Kenneth Copeland - Blessed Because Of The Anointing
Let's open our Bibles this morning to the Gospel of Luke. The absolute classic teaching of Jesus concerning the Spirit of the Lord and concerning the anointing. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me". Now the word, anoint or anointed is a simple word, as you know in its literal meaning, I mean in any language it's the same thing. It just simply means to pour. it means to put on or to smear on, to pour on. That is the reason, that is the reason we're gonna see it later on this morning. That is the reason to anoint with oil represents the coming on of the Spirit of God. Isn't that good? Come on isn't that good? Hallelujah, so to anoint.
Every time I talk about that it always reminds me when I was a young boy, oh my goodness. Oh dear Lord. My mother thought that Vicks salve would fix anything. And that nasty stuff is still around. Well, it's not so bad until they stuff it up your nose. Oh, come on, come on mama don't do that. Don't do that. I'll just do nearly anything in just any symptom of a cold and not even tell her. Because here comes that Vicks salve, man, hear it all over my chest, up my nose. So Clyde, I got anointed. I was Vicks anointed. Now the Word doesn't say anything about pouring the anointing all up your nose, but it does talk about. But I was anointed with Vicks salve. Amen, oh glory to God, my dear mother, oh bless her, I miss her. Anyway. That's really what that means.
Now take the word, Christ. It saddens me that the translators of the English Bible left the word, Christ untouched. And it has weakened, it has weakened the Bible. Because in Hebrew, it's just simply Messiah. Well, it means the same thing. The Apostle John is the only one that took the time to interpret it in his writing in the Gospel, and he did, called Messiah. Well, but as Gentilized English speaking people, if they had to put Messiah in there, we wouldn't have known what it meant. But it would have carried much more weight because we all as Christians know the divine importance of Messiah Hamashiach. It has a character to it. It has an impact, even when you think about it, because you know Messiah. But Christ, what is that word? What is Christian? To christen? Huh? Come on, help me here. Can you see that? Can you see what it says about us? We are "anointeds".
Now, the reason why we've first became called Christians, Christians, after Christ is because, until the Apostle Paul came along, that's all anybody preached. They preached, what Jesus preached here at Nazareth that day and what he preached everywhere he went, and I can prove it from the 10th chapter of the book of Acts. But then, also when Jesus, appeared to him in 1950, in Rockwall, Texas and anointed him with a special anointing to lay hands on the sick And then Jesus talked to him for quite some time, they were in heaven.
And Jesus talked to him about the ministry then for quite some time. And he said to him, he said, "Now you'll have to tell the people that you saw me. You will have to tell the people that I laid my finger in the palm of your hands, you'll have to tell them that your hands began to burn like they had a coal fire in them. You will have to tell people that". He said, "I had to tell them this, that I am anointed, I am anointed". He said otherwise, they won't have any faith for it. Now, of course Jesus got into a lot of trouble and so did Kenneth Hagin. He got to where he didn't wanna tell that anymore. But then, the Lord told him, he said, "You're gonna have to tell 'em for it to work. Tell 'em you saw me, tell 'em you're anointed". And he said, more than once, I heard him say it. He said, "When I began to talk about it, my hands start burning".
Now, my father in the faith, Kenneth Hagin, was my mentor in faith. And it would be scriptural to say, the apostle Paul said, "You have not many fathers". Both these men fathered something in me. Now, Oral Roberts laid his hands on me in 1966, and the anointing of this ministry came on me at that time, and I had an open vision at that time. I can see it right now. I can just see it before. And it struck me with such force, I literally, literally, my eyes wide open. I was there with my mom and my dad and Gloria. And they had already laid hands on them. And they went off, but I stayed back to watch him lay hands on the rest of the other people. Now, everybody in that line disappeared except Brother Roberts. And I could see just a little blue outline of the physical body, but I can see the inner man, I could see the spirit being. You've seen pictures I'm quite sure of Holocaust victims.
Now, where I was raised in Abilene, Texas, the man that lived next door to us came back from World War II. And he was in intelligence. And though those films had not been released to public 'cause they were too horrible but he had 16 millimeter film of that and we went next door and watched that. Now I was just, I was just a young boy by this time I was almost 10 years old. But man, it marked me for life. I didn't know people could look like that. And when you see the raw footage of it that had not been edited, it'll make you throw up.
This is the way this struck me that morning, that Saturday morning in 1966. I saw the born again spirit of these people emaciated, like those physical bodies of those people. It hit me so hard, I began to weep and could not stop. Impacted me with that kind of. I'm talking about the anointing here now. I couldn't talk. I walked out there, over to the hall to the cafeteria where Gloria was, and I could barely tell her. I couldn't, I couldn't. I couldn't talk for weeping, just weeping, Tracy, just literally uncontrollably. I just wept and wept and wept and wept, just wept and cried, just cried over what I saw. Now, I didn't know what all he meant, when he said this, "I have called you and anointed you to do something about that".
Well, I didn't know what, but whatever it was, I was ready. Man, I'm in this thing now. I'm after it, glory to God, what do I need to do? He said, I knew I was supposed to be at ORU, I knew it. I knew it three years before and ran from it because I hated school. And I was so broke I couldn't pay attention I had two little children. And I told Gloria I said "Gloria, what are we gonna do? Get up there at that school, and we'll starve out". She said, "Kenneth". Thank you, Gloria. Gloria, stand up, and let the people see you. There she is over there in the corner. "For that's the best thing that ever happened to me. Lord there have been times"... Well, I ain't got time to get into that. Oh, glory to Jesus.
And this is one of the reasons I say that. I said, Gloria, we get up there and starve out. She said, "Kenneth, we're starving now we might as well starve in the will of God is out". I said, Okay, let's go. The anointing, the anointing. And the word of the Lord came to me He said, "You're looking at the cream of the crop". What was the problem? Religion and no Word. Great big heads. Because this is a vision you understand, great big heads. Head religion, highly developed at the expense of the Spirit. Now, hearing a lot of preaching, and good preaching, I mean, come on, I'm not talking about crazy people. I'm talking about people that love God with all their hearts. These are Oral Roberts' partners.
And I have to tell you, that Gloria and I, it fit into that category perfectly. We got born again 1962. Baptized in the Holy Spirit, January '63, speaking in tongues, talked in tongues a lot. I was a scripturally illiterate. Now, I had experienced some outstanding teaching for a few weeks, but that was it. I got into a meeting in Houston, Texas, with Hilton Sutton and Charles Rogers. And that Hilton, he preached the Word of faith. I didn't know that's what it was at the time. But I got a little taste of that. And whoa, I'll tell you, I wanted more, but I didn't get any more until I went to ORUN. My mother, we came back to preach over a weekend there at our home church in Grace Temple And course when we walked in we had driven in that evening, and when we stand there, mother was to preach there at Fort Worth.
And so, when we walked in the door of course, mother grabbed Gloria and out, in the back now, I don't know where they were headed, but, mother just saw the moon and the sun rose and set, in Gloria Jean 'cause she got her little boy born again, hallelujah, oh glory to God. I said, mama, you have any tapes? "Yeah". And she handed me one of those big reels, Kenneth Hagin. I had seen him at a Full Gospel Businessman's Fellowship, but I didn't hear him teach. Kenneth Hagin, wow, praise God, "Paul's Revelation" on one side, and "You Can Write your own Ticket with God" on the other.
And now I don't care what he preached somehow or another he's going to wind up on Mark 11: 22, 23, 24 and 25. And the integrity of the written Word, I'm still talking about the anointing, the integrity of that written Word. And it hit me so hard. I always carried my New Testament in my pocket. Carried it there all the time. You know why? Why would you like to know why I carried my New Testament in my pocket? Because that's where I carried my cigarettes all those years. And that's what replaced those cigarettes, Glory to God. And I put the New Testament in my pocket, and I carried it there, amen until I got a phone I could stick in my pocket that had the Word of God in it, hallelujah. I said Hallelujah. Amen.
So, I wound up unfrt her coffee table praising God. And that's when I got introduced to the Word of faith. Called Gloria and then and she listened to it. And I mean, it's middle of the night by now. And we were just astonished. I said, Gloria we have to have everything this man has. I mean, glory to God. We have to have this, we have to have it. It's vital to our lives, because faith and the anointing are the two most vital things under heaven glory to God. Now, what makes the anointing so important? That's the supernatural. In the book of Judges, the last Judge of Israel was Samson.
Now, what continued to happen with Samson? Go back, and read it for yourself. He wasn't any stronger than anybody else. I don't think he was a very big man. It would not have been so astonishing if he had been a big man. But what the Scriptures say over and over again. "And the Spirit of God came on him, and he tore that lion apart. The Spirit of God came on him". Well, what is that? The anointing for his calling came on him, and that's the power of God on human flesh. Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Is upon me". The madman of Gadara, I mean you know this man's emaciated, he bleeds, he cuts, he doesn't sleep, you know he's skin and bones. But what happened? Spirit power came on him from that demon that possessed him, and all of that legion of demons that were operating in and around and in and out of him, it's just the opposite, quote "anointing". But it's spirit power on flesh, and you couldn't chain him and keep him. Are you listening to me?
Now we're talking about the same Holy Spirit that came on Samson. The same Holy Spirit that came on David. Now, it doesn't say how old he was. He was like, I know he was under 20 when he killed Goliath because if he had been 20, he'd be in the army. I know, in my spirit. I know as well as I know my name. The Lord just dropped it in me one day. That lion came, now, let me back up a notch. What did Samson say? He said, "Those uncircumcised". Who? Huh? Philistines right? What did David say? "That uncircumcised Philistine". So you see, they've got blood on their mind. They've got blood covenant on their mind.
And David told some King Saul, he said, I'm putting this spin on it so it'll impact your thinking. "That giant is no different than a lion and the bear. That lion had no covenant, that bear had no covenant, and I don't care how big he is, I'm gonna kill him. I'm not gonna try to care, I'm gonna kill him king". "I will take him out. Because I'm very well aware that there's blood between God and me. There's a blood covenant between God and me". And I add this to it. He could have said "I'm supposed to be powerful. The Spirit of God is on me. I'm supposed to kill him. I'm supposed to be well, I'm supposed to be healed. I'm supposed to prosper. I'm supposed to lay hands on the sick. And I fully expect that anointing to come on me". Oh, come on, Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord Jesus. I'm covenant aware. I'm a covenant man. I'm a covenant woman glory to God. I'm supposed to be powerful.