Cooperating With The Anointing

Let's wave our Bibles around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad, as is our custom, hallelujah.

Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, it's special miracle Sunday.

I'm in the right place for miracles.

I'm determined not to be in a dead church, not to be a dead believer of nothing, but I believe in the mighty God who said it and I believe it.

That settles it.

My miracle is alive.

There's nothing impossible with God.

There's nothing impossible with Him who believes in Jesus' name.

Amen, you can be seated.

Praise God, turning your Bibles pleased to Acts, chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And we'll start reading with verse one.

And we have another verse in Acts, chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

We'll read after this one Acts 19.

And verse one.

It came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus and, finding certain disciples, he said unto them have you received the Holy Ghost Since you believe?

That's a good question to ask about a hundred million people in America who call themselves Christians have you received the Holy Ghost Since you believe?

And then it'll start a big, old, long discussion about people that don't know anything about the baptism.

They think when they got saved, that's all the Holy Ghost there is.

They're happy with a little garden hose.

They're happy with their little squirt of the Holy Ghost that they've got, and they don't care about rivers.

Oh, we need rivers, don't we?

That's what Paul was saying.

He said have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe?

You're a disciple.

You're a disciple here in Ephesus.

Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe?

And they said unto him we've not so much as heard that there be a Holy Ghost, who's the Holy Ghost?

And he said unto them, unto them, what were you baptized?

And they said unto John's baptism.

And then said Paul to them John, verily, baptized the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him, which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

So you stop too soon.

You just stop with John.

John was pointing the head to Jesus Christ, and so when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

What happened then?

They got saved and baptized in water.

That's what happened right there.

I mean, why can't people that don't believe in the baptism read Acts 19?

It's so clear that there's a separate experience and that Paul wasn't talking about them getting saved.

He assumed they were saved and found out they weren't saved, so they had to get saved first.

Right, they're so easy to understand when you read your Bible, you don't have to settle it.

It might help when some people help your relatives, help your friends.

They need a lot of help folks, All right, and so, and when Paul had laid his hands on them, that seems step number two they got saved.

And step number two, paul laid his hands on them.

The Holy Ghost came on them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied, and the number of the men was about 12.

Now, that was the beginning of the church at Ephesus.

You had to start with 12 spirit filled believers, and that's been God's plan all along.

It's not God's plan for people to call themselves Christians and act like the Holy Ghost.

And baptism is some kind of a ridiculous thing.

It is absolutely necessary if we're gonna accomplish God's purpose, if we're gonna have miracles.

You just wanna play church and you wanna play and be a victim and just be complaining about everything under the sun.

Well, yeah, just go ahead and get saved and endure this life the way God never intended for you to endure it.

You're not really a proper witness of what God can do and will do, amen.

Well, this is kind of hard.

Well, you know, some people need to be slapped upside the head with a Holy Ghost noodle.

And so he went into the synagogue.

Now he's got a group of believers, now filled with a Holy Ghost, speaking in other tongues, operating in the gifts of the spirit, and their brand new baby Christians prophesying Preach.

They go into the synagogue and spoke boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.

But when diverse or different ones of them were hardened and believed not but spoke evil of that way before the multitude, paul decided to build a ministry to outreach just to all, to the naysayers, and to do nothing but just spend day and night trying to persuade them some more.

And he spent another 155 years there.

No, he separated all.

He got rid of them.

He said, okay, fine, you can have it your way, I'm gonna have it my way.

And he left and he took his disciples with him.

He didn't leave them at the mercy of the naysayers.

Notice what?

See, I'll tell you right.

We have to run people off that are like that.

They're always disputing and finding fault.

That's your job, not mine.

I've done it enough.

It's 27 years.

I think I'm retiring from having bad conversations when you find people have nothing good to say about the church.

Tell them to leave, escort them to the front gate, say hey, there's lots of other churches, go criticize some more arrows, praise the Lord, all right.

So they were hardened.

They believed not, they spoke evil of the way before the multitude.

He departed from them and separated the disciples disputing daily in the school of one, tarenas.

And this continued by the space of two years.

Now, this is a local church.

This is an apostle.

He's acting as their pastor.

That's what apostles do?

They pastor a while and then they move on.

And so that all they which dwelt in Asia Minor heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles.

And God brought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto the sick Hankertips or aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them.

Special miracles by the hands of Paul, special miracles unusual.

And so let's keep our place there.

Turn over to Acts, chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

And this is talking about Jesus.

He's our example.

Acts 10, 38.

Acts 10, 38.

And this is Peter preaching to Cornelius's house.

Gentiles went against his religion.

I mean, he was so guilty.

He felt so guilty staying there preaching to a bunch of Gentiles Except they're all Jews.

That's what religion you know?

You get religiously brainwashed.

And the 12 apostles were religiously brainwashed and just because they got saved and filled with the Holy Ghost and Jesus gave them the great commission, going to all the world, preached the gospel to every creature.

He didn't see every Jewish creature, but that's how they took it and it took a mighty visitation from the Holy Ghost and a vision and everything to get Peter off of his religiosity.

So this is part of the and he's preaching the gospel to Cornelius's house.

He's a Centurion, the Italian band, he's a Roman soldier by background.

Amen.

He's Italian, he's non-Jewish.

And he says how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him.

So he's announcing that Jesus worked miracles.

Not because he was the Son of God Was he the Son of God, but not one thing did he do on this earth as the Son of God.

He performed his ministry as a man anointed with the Holy Ghost, in other words, a man baptized in field with the Holy Ghost.

That's how he ministered.

He ministered and anointing came upon him, and so we're talking about special miracles, special miracles Sunday, and this part of the that.

What I want to share with you is called cooperating with the anointing.

Everybody say cooperating, see, the word cooperate means that you're jointly involved.

Isn't this?

God's not just doing everything by himself.

What we're partners in the business, in the family business.

If we don't do our part, it doesn't get done.

God's not up there just pulling the strings and having everything happen automatically.

We're the vessels through which he expects to move, especially now.

If he needed Jesus like that, if he needed Peter like that, if he needed Paul like that.

He needs you like that.

Oh, and I got ahold of this 40 years ago.

I didn't wait for somebody else.

I started moving like that.

I started being one of the vessels.

Are y'all with me?

The whole church has got to start rising up.

Quit waiting on some personnel, some preacher, some pastor, somebody else.

No, you Come on, point your finger right at your own nose.

He's talking about me, amen.

I mean these guys at Ephesus.

They just got saved, their baby Christians.

They just they started speaking in other tongues and prophesied in the next thing, you know?

I mean, they're in the supernatural business.

God's in the supernatural business, not the natural business.

Amen.

So Jesus performed miracles because of the anointing that was upon him.

He said in Luke 4, 18, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to do what?

To minister to five groups of people.

Amen, he said it.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

So the anointing, every believer, like those 12, they got the Holy Spirit given to them when they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior First, john 2.27, the anointing which you have received, so every believer receives the anointing or the presence of the Holy Ghost on the inside of them.

Or you wouldn't be saved If your body wasn't a temple of the Holy Ghost which you have of God.

You're not your own, you've been bought with a prize.

You wouldn't be saved.

But you get the Holy Ghost, just like I've got water in this glass right here.

I've got water in it.

You've got water in your glass when you get saved.

But then there's something else happens.

What did Paul do?

He laid hands on them for the purposes of getting them filled with the Holy Ghost.

That's not the only way it can happen, but it's the way it happened the majority of the time.

The majority of the time is laying on of hands was how the Holy Ghost was given.

I mean, the doctrine of the laying on of hands is a central doctrine of the church.

It goes back to Judaism.

They laid the hands on the scapegoat and transferred the sin of Israel on to the scapegoat and let it loose in a wilderness area.

In other words, that's a symbol of the sin being taken away and disappearing.

Did that every year?

Scapegoat?

That's where we get that, that colloquialism of scapegoat.

Well, he's just a scapegoat.

Where did they get that?

They got that from the Bible, the Bible they don't believe.

Are y'all with me now?

Y'all are looking at me.

I'm talking about miracles and I'm talking about our faith has something to do with it.

It's not that we're attached and God we're.

We just got to have God to do something, independently of us and without our cooperation.

You know we had to cooperate with the anointing.

So you have to know a little bit about what the anointing is.

The anointing in the New Testament the word anointing means smearing.

You're marked.

You get saved.

You're marked.

You've got light on the inside you ever.

You know, when I was little in Houston they used to have lightning bugs.

We used to call them.

They all died because of the ship channel.

I guess I don't really why they did, but can't find anymore.

They used to.

I think some have any of you been out in the country and seen the lightning bugs.

You know they're still out there in the country.

Maybe in Magnolia they might have few out still out there.

But around here the same with horny toads.

Anybody remember horny toads?

I mean, I used to have them in my yard in Gleena Park.

They're all gone to, I think, the same thing.

It killed the lightning bug, killed the horny toad, horne frogs If you're from TCU, horned frogs, it's a nicer way to say it All right, so but you know you smear that on you.

You know we squush them and smear that, that phosphorus.

And then you, you have a mark on your hand and glow in the dark.

Man, it was so cool when you're kid.

Look at that.

You're out there playing.

Oh, we played till nine o'clock and we'd come in the house and take a bath and go to bed and that's it.

We played outside.

Now we've got to have a play date, have an appointment to play, and we just played, played, kids played when I was a kid.

We played.

We played with nothing, we played with broomsticks.

I wrote a broomstick but I was riding trigger.

I confess I did have cap pistols.

I mean, you know it wasn't good enough just to have my my hand.

I had to have a real cap pistol.

So I had, I had a Fanner 50.

I know most of you don't know what that is, but that's one with it when you pull it out of a holster and it's got a big, broad hammer on it and you go like that, bam bam and it would pop all your caps, bam, bam, bam, as fast as you could go like that.

So I'm talking about now.

The anointing is a mark, it's a smearing and there's anointing within Everybody.

Say the anointing within, say every believer has the anointing within.

You can say you're anointed because you have the anointing within you.

But then the baptism of the Holy Ghost, when you have the evidence of speaking in other tongues, is the anointing upon you.

The anointing within is for you to get saved.

It's for your salvation.

The anointing upon is for service.

The anointing upon is for you to be able to spread the good news and be a witness.

Acts one eight Jesus said you shall receive power.

After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses.

Jesus told his disciples right before he was lifted off the planet go back and sit at the right hand of the Father.

Right before he left he said don't leave Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high.

They had already been saved.

And now he said you need the anointing upon you, like I had, or you're not going to be very successful.

So the church had to learn to cooperate with this anointing that they had.

You have to understand the church was a baby church.

I hear people say well, let's go back to the book of Acts.

Well, you want to go back to having church as a baby, because the church in the book of Acts, as sparkling as it is with the supernatural, as miraculous as it is, every page loaded with amazing things, it's still a baby church.

All they had were apostles.

They didn't have pastors.

They didn't have really pastor teachers.

They didn't even have evangelists.

Prophets came along fairly soon.

It took a long time for God to develop the five fold ministry gifts so that he could build a mature, sustainable church.

Everybody talk about sustainable.

Now Everything is sustainable.

Well, the church is sustainable by the Holy God.

We're lasted 2000 years.

We're still here.

Let me tell you something the church is not dead.

Some of it's asleep, but the church of Jesus Christ is not dead, it is alive.

And I like to think that this church can be on the forefront of miracles, because miracles prove that God's alive.

Amen, he's the same.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

You can argue doctrine all day long, you can get in a big argument and people have wars over it, they have splits over it, but you got a miracle Deal with that.

Glory to God.

So the church as the baby church, I mean they're just like I said about Peter he didn't even know that he's supposed to be preaching to somebody besides Jews.

They're still trying to keep the law.

It took a big conference for them to decide what to do about the law, whether they should be keeping the dietary law and all that.

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

I mean they went round and round and round and round.

They had to have big old counsel.

They had to have Paul come in and said look, we've got a bunch of Gentiles laid.

I mean we can't ask them to do something that we never could do ourselves.

Are you nuts?

Can't do that.

So they had to go through all the.

It's all recorded.

And so people say I want to go back to the book.

No, let's keep going.

We have a basis from which to reach this generation.

What we need is miracles.

We've had them from the beginning.

I said we've had them from the beginning.

So they had to learn how to cooperate with the anointing of, that is, to work with it to allow the Holy Ghost to do what he does best.

Amen.

And so they started.

In Acts 243, right here, right after they got baptized the Holy Ghost, right after all those 3000 Jews got saved.

On the day of Pentecost.

I mean it says in Acts 3, 243, many signs and wonders were done by the apostles Boy.

I mean they hooked, they and they're baby Christians.

Wait, pastor, come on, they're not.

But yeah, they're baby Christians.

We call them apostles.

They were apostles but they hadn't been saved.

But just 40 days, are y'all with me?

Y'all looking at me like y'all so strange.

They didn't, hadn't gone to Bible school, they were with Jesus.

They were with Jesus three and a half years.

That's better than a Bible school.

They learned from the master, but while the master was here.

They were kind of clueless, let's face it, weren't they?

I mean, jesus wasn't going around.

Oh, come on, brother, give me a hug over here, come on.

No, he's always kind of fussing at him, jesus, why couldn't we cast him out?

Because you're unbelief, I mean.

You know he didn't.

He didn't get pat him on the head, little darling, he.

No, you're unbelief.

That's why you couldn't cast a devil out of that kid.

You're unbelief.

How long have I got to put up with this?

How is it that you have no faith?

You read your Bible and see how God, how Jesus, taught the disciples.

He was a kind of a task master.

He told the truth and it was up to them to line up with what he said.

And most of the time they didn't understand it.

And it took them a long time.

After the resurrection and after they had been filled with a Holy Ghost, after they started having miracles, it took them a long time to put all this together.

I'm telling you the book of Acts, church was a baby church.

What we need are miracles.

What we need is to hear what the Word of God is saying and speak it ourselves.

Just like the song said, it's still.

A whole lot of Christians hadn't grasped that.

You know, we've got a lot of things we can help the church with.

The church at large.

There's a lot of well-meaning people.

They love God as far as they can, they trust God as far as they can.

They just don't know much why.

Because they've got preachers and teachers and pastors that really aren't what.

Well, they have the title but they don't have the anointing.

I'm going to tell you something.

I have an anointing and I know I do.

Oh, he's bragging on himself.

Now I'm bragging on him and I'm bragging on what I didn't earn.

I didn't pay for it, I didn't go to school to get it.

God gave it to me and in turn gave me to you.

And I know that.

I know it.

I don't have to wonder about it, I don't have to think about it, I live it.

I lean on the anointing upon my life.

There's all kinds of different anointings, but the anointing of the five fold ministry, which is the pastor, you know, the apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, evangelist, those five ministry gifts have this all in common, therefore the growth of the church for the benefit of the church.

Are you with me now?

So they, they started cooperating.

And acts five, 15,.

You know they had so many sick people this was right after anointing fire, dropped dead in the church.

You'd think man gosh, that's going to cause a big problem with the church.

No, the fear of the Lord multiplied and people were very reserved about joining the church because they heard about anointing fire.

They died about lying about an offering.

She died, he lied.

They both had a chance to tell the truth.

They wouldn't tell the truth, and right in the presence of God.

The presence of God was so rich and so strong in the early church that when you lied, you lied to God.

Peter said you didn't lie to me, you lied to the Holy Ghost, you dummy.

There must have been more than just them die in church.

Because they had people ready to wind them up in linen and carry them out and bury them.

They had a ministry for that.

How would you like to be on the burial ministry?

We need some volunteers.

How many of you are good at spicing people up and wrapping them in linen?

How many can dig a hole?

How many can cover people?

That's what they did.

Read your Bible and the fear of the Lord multiplied greatly and no man durst joined themselves to them.

You know why Because they thought, man, if I'm not sincere, if I'm not ready to change my life, I better not set foot in that church.

I might not survive.

That's not exactly the church growth formula that we're seeing right now, but that was the Holy Ghost growth formula, making sure that people really were ready to commit themselves and be married to the Lord.

Are you with me now?

That's what it is, being married to Jesus.

Yeah, do you want to go out of your way to find some unfaithful somebody?

Well, let's see On my list of qualities.

I want someone that's as unfaithful as possible.

We'll come home late at night.

Every night We'll hit a lick at a snake.

Don't work, just live off of me.

Yep, yep, check, check, check.

No, you wouldn't have that on your list.

Neither does God.

God didn't have that on his list either.

So then they had all these sick people and Peter.

You know, we know the apostles laid hands on the sick.

Why?

Because Jesus laid hands on the sick.

So somehow some enterprising Christians said you know what?

We can't get him out there to do that.

Let's haul the sick and lay him in the street on his normal way to the temple.

You know, I was going to the temple.

Still.

They're still ministering in the temple a lot At least.

Perhaps the shadow of Peter, passing by, might fall on some of them.

Why in the world would they think that Peter's shadow Would make a difference in a sick person?

Why would they think that they would be healed?

Because they had learned about the anointing, that God's anointing was proximity.

There was a power.

You know, you feel the anointing when you come.

We hear people say this all the time.

We hear people say, oh, I felt God's presence.

Well, that's the anointing.

Well, I felt something.

I had one lady that said she smelled the Holy Ghost when she walked in the door.

She's from Africa, so she knows what demons smell like and she knew what Holy Ghosts smell like.

That blessed me so much to hear that I smelled the Holy Ghost when I walked in the door.

Well, where does that come from?

It comes from the anointing, it comes from all of you and all of us.

So they were cooperating.

So they said let's get these sick people close enough to Peter, at least his shadow.

He might be 20, 30 feet away, but at least he'll be close enough.

And you know, they started getting healed.

And so they started bringing sick people from everywhere and they were healed.

Everyone read Acts, chapter five.

This is after Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead.

The fear of God brought an atmosphere.

Oh, this nation needs to go back to the fear of God.

Where are they going to learn it?

They're going to have to have it in the church.

We're going to have to start speaking to our politicians about the fear of God.

That's why I'm so excited about these politicians coming into this church.

They're going to feel something when they come in here and at the right time, we're going to remind them they don't have any fear.

They don't fear the people, they don't fear the voters and they sure don't fear God.

Well, that's going to change.

Are y'all with me now?

I think about you.

Keep on reading Book of Acts.

You had two ushers, stephen and Philip went out and started preaching.

Stephen did great mega signs and wonders among the people and they stoned him for it.

He got acquainted with the anointing.

Philip went to Samaria, preached, crashed under them and he had miracle after miracle after miracle, but he couldn't get anybody filled with the Holy Ghost.

That took Peter and John.

They came to the meeting in Samaria and then they ministered the Holy Ghost.

They had the anointing on their life where they could get people filled with the Holy Ghost.

Evidently, you know, here he is just a young usher and he just didn't.

You know, he had a limited amount of anointing on his life, he didn't know how to distribute, he didn't know how to get people filled with the Holy Ghost.

So they came and helped him out.

Are y'all with me now?

Amen.

So you see, here in Acts 1911, getting back to Paul, the church had a history of cooperating with the Holy Ghost.

It doesn't say whose idea it was to take handkerchiefs, aprons, sweat rags.

You know they had sweat rags around their face.

I mean they had aprons of men war so that they could you know their hands would get dirty handling animals, picking up to anything.

I mean, you know your hands get dirty.

You don't have time, water's at a premium, you can't just run and go wash your hand.

So you had an apron on the front of your garment where you could just kind of wipe your hands off.

It's dirty by definition.

I don't know whose idea it was to take these pieces of cloth, but they did just kind of like.

Whose idea was it to put people in proximity from Peter's shadow?

You see, believers started getting cooperating with the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost probably put it in their hearts.

He says well, take some cloth, take some cloth off of him and lay it on this sick person over here, because he can't get over there across town.

Your cousin is too sick to come to these meetings.

Take a piece of cloth and put it on your cousin, put it on your friend, and they started doing that.

Sick people started getting healed, demonically oppressed people started getting free.

Yes, so there seemed to be some sort of capacity for cloth to contain or carry the anointing, which is supernatural, but somewhat like electricity.

It's not electricity, but it's like electricity.

I mean we put electricity in a battery and it powers our phone, it powers all kinds of stuff.

We have ways of transporting electricity besides having to be next to the power plant.

It's amazing what electricity.

So it's the same as this cloth.

How did they find that out?

The Holy Ghost probably told somebody to do that and then by experience they figured out that had that work.

I got another example for you.

How about the woman with the issue of blood?

When she heard of Jesus Mark, chapter five, came in the press behind, for she continually said the amplified said over and over, if I may, but touch his clothes, I shall behold.

Where did she get that?

It could be that somebody told her that that's how it happened with Jesus on a regular basis.

Well, that doesn't say that in the Bible.

Well, the Bible says a lot of things happen that weren't written down.

Amen, that's right.

What if the person that told her about Jesus said look, you don't even have to have him lay hands on you, he doesn't even have to see you, you can just touch the hem of his garment?

I saw people just touch his clothes and they were healed.

We don't know what she heard about Jesus, but what if she heard that Are y'all following along with it?

This isn't pie in the sky, except this is pie right here.

If you want some, you can have some right here.

It's my pie.

I eat this pie all the time.

This is not what you read.

You get a blue line letter.

Oh, you know, mail me $100 and I'll mail you back a piece of the wood of the Christ cross, or I'll give you a garment of St Peter, or I'll blah, blah, blah.

You know all this made up stuff.

This isn't made up.

These are Bible facts.

The point is that not everybody we love and everybody we're concerned about is able to get in a place like this where there's a corporate anointing.

That's another level of anointing is corporate.

To me it's the highest level.

Sometimes people want me to pray over things.

I say, well, I prefer to do it at the altar at a regular service, because I've learned by experience.

There's anointing comes on me when I'm in here and it's just different than just sitting in my office or just walking around in the normal.

I mean, if I'm pressed too, I'll pray for anybody at any time, but I prefer, if I have a chance, I would rather write here, because I know the corporate anointing is so powerful, I depend on it, I live by it.

Are y'all with me now?

So this woman, she comes up to Jesus and she can't even get there because he's pressed, this crowd is thronging him.

So she crawls on her hands and knees and pulls on the hem of his garment and immediately she felt in her body.

She felt, she felt.

She felt in her body.

She was whole of that plague.

And Jesus said immediately who touched me?

Jesus, they started mocking him.

Jesus, the other people are thronging you.

You say who touched me?

In other words being sarcastic, I mean I would have slapped one of them.

What's wrong with you?

Smart off to me.

No, jesus didn't even respond to that.

He said no, someone made a demand on my anointing by faith.

See, that's what he said.

Someone touched me.

Why?

Because he felt virtue or power go out of him.

He felt virtue, she felt virtue.

He felt she felt Are y'all with me?

Now there was a transfer.

Out of what?

Out of his hands, out of the hem of his garment.

How can that be?

That's my whole point.

It was then, it probably was before.

I mean, he had to devise ways because he's one man.

At that time, the Holy Ghost is only one place and that's upon him.

It's different now because the Holy Ghost is everywhere present, but he's also.

The anointing is upon you if you've received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

So we have opportunities to lay hands on the sick.

You don't have to have somebody come to church and get prayer.

You can lay hands on anybody and I encourage people to do that.

Don't wait to bring sick people to church.

You pray.

If you know about something that's going on, you lay hands.

Yes, but now you know, sometimes you've got cases where people are not really open.

You've got cases where people are not really believers.

They are not open to anybody touching them, praying for them, and so we have to do a little undercover work, and that's why we have prayer cloth we call them prayer cloths, and we have little pieces of cloth that we have stored right over here in the console, and when people ask for them, a lot of them are looking at me like what in the world is he talking about?

Well, I'm telling you what I'm talking about, and I'm going to get you used to being able to tap into all the advantages you have as a member of this church, because our reach is really way out there.

We're able to reach people where they really aren't even willing.

But your faith, there's something about the person's faith that carried those clothes.

I mean, you know it says that that handkerchiefs or aprons were laid on sick people.

So we don't know whose idea was it?

Paul was.

Paul said, okay, come up, tear my clothes off and take all the clothes.

No, so you know there had to be a limit.

So how did he distribute?

I mean, there's nothing is said.

We don't know how it happened, we don't know what.

So so we're left to To wonder.

But one thing is clear that he didn't take the cloth.

People took cloths from him and they carried them to sick and or Oppressed, demonically oppressed people and laid them on them.

And sick people got healed and Demons left others.

Nobody ministered to them, nobody said come out of him.

I Mean you know you start dealing with a devil and somebody that doesn't want that to happen.

You could be in a fight.

That person might attack you.

You're doing more harm than good.

I remember here in brother Shambo I mean anybody remember brother RW Shambo, all of brother Shambo he was.

He was a kind of like what I was brother Osteen for eight years.

He was like that to brother a a Allen who was in the voice of healing and a Allen had a tremendous healing ministry and Rw Shambo was his Worship leader and he was his emcee, he was his prayer coordinator, he was kind of the face of the ministry and get people into the tent.

And a?

A Allen and so later on in years when I heard a?

A Allen preach, it sounded Shambo, sounded exactly like a?

A Allen.

It's amazing.

I mean it's just like clone.

That's how close they were and the anointing transferred on it.

So he tells a story and he believes in prayer clause and he would, you know He'd be in a church, he would lay hands on own clause and people bring handkerchiefs.

Were next week, you can bring your handkerchief, we're gonna have you passed by.

You're gonna hold your hanky, like that, or whatever the piece of cloth, and I'm just gonna go like that, you're gonna tip and gonna touch it like that, touch why you're not gonna pray.

I'll pray first and then, cuz it's gonna take all day for me to pray over each, it's not necessary.

I have the anointing, it's gonna go in that cloth and you're gonna take it.

So what I'm saying is you have more to do with it than I do.

You're gonna treat that cloth with reverence, reverence for the anointing, it's caring and the reverence for the anointing from whence it came.

You can't be critical of the person you're receiving from.

You have to believe that there are no any.

So he anyway, shambach, brother Shambach said well, one time I had a lady that came up in the prayer line and she had a box of peanut M&M's and she said here, brother Shambach, pray over these M&M's.

I have a sister that's In a mental institution here.

And he said well, sister I don't know, just pray over it.

Didn't want to hear his Objection.

No, just pray over it, I'll take care of the rest, kind of like that.

All right, sister, you know.

And he put his hands on this box of peanut M&M's and and so six months later he's in another church, another meeting, somewhere, and these two women come in the door oh, brother Shambach.

Brother Shambach, and he didn't know her from.

I mean, imagine all the churches he's been in and people coming up in prayer lines.

You don't remember me, do you know?

Man, I don't believe I do said well, I'm the lady with the M&M's and this is my sister.

And he said get out of here.

And I mean they had a Holy Ghost hold down, I mean they started jumping up and down, twirling around.

So he came down on the floor to find out exactly what the story was.

And the woman that had been in the insane asylum.

She said I've always loved M&M's but I've just been out of my mind.

They couldn't do anything with me, I didn't know who I was, where I was, but I, when I saw those M&M's, I wanted them.

Sister had tried prayer claws.

She was raised Pentecostal and she wouldn't.

She wouldn't, she knew what her sister was trying to and the Demons and her wouldn't let her have those, she'd just get rid of them.

But M&M's a different story.

And she said every time I'd eat an M&M, another devil would leave me.

By the time I finished that box, I was free.

Glory to God.

No, I'm not handing out M&M's now, you all just.

But I'm telling you what.

What's involved is your faith.

See, the work around.

The Holy Ghost was able to do a work around your, your love, when you're relative.

You know, sometimes they just not open to what you're, what, what you have to offer, so you can just slip this under their pillowcase or on their side of the bed.

If it's a spouse I've had, I've had, you know, spouses, you know both men and women spouses.

It weren't believers and and their, their partners, would you know their spouses would pin it under their pillow or or put it underneath the sheet and of course, sometimes you could lose them.

So you have to come back, get another one.

Well, we got plenty.

What good does that do?

Well, sometimes people a little bit of of the anointing and they're sleeping on it.

It's transferable, it goes up through the cloth, it's, it's just, it's a conductor of God's power that they're not would not normally be a open to.

Y'all are looking at me funny, I know, but do you believe?

See, I've given you the word about it.

We just sang about the word.

God said it.

I believe it.

Hallelujah, come on, lift your hands right now.

Lift your hands.

Glory to God.

Oh, the anointing is worth more than gold.

It's priceless and you have Access, by faith, into the anointing.

I mean, how many of when you come up here and have prayer, how many of you believe God, that when hands are laid upon you see, well, it's the same kind of faith that you're gonna take.

What would you do with this prayer cloth?

Would you just take it in your pickup truck and throw it in the back seat and let it land on an empty McDonald's French fry Carton, you know, in the garbage, just laying back there, you know, on the floorboard?

No, you're gonna treat it with respect, you're gonna fold it, you're gonna put it on your in a, in your purse or in your pocket and you're gonna take it and and and, if it's got to be undercover where, you're gonna be very, you know, gentle with it and you're gonna find out a way to slip it into that person's Proximity, the anointing by proximity.

They might not ever set foot in a church, but the church set foot right there where they lay their head.

Oh, come on y'all.

I've had people facing battles and they've got faith.

They're they're speaking the word, they're confessing the word.

But they've got battles.

Maybe they're going through chemo, maybe they're going through radiation, maybe they're going through all kind of Series of medical treatments.

I've had people just asked for prayer cloth and then they just pin it on their clothes and they they allow the anointing to be with them 24-7, not because they don't have faith of their own, but they believe, they have confidence in the anointing and they use it as a point of contact, a reminder that God said he'd never leave them Nor forsake them.

What do you have to know?

You don't have to do anything.

But you know, why don't you check with the whole?

Why don't you cooperate with the anointing?

You?

Sometimes the Holy Ghost knows more about you than you do.

I've had people that just you know they're just, they're just determined by faith, by faith, and they're not gonna get anybody else involved in their faith stand.

I respect that.

I wasn't one to run up front and get prayer.

I was one that was praying for people At Lakewood.

Just to happen that way, I thought, well, it was the way I was wired.

I didn't go for prayer, I was the one prayer.

But then, on the other side of the coin, you don't know what you don't know.

And I've had to bury a lot of folks over the last 30, almost 38 years and Well, not 38, 34, since I've been a ordained minister and I've had to say at their funeral Well, they didn't run out of faith, they ran out of time.

Because faith works as a seed.

Faith is first you, you plant it, then it.

You, it grows and it and it shoots upward, and then it and then it bears fruit, and then you put in the sickle.

So it takes time.

Faith is not instant and if you've got stage 4 cancer, your faith might be engaged but you might not have faith to get, you might not have time to get healed that way.

You might need an accelerant, you might need some gasoline on your fire, you might, you know, once you check with the Holy Ghost, hopeful yourself.

God, I this is kind of how I'm thinking about doing this but if you got a better way for me to get my healing.

Be open to the whole.

Cooperate that's the whole.

Missed messages.

Cooperate with the Holy Ghost.

Everybody say I'm cooperating with the Holy Ghost.

I've got a member of this church who's in law enforcement I'm not gonna mention their name, but he wears a prayer cloth behind his badge Every day.

When he puts on his uniform he folds that prayer cloth up and he puts that bad pins, that badge, on top of that prayer cloth.

Where is it every day?

Why does he wear?

He wears it for protection and deliverance from evil and A number of years ago I remember this happening to him.

He was asked and he often guards prisoners at hospitals and this particular prisoner was an immigrant who had a Horrible virus, a fatal disease associated with it, highly infectious, and it and here he is having to guard this prisoner and this prisoner threw up on him, got all over him and even some on his face, on his exposed skin, and the doctor said well, you could take a alcohol bath.

I, but we really don't think it'll do any good.

Thank you very much, but he had that prayer cloth on.

Two days later the prisoner died and he never had the sniffles, he never had any harm, no effect whatsoever.

According to your faith.

Be it unto thee.

Does he have faith?

Yeah, he has faith.

God put that in his heart.

He loves me.

He respects the anointing on my life.

He respects the anointing of God, because it's not me, it's God.

The anointing is not me, it's God, but I'm the vessel.

And then that other vessel is that piece of cloth.

And so, because of the situation, I mean, we're always having to renew his cloth.

I don't know how many cloths I've prayed over over the years, but I'm always glad to send him one along Anytime he needs it because he's using this cloth.

And then so, after COVID, then there he is, and he's often assigned to the COVID ward.

Never had any COVID, never had any problem.

Glory to God.

We talk about jabs and we talk about all this other stuff.

You know, I tell you the anointing Come on, lift your hands right now, cooperate with the anointing.

Hallelujah Woo, glory to God.

So, in other words, these prayer cloths, let's treat them with respect.

Let's ask God, you know, is there some reason for me to have one for me personally?

Is there some reason why I should have one myself?

That wouldn't be a bad thing, for I'm not just saying we're gonna pass them out to everybody.

I'm just saying let's cooperate with the Holy Ghost, with the anointing.

There may be somebody you know that could benefit, whether they know it or not.

Maybe you know we have had some cases where a wife can talk to her husband and say, yeah, you know, this is what I've got, and they like that idea.

They're not against it.

Well, you know, the more willing they are, the more affected it has.

But you're the person with faith.

God will allow you to get people healed on your faith, sometimes when they don't know any better.

And once they get healed, then God expects them to at least then take the next step.

And the next time they need something, they at least should have enough faith to agree with you At some point in time.

That person's gonna have to fish or cut bait.

That person is gonna have to stand on their own two feet.

You can't carry people the rest of their lives, but you can kind of give them a start.

You can expose them to the supernatural.

So, number one special miracles are available.

Number two your faith is the switch that turns on that power.

You know you can get close to the power.

I've seen people you know Brother Hagin talks about going to this woman's bedside.

She was real ill, she was like in her 30s and hadn't been out of bed in two years.

And he would go by, you know, and she'd send her little boy oh mama, just needs you so bad, she's feeling so bad, just go pray the power down.

So he'd take an hour and a half, join hands with this woman and pray the power down, pray the power down, pray and the whole bed would shake, but no result.

She didn't get out of bed.

The power came down, didn't get out of bed.

The power's there to shake the bed, but she didn't use the power.

She didn't convert the power into healing and he didn't either.

See, he's still learning how to cooperate.

Thank God for him telling that story and that testimony so I can learn from him, because he spent a lot of time over there praying, praying for nothing.

What do you mean, praying for nothing?

Well, it was of no use and he's wearing himself out praying the power down hour and a half.

I might have done it once, but I don't think I'd have done it over and over and over and over.

I don't think I'm, but he's not a pastor.

He's not a pastor.

He never was a pastor, a true pastor, would have fussed.

I would have said look, lady, get out of that bed, got the power here.

What's not happening?

The switch of faith was not turned on to bring the power into her body to heal her.

Are y'all with me now?

So remember, miracle power is available and faith is the switch.

Your faith is the switch that's gonna turn on this power.

And how is your faith released?

It's through words and actions.

When you lay that prayer cloth on that person, speak words over it.

If you can't do it in their presence, do it before you get there.

But speak words and bring the anointing to this person.

And if it's to yourself, well then you know how to speak faith over this cloth.

Turn on the switch of faith.

Don't just lay it on there and they act like it's gonna happen all by itself.

No, your faith is the switch and your faith is released through words and actions.

And finally, the last point is give God all the glory for the great results.

Come on, lift your hands this morning.

Hallelujah, cooperating with the anointing, cooperating, working with the anointing, hallelujah.

Did you learn anything this morning?

Was it worth spending some time on Sunday morning?

Oh, come on, let's rejoice about the anointing of God.

Oh, the anointing.

I don't have it because I bought it.

I don't have it because somehow I deserved it.

I didn't deserve anything but God gave it to me.

I marvel all the time that he gave me what I have and I love to give it away.

I love because I know I can't give it all away.

I give it away and there's more comes behind it.

Glory to God.

We're taking a little time, but I haven't told this testimony in a long time.

But I was ordained for those things.

Ordained me, I'd gotten, he was attracted to the anointing on my life and God, your gift, will make room for you.

And it wasn't my elbows, I wasn't trying to elbow my way to the front, I wasn't trying to.

I was just functioning in the anointing that I had.

And so I, you know, just by accident it started opening.

Won't go into all the reasons, but I started opening the services and prayer and that old building, the old building.

And on Sunday morning I was just available and Doreen was the worship leader at that time, didn't have anybody to open the service.

The guy whose job it was was late and I knew, brother, those things hated late.

He wanted everything done on time.

That's what we start on time here, and I don't, like you know God's never late, is he?

So we start on time.

We say it's a 10 o'clock service.

We start, we have a countdown, 10 o'clock boom.

It's like we're launching a satellite or something.

Well, this is a greater thing than that.

So he heard about it and he liked what he heard.

He got in there early enough to hear me open the service, which I was nervous as a cat first time that happened, and so then he invited Gladys and I out to lunch and got to know us.

He said John, how did you get to do what you do around here?

I said the Holy Ghost.

Oh, he just laughed and laughed Cause that was his response.

Anybody would ask him anything about how did you do this?

How did you do that?

Some group came through and says how do you pastor this church?

You've only got 30 people working for you.

He said the Holy Ghost, you know so hit.

That was his answer.

So when I said the Holy Ghost, he laughed and laughed.

See, god gave him.

He was attracted to the anointing on my life and God warned me.

He said this is what's going on here.

So I had to believe that I was anointed.

Do you see that false humility says oh, I'm nothing, oh, I see, thinking less of yourself is not really humility.

Thinking of yourself less is humility, not thinking that the world turns around you, but denying what God has done.

Paul said you know, I'm anointed, he that establishes us with you and hath anointed me is God.

What he told the Corinthian church.

He boldly confessed he was an apostle, he boldly confessed his office.

And so over the years this is 1987, 1988, he ordained me.

I started doing weddings and funerals and I'm more and more functioning in the ministry that God had for me in the anointing, and I even started traveling.

I even made a trip, one trip with him.

And so in 1990, I had a dream.

I had a dream and finally I had a dream at my home, and in the dream I was on this small tanker vessel.

It was about 50 foot long, probably from here to the back wall of the sanctuary, not a very big vessel, but it had three hatches which in the dream I just knew it was carrying oil, and I was on the ship channel and I saw the tank batteries and the refineries and Going down the ship channel.

I've never been on the ship channel.

But that's in the dream, that's where I was, and I was so delighted.

In the dream I was, I felt so in awe and I was standing all the way to the very rear of this vessel, this boat, and it was powerful, it was.

It had a loud vibration and rumble underneath my feet.

I realized that was the engine, right there but under my feet.

So I stepped back and I didn't only had about a foot between me and the water, so I had to kind of just be kind of careful.

And then I opened up the hatch and here's this big diesel and the heat from the manifold is coming up in my face and I'm smelling the diesel fuel and feeling the vibration, hearing the engine noise and all of that.

And I won't go into the rest of the dream.

But when I woke up, god gave me the interpretation that I was in the discovery phase and that I carried a blend of oils that I had been fortunate enough to land it at the Lakewood Church where all these great Ministers from all over were coming, and they all had a deposit.

They had deposited their anointing.

So I I would always so seed into each one of them.

Brother Hagan, I'd go sit at his feet if he's in town, if he had special meetings, I just cancel my Things.

That I had planned and I'd be there.

I've been.

He'd be there five days, I'd be there five days and I just.

Brother Shamboq, I mentioned Brother Norval.

I mean, brother Norval loved me so much I started chauffeuring him all over town.

He'd call even when he wasn't preaching at Lakewood.

He says that young man available, I need somebody to drive me.

And I mean I drive him all over man, I drove it, drove him to Alvin.

I drove him.

You know, I he wasn't even preaching to Lakewood, I took my time, spent time.

So I was a, so God was showing me he was.

I was discovering the fact that not only that I have John Osteen, but I had all these ministers that he had brought in, that I, that I had a blend of anointing's and God was having me discover how valuable.

Come on, let's lift our hands right now.

All of you are valuable ever.

I'm not bragging on me.

I'm giving you an illustration of how Precious it is for the anointing when I, when we bring in, I smile.

We're so picky about who we bring in here.

We only want to bring in people.

They've got a heavy anointing on my, like the Hankins.

I mean, my goodness, they come in here the end of this month.

I mean you get ready to receive a deposit in your hatches and your holes when you keep your oil.

Oh, come on.

Glory to God, whoo, hallelujah.

I really wasn't planning on all this, but it goes back to the reverence and the faith that you have in that anointing.

It comes from somewhere.

Well, it comes from heaven, but it always comes through a Vessel.

It comes through a vessel.

In this case, it'll come through me and if Gladys is up to it, she'll help me.

And.

But we want next week for you to, if you, if you want to bring up, bring a hanky, bring something, and and and we'll pray, or we'll take some of the time of this, of the preaching time, to pray over those and you'll take them.

Wherever it is that you're gonna take them, I can't wait to hear the testimony.

I Believe we're gonna have people come back and tell us of miracles that have been released.

Hallelujah, that's what we need.

We need more miracles in the church.

I Said we need more miracles in the church and and God has a plan to release those miracles, amen.