No More Junk Food

Matthew 5:6 (KJV) Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

I have to confess there are times when I am hungry and begin to rustle through the kitchen for something to satisfy my longings. I don’t want to take the time to cook or make something complicated, I just want to eat. I will open the pantry, the refrigerator, look in the bread box, and cabinets but can find nothing to eat. Now we all know there was plenty to eat in those places but I didn’t want to go to the trouble. So, having gone through my exhaustive search I pull out the bag of candy and have a snack. It is just enough to relieve the hunger and trick my mind into thinking that I have eaten. Healthy? No way! Am I really full? Absolutely not! Will I be back in the kitchen looking for something? Before you can even ask the question.

Unfortunately, we are not only guilty of this with our physical eating habits but in so many other areas of our life as well. Commercials fill the air waves with “time saving” gimmicks that promise to make our lives easier and fulfill our needs. Being hungry or needing help and reaching out for the wrong thing will never truly satisfy. Instead we waste valuable time and effort on that which can give us only fleeting satisfaction.

When we hunger and thirst for righteousness there is a deep, yearning in our soul that cries out to be satisfied. Some try to fill that hunger with legalism and think that in their rules and regulations they will be filled. The Pharisees were caught in this trap and history tells us that they were never satisfied but had to always find new laws, new rules, new regulations to follow. None of these ever truly made them righteous. No human effort ever could.

Others tried to dismiss their hunger with excuses for their sinful behavior. Grace became an excuse to be unrighteous and no amount of grace applied could ever fill the longing to live right before God. Instead of becoming the satisfaction that God had meant for grace to be in the lives of men it became the opposite of what it was intended to be. They had frustrated the grace of God.

God’s law and His grace are both important parts of salvation. Used properly they can build us up in the faith and help to create a strong, healthy body. It’s important to remember that when we hunger and thirst for righteousness there is only one who is righteous, Jesus! We must take the time to gather all of the ingredients for this meal.

The Law is our school master that brings us to Christ.

Grace is the door wherein we can enter into this new life in Christ.

The Church is the means by which the Holy Spirit teaches us of Christ.

As we hunger and thirst for righteousness we must never forget that the main thing, the only thing that matters is Jesus! He put it this way,

“Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." John 6:53-58

Hungry? Thirsty? Only Jesus can satisfy that longing down in your soul.

You Have An Anointing

"But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth." 1 John 2:20

Today many Christians run from church to church or meeting to meeting looking for “The Anointing”. We sing songs asking for “The Anointing” to fall on us. We hear sermons about “The Anointing” and at times refer to someone as “Anointed”. But what is this anointing and how does it come to rest on those lucky people who we call anointed? The Apostle John, while writing to the church made a bold statement, “You have an anointing from the Holy One.” Instead of John saying, “I’m the anointed one. Listen to me.” He told God’s people, “You have an anointing. You know the truth.”

The Hebrews used oil to anoint things that were to be used for God’s work. In Exodus 29:36 the altar was anointed in order to sanctify it. The word sanctify is closely connected to holiness. It appears that anointing something with oil served to sanctify that object so that it might be considered holy unto the Lord.

"And thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement: and thou shalt cleanse the altar, when thou hast made an atonement for it, and thou shalt anoint it, to sanctify it." Exodus 29:36 KJV

But it was not just things that were anointed. People seemed to be a much more significant subject of anointing. Elisha sent the young prophet to anoint Jehu with oil.

"Then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the LORD, I have anointed thee king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not." 2 Kings 9:3 KJV

Samuel anointed David with oil and “the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.” Something happened that changed the little shepherd boy and made him a King.
1 Samuel 16:13 (KJV) Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

Being anointed isn’t something that was meant to come and go. It isn’t something that is here today and gone tomorrow. I know that our experiences seem to run contrary to that fact. We see what appears to be flashes of anointing in a preacher, a singer, an evangelist but then that “anointing” goes away. But that is not what Scripture teaches us. John didn’t say go get an anointing. He said you have an anointing. The oil has already been applied. You are sanctified. You are holy. You know the truth.

Consider what happens when we pour oil on a cloth. The oil soaks into the cloth and binds with it. In effect the cloth is fundamentally changed. If we use an ointment to rub onto our skin we get the same effect. The ointment becomes a part of our skin. It saturates us and invades our very being. I rubbed Tiger Balm on some sore muscles recently and discovered this very fact. The healing heat penetrated deep into my body and did its work. This is the picture we need to keep in mind as we contemplate the anointing John tells us about.

"He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" John 7:38-39 KJV

Jesus told us that from out of our innermost being would flow rivers of living water. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. He doesn’t come down, rain down, or fall down on us. He inhabits us. The oil has been poured upon our heads and penetrated into the core of our being. Our spirit has been transformed and the third person of the Trinity now desires to live the life of God through us. God does not partially inhabit us. We don’t have his leg or hand living in us. We have all of Him living in us.

I have often heard Christians praying for “more” of God. Perhaps what they should be praying is for “less” of themselves. Because the Spirit of God that dwells within us wants to live His life through us but there is a struggle that takes place. That struggle is between Self and Spirit. Some might call it flesh but in actuality it is Self. If I truly want more of God to make His way out of my innermost being then I have to get out of the way. I have to crucify the flesh of self and become porous and the more I die to self, the more God’s anointing flows out of me and into the world around me.

“You have an anointing!” Now what are you going to do about it? I say let the river flow.