will I get money to pay for my gas?" Listen,
your donkeys are not a reflection of the destiny you
have in your spirit. The destiny is from the
Holy Ghost. The donkeys will be solved. [Applause] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Anybody here has
a dream from God? Anybody here if you be very honest
you say that dream is unrealistic? That means it is from God. Maybe you are saying, "But
that's no so. That's not me. That which I'm believing
and keeping in my heart." That's why there is a
prophetic word for you today God says, "I will tell
you what's on your heart." The donkeys come to cloud that. There is some of you
here today you are sin but are called to be a pastor. Your donkey is the sin.
Satan wrapped you around it. And you maybe
sitting here today, you don't see one day you
will be having a home group. You have never been to
a home group in your life but in your heart and in your
spirit there is a dream from heaven. Don't let the donkeys cause you to
live your life in just a donkey world because you are
destined for greatness. You were created by God
not just to go to work at eight and get off at five, and just
eat and watch the TV series, and rest on Saturday and play golf. You were created by God to
live for a reason and for a purpose. The Bible says, "Through abundance
of grace and gift of righteousness we were destined to reign
with Jesus Christ in life." Not just get through life.
Not just survive through life. Not just make it through, get it
by, but to reign. Means to thrive, to rise above and fulfill the true
destiny God placed inside of our spirit. If somebody would
have told me 16 years ago that this is what I would
be doing, that once a month I would be invited to speak at
conferences and youth camps, and that I would be
mentoring other people? I would say, "You are out
of your mind. You are crazy. You mistake me for someone
else." But deep inside I had that. When I saw a preacher preaching
in a large church where I came from in Ukraine, it was about two and
a half thousand member church I saw that, someone deep inside
says, "I would love to do that one day." I didn't know that, "I would
love to do that one day," was actually God's voice
speaking through an insecure 12-year old teenager saying,
"I buried that in your heart. [Applause] Hallelujah! And so, I want you to remember
the destiny was in his heart donkeys were on his mind. Unrealistic dreams
require the Holy Spirit. And that's why Samuel not only
said, "You have a dream, Saul." He said, "The Holy Spirit will
come upon you," and he said, "You will be changed
into a different man." Because see, to fulfill the
dream God placed in you requires God's enablement.
Requires God's anointing. You have to understand in the Old
Testament, in the New Testament God didn't require a degree for
destiny. He required anointing. You don't see Jesus going to a
four-year college and then God said now You are ready
to cast out demons. You see Jesus filled with
Holy Spirit, and God begins to use Him. You don't see David finish
a presidential university and God says now you
are ready to be a king. You see David being
anointed by the Holy Spirit. You have to understand degree is
important, connections is important natural abilities is important,
your eloquence is important your background is important,
all of these things are important but if you want to fulfill
something that came from above you will need the power
that comes from above; and that power
is the Holy Spirit. God anoints Saul and Saul
begins to step into his destiny. Your calling, your vision
without the anointing is really not going to happen. It's a heavy burden
without the anointing. With the anointing-- you may
say, "But I'm in the business world what does anointing have
to do?" Saul wasn't a priest Saul ruled a country. You
need anointing for your business the same way preacher needs
anointing for his preaching. You need anointing for your
family- to raise your family the same way that apostle
need anointing to raise churches. Anointing is not limited to
religion. You have to understand when God created the world,
He never created religions. He only created humans
and He created this world. The Holy Spirit was
never religious spirit. We boxed Him into our religion.
We divided everything into Christianity Baptist, Pentecostals and
everything. But in God's heaven there is no boxes God fits into.
There is no, there is a sacred and there is a secular. In God's world there is
only God who fills everything. And He created the world. And He wants your world to
be impacted by His anointing. Can someone say Amen? Without the anointing
our calling is dangerous; with the anointing
you are dangerous. Come on! Hallelujah! [Applause] When Saul drifted from the Lord
and the anointing lifted from his life he was anointed
to fight Philistines. We know where Saul died. He
died in the battle with Philistines. His anointing, when it was lifted
because of different things that he did the calling Saul had was
no longer a blessing to him. It was not only a burden,
it became his graveyard. Those of us who think that
success of life is dependent on how great your career
is, I have a newsflash for you. If you are not anointed in your
place of work and place of success your success is dangerous. The Bible says that Saul,
when the anointing lifted he became a mad
man. He became insane. Things started going so
bad. The weight of his office the weight of his calling,
the weight of his influence started to crumble on him so bad
like he chased his own tail all his life. He would chase David
who wanted no harm to him. We know that Saul started
to literally become a coward. He couldn't fight a battle.
The only victories he would get is because his son would
rebel against his protocol and that's how God
would give victory. Literally, Saul became
trapped in his own throne. Because the throne
doesn't give you success. It's the anointing that
gives the success. It's the anointing that
pushes you to the throne and you need that anointing
to keep you sane in the throne. Many people think that
if you just get a nice car, if you get a nice house,
if you just get a beautiful family that alone gives you success.
Yes, it will make it good on Instagram picture if you use
enough filter and good lighting but inner happiness and
inner success, the Bible says "The blessing of the Lord
enriches and adds no sorrow. The blessing, the grace, the
favor, and the goodness of God the anointing of the Holy Spirit
makes it smooth. Makes it great. Makes it enjoyable. Makes
you want to go to church in the midst of imperfect
people, lift your hands and say, "I love my God, I love
my family, I love my life." Makes you go through life - in
the hardships or in the good times. And there is a sense of purpose,
there is a sense of fire in your eyes there is a sense of flame in your
soul, there is a sense of intention. Your life has a meaning.
Your life has a purpose. You don't look at your dog
and realize, "You know what, "you're living a better life
than I do because you at least "don't have to work
for it, I work for you. "But I have to work for it,
nobody takes care of me And when I cry nobody
answers, when you cry I answer." You look at your dog you say, "I
wish I would have been like you." That's when you know
you lost the anointing. Your dog has it, you don't. The anointing is living life of
purpose. Living a life on fire. Living a life with a sense, with a flame. I see sometimes people,
25 years of age and they are dead. We are going to have their funeral
40 years later but they died already. No flame. They burned out.
I see you haven't done anything. Burned from what? You see already
they are exhausted, they are tired. Why? Not because college
sucked life out of them Life is demanding.
Life is like a vacuum. Religion is like a vacuum. Even
church can be a like vacuum. Everything will suck
things out of you. If you don't have a flow
of the anointing of God there will be a time you
will be draining on the inside. You can't blame the vacuum. It's just that there is nothing
to take from you no more. That's why you have to have
a life of God constantly flowing. Flowing, flowing. On your school,
on your college, on your work on your parents. Flowing,
flowing, flowing, flowing. [Applause] Anointing comes by association
but it grows by desperation. I want you to say this with me.
Say, "Anointing comes by association but it grows by desperation." "Anointing comes by association
but it grows by desperation." And this is the-- let's get to
the meat part of the message. 1 Samuel 10:11
says the following: "And it happened, when all
who knew him formerly saw that he indeed prophesied
among the prophets," king Saul, "that the people
said to one another, 'What is this that has
come upon the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?" (a) Holy Spirit came upon Saul when
he was in the company of prophets. The anointing upon
Saul's life came when Saul was hanging out with the prophets. And it was so crazy
that people actually said, "Is Saul among prophets?"
It became a proverb in Israel. Means it was so unlike Saul.
It was so unnatural to him. It was so-- his family, none
of them ever kind of like-- they're not the prayer warriors.
They are not the kind of passion They are not the people who
would fast. They were not the people who were interested with
the things of God like that. And here is their son. This
handsome tall good-looking son and he's hanging out with the
prophets and he goes around "Thus says the Lord.
Thus says the Spirit of God." He's speaking in tongues.
He's walking with the prophets and they're looking at
him they say, "Is this Saul? Is Saul among the prophets?" See, when you start
hanging out around prophets you start prophesying. You can ask Adrian
when he shared today. When he started to being around
people who see visions from God and prophecy, now he goes on
the street and look what he said: "I was shocked myself
what came out of my mouth." Why? Because anointing
gets released by association. When you watch YouTube
clips of deliverance you will begin to notice when you
minister demons start to manifest. Why? Because that anointing
rubs on you by association. On the other side, if you watch
someone who cusses every other word two weeks and by accident
F-bombs will be released by you. You will notice and you're like,
"Where did that come from?" Anointing is released
by association. Like we have some businessmen
here in our church who would literally in the area of their business they
reach out to the other businesses. They'll read the books and everything.
And you looking at their business you're like, "Man, just two
years ago this guy's business wasn't doing so good. This
lady's business wasn't doing so well." But because they surrounded
themselves with the associates what their association became, they
put themselves among the prophets. See, they grew up in the house
of Kish. But where you put yourself is really where the anointing
is going to change your life. And see you can change your future by
changing the company you are around. That is why Apostle
John Chi came to our conference. That is why Bob Lawson
came to our conference. That is why we encourage
people, read Derek Prince. Read Pastor Benny Hinn's
thing on the Holy Spirit. Read Dr. Yonggi Cho. Why?
We want you to be surrounded and your life not to reflect your
past but to reflect the association you put yourself in because
anointing comes by association. You want to see the
anointing move on your life? Associate yourself
with the anointing. If you want success
to move in your life, associate yourself with success. Did you know that Jesus
got filled with Holy Spirit not when He was fasting,
not when He was praying, by Himself? When Jesus
went to a minister of God who was anointed by God,
his name was John the Baptist But John the Baptist did not
have miracles. He was just anointed to preach repentance.
And Jesus, the Son of God comes to John's ministry
and says, "John, baptize Me." If that would have been
me or you, you would be like, "John, you need to sit down
and take notes from me because I am the Son of God. You
have so much to learn from Me, cousin." Because he was His cousin. But
when Jesus comes to John and He says John, baptize Me."
John says, "No, no no no. You are the one that's going
to give fire." And Jesus says, I know but right now,
I need a jump-start. And when John baptizes
Him the Bible says, "The Spirit of God comes upon Jesus." Any time you associate yourself
with the anointing, it comes on you. You may have a greater grace on
your life in the people you associate with but remember it
works by association. Come on somebody.
Can you say Amen? The Bible says, "He who
walks with the wise is wise; but the companion of
fools will be destroyed." You know what that means? He who walks with the
successful is successful. He who kicks it with
the idiots will be that. He who hangs out with
the wealthy will be wealthy. He who always hangs out with
people who criticize the wealthy and blame their poverty on
something else, will be just like that. He who hangs out with people
who heal the sick will heal the sick. He who hangs out with
people who don't sleep around he will live in purity. See who you want to
be. If you want to be this change who you hang out here. You cannot hang out
with the wise and be a fool. And you cannot hang out
with the fools and be wise. Anointing works by association. Anointing came upon Saul because
he was connected with the prophets. The anointing will come upon
your life because you are connected by that as well in Jesus' Name. See, if you are going to
hang out -- someone said this: "If you run with the wolves
you will learn how to howl. "If you associate with
the eagles you will learn "how to soar to great heights. "Remember this, it is better to be
alone than to be in wrong company. "As a mirror reflects man's face
but it is really shown same thing. "As the mirror reflects your
face your friends really reflect who you are." I just want to bring-- can
you give me few napkins because I think I'm
getting too excited here. Remember I said
anointing is not emotionalism but it could produce great emotions. What I found out with
young people is this. Many times they want
to associate themselves with very successful people
in their perspective callings. And they get disappointed
when those successful people they don't have time for them.
So instead of finding a different route they blame those
successful people by saying, "Well, see, you
became proud now. "You don't respond to my
300-word message on Facebook. You no longer like my pictures. You
became too arrogant and everything." And I want to teach you a
lesson or a secret that I've learned. If you find people
that you want to be like but they don't have time for you,
don't ever seek their mentorship offer them service. If you attack them and
say, "You are so arrogant." I had people write to
me literally, like an essay. I wrote shorter essays in high
school than they wrote to me in messages. One guy had
more questions to me recently than Job had to God. I didn't know where to start. I
wanted to start with the first question by the time I got to
the end and I was like, "There's no way I can answer
that." And people think that the only thing I do is sit on
Facebook and look whose question I can answer. I don't
have time for that. And so what people many times
do, and they would message you back and say, "You are proud because
you can't respond to my 300 questions." And many times people like
that in our church they have this. They're like, "I want
pastor to mentor me. I want this apostle to
mentor me." It's not like that. When you start moving with
God, your time begins to be limited And if you want to get the
attention of the person you look to don't come for mentorship,
come with service. See, Saul didn't come
to Samuel for a word. The Bible says that Saul
asked his servant, he says, "Do we have anything to
bring to the man of God?" Really, Saul why do we need to
bring anything to the man of God? Because he is very
busy. And the Bible says, "The gift makes room for the king." When he offered something,
it was something very small. The word of God was released. I saw that last year when Apostle
John Chi came to our church you know, our church
blessed me and everything. And we started to call
John Chi every Friday for few weeks actually about a few months.
And John Chi would mentor us just to kind of talk to us,
pray for us and everything. He got so busy and he got
so busy. And we got so busy and things kind of stopped.
This year that he came I really just got on my heart
saying, "You know what Lord, I want this man to just continue to
bless me, pray for me and everything." And so instead of asking, "Hey
Apostle, can you call me every Friday?" I said, "Apostle, I see your
Apple watch is not working. Can I give you mine? Have
you tried these earpods?" He said, "No." I said, "You should try them." He put them on he
said, "They are so nice." I said, "Do you like
how they are feeling?" He's like, "Yes."
I'm like, "They are yours." And I asked him, "Is there
anything I can help you with?" And I noted that there is one
area that he needed help with. And I said, "Can I help you
once a week, no strings attached?" Two weeks later Apostle calls me.
He said, "Vlad, how are you doing?" I said, "Doing great."
I said "Is there anything?" He's like, "No. I'm just calling to
let you know I'm praying for you." Two weeks later he calls again. He says,"I just want to let
you know I miss you so much." I was like, "Oh Jesus.
Fire of God." Hallelujah. [Applause] He spent ten minutes
talking to me to the point I had to ask him to hang up
because I had nothing ask him. Because I know the
anointing works by association. And if I can't get associated
with him by mentorship I'll always get
associated by serving. Just serve. Ask where
you can be serving. And another thing, the
second thing about association that you have to keep in mind the reason why many
times people ahead of you don't give you association
is because people behind you you don't give
it to them either. God looks at you. How do you
treat people who want to be like you? How do treat people who
want to start a business in the same field you are starting? And when you feel insecure
and threatened, which we do is we shut them down and
we say, "You are no good. You won't succeed." We shut them
down and then we go to someone who we want to be like.
"Can you show me?" And they treat us the
same way we treat them. If you want to improve how
your association treats you, change how you
treat your associates. You know what happened to Saul?
Saul was looking for Samuel's advise. But when David rose up
and wanted to be a king he chased 20 years,
trying to kill him. God says, "I can't bless you." Why? Because when somebody
wants to be like you, you stump them. That's why I'm not going to
let someone else mentor you to be like them. That's why I ask myself today;
not only how can I serve my pastor instead of just
milking all the wisdom. As I serve him God
will release the wisdom. But secondly I look at people
who look at me and say, "Vlad, how can you help
us in this and this area?" And I say, "How can I help
them?" Like I just came from a trip. Last weekend when I was in
South Dakota, amazing youth group as I went to visit them and
I saw a lot of mistakes that they were making that
we made just a few years ago. And I was so busy there
at the trip that I wanted to work on their internship
lessons and so many other things. I planned out that the
whole week I'm going to finish all of my lessons. As I am
there Holy Spirit convicted me He said, "Vlad, they need your
advice. They need your input. "I want you to begin to mentor
them because they are looking to you guys to get to your level." And I said, "But I don't
have time for that." And see the Lord
started convicting me. He says, "You can't expect an
apostle to pick you up to his level if you don't take them to yours." I want to challenge you. If
you want to have association watch how you
treat your associates. Watch how you treat people
who want to be like you. And you may say,"Well,
there is not too many." See those people who
look to you for advise. Give them the same attention
you want someone else you will look to, to give it to you. Law of sowing and reaping
will always work in your favor. Can somebody say Amen? Come on, put your hands
together for Jesus Christ. [Applause] Anointing comes by association. I want you to say with me. Say,
"Anointing comes by association but it grows by
desperation." Say it again. "Anointing comes by association
but it grows by desperation." And so, I want you
to focus on this now. Anointing grows by desperation. And the verse that we'll read is this: "And he also stripped
off his clothes," Saul, "and prophesied before
Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all
that day and all that night. Therefore they say, 'Is Saul
also among the prophets?'" 1 Samuel 19:24 I want you to see this verse
looks so familiar to chapter nine we just read except in this
story you see Saul now sends one set of soldiers to
Rama to capture David. They go there and they start prophesying. Anointing was by
association. Amen? He sends the second set of
soldiers they start prophesying. He sends the third set of
soldiers they start prophesying. Saul is afraid to go there. He
knows what is going to happen. And then finally he masters up
the strength and he goes there but he doesn't go there
to see change in his life. He goes in there to capture
David because David is there. And the Bible says when he
goes there, this is what happens: God's Spirit comes upon
him and he starts prophesying. And he kind of goes little
bit awkward in a weird way. Uh, almost looks like a
demonic manifestation. If this would have been in our
church we'd be screaming, out! out! But because this is Old Testament,
I'm pretty sure this was acceptable. "In like manner, and
lay down," the Bible says, "he also stripped off his clothes and
prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down
naked all that day and all that night." So day and night, he prophesied. But I want you to see something. Association without desperation
for God equals tribulation. Equals problems. Saul got up
from this prophesying experience and went back to his
old life. Sooner or later, every association, every
manifestation and experience with God has to fuel our hunger for Jesus.
Otherwise, those experiences they only enlarge our pride
and they actually hinder us from going to God.
Saul had association. Saul had even manifestation
he experienced. But one thing Saul lacked in his life which
I believe why the anointing never remained on his life is
Saul was never hungry for God. Hunger for God grows and
maintains the anointing from God. Saul had experiences
but he never repented. He never became hungry for God
and therefore anointing always lifted. Actually, there was
another Saul in the Bible. Remember the New Testament
when Saul went to Damascus? I was in Israel and I
oversaw where Damascus is. From Jerusalem to Damascus
is actually very long way to walk-- to ride a horse. Saul went for a
very long way to go to Damascus He wasn't going to
Damascus to a prayer meeting. He was going to
Damascus just like King Saul. He wanted to attack Christians.
Saul wanted to attack David and Saul in the Bible
wanted to attack Christians. And Jesus knocks Saul out of
his horse. He falls on the floor He goes blind. Just like
this Saul, he falls on the floor and goes naked. But I want
you to see the difference. One Saul gets up and
goes back to his old life. This Saul, while he was there
with the encounter with God he asked two questions:
he said "Who are You, Lord?" And secondly, "What
would You have me do?" That Saul, shaked-and-baked,
laid-and-rolled, spoke in tongues felt the Spirit, felt the
goosebumps, got up and he said, "That was good." And went back. That Saul said, "God, who
are You? I want to know You. "I'm hungry for You.
I persecuted You, Jesus. "I thought you were a false Messiah
but I have a change of heart now. I see You are truly the Son of
God. What would You have me do?" And God leaves him
blind for three days because for the first three days
in his life he could actually see. And after three days we
see his eyes get opened and he gets filled with the Holy
Spirit, he gets baptized in water He goes to Damascus the next
day and he starts to preach the gospel. See, King Saul became an apostate
but Saul in the New Testament became an apostle. Because it's not
experiences that change you it's the hunger of God you
derive from your experiences. [Applause] God replaced a man who
knew it all and had it all with a boy who
was after his heart. Saul knew how the kingdom
works. Saul had the servants. He had the reputation. He
had everything but he didn't have one most important thing that
God looks for in every person is hunger for Him. And one time when Saul
in the peak of his pride, when he didn't obey God
and instead of being concerned with the callousness of his
heart and repenting before God, He grabbed the robe of Samuel and
said, "Samuel, honor me before people." Meaning, I don't care
that God rejected me. I just make sure my
reputation stays intact. And Samuel looks back at him and
he says, "The way you ripped by rob is the way God ripped
your kingdom from you." And God has found
a man. He's a boy. He doesn't have
experience in reigning. He doesn't have military
experience. He's a nobody. Nobody knows him but
he is after God's heart. He doesn't have God's
heart. He's not perfect. But he is fascinated, he's
captured and he's captivated by God. And God says since He
is God, He loves people that are passionately
in love with Him. And He says, Saul,
he will raise that boy up and He will give him your throne.
And He will bless him and protect him And boy David was not perfect.
David committed worse sins than Saul. But see when you are
hungry for God, you repent. When you are passive
you make excuses. When you are hungry for God you make
mistakes but you never make excuses. When God even winks at you and
says that something is wrong there you drop on your floor and
you say, "God, I am sorry. "I'm not going to
blame it on my mama. "I'm not going to
blame it on my daddy. "I'm not going to
blame it on my boss. "I'm not going to blame it
on my sister and brother God, it was my
fault and I am sorry." And when you do that
your hunger stays for God. But Saul, when you are not
hungry you make excuses. You blame everybody. You
lose that. I want to let you know if you want to keep
fire for God in your life you have got to keep
repentance in your life. Many of us don't fall
out of love with God, we only fall out of repentance. Are you with me? I want you to open this
verse with me at the end. Revelation 2:4-5 "Nevertheless I
have this against you, "that you have left your first love. "Remember therefore
from where you have fallen; "repent and do the first works, "or else I will come to you
quickly and remove your lampstand from its place —unless you repent." This verse used to intimidate me. When I heard preachers
talk about this verse I just fell so sick in my stomach. It's kind of like, "Yeah, they
are going to stir me right now how bad I've fallen from God."
But now this verse has become one of the greatest
encouragement to my life. Because the fact you can lose
your first love and find it again gives me source of comfort. Every single person in
here, your first love for God is when you got saved. Your passion for
Jesus was all time high. You were literally like curious George.
You were just curious about God. You are just like passionate
about God. You literally complained because they didn't meet
at church every single day. Today, you barely have time
to come to church once a month. But when you just got saved,
literally every prayer meeting every single thing, no
sacrifice was too high. Nothing for Jesus was too difficult.
Today, anything for God is a burden. But before it was
just a passion. It was a privileged to do this for God. And see at times we lose that
and I love the fact that God comes and He always gives me a
second chance. And He said, "Listen, you can relive those
experiences for the rest of your life if you do this: Remember,
repent, and do the first works." It's a recipe to find that
passion again for the Lord. In my experience as a youth
minister for over 14 years I found out four things
that always killed my fire. Number one, it was offense. Anytime I got offended
at somebody I lost my fire. People leave the churches
because of offense. Actually 99% of the people
that leave the churches today leave because of offense. And for those of us who think,
"Yeah, it's about of church. "Do something and change so
that people stop leaving the church because of offense,"
actually in one meeting Jesus had 75 of His
key leaders leave Him. If you think that if the church
will get perfect less people will leave the church
because of offense; if the church will get perfect, more
people will leave because of the offense because they could not
live up to their perfectionism. Offense is unavoidable. We
can only stop causing offenses but we cannot ever stop having
offenses. You will be offended. And offense is the devil's
trap to cause your fire to die out. It's just the devil's
trap. That's all it is. If you look today,
somebody offended you. Tomorrow, unknowingly, you
are going to offend somebody. And it's the devil's trap to
kill your fire. That's all it is. The second thing that I see in
my ministry and personally in my life what kills the fire
is disappointment. It's when you dream, you
believe, you fast, you pray, and it doesn't happen. You prayed for somebody who
you believed they will get healed. You heard a word from God,
you knew it and nothing happened. And the next thing that
happens is that become like water that goes on your fire.
And it's very important. I want you to see this.
When you get offended honestly, Jesus doesn't really go
after you and tries to butter you up. When the guys got offended
Jesus didn't go after them and say hey guys, let Me explain. I
didn't mean you to eat My flesh. I meant communion. Jesus didn't do that. But when
guys left Him-- left Jerusalem walked to city of Emmaus,
He walked besides them encouraged them with Scriptures
and then their hearts got on fire again. Any time you are disappointed
Jesus will walk behind you. Remind you of His Word so
your heart will catch fire again. And the third thing that
kills our fire is busyness. It's when we become so
busy that we don't have time to spend time with the Lord. We don't have time to even make
it to church. And please understand intimacy makes
you fruitful; not busy. Busyness can be
a result of intimacy but busyness itself does
not make you successful. Only intimacy with God
makes you successful. If you are too busy
to pray, you are too busy. If you are too busy to be
with God, you are too busy. And this is what I
know about busy people: You actually don't make
more money, you make less. Because you break God's rule.
God ordered for us to rest on Saturday. If you say "But I'm going
to work three jobs, four jobs." And mark this: You will
not make more money because God blesses order
and you are out of order. God blesses order,
not out of order. I mentioned how Chick-Fil-A
decided not open its fast food restaurant food chain on
Sundays. And people said, "Did you know that on Sundays
all the fast food restaurants make the most money?" And the
main guy of Chick-Fil-A he says, "I know but God works said
that people should take a rest at least one day." And he
says, "And I'm going to choose the most busiest day to rest." Average fast food restaurants
makes one million dollars a year. Chick-Fil-A makes five. Why? But it doesn't make sense?
Nothing with God makes sense. But when you follow the
order, God blesses you. [Applause] Same thing when you give it seems
like you are going to lose money and somehow you have enough. When you hold onto that it
seem like it's never enough. Busyness is good if it
comes out of your fruitfulness and it doesn't affect
your intimacy with God. But the moment you
see your fire is dying out, cut back on some
things. Catch your breath. Relax. You are still going to die. Why work so hard that you ruin
your health to get more money and then you spend your
money to get your health back? Why don't you just keep
both at the same time? Because this is not just
about relationship with God. This is about your well-being.
This is about your kids. Knowing who you are.
This is about your family. This is about your spouse. This
is about everything being intact. And the last one is materialism. Materialism is not when you have
stuff. It's when the stuff has you. [Music] I have this Apple watch. I have this watch.
This watch doesn't have me because at any moment
this watch can be yours. Not today. The most freeing thing for my
relationship with God has been is when I can hold things
without holding on to them. When God has the right to
take anything out of my hand and I have the privilege to
take anything out of His pocket. Because you see, some of us
you slip your hand into God's pocket and God has His hand
denied to touch your pocket. Materialism kills fire.
It's when we run after things. When we think that the more things
we have the more happy we'll be. Materialism, young boy came
to Jesus, he was morally sound. Everything was great with
him and he had a lot of things. But it's not the things that he
had. It's that when Jesus signaled and He says, "Could you
sell everything you have?" It's amazing. Jesus didn't
ask him to give it to His ministry. He says, "I want you to
sell everything you got and give it to the poor and
then come and follow Me." And the Bible says "That man's
heart was hurt. He went with grieve." Why? Because he didn't have
things, those things have had him. Anything you cannot give has you. Now that does not mean God will
always ask us to give everything but there are times
when the Lord leads you. I found out when my
passion for the Lord dies out and the Lord prompts
me to sacrifice something that alone literally
shoots it through the roof. And it's not the act of giving,
it's the act of obedience in giving.
