April 18, 2024
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
- Hebrews 10:25 NLT
One of the benefits of meeting as believers is the benefit the Anointing (of the Holy Spirit). Jesus had instructed that His disciples wait for the promise of the Father in Acts 1:4 “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me”. This command from Jesus, the subsequent obedience by the disciples and the eventual manifestation of the Holy Spirit (in Acts 2) is very key as it presents a spiritual principle of the operation of the Church, the body of Christ.
For the Church to operate, there needs to be the anointing of God upon the Church. Why? Because everything will be tested. 1 Corinthians 3:11 “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is”.
The multifaceted attacks the enemy and the gates of hell, time and again spring against the church are fires that continually test the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon a church.
The recent pandemic was one such fire that tested the body of Christ. Many “churches” were faced with the realities of the sudden need to evolve and adapt in the wake of the turmoil that the world went through at the time especially with the government-imposed bans on crowded gatherings, social distancing, and mandatory protective wear among others.
Like the phenomenon of natural selection but in a spiritual sense, and therefore spiritual selection, only Churches that had the anointing of the Holy Spirit emerged as in Zechariah 13:9 “I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God”.
So then, it is important for us as believers that we test (and observe), by the fire of the Holy Spirit, the spirits operating behind “churches” (1 John 4:1-3) especially in these end times, so that we are not deceived by the many false prophets that have gone into the world, those who do not abide in the doctrine of Christ (2 John 1:7-11), and see to it that we are not led astray (Mark 13:22) by those who by deceit, transformed themselves into apostles of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
Song of Worship
Anointing, fall on me– 2x
Let the power of the Holy Ghost fall on me, anointing fall on me.
Prayer - Dear Lord, thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit that is upon Your true church. May the anointing never cease in the name of Jesus and may it flow continually in Jesus' name, Amen.
Bible in 1 year: 2 Samuel 9-11; Luke 15