The Cost of Anointing
The Cost of Anointing
(The Cost of Anointing)
- David Wilkerson
I just want to talk to you about the cost of fresh anointing.
Jesus said, Father anointed Him to preach the gospel.
When I hear it, I know that it’s a man or a woman who touched God.
When I hear it, I’m convicted.
When I hear it, I’m moved.
When I hear it, I know.
I’m driven to my knees.
And there’s such a weightiness about it that I can’t ignore it, I have to deal with it.
God does not give the anointing to lazy preachers, lazy Christians.
He won’t do it.
There’s a cost to the anointing.
You’ll never again be satisfied as long as you live without seeing God
work in you and walking with you.
I had to travel all over the United States.
Promoters got hold of it.
Christian promoters.
National TV.
I went around the world.
I became what some would call famous.
I know what it’s like to have the anointing.
I know when it’s left.
I know when I don’t have it.
I know when the death moves in.
Folks, I got so busy.
that there’s no hunger,
there’s no brokeness,
there’s no cry.
When I go into the scriptures,
I looked at men that God has used
and there’s always been a cry.
Jeremiah said,
‘I engage my heart to seek the Lord!’
And you will find it that there was ‘a cry.’
There is nothing worse that
I can think of a man of God
or a woman of God
than to lose the anointing of God
and be dead, and have the knowledge
that something is wrong
I was known around the world
as a man of God …
yet growing lukewarm
and cold in my heart.
Every kind of temptation out of hell.
Devil said,
‘I’m gonna destroy you. I’m gonna kill your ministry. I’m taking you down.’
When you don’t have this touch, this anointing,
if you’re not shut in with God, and you’re not serious about things of God …
you have this inner struggle.
How do I get back?
How do I get this anointing?
Are you examining your heart like I had to do?
It’s not enough to be called.
I am still called.
God still loves me.
I think that all true ministry comes out of intimacy.
I said again, all true ministry comes out of intimacy with Christ.
Because the Lord said, “You know the cost?”
“You know what is gonna take?”
“Seeking my face”
Ezra set his heart to seek the face of God.
Nehemiah hears a destruction happen in Jerusalem.
The Bible says, he was overcome with grief.
He set his heart to seek God.
He set his heart.
You’ll find it all through the Old Testament.
He set his heart.
Because you’re gonna have to
make up a mind when you get in 50, 60.
You’re just gonna retire
and you’re gonna take it easy.
God can’t allow anybody to retire anymore from the ministry.
If you’ve ever been touched,
if you’ve ever been anointed of God,
you don’t have time!
You’ve got to say,
“God, use me!
I don’t care where you sent me.
I don’t care where you want me to go.
I’m not going out with my spirit drained.
I’m not going out a dry stick.
I want the anointing!
I want the touch of God!”
I’m speaking to everybody, but pastors in particular
I speak from my heart.
If you believe these are the last days …
Folks, have you not seen prophecies fulfilled last few years it’s going lightening speed?
You hear secular world screaming
“The time is up!”
You set your mind.
You set your heart now
by an active faith, by hearing the word of God and laying hold of it.
God, I hear you
I know that you’ve been stirring my heart.
I know I have some issues
and I want to deal with them.
I want to walk with You.
But I want an anointing.
I want my people to know
when I stand in the pulpit again
that something has touched my life
there’s a change in me.
God does miracles
when you began to seek His face
and get back to the simplicity of this!
You devour this word of God!
You stay there!
You turn everything down!
Here’s Daniel now, he said,
I ate no present bread
You’re gonna do fasting.
This won’t happen until God see something in you and me,
determination.
“I want this.
I will not let you go
until you anoint me again!”
Don’t miss what God’s about to do!
Don’t miss it!
God, help me!
I’m not gonna miss it!
I’m going out clinging to Him!
This anointing is available
to any man, any woman
who set their heart!
You’re calling so many.
You’re calling them.
You’re wooing them saying,
“Now!
In these meetings, here!
Not another time,
you’ve made promises before, but
now, tonight!
Open your heart.
“God, once again use me.”
He’s saying
“I have wooed you so many times.
If you pay the price, I will open doors for you.
I will speak through you.
I will use you again
like you have never concieved.”