 All of us have the power of the Holy Spirit, 1 John 2, 27, Romans 8, 9, Ephesians 1 and 2, make it clear that the Holy Spirit dwells within every believer. But not all of us live in a way that we're accessing that power. And when I talk about growing in levels of the anointing, I'm not talking about receiving more of God's power. You can't do that. All of His power is in you. Rather, I'm talking about greater levels of surrender. It's not about you getting more of the Holy Spirit. It's about the Holy Spirit getting more of you. Exodus 30, then the Lord said to Moses, Collect choice spices, 12 and a half pounds of myrrh, 6 and a quarter pounds of fragrant cinnamon, 6 and a quarter pounds of fragrant calamus, and 12 and a half pounds of cassia, as measured by the weight of the sanctuary shekel. Also, get one gallon of olive oil. Like a skilled incense maker, blend these ingredients to make a holy anointing oil. Use this sacred oil to anoint the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and all its accessories, the incense altar, the altar of burnt offering, and all its utensils and the wash basin with its stem. Consecrate them to make them absolutely holy. After this, whatever touches them will become holy. Number one, you want to walk in God's power. You want God to use your life. You have to walk in purity. The enemy is destroying tomorrow's anointing with today's private sin. The enemy is taking out tomorrow's public voices with today's secret sin. It takes a while for sin to have its effect on your life. I heard someone say, I wish I thought of it, but they said that we wouldn't sin if the consequences were paid immediately. When I read that, I thought that's so true, because we can be so short-sighted. Ephesians 5, 1-4 says, follow God's example therefore, as dearly love children and walk in the way of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people, nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. When laying down the foundation of our ministry, we studied many greats who had gone before us. One of those, of course, the evangelists who impacted the world in ways I can't think of anyone else impacting in modern day, Billy Graham. What an incredible vessel of God, impacting not just a nation, but nations. Now, look, having national influence, having worldwide influence doesn't mean that you're booked in different countries to preach. It means that when you speak, it shifts the course of nations. I've seen it done with, look, I'm preaching here, here, here, God gave me the nations, well, not yet, because there's a certain authority that has to come first. We were studying the ministry of Billy Graham, and our ministry team sat down and we've had these discussions, Billy Graham's team had actually found, after examining several other ministries, three primary areas in which people found themselves the most compromised. Number one, they identified sexual sin as an issue. Number two, they identified power. And number three, they identified greed. So we as a ministry, just like Billy Graham did, we modeled certain protocols in our ministry that would keep us safe from certain things. One of them being, as far as on the sexual front, we travel in pairs. Jesus sent them out two by two, and we go two by two, two. So my team knows it's two men, two beds, one room. And if we're traveling with a woman, they get their own room. There are no men with women unless they're married. Now that may sound old school and outdated, but truth does not change, because you have to learn to not just protect yourself from temptation. That's not good enough these days. You can't just protect yourself from temptation anymore. You have to protect yourself from accusation too. This is why you have to live above reproach, because the moment someone accuses me of something, or someone on my team of something, we could say no way that happened, we were never alone. Not at any point during the trip. And so these certain things are implemented. In terms of finances and power, we've given power to the board. We have accountability. These are things you have to start thinking of now, because it is indeed today's private sin that destroys tomorrow's public ministry. There is a measure of power, yes, that you can walk in. We discussed this a moment ago as a hypocrite. You can. I've seen it, and I distance myself when I start to see hypocrisy in ministries. I want nothing to do with it. I will not have anything to do with it. And sadly, as years go by, you start to see that not everyone is who they say they are. Don't let that be you. Don't become the one that people talk about that way. There has to be purity. And if there's going to be purity, there must be boundaries. Must be rules, must be... Think about the fact that Jesus went into the desert prepared. Temptation is not an event, it's a process. It's not at the moment that you fall, that you fell. It was all the compromises leading up to that moment that ultimately prepared you for that fall. Purity equals power. The power of God upon your life is directly proportionate to the purity within your life. Purity matters, not just gifting, not just charisma, but the character and the nature of Christ in you, above reproach. If there are things in your life that you need to get right with God, and now is the time to do it, don't mistake God's grace and mercy and patience for God's permission. You want God to use you? You desire a good thing. Take care of those little things. The Scripture says those little foxes that spoil the vine. Those tiny things seemingly insignificant are what over time destroy you. Number two, we see cinnamon. This represents sweetness, not bitter. Now, when I studied this, I was amazed because whenever we say, oh, so and so is bitter, what we mean is we're upset with them and that's the best way we can criticize them. Isn't it funny that we spiritualize sometimes our own flesh? So when someone upsets us, or we get angry or get an argument, it's not that maybe you were just being a little impatient. It's oh, they're in the flesh, or oh, they got a bad spirit and so forth. It's that type of shifting of the blame to not be able to see your own flaws. But I studied this and I found that bitterness, biblically speaking, is not just this holding of grudges. It's not just not being able to forgive. It's not just keeping a list of all the wrong. It's not just being super touchy and defensive and moody because of past hurts. That's part of it. You should not walk in that. And if you do walk in that, it'll come out in your preaching. This is why you hear preachers, all they can preach on is their haters. Everything comes back to their haters. Always. Because that's what's really bugging them. And that type of bitterness starts to build in your heart. On a side note, you want to know what to do with critics. Just do what Jesus did. Be silent. I really, this isn't in my notes, but I sense this is for someone in ministry. Be silent. Because arguing with some people, it's like trying to punch a swamp or quicksand. Every movement just takes you deeper. Everything you say, canon will be used against you. If you say they're lying, they say you're gaslighting. If you say that it's not true what they're saying, they're saying, oh, they're being manipulative. If you try to explain yourself, they say, look, they're trying to get out of it. There's nothing you can say to convince certain critics. So just be quiet. I'm serious. This is for someone in here. You're in ministry and people start to talk about you. They make videos on you. Trust me, they'll get at different angles and it can get ugly. But you've got to learn to just ignore that and let God take care of it. Silence is powerful. But I'm looking at this idea of bitterness and I actually saw something that astonished me. Acts chapter 8, look at how the Scripture defines bitterness. Acts chapter 8, this is when the disciples confront a sorcerer, Peter and John, confront a sorcerer who had demonic power As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these new believers in the name of Jesus and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw, watch this, this is the sorcerer. He's looking at them now. When Simon saw the Spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people he offered them money to buy this power. Now watch the response. Let me have this power too, he exclaimed so that when I lay hands on people they will receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter replied, May your money be destroyed with you for thinking God's gift can be bought. You can have no part in this for your heart is not right with God. Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts for I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin. Pray to the Lord for me, Simon exclaimed that these terrible things you said won't happen to me. Here we see that this sorcerer wants the power of the Holy Spirit. Now he wants something good but he wants it for the wrong reasons. He wasn't rebuked for wanting the power of the Holy Spirit that's why the disciples were laying hands on people because they said I want the power of the Holy Spirit. But Simon wanted the power of the Holy Spirit primarily because it would boost his status. Here's the problem with ministry today. Some people don't treat ministry like service. They treat it as a means to make themselves important. Preachers are not celebrities. We're servants. Now I understand that God raises some. I have friends who've been raised and are very well known around the world. Nothing wrong with that because with influence comes notoriety. But the problem is that some people get into ministry not for how they can be used by God not for how they can help others not for how they can serve but rather for how they can bolster their status and be celebrated by man. And this is what Simon the sorcerer wanted. Not only did he want it but he was jealous of what Peter and John had. That will destroy your ministry. Very few things can destroy ministry like jealousy. The bitterness being described here is jealousy. It's competition. It's comparison. Who has more views? Who has more subscribers? Who got more likes on their Instagram? I say who cares? Hundred years from now no one's going to remember us anyway. I'm telling you that today. About in a hundred years as wonderful and fruitful as this ministry may be I said a hundred years from now will be maybe a footnote in some charismatic history. Maybe. You can't even tell me some of the preachers from the last few decades. Mark 11, 25. But when you are praying first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins too. Bitterness begins to affect your prayers. Here's the scary thing guys when that anointing begins to weaken on your life again not lose the anointing but the influence of the anointing that you access begins to weaken. When that anointing begins to weaken on your life you're the last one to notice it. People can see when preachers are preaching out of competition. Out of bitterness. Out of jealousy. Out of hurt. And I'm not just talking about preachers I'm talking about anyone who wants to be used for the glory of God. This is a trap the enemy uses it's comparison it's competition it's this idea of having to have more we have to stop looking at other ministries and other people being used by God as competition and start looking at them for what they are their kingdom family. You know sometimes these points of bitterness are manifested in very sneaky ways one way I've noticed is the discerners I have the gift of discernment if you did you wouldn't have to announce it and the problem is that we mistake the gift of discernment for criticism and here's what happens people who become jealous of other ministries they've got nothing bad to say so what do they say well I don't know something just doesn't sit right in my spirit can I be real with you tonight discernment is not vague the Holy Spirit wouldn't just say hey there's something not right I won't tell you what it is but something something just didn't sit right no you're jealous I've heard this something about their eyes their eyes and what's happening is they're judging based on natural means of jealousy in them you'd be surprised how many ministers we dismissed I told this story before I had a friend who I worked really hard with on getting him on a certain Christian broadcast because I knew that that Christian audience on that broadcast would work perfect with his ministry and if we get this guy on that program his ministry would blow up so I worked like three years on it remember that Steve I felt like I was his manager I always told myself you know if I wanted to I could be agents for ministries because I like to open doors for others too sometimes I'll kick the doors down so I'm calling this message you gotta have this guy you gotta have this guy you gotta have this guy and finally we get him on and it's wonderful to see the influence that began to develop they had him on the program they bring him on the screen I remember the night they premiered it on Facebook and it was like a live premiere of this interview and I'm watching this and I'm looking at the comments coming and seeing the people being encouraged how it was wonderful I was seeing someone saying oh my gosh this blessed me oh my goodness my life has changed oh my goodness this gives me break people putting the crying emojis I don't know if they were really crying but they were crying in the internet and so they're putting these live stream comments and I'm watching them going yes like I'm excited like yes his ministry is finally I felt in that moment I just felt like finally there's a light shining on this ministry that seemed hidden for so long and many of you know the ministry but that's besides the point and I'm watching these comments and then one person I call them like keyboard warriors or internet apostles or facebook theologians right he's on there and I can just see them typing really angry well I don't know something just doesn't sit right in my spirit and then another person jumps on there and says you know what I was thinking the same thing so now these two discerners found each other and now they're discerning together but they can't discern they're not actually walking in discernment and now one person's critique is validated because one other person was grumpy too they get together they start typing this on this guy oh I knew it and then for long there's a thread under this person and all the miserable bitter people found each other and I'm watching this unfold and they feel validated because someone else didn't like them and I'm thinking these people are judging based on the appearance or upon maybe his look or maybe how he sounds because maybe he's a little too bold for some people and I was really I felt like it was righteous indignation I was really stirred up about this like how could these people just do that and the Holy Spirit quickened me and he said how many people are you doing that to? You see if somebody wrote something nasty about me online you would go like if they said oh he's false because blah blah blah whatever he says on money it's always money or miracles one of those two because he's false because of what he said about money you would say no I've been in the meeting right you would know that you but here's the problem if someone says that about somebody you don't know you're more quick to believe it how many wonderful ministries are we missing out on simply because of this spirit of jealousy and bitterness floating around in the body of Christ jealousy and bitterness destroy your ministry not others God will preserve them your own and I've had to make this commitment in my heart to where even if I don't know right away I don't rush to judgment anymore I sit back I watch I pray and even if someone's a little different even if their personality is a little odd to me even if they do have crazy eyes I recognize that those things aren't really central number three or cane this was an oriental plant called the sweet flag I have written here it's not at stock is cut and dried and reduced to powder it forms an ingredient in the most precious perfumes 2nd Corinthians 215 our lives are Christ like fragrances rising up to God but this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing the lives that we live come up to God like an offering number three is worship now you've heard it said worship is not just a song it's a lifestyle true but biblically speaking worship is also a song music is spiritual music has the power to open the soul that's why when people listen to ungodly music the music opens the soul and then those lyrics can go deeper so if people become tormented when listening to ungodly music because their soul is open and the word spoken can go deeper that's why the enemy uses it but music can also be a lifestyle and I'm talking about worship now songs being sung to that's a command all of us to sing hymns now I can't sing but I can worship there's something about that lifestyle of walking in that atmosphere of worship well it's why king David had favor on him that's why the scripture calls him a man after God's own heart because he was constantly before the Lord in worship worship is a state of being wowed by God it's my being reacting to God's being the greatness of who he is the splendor of his majesty this is what worship is to see his glory as I give him glory there's something about being awed with God there's something about being wowed by God it's a natural response of a revelation of who he is that causes you to cry out that's true worship John 4.24 they who worship must worship in spirit and truth why both because truth is revelation and you cannot worship without a revelation you can clap without a revelation you can sing without a revelation you can jump up and down without a revelation but you cannot worship without a revelation this is why I'm not fond of drill sergeant worship leaders who scream at people and get angry because they're not responding to their gift and try to make people feel guilty for not adding to the atmosphere that makes them look anointed I don't see people jumping why aren't you waving shouting at the people not responding why there's no spirit there you couldn't force people to worship if you try now you can instruct them to lift their hands and help guide them along but you can't force them if they haven't captured a glimpse of who God is then their spirit's not really responding if someone hasn't caught a glimpse of who God is there's nothing you can do to get them to worship again you can have them jump up and down and create the hype you want but when they capture that revelation there's no stopping that worship worship when they capture the revelation of the glory of His majesty when they see with eyes of the spirit when the Holy Spirit causes them to catch a glimpse of the face of Jesus in all His glory worship begins to pour out of them and there's nothing they can do to stop it they begin to sing and they begin to dance they begin to praise Him they adore Him and they worship Him this is the power of true worship you want to walk in the anointing of the Holy Spirit you better be a worshipper I can't stand it when I see someone come up and preach and then when the worship's on they're not worshipping don't ever trust a preacher who doesn't worship now they don't have to jump they don't have to dance I can't but they need to worship I watch people people don't know this but I watch people there were prospective connections in ministry and during the worship maybe family emergency I'm not saying everyone who texts is of the devil but maybe a family emergency okay but during the worship back and forth in and out of the service just disinterested all the when it came time for them to minister that's when they start it tells me it's not a lifestyle it's a performance don't trust a preacher who doesn't worship and the worship service the worship leader who doesn't sit in the preaching because it's performance we're getting real tonight aren't we worship marks you even the worship that doesn't fill heavenly at times marks you there's something about being able to worship even when you don't feel it do you know why that's so important because I think we get the wrong perspective we treat worship like it's therapy for self now there's nothing wrong with wanting to be in worship to experience the effects of worship that's beautiful and I don't want to be religious and say that's not what it's for but we have this mindset oh I've had such a rough week I can't wait to get in there and worship well the idea is that it's for you worship isn't for us though it positively affects us you will experience wonderful effects when you worship because you're in the presence of God but how much more pricey how much more beautiful is that costly worship in the seasons when you don't feel it stop waiting for your emotions to tell you what you should know by faith you're stuck in ministry you're stuck in fruitfulness you're stuck in your calling worship your way through them you praise God every step that's what I would do I would praise God for the 30 viewers like they were the million viewers I would praise God for the $100 like it was $100,000 and sometimes it sure felt like it we were so broke worship through those seasons worship when the people love you and when the people hate you worship when the people understand you and when they misunderstand you worship when the ministry is growing and when the ministry is shrinking when you don't see the effects then when you don't see the effects the problem is we deem success as if it's results when it's not results it's simple obedience and in that obedience we find that heart of worship that says God whatever is going on around me it doesn't matter because of the beauty of who you are the beauty of who you are number four casea or roots these roots would go deep into the soil and that's where it would get its nutrients and that's where it would get its properties that were used in the making of the oil this represents to us the process of your roots going deep now sometimes I think we mistake consistency for faithfulness and they're not the same consistency is repetition faithfulness is attitude consistency is doing again and again and again and showing up and showing up and showing up faithfulness is showing up with the right heart right perspective, right attitude I've known a lot of Christians who've been in ministry consistently but not faithfully and I don't say that to slam anyone this isn't to cause anyone to be offended this is to wake you up this is to use you the God wants to bless you with fruitfulness but there has to be a process Psalm 113 describes the believer as one who is like a tree planted by the rivers of water too many people want to skip the process can I tell you something wonderful about this day and age the great thing about today is that anyone because of social media and the internet anyone can have a platform self-appointed prophets rogue evangelists they say they don't attend a church because they couldn't find one as spiritual as they wanted it to be what they really mean is that they couldn't find the church that would put up with their nonsense and they kept being held accountable wanting to skip the process we actually damage our future we can't do that we can't do that we can't do that we can't do that we can't really damage our future nothing will slow you down more than a shortcut and if you rush the process all you've done is put yourself in a place that you weren't ready to handle the process is to serve in humility to connect to the body that's part of the process if there's one thing that this pandemic has done to the church on a mass scale is it's caused an exodus of people I am the body no the scripture teaches that you're the body when you come together the hand can't say to the foot I don't need you and that's exactly what we do when we say I am the body the foot leaving and saying I am the body no now you're just a foot and you left the body the process of connectivity the process of fellowship the process of character development you can preach but are you pure you have a gift but do you walk in glory you know how to move in power but do you carry the presence these are things you have to ask yourself the process sometimes is difficult but it's necessary and then be consistent for the sake of obedience final point number five the olive oil now you've heard it said that when the olive is crushed it produces oil and it's in that crushing of the olive that there is this production of what we see as sacred but do you realize that before the olive could be crushed it had to first be shaken from the tree I don't know about you but I've experienced things in ministry that made me frustrated with God I'm just going to be honest with you you've all heard the saying he's always I don't like that phrase because I say Lord I wouldn't mind if you were early now and then he won't wait until the bill is due he'll wait until they're about to shut the power off and then the check will come in and then the finances will come and I say Lord why do you do that why do you wait until the very last second to show up the way you do and I was frustrated with them I put faith in you I'm publicly out there saying I'm trusting in you what are they going to say about you if I don't make it you know why the Lord does that so that when the miracle comes you know who gets the glory oh I tried everything I exhausted my effort I applied my intellect I implemented my strategy I reached deep emotionally and mentally I focused I made the connections I did all I knew to do God could do it and this is where the shaking comes in when the economy began to do what it did in this recent season people began to become afraid but that just showed me that the reason people became afraid was because their faith all along was in a system and not in God oh we love our systems we rely upon our systems I remember there was a season of ministry we first started to see that fruitfulness miracles happening finances coming in for the vision and we were able to expand and go all over the world and things were coming in for the television studio and all these connections were happening it got down to the point where we were able to just line by line know what was happening next and the Holy Spirit told me since when does it take no faith to operate a healing ministry God will shake you from the familiar and then he'll crush you from the systems upon which you rely and then he'll crush you now it's not that the oil appears in the olive when it's being crushed it's that it's revealed when it's crushed pressure shows us what's in you the pressure alone doesn't produce the you know what I mean I've seen tragically I've seen friends lose their minds because of ministry and when I say lose their minds I mean they went to another place because of ministry why? because they tried to do it on their own they were relying on something else but God will shake you from things and maybe that's you right now you're in a season of shaking you're in a season where everything around you seems to be falling apart the systems that you relied upon no longer reliable the things that you marked in your mind as familiar no longer familiar God's shaking you and he's crushing you you know what crushing is it's betrayal it's heartache it's challenge it's struggle it's those nights where you're wondering looking going God I don't see how you're going to do this but it's also in this season that God himself himself wants to show you that he's still the God who makes a way where there seems to be no way that he's still the God of miracles that he's still the God of healing God's shaking you now