Getting Into the Flow
Sunday sermon by Pastor Rajesh Mathew, 11 July, 2021
Micha 2:12-13- 12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. 13 The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them.
Isaiah 10:27- 7 And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
- This morning certain yokes are going to be broken because of His anointing oil.
Genesis 20:7- 7 Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
- Get into the flow. Enter into the overflow. This morning we are getting into the flow of God’s Spirit. Let the Holy Spirit remove every stagnation from your life. Let the Life of Jesus flow through you.
The anointing gives you access to all things that God has got for you. The anointing that breaks off yokes.
The anointing of the Holy Spirit that helps you overcome the challenges of life. Your victory and success are dependent on your relationship with the Holy Spirit.
- That’s why David says, it doesn’t matter what all is removed from my life but do not take away the Holy Spirit from me. The most important thing is the presence and the move of the Holy Spirit in your life.
- The Holy Spirit’s anointing helps bring back what was taken away from your life. It may be your health, your finances, relationships. The Holy Spirit will teach you. Never neglect what the Holy Spirit tries to teach you
1 John 2:27- But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you [a]will abide in Him.
The anointing will teach you. But it is important that you are teachable and sensitive to the guidance that the Holy Spirit gives. It is the Holy Spirit who should work through us. We must walk in this anointing.
Anointing is the burden removing and yoke destroying power of God dynamically working in a believer’s life.
- The Holy Spirit is dynamically working inside of me! Make that your declaration. When HE works, God’s power will break off limitations in your life.
- The wise men came looking for Christ. It was the Holy Spirit who sent them and inspired them. • If you understand and comprehend the move of the Spirit in your life, you will activate that anointing and the same anointing will remove all restrictions from your life.
- Bozrah means limitations, restrictions and barriers. The passage we read from Micah 2 refers to the sheep that has all these limitations and these sheep will be gathered and anointed with the oil and all the barriers will be broken.
- Lord, I need that breaker anointing and I need that anointing to work dynamically within me. Someone said that the Holy Spirit is a Path Finder.
- Even if you are in a desert and a wilderness, He is the one that opens out a way for you and causes you to walk in it
- There are many people who feel stuck, stopped and restricted. It can be so difficult stuck in our homes in containment zones. You feel trapped, alone and stuck. This morning, the breaker anointing will remove every barrier and God will move you forward. You need to tap into that anointing!
The Anointing is a supernatural equipment of God.
- When you need to build something big in your life, you need a huge JCB to show up in that site and make the needed shifts. The Holy Spirit is like the JCB of your life. He is the supernatural equipment that helps you to fulfil and accomplish all that God wants you to in your life.
- You need to understand this. Only if you understand this, you can release it and only then it will manifest externally in your life. Help me to understand your supernatural power, Lord.
What you don’t recognize you can never release!
Faith helps God’s power to manifest through your life
Mark 6: 1,5-6- 1And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.
- This scripture starts with “and”. That means, it is a continuation. in the previous chapter we see the Lord setting a person possessed with 6000 demons free; we see Him instantly healing a woman who had the issue of blood for 12 long years! He brings Jairus’s dead daughter back to life. And…after all this, he intends to continue and go into His hometown. But here people were not able to see the manifestation of God’s blessing
- They were familiar with Jesu and they were not able to believe him and God marveled at their unbelief. Tell the Lord, “this breakthrough anointing that removes restrictions must manifest in my life!”
- There is something called an external anointing. When the Holy Spirit moves, it not only impacts the life is a believer but also the lives of other people who are ‘outside’. In a ministry, when the anointing of the Holy Spirit is activated, even unbelievers will experience His move
In the coming season we are going to experience this in a new level altogether. If you are in the city, the city will know that God’s presence is upon your life. People will know that you are moving in the Lord’s anointing and that Jesus Christ alone is Lord. God is going to move some ministers into the that level. The church in India will enter into that level as a whole.
Genesis 20- Abraham is walking through a country and the king of that nation a takes a liking to Sarah and when Abraham gets to know about this, he advices Sarah not to reveal that he was her husband but a cousin brother. This is a half-truth. Abimelech takes Sarah to the palace.
Mutual respect is important in a marriage.
- Abraham is saying, in case you are asked, mention that I am your brother. And God met with Abimelech in his dream. That is the outer anointing. Do not touch Sarah, she is someone else’s wife.
Where the Holy spirit moves, there are dreams. May the realm of dreams open up over us.
- There are dreams and night mares. Satan can attack you through a night mare just like how God can instruct you in a dream. Satan puts fear and can harass you through a nightmare. Some of you have had these experiences. You have had nightmares where you saw a dog biting you or someone you love die suddenly or having an unclean relationship with another person.
What you agree with, you empower.
- When you recognize that this is from Satan, you need to disagree with it and abort it. When you see something negative, do not agree with it. Disagree with it.
- Even this morning, let God’s freedom come upon people who are going through negative dreams and nightmares. Even in google, we see long instructions with a final instruction “click if you agree”. Only if you agree can you access it. Similarly, when Satan throws things at you, disagree with it and block it. when you do so, you are cancelling his authority over your life and your family!
Genesis 20- Abraham is the first prophet in the Bible. The verse we read, in Genesis 20, he is referred to as the prophet. The Holy Spirit is saying this to Abimelech. He is a prophet and he needs to pray for Abimelech.
- THE ANOINTING OPERATES THROUGH YOUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST AND NOT THROUGH YOUR CHARACTER.
- You have received the Lord but many of you are looking at your character and you feel you are not worthy for the Holy Spirit to work through life. Many times, just when you are ready to minister, the devil will tell you, “have you seen your character? You are far from perfect. How will your ministry work? How will this person be healed if you pray?”
Every time you look at yourself, you will not get into the flow. But every time, you look to Jesus, you will get into the flow.
- Abraham had lied. But what did God tell Abimelech? Did he say that Abraham is a liar? No. He said Abraham is a prophet!
Sometimes your condition and position are different. You calling and who you are may be different.
- You are a person with a calling but you character is contrary. You don’t pray, you don’t worship, you are always in front of the computer. But God stood by Abraham’s position. God showed Abimelech his position and to his character.
- Many of you know that you are called. Many of you want to preach, want to worship, want to move in the healing ministry but you are down and upset that you are not worthy by character but God is setting you free form that thought! Abraham could have called himself a prophet who lies but he obeyed God and prayed for Abimelech.
The devil will magnify the inconsistences and imperfections in your life but God will magnify the calling of God in your life.
- You are struggling to flow in the spirit because you are constantly limited by your inconsistencies. This morning, look beyond that and look unto the Lord. Some of you are saying, let me become a better person and then serve God. That is the devil’s No. 1 lie. He will tie you up and press you down in Bozrah!
- Does that mean that you should not change? No. The Bible says that we are being changed daily till Jesus comes. Even in the imperfect character, you need to take refuge in God and look to Him otherwise you will be stuck in a demonic trap.
- Your character will not be a distraction to get into the flow of the Spirit because the flow is dependent on God and not on you. If you look to yourself, you will disqualify yourself. But if you look to Jesus, you will say I am qualified of God, I am a child of God. So, get rid of your stinking thinking.
God’s first healing ministry was through a man who lied! You feel pathetic but God calls you prophetic.
Anointing moves through your identity in God and not through your character. If you understand this, you will get into the flow.
I am perfect in Christ! Say it.
- GOD’S ANOINTING FLOW THROUGH YOUR OBEDIENCE AND CAN GET QUENCHED BY OFFENSE.
- God told Abraham to pray for all the women in Abimelech’s palace to bear children. Abraham and Sarah have been praying for years for a child themselves. And they hadn’t seen it being fulfilled. If it were me, I would have refused God and said, I cannot pray Lord!
- But Abraham just obeyed. He did not apply his logic and earthly understanding. He just did what God told him to do. There God did a miracle.
Anointing flows in your obedience.
I had an issue with my back several years ago. It was difficult. I was walking around in a belt and brace. When I was praying in a meeting, an old man walked to me and asked me to pay for his back and said that he was wearing a big belt. I surrendered that to the Lord and the Lord said, just pray! I just obeyed and the person got healed. I got offended that God healed him instead of rejoicing.
- Anointing does not flow through logic. Many including Jesus’s own family members were offended at Jesus.
- When his family came to him, Jesus said, ‘who is my father, who is my mother? Only he who does the will of God’. Later they all began to serve God, of course. Many were there on the day of Pentecost but earlier on they were offended at Jesus.
- The Holy Spirit is saying to someone, in your logic you have disobeyed God, you have been pressed down by the devil but God wants to set you free.
- When delays come in your life, obey when God tells you to pray for somebody else. It is in that obedience, that your breakthrough will show forth!
Smith Wigglesworth is one of my heroes of faith. His ministry was miraculous. He has raised over 7 people from the dead. But if you read his biography you will realize that his life was far from perfect. His daughter was hearing impaired. One of his other children died. God did not heal her neither did
HE raise his child from the dead. Wigglesworth himself would often struggle in intense pain through a problem of kidney stones. God did not deal with that. But he obeyed the Lord.
William Seymore the father of the Pentecostal movement, he came to Los Angeles with a conviction about the move of the Spirit and when he preached about the gift of tongues, many asked him if he had that gift. He said, I don’t have it here but I have it here (in the BIBLE). It was only after many received the anointing, that he too received it!
You are not the source of the anointing, you are only a channel. Allow the Holy Spirit to flow through you.
- The Holy Spirit is speaking to some minsters, do not push yourself down. • The devil will ask, how will you give what you don’t have? How will you pray for a sick person, if you don’t have a healthy life. Tell the devil, I am not the source, God is!
- Once a man of God was lying sick on a hospital bed due to food poisoning and some others who were admitted in the same hospital due to other health conditions, came to know that he was a man of God with a healing anointing and would come to him to pray and many of them even got healed while this man of God was lying sick! It defies logic but who are we to know everything, we are only human!
- Cling to the Lord. I want to get into the overflow.
Don’t minster out of your experience but minster out of the promise of God!
Hold on the Word and minister. Because the devil will otherwise use your situation to make you stop! But God will send forth His promise and say, continue, continue and continue!
Take God’s Word and move ahead. If you do, God will remove certain barriers and blocks from your life. All restrictions will be broken. Get into the flow of the Spirit.
- THE ANOINTING OPERATES THROUGH RISK BUT FEAR WILL MAKE YOU LAZY
Get ready to take a risk. Get ready to be baptized.
Jesus gave one person 5 talents and the other one 2. They both took a risk and multiplied them but the person who had just one talent was lazy. He did not take a risk, he kept it in the bank.
Fear will lead you to laziness. Take risks.
I remember that I saw in a dream the place that God showed me to purchase to build the church. The next day I was travelling to Allepy for some important work and I stopped on the way at the same place and looked at the land and tapped it and said, this feels like a good place to play cricket! And that was exactly the scene I saw in my dream. I knew it instantly that God was showing me the land for the church. I had no money in my account then. I took a big risk!
- Sometimes, God would tell me to gift my car. It is a risk!
- Hebrews 11 talks about the heroes of faith. These were people who took risks, they gave up! When I gave away my second car, I had more confidence to do so.
Don’t take risks copying somebody else. Your taking risks should come from your relationship with God.
- Did God tell you to do something? Do it. But always risk will bring reward though each ones risks may be different.
- IF YOU HONOUR THE ANOINTING UPON SOMEONE ELSE THE ANOINTING IN YOU WILL INCREASE
- Feed on the anointing. Rahab had heard from people about what God had done for the Israelites. She started feeding on these miracles and it is running in her head. She would have thought, how I wish I could meet and know a God like this! We read in Joshua 2 that she attracted the very servants of God into her home. They hid in her home. This wasn’t a coincidence. What she respected she attracted.
Meditate on the things that God is doing, if you do, you will encounter the supernatural. Some people will feed on gossip.
You need to feed on the Word and eat it. Not just listen to it. You need to eat the Word of God. That’s what will fill you, that is where the anointing flows.
How do you honour the anointing?
- Do not attack an anointing. Do not attack the men and women that God uses. o Saul attacked David and lost the anointing. But David never attacked Saul and he kept the anointing.
o Do not try to destroy someone’s ministry. Keep quiet. Do not always try to give your viewpoints on people’s ministries.
o One person walked up to me and spoke of all the bad things he read about a man of God on Youtube. I asked him if he has read the Book of Proverbs. He said yes. I told him that Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Why did he then bother reading Proverbs? David was an adulterer and a murderer. Samson had a tale with Delilah. If you focus on other people’ characters that will not help you.
o What I am saying is, if God’s oil is flowing through someone, do not attack that person. Do not speak against them. You walk silently with God. God will deal with the other person’s weaknesses. If you attack, blessing and anointing will not flow through your life.
- Serve the anointing. Elisha and Joshua stood with the Elijah and Moses respectively, the anointed of God and ministered with them.
- Support and invest into the anointing.
o Suppose you are a stock broker, where will you invest? Will you invest into a sinking company? If you want to buy land, will you not look for properties in prime areas? When you buy a car, will you not buy a car that is in great condition or will you settle for a car that has met with accidents? You are not looking for the worst of the worst.
o That is how it is to invest into the Word. You must invest into the best soil. o That is where the anointing overflows. When you honor the anointing upon others, your own anointing will spring forth.
Don’t strive with the Holy Spirit, surrender to Him.
When you want to change your character, remember this- the Lord said to his disciples ‘come, follow me’. He did not tell them, ‘first change and then come to me’.
Galatians 5:6- if you walk in the spirit you will not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Lord forgive me my sins, you are my God and my Lord!