FROM ANOINTING - TO GLORY - TO GLORY
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FROM ANOINTING - TO GLORY - TO GLORY
Sunday, April 27, 2018, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
The anointing is the manifest power of God that sets us apart. The word “anoint” means to dedicate to the service of God. Chris Harvey defined it as “the favor to go, the grace to do, power to be, and the strength to continue.’’
The anointing is a divine enablement that helps us to accomplish God’s supernatural purposes here on earth. The anointing comes from God. He releases it to men and women so that we might accomplish things through His divine ability, allowing us to do things we cannot do in our own natural strength.
1 Cor. 4:20: For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
The only way this power works is if we are willing to let go of our own natural power or control, and co-operate with the power of the Holy Spirit. It is in this place of submission that the raw revelation of God is seen clearly as He demonstrates His supernatural ability through our lives. The anointing releases the gifts of the Spirit to function freely.
My testimony is the visitation of the anointing on my life turned me into a different person.
I was shy, fearful, and preferred to stay in the shadows because I had experienced so much jealousy in my life, that I decided if I stayed in the shadows, no one would have a reason to be jealous of me. I had to overcome the “hurt” of the “idol of jealousy in the “Holy Place” (Ez. 8:3-5). Not that I was jealous of others, but because they were jealous of me. I thought “preferring others” would spare me the cruelty of jealousy and covetness. If you wanted something I had with the exception of my husband and children, I would give it to you. Satan was using this distortion to steal my blessings from me.
1 Sa. 10:6: The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you, and you shall prophesy with them, and shall be turned into another man.
The anointing of God is able to change our personality, behavior, attitudes and giftedness. I became another person. I became bold! I was able to stand in who God said I was! I was no longer afraid! My face became as flint! (Ez. 3:9) I was no longer a victim! I was no longer a doormat! I became victorious!
Ps. 84:7: They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
Just as there are three realms in the Spirit, there are three dimensions of the anointing:
- The anointing of priests.
- The anointing of prophets.
- The anointing of kings.
The anointing prepares us to take up our position and this is key to our calling (job). It also activates the mantle over our lives and makes us effective.
Spiritually speaking, the anointing is associated with the hand of Jesus (Kyrion-1 Co. 12:5), representing the five-fold ministry of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. But the anointing isn’t just about the five-fold ministry. In its purest flow, the anointing brings a grace to carry out the specific will of God for your life. The hand of the Spirit (Peuma – 1 Co. 12:4) anoints men and women with the gifts of the Spirit (Peuma) for the diversities of operations, but it is the same God which works all in all. (Theos = Father God; Lord Jesus Christ; and the Holy Spirit).
You are anointed to do your job.
You are anointed as a student to succeed with your studies.
You can be anointed to be a better spouse.
You can be anointed as a business person to prosper in every good thing.
You can be anointed as a parent to raise your children in the ways of the Lord with the wisdom of heaven.
You are anointed to do what the Spirit has ordained for you.
If you have a call to the nations, you are anointed to be sent.
If you are called to the ministry of helps, you are anointed for that.
In the anointing, we learn how to grow in grace. John the Baptist grew in grace (Lk. 1:80) and Jesus did too (Lk. 2:40). I continue to grow in grace to serve the LORD as a Pastor. Whatever your season of ministry or life, it will take growing in grace to be able to fulfill your ministry assignment and your life assignment.
We will not get to the place in the glory of God unless we push through in the anointing.
- Poured Out.
- Smeared over
- Rubbed In.
Joel 2:28: I will pour out my Spirit on all people…Even on my servants, both men and women. I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
The second expression of the anointing, mentioned in Scripture means “to smear over.” This is the Holy Spirit covering us with His anointing. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. (2 Cor. 2: 14-15).
The first two dimensions deal with the anointing upon us. The third dimension deals with the anointing within us. Ministries can operate in the giftings with great supernatural power and still fall into morale sin because they have not submitted themselves to the third dimension of the anointing.
When we submit ourselves completely to the work of God’s spirit, we must become marinated by the anointing. Many are anointed by God, but cannot support the weight of the anointing.
Some people want to skip this process. We must let the anointing work within us. The anointing comes to do a job, and one of its assignments is marinating us in God’s process of preparation.
What God does for us, He does in levels---measures, degrees---always moving us step by step. There is a process in the things of the Spirit, but God can accelerate the process according to our submission. However, we need both the anointing upon and the anointing within.
It is now over 30 years since the LORD visited me and set me into full time ministry. I am not the same person I was 30 years ago. The daily breaking and sacrifice of serving the LORD in the Office of Pastor has made me better. All of my “issues” have fallen with the burnt offering of my fleshly pride. The sacrifice and paying the cost of obedience, faithfulness, perseverance, forgiveness, refusing offense, forgetting rejection, long-suffering, have all had to be burned on the sacrifice of fire.
I count it all joy! My heart is filled with love, gratefulness, peace, no regrets, and no offense toward any.
This is the cost of allowing the anointing to be rubbed in. Have I failed? Yes, often! Have I had to cry out for grace and mercy? Yes often! But in my own lack, I can also cry out for each one of you as I watch you process the sacrifice and cost of carrying the fragrance of Christ.
If we keep the things of God to ourselves, they diminish and dissipate. Give away what God has blessed you with so it can be a blessing to others. In this is the continual flow of God’s blessing and anointing. How can I charge for what God has given me? Some say if you don’t charge people, they will not value your worth. Smile, Jesus didn’t charge me, and I sure do value His worth.
We use the realms of faith and the realms of the anointing to bring us into the realms of glory. The anointing enables us to swim in the river of God. Prophetically speaking, when that river flows, we are enabled to do supernatural works.
(Vision given to Carolyn Sissom {years ago} of the golden river: I was immersed in a river of gold; but I was holding onto a twig at the river bank; not totally letting go to swim freely in the river.- end of vision. Of course, I didn’t know what I was holding onto, so I prayed for the LORD to help me let go or show me what the twig represented. I then saw myself bobbing down the river. – note the bobbing isn’t exactly swimming.)
We swim in that river, doing the best we can, empowered by the Holy Spirit’s anointing. It seems to me, many times, I am just doing the best I can in what the LORD has given me to do. But when the glory comes, it actually disables us. So it is a paradox. The anointing enables us, but the glory disables us, because when it comes, we surf on the waves of the Spirit’s flow.
There is an ease that comes by surfing that’s much different from the intense physical labor that is required when we are swimming. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest (Heb. 4:11). There is a laboring to get into the rest, but when we are in the rest, everything comes with great ease. The Holy Spirit is now carrying us along, and there is an ease. We flow in the glory, whereas we had to press into the anointing or perhaps better said, we were pressed by the anointing.
Ahh – but we go from glory to glory and from faith to faith.
2Co 3:18But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
“Faith says God is present. The anointing says God rewards. The glory says,
I AM.” (Joshua Mills)
What is the glory? God is the glory. The glory is God. The glory is God’s manifest presence, His character, His nature, His ability, His provision, and the weight and splendor of His majesty. It is the essence of His beauty. The glory is all that He is and all that he has. Everything about God is glorious, and He wants us to know Him in the fullness of His glory because He is the God of Glory.
In the glory, there is increase, abundance, healing, life, wholeness, provision, prosperity and deliverance. When the glory cloud appears, discord, disunity, problems and difficulties have to go.
Invite God to fill your temple with the smoke of His presence. It is a cloud of abundance. Release it to your family, friends, co-workers, church, hospitals, grocery store, wherever you are.
Isa. 6: 2-4: Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. They were calling to one another: Holy, holy, holy s the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices the doorpost and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
The Spirit calls us today just as He called John, to come up higher. Jesus is calling us to come up higher. He wants to show us wonderful things. He wants to reveal His glory to us and through us.
We have the Spirit’s invitation. There are no limits, no boundaries. Distance is not a factor. Age is not a factor. Past performance is not a factor. Get out of your own mind and into the mind of the spirit. Come up higher where the sea is as clear as crystal, and heavenly sounds crash like thunder. Hear the voice like many waters coming from the Great I AM. Hear the angels, elders, and creatures singing, Worthy! Worthy! Worthy is the Lamb! Blessing and honor and glory and power unto Him.
There are no limits. Open your spiritual ears to hear. Open your spirit to receive revelation. Open your heart to receive. Stand at God’s throne. Deep is crying unto Deep. Let Him take you deeper. Let the cloud of His glory gather about you as you join the angels in crying out, “Holy is the Lord!”
Clouds bring rain. Let that rain saturate your spirit. Rain births a harvest, so get ready to reap. Go ahead; thrust your sickle into the great harvest from this cloud. Stand in agreement with the saints of all ages, with the angelic beings, and with the elders on high. Lend your voice to the sound of praise for the Creator of all things. Eternity bows at His name. He will reign forever! Set your thoughts on the glory realm and live by the truth of God’s word. Gaze upon its unsearchable beauty.
Who could ever measure His Word? As we are obedient to it, we shall reign with Him, for He is coming in clouds of glory! Feel the swirling winds of His presence. Bask in the atmosphere of heaven. You are in Him, and He is in you. Stand in His glory. He fills the temple. Fell the flood of grace, mercy, and compassion coming to you even now through the cloud. Lay hold of the divine wisdom and illumination that comes to you now in the cloud of God’s glory.
As our spirit rises, allow the constraints of the flesh and all we are holding onto to fall away. Be set free from the remaining shackles. In the glory realm there are no impossibilities. In this realm, nothing is too difficult for God.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from N.I.V. and K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Moving In Glory Realms by Joshua Mills, Whitaker House, 1030 Hunt Valley Circle, New Kensington, Pa. 15068 – Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those whom I enter into their labors. Vision of Golden River given to Carolyn Sissom.
Blessings Pastor Carolyn!
Thank you so very much for your email and we are so thankful the book has been a blessing for you to share. Of course how you are sharing the material is wonderful! Yes you can post the sermon on your website - thank you for asking!Would you be so kind to fill out a booking inquiry on our webs
We pray God continues to release his realms of greater glory in and through your church!
Much Love!
Janet