These days, I have been challenged more and more by God to be fully reliant upon Him everyday and in every way. That I am to fully embrace the reality that I live, move and have my being in Him (Acts 17:28). For me this means I need to be consciously engaging with God throughout my day. This doesn’t mean that I connect with God in the morning and then reconnect with Him before meals and then a quiet time before I go to sleep. No, the way I understand this truth is that I need to be in continual and constant contact with God all day, everyday. This may seem like a tall order, but what helps me stay connected with God is the understanding that:“Sure I could probably make it through an average day without too much of a stretch, but life to me is more than just getting through the day. A full and abundant life involves making an eternal impact in this world for Jesus. And for this to happen, I need to be seeking out the specific Kingdom impact that Jesus wants to make  for each moment of the day.” This means that I need to humbly admit that I don’t have the answers, nor the power to achieve this and that I need God to actively lead and empower me if I am to be of any use to Him.

If that’s not enough, Scripture says, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25). How I understand this verse is that God is not interested in what we have to offer Him, He is more interested in letting us know what needs to happen and how it needs to happen. Furthermore, Paul continues on to say, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (vv. 27-29). Again, God is in the business of showing us what’s what. Not, the other way around. The last thing we should be trying to do is impress God. Remember, God is the Creator of the univese. impressing Him just won’t happen. The quicker that we admit that we need God’s direct and active guidance in our lives the greater intimacy we will have with Him and the greater impact we will make for His Kingdom here on earth.

Jesus is the good Shepherd who speaks to His sheep because they know His Voice (John 10:4). If we are not use to listening to Him speak to us, then it may take some time to recognize our Shepherd’s Voice. But, we must trust that Jesus knows us and we know Him (John 10:14). Furthermore, I believe that the only way to  consistently recognize Jesus’ Voice is through our dependency on the Holy Spirit, who loves making the things of Jesus known to us (John 16:14) which means He helps us not only know about Jesus, but also to encounter Him. Too often, good intentioned believers shy away from a more experiential (even mystical) approach to encountering Jesus because they are fearful of being deceived and led astray. Now, I can be compassionate towards them and understand where they are coming from, but this is what I have to say to them: “Trust that God is able to sovereignly keep you from being deceived as you pursue to encounter more of Jesus. Don’t you think the Father would bless your pursuit to know more of His Son? Don’t let the fear of being deceived stop you from encountering more of King Jesus in your life and having His Kingdom break in greater measure into your surroundings.”

Living in the anointing means that I am doing all I can to press into the grace that Jesus has apportioned to me (Ephesians 4:7) all day, everyday. This means I am actively seeking to hear His Voice in my life. Jesus, the Anointed One (which is the meaning of Christ),  lived His life fully in the anointing of the Holy Spirit while He walked the earth. Believers today can do no less. We must seek to live in the anointing of the Holy Spirit on each of our lives. I am more and more convinced that what is lacking in the Body of Christ is that believers are not walking in the fullness of God’s grace for them. I believe if we were, the Church truly would be the unstoppable force that Jesus envisioned (Matthew 16:18) because every believer would be living in their God given anointing. So this is my prayer: that the Holy Spirit would impress upon every believer’s heart to consciously pursue walking in the fullness of God’s grace, that He would unshackled their hearts to receive this grace and that He would give them a hunger and thirst to seek out the righteousness of God by empowering them to claim the anointing of God on their lives. In Jesus Name, Amen.