Prophetic Anointing and the Vessel
Prophetic ministries are largely misunderstood among the churches of Christ today. We can see the Lord moving mightily in some places and that He is pouring out genuine prophetic anointing on His people. Many powerful prophetic ministries are born and ministers being raised up. In response to that, some attend every conference they can attend hoping for a share of anointing for themselves. Others totally reject the phenomenon due to wrong concepts and confusions.
When we see people like Benny Hinn speaking powerful prophecies or doing supernatural healings on the stage, it is easy for us to think that the person on stage is more special and holy than everyone else. Some might fall into the trap to taking whatever they say to be as valid as the scripture without testing. Some might think that since God anoints this person so powerfully, he must be uniquely godly and all his doctrine must be right. One of the judges of Israel, Samson is a clear counter example. He had obvious moral problems, but still the Holy Spirit anointed him powerfully.
When people falsely believe that only perfect man are used by God with demonstration of power and authority, they either think too high of the man being used or totally reject all the prophetic ministers. The moment they see a flaw in the minister’s character or doctrine, they immediately conclude that the power did not come from God because God would never use a person like that. This is obviously not biblical because we see a lot of examples in the Bible when God uses weak men who are far from perfect. In the New Testament, we see the most anointed church of that time, the Corinthians, was also the most carnal church of that time according to Apostle Paul.
Holy Spirit anointing is not given to signify a person’s spiritual maturity or consecration. The Gifts are given and distributed according to God’s eternal plan. They are free gifts of God, given by grace. No one could earn it with good work so that no one can boost about themselves.
The fact that there is nothing we can do to earn spiritual gifts does not mean that we could take an antinomian approach towards our life. But by knowing that the man who operates under strong anointing does not make the man godlier than others could help us focus on the Lord who gave the power with grace. And also this implies that no words should automatically gain more authority just because the man who gave them had a high accuracy prophecy record. We must test every prophecy with the scripture.
God can anoint you powerfully and use you to bless many no matter how weak you think you are. Anything is possible because the one in you is larger than the one who is in the world. What we need to do is listen to the voice of God and obey.
God gives spiritual gifts to a person for the common benefit of the church rather than for individual pleasure. When the Holy Spirit is so kind and merciful that He anoints us with spiritual gift, let us also be the gifts and blessing given to others.
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