A Fresh Anointing Part 7

When you get anointed with fresh oil, praise and thanksgiving will continually flow out of your mouth to G.o.d. If you've had a hard time praising G.o.d because of the tests and trials you're going through at the time, if you begin to praise and thank G.o.d you'll get your joy and your praise back! You'll get your thanksgiving back! Praise and thanksgiving will begin to roll out of your mouth once again. You'll be full of thanksgiving and joy.

When this seminary friend saw that praise and thanksgiving was a lifestyle with Dad Nelson, it changed his thinking. Although he was the pastor of a First Baptist church, he got filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues. Evidently he liked that habit so well, he wanted to have it too!

Chapter 9 Third Characteristic of Those With a Fresh Anointing

We've already looked at two of the three outstanding characteristics of be being filled with the Spirit as mentioned in Ephesians 5:18-21: Speaking to yourself supernaturally in tongues and in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; and giving thanks continually unto G.o.d.

Submitting to One Another

The third characteristic we will look at in this chapter is submitting to one another in the fear of the Lord. This is where true submission comes in. We are to submit ourselves to one another in love as unto the Lord.

One of the characteristics the Bible lists of being filled with the Holy Spirit is being willing to submit to one another: "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of G.o.d" (Eph. 5:21). What does the Bible mean by, "Submit yourselves to one another"? This is a pa.s.sage of Scripture some folks take out of its context and try to make it say something it isn't saying. Is the Bible referring to this extreme submission teaching we've all heard preached? Emphatically, no!

To submit means to give in to one another. It doesn't mean that you rule over one another, certainly not. But it means that you give in to one another and that you're not hardheaded and stubborn and always demanding your own way. It's the opposite of the att.i.tude, "I'm going to have my own way no matter what!" or "I've got my say-so 79 and I'm going to have it!" If you get saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, you'll overcome that att.i.tude. You won't be so interested in having your say-so anymore!

Most Christians believe in submitting one hundred percent as long as it's others who are doing the submitting to them. But when it comes time for them to submit to someone else, that's another story. Then all of a sudden, they don't believe in submission anymore!

Believers who are filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit have a submissive spirit or att.i.tude toward others. That is, they don't find it hard to submit or give in to one another in an att.i.tude of love. They don't always have to be right and to have the last word, so to speak. They are so filled with the Spirit of G.o.d that they don't demand their own rights and their own way. They want what G.o.d wants, and G.o.d's way is always love - putting the other person first.

You see, when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you have a submissive spirit and you don't always need to have your own way. Submitting means giving in to one another in a spirit of love and meekness. There are some times when it might be better if you didn't have your say-so! Sometimes it might be better to just keep your mouth shut and not say anything, even if you do have the right to have something to say in the matter.

Submission indicates a broken and a humble spirit. Christians are to learn to submit to one another in the fear of G.o.d. It's easy when you're filled with the Spirit to submit to the other fellow in the fear of G.o.d. Also, when you're filled with the Spirit and you're maintaining the glow of the Holy Spirit, you're not hard to get along with.

Now notice the next verse.

Third Characteristic of Those With a Fresh Anointing 81 EPHESIANS 5:22 22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

Some people take that verse out of its context too, and read it: "Now wives, you do what you're told to do, or else!" However, the word "submit" in this verse is the same word that's used in the previous verse telling fellow believers to submit to one another in an att.i.tude of love.

As we said, to submit means to give in to one another and not always needing to have the last word about everything, and it is certainly not ruling over one another. Therefore, when the Bible talks about submission in the marriage relationship, it is not talking about the husband ruling over his wife with an iron fist, so to speak, any more than it's talking about believers ruling over one another. Biblical submission is referring to Christians getting along with one another by submitting to each other in love. We are to maintain a teachable, humble spirit, and walk in love toward one another.

Therefore, we can readily see that a characteristic of being filled with the Spirit is that you are willing to submit or to give in to one another in an att.i.tude of love.

The Danger of a Know-It-All Att.i.tude

Every one of us needs to be teachable and humble, and to submit to one another in love. I've said for years that I wouldn't listen to any teacher who wasn't willing to be taught. All of us need to maintain a teachable spirit. I'm always willing to learn. A know-it-all spirit or att.i.tude is contrary to biblical teaching.

A know-it-all att.i.tude says, "I'm right and everyone else is wrong. You can't tell me anything because I know it all, and I'll tell you a thing or two!" For a Christian to have an att.i.tude like that is dangerous! With an att.i.tude like that you're liable to wind up dying prematurely because G.o.d may just have something He wants to get across to you through someone else in the Body of Christ.

I recall an experience I had along this line with a certain pastor. The pastor had already invited me to come and hold a meeting in his church, and the Lord told me He wanted me to go.

"But, Lord," I said, "I don't want to go to that church."

The Lord said, "I want you to go."

"Why do You want me to go there?"

The Lord replied, "Because that pastor is going to die unless he judges himself, and he's only 43 years old. He's not old enough to die. But if he'll get in on your morning teaching cla.s.ses, and listen to My Word and put it into practice, he won't die - he'll live."

So at this pastor's invitation I came to his church to hold a meeting for him. Although I was a guest in his church holding a meeting for him, do you know he didn't come to one meeting! He was too busy! He was busy all the time.

We can be too busy! By the same token, we can also be so busy that we don't have time to listen to others and we become unteachable. This pastor was too busy. He had a daily radio program and he was building a new church. He had invited me to come and hold this meeting for him, but he never came to one of his own services! Not one!

Finally, his wife said to me, "Brother Hagin, talk to my husband. See if you can get him to come to the day services," she said. Think about that! A pastor's wife having to ask a traveling teacher to talk to the pastor to try to get him to come to his own meetings! I wasn't there putting on my own meetings. I was a guest speaker, holding meetings for him.

I kept after him to come to the meetings, but he was always too busy. Finally, we got over into the third week of the meetings, and I asked the pastor's wife, "Why do you want me to get him to come to these services?" I wanted to find out what she knew, because the Lord had already told me he was going to die prematurely if he didn't change. There were some adjustments he needed to make, and if he didn't make them he would die prematurely, although that wasn't G.o.d's will.

The pastor's wife said to me, "Brother Hagin, I want him to go to the morning services because I know he's going to die if he doesn't change."

"How do you know he is going to die?" I asked. "He's only 43 years old. He's not old enough to die."

"I can't tell you how I know," she said. "I just know it on the inside. I just have an inward conviction that he's going to die."

Then I told her what the Lord had told me.

"That's right!" she said. "I know that's true, and I know it doesn't have to happen. We're both ordained ministers but through the years, we would never listen to anyone else. We thought we knew just as much as anyone, and we would never listen to anyone else."

That's not a submissive att.i.tude, is it? That's not submitting one to another or having a teachable spirit. It's impossible to be fervent in spirit and to maintain the glow of the Holy Spirit if you don't have a humble and a teachable spirit.

"Talk to him," she asked me. "Ask him to come to the services."

I did talk to him again, but it didn't do any good. Finally, it was the Wednesday of the third week of the meeting. We only had two more day services and then the meetings would be over. We'd already had thirteen services - thirteen hours of teaching that he'd missed on the subject of faith and healing.

After the morning service we went out to eat - the pastor, his wife, and I. We were sitting in the restaurant eating, and I began to talk to him. I thought, If I can just get him into these last two services, maybe he can get enough of the Word in him so that he'll correct himself. After all, it's not G.o.d's will for a person to die prematurely.

This was Wednesday at noon, and we were going to close the meeting that coming Sunday night. I had already announced to the congregation that I would be leaving after the Sunday night service. I was going to start another meeting Tuesday night in a city a hundred miles away.

Finally, sitting in that restaurant with that pastor and his wife, in desperation I just blurted out, "Did you know you're going to die? You're only 43 years old. You're not old enough to die!"

"I know it," he said. "I know I'm going to die."

"How do you know it?"

"I just have an inward witness about it," he said. Every believer has an inward witness. "The Lord told me that you're going to die," I said, "but that you don't have to die. That's why He wanted me to come here and hold this meeting in your church. He said that you were going to die, but that you didn't have to if you'd come and listen to the Word and put the Word into practice in your life and make the necessary changes the Lord is requiring of you."

You know what that pastor said to me? I'm talking about not having a teachable spirit! He said, "Brother Hagin, I know G.o.d led me to ask you to come and hold these meetings in my church. I wanted my people to hear you, and I know what you're teaching is right. My wife's coming every day and she tells me what you teach in the services. I know what you're teaching is right. But, you see, if I came to the services, I'd have to admit that I'm wrong and you're right, and I'd rather just go ahead and die than to admit I'm wrong."

When that pastor said that to me - it was just like someone standing behind me was talking - the Lord said, "He'll fall dead in his pulpit one week from this Sunday night." And, you know, he did just exactly that. He fell dead in his pulpit one week from that Sunday night.

Why did that happen? Was that G.o.d's best? No, but that pastor wasn't teachable! He wouldn't receive what the Lord had for him and he wouldn't make the necessary adjustments in his life. He didn't have a submissive, teachable spirit. You ask, "Was he lost? Did he die and go to h.e.l.l?" No, thank G.o.d, he made heaven. But he missed G.o.d's best for his life.

I want G.o.d's best, don't you? I'm not satisfied with second best.

Maintain a Teachable Spirit

A teachable spirit is a submissive spirit. I'm willing to be taught, aren't you? I'm not talking about being taught someone's ideas or someone's opinions. I'm not going to just accept someone's idea that can't be proven by the Word of G.o.d. I don't mean some farfetched notion that someone dreamed up by taking some isolated text out of its setting and out of its context to try to prove some ridiculous theory. You can take verses of Scripture out of their context and make the Bible say anything you want it to say. I'm not talking about that.

But if someone brings me light and revelation from the Word of G.o.d, I'll receive it, and I'll be ready to walk in the light of G.o.d's Word! But you know someone doesn't have a teachable spirit when you bring the Word of G.o.d to them, and they get offended - and I mean to people who have been saved and filled with the Holy Ghost!

Christians ought to have a teachable spirit. By not having a teachable spirit, we can miss many blessings that G.o.d has for us.

I remember just such an incident when I could have missed a valuable spiritual truth G.o.d wanted to get over to me if I had not stayed open and teachable. I was in a service listening to a certain minister speak, and I could tell right away that he wasn't accurate in his understanding and teaching of certain scriptural truths. Also, in his teaching he made a derogatory remark about the so-called "faith" message which showed that he really didn't understand Bible faith. I could have gotten offended at his ignorance of the Word of G.o.d and closed my mind and shut him off right there. But I just stayed open and gave him the benefit of the doubt and said to myself, He probably didn't mean that quite the way he said it.

Keeping an open mind and giving others the benefit of the doubt is part of maintaining a teachable spirit. We can miss many blessings G.o.d intends for us by getting offended and shutting our minds to what others have to say. For example, in this particular instance, there had been a spiritual question that I'd been wrestling with for probably twenty years or more. But after this minister made that derogatory remark, it wasn't more than five or ten minutes later that the Holy Ghost answered that question for me through this very minister.

I thought to myself afterwards, What if I'd closed my mind to what he was saying? What if I had just shut him off? I still wouldn't know the answer! If I had gotten offended and shut my mind off to this minister and had not remained teachable, G.o.d wouldn't have been able to use him to get that spiritual truth across to me; I wouldn't have been open to receive anything from him. But because I stayed teachable, even though he didn't think quite like I did or maybe didn't have as much light in certain areas as I did, G.o.d was able to bring me light on this subject I'd been wrestling with through him. I've said for years, and it bears repeating - you can disagree without being disagreeable.

Disagree Without Being Disagreeable!

When I was a young pastor, it was customary in churches in those days to have a revival in the local church every three months whether or not you needed it, and whether or not G.o.d had directed you to do it. This was just the way they did things back then in the local church. So we had a revival every three months in our church. During the revival we always had a guest speaker come in and hold meetings for at least two weeks and sometimes longer. Then in another three months, we would begin another revival.

So every year we'd have at least four revivals in our church. Special speakers would come in to minister or to preach, and sometimes others would come in and preach just on the weekend. You can readily see that over a period of a year quite a few guest speakers held meetings in my church. Out of all those speakers, I never did agree one hundred percent with any of them. We agreed on the basic doctrines of the Bible, of course; they preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ just as I did. But I did not agree one hundred percent on every little thing any of them said. Not a single one of them! But just because I didn't agree with everything these guest speakers preached in my pulpit, I didn't just jump up in the middle of the service and say, "Now you're all wrong about that! Let me straighten you out!"

In fact, during the entire twelve years I pastored, there was one particular minister with whom I disagreed the most, and yet we had more people saved and filled with the Holy Spirit in his revivals than in any other revival in the church!

Also, I grew enough spiritually in a year or two so that I began to agree with some of these other ministers; I saw that they were right and I was wrong. But some of them I never did agree with, and some I still don't agree with. But that doesn't mean that they weren't good Christians or G.o.dly ministers of the gospel just because they didn't believe everything just like I did. But again, we can disagree without being disagreeable!

I'm not talking about pastors allowing other ministers to preach gross error in their pulpits without correcting doctrinal error. That would be contrary to the Bible, because the Bible says that we are to hold fast to sound doctrine (t.i.tus 1:9; 2:1; 1 Thess. 5:21). I'm talking about disagreeing on minor issues. We're not all going to agree on every little thing, but we can disagree and still be agreeable and walk in love and maintain a teachable spirit toward one another!

After all, if G.o.d had to wait until we were all perfect in every aspect of our lives and completely mature in our spiritual growth and knowledge of the Word before He could use us, He wouldn't be able to use any of us! But I've always taken great comfort and encouragement from the Scriptures that tell us G.o.d used a donkey to arrest Balaam and get his attention (Num. 22:21-35). Surely if He could use a donkey, He can use me - or anyone else in the Body of Christ for that matter!

Maintain a teachable spirit. It will help you maintain the glow of the Spirit in your life! There is no way you can be filled with the Spirit without maintaining a teachable spirit in your life.

Submit to Scriptural Correction

There's another area where we need to maintain a teachable, submissive spirit. I've had people come to me wanting to tell me their "revelation." I've told them, "I'll listen to your revelation, but we'll have to judge it in the light of G.o.d's Word. Also, the Word of G.o.d teaches, 'Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge' " (1 Cor. 14:29).

Some of these people didn't have a teachable spirit; they didn't want their revelation judged. The unteachable people who came to me would never allow their revelation to be judged. Some of them told me, "I'm not going to have my revelation judged!"

I've said to those unteachable people, "Forget it then. You ought to get full of the Holy Spirit, and then you'd be willing to submit your revelation to be judged in the light of G.o.d's Word."

"No! I'm not going to have my revelation judged! I'm just as full of the Holy Spirit as you are, and I'll whip you to prove it!"

Yes, I've had people offer to whip me to prove they're just as filled with the Holy Spirit as I am! They claimed they were full of the Holy Spirit! I'm not in favor of being filled with that kind of spirit. That's the wrong spirit; that's a devilish spirit.

No, when people have the right spirit, they don't mind the least bit in the world being corrected. It's true that we need to be careful to correct people in the right way - in a spirit of love and gentleness. But we are to submit to one another in the fear of G.o.d and not be unteachable with one another! The Bible also says, "Prove all things," and that "all things should be done decently and in order" (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 Cor. 14:40). If people have the right spirit, they aren't afraid to have their revelation judged by the scrutiny of G.o.d's Word.

Decently and in Order

Speaking of doing things decently and in order, I think Rev. and Mrs. J. R. Goodwin had the best order in their church in Pasadena, Texas, of any church I was ever in.

Brother Goodwin has gone to he with the Lord now, but he was a fine pastor and teacher. When I went to Brother and Sister Goodwin's church to preach, Brother Goodwin would tell me, "If some of our people feel that they have something from the Lord such as a message in tongues and interpretation, prophecy, or word of knowledge, they'll lift their hand. When you're in the pulpit and you want to recognize them, that's fine. If you don't wish to recognize them, that's fine too. It won't bother them the least bit in the world. I've taught them to be teachable and to submit to spiritual authority."

You see, Brother Goodwin had taught his people to have a teachable, submissive att.i.tude. I also believe Brother and Sister Goodwin's church was the most Spirit-filled church I've ever seen. That goes right along with what Paul said in Ephesians 5:18,21: "Be filled with the Spirit . . . submitting yourselves. ..." When you're constantly being filled with the Spirit - when you maintain a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit upon your life - you have a submissive, humble spirit.

In talking about proper order in a church, Paul said, "Let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Cor. 14:40). If you stop and a.n.a.lyze that, Paul said this in connection with the operation of spiritual gifts in the church. Well, if he said operating the gifts of the Spirit can be done in order, that means they can also be operated in a way that is not in order.

That's why Brother Goodwin had said to me, "If you want to recognize those who feel they have something from the Lord when you're teaching in the pulpit, fine. But if you don't recognize them, they won't be offended." They had humble, submissive spirits; they were teachable and they recognized spiritual authority.

You see, if the person who is in charge of the meeting is inspired by the Holy Spirit, it stands to reason that the Holy Spirit won't interrupt Himself. Sometimes folks would lift their hand when I was teaching in Brother Goodwin's church, and I knew they evidently had something, but then on the other hand, since I was in charge of that particular service, I already had something in my own spirit. I knew exactly what the Holy Spirit wanted to do in that service.

You see, G.o.d is not going to hide from the one who is in charge of the service what He wants to do. But if everyone is just jumping up and doing one thing and then another, you'd have the most chaotic disorder you've ever seen. However, there are different kinds of services, and this would be more appropriate at a believers' meeting. (For more information about the different kinds of meetings, see Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin's book, Plans, Purposes, and Pursuits.) But you can see how important it is to maintain a humble, teachable att.i.tude and to stay filled up with the Holy Spirit. And from the characteristics listed in Ephesians 5:18-21, it's evident who is filled to overflowing with the Spirit, isn't it? When you're filled with the Spirit, you have a song in your heart and you're continually giving thanks to G.o.d. You have a submissive, teachable spirit, and you maintain unity with one another. That pleases G.o.d!

In that kind of atmosphere is it any wonder that when the early Christians prayed in Acts 4:31, the place where they were a.s.sembled together was shaken and they were all refilled with the Holy Ghost! How many of them received a fresh anointing? All of them! "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of G.o.d with boldness."

What did those Christians do to receive a fresh anointing? Did they gripe, fuss, and complain? No, they prayed together in one accord, and they spoke to themselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. They were continually singing and making melody in their hearts to the Lord. If you're griping, fussing, or complaining, you need a fresh anointing! If you're not submitting one to another, if you get angry when others don't recognize you, or you always have to be right - you need a fresh anointing!