We have been talking about words and the difference between the anointed words of Jesus and His disciples and the lack of anointing on man’s words. Jesus words were anointed and Matthew 8:16 “when evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.” Luke 4:36 “All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” The disciple’s words were also anointed and Acts 4:33 “with great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all.” Paul said 1 Thessalonians 1:5 “our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.”
The difference between anointed words and words spoken from the minds of men, is power. This power is the power to heal and cast out demons. Most leaders in the church have settled for wise and persuasive words instead of word’s that are anointed. The other day I talked about some of the church growth gurus and their methodology. They think they are building the church on the rock but it is only on the sand that they have built their foundation. Matthew 7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” By rejecting God’s words everything that is built will crash to the ground in the end. Ezekiel 13:8 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because of your false words and lying visions, I am against you, declares the Sovereign Lord. 9 My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of my people or be listed in the records of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord. 10 “‘Because they lead my people astray, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, 11 therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. 12 When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, “Where is the whitewash you covered it with?” These words are dreams, visions, methodology, ideology that on the surface sound great and are even effective from the world’s definition of successfulness but there is no power and therefore unsuccessful in the eyes of God. The church looks nothing like the anointed words I shared from Jesus and the disciples. They teach how to draw people unto themselves but that is not our mandate. We were warned not to follow after other gods but the church did not listen. Like Judah the church turned to other gospels. Jeremiah 11:9 “Then the Lord said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. 10 They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors.” Deuteronomy 13:1 “If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.” Jeremiah 23:25 “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ 26 How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? 27 They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship. 28 Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. 29 “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? 30 “Therefore,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. 31 Yes,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ 32 Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the Lord. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the Lord.” Proverbs 16:25 “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”
When we follow plans that are manmade that are not anointed by the Holy Spirit, deception and desolation follow just as we have seen in the church. It really is easy to see, as the church they have created looks nothing like the church Jesus started, the one we were supposed to follow. Yes there are words that sound the same. They talk about Jesus, Holy Spirit, and God but there is no power to heal, cast out demons or even raise the dead and the kingdom does not come near. When the two disciples were walking the wrong way, Jesus came up to them as they were talking about their disappointment that it was the third day and no Jesus. Jesus himself asked them Luke 24:19 “What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.” If we are also to be disciples of Jesus Christ, then our words will also carry power but as you can see from the church, they don’t because we are missing the power of the Holy Spirit. The church is no longer clothed with power. John said Matthew 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Most churches say they have that anointing but their words say otherwise as there is no fire and no hammer that smashes rocks to pieces. There is no power. What most churches should say is they have no idea what anointed words are.
I gave you an example yesterday of powerful words pertaining to the resurrection of a child but they were not anointed words. Yes this church did what the bible said to do but their words were not anointed with the power and authority of Jesus Christ. We should all believe those words if we call ourselves Christians. We were told in Matthew 10:7 “As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” But here is the conflict of interest. You cannot follow satan and expect God to do what you have asked. This church, Bethel Redding believes they have the anointing; the very presence of God dwelling among them but it is not God who dwells among them but satan. Yes some will have a hard time believing that, let alone the resurrection of a child. If the church was following God’s word wholeheartedly, true miracles, signs and wonders and even the raising of the dead would be common place just as it was when Jesus walked the earth. Everything will look like it did when Jesus walked the earth. I can hear people say no that is not how it is in the church and no you can’t expect that power today. Yes they would be right that there is no power in the church but wrong because they refuse to live by faith and believe what God’s word clearly states. God’s word states there is power available to all who believe! The bible says it is possible but the bible also says we must turn from our wicked ways. 2 Chronicles 7:13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.” John 14:23 “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
When you look at the church, there should be the same power as scripture shows. While there are miracles, signs and wonders taking place in some churches, you have to be very careful because most likely those are not from God. This pandemic revealed a powerless church and equalized all the churches at once. Everyone was the same, from charismatic to liturgical; all were powerless to do anything. What is even more frightening is that in the revelation of weakness, the church has also been made equal to other religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and others. That is not how it is supposed to be. True resurrection power clearly separates and shows why Christianity is the only way. John 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” If that is the case, which it is, then the church should be different by being powerful in word and deed just like Jesus was. Interestingly this verse comes just before Jesus said John 14:12 “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
The church along the way stopped being the church Jesus started and started being the church that gathered to talk about the church Jesus started. The ekklesia started to be just a group of people that gathered but was not the church that was empowered to go. Just because a group of people gathers in a house or a building or a field, doesn’t mean they are the church. Being the church means you are clothed with power and then are sent. Sure lots of churches are sending but are not clothed with power to go. When the church is once again clothed with power, then the church will look the way it is supposed to. Yes the church gathers and we are told not to stop gathering but the true gathering of the church will be Christians who are filled with all the fruit of the Spirit and all the gifts of the Spirit. This then would be the church. Here is a picture of the church following Pentecost. Acts 5:12 “The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.” The church should also be like Acts 19:11 “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. 13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. 17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.”
Most people in the church don’t even believe in miracles, signs and wonders nor do they think demons are present among them. God said he world confirm His word with signs and wonders. Jesus said Mark 16:19 “After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.” Daniel said to King Nebuchadnezzar Daniel 4:2 “It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. 3 How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation.” After Daniel was rescued from the lions King Darius said, Daniel 6:26 “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. “For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. 27 He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.” Today’s church has no fear of God but God doesn’t change and is the same God talked about in Daniel. Hebrews 2:4 “God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” Peter said Acts 10:37 “You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. 39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. 44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.”
When our words are anointed, the Holy Spirit moves in power and the world is changed to the ends of the earth but not with words of man. Paul says 1 Corinthians 4:19 “But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. 20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” He also said 1 Corinthians 2:4 “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. 6 “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
Continue to pray that the Spirit of truth will return to the church and once again we will be clothed with power to go to the ends of the earth. King Solomon prayed 1 Kings 8:52 “May your eyes be open to your servant’s plea and to the plea of your people Israel, and may you listen to them whenever they cry out to you. 53 For you singled them out from all the nations of the world to be your own inheritance, just as you declared through your servant Moses when you, Sovereign Lord, brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”
54 When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven. 55 He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying: 56 “Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. 57 May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us. 58 May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors. 59 And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need, 60 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. 61 And may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.”
