Anointed By Association

Lift your Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad in the dead man.

Let's say this together Say, heavenly Father, I'm about to receive the Word of God and I believe I receive revelation that will build my faith, to give me a perspective, your perspective, about the way I should conduct my life in Jesus' name.

All right, 2 Timothy, chapter two, and also 2 Corinthians, chapter eight.

We'll go with Timothy.

First, timothyus, verse one Paul writing to Timothy Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the Lord and in the power, or be strong in the grace, that is, in Christ Jesus and the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same.

Commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

Be strong in the grace or in the ability.

God's grace is God's ability to do anything.

Be strong in the grace, or you could say, without really making, without being wrong, be strong in God's power, that is, in Christ Jesus and the things you've heard of me among many witnesses, the same.

Commit everybody, shout, commit to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

All right, and then, in 2 Corinthians eight, paul is writing and using the Macedonian church as a an example, because he's about to receive an offering from the Corinthians, and we'll start with verse one.

Moreover, brethren, we do you, to wit, of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, that how that in a great trial of affliction, and the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded under the riches of their liberality, or they're really that's.

It's really generosity, really generosity, even though they were going through a severe trial.

For, to their power, or to their credit, I bear record, yay, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves, praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, in other words the offering.

In the middle of their need, in the middle of their affliction.

They said, paul, this gift, we just, we want you to take it, we want you to use it, praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

They wanted to be part of it.

And this they did not, as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us, by the will of God.

And so tonight I just wanted to share a message that I've shared before over the years anointed by association, anointed by association.

So here in Timothy, he refers to Timothy as his son, his son.

He has a supernatural relationship or a divine.

I like to call them divine associations, but the mark calls them supernatural relationships.

Same thing.

And he's encouraging his son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Share your divine associations with those in whom you have an association.

See, it's progressive.

It's not just right up here at the top and then one down.

It goes way down.

He said look, I'm sharing this with you.

You've committed yourself to me.

He could have said you gave yourself to me.

That's why you're my son.

But word gave there in 2 Corinthians 8 means commit surrender.

And so he said now you've got others that have done that with you.

Now you share this truth with them, who will also then be able to share that truth with others Also.

See how it goes, it's progressive.

This divine association is not just for two people.

It goes all the way through the church.

It should begin with your leadership and it should go all the way down through the whole church.

Divine association, he said there in 2 Corinthians, the Macedonians committed themselves first to God and then to me.

See, then to me.

I've met people that just want Jesus to be their Lord, but nobody else is on the list, nobody.

They don't commit themselves anywhere.

They don't commit themselves to any person.

Oh, I don't do that, that's just well.

You're out of order because the church is not built like that.

The church is built according to divine associations and the whole Bible is filled with divine associations.

You get away from divine associations, you get away from the Bible, you get away from how truth is propagated, which is why we have such a weak church in many cases, because people have gotten jaded.

People have gotten to where they don't even respect.

If they don't respect marriage, they don't respect the relationships that you get between a pastor and anyone else.

They don't respect the pastor If they don't respect each other enough to get married.

Have you noticed how marriage is just falling out of fashion, even among kids that grew up in church?

Well, they're not gonna get away with it in this church because we're not gonna give place to that.

That's fornication.

Well, I just I don't wanna lose my child where you lost them already.

If that's what they're gonna do, you're not their best friend.

You're the tell them what the truth is.

You can't make their decision for them.

They're gonna make their own decision, but you can let them know what's right and what's wrong, anyway.

So they committed themselves first to God and then to Paul, by the will of God.

Now see it's by the will of God.

It's not just who we choose.

We don't choose these associations.

God chooses them for us.

So, getting back about what we've been preaching the last two weeks, on Sunday morning, let the word burn.

The more you get into the word for yourself you're gonna have, your spirit is gonna get so mature your spirit is going to take on the perspective of God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, that you're gonna know in your spirit when someone is in front of you that you need to hook up with.

Now you know we all are anointed.

When we got baptized in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, jesus, said you know you should receive power, you should receive supernatural ability.

After that the Holy Ghost comes upon you and you shall be witnesses.

So every believer, especially when they receive the baptism, the Holy Ghost, the evidence of speaking in other tongues, receive an anointing to do the believer's ministry.

You can't be a, you can't do the believer's ministry without anointing and you've got one.

That's the whole purpose of the baptism of the Holy Ghost to give you an anointing to do the believer's ministry.

And so, to the degree that we have lots of people that haven't even received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and they go to church and they get involved, well, they're just basically don't have supernatural ability working for them because they didn't receive the baptism.

So everything that's done in most churches is done by human effort and take the supernatural out of it.

God is gonna bless them as far as he can be, but he can bless them very far because they're unscriptural.

You know, we talked about the minister of helps.

A few weeks ago on a Thursday night we had a special service to recognize and appreciate all of our volunteer ministries, and I thought I'm the ministry of helps and how that the apostles there in Acts, chapter six, they said, yeah, that's not reason.

We should leave the Word of God and serve the tables.

Look you out among you, seven men of honest report, full of wisdom in the Holy Ghost, to appoint over this business.

I mean to be an usher in the church.

You needed to be full of the Holy Ghost.

So that's where you get what your supernatural ability, your anointing to do the believer's ministry.

But then there's other anointings that need to be filled in.

There needs to be more in the church of Jesus Christ.

We've got to have these anointings, these giftings, besides the believers ministry.

Well, what's the believers ministry anyway?

It's telling people about Jesus.

It's laying hands on the sick, casting out devils.

You know that's what it is.

But beyond that, there are other things, there are other gifts that without a supernatural relationship, supernatural relationship, without an association from which you get that anointing, you're gonna come up short.

Therefore, the church comes up short.

Therefore, the church doesn't get to do supernaturally what God said to do.

This is one reason why the church, that's why we need a revival.

We need a revival.

Are y'all with me now?

So the word commit means to surrender, to yield up, to put in prison Boy.

That's kind of severe.

Isn't it Pretty rare to see anybody really lock themselves up for the benefit of another?

Kind of rare.

Thank God, we've got numbers of people like that in this church.

I won't name names, but I could Boy, it's just no other.

I'm telling you this it's a blessing to have people that get that and follow through.

So they were bond servants to Christ through Paul.

See, you know, jesus is Lord, but he's Lord through somebody.

Now that sounds dangerous, it sounds cultish, it sounds you know, and you can just look at it in the flesh, see, because God has to be the one to author that, Not emotion, not soulish, not for some other motive or gain.

It's just that you spend so much time in the word and prayer that you just have a knowing.

It's not about you hearing a voice, it's not about you having goosebumps when you're around this person.

It's about you just knowing what your assignment is and then you just commit your life to it and you say, bless God, I've just put myself in prison, I'm here until, and you say, bless God, I'm here until I've put myself in prison, I'm here until.

A commitment is a decision from which there is no retreat.

That's another thing that's falling out of favor.

In the church, people just don't commit.

They don't commit to a wife or a husband.

Why should they commit to a church?

They don't even commit to their children.

That crazy man that killed his wife, filled her full of lead, shot her I don't know how many times and then beat the three children, put them all three in the hospital.

I'm glad I'm not anywhere near that guy, because I'd probably be put in jail myself for Wanting to give him back some of the stuff he dished out to these poor children.

I mean, I just well, what have you got?

Well, you've got.

This is a product of why the church has left this huge gap.

Are y'all with me now?

So my life has been spent monitoring my divine associations and I just I'm not bragging, I'm just reporting.

I got ahold of this years and years ago and I started.

God began to open doors for me, you know, to do things that I just never dreamed I'd do.

I never dreamed I'd be up on the platform opening the services and prayer at Lakewood Church.

I never saw myself up there like that.

I just was content to be down here, down in the audience, and just, you know, every now and then I'd stand up and prophesy or something or whatever.

I sang on a Sunday night at a time or two and I was just happy to do whatever I could do to help there.

And then, all of a sudden, god opened some doors and next thing I know I'm up there.

And so, god, I got ahold of some of these things years ago, about 1989, I had a prophet staying with us at our house.

We had a lot of fellowship during those years, for quite a number of years and he was talking to me about the prophetic and that night I had my first prophetic dream.

He was spending the night, you know, in the bedroom, and so the next morning I got up and I kind of knew a little bit about what the dream meant, but it just was the first one I'd ever had.

And so I said, hey, I had a dream last night.

Here it is.

And so he'd asked me if you, instead of just interpreting it for me, he'd asked me some questions and then he kind of filled it out for me.

But in the dream I was on this boat and it was not a superstructure, it was just a flat boat as a cargo vessel and I was standing at the very back end of it, the aft of the boat.

It's probably this long between here and the back wall and it's on the Houston Ship Channel.

The reason I knew is because we saw the tank batteries and the refineries and it's cutting through the water.

You know and I'm feeling the air in my face here in the diesel there was a diesel engine evidently underneath me.

I could tell it was running and vibrating my feet and I've just exhilarated.

I felt exhilarated in the dream and kind of looking at the tank batteries and looking at the refineries and looking at the boat and wondering about the hold.

And you know they've had these hatches, three hatches between me and the bow, and then the hatch I'm standing on is the engine hatch and being an engineer by education, I thought I wonder what kind of engine this thing's got in it.

So I stepped away, man, I thought I was gonna fall off the back.

I had to.

It's just kind of barely enough room for me to open that hatch and stay on the boat.

You know, I opened that hatch and all the heat from those manifolds come hit me in the face.

That diesel fumes hit me in the face and, man, it was a very impressive engine, you know.

It's just throbbing with power and I'm kind of marveling at that.

And then when I look up, suddenly I'm not on the boat, suddenly I'm in the cab of an 18-wheeler.

I'm going down a two-lane highway and somehow I know that I'm pulling a tanker trailer.

It's gonna have some of the same kind of stuff that the boat had in it, only this time it's gonna be in my trailer.

I didn't see it because it's behind me.

But it's the same engine noise, the same smells, the same vibration.

But yet I'm in this 18-wheeler and then I'm driving 60, 70 miles an hour down the two-lane highway and I'm coming up on another 18-wheeler and I can't pass him.

I look to see if I can pass there's traffic and I have to let my foot off of the accelerator and I wake up.

And so the interpretation was this that your vessel stands for your ministry and you are a blend of oils, all the ministries that come through Lakewood Church.

You have Brother Osteen's oil, his anointing, but you have all these others.

You've got Brother Osteen, of course I can think about all the ones that would come through.

I mean, we were blessed to have all these different men of God, these examples of Word of Faith TL Osborne or Roberts, you know RW Shambach, charles Capps, norval Hayes should I keep going?

And some of which I had when I first got saved.

I'd listen to on the radio every morning.

I'd listen to the on the radio.

I'd listen to Brother Hagan, charles Capps, rw Shambach and Derek Prince With his Cambridge accent.

Anybody ever heard of Derek Prince?

A bunch of you have.

Well, you know I.

So I mean I listen to those four every morning, 15 minutes each.

And then some of them would show up at Lakewood and so whenever Brother Hagan would show up, man, I'd take off work, I'd suspend operations, I'd be there, sit at his feet.

I mean he'd have daytime meetings, I'd be there in the morning.

I'd be there if he had after and I don't think he had after just morning and night and I was there.

I didn't miss anything that he would put on.

He was beside Brother Hagan, he was my favorite.

But I was discovering this blend of oils and he said when you look down at the engine, you were discovering God's power.

You were in the.

You're investigating the magnitude of God's power that he has given you.

Now this is way, way back there.

This is.

I mean I've been saved a while, but I mean I hadn't really entered into much of the ministry.

I was a prayer partner and, like I said, I just started opening services and prayer.

Maybe a little bit after that dream, dodie and Brother Osteen asked us to go to lunch and one Sunday, and because I had started doing that on a kind of regular basis and it was kind of made official, I got a call from Jim Graff.

He says you know, we want you to just take that over.

So you're the one, you're it.

And this is in the old building, this is back in the old sanctuary.

So so I was honored to get to do that.

I mean, man, that was pretty amazing to me.

I was, I was just kind of wow, how did this happen?

So Brother Osteen Dodie says hey, go to lunch with us today.

So they took us out to one of the hotels we had brunch, you know, and we're so nervous.

Gladys and I are just looking at each other and, oh God, you know, just the four of us.

And so they start and he just comes right out and said John, how in the world did you get to do what you're doing for us?

And I said the Holy Ghost, ha ha.

All of that was the right thing to say, cause that's what his standard answer was when anybody asked him how, how could you have 30 people on your staff and run such a big church?

You know he had 30 people working for him.

How do you?

How do you?

We've spent time with you and we realize you don't do anything except pray in tongues all day.

He said that's exactly right, that's all I do all day long pray in tongues.

He did more than that.

I can tell you I'm talking about, you know, divine associations.

That's, that's my pastor.

And I didn't know all of that then, but I began to pick up on the fact that this is God's plan, that God had given me this association beyond just pastor member type thing, and so, you know, I put myself in prison.

I mean, I put myself in prison.

I mean I didn't, I didn't put, I didn't put that and say, well, you know, we've got.

You know we've got family to you know they're coming to town, we've got.

Well, I've got to go to my brother's birthday party this Sunday.

I got to listen.

All of that went by the boards that I was there to do my job.

Are y'all with me?

Now?

Let's look at first Samuel 22, talking about anointed by association.

And this is so key because we all are anointed in the believer's ministry.

But yet there are other things that we're not ever gonna pick up that God has destined for us and less.

And until we get a revelation of our divine associations in which are divine and which are soulless and which are really brought by the day.

You know, the devil can bring you associations.

Leaven, a little leaven.

Leaven at the whole lump.

What's leaven?

Well it's, you know it causes bread to rise.

Leaven is a type of sin, ungodliness.

First, samuel 22.

Now this is David.

He's running from Saul.

Saul wants to kill him.

Him and Jonathan have a covenant, verse one.

David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Dullum, and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.

Now, just think about that a moment.

You're the same ones that were making fun of him when he killed Goliath.

What are you doing here?

Why aren't you home watching those few sheep?

Remember that one?

He lied to his oldest brother.

See all those guys.

Why did they come to the cave?

Because they knew that if Saul had it in for David, saul also had it in for his daddy and all of his family.

They're on the hit list.

Boy, you talk about having to eat some humble pie.

They watched him be anointed.

They were in the house the day that Samuel poured the horn of oil over his head and anointed him king of Israel.

And so now they've got to run for their lives like he is, and they have to go where he's at.

I think it's funny.

You never hear about them again.

You never read about them.

They just fall off the pages of the Bible.

I don't know whatever happened to them.

It kind of tells you how important your family can be, or maybe how unimportant your family can be.

Uh-oh, that went over like a lead balloon.

But it's true, because, jesus, you know he loved his mother, but when she came with his brethren and they had some objections to what he was preaching, he started preaching unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, drink his blood, you have no life in you.

They thought he had lost his mind and they came to talk to him.

They came to get him straightened out.

Philip goes to him and says "'Jesus, jesus, your mother and your brethren are out there.

They're here to see you'".

He said well, look around the room.

This is my mother, these are my brethren right here, those who hear the will of God and do it Whoo.

Now you know we loved his mother because he had John take care of her at the cross.

We know he didn't give up on his mother, but you know she didn't run him.

I don't know who that's for, but anyway, praise the Lord, your family I mean.

You know they're your blood, but they may not be that related to you and your ministry.

My brother thank God, my brother was related to me in my ministry.

My two sisters not so much.

So I don't pursue, I don't go down the road trying to go to their birthday parties and celebrate everything and be at their house, and I love them.

We visited funerals.

It's about the only time I see them is at a funeral.

Why, pastor, that?

Well, you know what.

We went from just almost every weekend, gladys.

And now we first moved to Houston from A&M.

I mean every weekend we were around all those people, every, I mean, you know.

Finally, gladys said look, I'd like a weekend off.

Can we do something besides that?

And they couldn't understand when I came you're not going to come out.

No, we've got some other things we want to do.

We want to lay around the apartment pool.

We want to do something besides.

Come on, drive all the way to Conroe.

They couldn't understand that.

We loved them.

But God, lee, give me a break.

But when I went to prison, right, when I said I'm going to prison now, this is my ministry, I'm showing up, I'm locked.

I'm locked into this thing.

I am not available to do all this kind of stuff.

I mean, I'll see them when I can, but I'm not.

That's not a priority.

I hope this is helping you, so all right.

So everyone verse two and everyone that was in distress, everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented boy, what a church, wow Boy, to be able to pastor church like that.

They gathered themselves under him and he became everybody.

Shout became, shout, became, five times, became, became, became, became, became.

See, you, became.

He became.

I mean, it wasn't right overnight.

He's 18, 19 years old.

He's still a teenager.

He killed Goliath.

That's his claim to fame.

He's anointed king of Israel, but he's not in the office yet because Saul's still alive.

And somehow all of these people that were in debt, in distress and discontented, and he became a captain over him.

Now, that word captain is not one rank under Colonel.

That word captain is Lord.

That word captain is leader.

It's Lord, it's master.

That's what that word is.

He became a master.

Was he the Lord?

No, but he was the Lord in between them.

And Lord and the Lord Are y'all with me.

And it didn't happen overnight.

He became that and there were with him about 400 men.

So while he'd been out there fighting and killing Goliath.

They'd been out there, busy, failing, making a mess of their lives, total mess, and so, correspondingly, then they committed themselves under him.

It took a while, but for him to be their captain they had to then commit to him.

See, y'all got to be committed to him.

See, y'all got it now.

They committed, they went to prison, they, they, they, they.

You know they're with him through thick and thin.

Right or wrong, they're with him.

So this is his only subjects.

Even though he's anointed king of Israel, he's only got 400 subjects.

And so then, 20 years later, when you read 1 Corinthians, 1 Chronicles 11, they became the mighty men.

These are among the men that could shoot an arrow with either left or right and sling a stone left or right handed.

I mean, they were mean motor scooters.

Where did they get that anointing?

They got it by association.

The one who killed Goliath, the one who was a warrior king he was not just a, he was not just a king right and you know, sitting on a throne somewhere, he had one, but he was mostly out there with his men leading them in battle, and they took on the courage of David.

So they'd been anointed by association.

So when I got ahold of this 37, eight, nine years ago, I asked the Lord.

I said what?

How did that?

How did that look?

How did they?

How did they do that?

I mean, I know he killed Goliath, but what made them want to surrender to him, what made them want to get in that kind of a relationship with him that when he says goes that he's master, that he's Lord, he's captain?

What made them do that?

Let's look at second Samuel 23.

Do you read your Bible like that?

I like to ask questions.

I like to find out what the reasons are.

Second Samuel 23, verse 15.

2 Samuel 23:15

Well, let's back it up to verse 14.

David was then in a hold and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem.

And David longed and said oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate.

And the three mighty men break through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem and that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David.

Nevertheless, he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord and he said be it far from me, oh Lord, that I should do this.

It's not this, the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives.

Therefore he would not drink it.

These things did these three mighty men.

I see three of the mighty men.

I mean, these guys are not somebody to trifle with, but they put their lives at risk just to answer a request that he was just made.

He didn't, he wasn't talking to them and he just was wishing out loud.

Man, I'd give anything for a drink of that water.

I know what that water tastes like.

I hadn't been drinking.

I've been drinking out of these muddy creeks, for I'd love to have some out of that.

Well, you know that he just he wasn't expecting it.

He wasn't expecting it, see, he wasn't like that.

And so God gave me these four things.

He repented of speaking, and advisedly.

It wasn't right for him to put that in words out loud.

He should be careful.

You ought to be careful when you're in relationship with someone when you're the captain and they're looking to you.

You got to be careful what you say.

You got to be careful not to ever take advantage of a relationship like that and expect things from them that is outside of what it ought to be, and God's the one that judges that stuff.

So he, he repented of speaking ill advisedly.

He kept his flesh under instead of drinking that water.

You know, he wanted it.

He poured it out to the Lord as a worship.

See, it was like blood, it's like a, it's like a blood offering.

He poured it out as worship to God.

He didn't just waste it, he took their sacrifice that they made at the hazard of their life.

It's not this their blood, is not this cup their life.

And he poured it out to the Lord and worshiped God with it.

And he was tender toward those under his authority.

Tender, not abusive, not demanding, not, you know, cruel.

And I tell you, I've been around leaders that were just downright cruel.

I've been around leaders that just grind people under their foot and I just look, I'm.

I just God had to teach me.

Here I am.

I'm going to say, brother, I've stayed and put myself in prison for your benefit.

You're my master.

Now, jesus is my Lord, but you're my you're, you're between me and him.

That's why I was able to to bring this idea of the church to him.

And I never did say God told me, never did say that to him, never.

I was praying in.

The Lord told me he had, but I wasn't going to say that to my pastor.

Why?

Because he had veto power.

He's the Lord in that situation.

I'm not starting this church till the Lord the captain tells me.

Yeah, if I go over there and tell him, the Lord told me, what do you think he's going to do?

He's going to wash his hands of me and just send me out the door.

Okay, well, you heard from God.

I didn't, so go ahead.

I've had people do that in this church.

I had a couple that decided to go start their church and they didn't consult with me.

They wanted me to announce it, so I announced it, but I didn't bless them on the way out.

Why?

Well, because I had nothing to do with it.

To me, it was a dishonor to my ministry and to the Lord.

Are you with me now?

So, oh, so I received an anointing by association.

That's one of the reasons why this church has got such a heritage and why it's going to be in its 30th year.

Coming up January It'll be our third.

We're starting our 30th year.

We're going to talk a lot about our 30th year next year, because it's our number 30.

A lot of churches don't make it 30 days.

They don't make it 30 months, and so I'm not bragging, I'm just reporting.

And this, this, what I'm teaching tonight, is a legacy message.

It's it's it's one of the reasons why this church stands.

Break it.

There's strength, there's blessing in that Everybody say I'm anointed by association.

I mean, you know you're gonna pick up anointings that fill in the needs of the church beyond the believer's ministry.

Beyond the believer's ministry there's needs financial needs, business needs, wisdom.

I just think about, at Lakewood we had people that were anointed to build.

They were builders, they could give brother Osteen advice on all the building that he did.

You know, you can ask for advice from the professionals, but sometimes their advice is colored by money, sometimes they're just giving you the advice that lines their pocket, and so it's good to have people in the church that know how to help with all kinds of things and you get it by association.

So anyway, I have a little testimony about how this kind of unfolded in my as I went down the road.

So a few years later probably the 90, probably 1990, I guess we'd moved into the new building and brother Osteen was going to India and he asked me to go and I said well, brother Osteen, I'd be honored to go.

I mean I just well, what are you gonna do about your business?

I said, well, it'll be there when I get back.

I'll just arrange for things to keep going.

You know I just how long are we gonna be gone?

Now we'd be gone about a week and we're going to India.

So he booked me a flight on continental airlines, a direct flight, a nine hour flight between intercontinental and Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

That was the first leg of the trip, and then we'd meet in Paris and then we'd catch the next flight from Paris to I think we were going to Bombay.

That time He'd always go through Paris.

He had a connecting flight through Paris and it was always Air France, because he's Air France flies into India, either New Delhi or Bombay or anywhere you wanna go.

Air France is flying there.

And so his travel agent liked to use Air France because they would give him perks and get a better seat.

You get a better.

You know it was good for him, and so it was a lot longer to do that, but it was easier on him because when you just fly to India, I mean, it's 22, 24 hours of flying and that was just too much for him.

So he would fly and rest and get up the next day and then we'd fly, do it and do it in stages.

So anyway, he said, okay, here's your ticket, you're gonna board and you're going to nonstop from intercontinental.

Big old, I forgot what it was DC.

Yeah, it might've been a 747.

It is a big, wide body, and the wide body it seemed like it was like five seats on next to the window there's five seats in the middle, there's 10 seats, and so you got.

You know, see how many is that?

10, 15, 20 seats wide, with two aisles.

So I get on, you know, and I'm in the middle.

I'm in the middle chair, two people on each side of me, on the left side of the airplane, and it's a night flight and you know I'm thinking.

Well, I'm gonna try to sleep a little bit.

I mean it's dark, but I was in between guys that didn't believe in bathing.

It was against their religion to brush their teeth, speaking in a foreign language, over me.

Back, you know I'm sitting and they're going like this and I mean it was gag, I'm talking about I.

When we finally got to cruising altitude, I thought I was gonna just be sick.

I mean, it was just, I'm not joking, it was horrible.

It stunk so bad your boy has been laying with the goats, god.

Well, there was plenty of room on the.

There wasn't hardly anybody in the center section.

So I caught the stewardess and I said hey, can I sit over there, would you mind?

Oh, no, make yourself at home, thank you.

So I moved over to the middle.

I flipped all the arm rests up and I on about six seats and I laid across six seats.

It got me about three hours of sleep.

Man, that was cool.

We could do that today, but I did it and it saved the flight nine hours.

I get to Paris, you know, get to the hotel.

The hotel is just.

I don't know who booked that hotel, but it was the tiniest room I think I'd ever been in in my life.

You have two single beds and we're gonna be in the same room.

I mean, he didn't have a separate room, he just one room.

You know, brother hosting, wow, okay.

So anyway, he's not coming until the next evening.

So I'm there, you know, in the morning and I've got all day to kill until about like 10 o'clock that night before he gets there.

So you know, twiddle around, try to sleep Of course, jet lag, you know, can't sleep really Well, finally, I had traveled, since I wasn't with him in first class, I just I wore a jogging suit, you know, just something comfortable that I could sleep in and I wouldn't worry about spilling stuff on me and all that.

When I try, you know I hadn't traveled with him really this is my first trip with him, so I didn't know how to travel with him.

To be honest, I learned later that you travel fully dressed with a suit and a tie.

That's how he travels.

But anyway, I didn't do that this trip.

I just had a jogging suit.

So I've known this jogging suit so I pull.

It's kind of cold that night here.

It was the middle of summer.

In his coat.

It's 40 degrees outside in July.

The Sun is setting is real.

You know it's all fouled up your way up north Paris, your way way up there, right on the North Sea, not very far so.

So I go out and I think you know I'm gonna be there.

When his car gets to the hotel, I'm gonna greet him outside, I'm gonna be there and I'm chuckling to myself.

He won't expect me to be there and I'm gonna be standing there to tension and I'm gonna, I'm gonna give him a salute like this Welcome to Paris, pastor Osteen.

I'm just gonna do that.

I'm gonna have that whole thing and I'm chuckling to myself, I'm just laughing that I'm gonna put this over on him and he's gonna just really laugh and see that and he's gonna like that.

And so I'm waiting.

I was out there for about 30 minutes and I'm just looking at every car that comes up.

Here comes a Cadillac, here comes a Lincoln Town car, and he's not taking a cab, he's taking a car, an executive car.

I know that's what he's gonna do.

And so here comes a Lincoln Town car and it's brother Osteen.

I know it's him.

So I stand over there, right by the back door of the car.

He gets out.

He's not looking my way and I'm standing there to tension with my hand like this, to salute him and I'm trying not to grin, trying not to laugh, and and he's talking to the guy to get his luggage out of the trunk, you know, and the guy's gonna take his luggage.

I don't have to take his luggage for him, because the guy is gonna take the luggage and put it in the Lobby and get it checked in for him.

And so finally he looks at me and he just kind of starts you know, oh, brother John, and it he did not laugh.

He said oh, brother John, I just feel so bad that I sent on that plane.

I wish I hadn't done that.

I'm so sorry.

I apologize.

You should have traveled with me.

I Don't know what I was thinking when I booked you on that flight, was it okay?

Also, yeah, brother Osteen, I arrested.

It was just fine, no problem.

Well, you know, from now on we're gonna travel together.

And I thought you mean we're gonna do this again.

But he had the opposite effect.

He, he had it had pierced his heart and Almost had a tear in his eye when he saw me out there, because he received it not as a joke, I meant it as a joke, but he took it as humility, he took it as a servant, he took it as part of his role as my master.

Can you, can you hear that without judging?

At Rome?

And and he apologized again a couple of times on that trip about sending me on that.

He said no, never again, john.

He said to you Value the anointing.

I Said yes, sir.

He said take care of your temple there's.

There's few laborers, there's few laborers always believe God To travel first class and see he had sent me on coach and see it, it just got it, just got him.

See, it just got him.

See I, when I read this story of David, I see him.

That's how David was already caught.

What a man of God To be able to be subject to, to be able to be able to have an anointing by association.

I mean I credit that association with a lot of what happens in our ministry, along with a lot of other Wonderful men of God, women of God that we got acquainted with.

Of course, doting I won't forget about doting Over the years.

I mean I got associated with Norville Hayes, I got associated with tail Osborne, I got associated with Oral Roberts.

All those years after I had that visitation, over all these years of ministry, 35 years of ministry since I've been ordained, 1988, god has put me in with those same men at a different way where I could get more of a download of the anointing and I mean I glad it's not even got to see a Year before he passed Derek Prince at Channel 14, he got to sit down with him and interview him on on the air and before we went out in the green room I knelt at his feet, glad it's not knelt down before him, and he laid hands on both of them.

Let's did a world.

Roberts laid hands on our whole family and so anointed by association.

Did you get anything out of this tonight?

Praise God, let's lift our hands.

Father, we thank you for the anointing, the ability, the supernatural ability that can only come when we have Divine associations that you have ordered, or we thank you that you're making us more sensitive as the as the time approaches, as the day approaches, as the day approaches for these divine associations to mature, to Be completed, so that these divine anointing Can fill the church of Jesus Christ, so that it can accomplish All that you have in mind before you come in.

And Jesus name amen.