Anointing and Joy — Apostolic Proclamation for 2006

Go with me to the Book of Joel. I want to share with you some thoughts that God has placed in my heart over the past few weeks, and I want to plant this in your spirit as a seed of faith and confidence in the Lord.

I believe that God has this word for us as a church, as the people of God. As we begin this year 2006, we see that God has good purposes for us, that God wants to raise up this people and make it more effective each day in the midst of this city. God wants what He has said to be fulfilled: that we are the salt of the earth, we are the light of the world, we are an active presence. We are not in the city merely as decoration or simply to be one more element; rather, the word of the Lord says that we will be the head of the nations, we will be heads of the cities where we find ourselves. It says that our descendants will rebuild the fallen walls, will raise up the ruins that have remained for many years, and that is the word God has for the León de Judá congregation tonight and this year. And God wants to strengthen your life so that you may be part of that miracle He wants to carry out here, in this city.

In the Book of Joel, in Chapter 2, beginning with verse 21, follow this word with me. There the Lord says: “Do not fear, O land; be glad and rejoice, for Jehovah will do great things.” Say with me, “Jehovah will do great things.” “Jehovah will do great things.” “Jehovah will do great things.” Amen. Let that promise penetrate your spirit.

It says, “Do not be afraid, animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness will become green, for the trees will bear their fruit; the fig tree and the vine will yield their fruit. You also, children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in Jehovah your God, for He has given you the former rain in its season, and He will cause the former and the latter rain to come down upon you as before. The threshing floors will be filled with wheat, and the vats will overflow with wine and oil.”

Let us all repeat, “wine and oil”—two key elements on which I want you to focus your attention tonight. The word says, “And I will restore to you the years that the caterpillar, the hopper, the crawling locust, and the locust have eaten, My great army which I sent against you. You will eat until you are satisfied, and you will praise the name of Jehovah your God, who has done wonders with you. My people will never again be put to shame. And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah your God, and there is no other; and My people will never be put to shame. And after this I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy; your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. And also upon the male servants and upon the female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in heaven and on earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and dreadful day of Jehovah comes. And everyone who calls upon the name of Jehovah will be saved, for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be salvation, as Jehovah has said, and among the remnant whom He shall call.”

Brothers and sisters, stand up for a moment. I want you to be conscious tonight that you are not here for a mere social event. I know that almost everyone here understands that, but if we are not clear about it, I want us to take a moment to acknowledge it. You are not here simply because, well, it is the end of the year and, as a religious custom, you come to church to see the year out. We are not here on automatic pilot, merely carrying out a religious social obligation. Every one of us is here because we are people of faith, people who believe that God speaks to His people, people who are alive in the Spirit. I ask you in the name of Jesus that, if you do not feel that way right now, you ask the Lord to rekindle the fire of His gift that is in you, because Christ is in you tonight.

Let us take a moment to cry out to the Lord. Raise your voice now; raise your voice. Let us stir up the spirit tonight before bringing the word of the Lord, because this is a powerful word for us. And I do not want anyone to remain here tonight without crying out to the Lord for a moment. Let us lift our voices to the Lord. Begin to stir your spirit. Come on, let us hear that fire of the Spirit of God. Let us awaken and raise up the spirit tonight. Cry out to God. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you. Those young people up there—I want you to get into action too; get into the spirit. Let us not look around; get into the spirit, and let us cry out to the Lord tonight, for we are a people who are here because we believe that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to us. I want everyone attentive to what we are doing right now; we are engaging in spiritual warfare. Raise your voice to the Lord.

Father, we worship You; we bless You. Holy Spirit, fill Your people, Lord. Hallelujah! We worship You, Father. Let us cry out to the Lord, brothers and sisters. Let us cry out to the Lord; let us raise up the presence of God in this place. Thank You, Jesus; Your people praise You, Lord. Your people are filled with You. We open our mouths, Father, and drink pitchers of spiritual waters tonight, Lord. We proclaim You King and Lord in this city. Father, we proclaim that the year 2006 is a year of miracles, a year of blessing, a year of warfare, a year of anointing for Your people, Father. We worship You. Let the praise of the people of God be heard. Come on, do not grow weary of lifting your prayer to the Lord. Lift your prayer to God. Believe that God hears the prayer of a people who are passionate for Him. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. We worship You; we worship You. Raise that spiritual temperature now. Raise that spiritual temperature. We bless You, Lord.

You do not have to be an expert, a veteran in the things of God. This may be the first night you have come here. God wants to hear your prayer. Thank You, Jesus. Flow in our midst tonight, Lord. Father, we rebuke, we rebuke spiritual mediocrity. We rebuke spiritual passivity, Lord. We rebuke merely living in neutral, and we ask, O God, that You put Your direction within us, Father, that You be the driving force of our lives. Holy Spirit, we claim Your anointing tonight, Lord. As Your people, Father, we are not here merely as decoration, Father; we are here because we long to have more of You. We worship You, Lord. Raise up Your Spirit in our midst tonight, Father. O Jehovah, dig deep within us, dig deep within us. Fill us, fill us, fill us, more and more. We want more of You, Lord. We want more of Your glory. We want more of Your anointing, Father. Be exalted in the midst of Your people, Lord. Flow, Lord. Flow, Lord; do not grow weary of crying out to the Lord. Do not grow weary of lifting your voice to the Lord. We need to bless this city of Boston, brothers and sisters. We need to tear down principalities and powers. We must put to flight the powers of the devil that want to possess this city and this nation. We need to stand in the gap and cry out to the Lord and say, “Devil, you are not going to possess this city.” We claim this city for Christ in the year 2006. In this city, we declare that things will happen in the name of Jesus, that the hosts of hell will be driven away and forced to retreat in the name of Jesus. O Lord, and we will see Your fire, and we will see Your signs, and we will see Your wonders, Father, and people will speak about what happened in this city. And they will come from many nations; they will come with their cold, extinguished firewood to catch the fire that will be in this city. Hallelujah! And they will come here to learn, to take Your word with them, to take Your teaching with them, to take Your prophetic anointing with them to other places.

We declare that this city of Boston will be a place of revival, Lord. It will be called an exemplary city, O God. It will once again be called a foundational city. Hallelujah! It will once again be called a well that God has opened so that the water which once flowed may flow again. O holy, holy, holy. And the people of God stand in the gap and say to you, “Satan, you will not pass through this place. We defeat you in the name of Jesus.”

And Father, in the name of Christ, we claim a powerful family, a people filled with the Holy Spirit, a people who know how to wage war for their God. O Holy One, we renew our minds in You, Lord. We renew our spirits in You tonight. Father, we rebuke the spirit of mediocrity. We rebuke the religious spirit. Lord, we rebuke the ritualistic spirit. We rebuke the mediocre spirit tonight, Lord. O Jehovah. We rebuke the mind that is absent from Your things, Father. And we declare Your fire in this city of Boston, Lord. We declare that the air is cleared, that it is opened so that Your anointing may go forth and the praises and cries of the people of God may rise.

Father, we declare that children will put demons to flight. We declare that the elderly will be renewed and that they will dream dreams for Your glory, Lord. We declare that indifferent young people, Father, will be scorched by God and burned by the blaze of the fire of Your passion, Father. Hallelujah! We claim a people of understanding, Lord. We worship You, Lord. We declare, we declare Your fire over the city of Boston; let fire rain down upon the city of Boston, Lord. O God, we worship You. We bless You, Lord. Oh, You are a mighty God. You renew the family tonight, Father. You renew the fire of Your people, Father. O Lord, help us to see You, God, in Your glory, to see You seated upon Your throne, Father. To see those elders, Lord, who worship You and say, “Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy.”

You are Jehovah of hosts. You are the warrior God. O Father, You are the God who fulfills His promises. You are the God who has never been defeated and will never be defeated, Father. We praise You and bless You, Lord. Anointing of God, descend. Anointing of God, descend upon the city of Boston. Anointing of God, bring clarity to our understanding, Lord. Tonight, Father, we rebuke spiritual blindness. Tonight we rebuke the artificial burdens that the devil places upon the shoulders of Your children, Lord. Father, we rebuke blinded eyes, and we wash them with the eye salve of the Spirit, Lord. Hallelujah!

We worship You, Lord, and we bless You tonight. We thank You, Father, for Your renewing power in our midst. Thank You, Lord. Give thanks to the Lord. Give thanks to God. Give thanks to the Lord. Because His presence is with us; remember that. Hallelujah! God has called us to be a warrior people. God has called us to be a people who are always burning in the Spirit, brothers and sisters. Remember that. God has not called you merely to be church, to be religion. I ask that in this year 2006 the Lord unify our people so that we may all be in the same spirit, in the same unity of the Spirit, brothers and sisters—a Pentecostal people. Amen. Everyone say, “Pentecostal.” “Pentecostal.” A people filled with the Holy Spirit, a people who move in the gifts of the Spirit, a people of authority, brothers and sisters. This is what God wants. God is tired of spiritual lukewarmness; listen to me. God is tired of it, and we should all be tired of spiritual lukewarmness. God wants us to be burning with fire for Him. He wants us to love Him above all things. That is the word of the Lord tonight. Take your seat, but sit down only physically; in your spirit and in your mind, remain standing as you listen to the word of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, God has told me that this is a year in which He will cause two elements to dwell and abide among us. There are two elements that God wants us to make central in our lives. These are the two things that should form the foundation of the believer’s walk. A few weeks ago, we had a time of vigil here at the church, and at the beginning of the service the Lord placed two elements in my heart and mind. We have indeed spoken about them and meditated on them, but I had never seen them in unity, side by side like this, in the way God wants those two elements to move in our midst.

Those two elements are the anointing of God and the joy of God. And God presented them to me through two symbols that came to mind before that time of vigil began, and it was... I asked Meche to bring me vessels from the house in which we could put oil and wine. And I have been thinking about those two elements throughout these weeks. The oil and the wine: the oil represents the anointing of God, and the wine represents the joy of God. And these are two elements that God wants to dwell in our hearts and in our lives, and He wants us to fill our lives with these two things.

These are the two things, brothers and sisters, that defeat the devil. These are the two things that enable us to live the victorious life that Christ has called us to live. And if you search through a concordance, as I did recently, you will see the mutual companionship between oil and wine. Several times in the Bible, oil and wine are mentioned together as two elements that are key to our walk.

If you look right here in Joel, chapter 2, you will see that there is a promise for the people of God in these verses, and there at the end of verse 22 it says, “...the trees will bear their fruit; the fig tree and the vine will yield their fruit.” And there you can begin to see that combination in the fig tree and the vine: the fig tree that produces oil and the vine that produces wine. And there... here in the Bible there is a kind of harmony, this continual repetition of these two elements that have a physical function, but also have a spiritual function, because there is something in those two elements, which are intrinsically united, that is part of the believer’s life. If you look in Psalm 104, verse 14 says that “God causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for man’s service, bringing forth bread from the earth,” and it says that He also produces wine, which gladdens the heart of man—I am in verse 15—wine that gladdens the heart of man, and oil that makes his face shine. Wine that gladdens the heart and oil that makes the face shine.

If you go to the Gospel according to Saint Luke, chapter 10, in the famous parable of the Good Samaritan, this comes up again. You will remember that the Samaritan takes this man who has been wounded and beaten by the robbers, who symbolize all those negative elements in our lives that rob us of our strength, rob us of our blessing, and turn us away from the path we are following. Those robbers symbolize the demonic element in our lives—the satanic, demonic evil that brings sickness into our lives, that brings poverty, that brings discouragement, that brings depression, that brings anxiety, that brings emotional and mental bondage that continually reminds us of those negative elements from our past and keeps us bound and victimized. And the parable says that when the Samaritan took this man to the inn—and before that it says, “...coming near, he saw this man, was moved with compassion, and came to him and bandaged his wounds” (that is what the Lord Jesus Christ does; that is what God does in our lives. When we come into the Gospel, the Lord rescues us, draws near to us, and bandages our wounds)—it says, “...pouring oil and wine on them.” These two elements are continually there. I imagine that the oil, in this case with the wounds, represented something that soothes, something that lubricates, something that perhaps numbs and brings a little relief from the pain simply through its ability to warm and soften; and the wine is something caustic that, because of its alcohol content, I imagine—speaking purely in physical terms—heals and kills infections, kills germs, and kills contaminants.

So those two elements, wine and oil, make a very beautiful, complementary combination in the healing of wounds: one softens and soothes and lubricates, while the other penetrates deeply and burns and sets aflame, and with its heat destroys negative things. And I believe that is a good example of what the anointing of God, combined with the joy of God, does in our lives.

Brothers and sisters, as the people of God, we are called to move in the supernatural realm, in the realm of the mysteries of the Spirit. God does not want us to be people who merely consume information. I see many Christians who come to church and always remain stuck at the same spiritual level and never progress; they always remain children. And you see it year after year: the same religious attitude, the same spiritual quagmire, because they have not entered that supernatural dimension where the mysteries of God have the opportunity to manifest themselves in our lives. And we must be a people who are wise and knowledgeable in the things of the Spirit. And to me, these things—the anointing and joy—are spiritual elements that cannot be understood unless we dwell in that dimension of the Spirit. Otherwise, they will merely be beautiful metaphors; they will simply be poetic images that we use from time to time in worship and preaching, but they will have no reality in our lives until we adopt a supernatural mindset. Say amen, even if you do not understand what I am saying.

Brothers and sisters, God wants you to begin asking Him to pour spiritual understanding over your life, so that you begin to move in that spiritual realm where He can make it possible for you to understand these mysteries to which I am referring tonight. Because ultimately, the anointing of God has no explanation. There is no way you can explain to someone, theologically or rationally, what the anointing of God is. The anointing of God is something that comes directly from God and fills and touches your life. It is spiritual fuel; it is spiritual gasoline. You open your inner being, you open your mind, you open your spiritual mouth, and that infilling of the Holy Spirit comes down upon your life. It is like oil; that is why I believe it is compared to oil, in the sense that it is applied to you, it is applied to your life and penetrates the pores of your life, opens the pores of your life, and the power of God enters you. And what you could not do before, what you could not understand before, what you could not process before, you can now do, because the anointing of God has entered your life and enabled you to process the things and mysteries of God. And that is what God wants you to have in your life.

That is why, when the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to His disciples in the Book of Acts, He told them not to leave Jerusalem until they had been filled with the Holy Spirit, until they had received the anointing of God. Because until then, they were simply, to a certain extent, ordinary men who were moving only in their own strength. They had the knowledge Christ had given them; they had the experiences He had provided for them; they had done certain spiritual exercises; but they still lacked that element which could ignite everything they had received and give it life and give them the ability to act upon it. That is the anointing that you and I need for our lives.

Many of us come into the Gospel and think that simply being evangelical, simply coming to church, and simply going through certain spiritual and religious motions will somehow have an effect on our lives and transform us. At most, what that can do is bring about a reformation, and it can help you because you will learn certain principles which, when applied, do produce results. But, brothers and sisters, God wants to take you to another level of life and another level of effectiveness, where you can receive something different, something that accelerates your growth process. And that is the anointing of the Lord. It is the power of the Holy Spirit filling your life. That is the seeking you need.

That is why I understand how it is possible... Sometimes we evangelicals say, “Well, I received Christ and I have Jesus, and the Bible says that if I have Christ, then I have the Holy Spirit, and therefore I no longer need to seek anything else.” Well, that sounds very nice, but that is not what the Bible says I have, and it is not what I see throughout all of Scripture. I see that there is an experience one has called receiving Christ as Lord and Savior, which saves us and certainly makes us accepted before the Father. But I believe the Bible also tells us again and again that we must go a step further, entering into intimacy with God, where God begins to equip us and God begins to fill us with His anointing and with His Spirit. And then that activates the truths we are receiving. That gives substance to the experiences we are having in our lives. And that requires an additional experience. That is why it is very clear—without making, let us say, excessive judgments—that there is something possessed by a person who has had that experience of the Holy Spirit. It is not that such people are perfect. In fact, I would say that sometimes, brothers and sisters, there are people who have the anointing of God yet are far more imperfect in their character and in their treatment of others than people who do not have the anointing. Nevertheless, in those people who have that touch of the Holy Spirit, there is conviction, there is passion, there is effectiveness at a certain level of life, so that one can recognize the presence of the Spirit of God in them.

Now, the important thing is that God wants us to use that Spirit to break imperfections of character, to ask the Lord to give us the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and also to enter another level of effectiveness in our human relationships and other things. But it is important, brothers and sisters, that we ask the Lord, “Father, send that anointing of Your Spirit into my life.”

And God wants Lion of Judah, in this year 2006, to move more deeply into that infilling of the Holy Spirit, into that anointing of the Holy Spirit. If you have not received that touch of the Holy Spirit, I want to encourage you to seek it, and tonight, at the end of this time, I am going to ask those who wish us to pray for you tonight. We are going to pray that you receive a touch of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let us ask the Lord to baptize us with His Spirit, because that anointing is something wonderful; that anointing is something we need.

Look at how John the Evangelist speaks about the anointing. Go to 1 John, chapter 2, verse 20. Here in verse 20 it says, “...but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. One of the things the presence of God’s anointing does in our lives is precisely that we understand spiritual things; we understand the matters of the Spirit at such a level that, once we have that seal of the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters, it is impossible for anyone to fool us or, as the saying goes, sell us a cat for a hare. That is a seal one possesses. No matter how many imperfections a person who has the anointing of God may have, no matter how many hard falls they take in life, there is a bond tying them to the Kingdom of God, and they cannot get out because they have already had a real experience with the Holy Spirit. And that seals you; it burns itself into your mind and your heart. And even if you try to get away from it, that experience of the presence of God in your life, and the fact that you know that Jesus Christ is Lord, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that there is nothing outside the Kingdom of God—that will sustain you. Trials will come into your life, difficulties will come, temptations will come, falls will come, but you will know that you know that Jesus Christ is your Lord and your God, and that will keep you anchored to the Kingdom of God.

That is why we must ask the Lord, “Father, allow me to have that anointing, and allow my children to have that experience of the fire of the Holy Spirit, because when that fire of the Lord falls upon the life of a young person or an adult, brothers and sisters, that person is then irrevocably bound to the Kingdom of God, and that person will know that they have been sealed with the seal of the Holy Spirit.” And that is something mysterious, brothers and sisters; it has no explanation. You do not arrive at it through a learning process; it is simply something that descends upon your life. It is a mystery of God, but you and I need it.

Lion of Judah will reach its spiritual destiny in this city, as has been prophesied to it so many times, and glory to God that we have developed a certain level of ministry in this city. But God wants something qualitatively superior. It is like a jump in the Star Trek movies: the ship is there at one moment and then, poof... it disappears because it has entered warp drive, as they say in English. That is the difference. You may be traveling very quickly in the things of the Spirit, but when the infilling of the Holy Spirit becomes a reality in your life, you enter another speed and can pass into another dimension in an instant. That puts you in communication with the Lord. It does not make you perfect, as I told you, nor does it make you a theologian, but it gives you spiritual teeth and claws; it enables you to carry weight in the spiritual realm; it can make you aggressive, militant, and convinced. And when you speak, there will be a mysterious authority in your words; there will be joy when you testify about the Lord; there will be a passion for God. God wants us to develop a need for the oil of God.

My brother, I ask you in the name of Jesus: do not be proud; do not be resistant. Instead, submit yourself to that spiritual doctrine that has accompanied the people of God for centuries and centuries and centuries. We must seek that anointing; we must develop a passion for the anointing so that the Lord can do the work He desires to do in our lives. There are bondages in your life, there are problems in your life, there are difficulties in your life that will yield only when you have the anointing of God flowing within you. And you will discover, brother, that the spiritual walk, the journey of the Christian life, becomes much easier, much more bearable, when you move in the anointing of the Lord. What used to require great effort from you, what used to take so much work, what seemed resistant to your efforts and your prayers—God will show you that it will fall in an instant, that it will be torn down in a moment, and that you will be able to move with ease in the things of the Spirit.

When the Apostles received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we see that those men and women who had been intimidated and who immediately doubted the Christ whom they had seen perform miracles and great things did so because they were not moving in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That is, they saw things and even participated in them, but they did so as mere witnesses, as though they were simply watching themselves in a movie but were not part of the process itself. But when the anointing of the Holy Spirit came upon them, the Bible says that in a moment Peter—the Peter who had cowardly denied Jesus three times—stood before a multitude, and in an instant thousands of people believed in Jesus Christ. Why? Because that spiritual experience marked a before and an after. We cannot embark upon the life of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, until we make sure that we have that anointing of God. That is why I encourage you in the name of the Lord; I tell you, as the word of the Lord says, “Awake, you who sleep, and Christ will give you light.” I want to be very direct, brothers and sisters. Once and for all, we need the Lord to break open the womb so that the spiritual baby God wants to bring forth from our lives can come out. May that cobweb that keeps us from bearing fruit for the life of God in our lives be torn apart.

Brothers and sisters, we live in dangerous times; we live in times when we cannot live as people do in times of peace. We are in times when, as the Bible says, God will have to shorten the days, because otherwise not even the elect would survive the temptations that are to come. Do you know that the word of God says that? That the days will have to be shortened because the demonic power to deceive, overwhelm, and bind will be so great that, if the people of God were exposed to that kind of temptation for too long, they might fall. That is a mystery to me. But the Lord Jesus Christ said it; this is not being said by a theologian or a secular person—the word of the Lord says it. One thing I understand clearly about why it is so important for the people of God in this age to be a militant and fierce people in the Spirit, and aggressive in the Spirit, is that we are not living in ordinary times—understand me.

I would say that spiritual mediocrity might possibly pass in another age, when there were none of the conflicts and dangers that exist in this age. But when you watch television, and when you walk through the streets, and when you see the things happening at the levels of government, the arts, and education; the increasing secularization of humanity; and all the devil’s mighty force for sending burning images, full of color and sounds and mysterious vibrations, into our psyche and our spirit—the person who does not have clarity, the person who is not overflowing with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, will be swept away by the demonic power being unleashed in this age.

There may have been times when churches could perhaps afford to preach the Gospel in a lukewarm way and, as I would put it, in a way that challenged no one and confronted no one, as do so many churches even here in the city of Boston that do not dare preach the complete Gospel because they do not want to scandalize the people who come. But, brothers and sisters, in the age in which we are living, that is not possible. Whether it might have been possible at some other time, I do not know, but I do know one thing: in this age, the church of Jesus Christ has to be more militant than ever, clearer than ever, and more filled with the Holy Spirit than ever. And if you want your life to have the effectiveness God wants you to have, if you want your children to be able to stand firm, and if you want to be able to communicate sound doctrine to your children, and for your children to have their minds and spirits open so that they can survive that evil wave the devil has poured out upon the earth, which God has allowed him to pour out, the only way will be for you, father or mother, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to make sure that your children have that experience of the Holy Spirit as well, and to live in the anointing of God, the fullness of God. That overflowing fullness will then enable you to be a powerful witness of the Gospel, so that you can live, brother or sister, from victory to victory. Hallelujah!

That is why we have to say to Him, “Father, send Your anointing into my life. I do not understand what the anointing is; I do not know why, but Your word says it, and I want it,” and then pay the price for that anointing to become a reality in your life, because there is a price to pay. We must live as priests and priestesses of the Lord; we must abstain from certain things, brothers and sisters. We must live as athletes of the Spirit; we must return to the days of the Nazirites. The Nazirites are simply a symbol of a life surrendered to the Lord. The Nazirites did not cut their hair or drink wine; they were deeply consecrated to the Lord. Perhaps those things were not necessary for the ordinary citizen, but the Nazirite was committed to his God and to a life of surrender, and that was where his power came from. Do you understand?

God told Samson, “You must never cut your hair.” It was not so much about whether or not he cut his hair, but God had established that as a sign in his life, a sign of being set apart, and the anointing of God requires us to live abnormal lives. You know what? God has told me, “Do not expect to live a normal life.” I have already resigned myself to the fact that I am not going to live my life normally, brothers and sisters, and the child of God, the person who serves the Lord, has to get used to the idea that you have to say goodbye to normality. Perhaps people out there in the world can live that way; perhaps there are others whom God allows to do so. But I believe that the person who wants to live in the anointing of God has to live an abnormal life, a life surrendered to the Lord, a life in which people look at you and understand that there is something abnormal about your life. You have to live as a symbol; you have to live as a question mark before others, so that people look at you and say, “There is something strange about that person.”

You know what kills us in the Christian life, brothers and sisters? That desire to be normal. That desire to entertain ourselves the way other people entertain themselves, that desire to enjoy the same comforts other people have, that desire to sleep the same number of hours as people who have nothing else to do but work, eat, have fun, and that is all. But the people of God live by other values, do you understand? We are vessels that want to contain the anointing of the Holy One, and that anointing needs the best, purest, most consecrated vessel possible. We have to pay the price for the anointing. We have to be people who get up a little earlier to seek the face of the Lord. Do you understand?

Brothers and sisters, that is not easy. I tell you, as the Apostle Paul says, “I die daily,” every time I have to get up in the morning and sit down to seek the anointing of God in my life. But you know what? When I sit down and enter into the presence of God, I forget all the sleepiness I felt before getting up. And that prepares me; that formats your mind and prepares it to live your day in the Spirit. Many of us get up, turn on the radio right away, begin doing this and that and running here and there, get into the car in a rush to go to work, and never stop for a moment to store up the anointing of God in our lives.

We cannot live that way, brothers and sisters; we have to live. We have to pay the price. You cannot live a normal life. You will live the normal life when you reach the Kingdom of God in eternity. Then, up there in the Lord, in eternity, you can enjoy all the pleasures and rest you denied yourself here. For the vacations you did not take here, you will take a ten-thousand-year vacation, and you will be able to travel through the galaxies and visit anywhere you please. But here on earth, you are called to be a Nazirite, a surrendered person, a person with an appetite for the anointing of God.

Brother, sister, wake up. You are not called to live a normal life. God has called you to be abnormal in Christ Jesus—powerful, filled with the Holy Spirit, victorious, filled with the joy of the Lord. Hallelujah! Understanding the things that natural men do not understand. There is a price to pay. There is a price to pay. God does not want middle-class people in the Kingdom of God; God wants workers. God wants people who work; God wants people with fire in their eyes, brothers and sisters, surrendered to the Lord from head to toe, plunged into the water of the Lord. You no longer belong to yourself; I am very sorry, but those days are over. God does not want you living an ordinary life. God wants you to be used by the Lord, passionate about the Lord. God wants you to store up the anointing so that you can distribute it every day. God wants you beheading demons and striking fear into the devil’s hosts.

When God has a people filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with the anointing of God, things will happen. You will discover that your life will proceed differently; miracles will happen in your life. You will not have to sit there watching the longed-for miracles on television; instead, they will happen in your life, and you will be the protagonist of those miracles, because the anointing of God will be flowing through your life; the Holy Spirit will be flowing.

We have to ask the Lord, “Father, help us raise up a church—churches and families—filled with the anointing of God, because that anointing is what makes the difference.”

Verse 27 of First John says, “...but the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as the anointing itself teaches you all things, and is true and is not a lie, just as it has taught you, abide in Him.”

It says that the anointing you received abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. When you have the anointing of God, you do not have to live an artificial life through another person. Many people depend on the pastor, depend on the family member who brought them to church, or depend on the church, and if something unpleasant happens in the church, they collapse. If someone looked at them the wrong way, they have already lost the joy of the Lord. If the pastor said something and they think it was aimed at them, they immediately want to leave the Gospel, doubt their salvation, and need to go from place to place to get something, so that someone will give them something. They live going from preacher to preacher, as though they were looking for something artificial to be taught or given to them. And the Lord says, “No, it is My anointing that has to be inside you, and that will keep you from needing others to be giving you things and teaching you artificially.” I believe it is good to go, receive, and listen, but it is better still for you to have an authentic experience with the fullness of God in your life. Then everything else will simply be little decorations, additions, and touches that God will place in your life, but you will already have the essence of your experience with God. And that anointing of God will remain in your life, brothers and sisters. Then, when you can live in that anointing, which is doing things in your life, the joy of the Lord becomes possible.

You see, when the oil is flowing in your life, that oil then leads to the wine; that anointing leads to the joy of the Lord. Why? Do you know what robs us of the joy of life? Do you know what causes us to live in anxiety and fear? It is the lack of anointing. It is the lack of the power of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because we are like Martha, worried and troubled. We are serving the Lord, but we are doing it in the flesh. We are serving the Lord, but we are doing it with human strength; we are doing it with emotional strength; we are doing it by an act of the will; we are doing it lucidly, because something tells us, “You have to do this.” We are moral people; we are ethical people who do things out of duty and because we have to do this and have to do that: I have to go to church, I have to serve, I have to tithe. And we suffer through everything we do and are not in the joy of the Lord, because we are tired, worn out, and nervous. We are like a machine that has run out of oil and is simply running on its reserves, with metal grinding against metal because there is no lubricant. And such a person, brothers and sisters, cannot experience the joy of the Lord.

And God tells me to convey this call to you. Do you know, brothers and sisters, what will destroy Satan in this city and in this nation? When we believers cultivate the joy of the Lord as a firearm against the devil. When the anointing of God fills our lives, that anointing will open another pipeline called the joy of the Lord. And what does the word say? That the joy of the Lord is what? Our strength. It has become so very clear to me, as never before, brothers and sisters, that the joy of the Lord is a weapon of spiritual warfare for the believer. But only when you have received the anointing of God can you enter into the joy of God.

Now I am going to ask you to raise your hand, but I can tell you, brothers and sisters, that here, as in all the other churches, there are many people who need to enter into that dimension of the joy of the Lord.

Oh brother, we need—we need to understand what the joy of God is. If we had that joy of the Lord, depression could not gain a foothold in our lives. It might perhaps come for a little while, but do you know what? When it falls into the wine of the Lord, it is immediately dissolved. Perhaps for an instant a negative thought may come into your life, but the joy of the Lord immediately burns it up and destroys it, because that joy is flowing within you. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ said: ‘Those who believe in me, those who receive me, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’

Brother, I have to ask you: Is that joy, that river of living water, truly flowing in your life? The Apostle Paul says that godliness accompanied by what is a great thing? By contentment. Why? Why does he say that? Because there are many people, including people in our church, who have godliness but do not have contentment. We do not have—we have godliness, which means that we have good feelings, we have wholesome desires to serve God, we desire to be people who behave well, we desire to go to church and honor God with our material possessions; but do you know, brothers and sisters? We are like the Pharisees in this respect: we have the letter, we have the outward experience, but we do not have the essence that allows that warmth of God to move in our lives, that allows the joy of the Lord to be there.

Brothers and sisters, I can tell you categorically that God is saying to Lion of Judah, ‘My people, I want to bless you, and I want you to live in my joy.’

Brother, stand up for a moment and listen to what I want to tell you in the name of the Lord. God is saying it clearly to you, and tonight I want to prophesy over your life; tonight I want to prophesy over your life. Stand up and receive this word from the Lord. The Lord says to you, ‘I want you to move in my joy. I do not want you to live from the plate, hand to mouth. I do not want you to live by eating teaspoonfuls of my goodness. I want you to open your mouth and receive food directly until it overflows. I want to bless you. I do not want you to live your life like a beggar. I do not want you to live your life like a wretch. I do not want you to live your life always running along the edge of the abyss, afraid that at any moment, if you let your guard down, you will fall. I have not called you merely to live at the minimum. I have called you to live at the maximum,’ says the Lord. ‘I have called you to drink my water by the pitcherful. I do not give my joy by measure; no matter how much of my joy you receive, mine will not run out or diminish. I have joy for you. I want to bless you. I want to fill you with my goodness. Oh, I want to bless you in your family life. I want to bless your children,’ the Lord says to you. ‘I want you to move in my sufficiency. I want you to stop looking over your shoulder, thinking that the devil is behind you and that at any moment he is going to trip you up. My call is to bless you. My call is for you to live in abundance,’ the Lord says to you. ‘I love you,’ says the Lord, ‘and I am pleased with you, and I want you to celebrate—to celebrate the fact that you belong to my family. I adopted you. You did not deserve it; you did not earn it. But I extended my grace to you; I extended my scepter to you and said, “Find grace in me,” not because you deserved it, but because it pleased me, because I chose to extend my scepter of grace to you. So receive my grace, move in my grace, move in my joy, be filled with my joy. Celebrate; sing a new song. Raise your voices; learn to use my joy as a spiritual weapon. Learn to use my joy as a projectile that you hurl at the devil himself, all the way to hell. Learn to celebrate by faith what I have given. That joy is within you, but I require you to stir it up, to make it leap within you, to confess it by faith even when you do not feel it; to raise a song even when you do not feel like raising a song; to praise me even when you do not feel like praising me; to declare victory even when you do not feel that victory is present in your life. Hallelujah!’

Brothers and sisters, that is what God wants for you. Use the joy of the Lord. Cultivate the joy of the Lord. Ask the Lord to make joy a body of water in which you can swim.

In Isaiah 54, the Lord says to his people, ‘Rejoice, O barren woman, you who did not give birth; burst into song and shout for joy, you who were never in labor, because more are the children of the desolate woman than those of the married woman, says the Lord.’

Brothers and sisters, look at whom God is speaking to here. He is speaking to a barren woman, to a forsaken woman. In the Old Testament and in the Jewish world, a barren woman was considered, in a sense, a person living under disgrace. A barren woman felt ashamed because there was this idea that the only thing that justified a woman’s life was giving birth to children and being a mother of children. And God directs his call to that symbol of barrenness and says to her, ‘Look, burst into song; shout for joy.’ Notice that he does not say this to that woman after she has given birth, but while she is still in her barrenness.

And I have learned, brothers and sisters, that when you are going through times of drought, when you feel small, and when you feel that you are living an ineffective life, that is when, by faith, you must raise a song to the Lord, declare the joy of the Lord, fill your life with praise and worship, seek God, come to church, give to the Lord, and serve others. Do not wait until you are filled with joy and everything is going well in life before you begin to serve and to live an abundant life in the Lord. Mechanically, by faith, live out the life of joy outwardly and in faith, and joy will become a reality within you. For as you move by faith in joy, you will be prophesying to the outward realm and saying to it, ‘I believe that the joy the Lord has declared is a reality within me.’ And you will see how the stiff, clogged pipes are opened and the joy of the Lord begins to flow in your life.

I propose a program for your life this year and for the rest of your life: cultivate the joy of the Lord. Understand that the joy of the Lord is a spiritual concept, as I was telling you. Just as you cannot understand what the anointing does, neither can you understand what joy does; but joy is almost a substance that you can touch. It is a spiritual weapon that God has given us. That is why Christ’s coming into the world is always associated with joy and gladness.

In Isaiah 9, you see that it says that the people who walked in darkness saw a great light. It says that God calls those who were in sorrow to shout with joy and gladness. When Christ comes into the world, there are angels, there is light, there is singing, because the darkness flees and the joy of the Lord comes; hope comes to humanity. We cannot possibly live in chains, depressed and sad, because Christ has already set us free. Therefore, we must understand this and see the joy of the Lord almost as something physical, and say, ‘I want that. I am going to move in joy. In my life, I am going to seek and continually cultivate the joy of the Lord.’ I learned that years ago. I have to—sometimes those clouds would come and cover my mind, and sometimes that depression comes at night, when things outside are physically dark. It is as though a fog comes over us and covers our lives, and that nostalgia and melancholy enter us. And I resolved very early on, especially because I entered the ministry—I said, ‘I cannot live in ministry with that fog in my life. I am going to cultivate the joy of the Lord,’ and I have made it a program in my life. I cannot allow anything to take away the joy of the Lord from me for very long. That joy is not a physical matter; it does not mean that you are always laughing uproariously. It is something within you; it is abiding in the presence of God and knowing that everything is all right because God is with you, and that if it is not all right at the moment, it will be all right in two or three minutes. That is the joy God wants for us, you know? And when the world sees that joy in us, when the world sees that abundant life in you, the world will want it and will ask you, ‘How do you manage to live that way?’ And you will become a contagious person. Why do more people not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Because we Christians do not exemplify that victorious life, that joyful life of the Lord. And when we cultivate joy, brothers and sisters, that will be a prophetic action that will cause the powers of the devil to flee from our lives. When we raise a song to the Lord, that will rot the yoke; it will frighten away those birds of ill omen that continually seek to fly over our heads. We will not have to go around chasing the devil.

Many of us are continually attacking Satan and praying against this and against that and against the other thing. That is good, but it has its proper time. God tells me, ‘Look, forget about attacking evil and exalt the good in your lives. Make sure you are filled with my joy, and when my joy is abounding in you, the devil will simply be destroyed all by himself. The hosts of hell will be defeated. They will defeat one another because the joy within you will generate my power and generate my anointing, and everything else will be destroyed without your having to fire a single shot. Cultivate the joy of the Lord. Cultivate the anointing of God in your life.’

I ask the Lord that this year everyone who works in this church—the leaders, the musicians, the worshipers—may be filled with the Spirit of God, filled with the anointing of God, and filled with the joy of the Lord. When that joy is moving in our lives, brothers and sisters, we are going to see great things. Our leadership will be different. What was so difficult for you, God will do in a moment. God will lift those terrible stones so that he may establish his temple, as the Word says, with shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ What seems like a terribly difficult task will become relatively easy, because it will be the anointing of God in your life that lifts the weight.

Let us stand, and let us ask the Lord to make that word come alive within you tonight. I want us to make a covenant in the Lord. I want to invite you to come forward, especially those who feel that they need that anointing of God in their lives, that fullness of the Holy Spirit, that touch of the Holy Spirit in your life. Come over here because we want to pray for you; we want to pray with you tonight. We want to call upon him. I do not know how we are doing for time, but you will have to excuse me if something does not fit into what we had on the program. But you understand that what the Lord wants must happen tonight, brothers and sisters. Come right up to the front here, because God wants to do a work here in your life. Come all the way forward and make room for the others. I want all of us to—I want you to become aggressive tonight; become aggressive in the Spirit. Feel that there is a lion inside you, roaring within you. Amen. Visualize spiritual aggressiveness. Come here. Let us draw near here; let us make a little commotion tonight. Oh, glory! Glorify the Lord. I feel the presence of God. Give glory to God. Hallelujah! Because God is here, and begin—begin to act in the Spirit now. Let us see: the Lord will guide you. Do not worry if you have no experience; the anointing of the Holy One will guide you in what you need to say to the Lord tonight. But begin to ask the Holy Spirit to do a work in your life. Tell the Lord, ‘I am dying for your anointing. I need your anointing. I want more of you. I want you to break the bonds. I want you to melt away the cobweb. I want you to tear down the walls in my life. Oh, glory to the Lord!’ Let your mouth move; let your mouth move. This is not the time to be pious or mystical; it is time to be forceful in the things of the Spirit. Cry out to the Lord. Cry out to the Lord. Cry out to the Lord. The Lord says, ‘Open your mouth, and I will fill it.’ That does not mean merely with words, but with my anointing. Oh, we need you, Father. We need you, Lord. Cry out, cry out, cry out, cry out to the Lord. Oh, Father, I need you. I want more of you, Lord.

Sermon by Dr. Roberto Miranda recorded December 31, 2005, at Congregación León de Judá (69 min.)

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