You Already Have the Anointing—now Take Care of It!

Today you are going to receive a bonus—say, “Glory to God.” Because I am going to preach you a sermon that I probably will not preach at the twelve o’clock service, although it is all focused on the same subject of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I hope to enrich your life through this particular meditation.

You will remember that last Sunday I spoke to you about a biblical character, King Saul. Do you remember? Or have you forgotten already? King Saul—and there we looked at the life of a man from the Old Testament and at how he embodies the baptism of the Holy Spirit, right? And from King Saul’s experience before he became king, we drew some patterns concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and we said, for example, that Saul did not turn out to be a perfect man after the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And there we saw the prophetic movement of God associated with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

We also saw praise associated with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

We also saw that on many occasions—and I believe that this happens at one point or another in the life of every person baptized in the Holy Spirit—there are outward manifestations. In Saul’s case it was very dramatic: there was prophecy; there were dramatic moments in which the presence of God was manifested.

There we also saw the importance of symbols in the person… in the life of the person filled with the Holy Spirit: “…Samuel poured out a flask of oil and kissed Saul as a sign of approval of his new spiritual state…” And, in connection with that, we spoke about the importance of God’s people being a people who flow in symbols. When we raise our hands, when we dance, when we kneel, when we speak in a prophetic and victorious tone, we are using symbols that manifest the inner life of God; through those symbols and those prophetic declarations, we externalize what God has done in our lives. And I believe that wherever the power of the Holy Spirit is, there is symbolism as well, and that is important.

I encouraged you to use symbols in your own lives as well and to take hold of things that remind you of the covenants God has made in your lives and of the covenants you have also made with God in your lives. We saw all these things in Saul’s life.

And now—remember what I told you: that it was interesting to choose a passage from the Old Testament to show you that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not something God thought up on the Day of Pentecost. Rather, God has always used the anointing of His Spirit to equip every person He has called for a special purpose.

There is always an encounter of some kind. We see this again and again in the Bible: when God is going to assign someone a supernatural task, there is always an encounter with the Spirit of God; there is always an endowment of power in some way.

We see this in the lives of the Judges. With every one of the Judges whom God used throughout Israel’s history, there was always a calling of that judge and a crisis encounter with the power of the Spirit of God; then that judge, anointed by the Holy Spirit, flowed in the ministry God had entrusted to him.

And so we see that in the Old Testament it was really only a very select group of people—kings, priests and prophets—who were anointed with the Holy Spirit. But the difference is that in the New Testament, when Pentecost was poured out upon the disciples, a new era began in which every son of God and every daughter of God could now receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And they can receive the endowment of power they need to carry out the tasks of the Christian life: evangelizing the world, living a life that pleases the Lord and gaining victory over life’s bondages. We see all these things. The Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit is never a victim, brothers and sisters; in the name of Jesus, that Christian is always a victor. Rather, in all these things, Paul says, we are what? More than conquerors. That is the fundamental attitude of a child of God.

We have seen all these things; now let us compare. We saw this in Saul’s life, but we are going to see that something similar happens in David’s life as well. Saul fails—Saul fails miserably—and God withdraws His Spirit from him and says, “I am going to find someone after My own heart.” Then He determines that another king will arise in Saul’s place. How interesting. What happened to Saul? Why did he lose God’s anointing? Why did he come to such a tragic end if he had the baptism of the Holy Spirit, if he had the fullness of the Spirit of God? Why, brothers and sisters? Because when God blesses you, when God fills you with His Spirit, remember that now you have to maintain that anointing. You are responsible for safeguarding what God has given you. God does not do things automatically. I believe that among the Pentecostal people with whom we identify, there is a great deal of oversimplification and naïveté about how the dynamics of the Holy Spirit work. We think, “Well, God has already baptized me with His Spirit,” and then a myth is created that there is nothing more to do, that I am now a superman or a superwoman, that now I simply flow in the Holy Spirit—and a whole mythology grows up around that.

What I see in the Word is that once God fills you with His Spirit, you are then responsible for making that anointing of the Spirit grow within you. You have to inform that anointing of God through the study of the Word of God, and you must also submit your life to the Lord so that God can change your temperament, your character, your attitudes, your bad habits, and your mental and emotional bondages, and so that you will become increasingly sanctified. How many can say amen to that?

You see? Because many people say, “Oh, I have the baptism of the Holy Spirit,” but you look at them and they are spiritual weaklings, brothers and sisters. They have problems in their family lives; they are constantly fighting tooth and nail with everyone at work and in church, continually quarreling with others; there are failures in their financial lives and in every area. And you say, “Well, where is the anointing, then?” I have seen many prophetic people—and it is almost a rule now, almost a law—that prophetic people are very often also very weak in character. Unfortunately, it is almost as though one thing goes hand in hand with the other. It does not have to be that way. Why does it happen? Because many times we depend solely on the supposed anointing and forget that we also have to buckle down and work hard with that anointing.

The anointing is simply an endowment of power, but then you have to read the Word; you have to submit your life to the Lord; you have to submit your character. Otherwise, the anointing gradually declines, and before you know it, you are like Samson: you do not realize that the power of God has already left you, and all that remains are a weightlifter’s muscles, but the supernatural power of God is not there.

What happened to Samson? That very thing happened to him. Samson received an endowment of God’s power from his mother’s womb; God called him to be a judge and deliverer of God’s people. And every time the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson… Samson received tremendous power and did fearsome things, heroic deeds, through the supernatural power of God. But Samson grew careless; he did not guard his moral life… and the devil sent him a Delilah. Do you remember? Because many times, when you enter into God’s anointing, the devil is going to receive a little note from some little demon somewhere: “We hereby inform you that so-and-so has just received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so send two or three spies over there… two secret agents to destroy him immediately,” right?

And then you receive attention from the kingdom of hell. Why? Because as long as you are just sitting on the bench, the devil does not care. He loves it when people come there to fall asleep in their seats and think they are doing some great thing, as long as they do not threaten his kingdom, right? But the moment someone puts on the power of the Holy Spirit, he immediately sends an email to the department of hell that handles such matters so they can intensify their attack against this person who is now filled with the Holy Spirit and represents a threat to the kingdom of God.

So if a person is not careful, disaster comes, it comes… What happened to Solomon? Solomon, the wisest man on earth—the Bible says that no one, either before or after him, would receive the wisdom Solomon received. And one wonders: why did Solomon end the way he did? In idolatry, bringing idolatrous women into his life—why? Because little by little he allowed… indeed, God also sent him his love of women, and that gradually destroyed him. He brought women from every part of the earth, women who were… idolaters, probably demon-possessed. He had relations with them, had children with them, and what happened? That great wisdom which God was giving him, or which God had given him, declined little by little, little by little, until he ended up a cynical, broken man. It did not happen overnight; it happened little by little.

You see? God’s anointing does not guarantee that you are going to… Let us be clear: God’s anointing by itself does not guarantee that you will now simply walk like a little lamb through the meadow without any problems. Quite the opposite: challenges come into your life, and greater responsibility comes. “To whom much is given, much will be required,” says the Word of the Lord.

So if you want… if you want to flow in the Spirit, you have to maintain your hygiene every day. The apostle Paul writes to Timothy and tells him, “I advise you to fan into flame the gift of God that is in you, for God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, love and self-control.”

We have to flow in God’s anointing every day. Every day we have to go back again, because otherwise it gradually declines and we end up as though we did not have it. Let us not be careless about this. I believe that is what happened to Saul.

Saul kept making decisions; Saul did not surrender his character to God so He could work on it. You see? When God’s anointing comes upon your life, the anointing is only for one part of the Christian life: it is for the aggressive operations of the Christian life. But if your character has not been formed by the Word of God—your habits, your conduct, your human relationships, all of this—if you do not submit your character to the Lord so He can deal with it, look, you might as well stay home, because it does you no good; you are deceiving yourself. The devil can enter your life through seventeen cracks, and one of them is a character that has not been dealt with by God.

So to my brothers and sisters who love God’s anointing, I say: let us be vigilant about protecting that anointing and not give the devil any foothold, any place, as the apostle Paul says, right? Let us give no place to the devil, because he slips in; he grabs hold with one fingernail of a tiny fleck of paint on the wall, and from there he holds on and works his way into the believer’s life. So we must be sober and watchful, right?

All right, that was a long introduction. I think we can pray now and go home after that introduction, but look here at just a couple of details about David. We are going to do a case study, a study of a case in David’s life. We are going to compare it with Saul’s life.

Turn to First… First Samuel, chapter 16. I should have told you this earlier. Do not be alarmed; I am going to tie everything together. Do not worry. The introduction is long, but in the end we will straighten everything out.

First Samuel, chapter 16, and there we see Samuel’s calling, again… Saul has failed. He is still king, but God is displeased with him and tells the prophet Samuel, “Now I want you to anoint another person, because I am going to put him in Saul’s place as king of My people…” Chapter 16, then: God calls Samuel to go and anoint David… verse 2,

“…Jehovah answered, ‘Take a heifer from the herd with you and say: I have come to offer a sacrifice to Jehovah…’” Farther down it says: “…and you shall anoint for Me the one whom I tell you…”

First Samuel, yes, chapter 16, brothers and sisters, verse 2, verse 2… unless my Bible is a different Bible and they changed it on me this morning… First Samuel, chapter 16… ask the Lord to give you wisdom. Does someone not have First Samuel, chapter 16? And it is there, right? Verse 2—yes, exactly, yes, yes, yes. Read it there; look carefully. Be quick; let your eyes run over it. I know it is early in the morning and I do not want to overtax your brain, but if you look around there, you will find it—chapter 2, second part: “…Jehovah answered, take a heifer from the herd, and you shall anoint for Me the one whom I tell you…”

You shall anoint for Me the one whom I tell you… Look how interesting that is. Sometimes I wonder why God had to go to all this trouble of sending Samuel… to anoint him… You know something? If we… if we learn to navigate the Bible—I encourage you, brothers and sisters, be students of the Word, because then we will know the passages and will be able to go quickly to a passage and navigate it with complete… because we will know the whole narrative and can simply go and correct a few things. Let us be skillful in our use of the Word of the Lord. That is very important. I set that before you as a challenge…

I wonder, why does God have to send Samuel to anoint David? Why couldn’t God simply, sovereignly, rain down His Spirit upon David? Doesn’t that seem a little more economical than sending Samuel to a certain address to anoint the one He has chosen?… And there is a very important lesson here. This may seem like a very small thing, but it is very important: God operates through processes that He has determined. God adheres to the processes He has determined. He appointed Samuel as a prophet in Israel. Samuel represents divine authority in Israel; God has delegated to Samuel the shepherding of His nation in terms of the flow of His Spirit. Samuel binds and looses on earth, and God above honors it.

So, brothers and sisters, God has determined a process for receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, for receiving God’s anointing. There is a cooperation that takes place between earth and heaven, and I believe that many people say, “Well, I have already received Jesus Christ, and I already have everything I need”… That is not what I see in the Bible. I have seen again and again in the Bible that receiving a special anointing from God also requires a special moment. There needs to be a moment when the person receives something; there needs to be a moment when there is an encounter with God’s promise. And many times that encounter will come through the church of Jesus Christ praying, laying on hands, and interceding for a person to receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit, although, as I have said, it does not always have to happen that way.

Many times you will receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit while alone at home, kneeling there and asking for the Lord’s anointing upon your life, and then beginning to move in faith that what God has promised will be given has indeed been given. But many times the anointing of the Holy Spirit is received in community, in a service—often at the end of the service—or at other times, as we did last Sunday. We invited the brothers and sisters, especially during the twelve o’clock service; there was a glorious time. We invited them to come forward, and there was a precious flow of God there, and several people received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And there is an obedience that must take place. God often operates through human beings and through human processes, and that is why one must obey the Lord and obey what God says.

Many people say, “I don’t need to do this; I don’t need to do that.” It is what…it is the way God says, and it is the way… Through the processes God has established, anointed people can help you enter into a greater fullness of the flow of the Holy Spirit.

So God sends Samuel to anoint the one He has chosen, the one He has appointed. And Samuel did as Jehovah told him. Verse 4: “…and when he arrived in Bethlehem, the elders of the city came out to meet him in fear and said, ‘Is your coming peaceful?’…”

Just imagine—this man Samuel was no ordinary person. Listen, I hope the day comes when people have that kind of respect for the church, don’t you? And when they say, “A pastor has arrived here. We don’t know whether he is going to turn the whole community upside down or what is going to happen, but the power of God has arrived.”

The church… When the power of God flows in the life of the church, brothers and sisters, it is not merely a matter of patting people on the back and telling them, “God loves you.” Sometimes God’s judgment also comes, you know? The church is prophetic, and Samuel was not just some ordinary man. He was a man who also knew how to unleash judgment, and that is why the people were afraid: “God’s prophet has arrived. What is going to happen here?” We do not know. When God’s anointing flows upon the life of God’s people, I believe it is for judgment and for blessing.

There are many people who play games with the Spirit of God. Many people come to church for reasons completely contrary to what they ought to be. You know? They come with impure hearts, they come with bad intentions, they come with improper attitudes. And you have to be careful, because where the presence of God is, the Spirit of God also discerns, and judgment can come upon your life; harm can come upon your life.

Why does the apostle Paul tell us not to take Holy Communion in an unworthy manner? And he says, “For this reason many of you are sick, and some even sleep,” which is a very elegant way of saying—the word would be—“they are dead.” Because when you receive something that is meant to be a blessing…where the presence of God is supposed to be present in a special way, and you partake of it without being properly aligned, instead of being a blessing to you, it becomes a curse to you.

The presence of the Spirit of God in a place, among impure hearts that are not properly prepared to stand before the presence of God, can also cause destruction, because God’s presence is fearsome—make no mistake. It can bless you, but it can also cut you down if you are not careful.

That is why holiness is so important. Do not ask God to give you His anointing unless you are also willing to conform to the Lord’s commandments, because God’s anointing, like Samuel’s anointing, can be for good or for evil, for harm or for blessing in your life, depending on the condition of your heart, you know? Can you say amen to what I am telling you, brothers and sisters?

Because the church of Jesus Christ… Nowadays everyone wants the church simply to pat people on the back, accept everything, welcome everything, and be a tame little kitten. The church filled with the Holy Spirit is a roaring lion, and it can also strike you with its claws and destroy you, and that is important…

I ask the Lord, “Lord, may the fear of God spread throughout Your people, and may we revere You in the way we walk before You.” That is why they ask him, “Is your coming peaceful, or have you come to bring judgment?”

Then, farther on, Samuel arrives…I am not going to linger, because we have to hurry through different… The passage is very long… Samuel arrives at the house of David’s father, whose name is Jesse, and a whole drama unfolds there, right? Jesse brings seven of his sons before Samuel, one by one, and God says, “No, that is not the one; no, that one isn’t either.” And it is interesting: the first son they bring to Samuel is Iasab…what is his name? Eliab, sorry, Eliab. And this guy was six-foot-four, with muscles everywhere, very attractive—a worthy representative of the nation of Israel, right? And God says to him, “Look, move that one aside, because he is not the one. You look…man looks at what is on the outside, but I look at the person’s heart.”

There is something very important here. Notice, I believe the Word sets up that drama almost in descending order: they bring him the biggest, the most promising one, and He says, “That is not the one.” Then perhaps they brought him another who was a little smaller but equally impressive…not him either. And they kept going down the line, because, brothers and sisters, God’s anointing is not a matter of pedigree, not a matter of appearance, not a matter of intellect, not a matter of money. God anoints whomever He wants, and above all it is according to the heart that is there. God honors the heart. God looks at the quality of your heart.

David was a man who, despite all his mistakes, had a heart for God. He loved the Lord deeply; he was exceedingly conscious of God’s glory. And when God sees and discerns a heart like that, God falls in love with that person and blesses them.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is what equalizes everyone. When a person has the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that person is as powerful as the most powerful person on earth.

Years ago there was a television series called “The Equalizer.” I never watched it, but I heard about that series. The Equalizer was a man, a weapons expert, a very tough detective, and he was one of those guys, you know, whom nobody messes with. His thing was to go wherever people were being victimized by people more powerful than they were, and he provided the strength that equalized the situation. That is why he was called the Equalizer. He was the one who compensated for the victim’s weakness and brought the victim to a level where they could fight against their…“victimizers,” would that be the word?

And so the Holy Spirit is the great Equalizer. He takes the weak person, fills that person with His anointing, and then equips them to compete effectively in the tasks of life. It does not matter whether the person is weak, uneducated, or elderly. What matters is that the Holy Spirit be in that person, and then God can do whatever work is necessary. Say amen.

So when these seven very strong men pass before him and not one appears of whom God says, “This is My anointed one,” Samuel asks him, “Isn’t there another one somewhere?” And then Jesse says, “Oh yes, of course there is, but I assure you he is not the one. There is David, little Davie, out there tending the sheep. He is not the one. I’m sure it won’t be him…but fine, if you say I should bring him, then all right. Call David for me.” And David appears—a handsome young man, but not that well-trained, promising man of war who was obviously worthy of leading the whole nation. And God tells him, “That is the one; anoint him.” And then, look, the drama unfolds. It says in verse 12, chapter 16:12—do you have it? Say amen… Do you have it? Okay.

“…So he sent for him and brought him in. And he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and handsome in appearance. Then Jehovah said, ‘Arise and anoint him, for this is he.’ And Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers…”

I imagine they were all saying by then, “Good grief, why wasn’t I the one who…? And look whom He chooses—this little runt here…” But he was the one. “…He anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and from that day forward”—this is very revealing—it says, “from that day forward,” what happened? “The Spirit of Jehovah came upon David…” Do you see?

When the Holy Spirit comes upon your life, when you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, when you open your life to God’s anointing, you say, “This is mine.”

And I see young people here, brothers and sisters. I tell the young people: you are not too cool to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, okay? Young people, get with it, please. I beg you in the name of the Lord: receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit too; humble yourself. Humble yourself, young person. You need the Holy Spirit; you especially need Him. With all the challenges you are facing in your life, I am sure you need the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

David needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It says that from that day forward, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David. That is what happens in the life of a person who receives the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is as though, all of a sudden, a line of communication with the Holy Spirit is connected for you. From then on, you have access, and God has access to your life in a new and different way.

Now you…that line, you can—it is like a line of credit—you can draw on it in times of need, in moments of challenge and burden in your life. God can send an additional portion of power for whatever you have to do. If you have to witness to someone at work and you say, “Lord, fill me with Your Spirit; give me the words,” God’s anointing comes in that way. If you are assigned to teach a discipleship class and you are not a Bible expert, but you say, “In the name of the Lord, I can do it,” and you ask the Lord, “Father, anoint me,” and you spend a couple of days doing a little extra fasting and begin to study in the name of the Lord, God’s anointing now comes upon you so that you can teach that class better than anyone else, because the Lord is the one who gives wisdom and the one who gives the anointing. If they give you a position at work that is beyond your abilities, you say, “Lord, fill me with the Spirit. I have what I need. I believe that…and in the name of Jesus, I am not going to undertake it.” And you believe, work hard, and make an effort, and God’s anointing flows within you, and you receive the portion you need—the Equalizer, right? The equalizing power that makes sure you reach the goal. God’s anointing is there so that you can do everything that, by your own strength, you normally could not do. Say amen.

That is it, you see? From then on, when you receive that initial anointing from God, an area of your life is opened up, and now the anointing you need to carry out your tasks can flow and enter through there. It says that from that day forward, the Spirit of Jehovah came upon David; God’s calling upon his life was activated.

But notice something: God anoints him to be king, just as He anoints us to be preachers of His Word, to live holy lives, to receive a word from God, to have power over our personal limitations and our character flaws, to improve our marriages, to earn good grades at the university, to learn English, and to have a better life financially and in other ways. God’s anointing is for all those things.

Now, when you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, what happens is that a potential is unleashed within you; a reserve of power is opened within you for all the purposes God has for your life. But then a process begins to take you where God wants to take you. Why was David anointed? To be king over Israel.

Do you know that David did not become king over Israel until many years had passed? Some people believe it was about fifteen years before David came to be anointed as king.

But notice that he received the anointing at that moment, and from then on the power of God was upon David. What happened? It was simply that a process now began to take him where God wanted him to go. When you receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, God is going to come upon you, and what is going to happen is that… then it is as though the Spirit of God will hover over your life, just as the Spirit hovered over the earth before it was formed. Do you remember that the Bible says that the Spirit of the Lord rested upon the earth, and the earth was formless and empty? Do you remember that passage? That is what happens when the anointing of God falls upon a person. It is as though the cloud of God settles over your life, and God begins to bring order to your world, just as He began to order the earth so that it would produce light and seas and land and animals and birds and fish, and everything would be put in order and everything would be separated.

When the Holy Spirit comes upon a life, a special work of God begins in the life of that individual. It is not that, overnight, that person suddenly has everything they need, as though a package containing all those things had been delivered to them—no!!! Now a process begins in which the endowments of power, the gifts God has for your life, and the destiny God has for you are gradually released. But now it is up to you to use the anointing of God that is in you so that the power and destiny of God in your life may begin to flow and manifest themselves in different ways. Can you say amen to that?

Sometimes it will be a journey of many years, and part of it will be up to you and part of it will be up to God. It is not something that happens overnight; it requires a great deal of effort.

What happens here? David is anointed, and notice how interesting this is: immediately… and notice something else here, notice how interesting this is, notice the difference between David’s experience and Saul’s. Saul’s baptism in the Holy Spirit is accompanied by prophetic acts. Samuel tells him, “Look, start walking, and you will meet some prophets. Ahead of them there will be a tambourine, a flute, and a harp, and when you approach them, you will prophesy,” and that is exactly what happens. With Saul, it is a very dramatic event.

What happens with David? Here there is no indication that anything dramatic or supernatural happened. Samuel anointed him, and it simply says that from that day forward the Spirit of the Lord came upon David. It does not say that David began to prophesy or speak in tongues or jump up and down, or that he fell to the floor, or that angels came to support David’s ministry. It simply says that from that day forward the Spirit of God came upon David.

Many times the baptism in the Holy Spirit will be accompanied by tears, tongues, falling to the floor, and strong emotions, but it will not always be that way. I have told you about this: depending on your character, your temperament, and God’s purpose at that moment, your experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit may be quieter and more peaceful. What you have to do is believe that you have received it and then move forward in that faith, and as time passes, God will gradually release what He desires for your life. The experience of speaking in tongues may come later, although I believe anyone can speak in tongues by faith if they set aside the constraints of the mind and simply flow in it. But many people have a mind that is too strong, trapping them and preventing them from flowing immediately.

But in David’s case, there is no such thing—simply an experience in which he is baptized in the Holy Spirit, and from that moment forward God’s companionship in his life is activated in order to lead him into the purposes God has for him.

I am about to finish with this, but notice what happens: from that moment on, the circumstances in David’s life begin to conspire to bring him into his position as king. What happens? Look at verse 14. In verse 13 he receives the baptism in the Holy Spirit; in verse 14 the movie camera now shifts and shows us Saul’s chamber. Saul is now demonized; God sends a spirit to torment him. And so Saul asks them to send someone to play for him and calm him down.

Today science might say that he went mad, that he had a neurosis… Then it says in verse 16:

“...Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out someone who knows how to play the harp, so that when the evil spirit from God is upon you… and I am not going to go into that because it is a very long subject… he may play with his hand, and you may find relief...”

They told Saul, “Send for someone who is a good musician so that when you are there in your neurosis and spiritual affliction, the worship and the peaceful sound of the harp may quiet your heart and you can return to normal.”

And who do you think that person is? David. Then verse 18 says:

“...One of the servants answered and said, ‘Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who knows how to play, and he is brave and vigorous, a man of war, prudent in speech, and handsome, and the Lord is with him...’”

Perhaps some time has passed, but now notice how circumstances begin to conspire to set David on the path toward kingship. It is as though suddenly he is invited… David might be in Roxbury or somewhere around here, and it would be as though… let us say Samuel Caraballo is here, and suddenly, over there, President Bush—God forbid—is attacked by an evil spirit, and someone says, “You know what? I know a young man over in Roxbury, Massachusetts, who plays the piano very well.” And suddenly they call him from the White House to go and play for poor President Bush to calm him down, and suddenly he leaps from obscurity into the very center of power, and that is where it begins.

Do you see? Do you see how God works, brothers and sisters? Many times God will work in your life when the Spirit of God is upon you and is in your life. God will conspire to bring you to what He desires. That is why it is so important for us always to ask the Lord to pour out His power upon our lives, to pour out His anointing.

Because many times, brothers and sisters, I depend instead on God to place me where the blessings are. There are many things I will not be able to do by myself, but I believe that if the Spirit of God is with me, God will grant me favor, God will open opportunities for me, God will bless me, and God will bring positive circumstances into my life.

People filled with the Holy Spirit always believe that something good is waiting around the corner, that tomorrow will be better because the grace of God is upon their lives, and that God will lead you… If God has… when God releases His power upon your life, God’s purposes are fulfilled. It may take 5 or 10 years, but you are flowing in the grace and blessing of God, and you have to believe that. You have to believe that God is conspiring to bring you where you need to be. If God has called you to a ministry, you have to believe that ministry will flourish, will flow, and will be blessed, because God is upon me; the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

If you believe that God has called you to succeed in an academic or professional career, say, “I have the Spirit of the Lord, and somehow I am going to achieve the greatest success. I am going to reach that position of blessing because the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”

If there is a task to be done somewhere, you undertake it in the name of the Lord because the Spirit of the Lord is upon you. If your church has a need, you say, “I am going to flow in it, I am going to give, I am going to participate, I am going to provide, because the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and because there is more where that came from.” The Lord… that is the bold attitude of a man or woman of God who is filled with the Holy Spirit.

How many of you believe that God can do that in your life? It does not matter if you are the most insignificant person on earth; if the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, God will take you where you need to go.

Believe that, my brother, because the rest of David’s life is a demonstration of how, once the anointing of God comes upon an individual, all circumstances align to take that person to their destiny—if that person remains within God’s purposes.

Read later what happens when Goliath arrives. I wish we had more time today to discuss what happens, because God… when you have the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, God enables you to bring down giants.

That moment… that encounter between David… I am going to ask the musicians to come up here quickly. David’s encounter with Goliath—there is no more dramatic scene in all of Scripture involving such an unequal situation: a giant nearly 8 feet tall and a young boy there, inexperienced in the use of weapons, with a sling and 5 smooth little stones. That was all. But one was filled with the Holy Spirit, while the other had only his human strength. Which of the two do you think won the battle? What is your Goliath? What is your giant? What situation are you facing in your life? What bondage are you confronting in your life? What is the difficulty? What is lacking in your life? What is the emptiness in your life? What is the longing of your heart? What do you desire most in your life?

Be filled with the Holy Spirit, receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and then begin to walk like a soldier in battle, believing that the Lord will grant you the desires of your heart if they are aligned with God’s will. It does not matter what it may be… Little Gabriela is going to become a woman filled with the Holy Spirit and a successful woman in the name of Jesus, because the Spirit of God has been placed upon her, and so we prophesy it in the name of Jesus Christ.

Someday perhaps I will be an old man, and a young woman will approach me somewhere and say, “Do you remember once, Pastor, back in Roxbury, when you prayed…?” And that will be Gabriela, in the name of the Lord.

I believe in great miracles from God, because it does not matter what the beginning is like. What matters is that the Lord be present throughout the rest of the journey to lead a person into the fullness of the Spirit of God and into God’s purposes for their life. We believe it, brothers and sisters. Stand up in the name of Jesus.

And may this word not fall on deaf ears, my brother, my sister, in the name of the Lord, in the name of Jesus. Activate the word right now; activate the promise, because I am not preaching merely for the sake of preaching. It is the radioactive Word of God, which can reach your heart and prophetically saturate you with it. Open your spirit to the promise of God…

Just receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit in your life right now. Say to the Holy Spirit, “I believe what You are promising. I believe that You are real. I believe that You can turn my life around. I believe that You can perform a miracle in my life and that, no matter how difficult what I am facing may be, whether it concerns my past or anything else, You can turn it into something marvelous, something positive, something powerful, something wonderful.” Oh, if only you had enough faith to receive what I am saying and believe that it is for you, young person.

If you had enough faith to believe that this is for you and to open your heart and say, “Come into my life, Spirit of God, and make me one of Your warriors. I am going to live seriously for You, I am going to take You seriously, and I am going to live with hunger and thirst for Your anointing,”

You know what you need? You need hunger and thirst for the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, because if you do not have that hunger, if you are not hungry, if you are not thirsty for the power of the Holy Spirit, God is not going to give it to you. You have to desire it; you have to acknowledge your need for it; you have to want it; you have to know that without it you cannot tackle the tasks of life. But if you want it, God has it for you, and the more you need, the more the power of the Holy Spirit will flow in your life. So believe right now in the name of Jesus; receive it, activate it in the name of Jesus.

That little group up there, in the name of Jesus… I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ, and I send the power of the Holy Spirit upon your lives. Young people, receive it right now. Say in your heart, “I receive the anointing of God. I receive the anointing of God in my life.” Just say it as though you believe it, as though you really mean it, and receive the anointing, and God is going to do something marvelous in your life. He is going to do it because He accomplishes what He promises. If you dare, the anointing of the Holy Spirit is for you; it is for you. Receive it right now.

Receive it in the name of Jesus. Say, “I hunger for You, Holy Spirit. I hunger and thirst for You. Activate Your power in me; activate Your power in me. Flow in my life, Spirit of God.” Come on, just let that Spirit flow in your life; clear the pipeline so that it can flow.

God wants to do great things in your life, but He will not do them if you are simply standing there watching birds in the sky and thinking about other things while the Word of the Lord is seeking to nest and land in your life. God honors people who are strong and courageous. God does not honor the person who is wandering around with their mind on 17 different things. Do you think God does not respect Himself? Do you think God is going to bless someone who, when it comes to the Word of God…?

God is only going to bless you if you honor the Word of God, if you take it seriously. Do not believe for a moment that the Word of God is going to take root in your life if you underestimate its importance. You had better engage with the Word of God when it comes into your life as something important; you had better receive it actively and enter into dialogue with it. That is the only way God is going to bless your life. Take it seriously.

Take the Word of the Lord seriously. God is tired of people playing at religion, playing with dolls here in church. That... that disgusts the Lord, you know? It is time for us to get serious with God and begin to seek God’s anointing for our lives, to take God’s calling on our lives seriously, in the name of Jesus.

Father, anoint us, fill us; baptize us with your Holy Spirit right now. Baptize us with your Holy Spirit. Give us a fresh portion of your power once again, Lord. Thank you, God; thank you, God.

Let us sing that chorus we sang at the beginning: “Spirit of the Triune God” (Meche, give me one of those sheets that’s underneath there...) “Spirit of the Triune God, fall afresh on me.” It says: “Take me, mold me, fill me, and use me.”

If you are in a hurry, I am very sorry, because we have time for everything, but we do not have time to receive the most precious thing of all, which is a fresh anointing from the Lord upon our lives. So let us say to the Lord:

Spirit of the Triune God

Fall afresh on me

Spirit of the Triune God

Fall afresh on me

Spirit of the Triune God

Fall afresh on me

Spirit of the Triune God

Fall afresh on me

Take me, mold me

Fill me, use me

Spirit of the Triune God

Fall afresh on me

Spirit of the Triune God

Fall afresh on me

Take me, mold me

Fill me, use me

Spirit of the Triune God

Fall afresh on me

Hallelujah! Give the Lord a big round of applause. May the grace of the Lord be with each one of you. We are going to live victorious lives in the Lord; we are going to be people who hunger and thirst for God’s anointing, because therein lies the hope of every believer, and therein lies the hope of the world: a church filled with and anointed by the Holy Spirit. God bless you, brothers and sisters.