Where to Find the Anointing | Marcus Mecum | 7 Hills Church

If you've got your Bibles, you can turn with me to 1 Kings 19, I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Again, that's one of my favorite declarations, prayers. I'm a little out there, I'll anoint myself with oil. I don't need you to anoint, I'm going to anoint myself. David actually said that same thing, that you shall anoint yourself. This happened a little while back, and you're just going to have to imagine with me, I hate to acknowledge that this is my story, but it is a true story. It did happen, and it's still happening. But I want you to imagine you're fighting a door, it's an older house, it's an older door. And you've been saying to yourself, we just need to get a new door. And you've been fighting this door for years, years and years and years, not a couple of years, this has been years, you've been fighting this door. And one day you'd see the WD-40 can sitting out in the garage and you think, I wonder if I went and sprayed a little bit on this door, if it would help it any. And so you'd spray some WD-40 on it. And sure enough, like new, you fought it for years. But now all of a sudden, you don't need a new door, that door works like a brand new door. And you say to yourself, why did it take so long? Why did I fight that stupid door for years when all I had to do was put some fresh oil on it? But a month goes by and it's not working like it was. And then two months, and it's a little bit more difficult. And you would think that I would obviously just say, well, go get some more oil and put it on the door. But my thing is, it still works better than it had for the last 10 years. And so I was used to it being so bad for so long. I just kept pushing through, kept pushing through, pushing through. Just a few seconds, a few moments. Because by the way, oil is not permanent. You know this in your car, right? All the teenagers here, you need to put fresh oil in there. That's what the little sticker up on your window is. Last weekend, I'm trying to go to bed, but I hear the whole house is shaking. Not once, not twice, like 10 times. I mean, the whole house, like I think somebody's trying to break in. And then I hear Sarah's little footsteps come up and she's like, that door again, it won't work. It won't close. So I come down. Sure enough, now the lock won't work at all. It just needs some fresh oil. In the same way we fight so long in areas of our life, we're fighting in the home. We're fighting marriage issues, kid issues, job issues, finance issues, decisions that we have to make, mental struggles that we go through, things in our body that work,

things in our body that we're working through, relationships that we have, even in church, things have a way of just being difficult and being rough. And we'll go through these fights and these struggles for years. When there's a simple answer, I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Every area of your life needs the anointing, your family, your marriage, your finances, your job. I can tell you this, that I need the anointing in what I do. And what I do is no more sacred than what any of you do. It's the anointing that makes the difference. Now, let me say it like this, that the anointing, if you want a practical definition of it, actual is to smear or to rub on, but a practical definition is God helping you be better than you. I'm better. Things are smoother. Things work in a whole different way when the anointing is on my life in an area and when it's not. And it's obvious when you have it and it's obvious when you don't. It's obvious when the anointing sets on my life behind a message that I bring, and it's obvious when it's not. It's obvious when I'm leading in an anointed direction, and then I can feel something that's off when it's not there. The anointing is God helping you be better than you. And this is important that you know, God has favorites. No amens, because you think, well, God, no, God loves everybody the same. He's no respecter of persons within what's favored. God puts his favor on one and not the other. God has favorites, but the good news is you choose if you are one. Look at your neighbor and say, I'm his favorite. Not you, me. Not you, me, I'm his favorite. You say, well, how do I become God's favorite? Well, what are the things that are important to him? Are you doing the things that matter to him? Are you involved in the things that God likes? Because the anointing is attracted to people that are doing the things that matter to God.

In 2 Kings, it gives us some insight into this. Let's look at verse 19. So Elijah went out from there, found Elisha, the son of Shephal. He's plowing with 12 yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving with 12 pair, or the 12 pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen, ran after Elijah. Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, he said, then I'll come back to you. Go back, Elijah replied, what have I done to you? And Elisha left him, went back. He took his yoke of oxen, slaughtered them, burned the plow equipment to cook the meat, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant. Imagine you're standing in a field covered in dirt, sweat. Every day, you're behind a plow. Your hands are blistered, calloused, hardened. Because every day, that's your life. Every day, you're out there plowing. Every day, you're covered in dirt. Every day, you're out there working. The Bible says that this is the place that Elijah found Elisha. The anointing is Elijah found Elisha in the field, which means the anointing was looking for him. Which means you don't have to go try to find it. The anointing can find you.

You have to let the anointing find you. Where did it find Elisha? It found him in the field. It found him working and laboring in the field. The field speaks of the kingdom of God. Jesus said it like this, that the field is white unto harvest, but the laborers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send laborers. So when you're in the field, that speaks of souls. You're focused on souls, helping win the loss. I'm not, I'm just saying a part of your life is focused on that, you're burdened on it. You know there's only two things that are eternal, God's word and man's soul. And you have a focus about your life. What you can know is that the anointing will find you. It will find someone that's in the field, that's laboring and working in the field. Elisha caught God's attention. Elisha caught God's eye. God's eye locked on him because he was doing the things and in the places that God likes. And God says, something about that guy. Something about him. I'm not gonna just let him stay there. If you want the attention of God, if you want the anointing, ask yourself the question or maybe answer the question, are you in the field?

Are you in a place where you're doing things to build the kingdom? The reason we encourage people here, like next week to bring lost people or we talk about summit and going through that place where you discover your spiritual gifts or you find out a little bit more about us, we find out a little bit more about you. The ultimate goal is to get you on a team, to get you on the field, to get you. And it may be some things that you get a little dirty and it may not be super glamorous and it may not stand out to other people. But the point is the anointing is drawn to that. The anointing is drawn to people who say, I don't wanna stand over here and watch. I want to find a way to start working and laboring and putting something into this thing in between now and whenever that anointing that I'm believing God for finds my life. That's all right. I'm gonna talk about it anyway. Everybody talks about the double portion, the double portion. What about the double portion? The mantle fell on Elisha. You gotta qualify for the first portion first. In the first portion, he's in the field. He worked around the things that God likes. Secondly, he walked with the person,

Elisha said to Elijah, you're my father, so I think this is where we're walking with the anointed one, we're walking with God, our father, and we're walking with him. In other words, walking with means I'm close, I'm beside. Why does the anointing matter? How does it work? I'm learning those things when I walk beside him. The Bible says that as soon as Elijah walks out into the field, that mantle touched Elisha, and Elisha immediately got up and went after him. Immediately, he says, I'm going to walk with you. And the Bible says that he would pour water on the hands of Elijah. What his reputation was, what everybody knew about Elisha, and it was considered demeaning to him, he's just the guy that pours water, he's just a servant. There's no big deal, covered in dirt. No one else could see what was happening on the inside of him. No one else could see that God's eyes were locked in on him. Because he looked like he was doing something obscure, but God saw something different about Elisha. He poured water on the hands of the prophet. He walked beside him. Right there, every step of the way, studying, learning, watching, being a student. In other words, the first anointing was not the anointing to be some miracle worker. The first anointing was the anointing

of I'm willing to be a student. I'm willing to be a learner. I wanna be a disciple. I wanna be mentored. I want to be a follower of him. And what happened as Elisha's following Elijah at different points, Elijah looked at him and says, you can't go with me, you've gotta go back. So this is the part of learning to walk in the anointing that a lot of people fell in, that they get offended. What do you mean I've been pouring water on your hands? What do you mean I'm supposed to go back? What do you mean I can't go forward? What do you mean I don't get the opportunity? What do you mean I don't get the chance? What do you mean I don't get the blessing? And people get discouraged in the walk because the walk means there's a price that you have to pay which by the way, any decision you make that there's not a price attached to it is not a decision. Doing the right thing will cost you. Do the right thing anyway. And so Elisha has to get over the rejection, the depression, the feeling of being pushed aside, the sense of what I've been doing for him does not matter. Sometimes with God, this is where we pull back. But Elisha stays the course and he walks with Elijah. At one point, Elijah says, what is it that you expect to get from me? And he says, I want a double portion of your spirit,

not your anointing, your spirit. Elisha was focused more about the inner workings of Elijah than he was anything external because he knew that this is where character is formed. Integrity is formed in the field. Making a decision to say, I don't care what other people say about me, how other people see it, I wanna be found, I wanna work around the things that God likes and walk with the people that he likes. And then the Bible says, finally, finally, we get to the part in the story where Elijah's taken up, the mantle falls, Elisha goes and catches it, and then he puts it on or he wears it. In other words, the anointing is something God puts on you for a purpose. And that purpose is not you. You follow the miracles of Elisha, the widow, the young boy that's brought back to life, the poison waters that need to be purified. Which by the way, Elisha is known for the pouring of water on the hands of Elijah. And did you know of his 16 great miracles, five of them had to do with water? Because what other people said was in an instant. He's just someone that pours water, became the area that the greatest anointing was on his life. And so Elijah has eight great miracles that he performed in his life.

Elisha gets the double portion and he performed 16 great miracles in his life. Elisha goes and finds a young man by the name of Gehazi. When he gets to Gehazi, Gehazi takes the same journey Elisha did. He leaves everything and he starts working around. He starts walking with Elisha. He stands in line to be the greatest prophet in the Old Testament, as far as miracles are concerned, to have a quadruple anointing of Elijah, a double portion of the anointing on Elisha's life. This would mean 32 great miracles would come through his life. But Gehazi don't like the way Elisha's doing things. He don't wanna be a student. He don't wanna learn. Humility goes out the door. Pride seeps in, his motives get twisted, and the anointing that's on Elisha is cut off. The anointing that was attracted to Elisha avoids Gehazi because God has favorites. You get to choose if you are one. Do what he likes, get as close to him as you can. That's what Elijah told Elisha. If you're close to me when I'm taken, you'll get what you're asking for. In other words, he's saying, it's not just about what's in my hands you should be seeking, it's about a closeness. And we're going to anoint you with fresh oil today.

And we're believing God for miracles. We want to believe God for miracles to happen all across this room. But remember, the oil has a purpose. And you have to ask yourself, I don't want somebody to just pray for me. I want the anointing to find me, not just on a Sunday. So am I doing the things that God likes? Am I working in the field? If not, then find a way to get in the field. Go to summit. You went through summit, you didn't jump. I'm not trying to push summit. I'm just practically, I don't want you to be out there fighting and not know there is a step to take. Find a small group. Do what you can do to be around, walk with the people. And then just wear that anointing knowing that it's for a purpose. The anointing on my life and on your life has a purpose. This church is not as good as we are. But the anointing has rested on this place. We should have never been able to do what we've been able to do. I know me. And I know some of you too. And the anointing has made us better than us because we've been in the field. We've kept the heart of a servant.

We've maintained a spirit of humility. What can we do to serve the hurting and the broken? And that anointing has made us better than us. Let's never be a church that's not saying I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Amen?