Another year has passed, and God’s grace and mercy still extend towards us. I want to take this time to congratulate Bethel Temple of Praise, a Church I gladly call my home church, on your 11th year anniversary. It is by the grace of God that we have arrived at this juncture in our church history. I am elated at what God has done up to this point and look forward with great anticipation for what God will do in the future.
I want to also, express my gratitude to the Bethel church family and partners for your continual support over the years. Truly, we are still in existence but for God and your faithful support. Thank you and please continue to partner with us in spreading the gospel to the world.
Our theme for this year is the cry of my heart, “Holy Spirit, we need a double portion of your anointing”.
Ephesians 5 verse 18 said that we must seek for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.”
It is in this same context, like Elisha, I am asking that a double portion of the Holy Spirit’s anointing fall on me in this season.
2 Kings 2:9 states “When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me” (ESV).
It is this power that we need to do ministry. We can’t do ministry without the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot live without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) said, “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on, and no one would know the difference.” I do not want how I do ministry today to be grounded in self and less dependence on the Holy Spirit. So, this statement has helped me to evaluate my priorities.
I am concern that the practical application of this call is not being realized in our generation. Many are more caught up with putting on a show than seeking for God. They seem to possess the “to be seen spirit”. Their main focus is themselves. This “feel good gospel” has left little or no room for the genuine move of the Holy Spirit. Francis Chan, in his book “Forgotten God” said, “There is a big gap between what we read in Scripture about the Holy Spirit and how most believers and churches operate today.” Our desire should be that our aspirations and activities should line up with the teachings of the Bible. Particularly, we should depend on the scriptural application of the practical nature of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. What am I leaving my children. Will they have live in a time when we have demonstrated the power of the Holy Spirit at work? What legacy of the anointing am I leaving for my generation? I want my boys and their peers to experience the genuine manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
Paul reminded the Ephesians that the anointing is not just a momentary experience but should be a present continuous experience. This anointing should be evident in our daily lives. I echo Paul’s challenge that if any at all we are going to be effective on carrying out the mission of God we have to depend on the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This anointing does not begin and ends at the doorsteps of the church. No! This anointing carries on in our homes, workplaces, social gatherings, and everywhere we go. Francis Chan makes the point again that,
“The Holy Spirit is absolutely vital to our situation today. Of course, He is always vital; but perhaps especially now. After all, if the Holy Spirit moves, nothing can stop Him. If He doesn’t move, we will not produce genuine fruit—no matter how much effort or money we expend. The church becomes irrelevant when it becomes purely a human creation.” (1)
It is when we are experiencing the genuine manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we are going to see real change in peoples’ lives. Since the Holy Spirit dwells in us, with no limitations, then our lives must be different from those that have not come into this experience. There must be a difference between the person who has the Holy Spirit living inside of him or her and anointing them as compared with the person who does not.
It is when we allow the Holy Spirit to have a free reign in our lives that we are going to experience his full power. Jesus promised us that with the filling of the Holy Spirit comes power. This power is to carry out the work of the gospel. It is never to draw attention to ourselves or to boost our egos. In Acts 1:8 we are told that
“What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world” (Message Bible).
My daily desire is to walk in this power.
Now, let’s seek for the genuine manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let’s desire to be where God is working rather than manufacturing it. We can only defeat the enemy, Satan, if we are allowing the Holy Spirit to have unfiltered access to our lives and His church. We must stop looking to signs and wonders and seek for the source of this manifestation, the Holy Spirit. We must not rely only on the historical manifestation of the Holy Spirit and search for how He can and is working today in our lives. History should be a teacher and a reference; we should not stop there but use it to go higher.
I like what R.T. Kendall said in his book, “Holy Fire”,
“Jonathan Edwards, who taught us that the task of every generation is to discover in which direction the Sovereign Redeemer is going, and then move in that direction. How do we discover in which direction the Sovereign Redeemer is moving? I think it requires our being vulnerable and to stop worrying what people will think of us. I would encourage you to throw caution to the wind and become more vulnerable.” (2)
Yes! We need to release our motives, our intellect, our emotions and everything about us into the hands of the Holy Spirit. If we are truly seeking for a double portion! My consuming desire is for the genuine and unfiltered manifestation of the Holy Spirit work in my life. That must be pour singular desire. How about you? Let us with one voice declare that “ Holy Spirit, we need a double portion of your anointing”.
——Dr. Dalton Jenkins
_________________________________________________________________________
(1) Chan, Francis (2009-09-01). Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit (Kindle Locations 176-178). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.
(2) Kendall, R.T. (2014-01-07). Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit’s Work in Our Lives (Kindle Locations 1921-1924). Charisma House. Kindle Edition.