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Table of Contents

Anointing Power in the Pulpit

By Jim Ripley

As you enter the pulpit, are you hesitant, or are you filled with Holy Spirit expectancy? The anointing of God makes all the difference—the presence, comfort, power, and assurance that God is there, that He is going to do something.

Pursuit precedes provision (see Luke 11:9,10). The anointing in the pulpit is not just determined by 1 or 2 hours of prayer before the service, but rather by the character and practices of your life in the previous weeks and months.

Some Steps Into His Presence:

Prayer.
A life without deep devotional prayer is like a well without water. Prayer must be the priority of your life, accompanied by being saturated with the Word of God. Beware of substitutes and distractions. Unforgiveness and iniquity will hinder His anointing (see Proverbs 4:23; 1 John 3:21,22).

Fasting with prayer.
Fasting brings discipline and sensitizes you to the person of the Holy Spirit and to the will of God. "Fasting...is the best way to help meet the conditions of humility and to seek God's face.... One of the greatest spiritual benefits of fasting is to become more attentive to God."1

A desire for more of God.
Desire ignites fire. "Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present, or there will be no manifestation of Christ."2

Compassion.
Power exercised without love is brazen and brassy (see 1 Corinthians 13). Jesus is our example. He always ministered with care and compassion.

Purity.
A polluted well does not flow with living water. There is no pollution at the source of the outflowing (Jesus). It is only as you move away from the source that stagnation and impurity begin. Stay close to the Source.

Humility.
Your motives must be right with God. "If pride could make a devil out of an angel, what might it do to you?"3

Communion with God.
Every day walk with God. Talk to Him. Sing to Him. Pray without ceasing. It was said of Smith Wigglesworth that he never went 30 minutes without stopping to pray and praise the Lord.

"I shall be anointed with fresh oil" (Psalm 92:10). Oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Let every evangelist seek the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Endnotes

  1. Elmer Towns, Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough (Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 1996), 17.


  2. A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Eastbourne, England: Kingsway Publications, 1982), 17.


  3. John Kilpatrick, When the Heavens Are Brass (Shippensburg, Pa.: Revival Press, 1997), 35.

—Jim Ripley,
Jim Ripley Ministries, Olympia, Washington.