CHARACTER AND THE
ANOINTING
Ø
1Jn.
Ø
1Jn.
Ø Pr. 22:1 A good name is to be chosen rather
than great riches...
Ø Ecc. 7:1 A good name is better than precious
ointment...
Ø 2Tim. 4:7 I have fought a
good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Pentecostals cherish the
anointing and rightly so. We say and we
sing: “more Lord more”
- asking for the anointing.
What is the anointing?
Here are two definitions:
Ø “Endowment of the Holy
Spirit: to rub with oil, by implication to consecrate”
Ø “The touch of God on a life that enables the
achievement of God’s purposes.”
The
anointing is always for a purpose and can achieve in a moment what can take
years or perhaps never be done in the natural.
Acts
10:38 God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and he
went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil,
because God was with him.
Isa 61:1 The spirit of the
Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings
unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty
to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound...
However if the anointing
was all that was required, why is it that we all know of people and that church
history is full of mightily anointed men & women who “blew it” in
spectacular fashion or who were not able to go the distance?
This includes high
profile public ministries and multitudes that never made public stage. In fact there are many people in the world
who have been turned away from the gospel because anointed people fell.
I would like to suggest
people fall not because they’ve never known God’s anointing but because they’ve
never taken the time to develop Godly character.
The New Imperial
Reference Dictionary defines character as “the aggregate of peculiar qualities,
which constitutes personal individuality - especially moral”.
Character is the moral
nature, backbone, reputation, and description of a person’s qualities.”
This article is about
character and the anointing.
Let’s look at two
anointed characters in the Bible. One
had a weak character the other was strong.
Judges 13:5 ...you will conceive and give birth to
a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin
the deliverance of
The anointing of God was
on Samson’s life.
Judges 14:1 Samson went down to Timnah
and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father
and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah;
now get her for me as my wife."
However Samson had
attitude problems. This can be seen from
the way he speaks to his parents. Not only that, but Samson had no right to
pursue a Philistine woman. The Israelites were commanded not to mingle or inter
marry with the heathen nations.
I believe that the
anointing of God was on Samson’s life but that he had little regard for the
things of the Spirit and that he saw himself above the law.
We can be anointed even
in a state of rebellion but we are still accountable
Judges 16:1 One
day Samson went to
Samson’s character was
floored when it came to women. He was big on the outside but small on the
inside. It is true that the anointing
makes people attractive but if it is not combined with a Godly character then
sex becomes a minefield.
Some time later, he fell in love with a woman whose name was
Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the
secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up
and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of
silver."
Some things never
change! We have seen the same strategy
used by spy agencies repeatedly in our time!
The enemy (whether human or spiritual) knows that lack of
self-control leads to compromise.
Delilah said to Samson: "Tell
me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and
subdued."
Three times he told a
different story. The Philistines burst
in to capture him and he sent them packing.
Samson was playing with fire.
Then she said to him, "How
can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and
haven't told me the secret of your great strength." With such nagging she
prodded him day after day until he was tired.
If we remain in
compromising situations we will get warn out.
The way of the transgressor is hard.
So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said,
"because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God
since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would
become as weak as any other man." When
Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the
Philistines, "Come back once more; he
has told me everything." So the rulers of the
Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. Having put him to sleep on
her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so
began to subdue him. And his strength left him.
Where was this guy’s
head? Three times previously the Philistines
had been tipped off & burst in. Why
couldn’t Samson see what was coming.
It’s called “the deceitfulness of sin”. I believe Samson treated the whole situation
as a joke. I can see him saying “you
give me this or that and maybe I’ll tell you.” A man of character would have stated in no
uncertain terms that to ask the secret of his strength was a total waste of
time and energy.
Then she called: "Samson,
the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll
go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the
LORD had left him. Then the Philistines
seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to
We all want to be
anointed but are we willing to have our character changed? After these events Samson achieved one last
great victory but he is not someone I would aspire to be like.
A strong anointing with a
weak character is a recipe for disaster.
It is possible to be mightily anointed in this service and be a
different person in one hour. When
temptation comes it’s who we are and what’s inside us that will make us do the
right thing.
Joseph faced much the
same situation as Samson but lets look at how he
handled it.
Gen 39:1-23 Now Joseph had
been taken down to
Bad things happen to good
people. They can make you bitter of
better. The difference between the two
words is the letter “I”. It’s not the
anointing that determines our response but our character.
The
LORD was with Joseph and he prospered; he lived in the house of his Egyptian
master. When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave
him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his
attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his
household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.
From
the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the
LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of
the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the
house and in the field. So he left in
Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern
himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well built and
handsome, and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, "Come
to bed with me!" But he refused. "With me in charge," he
told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house;
everything he owns he has entrusted to my care.
No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld
nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such
a wicked thing and sin against God?"
Notice the difference in
attitudes in Samson & Joseph, toward God and God’s law.
And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to
go to bed with her or even be with her.
Both Samson & Joseph
were hounded day to day.
One day he went into the
house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants were
inside. She caught him by his cloak and
said, "Come to bed with me!" But he left his cloak in her hand
and ran out of the house.
Samson walked into
compromise; Joseph ran away from it.
When she saw that he had
left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her
household servants. "Look," she said to them, "this
Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep
with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak
beside me and ran out of the house."
She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home.
Then she told him this story: "That
Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as soon as I screamed for help, he left
his cloak beside me and ran out of the house." When his master
heard the story his wife told him, saying: "This
is how your slave treated me," he burned with
anger. Joseph's master took him and put
him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined.
Samson’s compromise
landed him in prison. Joseph’s integrity did the same;
Ø Both were anointed by
God.
Ø Both faced
temptation.
Ø Both were hounded.
Ø Both wrought deliverance
for
Joseph’s legacy was his
anointing and Godly character whereas Samson had an anointing but his character
was floored. I believe Samson could have
achieved so much more if he’d have had a strong Godly character like
Joseph.
To me Samson is a sad
figure. I’d rather be a Joseph than a
Samson. Why? Because of his moral
strength, strong backbone, and good reputation; in other words because of his
Godly character.
Can we develop Godly
character? Yes but it takes time. “It won’t happen overnight but it will
happen.” It must be worked on day by
day. “Everything left to itself tends to decay”.
We must learn to make right choices.
It takes courage & determination.
However thankfully God is committed to helping us. We are involved in a partnership.
The time to start is
now. It is never too late.
How to develop a Godly character
1.
Put the Word of God in your heart. Ps 119:9-11 How can a young man
keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me
stray from your commands. I have hidden
your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
We make time for what we
consider important. When it’s time to
eat we eat! Meditating on & obeying God’s word is to character development
- like eating is to physical development.
Neglect of either causes under-development and
ultimately death.
2.
Be fervent in prayer.
James
Ø Fervency is to prayer -
what heat is to an iron.
Ø
God is emotional. We need to
release both our emotions and God’s in prayer.
Ø
Get passionate. If this
means getting out of the house to do it then as Nike says: “just do it!”
1. Take a
stand.
Matt16:24
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will
come after me, let him utterly deny himself (take a stand) and take up his
cross, and follow me.
If we
don’t take a stand some things about us will never change. Most people don’t
have a problem, they have a decision to make.
1Cor
2. Walk
in the Spirit. Gal 5:16-18
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit (to tread all around, walk at
large, to live, deport oneself, follow as a companion, be occupied with), and
you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the
other: so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of
the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Walking in the Spirit
enables us to do the right thing not just because we have to - but because we
want to. It means obeying the Spirit not
the law. This is not “pulling
yourself up by your bootstraps” - it is building a
partnership with the Holy Spirit.
Living by the law brings
death; living in the Spirit produces life.
God is not really
interested in what we are doing; He is more interested in what we are becoming.
It is by our character (how
we live with our families, friends, work mates and on
our own) that our lives will be measured & judged, not by the anointing
on our lives.
Heb12:1-3...let us run
with patience the race that is set before us (character development takes time; we must
be work on it), looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith (God
is committed to developing our character); who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, (like Joseph, not all
that we experience is good but God will
turn it into good for us, if we let Him.) and is set down at the
right hand of the throne of God (the rewards are: becoming what God intends
us to be, and by the anointing achieving all that God has for us to do!).
If you recognize flaws in
your character that have hindered your growth and effectiveness then I invite
you to commit what God has shown you to prayer.
Don’t risk your destiny.
(The idea for comparing
Sampson and Joseph came from an article “Developing Personal Inner Strength” by
Charles Neiman: Australian Evangel
October 1997)
Bless you,
