Religion uses His divinity as an excuse for not seeing miracles. It says, “We cannot do what Jesus did because He did His miracles as The Son of God. Therefore, we cannot heal the sick, pray for the blind to see, or raise the dead. Only Jesus could do those things.” This gives them an excuse to believe for nothing. However, Jesus was not doing these miracles as The Son of God, even though He was the Son of God.

You can be sure that if you do something great for God, Satan will try to get you to quit obeying God He will speak things through others, and if you believe it, you will quit. If you do not, you still have to be careful to not become bitter, angry, or hurt. Otherwise, you will probably quit or become ineffective. You can’t go around thinking about it all day long and have your focus shifted from what God is doing to what the devil did. When you get chosen and others do not, they will speak things to you like David’s oldest brother spoke to him. We have to ignore it and still love people.

We have to be intentional about what thoughts we will allow to stay in our minds. It is also important that we don’t just have an empty mind. We need to fill it with God-thoughts. We have to learn how to identify bad thoughts, get rid of them, and keep the door closed to them.

The anointing is so very real that it can be felt. It is tangible, and transmittable. That’s why it could be stored in the cloth of Jesus’ garments. It is more real than the molecules in the chair that you are sitting in right now. It is just from another realm, the spiritual realm. We are used to the carnal, five senses realm. Learn to be sensitive to His realm. That realm is where the power, help, our equipment, and weapons are. It is the manifested presence of God.

The people of Nazareth missed out on miracles that God desired to produce for them. They chose to despise the anointing upon Jesus. He had already stood up in the temple and declared that the anointing was upon Him to destroy the yoke of bondage in their lives. They could only see that he was the carpenter’s son. They had seen him sweat when he worked, and take a nap when he was tired. Some had undoubtedly changed his diapers when he was a baby. He said, “I’m anointed” and they said, “no, you’re Joseph’s son”. The Bible says that he could do no mighty work there because of their unbelief. Disdain for God’s anointed people will block the power of God.

It is interesting that it costs nothing buy time to pray. Yet, many times our problems involve finances. If we would pray, we would see a break-through in that area. The Bible says that all things are possible to those who believe God. When we pray with the help of the Holy Spirit, He will search the mind and will of God and help us pray according to God’s will. John wrote, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that f we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)

We are up against satanism, drugs, dysfunctional families, gangs, religious persecution, apathy, and fear, as never before in my life-time. It will take more than a three-point message, a poem, someone reading from the encyclopedia, the last rites, and we go home. We must understand the anointing, give place to it, yield to it, and operate in it.

Perseverance must have motivation that keeps us going in the hard places. If a train is already stopped, a tiny block of wood in front of a wheel can keep it stopped. But if the train has already built up momentum and is moving at high speed, not even a brick wall built across the track can stop it. It has unstoppable momentum. We must have that same kind of momentum in place because of our motivation.

Many today act like obedience to God is completely optional. They substitute a ticket that turns the grace of God into a license for immorality. Just last week a so-called minister of the Gospel called me, asking me for money. In the course of the conversation he swore, while telling me that he has embraced this new grace doctrine. I don’t think God’s grace is meant to turn preachers into cursers and call it grace.

When people take their eyes, heart, and mind off of God, they get caught up in themselves and they lose hunger. They try to fix their own problems. The anointing should not come and go. It’s a continual stream to carry living water to the world. We have a choice. The prophet Ezekiel talked about a river that was ankle deep, waist deep, or over your head. You choose. God will let you make the choice. We choose by hungering for it, keeping our doctrine pure, and not settling for religion or getting flaky in some swamp water. We must continually be in anointed meetings and rub shoulders with anointed people. The anointing is tangible and transmittable.

There is only one thing the enemy of our souls, the devil, respects and that is the anointing. He will let you have a message, preach anything, as long as there is no anointing upon it. He doesn’t care if you lay hands on people, if you have no anointing. The anoinintg will cause damage to his kingdom.

Success cannot be measured by numbers. Only eight people were saved in the ark. The majority wouldn’t believe. Eight doesn’t seem like much to save the earth with, and preserve a people for God to show forth His power. In the Old Testament, twelve spies were sent out to look at the promised land. The majority said that it would be impossible to possess the promised land. Only two saw what God saw. God started the church with only one hundred twenty on the day of pentecost...

If time is being compressed, what does that mean for us? As never before, we must make it count. Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” There isn’t much time in a race, so you have to run to win, with everything you have. When this short life is over, we will have all of eternity to rejoice, enjoy the fruit of our labor, and fellowship. This life is a race to the finish line.

Everyone that I have heard of, read about, or witnessed, who has ever been used mightily, waited upon God with passionate desire until they were changed and empowered. They either said something like, “God come and touch me with your fire, or take me home to be with you, but I have to have more.” Or, “Lord, I need fresh oil from heaven to have something more than I have, to give someone.” Then the fire, the wind, the oil, the rain, and the joy of The Lord came over them in a life-changing experience. That’s what they minister out of today.

The Bible says that "they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength". Our flesh doesn't like that word. Sometimes, a person needs to just stop & worship. That's hard to do when you are used to pushing & pushing. We have to learn to rest. The Word says "Be still & know that I am God."

What is tenacity? The dictionary says it is the quality of being determined to do or achieve something; firmness of purpose... I would say it is stick-to-it-tiveness, a bull-dogged determination that says, "I have ahold of something & you're going to need a ball-bat or a saw to get me off."