Our Anointing – How it Works

[00:00:00] Shall we read together in the word of God? In one John and chapter two. [00:00:12] One John and chapter two. [00:00:22] Little children, verse 18. [00:00:25] Little children, it is the last hour. [00:00:30] And as ye heard that Antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last hour. [00:00:42] They went out from us, but they were not of us. [00:00:47] For if they had been of us, they would have continued with but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they all are not of us. [00:01:03] And ye have an anointing from the holy one. [00:01:10] But because ye know it, and because no lie is of thee, who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? [00:01:28] This is the Antichrist. Even he that denieth the Father and the Son. [00:01:36] Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the father. He that confesseth the son hath the Father also. [00:01:45] As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Father, in the Son and in the Father. [00:02:03] And this is the promise which he promised us, even the life eternal. [00:02:08] These things have I written unto you concerning concerning them that would lead you astray. [00:02:14] And as for you, the anointing which ye received of him abideth in you. And ye need not that any one teach you, but as his anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in him. [00:02:41] And now, my little children, abide in him, that if he shall be manifested, we may have boldness and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is begotten of him. And chapter four, verse one. [00:03:11] Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. [00:03:36] Now shall we just have one further word of prayer this evening? [00:03:41] Lord, as we come to this subject, which we know the enemy hates so very, very violently, we pray together again, Lord, that thou wilt watch over every single part of it and make it live with thy presence. O Lord, we cast ourselves upon thee, speaker and hearer alike. We come by faith unto the anointing that is upon the head, our Lord Jesus, for every one of us. And pray that indeed we might know that gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit in this little time. We ask it in his name. Amen. [00:04:25] A week or two ago, we spoke about this subject of the anointing, teaching you concerning all things. How to know what is of God and what is not of God. How to know what is of the spirit and what is not of the spirit. We are living, of course, in thrilling days. [00:04:53] On the one hand, we are seeing very much happen amongst christians all over the world. We see the spirit of God moving in new ways. We hear of so much, for instance, from Indonesia, from India, from Brazil, from many other parts, that rejoices our hearts. We've seen something of God moving in our own country and nation as well as in Europe. But on the other side, there is a tremendous amount that's counterfeit, as much that's mixture. And of course, it has always been that whenever there has been revival, wherever the spirit of God has moved, the enemy has sought to come in alongside and bring in poison somehow to put the leavening which leaveneth the whole lump, to sow the bad seed in with the good seed. [00:05:54] Now, there were, as far as I know, two main points we made in the evening that we had together, along with illustration. [00:06:04] The first was the need to prove all, or to try all things. It has been my own small. In my own small experience, I have found that nearly everyone who's been tripped up on this matter has failed to prove all things. [00:06:27] So often we prove what we think is dicey. [00:06:33] Anything we think is a little suspect. [00:06:36] Now, I'm going to prove this. [00:06:40] But it is extraordinary that we do not generally take heed to the scripture and prove all things, even when it appears to be scriptural, even when it appears to be the spirit of God, even when it appears to be wholly and absolutely of God. The scripture says, prove all things, or that's in one Thessalonians chapter five, and in one john, chapter four, verse one. Try every spirit. [00:07:12] Not just try spirits, you feel a suspect, but try every spirit. Everything that purports to be the spirit of God, try it. [00:07:26] Never in any matter has there been more need than in the realm of the Holy Spirit to try everything that appears to be of the spirit. [00:07:37] Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. Abstain from every form of evil. In other words, sort out, sought out all the time, sort out, hold fast that which is good. Don't get into the trap of some people. Everything along this line is wrong. I know some folks, some groups, some movements that have got so frightened on the matter of the Holy Spirit that the whole vocabulary concerning the Holy Spirit has fallen out. [00:08:15] It's fallen out of their vocabulary. You don't hear why I remember some groups. I never heard any message on the power of the Holy Spirit. [00:08:27] There are a tremendous number of things in scripture being sealed with the Holy Spirit, receiving the earnest of the spirit, being filled with the spirit, gifts of the spirit. There are all kinds of things now, you see, we can fall into the trap where we get so horrified by mixture, by counterfeit, and by artificiality or superficiality, that we just decide that there's nothing in it. [00:08:59] We must be very, very careful of such a thing. The scripture does not tell us that the way out of anything is to withdraw. Just because there are counterfeit conversions, just because some people who get converted under a gospel message don't stand, we don't stop preaching the gospel. We don't withdraw altogether from preaching or proclaiming the gospel, because there are hypocrites amongst christians. We don't stop declaring the whole counsel of God, declaring the faith once for all time, delivered to the saints. Of course not. We have to go forward sorting out the precious from the vial. But it is just this whole problem, isn't it? It how to sort the precious out from the vile, how to distinguish what is of God from what is not of God. Prove all things. Well, now, that's one of the things we dealt with the last time, the need to prove all. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed, lest he fall. For those who feel they'll never be tripped up on this matter, they are invariably tripped up. [00:10:07] There are those who think that they have discernment, and invariably they haven't got discernment. In my short experience, I know of at least three people who've been to me and told me that they had the gift of discernment. All three are notorious for being absolutely blind when it comes to the things of the spirit. This is just what deception can do to us. [00:10:35] Let him that thinketh his standeth, take heed, lest he fall. [00:10:42] Prove all things. Don't despise prophesyings. It says, quench not the spirit. [00:10:51] Hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil or every form of evil. Try the spirits, try every spirit. [00:11:07] The second thing we spoke about last time was the anointing. Who teaches us concerning all things? We pointed out a number of matters about this. [00:11:19] We pointed out from one, John 227, that we don't need anyone to teach us. What does that mean? It is obviously not in connection with teaching as such, because we do need teaching. It says in Ephesians four, one Corinthians twelve, that teachers have been given to us. We are told to respect those who minister the word to us. [00:11:44] Therefore, it is quite clear that scripture doesn't contradict itself. Teaching is a vital ministry, which every single person needs. Why then does the apostle John say, you do not need anyone to teach you? He meant this. You don't need anyone to tell you what is false and what is of God, what is of Christ, what is Antichrist and what is Christ, what is of God and what is not of God. Now, reading this passage, one, John two, you might think you might be forgiven if you thought, well, what's this got to do with this kind of man? It's to do with Antichrist and Christ. But you must just understand a little bit of the background. [00:12:25] This letter was written when one of the greatest heresies of the early church was making terrible inroads on every side amongst the churches. [00:12:39] It was the gnostic or gnostic heresy. It denied the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ had come in the flesh. That's all. And that's why he makes so much of it here. In this letter. He says, you see, we tend to think, oh, we'd spot that instantly. We'd spot that instantly. Anything that was sort of unitarian or anything that was sort of like Jehovah's Witnesses, we'd spot that. But in an early church, because there were only one. There was only one church, it wasn't so simple. [00:13:16] And these people, probably many of them, had been converted, but they did not abide in the teaching. That's why the apostle Paul says they'd left it. They thought they'd got further revelation. And this further revelation was that the Lord Jesus Christ was in fact an expression of God. [00:13:37] That's all. [00:13:41] Well, there's a lot more we could talk about there, but we won't. The fact of the matter is, you see, that the apostle says, I write this about those who would lead you astray. [00:13:51] We might think it was very simple and easy for them. It wasn't. [00:13:55] These people seemed to have been converted like they'd been converted. They'd taken part as they were taken. They praised God as they. As the rest praised God. They seemed to contribute in the life of the church as everyone else contributed in the life of the church. Then everyone was perplexed and confused. How can we tell? [00:14:14] How can we tell? These people seem to be just the same as us. They say they've got some greater revelation. They've got some further revelation. [00:14:24] Now the apostle says, you don't need anyone to teach you don't all get worried and say, oh, if only John would. It would be so simple. He'd stand up in the meeting and say, you be quiet. [00:14:37] Or he would say, listen, everyone, this teaching from this particular person is quite wrong. John says, no, no, no. You don't need me to come. You don't need Paul, you don't need Peter, and you don't need the trio. [00:14:54] You have an anointing from God, who teaches you all things and is true and is no lie. [00:15:04] In other words, the church itself had got this anointing. The spirit of God was present. [00:15:10] And if they would only learn how the anointing operates, they would be kept free from error, free from what is Antichrist, free from counterfeit, free from mixture. And this is very important. Free to go on. [00:15:31] Free to go on instead of giving everything else, everything up in a kind of disappointed disillusion. [00:15:42] Well, now, that's what we spoke about the last time. I want to go on this evening and mention a few further points. We will cover a little of what was said before, but I trust that the Lord will help us this evening. First, I want to speak about how does the anointing work? [00:16:07] How does the anointing work? [00:16:11] I think this is a question to the point, folks have come. The few questions I've had have nearly all been on this particular matter. They weren't exactly questions, but really, I would have said, perhaps more queries. People have said to me, well, I don't know. [00:16:28] I felt sometimes I was being critical, or I felt that I was this or that or the other. How does the anointing operate or work? Look again at one. John two, verse 19, verse 20. Ye have an anointing from the holy one, and ye know all things. How are we to know all things? [00:16:54] And then verse 27. And as for you, the anointing which ye received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you, but as his anointing teacheth you concerning all things and is true and is no lie, even as it taught you, so abide ye in him. [00:17:16] How does this anointing work? [00:17:21] Now, may I be quite simple in this matter? And this is the whole problem. If I'm simple here, people will say straight away, there must be something deeper than that. [00:17:31] But in actual fact, this whole matter of the anointing is simple, simplicity itself. [00:17:37] It is so simple that most people overlook it. And that's why I always say this, that it's the younger ones who've been recently saved, who know more sometimes of the operation of the anointing than the older ones, because they had tended to put their mind over their spirit, they tended to put, as it were, their reasoning faculties and emotional sense and their will in the wrong place. [00:18:09] Now listen very carefully. It's so simple you'll miss it. [00:18:16] The anointing works by a sense of disquiet. [00:18:24] It's as simple as that. [00:18:27] Just a sense of disquiet, a sense of unrest, a sense of disturbance. [00:18:37] It's quite as simple as that. You just feel disturbed. [00:18:41] Now, if you all think you've all had it, no matter who you are, you've all had this. But you thought dearly. Me, is the lord challenging me? [00:18:52] Am I being challenged on this matter? You see, that's how the enemy comes. [00:18:58] Aha. But you're not ready. You're not ready to surrender. You're not ready to go through completely. You feel disturb. [00:19:08] So often the person will then say, and some of you probably feel like drawing back, this is the enemy. And you think, yes, yes, yes, corpse. [00:19:20] So you jump in, fully closed, at the deep end. [00:19:26] The way the anointing operates is by a sense of unrest or disquiet, or disturbance. Isn't it interesting here that this little phrase comes in verse 25? This is the promise which he promised us, even life eternal. Now, why on earth should that come in there, unless it was that? Sometimes the anointing operates by a kind of. Where there's life, it flows fully, there's a great sense of a river flowing. But when it's not, there's a sense of death, death encroaching death coming in. Now, if you think of it, any child of God who has eternal life in him or her, obviously, if any ministry of death is coming, anything that's wrong, anything that's going to compromise, anything that's going to bring a lie in immediately, any life in them feels disturbed. It's disturbed. It's unrest. There's unrest, there's disquieting. You can put it a number of ways. [00:20:39] Let the peace of God arbitrate in your heart, to which you are called in one body. Be thankful. [00:20:48] But it is the same thing, you see. It is in fact just a sense of something wrong. [00:20:58] Although everything appears right. [00:21:02] Now, do listen to this. Everything appears right. But there is a sense somewhere that something's wrong. Now, the enemy will always come to you straight away and say, how can you judge? [00:21:16] See how scriptural it is. [00:21:19] See the miracles that are behind this thing. See? See this, see that, see the other. [00:21:28] But in actual fact, the point is that you have a sense that something is wrong. [00:21:36] Now, so delicate and sensitive is that ministry of the Holy Spirit that you can quench it just like that. [00:21:48] How does the anointing operate when you're sensitive to it? You see, some people have been to me after the last time, immediately afterwards. Not really a question, more personal, not thought to be so much discussed. And they said, at least one person said to me, how do I know that? I'm just not being critical. [00:22:17] I mean, maybe I. [00:22:19] How can I know that it's the anointing? [00:22:23] Well, it's so simple. When you've got that disquiet, that disturbance, that unrest committed to God. [00:22:32] That's the crux of the matter, you see. When we have it, we don't commit it to God. We say, now, Lord, what is this? What is this? Is this you? Is this you? I'm not going to commit myself. [00:22:41] Is this you? Or is it me? [00:22:46] What mostly happens is this. Something whispers in our ear. Aha. So you're rebelling. [00:22:52] You're rebelling against the word, huh? [00:22:55] You're against this ministry. You're against the work of the Holy Spirit. Uh huh. I see. Well, the Lord's going to cut you right out, then. Unless you go forward. You'll die like those people died in the wilderness if you don't go forward. So you think, oh, yes, yes, of course. Of course. And you jump forward. You haven't asked the Lord about that sense. You didn't say, oh, Lord, there's something in my heart that's a little bit unrestful. Is this you? [00:23:27] If you'll only do that, you give the anointing the chance to teach you. [00:23:34] The anointing isn't there to just govern you. It could have said, the anointing governeth you in all things. The anointing directeth you in all things. The anointing overruleth you in all things. No, it says, the anointing teacheth you concerning. The anointing wants to teach you. The Lord wants to teach you by his spirit. He wants you to say, now then, what is this, Lord, is this you? [00:24:00] Have you. Have you yet begun to find this out? It's the crux of the christian life in many ways. You see, you are a temple of God. We know we are all the temple of God, but you are a temple of God. There's a sense in which, within you, you can inquire of the Lord. Within the temple, God is in you. [00:24:18] So you can come to God in the holiest place of all, within your own heart, as it were and say, oh, Lord, I'm here to inquire, do you know anything of that being temples of the Holy Spirit? [00:24:35] So that God can come and sort of say, now then, this disquiet is of me. Don't commit yourself. [00:24:44] It all looks right, it all sounds right, but it's not. [00:24:48] Later on you're going to find out. [00:24:52] The anointing teaches you. You see, it's. [00:24:57] The point is that the anointing operates by a very delicate, sensitive, like a. Almost like a Geiger counter. So delicate, so sensitive, is it in your spirit that you can completely overrule it and quench it. But once you've learned that in your heart, there is this sort of barometer. If you like, this sort of guy, counter this ability to know what's right and wrong. Once you know it's there, you start to obey, you start to take heed. [00:25:34] It's not that every time you have a feeling of disturbance, that ness of necessity is the Holy Spirit. Every time you have a sort of a critical attitude of necessity spirit. No, but most of us have been caught out because we have pushed down what we've thought to be a critical spirit. When indeed it was the critical spirit of God. [00:26:03] It was the spirit of God who was criticizing, judging. He that is spiritual judgeth all things. [00:26:12] And the Holy Spirit was saying, now then, now then, this might all sound good and appear good, but it isn't. [00:26:20] There's something wrong here. [00:26:23] I could illustrate this with many, many points. [00:26:29] How does the anointing operate? For instance, on teaching, there's a teaching that are many teachings which seemed to be so right and so scriptural. And you find people take this scriptural and say this and then this and then this and then this and then the next and the next and the next. And you think, oh, yes, of course. That's rheumatoid. [00:26:51] Why, I never saw it like that before. You don't inquire of it. Something in you says, just wait, just wait. You have a funny feeling, and then you think, now then, that's because I don't want. [00:27:04] Fancy me being like that, being so rebellious. Take this matter of baptism in the name of Jesus. Only it's exactly this, so specious. It seems as if it's got so much. Every single baptism in acts is in the name of Jesus. [00:27:26] And so on and so forth. Then comes the blow. [00:27:31] Baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is an interpolation by some dishonest scribe at a later date. [00:27:41] Where may I ask, where in any of your versions of the Bible, except the christadelphium, do you find such a thing? Russellism, christadelphianism. [00:27:59] These are the two versions that have ruled that out. It is not, you know as well as I do that the modern versions have taken whole portions out, put them down in footnotes or expunged them all together. But you'll still find Matthew 28 20 in without even a footnote, that in some ancient manuscripts, these words do not appear, not there. [00:28:24] Now, this is what I mean. People swallow this kind of thing and they say, oh, yes, I must be obedient in. They go to find out afterwards that they've done something that's wrong. [00:28:38] I don't think that it's just silly people who do this. I know at least one missionary who I greatly respect in the Lord, who woke up early in the morning, 05:00 in the morning, and a voice said in her ear, get baptized in the name of Jesus. Only, oh, she had such a battle through that day. She had such a battle, felt she shouldn't be. But finally she went forward, as it were, almost on an impulse, and got baptized. And immediately darkness fell on her as she came up out of the water. It fell on her just like a curtain. [00:29:10] And it is, of course, a sign of how much there is of the spirit of God in your life. As to how quickly the darkness comes, that's a little sign, but the more there is of the spirit of God in your life, the quicker the darkness comes when you. When you have disobeyed the anointing. [00:29:32] Now, you see, there is a point in question. There's an illustration. Let me give you another illustration. Here is a meeting. [00:29:40] It's a good meeting. [00:29:42] A good. I don't mean this one, but I mean, if we were just pretend here was a meeting. So it's a good meeting. Someone. Someone speaks in a tongue. There's nothing wrong with speaking in a tongue, and someone interprets it. [00:29:58] Now then, how can we tell whether such a thing is of God or not of God? We can always tell by the united. [00:30:08] I have heard absolute nonsense. Go for Thomas. [00:30:13] Absolute nonsense. Now, of course, if I said, many people say, oh, they are. They are against it all, absolutely against it all. [00:30:21] I mean, if a person gargled with a mouthwash, they might have got a better result. [00:30:32] It's absolute nonsense. And as for people putting hands on people and saying, now then, you've got it. Practice it. [00:30:42] I never heard such nonsense in all my life. [00:30:46] I remember being in one meeting when a brother threw up his hands next to me in prayer and spoke in the most beautiful language I've ever heard. And I said to him afterwards, father, God has given you the gift of tongues. Yes. He said, the softer. I said, you've never spoken? No, he said, never in my life. I'm in a high church. [00:31:09] He was a father God had given it. It was a tongue. [00:31:16] Oh, the deception that comes when people think they've got a tongue. It isn't a tongue. And then someone interprets what isn't a tongue. Then it happens, and then you've got, oh, tragedy. Brother Burton, Willie Burton said to me, we banned it in Congress, only privately because of the tragedies we've seen. [00:31:39] Now, how can you tell when something's of God and when something isn't of God? By the anointing. [00:31:45] Don't say amen to something that isn't of God, but say amen to something that you know is of God. [00:31:50] Why people get so bothered about this kind of thing. But, you know, in a prayer meeting, some people pray completely out of the spirit. [00:31:58] Here we are praying about something and we're shaking the very foundations of some particular man. And then someone prays for their grandma who's ill. I mean, it's nothing wrong with praying for grandma who's ill. But the point is, it's not of the spirit at that particular point. [00:32:16] No, we don't all say, oh, oh, how terrible. How absolutely terrible. That was not of the spirit of God. Oh, this meeting is chaotic. It's confused. I shall have to leave because this is not of the spirit of God. We don't say that, do we? We say, oh, dear, old so and so's trodden as usual, where angels fear to, and there's pray. It's as simple as that. [00:32:47] I mean, why don't we do the same with everything else? I've heard some people get up and give a message and I don't think the Lord has been in it. [00:32:56] It hasn't done anyone harm, but I don't think there was an anointing on it. But we don't all go home and say, oh, dear, this is terrible. I shall have to go. I shall have to leave. Leave that group altogether. It was awful. [00:33:11] I mean, we learned to judge. Why don't we extend our judgment to further things, all these other things as well, and say, well, now and again we do put our foot wrong. Someone prophesied, someone has a word of knowledge or something else. It's not quite right. All right, it's okay. [00:33:30] We all. We're all prone to being wrong time or another. The anointing, how does it work? [00:33:40] I mean, you see, one hears of such terrible things. [00:33:45] I haven't seen this, but I have heard from Willy Burton of at least three occasions when someone's prophesied and told someone to marry so and so, whereupon the poor, unwitting soul married so and so, because it was a voice from heaven and thus saith the Lord. [00:34:06] And Willie said to me, all three marriages were catastrophes. [00:34:12] Catastrophe. [00:34:14] Now, what's gone wrong? Well, of course, because we shouldn't accept anything just like that. [00:34:22] We've got an anointing from God. This is true. There's no lie. We don't have to accept people standing up and saying so and so. You ought to marry so and so. [00:34:34] Anyway, all these things are not for direction. [00:34:37] They are for edification, building up. And that is a quite different matter. Now, this point that I am making is not liked by some because they're deceived. [00:34:50] When a person is deceived, they don't always know it, obviously. Otherwise, one of the whole points of deception is they hate anything that gets near to it. [00:35:00] Something becomes troubled. [00:35:05] Now, we could go on, and we could go on in this matter. How did the anointing operate? We can come into contact with someone who has a ministry or contribution. [00:35:16] We just feel somehow a sense of disquiet. [00:35:20] Now, this doesn't mean that we must immediately withdraw, but it does mean that we should not commit ourselves. [00:35:27] Not commit ourselves. Now, that leads me to the second point I want to make this evening. The importance of heeding the anointing. [00:35:37] The importance of heeding the anointing when we have such a sense of disquiet or disturbance or that something is wrong. How do I know that I am not just being critical? [00:35:54] That it's not just my own temperament? [00:35:58] Or how do I know that I'm just not willing to go on with the Lord in this matter or surrender to him? [00:36:06] Well, of course you don't. [00:36:09] It's as simple as that. You don't. [00:36:12] It could be your own critical nature. But the point to do is to heed it. [00:36:18] Heed it. [00:36:20] Don't commit yourself whilst you, in your heart, say, now, lord, is this really you? You'll know often after a while. It's almost. Almost spontaneous. You'll know instantly. I've heard people speak in tongues. I'm known holy of God. I've known people prophesy. Known holy of God. I know in other things. You've walked in you've met a person for the first time. You know absolutely they're of God. There's no impurity, there's no mixture. You know that they're of God. [00:36:52] Once you let the anointing teach you these things, there comes a sense of which is quicker. [00:37:00] But at the very beginning, naturally, it takes much greater time. You've got to be instructed. [00:37:08] Now, what is the truth? So often the truth of the matter is this, that when I've got this sense of disquiet, of disturbance, it is the anointing which is instructing me. [00:37:23] So I should never commit myself, but I should heed and obey, in other words, until I am sure that it is just myself. [00:37:35] And then it's different. It has to be put aside. [00:37:40] I should not commit myself. Now, this is very important because it comes down to this question of abiding in him. Now, you know as well as I do, last words were all to do with abiding in him. Abide in me, and I in you. [00:37:59] Oh, he summed up everything as if this was the heart of the matter, abiding. And John the apostle, in his letters makes a tremendous amount about abiding in him. Now, in this chapter two, he tells us that we must abide in him. [00:38:19] And this means we abide in the teaching that we've received from the beginning. But he goes further and says, as ye are taught by the anointing, so ye abide in him. [00:38:31] In other words, the terrible possibility is if I do not heed the anointing or if I disobey the anointing, I am no longer abiding in him. [00:38:47] I don't know how I can make that more clear. [00:38:52] But the importance of heeding the anointing is simply that as we heed the anointing and obey the anointing, so we abide in Christ. [00:39:05] Let me try to put it a little more forcibly. If the anointing is not heeded, disobeyed, we are uncovered. [00:39:16] Now, I think you all know that there is a tremendous amount in the word of God about covering. [00:39:25] One of the strangest passages in scripture about the devil speaks of him as the anointed cherub that covereth another occasion we come when we see in the prophecies of Ezekiel, the visions of Ezekiel. We see this amazing thing called the cherubim, in which the very presence of God is found, and we find that they've got all these pairs of wings. We find it in Ezekiel one and some of the other chapters of Ezekiel. And we find that nearly all the pairs of wings, only one pair out of either six or eight, I can't quite remember, is used for flying. [00:40:09] The rest are used for covering. [00:40:13] Now, we also hear of the Lord covering the nations in the last day. [00:40:25] That's why sisters wear something on the hill. Not so old fashioned victorian idea, but it's because as the man is a symbol in the gathering of the people of God, we who, brothers, we, are symbols of the fact that in Christ there is an open heaven. Nothing between. Now, you know that the jew wears something on his head because it is a sign that sin has come into the world. He wears the little YAmuk, and it is a sign that sin has come into the world. And there is something between man and God. [00:41:14] Now, when the apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth, the thing that amazes us is the fact that he spoke about women wearing something on their head. That wasn't a bother those days. Quite the same. The fact was that the men had taken off the covering. That was the thing. And some of the sisters said, well, if the men have taken off the covering, let us. [00:41:36] And the apostle said, oh, no, no, no. [00:41:39] It's quite right for the men to be sensational in this matter, because Christ. There's no. [00:41:46] There's an open heaven for Christ. [00:41:49] But the sisters, they are a picture of the church. [00:41:53] They are a picture of the men as well. So every one of you sisters, you're a picture not just of your. Of the sisters. People say, oh, dear, dear, dear. This token of slavery, this. This token on my head of bondage, of sort of being obedient to me men. It's nothing of the kind. [00:42:16] All the men are included in your hat. [00:42:21] In actual fact, all the men are there as well. So next time, look at the brothers straight in the eyes while you're wearing your hat. [00:42:31] They're all in it. [00:42:35] It's as true as that. You see the sister out a picture that we have only got an open heaven in Christ. Have you got it? [00:42:45] We've got something on the head because we, as the church have only got an open heaven in. Because we haven't got it in ourselves. [00:42:51] We're not worthy, we're sinners. Christ has an open heaven and we in him have got an open heaven. Isn't that marvellous? Now, that's all covering. [00:43:04] That's all this whole matter of covering. Oh, what a vast, vast subject. [00:43:12] How tremendous. How it goes down to you see, I can't explain it. It says in one corinthians eleven, because of the angels well, what are the angels got to be bothered about with sisters wearing a hat or not? [00:43:26] Some people say, oh, well, that's old fashioned. Jars just wear. You believe in the inspiration of scripture. You believe in the authority of the word of God. You believe that the whole Bible is inspired of God. How can you simply say, oh, that's an old custom? [00:43:40] What, because of the angel? [00:43:45] The apostle believed in a fairy tale then, did he? Oh, no, of course not. What the apostle was simply saying was this. [00:43:53] The question of uncovering has a lot to do. Covering and uncovering has a lot to do with the invisible world. [00:44:01] The moment they see uncovering, they're in just like that. [00:44:07] When everything's covered, they can't get in. But the moment the coverings are, they're in. [00:44:14] Noah, it's nothing to do with hats in one sense. [00:44:19] It's to do with the testimony that the hat wrecked represents. [00:44:25] In other words, there are forces that watch. [00:44:32] You can all I know companies where every single sister's got a hat rammed on her head. But, boy, there's some uncovering there. [00:44:41] And the result is that the enemy's right in. [00:44:47] I know other places where this is all part of a greater revelation that's come about bondage, and I don't know what else. And the sisters have all thrown up that and what's happened. The enemy's in. [00:45:00] I don't know any group where this has happened, where the enemy hasn't come in. [00:45:05] Now, what is with all to do with. Forgive me, talking about this matter. I normally get raw remarks, descend upon me afterwards. But the whole point is this, that this anointing is to do with the head. [00:45:27] Ye have received an anointing from God. [00:45:33] The anointing's on the head. It runs down to the whole body. And it means that as we are taught by him, so we abide in him. We are under the head, we are covered. [00:45:47] But the moment we do not heed the anointing or we disobey the anointing, out we go from abiding, and then the enemy's got us. [00:45:59] It's as simple as that. Uncovering leads to dissipation, deception to darkness, to division and to destruction. [00:46:18] In other words, it leads to a lie. [00:46:21] It's absolute. [00:46:23] It's either truth or a lie, light or darkness. In him, there is no, no darkness at all. [00:46:32] In him there is no lie. There is no lie. [00:46:37] Now, get that. Some people think theres a mixture somewhere. Theres no such thing. And thats the seriousness of not heeding the anointing. [00:46:47] Because it means that we can become involved through deception with a lie. [00:46:56] This can come in all kinds of ways. People have got some idea. They've got some great ministry or something else, or some great gift or some great contribution. It's a lie. It's a deception. But behold, that person's whole life is bounded by this thing and destroyed by it. [00:47:17] Why? Because it's a lie. It's not true. [00:47:23] Therefore, we need. Oh, to be so clear on this thing. You see, some people say to me, well, I did so and so. [00:47:33] I got involved with such and such. But it doesn't matter, does it? I mean, I've seen it. Just wait, just wait. [00:47:42] You can't. It's not just as simple as that. [00:47:46] You've got to go right back to the point. Why did I get involved in that? Because I did not heed the anointing. [00:47:58] Now, when we become involved with Allah, we sometimes need ministry and help from the church to free us. [00:48:07] From that very day. [00:48:11] I could speak for an hour on just illustrations, literally illustrations, even the last few weeks, one or two folks who come in on a Sunday evening come to us absolutely bound by a lie. [00:48:26] Bound by a lie, nothing but truth. Breaking in can make a person see a deception and bring them out. Then they'll need very definite ministry and help from the church of God. Now I want to go on to another matter which is bound up with this. This is like a telescope. Each bit is coming out from the last. May seem a bit disjointed, but it isn't. [00:48:58] I want to speak for a few moments about the difference between soul and spirit. [00:49:04] Leave it or believe it not, this matter has a tremendous amount to do with the anointing, with going astray and with uncovering. [00:49:16] Now then, just wait. First of all, are the terms spirit and soul synonymous? [00:49:24] There are those who believe that they are synonymous terms. We have only got two parts to our being. We've got a body and a soul or a spirit. Doesn't matter which term you use. This is not true. One. Thessalonians chapter five and verse 23. May your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Spirit, soul and body. [00:50:00] Spirit, soul and body. [00:50:04] Then, if you will, turn to Hebrews chapter four, verse twelve. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit. [00:50:24] These two things are quite distinct. [00:50:29] If you turn to the Old Testament, I think you find it there in the Old Testament for instance in psalm 103. [00:50:40] Bless the Lord, o my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Have you ever stopped to who is speaking to who? [00:50:53] If the psalmist is all soul, who is he talking to? Bless the Lord, o my soul. Is his body talking to his soul? [00:51:02] What is it that's talking to his soul? It's as if the psalmist is conscious that there's something deeper than his soul which governs his soul and this deeper part of him in union with God. He's saying, now my soul, come on, follow me. Get behind me. We'll bless the Lord. [00:51:22] You find this again in psalm 42, psalm 42 five. Why art thou cast down, o my soul, and why art thou quieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the help of who is the help of his countenance. [00:51:52] Now you see that the psalmist is speaking to his soul again. Now turn to an even more remarkable scripture. Some 131, psalm 131 two. Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul like a weaned child with his mother. Now this is like a mother with a baby that's growing up and the baby's crying and mother's quiet. [00:52:27] Now the psalmist says, this is what I've done with my soul. What is, what is it that's done it with his soul? His body? [00:52:36] How has his body rocked his soul to sleep? No, his spirit. [00:52:44] His spirit has taken hold of his soul and quietened it like a weaned child. Now shush, shush shush shush shush. [00:52:53] Be still, be quiet. [00:52:58] So even in the Old Testament we find that man is conscious that there is something deeper than soul. Now if you down to Luke in chapter one and verse 46 and 47, we see. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my saviour. Isn't that interesting? It's obscured in the authorized mercy. But you see, my soul doth magnify the Lord, my spirit hath rejoiced. In other words, it wasn't the soul leading first, and then the spirit got excited, but the spirit rejoiced in God and the soul began to magnify the Lord. [00:53:40] Isn't that wonderful? Now that's the whole point. [00:53:44] The spirit leading, the origin of it all is in the spirit. And then the soul gets excited and magnifies the law. [00:53:54] There's nothing wrong in feeling, nothing wrong in sometimes being deeply moved to the point of tears. It does us good if only it's begun with the spirit. But, oh, to be preserved from that kind of thing where we swing everything up and gradually work until slowly but slowly everything reaches a crescendo. [00:54:22] Anything can happen in such things. Hindus do it, Muslims do it, Buddhists do it. [00:54:30] I've seen them all swinging at that, working it all up until at last they fall into trances and see this and do this and the other. Oh, how dangerous the soul is. Few people know anything really about psychology, true psychology. A soul is an ocean within us, tremendous ocean. Now the soul is the seat of deception. [00:55:03] It's just there that so much of the trouble now, I suppose a large amount of the trouble that we get into in this whole matter of not distinguishing what is of God from what is not of God is due to mixture of soul and spirit. Now, you can't help it. Some of us are strong souls. [00:55:29] That is, we've got what we call strong personalities. [00:55:34] Now, when you've got that, it's a great problem. [00:55:39] I remember what brother nee when he once saw a famous danish sister who was an evangelist in the church army, a woman of extraordinary personality and power. He shook his head because he loved her in the Lord and said to her companion, oh, how I fear for her, what she's got to go through. [00:56:09] Now, when we've got strong personalities, the discipline of God is the hardest thing in the world. [00:56:16] God doesn't want to bring a thing with bit and bridle like horse or mule. He wants to direct us with his eye. [00:56:26] Spiritual communion, a spiritual relationship. [00:56:30] But, oh, the strong soul, we don't like that. [00:56:35] We want to be allowed just to run out and do everything that becomes to us every impulse. We want to glorify the Lord. We want to do this, we want to do that, we want to get on with the work. [00:56:45] What God has to do with us, break us physically, sometimes break us almost mentally. [00:56:52] Tremendous what God has to do to bring us through. But what is the objective of God? It is to divide spirit from soul, to divide spirit from soul. Now, when there's a strong soul and the soul is in the fore, it is the most painful spirit spiritual surgery in the whole universe. [00:57:18] But God has to do it, and until he's done it, we're not saved. [00:57:26] Now, so often people think that what is their soul is the spirit. [00:57:38] And this is where you get all the. Or people have gone out to the mission field and said, I can't understand it. I can't understand that because it was the soul that came. [00:57:49] I've had. I could keep you again for hours. With illustrations we've had of people who come and fed the most extraordinary things. Why, I remember one fellow coming to me and saying about a certain sister. That God had shown him in the night that he was to marry her. [00:58:06] That's very interesting. Do you love her? No. He said, I don't. [00:58:10] And I said, are you going to marry her? Then, yes. He said, I am. I said, and what was the scripture you got? He said, here it is in Genesis. Up, Isaac, I think it was. And take Rebecca. [00:58:28] Suffice it to say, I'm glad that he didn't marry that sister. She's happily married to another brother. [00:58:37] But the fact of the matter is, you see, the brother was convinced. [00:58:41] He was absolutely, 100% convinced that God had spoken to him. Nothing. Nothing that we could say. And he brought that sister near to nervous breakdown. [00:58:52] By pursuing her all the time with this scripture. This scripture, this scripture. Writing notes, trying to phone, trying to meet earth. [00:59:01] Now, that's what happens when the soul has not been divided from the spirit of all the ideas people. God is not a liar. [00:59:10] If God says such and such and such and such and such and such, those things will come to pass. [00:59:16] God is not a liar. [00:59:19] God always fulfills what he said. Always. [00:59:28] Therefore, dear child of God, if, in your experience, there are things that have been said to you by God. Which have obviously not been fulfilled, don't just say, I can't understand it. I can't understand. Go to the root of the problem. [00:59:43] Face out to it. It's your soul. [00:59:46] Your soul in the guise of the spirit of God. You see, people come and say, the ways of the Lord are mysterious. They are not mysterious. Not in this matter. Of course God's ways are mysterious. But people come and say, I don't know. The Lord told me so and so and so and so. It's not come to pass. He is so mysterious. His ways are beyond finding out. They're not beyond finding out. What you've got to find out is what led you to believe something that wasn't of God in the first place. [01:00:14] Now, few believers will face this kind of thing. They prefer to just say, well, I don't understand it. I don't understand it. Whereas, in fact, we've got to get to the root of it and say, now, was I deceived? Did I take on something I should never have taken on? [01:00:29] Now, if you do this, it's painful. But if you'll do it, you'll find you come into a new place. [01:00:36] Why, the word of God starts to divide between spirit and spirit, yes. The word of God said in him, there is no lie. [01:00:48] So if this thing is something, it wasn't God at all. Now, confession, when we believe that something is truth, when it's a lie, we've got it wrong and the only way to get out of it is just to confess it, nor deliver it, and then you're back out. [01:01:11] Now, there's no need to be at least bit afraid of this whole matter. Because, you see, the anointing operates not in the soul, but in the spirit. [01:01:23] And when the soul of the spirit are mixed, then you get this whole problem of being able to distinguish the anointing. [01:01:32] Sometimes our feelings are so worked up about something, about something we're hearing or something we're seeing, that we're carried away before we've started. [01:01:43] That's why we need this work to be done. [01:01:47] Now, it's 09:00. I shall, I think, leave this matter there rather than go on to my last point, which perhaps we'll talk about next week, how we may know the anointing. [01:02:02] People, I'm sure, are wondering, have we all got the anointing automatically or do we have to have a second experience to receive the anointing? [01:02:17] It's, I must say, complex, but I believe there is a way through it and we shall be able to see that. But let's even again encourage ourselves in this matter. All that we've said this evening is not just to depress. [01:02:35] Now, you know as well as I do that if there was no such thing as healing at all and there was something wrong with your body, and you went along to see the doctor and the doctor said, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to send you to a specialist. And you went to a specialist and the specialist saw you and said, my, my. He said to his colleague, this is sin. [01:03:06] Unless we have so and so in within weeks and operate, there'll be no hope. [01:03:16] Now you've gone out from the specialist in a jaunty mood. [01:03:20] You're not going to listen to him, he said. He didn't say much and he looked at you so sweetly as you went out. I know that I'm healthy, got a little pain. [01:03:32] I'm going to go back to my doctor and say, I'm quite alright. I don't want any more advice. [01:03:43] Now, wouldn't you be glad if that surgeon sat down, if you were that type of person that said to you, now look here, I've got to be absolutely honest with you. [01:03:52] Unless something's done about this, you haven't got more than a few months. [01:03:58] But if you'll only let me deal with this thing, you'll be able to come back to normal life. You'd be thankful. Now, this is exactly what, what we have to do in this matter of the soul and the spirit. [01:04:10] We have to face up to something in our own heart. [01:04:15] If there's been deception, if we've been involved in any lie, if we've not hid, you know, we've got to face up to it. It's not to make us feel heavy and depressed. It's to encourage us. [01:04:27] Don't you see that once the enemy's managed to get his claws on the believers, that person is virtually inoperative. [01:04:37] They may think they are operating in the family of God, but as far as heaven is concerned, they're inoperative. [01:04:43] What is operating is not God. [01:04:46] Now, what we have to do is to face up to that and the anointing. First of all, the anointing keeps us from ever getting into a situation like that to start with. [01:04:58] That's why I say to all you younger ones, take heed to this matter. Get to know the operating, the working of the anointing in your spirit from the start. [01:05:12] And if you have known anything of not heeding and disobeying, and you've got involved, don't get depressed. [01:05:20] God can get you out of this once your ready to face hands, but you must face them. [01:05:28] No. You can have no trap with a lie. It's no good you saying, oh, well, it's all a mystery. I don't understand it. But, but, but I'm going on. No, no, you've got to face it. [01:05:40] Something here's wrong. [01:05:42] And if I can see this, God will deliver me out of it all, bring me into a new place. [01:05:50] May he help us all in this matter, because we have received an anointing from the holy one that teacheth us all things and is no lie and is true. [01:06:07] And as ye are taught by him, so ye abide in him. [01:06:13] The last study I read a scripture which I was very sorry afterwards I didn't read in full, and so I'd like to end by reading it. It's in Isaiah eleven, and it's this wonderful prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. [01:06:30] There shall come forth a shoot out of a stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord and his sent or senting shall be in the fear of the Lord. Now, the authorized, I think, says his delight. The revised version says his delight. But the Hebrew is his drawing of bread. [01:07:17] The way he sends out something, what it is. Now, Mark. It was the next verse I never read to you. And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes. Neither decide after the hearing of his ears. Now, that is it in a nutshell. [01:07:36] Most of us judge by what we see and what we hear. No, not the Messiah. [01:07:43] He will by sent him. [01:07:48] He'll smell it out. [01:07:52] By the fear of the Lord. In the fear of the Lord. Now, that's the anointing. [01:07:58] Going by the eye, not going by the ear, but by going by that through the spirit of God. [01:08:09] You sent it out. [01:08:11] There's something funny there. My eyes tell me one thing. My ears tell me one thing. But something in me says, be careful. [01:08:23] Be careful. [01:08:27] That's the anointing. [01:08:30] Shall we pray? [01:08:39] Dear Lord, only thou canst write this upon our hearts. In practical terms. We do pray, Lord, that this word, the sealing, may not be used in any way to destroy, but to build up. We pray, Father, for every single one of us that we may be kept abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ. [01:09:03] Not one of us, Lord, in any shape or form being led astray. And where there has been any leading astray, o Lord, we pray that we may recognize the root of it it and confess it and seek thee, O Lord, that by thy word sharper than any two edged sword there may be a dividing of soul and spirit. [01:09:31] That, Lord, we may be somehow preserved entire. [01:09:37] Our whole spirit and soul and body preserved in tire. [01:09:45] Unto the coming of the Lord. [01:09:48] We thank thee. Thy word says, faithful is he that calleth you who will also do it. [01:10:00] We thank thee in his name. Amen.