Guarding and Preserving your Anointing
‘Guarding’ is to be watchful, vigilant, cautious and to be circumspect.
It is to protect from loss and to secure against attack.
Preserving is to maintain possession throughout and to keep intact from harm.
Anointing is to be filled with the fullness of God so as to faithfully do his work.It symbolizes the Lord’s presence when God fills a person with his spirit for the purpose of using him or her in a mighty way. It empowers to do great works and function at supernatural level. Spiritual anointing sets God’s seal of ownership on the anointed, and put his spirit in him or her heart as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. It is a form of consecrating and dedicating the anointed to God.
Anointing can also be a physical act involving the smearing, rubbing or pouring of sacred oil on someone’s head or an object as an outward symbol that God has chosen and set such apart for a specific purpose. It attracts the spirit of God on the anointed.
Spiritual anointing sets God’s seal of ownership on the anointed, and put his spirit in their hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Cor 1:21.
Therefore, guarding and preserving your anointing is to retain and maintain it with caution. Permit me to say “ guard and preserve your anointing with fear and trembling” so that you won’t lose it.
Brethren do you know that Anointing can be lost if care is not taken? Therefore it should be treasured.
Let us consider some characters in the Bible who lost their anointing.
The Man of God from Judah - 1 Kings 13.
His name was not specifically mentioned in the Bible. God sent him to Bethel from Judah to prophesy against King Jeroboam of Israel. The LORD commanded him as follows “You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.”1Kings 13: 9. He left Judah for Bethel and as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering, by the word of the LORD the man of God cried out against the altar: Altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.” I kings 13:2. And that same day he gave a sign that the LORD has declared: “The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.” When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out towards the man of God shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. Also the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God according to the word of God. The King realized he is a true man of God and appealed to him to intercede for him and pray that his hand be restored.. He did as the King requested and his hand was restored. The King wanted to appreciate him and requested he come home with him for a meal and promised him a gift. But the man of God told the King what the LORD commanded him as written above I kings 13 :9. And he answered the King “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. So he left the King and took another road different from the way he came to Bethel. That was good enough. But a certain old prophet living in Bethel who heard of how God had used the man of God mightily and what happened to the altar and to the King sought after him and caught him up. The old prophet introduced himself, I too am a prophet, as you are . And an angel said to me by the word of the LORD to bring you back to my house so that you may eat bread and drink water. The man of God repeated what God commanded him exactly what he told King Jeroboam but the old prophet insisted he was sent to him through an angel by the word of God. And it was a lie, but unfortunately the man of God returned with him and ate and drank as against the LORD’s command. Right while at the table, the word came through the old prophet to the man of God. “ You have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not buried in the tomb of your ancestors.” God sanctioned him for disobedience. The fact that God did not speak to him directly was an evidence that he has lost his anointing and the spirit of God has left him. So he left the old prophet’s house on his donkey and as he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him. The lion and the donkey stood beside his body lying on the road for the lion did not devour him. If the spirit of God had not departed from him, and lost his anointing the lion would not have succeeded in killing him. Again since the lion did not devour his body, it meant that the word of God to him through the old prophet that he will not be buried in the tomb of his ancestors came to pass. It was the old prophet that came to carry his body and buried him in Bethel.
Samson- Judges 13-16.
Samson was born by Mr and Mrs Manoah. He was filled with the spirit of God from birth for his birth was prophesied by a angel who also said “his head is never to be touched by a razor blade because he is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” When he was born, the angel instructed his parents to advise him to refrain from foreign women, to avoid drinking and blade was not to shave his head. Special gift was impacted unto him by the spirit of God and he grew and became very strong. He was so strong that he tore a lion apart with his bare hands, could kill thousand men with just a jawbone of a donkey. He led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines for the Holy Spirit was stirring up his anointing. The Lord made a covenant with him that as long he obeyed, he would be physically strong. His long hair was a sign of his covenant Judges13:5. God sent him to go set the Israelites free from the aggression of the Philistines in those days. Unfortunately Samson violated divine instructions and broke the covenant. He slept with an harlot, chased after foreign women, and Delilah became a bait for him and he eventually leaked the secret behind his strength to her while he was on her lap.The spirit of the Lord departed from him and he lost his anointing and became powerless immediately his hair was shaved with razor blade by someone while he was put to sleep on Delilah’s lap. He was seized and his eyes were gouged out and he became a slave to the Philistines.Though his hair began to grow again after being shaved, the LORD had left him, and power and anointing had disappeared. The Philistines celebrated that they have captured Samson. He said “Let me die with the Philistines.”
Eventually he died with the Philistines and his brothers and father’s family came to pick him and buried him in the tomb of his father between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Brethren, Samson lost his eyes, physical power, anointing and died an early death due to disobedience. He did not guard and preserve his anointing with diligence and he lost out completely.
King Saul-I Sam 10-16.
Saul a Benjamite, son of Kish became king of Israel at age thirty and reigned
for forty years. The LORD instructed Samuel to “Anoint him leader over my people Israel; he will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines. He will govern my people.” 1 Sam 9:16b, 17b. The anointing of Saul was for a specific purpose. Immediately Saul was anointed the spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him and he began to prophesy, changed into a different person for God is with him. When all those who had known him saw him prophesying with the prophets they were so amazed that it became a saying “Is Saul also among the prophets? Anointing makes a difference .
Brethren, anointing makes a difference in one’s life, it transforms one and empowers one to do supernatural. God with him, with the empowerment and anointing upon him he was able to help the men of Jabesh Gilead to conquer the Ammonites who had been threatening them.1 Sam 11:11. After this victory, Saul was confirmed as king and all the Israelites held a great celebration as he was greatly accepted. Under his kingship he fought valiantly against their enemies on every side and defeated them thereby delivering Israel from the hands of those who had plundered them including the Philistines. After this victory, God sent Samuel to him “I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them, put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”1Sam 15: 2-3. King Saul did the contrary and disobeyed God. He had spared Agag, king of Amalekites, the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs - everything that was good. Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel “I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions. Since Samuel has been God’s spokesman he said “Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king over Israel.” The word of the LORD also came through Samuel “I am grieved that I have made Saul king because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” 1 Sam 15:11. The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors- to one better than you. The Spirit of the LORD departed from him and an evil spirit from God came upon him tormenting.
He only had a relief from the evil spirit when harp is played for him by David whom he engaged to join his service purposely for that. Saul lost his anointing, lost the kingdom and the Spirit of the LORD departed from him due to disobedience.
What a great fall and loss for someone who was anointed, given specific assignment by God to do and made king over Israel - God’s people. Someone Israel accepted as their acclaimed leaded. One, who received mighty power from above and one who prophesied, and given power to conquer the Ammorites until he disobeyed God’s command and lost all.
Brethren, from the three examples illustrated above, we could conclude that people have to go extra mile to guard and preserve their anointing.
They all lost it due to disobedience and insensitivity to spiritual things.
Brethren, disobedience is a broad term, but what ever command God gives, we have to adhere strictly to it. You are admonished to be obedient to God’s commands, honour God more than man and self and guard and preserve your anointing to the end with fear and trembling. May the LORD help you.
Prayer.
Father, thank you for your word. It says obedience is better than sacrifice.
Grant me the grace to be obedient to your commands and to honour you more than man and self.
Also grant me the grace to guard and preserve your anointing upon me and all you have endowed me with to the end of age.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
