Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy

BY LES D. CRAUSE

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy

Copyright © 2012 by Global Business Resources International

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1st Printing March 2011

Published by Global Business Resources International

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Contents may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of the publisher.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Global Business Ministries (GBM) version of the Bible.

Contents

Section 01 – Understanding the Anointing of God              7

Chapter 01 – Anointing in the Old Testament              7

Chapter 02 – Anointing in the New Testament              17

Chapter 03 - The Inner Anointing              27

Chapter 04 - The Corporate Anointing              36

Section 02 – Keys to the Glory of God              47

Chapter 05 – God’s Glory in the Old Testament              47

Chapter 06 – God’s Glory in the New Testament              55

Chapter 07 - The Image of Christ              66

Section 03 – How the Anointing is Imparted              82

Chapter 08 – Principles of the Anointing              82

Chapter 09 – Receiving from the Spirit of God              93

Chapter 10 - Receiving from Others              106

Chapter 11 - Imparting to Others              116

Section 04 – Hindrances to the Anointing of God              127

Chapter 12 – What the Anointing Should Look Like              127

Chapter 13 – What Causes Hindrances              136

Chapter 14 – The Roots of the Flesh              149

Chapter 15 - How to Assist the Anointing              161

Section 05 – Understanding the Revival Experience              173

Chapter 16 – Different Views of Revival              173

Chapter 17 – Revival in Individuals              180

Chapter 18 - Revival for Groups              191

Chapter 19 – The Cost of Revival              199

Section 06 – The Results of Experiencing Revival              211

Chapter 20 – Revival in Individuals              211

Chapter 21 - My Revival Experience              220

Chapter 22 - Revival in Groups              232

Section 07 – How to Experience Revival              247

Chapter 23 – Revival from Jesus              248

Chapter 24 - Revival from the Holy Spirit              258

Chapter 25 – Experiencing the Holy Spirit              272

Chapter 26 - Revival from the Father              288

SECTION 01 - UNDERSTANDING THE ANOINTING OF GOD

CHAPTER 01

Anointing in the Old Testament

15 | Page     Chapter 01 – Anointing in the Old Testament

Section 01 – Understanding the Anointing of God

Chapter 01 – Anointing in the Old Testament

Luke 4:18 says:

The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those that are bruised.

What is the anointing? You have heard the term used and everybody speaks about it, but what exactly is it? Is it something that you can put your finger on?

Is it something that you can look at under a microscope or measure on a meter? How do you know when the anointing is there, and how can you tell when it is missing?

The Anointing Will Show

I remember a little graphic that I saw a long time ago. It was a picture of a preacher standing behind a pulpit, and you could tell by the actions of the congregation that the preaching was having an effect on them. The caption said,

“Unction in the pulpit; action in the pews.”

A more modern way of putting it would be,

“Anointing in the pulpit; action in the pews.”

When there is anointing on the one who is speaking forth the Word, there will be an effect on the people who are hearing it.

You will be able to see when the anointing is there. Anyone who has ever stood up to preach should know what it is like to preach when the anointing is there.

If you are a preacher I can also guarantee that you know what it is like to stand up and preach when the anointing is not there. It is like chewing on rubber. It is an awful experience.

One of the most devastating and humiliating experiences that you can have is to stand behind the pulpit and try to preach the Word without the anointing. You feel like crawling out after the meeting. You do not know what to do with yourself.

You feel a failure. You feel useless and miserable. People are trying to avoid you at the door, so that they won’t have to say to you that it was a great message, because it would be a lie. It is a horrible experience. It is as though the Lord spoke to you at the start of the meeting and said,

“I’m not attending today. Do it on your own.”

Then He just left you and walked out the door, and you have to struggle on your own. It is an awful experience.

How do you come to the place where you have that anointing all the time? Is it one of those hit-and-miss things? When you stand up to preach you say,

“I sure hope the Lord is going to be here tonight. I hope the Spirit will be here and that the anointing comes on me tonight.”

Does it depend on me? Do I need to have prepared my heart right? Do I need to have been walking in close relationship with the Lord? Do I need to have been fasting and praying or dealing with sin in my life?

There are a lot of different things to be taken into account here.

I remember the first time I went into full-time ministry and was pastoring a church. I had the opportunity to be the one standing and doing the preaching every Sunday.

I began to have the experience that sometimes the anointing was there and it was powerful. But at other times it was lacking and I would have a bad experience. I sought the Lord and said,

“Father, I don’t want this to happen anymore. I want to be sure that when I stand up to preach the anointing is there. Lord, I want to know how to make sure that the anointing is there. How do I receive it? When are you going to bring it to me?”

Searching for Answers

I began to dig into the Scriptures to find out about the anointing. I pulled out my concordance to look up the word anointing. I figured,

“There have to be lots of Scriptures. We all know that the anointing comes down upon you, and then the power of God is there. We all know that don’t we?”

So I looked up anointing to find out all the Scriptures that would tell me about how I could get the power of God and the anointing of God to come down on me.

I could not find one in the New Testament. In fact the only two verses I found in the New Testament, told me that the anointing was a once only event, not to be repeated. I was confused and I thought,

“Hang on Lord, for all these years I have grown up in the Pentecostal Church. And they have had tarry meetings to wait on you for the anointing; to wait on the Holy Spirit to come down upon us for a fresh touch of Pentecost. Why doesn’t your Word teach that I need to seek the anointing?”

My Ideas Began to Change

I began to change my whole theology. I began to realize that what I had believed for so many years did not seem to line up with the Word - certainly not where the anointing was concerned.

So I learned a few principles, or I shall I say, began to learn a few principles. Famous last words are,

“One thing I have learned. . .”

You see the moment you open your big mouth and say that you have learned something, you can be sure that you will learn it all over again.

I can remember many times, boldly proclaiming from the pulpit in a dogmatic way, what I believed and did not believe. But the Lord brought me to some experiences that caused me to change my mind. The things that I had so boldly proclaimed from the pulpit did not hold water anymore. It is not easy to go back and say,

“Remember what I used to preach so fervently? It was wrong.”

So what I want to say to you here then is,

“One thing I am learning. . .”

I am learning day by day about the anointing. Way back there God began to teach me some new things about the anointing that I did not know before, and I am going to share some of them with you in this first section.

The Anointing Oil

Where does this word anointing come from? The original word means quite simply, to pour something over somebody or to rub on. The way they did it in the Old Testament is they used special anointing oil. Sometimes the word ointment is used in the King James Version in referring to this oil.

It was a special combination of certain oils in specific quantities that God gave to the Israelites. That formula was not allowed to be used for anything except the anointing oil.

It was forbidden for them to take those same oils and make that same combination for themselves. It could only be made by the priests and for the priests, and used specifically in the anointing process.

The Anointing for Priests

The anointing oil was poured upon Aaron and his sons when they were ordained to the priesthood. Aaron became the first High Priest as that oil was poured over his head. We read about it in Psalm 133:1 and 2 where it says:

Behold, how good and how pleasant [it is] for brothers to dwell together in unity!

[It is] like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, [even] Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;

When you had that oil on you, you began to glow. If you rubbed those aromatic, spicy oils on your skin you began to feel a warm glow. Why? It is because God was using it in the Old Testament as a type or picture.

The whole Old Covenant is a picture of what was to be fulfilled in the New. God was using a symbol or a picture in oil, of what He was to do with His Holy Spirit. He knew that when His Holy Spirit would come upon people, it would have the effect of a warm glow and it would be a pleasant experience.

The Anointing for Kings

The same anointing oil was used to anoint kings and to place them into office. This is the first mention that we have in the Scriptures of anointing. Then when God began to pour His Spirit out, He displayed the picture of the anointing oil, which was the Holy Spirit.

When God’s Spirit came upon people under the Old Covenant, there were many different effects that took place. It produced power in them and gave them a divine ability to do exploits for God. If you read Hebrews 11 you will see a list of some of the heroes of the Old Covenant and some of the things they did.

In Hebrews 11:32-34 the writer to the Hebrews says:

And what shall I more say? For the [chronos] time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and [of] Barak, and [of] Samson, and [of] Jephtha; [of] David also, and Samuel, and [of] the prophets:

Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

Powerful Effects from the Anointing

Miracles, power and anointing came when the Spirit of God came on those heroes of faith, causing them to do mighty exploits in the Lord. Let’s consider a few of them.

Gideon

The angel came to the mighty man Gideon to him to tell him that God had called him, and he was hiding away from the Philistines. The angel came and said,

“God is with you, Gideon, you mighty man of valor.”

I think Gideon looked around and said,

“Who are you talking to - who me?”

“Yes you.”

“Me, a mighty man of valor?”

“No, you’re a little wimp, but I am going to make you into a mighty man of valor. Now the first thing you must do is go and cut down that idol that your father and his family are worshiping.”

So you know what this mighty man of valor did? He sneaked in at night when nobody was looking and cut it down. But he took a step in the right direction. The Scripture says,

And the Spirit of God came down on Gideon.

Then he stood up and blew the trumpet. Well you cannot hide when you blow a trumpet.

Something happened to this little wimp when the anointing of the Spirit of God came on him. He had a new power and a new boldness, and he went and defeated the whole Philistine camp with 300 men.

Talk about change. The anointing of God will do that to a person. It will bring change. It will bring power. It will bring strength, and it will bring wisdom and boldness.

Samson

If you look at Samson, he received something else from the anointing. When the anointing came on him he just became so strong he could break anything. They tried to lock him in the city, but he just picked up the gates and carried them with him.

He was mad at the Philistines, the anointing of God came down on him, and he just picked up a jawbone of an ass and wiped them out. Strength and power are yours when the anointing of the Spirit of God comes on you. You become a new man and a different person. You do things you cannot do in the natural.

David

David said,

By my God I can run through a troop; I can jump over a wall.

Here was David the Psalmist, who released the power of God through song. He could go against the giant Goliath with just a little sling and a stone, because he came against him with the anointing of God. The power of God was upon him.

The External Anointing

We see also some of the early prophets like Samuel, Elijah and Elisha, and the mighty miracles, signs and wonders that they performed when the Spirit of God came upon them.

The anointing gives you divine, supernatural abilities. It brings a change. But what kind of anointing are we talking about?

As you read the Old Testament you see the same expression appearing again and again. It says,

And the Spirit of God came upon Gideon

And the Spirit of God came upon Samson

And the Spirit of God came upon Saul

You see that same expression again and again,

The Spirit of God came upon (name of person).

Well it is that same picture of the anointing oil. It is the same picture of oil being poured on top of a person, onto his head, and running down and spreading over his whole body.

It is an anointing that is external. It comes from without and comes upon the person’s body. It seeps into their soul and their spirit, and fills and saturates them. It is like being caught in a rainstorm or walking in a rain forest. It is like having a thundershower suddenly coming down on you. It is going to drench you and make you wet.

Such is the external anointing. This is the anointing that came upon the prophets and they prophesied. We read how Samuel said to Saul that the anointing would come upon him and he would prophesy.

Transferring the Anointing

We read frequently of the anointing coming upon people in the Old Testament. We read of how God said to Moses,

“I want you to pick 70 people and gather them together in one place. I am going to take of the Spirit that is upon you and I’m going to put it upon them.”

As they gathered together God came down. Then He took the same anointing that was on Moses and it came upon the 70 elders, and something began to happen to them. We will look at that shortly as we consider what happens when the anointing comes upon a person.

Even Saul, who was a king, when the anointing came on him, he fell under the power and lay there naked for several days prophesying. You would have thought he was drunk the way he was behaving. The anointing came on him and had a tangible, physical effect on his body.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

15 | Page     Chapter 01 – Anointing in the Old Testament

CHAPTER 02

Anointing in the New Testament

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

25 | Page     Chapter 02 – Anointing in the New Testament

Chapter 02 – Anointing in the New Testament

Well that was the Old Testament and the Old Covenant. What happened in the New Covenant?

We read that on the Day of Pentecost, as the disciples were gathered together in the Upper Room, they heard a sound of a mighty rushing wind, and tongues of fire came down and rested upon them. They began to act like drunk people, because folks came along and were saying,

“What is with you guys? It is nine o’clock in the morning and you’re drunk already.”

It had an effect on them and we will be looking at some of the effects shortly.

Tongues and Prophecy

It was the same kind of thing that you see in the Old Testament. The Spirit came upon them. You see it repeated throughout the book of Acts.

You see how Peter stood and preached to Cornelius’s household. And while he was preaching the Spirit of God fell on the people and they started to prophesy and speak in tongues. Something happened and it showed.

You read about Philip who went to Samaria to preach the Gospel there. And Peter and John came down to lay hands on these people so that they could receive the Spirit.

Simon the Sorcerer also became a believer. He had dabbled in witchcraft, in the evil powers of Satan. He was impressed with all the miracles and things, but he had seen all that before. Now Peter and John came and laid hands on people, and as they did so they received the Holy Spirit.

Simon looked and he said,

“Wow, I wish I could do that.”

Do what? Do what Peter and John were doing. Well what were they doing? They were laying hands on people, and when they did so the Holy Spirit came upon them.

What happened when the Spirit came upon them? The Scripture doesn’t tell us what happened, but whatever it was it must have been outstanding enough for Simon to say,

“I want some of that.”

Something happened. It was tangible, it was visible and physical. Something real takes place when the anointing comes upon a person.

Effects on the Body

There are many signs that took place when the anointing came. In the Old Testament, we see that with Samson supernatural strength occurred. Another example was where after Elijah had prayed for the restoration of the rain, he picked up his cloak and he began to run because the rain was coming. The Scripture says,

The Spirit of God came upon him, and he outran the chariot.

He outran the chariot! He became an instant marathon runner, and he probably broke every record greater than we even have today. Why? It is because the anointing came upon him.

The anointing has an effect on the human body. There is a very powerful release of energy that comes upon a person when the anointing comes upon them.

In the New Testament you notice the exact same expression as what you read in the Old Testament concerning the anointing. It is described as coming upon a person.

We read how when Paul came into Ephesus, he found some disciples who had accepted the Lord but they did not know the fullness of the truth. He said to them,

“Did you receive the Holy Spirit since you have believed?”

They said, “What are you talking about - the Holy Spirit? We’ve never heard of Him.”

They were a group who had been baptized but had not received the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them. So you see the expression,

The Spirit came upon them

Every time the Spirit came upon them something took place. The exact same sort of things took place in the Old Testament.

There were miracles that took place in the Old Testament when the Spirit of God came upon the prophets of old. There were miracles that took place in the New Testament when the Spirit of God came upon the early disciples and the apostles.

New Effects in the New Testament

It had the same kind of effects. But there was something new that took place in the New Testament that did not happen in the Old Testament. That is what I really want to major on here. I want to show you that the anointing in the New Testament is different to the anointing in the Old Testament.

Evidence in Speech

The first difference that took place had to do with speech. Jesus said that there would be various signs that would follow those who believe. In Mark 16 as Jesus gave the Great Commission it says in verse 17 and 18:

And these signs will follow those that believe; In my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;

They will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them

Strangely enough you did not see that in the Old Covenant. There seemed to be a greater power here than there was in the Old Covenant. Somehow there seemed to be something extra, but one thing stood out above all the others.

They shall speak with new tongues

In the Old Testament when the Spirit came upon people it had an effect on their speech. How do I know that? Let’s look at that passage where the anointing came down on the elders. You will find it in Numbers 11:24-25:

And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD [Yahweh], and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.

And the LORD [Yahweh] came down in a cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the spirit that [was] on him, and gave [it] to the seventy elders: and it occurred, [that], when the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, and did not stop.

What happened to Saul when the anointing came on him? He began to prophesy. What happened when the anointing came on the prophets of old? They began to prophesy.

Well prophesying involves speaking. It showed in speech. They began to speak out under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit took control of their tongues in some way.

Tongues in the New Testament

What happened in the New Testament? In Acts 2:4 it says,

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

You say, “Didn’t they prophesy in the Old Testament?”

Well they did that in the New Testament too. It says in Acts 19:6,

And when Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

There was definitely something very similar about the anointing in the New Testament to what there was in the Old Testament.

You say, “So what’s the difference?”

So far the only difference really seems to be in the tongues. They did not speak in other tongues in the Old Testament. In the New Testament they spoke with other tongues. And just about every time this anointing came upon new believers in the Acts of the Apostles, we read that they spoke with other tongues.

External Anointing and Speech

There seems to be a link here with the external anointing and with speech. It seems to indicate that when the external anointing comes upon somebody it takes control of the whole person in a way that controls their language as well.

When a person begins to speak and their very tongue is under the control of the Spirit of God, it is a sign that God has come down upon them; that the anointing of God has come upon them.

Old Testament Anointing and Works

All of these are signs of the external anointing. And apart from tongues, if you look at the Old Testament and the New Testament, they look almost exactly the same.

But if you look back in the Old Testament, you will find that God only poured His Spirit down upon individuals who fulfilled certain criteria.

He did not pour it down on just anybody. He was very selective and choosy about who He put His anointing on. And when Saul turned his back on God he lost his anointing.

It was possible under the Old Covenant to lose the anointing. It was also possible to increase the anointing, depending on the kind of life you lived, on the kind of commitment you had to God, and on whether you walked fully in His Covenant.

The anointing was dependent upon your commitment. It was dependent upon your righteousness before God, and your total commitment to Him.

But then came the New Testament. So far we have not seen any difference between the two, but yet there is a difference. I told you at the beginning that there is a difference, and I am going to show you that difference now.

Something Greater Offered

We go back to Hebrews 11, where it was speaking about the Old Testament heroes of faith, and it says this:

And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

God promised something to us in the New Testament that they did not have. There is something that is promised in the New Testament that makes the New Testament believer far greater than any Old Testament believer. So much so that when Jesus spoke about John the Baptist, He said that he was the greatest prophet, yet not the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. He said,

Amongst those born of women, no greater one has arisen than John the Baptist. Nevertheless, he that is the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John the Baptist.

Why? Obviously there is a difference. There is something that the New Testament saints have that the Old Testament saints did not have. They had the external anointing and the Spirit coming upon them. In the New Testament we also have the external anointing and the Spirit coming upon us. But where is the difference?

Sending the Comforter

In John 14:16 and 17, before Jesus went to the cross He said this to His disciples,

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

[Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him, nor know him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and will be in you.  (GMRV)

Then Jesus said,

I will not leave you comfortless.

In other words,

“I will not leave you without a Comforter. I will come to you.

What is He saying here? What did He mean when He said,

“I’m going to ask the Father to give you another Comforter?”

Why another Comforter? Who was the Comforter now? It was Jesus. Jesus said,

“I am going to ask the Father to give you somebody else to take my place when I leave. Don’t worry about it guys, I’m coming back. I won’t leave you comfortless. I am coming back to you, but I am not coming back to you the same way. I’m coming back to you in the Spirit.”

This was something different. This was a different kind of Spirit. Yes, it was the Holy Spirit, but it was Jesus coming in and through the Holy Spirit.

In Galatians 4:6 Paul says,

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Jesus went on to say to them in John 14:23

If a man loves me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.

The Spirit Living Within

Who is going to come to him? The entire Godhead - Father, Son and Spirit. Jesus was offering the New Testament saints something that the Old Testament saints did not have. He was saying,

“Not only are you going to have the Spirit with you and upon you, but you will have the Spirit in you also. You will have something in you that has never been there before. Nobody has ever had that before.”

Nobody could have that before because Jesus had to pay the price for the sins of the world. Jesus had to make man suitable for God to come and live there. God could not live permanently in a sinful vessel. He could only come upon; He could only be with while that person was walking with Him.

But Jesus made a way for that vessel to be purged and to be made suitable. He made a way for it to be made righteous and holy, so that the Holy Spirit of God, the Father of glory Himself and the Son, could come and dwell in that redeemed vessel.

Jesus made some promises during His ministry concerning the Holy Spirit. On the day He spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well, and He began to get her attention by asking her for water, He said to her,

“If you knew who I was, you would ask Me to give you water; because the water that I am going to give you is going to be different.”

He used these words in John 4:14:

But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never [double negative] thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting [zoe] life.

What are you going to do with a well? You are going to drink from it. Who is going to drink from it? You are going to drink from it. He said,

Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.

Why does He says this? Because you are able to drink from your own well.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

25 | Page     Chapter 02 – Anointing in the New Testament

CHAPTER 03

The Inner Anointing

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

33 | Page     Chapter 03 – The Inner Anointing

Chapter 03 - The Inner Anointing

Jesus was speaking about a new kind of anointing; an inner anointing. He was speaking about an anointing that was not for others, but for you.

It is for you to tap into yourself. It is for you to sink down your bucket and to draw from for yourself. It is to tap into for your own needs; for your own thirst, your own hunger or whatever your needs are.

Jesus was offering a source of power within that you can tap into yourself. He was speaking about an inner anointing. How does that inner anointing come about? It comes about by the Holy Spirit not coming upon, but coming to dwell within.

But there is still the external isn’t there? So what is the difference? In John 7:37 we read that Jesus attended a feast. It was a special event where they were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a time of rejoicing.

On the last day of the feast at the crowning ceremony, they would gather together. The Priest would go down to the Pool of Siloam and he would bring out a golden goblet of water. Then he would stand in the ceremony and he would pour water out of the golden goblet into some silver goblets. As he poured it they would read from the Psalms where it says,

Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.

Water of the Spirit

It was a standard ceremony. They did it every year even though nobody knew what it meant. But Jesus knew what it meant. He was going to be the fulfillment of that type or shadow from the Old Testament.

You see He was the golden goblet. He was the one who was going to go to the pool and get the power. He was the one who was going to go into the presence of the Father to receive on our behalf that new anointing and new Spirit. Then He was going to come back down again and bring it to us.

Gold is a type of deity. Jesus being very God and very man, was going to take out the water of the Spirit and pour it out into a silver goblet. And silver in the Scriptures always speaks of redemption.

Jesus stood there, and He saw it and He knew it. He was the golden goblet, and the silver goblets were you and I. They represented those who were going to be redeemed by His blood and through the work that He was going to do.

Once He had done the work of redemption, He was going to go and receive the promise of the Father. And He was going to come and pour it out into those whom He had redeemed.

Rivers Flowing Out

In John 7:37 and 38 it says:

On the last day, that great [day] of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and drink.

He that believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his inward parts shall flow rivers of living water.

From his inward parts shall flow out rivers of living water. It says in verse 39:

(But He was referring to the Spirit, which those that believe in Him would receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet [given]; because Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Jesus spoke about two different things here. He spoke about an anointing within that we could drink into ourselves; that we could tap for our own needs and for our own thirst.

And He was speaking about a flowing stream that would gush up and pour forth, to produce rivers of living water that would flow out to meet the needs of others.

Can you see the difference? The one is a well springing up that we tap into. The other is a gushing fountain that pours out to meet the needs of others.

External and Internal Combined

Jesus was speaking about a new kind of anointing. He was speaking about an outward anointing combined with an inward anointing. He was saying,

“You can still have the anointing of the Old Testament. You can still go and soak in the rain and become wet. But I am going to give you a bit more than that, because after you are wet you will open your mouth and you will pour out water. And you will make everybody else wet too.”

He is speaking about an outward and an inward anointing combining together.

There is something about the inward anointing that is different from the outward anointing. Because you see the external anointing came upon a person at God’s sovereign will. It came upon a person spontaneously and unexpectedly when God chose to anoint them.

It came with devastating results and it remained while God poured it out. But Jesus spoke about a new anointing that would come; the Holy Spirit of truth that He said would remain with you forever.

He is never going to leave. He will remain with you forever. There will be a power there that you can tap into and pour forth; that you can use at any time. Does this sound like heresy? Well let’s see what the early disciples did with this.

Peter Taps the Power

Peter and John were going up to the Temple to pray. When they came to the Beautiful Gate there was someone begging them for money. The Scripture says,

“And as Peter stood there the anointing of the Spirit of God came upon him.”

Does it say that? No it doesn’t. Peter stood there and stared at the guy and said,

“Look here.”

The guy thought, “Oh, you have some money for me?”

Peter said, “Sorry, I don’t have any money. But I do have something that I can give you, and such as I have I am choosing to give to you.”

Then Peter opened his faucet wide. He reached out and took that man by the hand, pulled him up and said,

“In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

He opened his mouth and the anointing gushed out and drenched him. And when the anointing hit his body the lameness just had to leave his legs.

The Scripture says he jumped up and ran all around, walking and leaping and praising God. Why? It was because Peter had power. You see the anointing had come upon Peter and saturated him.

But the anointing was gushing up inside of him as well. The man was literally riddled with it. He opened his mouth and it just shot out.

More Power Available

Imagine every time somebody opens their mouth, something spiritually powerful hits you. You cannot help it. Why? Because the anointing comes out of the mouth.

We will deal with that later. We will look in a lot of detail at exactly how the anointing is released, and how we can use both the inner and the outward anointing.

So there is something there that is available to the New Testament believer that is far greater than what the Old Testament saints had. When Jesus spoke to His disciples concerning the works that He did, He said,

“These works that I do (with the external anointing) you will do the same. But I want you to realize that you will have the capacity to do greater works than these because I am going to my Father. When I go to my Father I am going to give you back something more.”

The disciples had moved in the external anointing even while Jesus was with them. He gave them power and He sent them out and said,

Go and heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons.

They had operated under that power already. They knew it and understood it. They worked with Jesus and did the same miracles that He did by His side. But He said,

“I am giving you something greater. Just wait.”

When He ascended up into Heaven He said,

“Now you go and wait in Jerusalem until you receive the promise of the Father. Then power will come upon you when the Spirit of God comes upon you.

“You will have something new. You are not only going to be soaked from without, but the underground stream from within your spirit will gush forth in far more power than what you have known before.”

So we see there is a difference between the Old Testament and the New. In the Old Testament we see that they had an external anointing only.

In the New Testament we see that believers still have the external anointing. But we now have a new power that has been placed within us that can gush forth from within.

Given to Select People Only

In the Old Testament God gave His anointing only to selected individuals. In the New Testament Peter said,

Whosoever will may come. This promise is to you and to all that are far off, and to your children, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call.

This promise is to everyone who accepts Jesus and who believes. It is to every person who is born again of the Spirit of God. You do not have to wait for God to say,

“You’re my favorite. I am choosing to give you this anointing.”

You have a right to this anointing. Jesus paid the price and shed His blood to give you this anointing. It is your right, it is your and your inheritance, and He has given you His robe of righteousness.

He has given you the right to reach out and take what He has bought for you at Calvary. It is yours, believer. Everyone who knows Jesus as their Savior has the right to that anointing.

The River of the Anointing

In the Old Testament the Spirit came upon. In the New Testament the Spirit is within. In the Old Testament they jumped into the River to swim, but in the New Testament the river is within.

Ezekiel had a vision in Ezekiel 47, where he saw water trickling out from under the threshold of the Temple and into a stream. Everybody is talking about the river of God. They are all saying,

“Get in the River.”

The angel came and measured up, and each time he measured the water became deeper. It started up to the ankles, then up to the knees, then up to the thighs. Then it became a raging river that you had to swim in.

It is the river of God. It is the anointing power of God. It is that external anointing; the outpouring of God’s Spirit. You had to get into it.

The Old Testament saints had the river and they could get into it. But if you are a New Testament saint you have a river in you. You do not have to go and get in the river; you can give it out. Jesus said,

Out of his innermost being shall flow rivers

He did not say, “Little trickles.”

He did not say, “A tiny little stream.”

He said, “Rivers.”

He did not even say, “River (singular).”

He said, “Rivers (plural).”

You have the capacity to pour out. People are always going to find where the river is flowing and saying,

“If only we could go and find a church that has revival, we could go and get in the river and have a good swim.”

Do you know why that church is in revival? It is because somebody in that church knew how to let out their river; that is why. You will find that in every one of the churches where revival has come, that the revival is based on individuals; it is based on people.

You will see how in some of the great revival churches, an individual has come there and has remained to keep that revival going. Why? Because he knows how to pour the rivers out, and everybody is coming to jump in his river.

You have a river in you. Do you want to get in the river and go for a swim? Are you feeling dry? You are saying,

“I wish we had revival in our church. I wish I didn’t have to fly a thousand miles to a revival church to go and get in the river.”

What is wrong with your river? Did it dry up? You probably didn’t even know it was there. You have never learned how to let the river flow, and how to release what God has put within you.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

CHAPTER 04

The Corporate Anointing

43 | Page     Chapter 04 – The Corporate Anointing

Chapter 04 - The Corporate Anointing

We come now to the corporate anointing. What is that? The corporate anointing is what happens when you put a few people together who all know how to pour out their rivers.

Do you know how a major gushing river is formed? It starts with a little trickle up in the mountains. Then a tributary joins it from somewhere else and it gets bigger. Then another tributary comes in and joins it from somewhere else, and it gets even bigger.

Before long you have all of these tributaries coming in, all emptying into the one river. And before you know it you have a great big, fast flowing gushing river. Jesus said,

Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.

What is He saying? He is saying,

“If two or three of you will put your rivers together, I will come and add mine and we’ll have a gusher.”

All it takes is two or three - even two people standing together in one accord. Do you recognize that expression? Go back and read the book of Acts and you will see it mentioned concerning the 120 disciples, all waiting for the promise of the Father. It says,

And when the Day of Pentecost was fully come they were all of one accord in one place.

They were in one accord. They had one heart, one soul, one mind and one spirit. They were flowing together, thinking together and pouring their streams out. They were ready as one. Then the Spirit of God came down upon them.

When Jesus appeared to His disciples after He had risen from the dead, the Scripture says,

He breathed into them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.

When did they receive the inner anointing? Was it on the day of Pentecost? No it was not.

It was after Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended to the Father. He came and breathed into them and gave it to them. Now for the first time they had the right to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them.

Now I am going to bring the two together for you. I want you to see something. The disciples had the inner anointing already, but they had not received the external anointing yet.

How did they receive the external anointing? How did they put themselves in a position to receive that power that was going to come upon them? They received the instruction that said,

“Tarry in Jerusalem and wait.”

How? By uniting their hearts together and becoming of one accord. Can you see what Jesus was talking about now, when He said,

Where two or three are being gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.

Jesus was saying,

“If you will put your inner anointings together I’ll give you the external one. If at least two of you will just get together and pool the inner anointing together, you will draw the external. I will come in and pour it out on you.”

Two or More People Together

Now if you go back to the Acts of the Apostles, you will find that in every single case where the external anointing came upon somebody, there was more than one person involved.

When Paul laid his hands on the converts at Ephesus, the Holy Ghost came upon them. As Peter stood there and preached the Word, the Spirit of God came upon them. As Peter and John went to Samaria and laid their hands on the people, as there came that unity of spirit the anointing came upon them.

There is a key to receiving and flowing in the external anointing. If you want to see the external anointing of God beginning to flow, it will take at least two people standing together as one.

It will take a kind of a catalyst; a kind of a chemical reaction if you like. When you put two chemicals together they begin to ignite, and something begins to take place automatically.

Potential for a Bomb

I used to have fun experimenting in my early days. I think it was glycerin and potassium permanganate that you mixed together, and suddenly it would begin to froth and bubble and burst into flame.

I am sure all the kids today with their knowledge of pyrotechnics know exactly what I am talking about. You mix the right ingredients together and you have a potential bomb. Jesus gave us the recipe for a bomb. He said,

“If two or three of you will pool together what I have put in you, and become of one heart and one spirit, then I will ignite the bomb.”

We have been looking for the key to revival and the anointing of the Spirit of God; about how we can receive the anointing. And people are saying,

“You must fast for long times to get that anointing. You must deal with sin in your life.”

But you see people who are moving in the anointing of God whose lives are lacking. You see people who have been used by God who fell into sin, but the anointing is still there.

The Spirit of God does not leave you when you fall into sin. The inner anointing is a permanent abiding anointing, and the Spirit of God will continue to strive and to work in you to deal with that sin. But the external anointing, the power that will come upon you, has nothing to do with that.

It has to do with you, in faith coming together and uniting your heart with others. That is why you cannot do it alone. That is what the Body of Christ is about; what fellowship and the church is about. It is about coming together as one. How often have you seen that?

One Accord in Prayer Meetings

I remember growing up in church, and the one meeting that I really hated was the weekly prayer meeting. No, I did not hate praying. I loved to pray. You just give me a couple of people who liked to pray and we would have a party.

But you come into the church prayer meeting, and oh what an ordeal it is. People are getting up there, and they are wailing and weeping. They are crying out to God, and praying for the Government and for the people behind the Iron Curtain. I used to think,

“Oh Lord these people never pray at home. They come and do it at church.”

You are falling asleep while one guy prays for half an hour. And he is just praying because he likes the sound of his voice. No, that is not being in one accord.

I used to hate those prayer meetings. They were horrible. As a young person, freshly anointed of the Spirit of God I would gather a couple of young people together after the dead meeting and we would go and meet in somebody’s home. We would get down and start to worship.

“Oh hallelujah, praise you Jesus. Glory. Thank you, Lord.”

Wow, the power of God would be there. God would give us words of prophecy, and He would tell us to go out and speak to the lost. He would anoint us with the Spirit, and we would pray for one another. Things began to happen in those meetings. Why? Because we were in one accord.

The early church came together in one accord after they had been persecuted. They began to pray in one heart, one soul and one mind to the Lord and say,

“Lord, look at the way these people are threatening us. Now Lord, stretch forth your hand to heal, and let signs and wonders be done by the name of your Holy child Jesus. Lord give us boldness.”

I tell you what happened; the building began to shake.

You say, “Well it took quite a crowd of people to do that.”

No, it only takes two. How do I know that? Paul and Silas were in prison. They had been beaten and they were sore. They said,

“Well let’s have a prayer meeting.”

They began to worship. You have one accord when you sing together, let me tell you. They began to worship and sing praises to God. Somebody said,

“God began to tap His foot to the music it was so good.”

He tapped it so hard that the ground began to shake. There was an earthquake and it cast off their chains. It was the power of agreement; the power of uniting two human spirits together. Jesus said,

“If you will do that I’ll add my power to it and you can have the fullness. You can have the external anointing. You can receive the power. It is right there for you. All I want is for you to come together as one. That’s all it requires.”

When the Anointing is Given

I am going to conclude the discussion on these two anointings now, and I want to address one little question. How often do you need to receive the anointing?

As I read the Scriptures, as I shared at the beginning, I discovered two main verses on the anointing. The first is from 2 Corinthians 1:21 and 22. It says,

Now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and anointed us, [is] God;

Who also sealed us, and gave the deposit of the Spirit in our hearts.

As I went into the Greek I noticed that the word anointed was in the Greek aorist tense. This speaks of a once only, not to be repeated event. He who anointed you, once and for all, is God.

Then in 1 John 2:27 the Apostle John says:

But the anointing that you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you about all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.

The anointing stays. It is in you and is there all the time. You only receive that anointing once.

When do you receive that inner anointing? You receive it when you accept Jesus as your Savior, you are born again of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God comes to dwell within you. You then have the capacity for that inward anointing.

What about the external anointing? How often do you receive the external anointing? This is a difficult one. Those from the Pentecostal camp believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit? If you like it is a kind of point where the inward anointing and the outward anointings meet together and overflow in an utterance, the most common sign being speaking in other tongues. That event only takes place once.

If you like, what happens is a bridge takes place between the outside and the inside. A pipe is sunk down from your body through into your spirit. A channel is produced, so that whenever the anointing comes upon you, it will flow out of you. When you flow out with the internal, the external will come. The two flow together and work together.

If you begin to speak in tongues as I have shared so much elsewhere in our prophetic books, after a while you will begin to feel some of that external anointing as it begins to flow out into your body. You begin to sense the effect of that anointing pouring forth.

Difference Between Anointing and Filling

But there is an additional expression that is used in the Scripture. It is to be ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’.

Now this is where we confuse it. The anointing and the filling are not the same thing, and yet they take place together. If you read in the Acts of the Apostles it says,

And the Spirit of God came upon them (the fire came down upon them) and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

If you like, it is like somebody drenching you with water until you are saturated and full. There comes an infilling. There comes a pouring out and a gushing forth from within until it saturates your whole being. That is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

If you have experienced the anointing of God you know what I am talking about. You can feel it. It is flowing and there is power there. But after a while it goes away.

We do not walk in that 24 hours a day. We do not live in it continuously. So there is an anointing process and there is a filling process. In Ephesians Paul gives us a commandment from the Lord that says,

Be filled with the Holy Spirit.

He uses the Greek present continuous tense, which effectively means,

Be, being filled. Be in a situation of being continuously refilled with the Holy Spirit.

You have to receive the refilling of the Spirit all the time. How do you do that?

You have to do it by pouring out the inner anointing - by speaking in tongues, praying in tongues and by worship. You have to do it by standing together in the prayer of agreement with at least one other person. When you do that, there comes one accord and you are both filled.

After you are filled you start to bubble over. The stream starts to flow and the rivers start to gush forth. Then the rivers begin to join together and you get the river of God; the anointing power of God. Anybody else who comes into the room will feel it.

Have you ever experienced that? A couple of people are worshipping the Lord. They are praying in the Spirit under the anointing of God. You walk into the room and you say,

“Wow, I can feel it. There is something here; there is power here. There is something different here.”

Top Up Continually

The external anointing has come with it, but the process has to be repeated. Just because you were filled with the Spirit last night, does not mean that when you get up tomorrow morning the flow is still going to be there.

But the underground stream is still there. The Spirit of God is all around us, and His anointing is all around us because the Spirit of God is everywhere.

It is like the radio waves in the air round about us. They are there all the time. You cannot see them nor can you feel them. But you turn on your radio set and tune into them and you have a program or music, or whatever is being broadcast. Well the Lord is broadcasting 24 hours a day.

Do you want to flow in the anointing and feel the flow? Do you want to get drunk? You do not need to go to the bar or the bottle store. It is in the air. He is here. How far away is He? You just need to whisper,

“Thank you Father, in Jesus’ name.”

Just pour forth from within. Reach out and touch Him, and suddenly there comes a cloud of His glory. It is like sending up the vapors. The cloud forms and the rain begins to come down on you.

You can come into the presence of God and His anointing at any time. All that has happened in revival churches is that people have learned to do it, and they have gotten into the habit. They cannot wait to go back to the next meeting.

When they come back to the next meeting they do it automatically without even realizing it. They just come in one accord and expect it, and God never lets them down.

You say, “I wish our church was like that.”

Find two people. Well if you are the one who is on fire, find one person. Find just one person who will unite with you totally in agreement. If you can find a third one, that is even better.

Just pool your spiritual power. Learn to pray together and release the anointing of God together, and come together as one. And God will be there. Jesus said so; He promised it.

If you want to reach out by faith, and claim that promise and take Him at His Word, He will never let you down. The anointing will be there. It will always be there when you need it.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

SECTION 02 - KEYS TO THE GLORY OF GOD

CHAPTER 05

God’s Glory in the Old Testament

53 | Page     Chapter 05 – God’s Glory in the Old Testament

Section 02 – Keys to the Glory of God

Chapter 05 – God’s Glory in the Old Testament

Habbakuk 3:2 to 4 says:

O LORD [Yahweh], I have heard your speech, [and] was afraid: O LORD [Yahweh], revive your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

And [his] brightness was as the sunlight; he had rays [coming] out of his hand: and there [was] the hiding place of his power.

There is another word that is used in Scripture that links with the anointing, and it is the word ‘glory’. So in this section we will look at some keys to entering into that glory.

Different Pictures of Anointing

The anointing is pictured in different ways in Scripture. There are different elements or substances that are used to describe the power and anointing of the Lord. Some of these have already been covered, but there are many more.

I found seven such types of the anointing. That is a good Scriptural number – God’s perfect number of seven. I want to give you quickly the seven that I found. Perhaps you will find more, but I only wanted to find seven, so when I reached that number I stopped looking.

Oil: The anointing is pictured by oil. We considered that when we first looked at the anointing, and the anointing oil that was poured on the kings and the priests.

Water: The anointing is also typified by water. Underground streams are a picture of the anointing, and you can set up your windmill and cause the water to gush forth as I have described.

Wine: The anointing is also typified by wine. The Scripture speaks of ‘the new wine’ as being a picture of the anointing.

Wind: The anointing is pictured by wind – the mighty rushing wind, or the gentle breeze of the Spirit. The same Hebrew word is used for wind, breath and Spirit.

Fire: The anointing is typified by a burning fire. That is partly what we will be looking at in this section.

Light: The anointing is pictured and typified by light. We will also be discussing this in this section.

Cloud: The anointing is pictured and typified by a cloud.

Each of these symbols of the anointing shows a different aspect, a different effect or quality of the anointing of God. But as we consider this passage from Habakkuk, I would like to show you something interesting. Habakkuk saw God coming in His glory and His power, and He was radiating light.

Light and glory seem to go together. When you think of glory, you think of a bright shining object. He said that God was bright like the sun. It was the glory of God that he saw.

It is Hidden

Here is what I found interesting in this passage. After describing His brightness that was like the sunlight and the rays like laser beams coming out of His hand, the Scripture says,

There was the hiding place of His power.

That is the problem with the anointing isn’t it? The problem with the power of God is that it is hidden, and everybody wants to find it. That is likely why you are reading this book and why we are teaching it. Everybody is asking,

“How do I get the anointing? How do I get the power of God? How do I get my hands on it and cause it to manifest in my life? How do I cause it to come forth from me? It seems to be hidden away.”

A lot of the time people seem to think that God is trying to hide it from us. But He is not; He is trying to hide it for us. He has hidden it away so the Devil cannot get hold of it and the ungodly cannot get hold of it. But He has reserved it and kept it for us. And if we would just look in the right places, He has shown us where it is hidden.

We will be showing you where some of it is hidden so that you can get in there and gain access to what God has for you. If you can get His glory you can obtain His power. You can have the same power that created the universe manifested in your life.

This is the same power that Jesus used when He spoke to the weather. It is the same power that He used when He spoke to the sick and commanded the demons. It is the power, that when He spoke to a dead body it caused it to come to life. That power is in His glory.

So let’s look at the glory of God and see what the Bible teaches about it. If you can understand the glory then you can understand the power, and you can locate the hiding place of that power.

Let’s go first to the Old Testament to see what it said about the glory of God. Where was the glory of God manifest?

In the Garden of Eden, God came down in the cool of the day to speak to Adam. Unfortunately the Scripture does not give us a description of what God looked like. It does not give us a description of His glory and power. Some of these symbols only came in much later.

One of the first places where you can see a manifestation in the form of a picture or symbol of God’s glory, was when God called out for Himself a brand new people. He called to Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans and said,

“I want you to come out and I’m going to make you into a people. I want you to go into a land that I’m telling you to go to.”

Abram said, “Lord, please give me some kind of sign to show me that all this is so, and that you are going to use me and my descendants.”

The Blood Covenant

The Lord told Abram to cut up some animals and to set up a Blood Covenant. You read of how Abram split the animals in two and laid them out in order to perform the functions of a Blood Covenant.

It is likely that Abram walked through those pieces. Then he waited for the second party of the Covenant, who was God, to walk through the pieces also.

He had never seen God in a physical form. He waited and he waited. The sun began to set, and as darkness came so did the vultures. But then something unusual took place. The Scripture says in Genesis 15:17:

And it came to pass, that when the sun went down and it was dark, that a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp passed between those pieces.

God came down and manifested Himself. He walked through the pieces and performed His part of the Covenant with Abram. He showed Himself as fire, as light, and as a burning lamp.

God began to pour out His blessing through the seed of Abraham. He made His Covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

Glory on Mount Sinai

After that the children of Israel ended up in Egypt in bondage and slavery, and God raised up a deliverer for them in the form of Moses. Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land that God had given them.

He led them to a mountain – Mount Sinai. And as they came to Mount Sinai God came down and began to manifest His glory in greater measure. Exodus 24:15 to 18 describes this:

And Moses went up onto the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. (There is your symbol of the anointing, the glory of God)

And the glory of the LORD [Yahweh] remained on mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called to Moses out of the middle of the cloud.

And the sight of the glory of the LORD [Yahweh] [was] like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.

And Moses went into the middle of the cloud, and climbed up onto the mountain: and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

God’s glory came down on that mountain and it looked like a fire. It looked like a mighty cloud of God’s glory and power that was burning with fire. They saw a great big raging fire that was awesome, fearful, and powerful.

Moses went up into the cloud of God’s glory. I can assure you that it had an effect on him. It had an effect on everybody because the people were terrified. Moses must have had some courage to walk up that mountain and into the glorious presence of the Lord, because the people were too afraid to come near.

The writer to the Hebrews gives us a graphic description of it. It says in Hebrews 12:18 to 21:

For you have not come to the mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor to blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of [rhema] words; which those that heard begged that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

(For they could not endure what was commanded, And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it should be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

And so terrible was the sight, [that] Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

God’s glory was awesome. It was terrifying and frightening. The Scripture speaks about the fear of God. When you come into the presence of God’s glory, human flesh cannot take it. The people eventually said,

“Just don’t let Him speak to us anymore. We can’t handle it. It’s too much.”

After Moses had been in that cloud of God’s glory and came out again, the people were afraid of him. He was glowing. He was shining like a coal that had been set on fire.

His face was radiant with light. He had to put a veil over his face because everybody was too afraid to come near him. They took one look at him and thought they were looking at a ghost. God’s glory was radiating from him.

If you get into the presence of God’s glory for long enough it will affect you. It will start to rub off on you. And when you come out from there and go into the presence of others, they will notice there is something different about you. They will start to feel uncomfortable in your presence because you are glowing.

Solomon and the Temple

Later on God raised up David to create a pattern for the Temple and he gave it to his son Solomon. Solomon erected the Temple according to the pattern that God had given and they put everything in place.

Then they went in and took the Ark of the Covenant into the Holy of Holies, behind the veil or the curtain. They took the poles out, and they left it and walked out again. And as they came out something wonderful took place. The Scripture says in 1 Kings 8:10 and 11:

And it came to pass, when the priests had come out of the holy [place], that the cloud filled the house of the LORD [Yahweh],

So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD [Yahweh] had filled the house of the LORD [Yahweh].

The glory of God began to be manifest in a cloud that was so strong that the priests all fell under the power. They could not stand in the presence of God’s glory cloud.

Many of us today have experienced God’s glory cloud. When His glory manifests, human flesh cannot take it. Human flesh cringes and reacts and does strange things when it comes into the presence of God’s glory. It is awesome. It is frightening and powerful.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

CHAPTER 06

God’s Glory in the New Testament

63 | Page     Chapter 06 – God’s Glory in the New Testament

Chapter 06 – God’s Glory in the New Testament

We have spoken about how God’s glory was manifested in the Old Testament. Was God’s glory manifest in the New Testament in a similar way? Yes it was. Let’s look at some examples.

Jesus’ Birth

Where do you see the first manifestation of the glory of God in the New Testament? Can you remember? You are probably thinking that it was the Day of Pentecost, but it was a long time before then. It was at Jesus’ birth.

The Savior had been born. The promise of God had come, and in a manger was born a little child that nobody even knew existed. The Scripture says in Luke 2:8 and 9:

And there were in the same country shepherds remaining in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were terrified.

God’s glory began to manifest. On the night the Savior was born, God gave a sign saying,

“I want to show you something. You people that have wanted to know my glory and to see my glory. The glory that I promised I would put upon my people through the prophets of old, has arrived. It is here.”

God’s glory came and shone. God’s glory always comes with brightness. It shone like the noonday sun around those shepherds in the middle of the night as the Angel of the Lord came. The Angel of the Lord always brings God’s glory.

Every time I have seen the Angel of the Lord and His presence has been manifested our midst, there comes a radiant glory that shines forth and is terrifying. I am usually afraid to even look up when I see it. When I see the Angel standing in place, I do not want to go near that part of the room.

Moses and God’s Glory

God’s glory is an awesome thing. In the Old Testament we read how Moses said,

“Lord, I want to see your glory.”

He had been right in the glory cloud but he was not satisfied with that. He wanted to see the fullness. But God said to Moses,

“You couldn’t look on me and live. You cannot see my face, Moses, it is too much for human flesh. You just had a little taste of the glory cloud. It’s about as much as you can take.

“But I’ll tell you what, Moses, I will cover you with my hand as I bring my glory. My glory will come right where you are. Then I will remove my hand and you will see the afterglow. You can see my back part and what is left behind after I have been there.”

That is all Moses came to see. When God’s glory had been manifest in that place and had already gone, what was left was about as much as Moses could take. That is how powerful God’s glory is. If we could only tap into that glory and that power!

We saw that the Scripture says,

There was the hiding place of His power.

His power is hidden there for us, and it is made available to us. I am going to show you how that power was made available to us, and how you can begin to enter into experiencing and walking in that glory.

The Transfiguration

There was another occasion where the glory was manifested to man. You can read about it in Matthew 17:1 to 6. It says:

And after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain apart,

And was transfigured [metamorphoo] before them: and his face shone like the sun, and his clothing was white as the light.

And there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him. (They could handle it, you see. They were already glorified. They had already been taken up.)

Then Peter answered, and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if you wish, let us make here three dwellings; one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.

And when the disciples heard [it], they fell on their face, and were very fearful.

Can you see a pattern here? The power of God in His glory is awesome and fearful. It is terrifying in its magnitude. It is magnificent, glorious and wonderful - but it is awesome.

It is something you are afraid to touch. It is like looking at those cables that carry the main power supply from the Power Station. You look at them and you can only imagine how much power is in those wires. You know that if you were to touch those wires it would just melt you. So you look at them with awe.

You use that power every day, but yet you look at it with awe and you say,

“I would not like to get the fullness of that power. As much I would like to have a lot of power, I am afraid of it. I don’t want to play with it.”

God’s glory is an awesome thing. It is not something that you handle lightly. It is not something that you can take in your hands too easily and play around with, because it is devastating.

A Fearful Thing

Then on the Day of Pentecost we see another occurrence of the glory of God as described in Acts 2:2 to 4:

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

And there appeared to them separated tongues like [flames] of fire, and it rested on each of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

The glory of God and the power of God were manifested in tongues of fire. When that power came upon the apostles, and they began to go forth and manifest that glory, the Scripture says in Act 2:43,

And fear came upon every person, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

Fear came upon every person. Why? Were the apostles filled with fear as they moved in the glory of the Lord? No they were not. But when people saw that awesome power they became afraid. They said,

“I don’t want to come near these guys. If this guy gets mad at me he will blow me away.”

That power is awesome. It is unnatural; it is not normal. It goes beyond the sort of thing that we are used to. The glory of the Lord, and the awesome power that comes with it, always bring a sense of awe of God.

And as we look at the Scriptures and see how God is portrayed to us, we see that the Father, from the beginning, was always viewed with fear and with awe. The Scripture says,

No man has seen God at any time.

No man can look on God and live. His power is too awesome.

The Father in His glory is too awesome for mere man to look on. So God manifested Himself in human flesh, and we came to know the Son of God. We look at God the Father and we view Him with awe, but we also come to know God the Son in the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to know His love, His care and compassion, and His tenderness.

So we see two aspects to God. We see the God that is available to us, who dwells within us. But we also see the God who is awesome in power and glory, and when we come into that majesty and glory we want to fall down and die.

Can you see something here? Can you see the internal anointing and the external anointing?

External Brings Conviction of Sin

The internal anointing dwells within you. The Spirit of God causes Jesus to dwell within us, and in our spirits we commune with Him as friend with friend. In our spirits we can tap into the have power that is available to us.

But when the external anointing comes, as you come into the presence of the Father the glory begins to manifest. The power becomes so awesome that the human body cannot contain it.

The human body cannot stand it, and you cannot stand in the presence of it. You have to fall to the ground under the power, because human flesh cannot take this awesome glory and power of the Father. When you come into that presence there is an awesome conviction of sin, although you have been walking in righteousness.

My Experience of God’s Power

I remember the first time I ever experienced the external anointing power of the Holy Spirit. In that meeting where God’s power came down, a couple of kids were praying.

As various people began to gather in a little room and the Spirit of God began to move on them, every one of them became filled with the Spirit. As I came into that room to seek the Baptism of the Spirit, God’s power began to come upon me.

I had grown up in a Christian home. I had never been wicked, sinful or vile. I had served the Lord and had lived about as righteous a life as a person could be expected to live.

I did not do any bad things. But as I came into that awesome glory, I began to look at myself and I saw what a miserable, rotten sinner I was. I began to weep and wail; to cry out to the Lord and say,

“Lord, I’m rotten; I’m miserable. I’m a sinner. I’m vile.”

Isaiah was a great prophet of God, and he had a vision of the Lord and saw Him high and lifted up with His train filling the Temple. He had a picture of the glory of God, and he saw the angels flying, and the seraphim crying out,

“Holy, holy, holy.”

Immediately he cried out and said,

“Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips.”

When you come into the presence of a Holy God; into the presence of the Father and His glory, His power and His majesty, immediately all that is dark in you becomes manifest. Every wicked way and sinful failure in you becomes exposed.

That is why people become terrified. They become fearful, because they know they do not have a right to stand in the presence of a Holy God. They know they do not have the right to stand in that glory.

There comes fear and conviction of sin. You find this wherever the power of God has moved on men and women that God has raised up, who have moved in the glory and the anointing power of God.

That anointing has come on them so strongly, that people would be convicted by their very presence. There are many stories like that of the great heroes of old. For example, Smith Wigglesworth was travelling in a train and people started to become convicted by his very presence.

It is known that Charles Finney went visiting in a city where he was holding a revival. As he walked through the factory, it was so busy he couldn’t even speak a word because nobody would have even heard him.

But people started to fall to their knees and cry out in repentance to God, because the very presence of God was just exuding from him. The glory was radiating from him.

The anointing power of God was going out from him and was touching people. He did not need to say a word, because the glory of God made people fall to their knees in repentance. They became aware of their sin.

The glory of God is an awesome thing. Do you want to experience that glory? Do you want to walk in the radiance of His glory and in that cloud? Then you had better be prepared to take a good look inside you.

You had better be prepared to face the smallest little weakness and failure that you have. When you begin to move into His glory, your sin will become manifest because He is a Holy God. You are coming into the presence of a Holy Father.

Jesus’ Glory

When John saw Jesus on the Isle of Patmos he saw Jesus in His fullness. He was no longer contained simply in human flesh, but was the glorified Christ, full of the glory of the Father. He was full of the glory that was His; full of the glory that He had before the world began and which He put aside to put upon Himself human flesh.

John describes Him like this in Revelation 1:14 to 17:

His head and [his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes [were] as a flame of fire;

And his feet were like fine brass, as if they were burning in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his face [was] as the sun shines in its strength.

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

John knew Jesus well. Do you remember who John was? He was the guy who lay on Jesus’ chest all the time. He was the one who knew Jesus intimately.

He was the one that Jesus shared everything with. He was close to Jesus and he was walking in love. But now he saw the glorified Jesus, and he took one look and fell down and wanted to die.

This was one of the greatest apostles. He was the apostle of love, and according to tradition was the only one who died a natural death. He was the one who knew the love of God better than any other person did.

He was the one who you would expect would have the confidence to walk into the glory and be able to handle it without a problem. But he fell at His feet as dead. It was too much for his flesh to bear. He said in verses 17 to 18:

And he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last:

I [am] he that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of Hades and of death.

He was the glorified Jesus. That glory was manifested in the New Testament from the beginning of the birth of Jesus, right up until after His glorification.

How do we get that glory? What is the key to God’s glory in the believer? In 2 Corinthians 4:6 and 7 it says:

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the [dynamic] power may be of God, and not of us.

Christ Our Everything

Where is the glory in the New Testament? According to this Scripture, it is in the face of Jesus Christ.

God put His glory into a human vessel. He manifested Himself in His Son. Jesus took upon Himself the glory, and He now becomes the key to our access to the glory of God. The Scripture therefore says that it is,

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Do you want to experience His glory? Where will you find it? You will find it in Christ, because Christ in you is the only hope that you will ever have of experiencing the glory of God.

When the Scripture speaks about hope, it does not refer to something insecure, but to something very definite. It speaks about something that you can expect to happen.

Christ in you is your guarantee that you will experience the glory of God. The Scripture says that every one of us is, ‘in Christ.’ In 1 Corinthians 1:30 and 31 it says:

But through him you are in Christ Jesus, who through God is made to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

That, according as it is written, He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord.

Christ is made unto us whatever we need. Christ is our wisdom, our righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Christ is our anointing. Christ is our glory. Whatever God is to give you, He will give it to you in only one way – He will give you Christ.

What do you need? Do you need prosperity? It is in Christ. Do you need healing? It is in Christ.

Do you need power? It is in Christ. Do you need glory or the anointing? It is in Christ. There is nothing that you can receive outside of Christ, because God is only giving you one thing. He is giving you Christ.

Paul says in Ephesians 1:3:

Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in [the] heavenly [realm] in Christ:

Christ is the answer. Christ is the key to everything that the Lord has for us. Why is everything in Christ? Why is it that Christ is the solution to every need, the answer and everything that God has given to us?

How can Christ be the key to God’s glory, power and the anointing? Surely we should be praying for the Spirit of God to come on us? Should we not be saying,

“Father I need to know the Spirit of God. Yes, I know Jesus as my Savior. Yes, through Jesus I have access to the Father, and so in prayer I come to the Father through Christ.

“But now I need the power of God. I need the anointing of God, therefore I surely need the Spirit of God? Is the Spirit not the one who anoints? Shouldn’t I now be concentrating on developing a relationship with the Holy Spirit?”

Notice that Christ was not the name of Jesus. His Name was Jesus (Ye-sous) - Jehovah the Savior, the deliverer, the healer, the I Am, the everything, the victory - but He was called Jesus the Christ.

The Scripture says concerning Jesus,

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

CHAPTER 07

The Image of Christ

79 | Page     Chapter 07 – The Image of Christ

Chapter 07 - The Image of Christ

Christ comes from the Greek word Christos. It is derived from the Greek word Crio, which means to anoint. Christ means ‘the anointed One’. Christ means anointed; Jesus the Christ, Jesus the anointed One.

God anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with power. Jesus is the anointed One. It was the anointing on Jesus that made the difference. The demons acknowledged it. In Luke 4:41 it says:

And demons also came out of many, crying out, and saying, You are Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking [them] did not permit them to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.

They knew He was Christ; the anointed One. Why did He not want them to know? Why did He command them to be silent? What was it about Him that bothered the demons?

It was not just the fact that He was the Son of God. It was the fact that He carried the glory, the anointing and the power. That is what bothered them. That is what gave Him the authority and the power to cast them out. They saw it and they recognized it and said,

“We know who you are. You’re the anointed One; you’re the Christ.”

Jesus said, “Be quiet!”

From Stones to Rocks

In Matthew 16, Jesus asked Peter,

“Who do people say that I am?”

They gave various answers and said,

“You’re Elijah. You’re the prophet. You’re this and you’re that.”

Jesus said, “And who do you say that I am?”

In verses 16 to 18 it says:

And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah: for flesh and blood has not revealed [it] to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And I say also to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

What was Jesus saying here? There have been a lot of interpretations on this. The Roman Catholic Church says that Peter was given the Keys of the Kingdom to be the head of the church. They say that the church was built on Peter and that he was the first Pope.

The general belief amongst Evangelical Christians is that Jesus was saying to Peter,

“Peter you’re just a little stone, but I am the rock on which my church will be built.”

The Keys of the Kingdom

That is good and it is true. But somehow I cannot help feeling that there is something more here. Jesus goes on and says to Peter,

I will give to you the Keys of the Kingdom. And whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Now Peter had just made a confession. He had just said something so profound that Jesus became excited about it and said,

“Wow, you’ve got it Peter. You could not have figured that one out on your own. That was revealed to you by my Father. You got that by spiritual revelation, Peter.”

What did Peter say? He said,

“You are the Christ. You are the anointed One.”

Let me give you a new interpretation here. Jesus was saying,

“Peter, you are just a little stone. But let me tell you something. Peter, when you get my glory and my anointing, you’re going to become a rock.

“You’re going to be transformed from a little stone into a mighty rock, that is going to be powerful enough to take the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. You’re going to be a rock that will be powerful enough to go out and destroy the kingdom of darkness.

“And Peter, this is what I’m going to build my church on. I’m going to build my church on silly little stones that are going to be filled with my glory and power. And they will be transformed from weak little stones into mighty rocks.”

When the anointing, the glory and the power of God comes into a human life, it will transform it. Why? Because we will become just like Him.

The Scripture says that we are conformed to the image of Christ. It says that we are in Christ and that we are the Body of Christ, therefore we are part of Christ.

You are anointed. You are in Him and you are part of Him. If Christ is the anointed One, then since you are part of Christ, you too are an anointed one.

If God is to build the church on Christ, then He is building on you too, because you are part of Christ. Can you see that? The revelation of the anointing will transform you from a little stone into a rock. It will change your life.

It will make you from something small into something big; something weak into something strong. The power and the glory in your life will make you a different person. That revelation is the foundation on which the church is built.

The Father in Jesus

Do you want to see the glory of the Father? Where will you find it? In the face of Jesus Christ.

In John 14 Jesus was trying to teach the disciples about the Holy Spirit who was to come. It was the promise of the Father; the Comforter. As He began to describe these things to them, Philip turned to Him and said,

“Lord, please show us the Father so we can be satisfied.”

Talk about the hiding place of His power. It was so well hidden that they could not recognize it. Jesus looked at Philip and I think He must have sighed and said,

“Oh Father, could you not give me somebody better than this?”

He said, “Philip, I have been so long with you. Don’t you know me yet? Philip, do you want to see the Father? Then look here. If you want to see the Father look here and you’ll see Him. Don’t you know that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”

No man has seen the Father, but in Christ He was manifest. In Christ the Father was seen. But how was that possible? In the fact that Christ was the anointed One. He carried the power and the glory of the Father.

So if you want to see the Father; if you want to see the glory and the anointing and the power, where are you going to see it? You will see it in the face of Jesus Christ.

You may want to know God’s power and glory, but you are looking out there somewhere, having left Jesus in left field and the Father somewhere else. If this is the case you are looking in the wrong place. You are not going to find Him.

You will not find the Father and you won’t find the anointing. You will not find the glory anywhere except in the face of Jesus Christ!

Doctrine of the Trinity

You say, “What about the Holy Spirit? You have left Him out. Don’t you believe in the trinity?”

Jesus said something very interesting in John 14:23:

Jesus answered and said to him, If a man loves me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.

Jesus had just told them,

“I’m going to go away, and the Father will give you another Comforter, even the Spirit of Truth.”

He said, “I’m going to go away, and the Holy Spirit will come to you.”

Now in the next breath He says,

“Both the Father and I are coming to you.”

How? He has just told them the Comforter is going to come. Now He tells them that He and the Father are going to come. What is He saying? He is saying to them that the Spirit of God will bring the presence of the Father and the Son together.

I am not going to go into this in a lot of detail here, because that is covered in a teaching all on its own. I covered it in Bible Doctrine Made Easy – Elements of the Gospel.

Many people do not understand exactly what God is and how He functions. Most people who have always believed in the Doctrine of the Trinity do not really know what it teaches.

Many have separated God into three entities and they get confused when they come in prayer. They say the Father is the highest. He is the greatest, so we really should be going to Him. It would be wrong for me to pray to Jesus because He is below the Father.

So we go to the Father and we say,

“Father in the name of your Son Jesus,”

We feel that by doing that we are giving the Father due glory, because if we were to come and pray to Jesus, that would be putting the Father down. And since the Father is greater than the Son, surely that would be wrong?

I want you to know that the Doctrine of the Trinity does not teach that the Father is greater than the Son. The Doctrine of the Trinity was outlined, probably most concisely by the Athanasian Creed.

Okay a creed was not Scripture. But men came together and put in writing, statements of faith to clarify exactly what they considered the Scriptures believed. The Athanasian Creed says something like this:

There is a Father, there is a Son, and there is a Holy Spirit, and these three are equal, co-equal and eternal. The Father is called God, the Son is called God, the Spirit is called God, yet they are not three Gods but one. The Father is addressed as Lord, the Son is called Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord. But they are not three Lords; they are one.

Are you confused yet? That is the Doctrine of the Trinity. I am not talking heresy. That is the Athanasian Creed, on which the Doctrine of the Trinity is based.

There is a lot more. I do not have the actual quotation, but I am sure you could find it on the Internet somewhere and read up on it.

Separate Entities

What is it saying? It is saying there is only one God, but yet within God there is a distinction. We see that God is a Father, we have experienced God as the Son, and we experience God as the Spirit. But when you touch the Father you cannot avoid the Son, nor can you ignore the Spirit.

When you touch the Son you cannot ignore the Father and you cannot avoid the Spirit. And when you touch the Holy Spirit of God, you cannot avoid the Father and the Son because they are one. If you get one you get the others. Jesus was saying,

“When the Comforter comes; when the Spirit comes to dwell within you and to anoint you, I’m coming with and the Father’s coming with. We are part and parcel. There is only one God, and the fullness of the Godhead is in us. We are together, we are one, and you cannot have one of us without the others.”

Yes there is a distinction. The Father is the fullness of God invisible and unknowable. The Son is the fullness of God manifested, and the Spirit of God is when the fullness of God begins to move upon the creation and to bring change.

The Spirit of God was brooding over the waters. He caused the creation of the earth in the first place.

The Spirit of God is what anointed Jesus with power, and the Spirit of God is what causes the rebirth in your spirit and brings Christ to you. The Spirit of God is the one who forms the image of Christ in you and converts you into that same image.

See it in Jesus

The Scripture says,

There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.

Jesus said,

No man comes to the Father except through me.

He said,

I will send you the Comforter.

When Peter stood up on the Day of Pentecost, he spoke of Jesus and said,

Being ascended and exalted on the right hand of God, He has showed forth this, which you both see and hear.

He said, “If you want to see this you will know where it comes from. It comes from Jesus, whom you crucified, who is now seated on the right hand of the Father in heaven. He’s the One ascended.”

Do you want the glory of God? You will find it in the face of Jesus Christ, because He is the anointed One.

The Image of Jesus

So how do we go about entering into the glory and the anointing? We do it by entering into the Body of Christ. How does that happen? When we are born again of the Spirit of God. The Scripture says,

By one Spirit are we baptized into one Body, and we have been made to drink into one Spirit.

The Spirit of God baptized you into the Body of Christ, and as you came into that Body you became a partaker of Christ. You became a partaker of the anointed One. You yourself became an anointed one in Christ.

Jesus is the anointing. He is the Christ; the anointed One. But how do we increase the anointing? How do we manifest His glory? I want to end off with 2 Corinthians 3:18 which says:

But all of us, with unveiled face [continually] looking at the reflection of the glory of the Lord, are [continually] changing [metamorphoo] into the same image from glory to glory, which comes from the Spirit of the Lord.

It is quite a complicated little verse this. What does it mean? What is he talking about?

He is saying the Lord is that Spirit. He did not say the Spirit is the Lord. He said, the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. He is saying that God is manifested in the Spirit, but he says that we look at the reflection of the glory of the Lord.

We see an image. If you stand in front of a mirror and you look into it, you see an image of yourself. Somebody else standing to one side can look into the mirror and can see you. They can see that same image and reflection of you in the mirror.

As you look into the mirror and you see the image of this person, you see something that looks identical to the person in every way, right down to the last mole. So I can look in the mirror and I can say,

“I can see you.”

But in fact, what I am looking at in terms of physics, is an image of light; an image that has been formed on my eye, on the retina. It is an image that was caused by light reflecting from that person into that reflective surface of the mirror, and back again into my eye.

What I actually saw was an image of the real person. To see the real person I need to turn away from the mirror and look at the person directly. When I do that I see the real person.

When I look in the mirror I see the same thing, but I do not look directly at the person. I only see an image.

The Bible says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Jesus said in John 1:18,

No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared [him].

Jesus said to Philip,

If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.

Why? It is because as we look to Jesus, it is like looking in a mirror at an image of the glory of the Father. What is Paul saying here? He is saying,

. . .with unveiled face

We do not have to hide our face now to behold the glory, because we do not look directly on the Father. We look at His image and we can see His image clearly manifested for us.

He says, we behold and gaze upon that image. We look upon it, meditate on it and fill ourselves with it. As we gaze upon it we are transformed into the same image – from glory to glory. From the glory that was manifested in Christ to the glory that now becomes our portion.

As we gaze on the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the same image becomes imprinted on us. The same glory begins to be manifested in us and upon us. And the more time we spend with Jesus, the more His glory will be manifest in us. They looked on the early disciples and said,

“They are ignorant, unlearned men.”

But they took note of the fact that they had been with Jesus. It was showing. It rubbed off on them.

Isaiah and the Glory

How do we get the glory? Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and His train, His mantle came down and filled the Temple. And as Isaiah looked up and saw the glory of the Lord and the mantle of His glory came down, it began to transform him.

It dealt with the sin in his life, and he heard the voice of the Lord saying,

Whom shall I send, and who will go for us.

He cried out and said,

“Lord send me.”

Elijah and Elisha

The Scriptures tell us that Elisha desired a double portion of the anointing that was upon Elijah.

Elijah said, “There is only one condition. You will have to see me when I go. You will have to watch me leave, Elisha. If you want the mantle of my power, you will have to watch me go, because if you don’t watch me go you are not going to catch the mantle.”

Elisha had to stick around; he had to watch. And when the wind of God’s glory came and took Elijah up into Heaven, Elisha watched and he said,

“Somewhere up there is a mantle. It’s coming.”

He had his eyes peeled. It was probably going to come down like a parachute, but he was not going to miss it! He kept looking and kept gazing at Elijah as he went up into Heaven – and something came fluttering down. It was the mantle of Elijah.

He picked up that mantle and put it on himself. And he walked out in the glory and anointing that was on Elijah.

Receive His Mantle

Well there is another One who went up. The Scripture says that as Jesus stood and spoke to His disciples, He began to ascend into Heaven and they stood there gazing up.

Do you want the mantle of His glory? As Jesus ascended up and went up into Heaven He said,

“Listen you guys, you’d better hang around if you want to catch the mantle. You had better keep your eyes on me if you want to catch the mantle.”

They came together in that Upper Room and they began to praise and worship. They kept their eyes on Him, and after 10 days they heard something come fluttering down. It came fluttering down in flaming tongues of fire and it rested on them. What happened? They caught the mantle.

Do you want the glory of the Lord? Do you want the mantle of His power? He is Christ, He is the anointed one, and He said,

“The works that I do you shall you do, and greater works than these shall you do, because I go to my Father. When I go to my Father I’m sending my mantle down on all of you. But go and wait for it.”

Do Like Jesus Did

Where does it come from? It comes from Jesus. Do you want to get the glory? Do you want to get the power and the anointing? Look up to Jesus and keep your eyes fixed on Him.

Worship and praise Him, and the Spirit of God says you will be transformed into the same image, from glory to glory. His mantle will come down on you. His glory will come down on you and His power will be manifest on you. The external anointing will come upon you.

You will know His power, and you will pick up His mantle like Elisha picked up the mantle of Elijah. He went out and stood by the River Jordan and said,

“Where is the God of Elijah?”

Then he hit the water and it parted.

You will do like Jesus. That is what the disciples did. They took the mantle of His glory and they went out and acted just like Him. And do you know what? Demons recognized it, sickness and disease recognized it, and death recognized it.

Do you want to get the glory, the power and the anointing? Keep your eyes fixed on Him. As you lift your eyes up and you see Jesus high and lifted up, seated on the right hand of the Father, you will get a vision like Isaiah.

You will see His glory and you will feel vile. And you will fall to your knees and repent. You will humble yourself before Him and you will feel unworthy before Him.

Then He will take off those filthy robes that you have on, the garment of sin that you have, and He will put His mantle on you. He will put His robe of righteousness on you. He will put His glory in you and His power on you.

Then you will go out and act just like Him. People will look at you and say,

“We recognize you.”

The demons will look at you and say,

“You look familiar. We’ve seen that before. I know who you are. You’re the anointed one.”

They will know you. They knew Paul. When the sons of Sceva tried to cast the demons out, the demons spoke and said,

“Hey, we know Jesus; we recognize that mantle. We know Paul; he carried the same mantle. Who are you? You’ve got nothing.”

You take the mantle of His glory and the demons will recognize Jesus in you. Satan will recognize Jesus in you. Sickness and disease will recognize Jesus in you. That is why Jesus said,

As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Go into all the world and preach the good news to every creature. And these signs shall follow those that believe: In my name. . .

He was saying,

“In my name you will act like me. You’re going to be like me. You are going to carry my name. You will be called Jesus in the Spirit. That’s going to be your name.

“In my name you will do the same things I did. You are going to cast out demons. You’re going to heal the sick, and no evil will be able to touch you.”

How does it come about? The glory of God is available to us in Jesus Christ. To manifest it, all we need is to be made into the image of Christ. And whose work is that? It is the work of the Holy Spirit to do that. It is the Spirit of God that transforms us, because where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.

As we stand and gaze upon the Son of God, the Spirit of God takes that same image that we are looking on, and He causes us to be transformed into the same image. The Scripture says that we will be conformed to the image of Christ.

And the more we become conformed to the image of Christ, the more His power begins to manifest in us, and we too can go out and do the works that He did.

That is the key to the glory of God.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

SECTION 03 - HOW THE ANOINTING IS IMPARTED

CHAPTER 08

Principles of the Anointing

91 | Page     Chapter 08 – Principles of the Anointing

Section 03 – How the Anointing is Imparted

Chapter 08 – Principles of the Anointing

1 Peter 2:4 and 5 says:

To whom coming, [as to] a living stone, disallowed indeed by men, but chosen of God, [and] precious,

You also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

In this section I want to deal with the subject of impartation of the anointing. Have you ever looked at someone who has been used of the Lord and envied them? Have you ever said,

“Oh I wish the Lord would use me like that.”

Chatting to Bible Characters

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sit down and have a chat with one of the heroes of faith; the mighty men of God of days gone by who have really been used by the Lord? Have you ever imagined what it would be like?

I can imagine myself sitting down with Moses and having a chat and saying,

“Hey Moses, I want to ask you a few questions. I just want to know what was it like to be used by God. What was it like to hold that rod and to have God’s power go out? What was it like when you called the plagues down on Egypt and on Pharaoh?

“What was it like to have that power in your hands? What was it like when you split the Red Sea? Tell me about it. Did you feel some awesome power? Did you see something go out when you raised your hand and held the rod over the water? Did you see the power of God come down like lightning? Did you feel something? What was it like, Moses?”

Wouldn’t you like to have a chat with him? Wouldn’t you like to sit down with Joshua and say,

“Hey Josh, tell me what was it like that day you stood and you pointed at the sun and said, ‘Sun, stand still. You’re not going down till we’ve won the battle?’

“What was it like? Was there a power on you? Did you feel the anointing rising up? Did it go forth from you? What was it like?”

Wouldn’t you like to have a chat with some of these guys?

I sat and thought about all these people. I would like to have a chat with Elijah and say,

“Hey Elijah, what was it like the day you said, ‘Fire come down from heaven,’ and the fire came down and burned up the sacrifice? What about that time those guys came to get you and you said, ‘If I’m a prophet of God let fire come down and burn them up?’

“Man that must have been awesome. How did you do that? Did you have faith? Did you ever doubt that maybe it wouldn’t happen the way you said it?

“What did you feel? Did you have the power of God on you? How did it work? What was it like to have that kind of anointing?”

I would like to chat with Elisha and say,

“What was it like when you raised that woman’s son from the dead? Were you afraid it wouldn’t happen? What was it like? Did you feel something go through you? Was there something in your hands or was there power on you? Did you shake? What did you feel?”

I would like to chat with Peter and say,

“Hey, Pete, what was it like to walk down the street and have people healed by your shadow? I’ve always wondered, did you feel the power on your shadow? Was there a glow or light radiating from you?

“Did you feel something? Was there power going out of you as it healed the people? What was it like?

“What was it like that day at the Beautiful Gate when that man came to you and you reached out and said, ‘Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give to you.’

“What went through you? Did you feel the anointing in your hands as you grabbed him? Was there power there? What is it like to have the anointing?”

I would like to chat with Paul and say,

“Paul, what was it like the day you spoke to that Elymas the sorcerer and you rebuked him and blinded him? What was it like when you performed those miracles?

“What was it like that day when the snake came onto your hands and you shook it off into the fire? Were you scared you were going to die? Did you feel the power of God go through you? What is it like to have the anointing?”

Many Questions

What kind of questions would you ask the more recent heroes of old, like Smith Wigglesworth who raised so many people from the dead, and Kathryn Kuhlman who was used so mightily by God?

Think about it. If you could sit down with somebody who has been used mightily by God, what kind of questions would you ask them? I would ask them something like,

“Tell me, how did you get the anointing? How did it come? How did you go about moving into that place where God could use you like that?

“And when it came, what did it feel like? Did you feel anything? Did you feel the power of God on you? How did it operate? What exactly did you experience? Were you specially selected to get it, or do you think I can have the same thing?”

Then I think the last question that I would like to ask them would be,

“Do you think you could lay hands on me and pray for me? Do you think I could feel some of that power? Come on, please do it.”

Would you not like to sit down with somebody like that, who has been used so mightily by the Lord?

Various Ways of the Anointing

There are so many questions we could ask concerning the anointing. And I suppose the greatest question that is always in our minds is not whether the anointing exists. We have seen it operating in people.

We have seen people who were anointed by the Spirit of God, who spoke and preached under the power. And people would fall to the ground like some of the early revivalists.

One of the early preachers in the Wesleyan revival was known to speak to people in the open. There were folks climbing in the trees and he said,

“You had better not climb up in the trees, because when I start to preach the power is going to come down and you might fall out of the tree.”

There certainly was power there, but how did they get it? That is the big question. We know it exists, that it is there, and that God still uses it that way.

Nobody questions it, and only a fool would deny the existence of the power of the Spirit of God today and His anointing on human lives. But how did these people get to that place?

You have probably read their stories. You might have read both writings about them and some of the things they wrote themselves. As you read you begin to find certain patterns and principles that repeat themselves over and over again.

You notice certain elements of uniqueness in each one. You find different emphases placed by men and women that have been used by God and have been anointed by His Spirit. So sometimes it is difficult to get the full picture.

You say, “Well, it worked for this person this way, and it worked for that person that way, but what about me? How am I going to get the anointing? How am I going to be used by God like that? What happens if God didn’t choose me to be a Kathryn Kuhlman?

“What if God didn’t choose me to be a Smith Wigglesworth? Maybe I’m not going to get that. Is there some way that I can move into that kind of authority and power?”

Answers to the Questions

I am going to consider some of the answers to that here. I am not going to give you all the answers because I do not have them. God is still God and He will still work in ways that He chooses to work.

But we can begin to understand some of the mechanics of how God works, and of how people came to the place of experiencing that power of God and operating in it.

We can learn from experience. But above all we need to get back to the Word, because the Word is where the principles are. In the Scriptures you will find the principles on which you will base your future ministry.

They contain what you need to fulfill your hope and desire to move into the power of God, and to be used by Him.

Spiritual Impartation

The first principle that I would like to deal with is the principle of spiritual impartation. This is probably one of the most important of all. God has made us to be spirit and soul and body. When He looked down after having created the animal kingdom, God decided to do something different.

He said, “Let’s not make man like the animals. Let us make man in Our image; after Our likeness.”

God formed man’s body and breathed into him the Spirit of life. He imparted to man a piece of His own nature; something that was like God. He made man with a spirit. As we look at the different parts of our being we find out that each different part has different functions.

Communication

I have taught elsewhere that it is possible for communication to take place between two bodies, two souls, and two spirits. When such communication takes place in close union, something occurs.

God has designed it that in the marriage relationship a close physical communication in sexual intercourse results in reproduction. It results in a transmission from one person to the other, which gives rise to something new; a new life.

Also when two people become united in their souls they begin to affect one another’s emotions and thoughts. Two people who become very close in friendship begin to act like each other. They begin to think like each other and desire the same things as each other. There is both a communication and an influence.

Now that exact same communication takes place in the spirit, because God has created spirit to have a function called communion. Communion of spirit is where two spirits have the ability to commune, to reach out and to touch each other.

When one spirit comes into communion with another spirit there is a communication; a transmission of spiritual power and energy, which is sent from one spirit to the other.

That in a nutshell is really all that is involved in spiritual impartation. Spiritual impartation is when what is contained in one spirit is transmitted to another. How does impartation take place? It can happen in various different ways.

Impartation by Association

Firstly, it takes place by association. This is the same way that you pick up either good or bad habits when you associate with a person. Anybody who has children knows that if your kids mix with the wrong crowd they go rotten. You want to keep them away from the bad crowd.

Many parents are putting their kids into Christian Schools today to keep them away from the contamination of the world. They know that if their children mix with the wrong crowd they will pick up something bad like a contamination from them.

This is a kind of spiritual impartation from a spirit that is contaminated with evil and sin. When you associate with people who have that kind of spirit, after a while it begins to affect your spirit. You are contaminated and defiled and need to be cleansed.

Jesus used foot washing as an illustration of this. When Peter wanted to be washed all over Jesus said,

“It’s not necessary. It is only your feet that need to be washed, because you have already been cleansed. You have already been spiritually reborn. Your spirit has been made anew by the rebirth of the Spirit of God.”

But the Lord said,

“Your feet are dirty. You need to wash them.”

As you go out into the world, you rub shoulders every day with other people. You are doing more than touching them physically or uniting with them in your soul. There is a spiritual communion and contact, and it begins to affect your spirit. After you have been amongst a certain crowd, you come home feeling defiled.

You need to go to church on Sunday to have your feet washed because you are feeling unclean. You have picked up evil during the week in the place where you work, where you have shopped, or where you have visited for entertainment.

You have picked up defilement in your spirit and you can feel it. You feel that somehow your relationship with the Lord is off. But you need to hang around with people that are serving the Lord. You need maybe just one or two meetings on a Sunday of coming into the presence of God.

You come into where God’s Spirit is moving; where other people are coming that are anointed of the Spirit of God and filled with His power, and something begins to happen. You enter into an association of another kind. You are exposed to a good influence that comes into your spirit. It begins to wash away that defilement and you are freshly inspired.

This is one of the most important reasons for Christian fellowship. It is one of the most important reasons why you need to mix with other Christians.

You need to pick up from them what is of the Spirit of God, which is good and clean, wholesome and edifying. It happens all the time. You cannot avoid it. It is spiritual impartation by association.

Laying on of Hands

There is also a specific spiritual impartation that is received by the laying on of hands. When one person lays hands on another, somehow the hands seem to have a link with the spirit.

I do not pretend to understand this fully. I know that in the Old Testament the people laid hands on the scapegoat and identified with it. The scapegoat would then be sent out with their sin.

Putting hands on somebody identifies you with them. But there seems to be something more to it than this. Perhaps it is because the hands and fingers contain more nerve endings than other parts of the body, so that the hands are a contact with the entire nervous system.

Perhaps that is where the spirit joins with the body. I cannot fully explain the principles involved, but somehow in the hands there comes a communication of what is in the spirit. When one person lays their hands on another, they communicate what is in their spirit to the other person.

Examples from Scripture

We see many examples of this in Scripture. For example with Elijah and Elisha, it was clear that an influence came initially by association. Elisha stuck close to Elijah and went with him wherever he went. Elijah moved off and said,

“It’s all right Elisha, you don’t have to come.”

Elisha said, “I’m not staying behind. I’m coming with you.”

He stuck close to him. He lived with him and was with him all the time, until eventually he had the opportunity to receive the same anointing that was on Elijah.

Jesus took His 12 disciples and called them aside, to come and live with Him and to be with Him all the time. Eventually He placed on them the same anointing that He was carrying.

Moses and Joshua were a good example of laying on of hands. Moses was anointed by the Lord, and we will look shortly at how he came to that anointing. The Scripture says that Moses laid his hands on Joshua, and Joshua took over from him.

The people looked at Joshua and they could see that the anointing of Moses was on him. As Moses laid his hands on him the anointing was transferred. It was imparted and transmitted from the one person’s spirit to the other.

Supernatural Impartation

There are also times when spiritual impartation from one to another is done sovereignly and supernaturally by the Spirit of God. God said to Moses,

“I want you to choose 70 people from among the elders of Israel. And I am going to take of the anointing that is on you and I’m going to put it on them.”

All Moses had to do was gather these men together. God came down and took it off him and put it on them. Two of them didn’t come to the service. They missed it and stayed at home, and I doubt whether anybody was ever hit so hard while sitting at home.

They were likely going about their own business, when suddenly (kapow) the anointing hit them and they started to prophesy. It did not matter where they were.

Imagine someone sitting at work doing his job. He is right in the middle of all his associates, just minding his own business, and suddenly he starts belting out in tongues.

Can you see it? When God places His anointing He does it powerfully. Those men had been selected to get the anointing, and they got it whether they came to the meeting or not.

So there are times when God sovereignly ordains to set apart lives for His service and for His use. He will at times take of the anointing on one who is being used mightily, and place it on another.

If you hang around with the right person, you never know whether God might do just that when you are not looking. Maybe one day you might be faithfully sitting and watching someone operating in ministry, and suddenly God could take of the anointing on that person and put it on you.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

91 | Page     Chapter 08 – Principles of the Anointing

CHAPTER 09

Receiving from the Spirit of God

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

103 | Page     Chapter 09 – Receiving from the Spirit of God

Chapter 09 – Receiving from the Spirit of God

You do not always have to receive the anointing from the spirit of another person, because God is a Spirit and the Holy Spirit is the one who anoints. So it is necessary for you to come directly to the Lord to receive that anointing.

I am not speaking here about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit alone. I am speaking about an anointing power that comes upon you for a specific work of service.

Receive from His Presence

You can come to the Lord in prayer and enter directly into His presence to receive from Him. How do you do that?

You do it by spending time in His presence. And if you wish to have intercourse with the Spirit of God, then your spirit has to make contact with God. Intercourse involves two active participants. There are always two parties involved.

If you want to have close communion with God, then you have to put your spirit in a position where it is in touch with, communicating with, and being influenced by the Spirit of God. The best way to do that is to pray with your spirit as the Spirit of God gives you utterance; in other words, to pray in tongues.

We read in Jude 1:20:

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

The more you pray in tongues, the more you are yielding your spirit to the Spirit of God to take control of you.

Many Christians can speak in tongues. They have received the Baptism of the Spirit, and have had a touch from the Lord. They go off in tongues and have a good time with the Lord when they sense His presence in a meeting, but they do not speak in tongues again until the next meeting.

They wait until the next time they get into the presence of God again. They speak in tongues again because it feels good. They feel like speaking in tongues because the Spirit of God is moving on them.

How about making an effort towards Him? If there is to be lovemaking between two people, it gets pretty boring when one person has to do the initiating all the time. There is nothing worse than an unresponsive partner.

It should be a two-fold thing. There should be a willingness to communicate with one another, to express to one another all the love that is in your heart. I can find no better way to illustrate it than this.

Do you want to have intercourse with the Spirit of God? Do you want to receive an impartation and a spiritual reproduction in your spirit? Then you had better make yourself available to Him.

If you pray in tongues often, then you are yielding your spirit to the Spirit of God and inviting Him to take control of your spirit. You ask Him to handle your spirit and to pour into it.

The more you do this the easier it is to receive what He pours into your spirit. The more you pray in tongues and the longer you pray, the more you sense extra things coming into your spirit that were not there before.

The Spirit of God wants to pour into you, but He cannot pour into a spirit that is closed to Him. So if you learn to receive from the Lord in this way, you learn to also flow in love to others in prayer. And you don’t only flow out to others, but also to the Lord.

You see it gets back to lovemaking. It is a flow of love and worship. You worship Him in spirit and in truth, in prayers of worship, adoration and praise, telling Him that you love Him.

How much time do you spend doing that in prayer? Is 90 percent of your prayer time coming to the Lord with your needs and crying out to Him in despair?

“Lord, help us. Lord, please help that other person.”

We are always bringing the Lord our requests. But how much time do you spend saying,

“Lord, I just want to be with you today. I want to tell you that I love you, and I want to hear you tell me that you love me. I just want to be in your presence.”

That is spiritual intercourse, and as it takes place, the Spirit of God rejoices and delights in you. As you begin to pour out your love to Him, His heart of love wells up and He has more love than you could ever give or receive. You will hear Him saying,

“Can I do something for you? Is there something you would like? What can I give you?”

I know what I want Him to give me, don’t you?

“I want some more power, Lord. I want your anointing and your glory.”

The more time you spend with Him, the more you will find Him pouring that anointing and glory into you.

Receive Through Fasting

You can receive directly from the Lord and from the Spirit of God through fasting. Yes, you can do it through fasting.

A lot of people have the wrong idea about fasting. They seem to think that fasting is a way of twisting God’s arm; of making Him give you what He doesn’t feel like giving you normally. So the logic is this,

“If I fast, God is obligated to answer my prayer. So therefore if I fast for a day I begin to nag the Lord and put a bit of pressure on Him. If I fast for two days, then I’m putting a bit more pressure on Him.

“If I fast for three days, He is really getting pressurized. If I fast for a week, then God is getting to the point where He really has no choice. If I can go 40 days then He has to give me what I want.”

That is nonsense. One of the biggest lies that the enemy has put out, is that we have to spend long periods in fasting. We have to force God’s hand to give us what He has wanted to give us all along.

All fasting does is to cut out all the drains on your spiritual power. This means that you can concentrate all your spiritual resources on the Lord alone.

It is like switching off all the appliances and unnecessary lights in the house, so that you can concentrate on the one source of power that counts. Then the entire power is available to be focused and concentrated on one thing alone.

This is all that fasting accomplishes. It simply intensifies the spiritual power that is available to you from your spirit.

I have found that the longest period a person normally needs to fast for is three days. Moses fasted for 40 days, but he did not only fast from food; he didn’t drink water either. He went into the presence of the Lord and was divinely sustained.

Yes Jesus fasted for 40 days, and He too was sustained. The angels were there to strengthen Him and to help Him. He had a mighty work to do – the work of redemption. You do not have that work to do. It has been done.

If you cannot obtain results to your prayer by fasting after three days, if I were you I would give up because you are going about it all wrong. I usually start to see an answer by the second day.

I have seldom had to go the third day before the results come. You are focusing your spiritual energies when you fast. If you have never learned how to do that, then you need to learn how to release the power of the recreated human spirit.

You need to learn how to create templates. You need to learn the New Way of Blessing and some of the basic principles we taught there of using the power that is there.

You do not have to fast for long periods to receive the anointing of God. If God should call you aside to a longer period of fasting, and I am not saying He can’t, then He has a specific reason in calling you to be set apart for Him. It might be that you are a person who requires a longer period to break through.

I will not argue with you if you say God led you to fast longer. But many are fasting for long periods because they have the misconception that the longer the fast the greater the blessing. Such people often end up discouraged after they have fasted for their 20, 30 or 40 days, and they don’t obtain the blessing they were looking for.

Sometimes a person sets their heart to fast for 40 days and they break it after 21, and they feel a failure because they think they disobeyed the Lord. The entire 21 days was wasted. I have ministered to people like that.

Let’s put fasting in the right place. It does have a place, because through fasting we deny the desires of the body in order that the desires of the spirit may be highly magnified.

We increase our spiritual capacity. But we do not increase God’s desire to bless, and we don’t put pressure on the Lord to give us what He did not want to give us in the first place.

Relationship With Jesus

The greatest method of receiving direct from the Lord is by association with the Lord Jesus Himself. The early disciples experienced this, and there is a verse in the Acts that describes it so well. Acts 4:13 says:

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and realized that they were uneducated and ignorant men, they were amazed; and they took note of the fact that they had been with Jesus.

How did they know that Peter and John had been with Jesus? It was because His influence was showing and they were acting just like Him.

They probably even used the same facial expressions as Jesus and the same kind of words that He did. They were being just like Him. It was quite clear to everyone that they had been associated with Him.

Do you want to obtain the anointing? Why bother looking for someone that is being used mightily by the Lord? Why not rather go right to the top? Why not go to the One who supplies the anointing from the Throne Room of Heaven?

Why not spend time in His presence and let Him rub off on you? There is no better way to obtain the anointing than to spend time in the presence of the Lord Jesus.

Becoming Like Jesus

Many folks have a problem with this because they had a bad relationship with their own father. Perhaps they found it easier to relate to their mother. I think that is how the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception came into existence.

Whoever started that probably figured that he did not have the right to come directly to Jesus, so he got around this by going to His mother. People began to worship the Virgin Mary, because they saw Jesus as a father and were afraid to come directly to Him.

To many, a father is one who does not care, never pays attention or interest, and is too busy anyway. They will say things like,

“Why do I bother going to ask him? He doesn’t care.”

But He does care. He is the most loving father that there is. You need to get into His presence to find out about His love and to realize how tender and loving He really is. He will not brush you off and say,

“I have more important things to do.”

He might have been restricted when He walked the earth in a human body, but today He is available to us in the Holy Spirit. He is unlimited and unrestricted. That is why He told us that we could do greater things that He did.

Children tend to become exactly like their parents. It is a wonderful thing when you see your little son or daughter acting just like you. They use the same expressions as you, and they want to dress like you and to be like you? The Scripture says in Ephesians 5:1 and 2:

Be therefore followers of God, as dear children;

And walk in [agape] love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

If you allow Jesus to be your heavenly daddy and spend a lot of time with Him, then after a while you will start acting like Him. You will do it automatically. It comes as a natural result of spending time in His presence

My Experiences With Fasting

I am sure that you have experienced many of these things. I know that I have had times of prayer and fasting and waiting on the Lord. I generally find it fairly easy, once I know that the Lord is calling me to a fast.

Then it is very easy to go two or three days. But when you are not led to do this, it can be a very tough experience.

I have at times felt the need to go for longer periods of fasting, simply because everyone else was doing it. I went once for seven days and I felt terrible. Eventually I had to stop the fast because I could not go on. About all that I accomplished was catching the flu, because my body resistance was so down.

On another occasion as I sought the Lord for a greater anointing, there was a great flow of power building up to the third day, but after that it began to wane.

However I pushed through until I reached the eighth day. I was feeling good physically and there were many benefits to the fast, including losing weight. But I found that I was losing some of my spiritual sensitivity instead of seeing an increase in the anointing. The moment I broke the fast I found that I could flow far better in the anointing than before.

I have found through experience that spending time in His presence is far more beneficial than fasting. You can fast and not spend time in His presence, and then your fast has no benefit at all.

Sometimes you become so absorbed with His presence that you forget to eat, and that really is what fasting is about. It is not an exercise that forces His hand, but rather a restructuring of your priorities.

Jesus said, “Why do you want to fast when the Bridegroom is with you?”

It is true that the Bridegroom has gone back to Heaven, but He has also come back in the Spirit and He is with us. It is not necessary for me to fast, except for extreme circumstances. But it is far more important to spend time in prayer.

There was a time that I had set aside my entire day for the Lord. I had left my job, left the church and was not involved in anything. I had all day to concentrate on Him and to wait in His presence.

I would get up in the morning and have a glorious time in His presence. In the afternoon I would go and have another time in His presence, and in the evening I would do it again. I was paranoid about praying. It was wonderful. I started to move into a realm of communion with the Lord that I had never known before.

A Love Relationship

It was during that time that He appeared to me for the first time one night, and I came to know Him as my heavenly Father. I came to understand the kind of love that He loves with.

I entered into a relationship where every day He would be there waiting. It was just Him and me and nobody else was allowed. You see it is like spiritual intercourse. You do not invite observers. It is something that you do alone with the one that you love.

He was there every day and we would have chats together in the Spirit. He was always there to say something wonderful and loving. He never ever once said anything to me that had a hint of condemnation in it. It is always something wonderful; always something complimentary.

Your Partner in Ministry

What I am talking about here is a love relationship. It is a face to face relationship with the Lord Jesus. You will find that when you come into the presence of others in ministry, He comes with you and you can speak with Him.

To minister to others becomes so much easier, because you do not have to receive a word of prophecy or revelation. When you are with someone who has a need, you simply take Him with you.

When a need arises and somebody needs prayer, you won’t have to try to find out what to do. You simply ask Him.

“Hey, Lord, what do you want to do here?”

He will tell you, and you can tell the person what the Lord said.

You do not have to say,

“Thus says the Lord, Behold I am with you. . .” and give a long prophesy.

I am not saying that those things will not operate anymore, but they will take on a new dimension. You will experience a new kind of anointing that you have never known before. When you minister to people you will simply take His presence with you.

And when you minister to them, love will well up within that is not natural to you. You will begin to feel His love and His heart towards that person. You will come into a church service and begin to worship and you will feel His heart. Sometimes you will sense that His heart is grieved and you might hear Him saying,

“These people are worshipping me with their lips, but their minds are somewhere else. They are just doing it as a show. They don’t really care for me.”

You will feel it when He is feeling hurt and rejected. You will feel His heart and His Spirit, because you and Him have become one. You will be walking in close fellowship with Him.

It makes ministry so much easier and the anointing so much easier. Do you know why? It is because it is not your anointing; it is His. He is the anointed One, and if you are ministering then you take Him with you.

You say, “Lord, what must I do here? This person is sick; what should I do? Do you want to heal him?”

“Of course I want to heal him.”

“What do you want me to do, Lord?”

“Lay your hands on him and tell the sickness to go.”

“Okay.”

You just start acting like Him.

Knowing the Mind of Christ

What did Jesus say? He said,

I do only what I see the Father do.

He said to the disciples,

As the Father has sent me, so send I you.

So what should you be doing? You should be doing what you see Jesus do. You should be seeing Christ in everything. When you come into a situation, you should be able to intelligently ask the question,

“What would the Lord do here right now?”

People have their heads filled with theological garbage that says,

“Well I believe the Lord wants you to die now, so I’m not going to pray for your healing. Lord, comfort those who are being left behind when this person dies.”

Could you see Jesus doing that? Oh the nonsense that we fill our hearts and our minds with! If you want to flow in the anointing, you had better know the mind of Christ.

How will you get to know His mind? By spending time with Him. My wife and I are so close that sometimes we start saying the same thing at the same time. We start singing the same song at the same time, and use the same expression at the same time.

Why? It is because we have begun to think together as one. When we face a situation we both spontaneously come out with the same statement. Our minds and our hearts are one.

You need to become that way with the Lord Jesus, that when you meet a situation you do not need to pray,

“Well Lord, is it your will to heal?”

Of course it is His will. You should know because you know His heart. His heart is in you. It is so simple really, but we do not take the time do we? We want to use a whole set of mechanics.

We say, “Rule No. 1 – so many hours of prayer and so many days of fasting, dealing with sin in your life, dealing with this and that.”

We have the keys to revival all laid out. But God is not an it, nor is the Spirit of God an it. God is a real person, Jesus is a real person, and the Spirit of God is a real person. He is not just an influence.

If you want to move in the anointing, you had better learn to move in a person, not in an experience or an influence. You are moving with the living God, and you are simply being His hands, His feet and His mouth. You are His hand extended in the earth, and all you are doing is acting out what God wants to do.

That is all the anointing is for. It is to give you the power and authority to be Him in this world, because the Scripture says,

As He is, so are we in this world.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

CHAPTER 10

Receiving from Others

113 | Page     Chapter 10 – Receiving from Others

Chapter 10 - Receiving from Others

How can you receive the anointing from others? We have considered how you can enter into His presence. Sometimes you do not have the time or the revelation, and sometimes you do not sense Him that close. So you have to learn to see Him in others.

As you see Him in other people you reach out to touch Him through those people. You touch Him through those who are His hand extended, who know how to flow in the anointing.

Through Inspiration

One of the ways that you can receive through others is through inspiration. A good few years back, as the Lord was preparing me for the Apostolic Ministry, He told me one day,

“I have called you to be a General in my Army.”

I did not fully realize at that time what He meant, but I could see the battlefield in the Spirit. It was one of those old style battlefields, where all the different ranks were in different places, the battle being set in array as you go against the enemy. The General would be the man in command who would look out over the different divisions. The Lord said,

“I’ve called you to be a General, but you are still a junior General. You’re still in training. You are not ready to take on that authority yet, so this is what I want you to do. I want you to observe closely those who are already Generals.”

The Lord took me to a fairly small town a long way away from where I was living. He had told me to leave my church before and I had committed myself totally to Him. I had not belonged to any church. Now the Lord took me to a church in that city and said,

“I want you to go and join that church.”

I thought, “That’s great, I get to move back into ministry.”

He said, “No, I want you to go and join that church but you are not going to do a thing in it.”

I said, “Lord, what’s the point then?”

He said, “You just go and do what I tell you to, and I’ll show you what to do when you get there.”

So we went to the church. It was a tremendous church with a mighty presence of the Lord there. There was wonderful ministry of the Word and the Spirit. I went to see the pastor of the church and I told him my background; that I had been in ministry and how God had led me. I said,

“But brother, I’m not coming here to get involved.”

In response to the strange look on his face I said,

“Don’t misunderstand me. I’m available for whatever you want to use me for. But God did not tell me to come here to try and run the ministry or to usurp your ministry. He did not tell me to get involved in any way, except to come and sit as an ordinary church member.”

That was fine; it was understood and there was no problem. I sat in that church, which had quite a large attendance, and I was a nobody there.

Nobody knew who I was or that I even existed, except the few people that I came to know there. That was largely the pastor, some of his relatives, and some of the people who were associated with him.

Watching the Generals

As we attended the meetings each week, I realized why God had put me there. It was a church that made a point of having every single visiting speaker in town.

If there was a speaker who had flown in from overseas and he was going to be there for a night or two, you could be sure he would preach there. If there was a ‘big name’ preacher that was coming through, he was invited to go and preach in that church. It was wonderful.

The pastor had a wonderful job. He hardly ever needed to preach, and strangely enough nobody condemned him for it. The only time he preached was when there was no visiting speaker.

He had every visiting speaker under the sun there, from within the country, from outside of the country, and from all round the world. Whoever was travelling through was invited to be the speaker the next Sunday.

The Lord said to me,

“You see I am bringing my Generals through this church. I want you to sit and watch. I want you to see how they function and how they operate. I want you to listen carefully as they share their experiences and tell their story.

“I want you to see how I trained them and how my anointing functions and flows through them. I want you to watch and learn, and I want you to build an image in your mind of what I am making you to be.”

I sat and watched and I became inspired. I saw men and women of God preaching the Word and being anointed and used of God. The Lord gave me my opportunities for ministry outside of the church.

I had just completed my prophetic training at that time, and God gave me exposure to function as a prophet in many little home groups and splinter groups, all outside of the church.

But as far as my function in that church was concerned, the Lord said,

“This begins your apostolic training. You sit and watch my Generals. I am not going to let you do a thing until you have seen and watched.”

Now if you watch somebody else being used by God and you get inspired to see how God is using that person, the time will come where you will say,

“I want to do that too.”

I was a bit bold at times. I would look at them and say,

“I can do that. Hey Lord, with your help I can do better than that.”

Was that arrogant? Perhaps I was, but my desire was strong. I had become so confident in the Spirit of God that I would look at some of the so-called big names and large ministries that existed at the time, and I would think to myself,

“I have more than that person.”

I knew that I could go out and I could do what that person had done; that I could build a ministry like that, too. But the Lord said,

“No, I won’t let you do that yet. You are still a junior General.”

Receiving from the Lord

So I began to reach out. I saw the Spirit of God moving in people and I would say,

“Lord, I want what he’s got. Can I have it, please?”

Then I would go and receive it directly from His hands. Do you see what I am saying? You can receive from others without a direct impartation.

You can receive from others by looking at them and watching them closely; by earnestly desiring, yes even coveting what they have. Then you come to your Heavenly Father and say,

“Daddy, I want what Johnny has got.”

Can we do that? Sure we can do that. He is more than willing to give it to us. He gave it to that person didn’t He? Why should He not also give it to you?

The Lord wants to bless and use you and He will give you that anointing. You can even look at the heroes of the past and see the anointing that was on them, and you can covet that anointing. You can say,

“Father, you can use me like that, too.”

Then you can reach out and receive it from Him.

Receiving from Mentors

You can receive it by association and transmission through a system of mentorship. Here you submit yourself to a person’s mentorship and training, where they impart to you all that they have.

This is actually a lot quicker and easier, but there is one basic limitation. You can only receive as much as that person has.

I was different I guess. I was greedy like Elisha and wanted a double portion. It took Elisha a bit longer to get what he wanted. He had to wait a while and go through a lot, until the time was right for him to get it. But he obtained what he desired.

I am not going to deal with mentorship or discipleship in detail here, because that is something that is discussed in great detail in other places. I will just say that mentorship is one of the ways that you can obtain an impartation of the anointing.

Laying on of Hands

You can receive it by the laying on of hands. In this case someone lays hands on you and specifically imparts a gift. Usually it will be someone who is functioning as an apostle, like Paul, who wrote to the Romans and said,

I want to come and impart a spiritual gift to you.

He said to Timothy,

Stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

One of the functions of the Apostolic Office is to impart. I have dealt with that in a lot of detail elsewhere, so I will not elaborate on it here. All you need to be aware of is that you are able to receive an impartation from someone who is operating in the apostolic anointing, through the laying on of hands.

Prophetic Decree

You can also receive the anointing by prophetic decree. A prophet is able to speak a word of release and call into existence the placing of a mantle of anointing on you.

In such a case the prophet does not necessarily have to be operating in the anointing that they are releasing in you. This is not the same as impartation. Impartation is giving what you have. This is what Peter did when he said,

“Such as I have I give to you.”

When you lay hands on somebody and impart to them, you are actually giving to them of the anointing that you have, as Moses did when he laid hands on Joshua. But impartation by prophetic decree is not the same.

The prophet has a key. He opens doors for people. He unlocks doors and releases people into new ministries. So the prophet can speak forth the word of release, and he can decree by word of prophecy that a new gift ministry be imparted to somebody; that a new anointing come upon them and that they be released into that anointing.

The Presbytery

Paul speaks about this prophetic decree when he writes to Timothy. In 1 Timothy 4:14 he says:

Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.

What is the presbytery? This is a concept that has caused a bit of confusion and perhaps misinterpretation in recent times. The presbytery is simply from the Greek word presbyteros, which refers to somebody who is in the office of an overseer. You have elders, presbyters and overseers, the Greek words being episcopos and presbyteros.

They are very similar offices. There is a slight distinction between them. But again I am not going to deal with that here, because it has to do with the church.

The presbytery simply refers to a group of spiritual leaders - the eldership of the church - who got together and laid hands on Timothy in ordination. As they ordained him and laid hands on him, a prophetic word was spoken over him and he was sent forth into his ministry. An impartation and prophetic decree took place simultaneously at that point.

You may have heard this term presbytery and the way it has been interpreted in prophetic circles. These days the term presbytery is applied to a group of prophets who travel around prophesying over people.

You may even have received ministry from such a group or presbytery as they call themselves, where two or three men or women of God work together to minister in directive prophecy to individuals in churches. They will often travel around visiting churches to carry out this ministry.

So you make an appointment to meet with the presbytery on a certain day and hour. You come there so that they can pray for you and receive revelation from God concerning your ministry.

They will give you revelation, speak prophetic words, and tell you what they believe your ministry is. They will prophesy over you and may perhaps even impart to you, whether it be by prophetic decree or otherwise.

This should be a normal part of the church. The presbytery should be the normal oversight of the local church; not one pastor but a group who are in spiritual leadership and can be used together.

The same thing happened when Paul and Barnabus were sent forth from Antioch. The prophets and the teachers, who were leaders in the church, came together and the Holy Ghost said to them,

Separate to me Paul and Barnabus for the work to which I have called them.

They laid hands on them and they sent them forth to go into their apostolic call. That is all a presbytery is.

Apostolic Impartation

You can receive the anointing through prophetic decree, through impartation by prophecy, and you can receive it very specifically from one person. I have come to believe and to see in the Scriptures, that usually when that takes place, it is somebody who is in Apostolic Office and who imparts to another person what they already have.

So Moses laid his hands on Joshua and gave him of his spirit. And when God took Moses, the people looked at Joshua and knew that he had received the mantle if you like. We use that term mantle because of what happened with Elijah and Elisha.

Paul did the same thing with Timothy. He laid his hands on Timothy and imparted to him. Timothy was his disciple, and Paul poured and imparted into Timothy. Afterwards he could say to Timothy,

“The things that you’ve seen me do and the things that you’ve heard; everything that you’ve seen about me, Timothy, just go and act like me. Just be me because I’ve given you my spirit. I have imparted it to you by the laying on of hands. Stir up that gift and use it now.”

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

CHAPTER 11

Imparting to Others

123 | Page     Chapter 11 – Imparting to Others

Chapter 11 - Imparting to Others

When God first began to show this to me I knew nothing about it. I knew very little about spiritual impartation. I knew about the laying on of hands because I grew up in a Pentecostal church. I knew you could lay hands on people for healing and for various other things, but I had never really heard of spiritual impartation.

The first time it ever happened, I was sitting with my first wife, who at that time was serving the Lord. As we sat there I really wished she could have what God had given me. He had been leading me in the Spirit and using me, and had poured so many things into me.

I thought, “Lord, I wish you could give her what you have given to me. Why haven’t you done it?”

The Lord said to me,

“Why don’t you give it to her?”

I said, “How?”

He gave me a picture of a blood transfusion, where you take the blood out of one person and put it into another. You pouring the life out of you into someone else. The Lord said,

“Give her a spiritual blood transfusion.”

Well that sounded logical. I had never heard that one before. So I told her to give me her hands. I took her hand in mind, and I had this picture of the blood flowing out of me and into her. I said,

“Now I want you to receive from me. God wants to pour into you what He’s given to me.”

Well I think she thought I was mad. I did not know myself if I was not crazy, but I did what God wanted me to do. There was no real change. Nothing really seemed to happen and I thought,

“Well I blew that one. I must have missed it.”

Unfortunately at that time she was not ready to receive what God had for her. And ultimately she pulled right out of God’s purpose and wanted nothing to do with it or with me.

My Second Wife, Daphne

So I let go of this idea of impartation, because I figured it didn’t work. Much later the Lord brought my wife Daphne into my life. He told me that He was going to graft back into that same place, where the previous branch was broken off, a new branch that would bear fruit.

So God gave me the desire of my heart; one who would stand with me in the work and be fully one with me.

I remember the night when I stood and I told her to join hands with me. I felt the power of God come out of me. I could feel the anointing flowing out of my hands into her. I said,

“I want you to take it, and I want you to receive now what God is giving you.”

Well she took it. She took it and man she ran with it! I had to slow her down because she was running with it. It was a matter of weeks and she was exercising spiritual gifts that were identical to what I had.

There are certain manifestations of gifts that I have that are different. They do not function the same way in most people, but she was functioning in them the exact same way, and I had not even had time to explain to her how it worked.

She was beginning to get the same kind of revelation and the same kind of manifestations in the Spirit. What had happened was a spiritual impartation had taken place. I had imparted out of my spirit into her spirit, and the anointing of God had become transferred.

My Son-in-Law

The Lord has given me many more opportunities to impart during the years. When my son-in-law came on the scene, he did not even know what salvation was, let alone impartation.

But when the Holy Spirit went forth and I imparted to him the anointing of God, it was a matter of months and he was flowing in the Spirit, and getting up in a big church to give a word of prophecy.

He did not even fully understand what prophecy was yet. There was an impartation that had taken place and the anointing of God was transferred.

So there comes a transmission that can take place from person to person. Within our team, at times we pray with one another and we give backwards and forwards what God has given to us.

Most of the time though I have found that it started out by me reaching out to the Lord to receive it. And as I received it from Him, I have given it forth then to others, and they have received it as well.

So as God has increased our realm of ministry and operation, we continue to give forth and to impart. And anybody who is used by the Lord and has any kind of anointing begins to give forth and to impart.

Do you want to receive the anointing? Perhaps God wants you to find somebody who is prepared to lay hands on you; someone who is inspired and led of the Holy Spirit to lay hands on you, and to transmit to you the anointing that God has placed on them, as Moses did to Joshua.

When that takes place and you reach out and take it by faith and receive it, you will receive a transmission; an impartation.

Warning

Now before I finish on this I want to give a warning. There is a danger in impartation and in the laying on of hands. Paul says in 1 Timothy 5:22:

Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be a partaker of other men’s sins.

Keep yourself pure. There is a danger that the person who is transmitting the anointing may have other things in their spirit.

You see it is possible to have the anointing of God and to still have a contamination. It is possible to be operating under a curse, and yet to still have the anointing of God.

I have read of cases of men who were mightily used by the Lord, but had certain weaknesses in their life. There was a preacher who was really used of the Lord, but he had an overwhelming compulsion for tobacco.

He could not give up smoking, struggled with it and did not let anybody know about it. And he was shocked the one day to find out that some of the people in his church that he had been praying for suddenly began to have this compulsion for smoking that they never had before.

There are people who have a problem with lust, who have kept it hidden. But as they have prayed and ministered and imparted to others, that spirit was imparted and transmitted along with it. And those who received the ministry began to find that they were also having problems in that area.

You had better be careful before you go imparting to others and, make sure that your spirit is clear. You had better make sure at the time that you are imparting, that your heart is not filled with bitterness and other things; with contamination and curses that could be transmitted.

And when you receive a transmission and impartation from somebody else, keep your spirit clear. Be careful what you receive, and make sure that you receive only that which is from God. You see there is a danger. I am not going to over-emphasize this, but I am just issuing it as a warning.

Not All the Same

In conclusion I want to emphasize one thing. God uses different people in different ways and He gives different kinds of anointing. What God has for you is unique. God has an anointing especially for you.

I grew up in my parents’ home. They had very good principles, and they taught me a lot of good things and I learned a lot from them. But when I became an adult and became a parent myself, I looked at what my parents had taught me and I pulled from that what I was going to keep.

The rest I threw away. And to my code of conduct and my code of upbringing, I added principles that I felt were important that God had taught me and came from the Word. I formed my own code of conduct and I run my home in a different way to what my parents ran their home.

I use that as an illustration. When a child is born it carries genes from both the parents. But the child is not identical to the parents. It has a uniqueness of its own. It has its own look, its own personality, and its own unique flavor of doing things.

Although you may have pulled bits and pieces from others; though you may have received an anointing from somebody else by impartation, by transmission, by example, by inspiration – whatever it is – God has called you to something special.

God has given you an anointing that is different. He is not going to use you exactly the same way that He used somebody else.

So the disciple can only rise as far as the master. Then there comes a time for the disciple to break free from the master and to move into something greater; into whatever God has for that disciple.

If the disciple sticks under that master for the rest of their life, they never progress. They never develop into any greater ministry.

Don’t ever shortchange yourself. Don’t ever think that you could never be used as mightily as a great man or woman of God. God may have something greater than that for you.

By all means aspire to what that person has and try and get it. By all means have it imparted to you, but do not stop there. God has far more for you than that. Mentorship only lays the groundwork.

Elisha received a double portion. He did not just get what Elijah had. He went on to do his own ministry. And so it should be with each one of us. You can receive the anointing from great men and women of God who are alive right now.

You can receive it by inspiration from the great Generals of the past and the present, and you can aspire to move into what they have. You can receive it by spending time in the presence of the Lord Jesus and receiving His mantle and His glory, and receiving that very special anointing that He has just for you.

That is the principle of spiritual impartation, where the anointing is imparted from one human spirit to another human spirit, or directly from the Spirit of God in Christ Jesus.

It is available to you in both ways. All you need to do is to make yourself available and to reach out and to take it. Then you too can walk in that anointing.

A Prayer of Impartation

Now that you have come to the end of this section, you might be asking yourself the question,

“Who do I know that I can ask to pray for me to receive the anointing? Who can I go to for an impartation?”

If you could find such a person, would it be possible for you to get close enough to them to have them impart to you? And would they be willing to do so?

Perhaps you are sitting with this book in your hands and crying out to the Lord for more of His anointing and power. But there is no one else that you can go to for prayer or impartation, so I would like to do something for you right now. I am going to pray for you and impart to you what you desire from the Lord.

You say, “But how can that be possible? You are not here with me now to pray for me or to impart to me. All I have are some words printed in front of me.”

The good news is that you have in front of you words that contain not only all that is in my spirit, but also words that are anointed by the Spirit of God.

As I have written these words, I have asked the Holy Spirit to take them and fill them with His glory and power. And as you read them, you are able to extract from them the anointing that has been locked up in them. You are able to receive as clearly and easily as if I were present to pray with you personally.

So as I pray now, I want you to reach out and receive. I want you to realize that as you hold this e-book in your hands, it is not much different to if I had placed my hands on your hands, as I always do in impartation.

But even better still, I want you to think of it as Jesus standing in front of you and you placing your hands on His hands. Then as I pray, He is going to impart to you the anointing that you desire of Him.

Shall we do that now? Let’s reach out to Him and receive at His hand.

“Thank you Lord that you are present right now, and that even now you are moving upon the one who is reading these words. Holy Spirit you have inspired these words and your presence is contained in them.

“I ask you to come upon the reader and cause that glorious sense of your presence to be manifested now. I ask that your anointing oil would begin to flow from the head downwards, so that the warm glow of your presence is felt from head to toes.”

Now open your heart wide to receive as I speak it forth.

“In the name of Jesus I release to you the anointing power of the Spirit of God. I command the blessing of the Lord upon you and in you and through you.

“I speak the power of the Almighty upon you and command that the glory of the Lord will overshadow you. May the river of life begin to bubble up now from deep within, and flow out of your belly as living water.”

Can you feel it now?  It is there, deep within. You might sense it coming down over your head and shoulders, or you might feel a deep movement in your belly, like butterflies in the stomach.

That is the Holy Spirit moving upon you right now. Do not try to figure it out with your mind, because He does not work through your mind. He works through your spirit.

You have no need to fear, because He will not give you something that will harm you. You do not need to be afraid of receiving a demon, because He does not give evil gifts. But He has seen the desire of your heart, and as you receive now in simple faith, He is going to give you what you have desired from Him.

“In Jesus name now I release the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in this life that is yielded to you Lord. I command the release of the Gifts of Power. May the Gifts of Healing come forth, with the Gift of Miracles and Faith.

“I release it like dynamite in your spirit now in Jesus’ name. I command that it burst forth in such magnitude, that you have an overwhelming sense of glory and power as He floods you with the radiance of His glory.

“Come Holy Spirit, do it now I pray. Saturate and overflow and pour forth in abundance. Burn with your heavenly fire now until every part is on fire for you.

“Let the heat of your presence be felt now and the joy of your love be released in this heart. Let the tenderness of the heart of the Lord Jesus be known, as the love anointing comes forth now.

“I impart it and release it, to the one who is reading these words in faith and reaching out with great desire to you Lord.

“May you grant every desire of the heart. May you cause your servant to rise up and move in your power as never before. Be released now by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name.”

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

SECTION 04 - HINDRANCES TO THE ANOINTING OF GOD

CHAPTER 12

What the Anointing Should Look Like

133 | Page     Chapter 12 – What the Anointing Should Look Like

Section 04 – Hindrances to the Anointing of God

Chapter 12 – What the Anointing Should Look Like

2 Timothy 1:6 and 7 says:

Therefore I want to remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of [agape] love, and of a sound mind.

Hebrews 12:14 and 15 says:

Follow peace with all [men], and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and by it many be defiled;

We have looked at various different aspects of the anointing. And perhaps as you have gone through this series there has been a stir in your spirit.

Perhaps desires have been churned up and your heart has been stirred. You want to flow in the anointing and rise up in the power of God, but you are wondering whether you could flow in the anointing.

Perhaps you have tried to do this in the past and you have failed. Perhaps you have sought God in times past for His power, and somehow it just did not seem to come.

Perhaps you have had experiences of the anointing of God and there have been times when the Spirit of God has moved upon you. But somehow it never reached the potential that you would have desired to have. It has always seemed to be limited.

Perhaps you are wondering if it is possible for you to come to the place where the anointing of God can be upon you, and where it can flow out from you. Maybe you are beginning to wonder whether you are just not a candidate for the anointing. Maybe you just do not have what it takes.

In this section I want to look at some of the hindrances to the anointing; some of the things that block the flow of the anointing, and prevent it from being manifested in our lives.

I want to look at what it takes to cause the anointing to be magnified, and to flow in the fullness of power. Perhaps you will begin to find some of the reasons why the power of God has not been so strong in your life, and why the anointing has not manifested in you so strongly.

Let’s consider some of the symbols that we have looked at so far.

It Must Be Fresh

We saw that the anointing was typified by oil. Now oil needs to be fresh. If you buy a bottle of olive oil you normally get pure, virgin oil, freshly pressed and squeezed without any contamination.

It needs to be fresh and pure and clear. Have you ever tasted stale oil or smelled stale oil? It is disgusting.

The anointing too needs to be pure and fresh before it can be poured forth with benefit. There are some things that can cause it to go stale.

It Can Turn Sour

We saw also that the anointing can be typified by wine. Wine is wonderful when it is clear and sparkling and full of body. But there is a little fly, which if it lands in the wine, has bacteria in its body that causes the wine to turn to vinegar.

In fact that is how they make vinegar. They use wood chips or some element that has a certain bacteria in it. Then they cause wine to pass over that substance to convert it into vinegar and it turns sour.

Have you ever had a nice glass of vinegar? Ouch; it is horrible. Nobody wants to drink sour wine. Sometimes the anointing can also be made to turn sour.

It Can Be Contaminated

What about water which is another symbol of the anointing? Water has to be fresh; it has to be clean and clear. We tend to go out of our way to make sure that we obtain clear water.

There is a huge market today in fresh mineral and purified water. People are buying bottles of water rather than taking it out of the water supply system.

If you live in Mexico like we do, you do not have any choice. You cannot drink the water out of the water supply system. It is rotten. You leave it to stand for a few days and it smells. It is vile.

You would load yourself with poisons and amoebae and all sorts of weird things. It will just ruin your health. Water has to be pure, but it can become contaminated and unfit for consumption.

It Can Be Smothered

We saw that the anointing can be typified by fire, and fire requires an environment in which to burn. It requires combustible material and a draft; a movement of air and oxygen. You get near a fire that has been smothered and you get this horrible smoke coming out that chokes you.

You do not want to be near that fire. As cold as what you may be, you do not want to go and get the warmth of that fire because you will choke from the smoke. The fire has to be a fresh, beautiful burning flame.

It Must Be Transparent

We saw that the anointing is like light, and light must shine brightly and clearly. You look out your window and if the glass is clear and clean, the sunlight shines and radiates through into the room. But if you live by the sea like we do, you find a mist that comes up and covers the outside of the glass and it goes all hazy.

If you do not clean it, after a while you look out of the glass and all you see is a hazy image. It looks as though it is overcast outside but the sun is shining brightly. The light cannot get in, because the glass has become frosted over. Light needs transparency before it can shine through.

It Must Grow

We saw that the anointing is like a cloud, and a cloud is formed as the vapors go up and gather together. That cloud needs to grow in density.

If a wind comes and blows it away and it does not gather in density, it becomes a wisp of white that blows off in the sky. But when the cloud gathers it begins to form a thunderstorm, and it pours forth lightning bolts and rain upon the earth.

All of these things are pictures of the anointing, and the anointing should be the best, the clearest and the strongest. But there are things that will interfere with it and prevent it from coming forth in the fullness of its power. So you cannot assume that because you have the anointing it will always be there in its fullest capacity.

Although God has given you His Spirit, and His anointing is upon you, you cannot always assume that this anointing will always flow freely. You cannot assume that it will always come in dynamic power.

There are some things that will interfere with it and get in its way. These are what I want to consider here.

The Spirit Omnipresent

Where does the anointing come from, and where does God’s power come from?

You must realize that the power of God comes from the Spirit of God, and that the Spirit of God is everywhere. He fills the Heaven and the earth. God is omnipresent, and so His Spirit is everywhere.

When we came here all the way from Africa, I was amazed to find that the same anointing was here in Mexico. It was not any different. The gifts operated the same. There was no difference.

Sometimes there is a difference depending on where you are living, because there are certain places where there is a lot of evil present. There is oppression in the atmosphere. This can sometimes create a burden and a cloud of darkness that comes on you, and makes you feel evil instead of the presence of God.

So if the Spirit of God is everywhere, why then is God not moving all the time everywhere? Why is the anointing of God not being manifested everywhere on every person?

Why is every person who is walking daily in the very essence of the Spirit of God not walking in divine health? Why are people sick? Why is the power of the Spirit not being manifested?

Tune In

It is because the power of the Spirit is like the radio waves in the air. It needs a receiver or a device that can tune into that power, and pull it out of the air and send it forth in a form that can be used.

Each one of us has been made to be that device. When God made us in His image, He made us to be a device that could reach out and tap into His power that is everywhere, which is found in His Spirit.

So we reach out like that radio, and we pull the anointing out of the air. We reach out by our spirits to touch the power of God that is everywhere. We tune into it, focus it and amplify it, and send it forth into the earth. Then it goes forth directed to a specific need.

So one person can stand out and be like a transmitter of God’s power and it radiates forth from them like a lighthouse. Men and women of God have been so anointed by the power of God in the past, that that power was manifested in the entire area within blocks of where they were.

I was reading about Maria Woodworth-Etter, who was used mightily by the Lord some time back. She was so anointed of the Spirit of God, that within a 50-mile radius people would sense the glory of God and would fall to their knees in repentance.

Why did it happen where she was? She was a light beam. She was a lighthouse standing there, that had drawn so much of the power of God from the Holy Spirit, that it was radiating forth in magnified power. She was sending it into the earth and people were coming and being touched by it.

Sent Out Via the Body

Do you want to be a channel for God? You will have to learn to pull that power directly from the Spirit of God. You will have to tune into His Spirit and tap into the power that created the universe; that fills the universe and that is in everything.

But there is just one slight problem. That power has to be in your spirit, because only your spirit has the ability to reach out and touch the Spirit of God. Only your spirit has the ability to pull from the Spirit of God the power that is in Him.

Since you are in Christ and born again by the Spirit of God, your recreated spirit reaches out and touches God. And then His power has to be sent forth from your spirit into the earth.

There is only one way that a spirit can communicate into the earth, and that is via the physical body. That is why we are living in physical bodies, because if we did not have our physical bodies we would have no power in the earth. That is why God came down and took upon Himself the form of a man, in order that He may manifest the fullness of His glory in the earth.

In the Old Testament God found individuals on whom He could put His power and His anointing. But it was limited, until that day in Bethlehem when a little baby was born that was very God and very man.

The Scripture says that the Spirit was given to Him in unlimited measure. Jesus had the fullness because the Scripture says,

In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

The fullness of the Godhead bodily was manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the fullness of God’s power and glory and anointing became manifest in Him.

Jesus said, “When I go to the Father I’m coming back in the Spirit. I’m bringing back that same power. I’m sending the Comforter to you, and you’re going to go out and you will have the same power that I did. You will do the same miracles that I did.”

God’s power comes into your spirit, but that power has to be manifested in a body. When Jesus walked this earth, He walked in freedom of the taint of sin. Jesus walked in accordance with the order that God created man to be in originally.

God made man so that the power in his spirit would be manifest through his soul, through his body and be declared forth into the earth. Adam had that ability to speak forth the power into the earth. He had authority to use words in the earth and to speak forth the anointing power of God, until it was taken away from him through sin.

Now we have a problem, because the anointing power that comes into our spirits has to flow out. And in order for it to flow out into our bodies and from our bodies into the earth, to reach out and touch and bless others, it has to go through the soul.

This is where our problems begin, because you can take the brightest light, but if you cover it up, you cannot see it. You can take a warm fire, and if you close it up and smother it nobody will know it is there.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

CHAPTER 13

What Causes Hindrances

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Chapter 13 – What Causes Hindrances

There are influences that block and hinder you from pouring out the fullness of that anointing. We need to look at some of the things that block the power of God.

The anointing is blocked by anything that negates the forces that come out of the recreated human spirit. These are faith, love and hope.

We will be looking a little later at how faith and hope and love are the keys to releasing the anointing. But first I want to consider some of the things that can block that anointing from flowing out from you.

Bad Attitudes

The anointing can be spoiled by a soul that is poisoned with bad attitudes. Where a soul is poisoned with bad attitudes, though the power may be in the spirit it will soon die down and dry up. If you smother the fire for long enough it will die.

What is the greatest hindrance to the outflow of the Spirit? There are many of them and I am going to consider various different ones here.

I am going to show you in a moment, one that I believe is the greatest of all blockages and hindrances to the outflow of the anointing of God. But before I tell you what it is, consider this Scripture. 1 John 3:20 to 22 says:

For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, [then] have we confidence towards God.

And whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

What are His commandments? Verse 23 says:

And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

Self-Condemnation

Faith and love – those are His commandments. What is the greatest hindrance to the outflow of the anointing? It is sin-consciousness or condemnation. This is the single greatest blockage to the outflow of God’s power in our lives.

When a person is conscious of sin he cannot come boldly into the presence of the Lord, to receive His power and to charge up with His glory. He is afraid to come into His presence and unworthy to do so.

He feels under condemnation and under guilt. He is afraid to approach a holy and righteous God, because he knows that he is not shaping up to His holiness.

Now here is the problem. The Scripture does not say that if God condemns us we have no confidence towards Him, because it says,

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

The Scripture says that,

If we sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sin.

Jesus is the one who satisfies the righteousness of God. The judgment and the condemnation do not come from God. They don’t come from the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us and paid the penalty for our sins; who intercedes for us and covers for us every time we sin.

God does not judge us in Christ. He has already judged Christ on our behalf and for us. Jesus paid the price for our sins on Calvary, and we will never be held accountable for the sins that we commit in the flesh as long as we are in Christ.

But there is sin, and we develop a sin consciousness. We become aware of our sin, and our own heart begins to condemn us. The Scripture says,

Beloved if our heart condemns us we do not have confidence towards God.

Dealing With Sin

If your heart is giving you condemnation you cannot come to God. What is causing your heart to condemn you? It could be that you have broken God’s commandments.

It could be that you have failed or sinned. And if you have sinned, what do the Scriptures say? In 1 John 1:9 it says:

If we confess our sins (if we acknowledge and admit to them), he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If you have sinned, how long does it take to get rid of it? As quickly as it takes you to confess it, and reach out and receive His righteousness. That is how long it takes to clear the sin.

When you do that there is no cause for condemnation or guilt. But you start bringing God down to human levels and you think of Him in terms of your human father.

You think of God in terms of human authorities that you have seen and grown up with, and you get the impression in your mind that says,

“Yes I’ve sinned, and I’ve asked Him for forgiveness and He said yes. But five minutes later I sinned again. Can I come to Him again? Will He be as condescending this time? Will He say, Sure I forgive you, again?”

You form the idea in your mind that God is not going to forgive you if you keep sinning. Every person walks in guilt and condemnation, and there is one who stands ready to encourage that condemnation.

The Bible calls him the Accuser of the Brethren – Satan, Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness. He wants to keep you away from God and the power of God, and he will come and accuse you.

Whenever you desire to move in the power of God; when you want to reach out and take what has been freely given to you in Christ, he comes with his lies. He reminds you of your failures and says,

“Hey, but didn’t you think that evil thought the other day?”

He puts the evil thought in your mind, then makes you feel guilty that you thought it. You start to think,

“Yes, this is true. I’ve failed miserably. I don’t come up to God’s standards of perfection. I’m not close enough to the Lord because I keep failing.”

The Love Relationship

You walk around with guilt and condemnation. But that guilt and condemnation did not come from the Lord. That is why it is so important that if you want to flow in the anointing, you learn to come into a love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

You must learn to know Him and speak with Him face to face. You must hear His voice, and know His heart and what kind of a person He is.

When the Lord drew me into that relationship a long time ago, I began to hear a voice that was totally different to the voice that I had been hearing all my life. It was a gentle, tender voice. It was not a loud voice that pushed, pressed and dominated.

It was a gentle, tender loving voice that led as the Shepherd that goes ahead of His sheep; who calls them and says,

“Come on, come and follow me.”

It was not one who stands behind the sheep and drives them. It was that tender, gentle voice that calls on; that gentle Shepherd who looks and sees the sheep stumble and fall, and He doesn’t take His rod and start beating the sheep with it. The purpose of the shepherd’s rod is to pull the sheep out of the ditch, not to hammer them with it.

But we have grown up under preaching that hammered against sin; that hammered and hammered against it. Oh there are so many that have stood up and preached against sin.

But take a good look at the preachers who preach the most against sin, and sooner or later you will find that they themselves fell into the very sin that they are condemning. This is because their mind was filled with a sin-consciousness instead of a righteousness-consciousness.

The Scripture says,

God made Him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Christ Makes Us Righteous

You were made the righteousness of God in Christ, so as the Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5:17:

Therefore if any man is in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

In Christ, God sees you as perfect. And when God looks down on you, He does not see you, He sees His Son. He sees the One with the nail prints in His hands and His feet. He sees the One who has already paid the price and the penalty for sin.

If you allow Satan to bring you under condemnation and guilt, you will never ever enter into the glory of God and His power. You will never ever be able to manifest His power and His anointing to others, because you will always feel unworthy, incapable and unqualified to do so.

You need to realize that you have been declared righteous and you have been justified. You have been made just as if you had never sinned. You have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. And when you fail and your conscience (your own heart) condemns you, you can catch it on the run.

You begin to move into the power of God and that voice comes and says,

“Yes, but you did that.”

You can respond immediately and say,

“Yes you’re right. Father, I confess it. In Jesus’ name I receive cleansing. Okay let’s go.”

It is gone, but you continue to beat yourself over the head. The Lord has forgiven you and cleansed you a long time ago, but you cannot forgive yourself. And you wonder why you cannot enter into the glory of the Lord and manifest His power, because you are laboring under sin-consciousness.

I would say that this is the single most powerful weapon that the enemy has to steal the power that God has for His children.

Fear

There is another one that goes with it. It is fear and insecurity. The fear of man, the fear of the enemy, the fear of loss, the fear of pain – all sorts of different elements in this spiritual force that is totally contrary to everything that is of God.

Fear paralyses you to the point where you are afraid to move in case something evil comes upon you. Fear robs you of your boldness, and you are afraid to stand out and declare the full counsel of God. You are afraid to stand up and speak forth His power into the earth because you think,

“What will people say? What will people think of me? I don’t have the good looks for somebody to stand up and do that. I don’t have the education to stand up and declare God’s power. I don’t have what it takes.”

The key failure where fear is concerned, is being timid or insecure. It is a common problem. Many great men of God have faced the same problem, and even Timothy, who was trained under Paul, had the same problem. Paul had to write to him in 2 Timothy 1:6 to 8. He said:

Therefore I want to remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear (or timidity); but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

Paul had given everything he had to Timothy. He had imparted it to him with the laying on of hands with the Gift of Prophecy. He sent Timothy forth now with that mantle of anointing on him; the same mantle that was on Paul.

He watched Timothy now, and waited for his disciple to use this anointing and power, but it did not happen. Paul looked at this and said,

“Hold it, something is wrong here. I know I gave it to him because I saw him get it. The Spirit of God confirmed it by prophecy. The anointing has been imparted, but it is not being manifested in his life. Why?”

Well Timothy was still quite a young guy and likely insecure about his age. Paul had to write to him and say,

“Don’t be ashamed of your youth. Don’t let the old people look down on you. Timothy, stir up the gift. You haven’t lost it; it is still there. You must stir it up and radiate it forth.

“But Timothy you have a problem, you’re afraid of people. You’re afraid of what people will think. You’re afraid that you are going to get criticized and condemned. Timothy, sometimes you are even ashamed of me.

“You’re afraid that people will say, Oh yes, Timothy hangs around with that Paul guy; the one who goes round preaching heresy. He’s preaching against the Jewish law and teaching these Gentile people that they don’t need to obey the law. What, Timothy, you’re involved with that guy?”

There is a temptation to say,

“Yes, well I used to be, but I’m doing my own thing now.”

It is fear of man and fear of what people will think. You are afraid to be bold, and fear that people will look down on you and say,

“Who do you think you are? You are just a youngster, and you want to come and teach me, who has served God for 65 years?”

Fear paralyzes you.

Bitterness

The next one is bitterness, which is another one of the most deadly. Bitterness is a taproot that springs up and chokes the flow of love. And when love is choked, fear has no opposition.

Why? Because the Scripture says,

Perfect love casts out all fear.

The only way you can overcome fear is with loving action. When you have to face something that is fearful, in order to act against that fear you have to consider how much you love and care for somebody.

A father will gladly go into a building that is on fire, knowing that he could be destroyed by that fire. But in that house lies a child that he loves. And the love of the father will drive him into that house in the midst of those flames, at the risk of being burnt to death, to save the life of the one that he loves.

You see all of these are intertwined together. When bitterness rises up it blocks your love. And when your love becomes blocked, fear comes forth. The one leads to the other, and before you know it there is a whole collection of things that are blocking the power of God.

This one is very subtle. It is so subtle that most of us tend to miss it. I could ask you right now, “

“Are you bitter against anyone?”

You probably would not even think twice about saying,

“Well I don’t think so. No, I’m not bitter against anyone.”

Now what if I were to ask you to give me a list of everybody you know, and everyone you have known through your life. And what if I were to ask you to go down that list, tick them off one at a time and tell me what you think of each person. There will be some people where you will say,

“Yes, he’s a nice guy; I really like him. He was good to me. She was wonderful. And this guy - he was horrible. He was a real nasty one that.”

“So what do you think of him? Do you like him?”

“Like him? You have to be kidding.”

Oh dear, I think we just touched a root of bitterness. Do you think I am being extreme? You have bitterness in your life if there is anybody that you can bring up into your mind right now that you cannot honestly say before the Lord,

“I love him as Jesus loves him.”

Start making your list because it is going to be long.

Very Subtle

This is so subtle and it creeps in so easily that we do not realize it. You have been flowing in the power of God and moving in His anointing. God has been using you and blessing you, and suddenly you become aware of the fact that you have lost the sharp edge. Something is missing. It is just not there anymore.

Sometimes it doesn’t happen so suddenly. It often happens gradually. It is usually so subtle that it takes a while before the realization hits you. The penny drops and you suddenly say,

“Hold it. I don’t flow like I used to. God doesn’t use me like He used to. The anointing doesn’t seem to be there. I don’t seem to have that power in prayer anymore. What has happened?”

You start digging around to see what happened, and Satan will have plenty to remind you of. He will give you all the sins you committed in the last month. He will keep you choking on those for a while, but he will make sure that you miss the most important one of all.

He will tell you that you have every right to be angry at that person, because after all what they said was wrong. It was unjust and it was unfair; it was painful and vindictive. They had no right to say that about you. They had no right to do that, and no right to steal that from you.

They had no right to do whatever it is that is upsetting you. And you feel justified in your anger and you feel justified in your bitterness. You do not want to call it bitterness, and you do not want to think of it as sin.

Every time you think of them you say,

“I’d rather not think about them.”

Then you put them out of your mind. If you want to flow in the anointing there is nobody - and I mean nobody - that should be permitted to fill that place in your heart. There is nobody that should be permitted to control you in that way, because that person is in fact controlling your anointing and blocking it.

Putting Your Anger to Sleep

I do not care if you are justified in being angry. I do not care if the person hurt you badly or what they did to you. In terms of the Word of God, you are not justified in being bitter. Even if you were wronged, you have to let it go.

You have to get rid of it. Do you know why? It is because that thing is eating your conscience. It is bothering you and blocking your communion with the Lord.

It is bringing condemnation in your heart, and it will have to get cleared out, because it is a blockage in your pipe. It is preventing the power of God from flowing out.

I would love to say that every time this happens to me, I suddenly become aware of it, stop right there and do something about it. But that is not true, because I am just as stubborn and sinful as anybody else. Sometimes God has to bring me to my knees before I finally wake up; before I finally come to Him and say,

“Lord, what is going on here? Why have you turned your back on me? Lord, why is your power not flowing in me anymore?”

When I begin to pray, a face will come up into my mind that I do not want to see. It is somebody that I do not want to think about. I think to myself,

“Take them away. I do not want to think about them.”

The Lord says,

“I’m putting him in your face. Love him. (Or love her).”

It is a tough one. But actually it is quite easy to die if you really want to die. It is quite easy for you to say,

“Father, forgive me for my bitterness against this person.”

If you cannot contact that person, then speak to them in the Spirit and say,

“John, I forgive you for what you did. I let it go. I speak forgiveness to you in the name of Jesus,”

Now you can put it to sleep. And the next time you think about that person you think about how much Jesus loves them. You think about blessing them, and it is no longer a blockage.

You will feel a sudden surge taking place in your spirit. You will suddenly feel the anointing rising up. You will see the light of God’s glory beginning to shine forth from you again like it has not done in a long time.

There is also another problem that takes place when fear comes in, and sometimes it comes in as a result of bitterness. Fear opens the door to a curse. I have dealt with this in the New Way of Blessing, so I am not going to go into it in detail here.

Fear is a force that opens the door to three kinds of spirits that bring problems into our lives. They are the spirit of strife, the spirit of destruction and the spirit of theft or loss.

When that curse comes upon you and begins to lock you in, the power of God is smothered in your life. You need to get rid of it.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

CHAPTER 14

The Roots of the Flesh

159 | Page     Chapter 14 – The Roots of the Flesh

Chapter 14 – The Roots of the Flesh

The root of bitterness also gives rise to other things. There are two other main roots that are also considered to be at the base of the flesh, and the flesh is all sin.

The flesh is everything that is not of the Spirit. The other roots that come with the taproot of bitterness are the roots of lust and temporal values or covetousness - the desire for things. All of these things cause us to walk in the flesh. The Scripture says,

Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

If you want to walk in the flesh you will lock in the power of God, and the glory of God cannot be manifest through you.

Putting on Masks

There is another blockage that prevents the power of God from flowing, and it is falsehood or wearing of masks. The Spirit of God is known in Scripture as the Spirit of Truth. God is light and in Him there is no darkness. God is truth and in Him there is no falsehood. He has nothing to hide.

The Scripture says,

God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent (or change His mind)

But we lie all the time.

You say, “Who me? I don’t lie.”

I am not even talking here about the so-called little white lies. But if you want to talk about that, then we can throw that one in too. I am talking about living a lie. I am talking about pretending to be what you are not. I am talking about the masks that we put on in the sight of other people, to pretend and to put up a false front.

This is especially important where the anointing is concerned, because the purpose of the anointing is to pour out blessing to others. But when you are afraid of what others will think, you try to put on a super-spiritual front and pretend to be something that you are not.

You want to be considered spiritual, but your conscience is condemning you. You are having difficulty with the sins of the heart like bitterness and pride, so you resort to externals. You major on the way you dress and the way you talk and the things you eat and drink.

There are those who go to the extreme of insisting that the anointing consists in how you dress, how high your hem line is and whether you wear makeup; whether you have gold or other jewelry on and whether you eat pork.

People are always laboring on externals, and we become just like the Pharisees. That is what happened to the Pharisees in the 400 silent years. It was between the time that the last prophets spoke, and while they were waiting for the manifestation of the Messiah.

Before John the Baptist appeared the people lost touch with God. They did not hear from God for 400 years, and they began to build up their own ideas of what God required.

The Pharisees and the scribes had built up their beautiful little pattern of the Torah and the Talmud, and all of their laws and customs. It was beyond what God required in His laws, and they tried to interpret it the way God would think.

You were only allowed to travel so far on a Sabbath day. And there were a whole load of laws that were never contained in the Word of God.

Becoming Transparent

People make their boast in externals and come with a super-spiritual front. When they come to church and meet with other Christians they put on this beautiful mask. You cannot communicate with somebody that has a mask, because you cannot see their face.

You cannot get to know the real person. How can you pour forth the anointing power of God that is in your spirit if you are not prepared to open wide? The light cannot shine unless the vessel is transparent.

If you want light to shine out of a bottle, it will have to be clear. And if you want to let the light of God’s glory that is in your spirit shine forth from you to others, then you will have to be transparent. Why are we not transparent? Jesus said,

Light has come, but men preferred darkness, because their deeds were evil.

We are afraid to let people see our sin. We are afraid to let people see inside our hearts, because we know what is in our hearts is not pure and right before God. We want to hold onto our sin and we do not want to let go of it.

To be transparent means that people are able to see your weaknesses, because none of us are perfect. The wonderful thing about the Word of God is that it not only records the good things that people did. It does not only record their successes, but it also records all of their failures.

David was a man after God’s own heart, but it records his fall into adultery with Bathsheba. The Scripture records every single thing. But David was transparent and so God could use him. He was considered a man after God’s own heart, not because he was perfect, but because he was prepared to open his heart.

The Lord does not demand perfection from you, because your perfection is in Christ. He does however demand that you be available and yielded to Him and honest before Him and before man. You are required to be honest concerning your own weaknesses and your strengths.

You must be what you are – a useless, miserable lump of clay that God has taken and made into a vessel of honor. The Scripture says,

We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

There should be no masks and no falsehood.

Impossibility Thinking

Another thing that blocks the power of God and the anointing from flowing forth is impossibility thinking. This is a mind that is clouded with thoughts that say,

“I don’t believe God can do this.”

You are like a pipe that is sunk down to the water, but it is so clogged that hardly any water can come out. You are like a blood vessel that is closed up with impurities in the blood like cholesterol. It is preventing the life-giving blood from flowing forth to the other parts of the body and the tissues that need it.

The lifeblood is there, but it cannot reach where it needs to go to. The power of God is within you. But it cannot come forth to touch others, because in your mind you keep thinking,

“I don’t know if God can do this.”

If you have these kinds of thoughts in your mind then you block the power of God. Have you heard this famous statement?

“We tried it, but it didn’t work.”

“Well we tried laying hands on the sick and praying for them and it did not work. We tried exercising faith and trusting God. We tried fasting and praying but it didn’t work.”

“I know someone who was prayed for, and they really believed but they died. The anointing was there; we felt it when we prayed. God was there but they died.”

You begin to think in your mind,

“Why should I bother even trying? Hey, the guy that prayed there seemed pretty close to the Lord. And that man they prayed for really had faith. He was really reaching out but he died.”

Then you throw in your theological ideas and say,

“Well God is sovereign and He decides who is going to be blessed and who isn’t; who will be healed and who won’t. So what can little old me do? What is the good of me having the anointing? Hey if God wants to heal, He will heal. He doesn’t need me.”

Then the classic one is this.

“I am unworthy for the Lord to use me. I don’t believe God can use me like that. I know He uses the big evangelists and the big names, but I can’t see God using me like that.”

It is impossibility thinking. Your mind and your soul are clouded and blocked with thoughts that say,

“Yes I know the power is there, but I don’t believe it will go out from me.”

And do you know what? It won’t; it cannot. You put a blockage in the way and God will never force Himself. You have blocked it with your impossibility thinking and your thoughts that negate the very power of God.

Feeling Orientation

Another blockage is feeling orientation and selfishness. The anointing is a wonderful thing. When the anointing power of God comes on your body, your soul and your spirit, it is the new wine. You become high like you have had a few drinks, only it is better.

It is a wonderful experience. The joy of the Lord begins to bubble forth. The glory of God is upon you, and you can bathe in it for hours at a time and it is wonderful. You have to go back next week and get some more.

You say, “I have to go and find another meeting where they have revival; where they can lay hands on me to get another touch and then another touch. I want to get more and more of this. It’s wonderful.”

That is not what the anointing is for. Yes it is part and parcel of the anointing, and yes God wants us to be blessed. He wants us to be filled with joy. He wants us to get on a high, to get into His presence and have a party with Him and worship Him. It is wonderful. But the whole reason He fills us up is so that we can pour out to others.

Do Not Stagnate

I am sure you have heard the illustration of the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is a fresh water sea and contains many fish. The Dead Sea has one of the highest concentrations of salt and minerals and nothing can live in it. It is so dense that you can float in it.

What is the difference between the two? The Sea of Galilee has a river flowing into it and another one flowing out of it. The Dead Sea only has a river flowing into it, with nothing coming out.

You see when God pours into you His power and you pour it forth again, He pours more of His power into you and you can pour forth again. But when you just take it all in, you end up like the Dead Sea.

You have lots of blessings stored there, but they are no use to anybody. Eventually they go stale like the Dead Sea. Fast flowing water is always the freshest. And if you can come to a stream where the water is flowing fast, usually it is pretty safe for you to even drink it.

It is far safer than if you go to a stagnant pool that has been standing, and you see it is full of slime and moss and muck. Try taking a microscope out and have a look and see all the insects and creatures that are thriving in that water.

In Africa where we come from there is a certain creature that lives in water like that called bilharzia. It is a known fact that if you go swimming in a pool that is stagnant, you run a risk of picking up the bilharzia. It is a microscopic creature that comes in through your skin as you go into the water, and it enters your bloodstream.

It lays its eggs and they travel down into your bladder and cause untold damage throughout your whole body. You cannot go swimming in that water. But if the water is fast-flowing and moving all the time you know you are pretty safe and you can swim in that water without being affected by it.

What am I talking about? If you take the anointing of God and let it stagnate it will turn sour. You will pick up other things that are mixed up with it there, and it will be unfit to drink. It will be unfit for you to give out to other people.

With all your emphasis on taking in, you will start to pick up a few things that are not from the Lord, because you are so feeling oriented. You so want anointings, and touches from God and blessings, that sooner or later you will have somebody lay hands on you and impart to you something that is not of the Spirit of God.

Then you will give that out to someone else. You will give out poison. There might be a bit of anointing there too, but there will be poison mixed with it. You will have to change from this selfish orientation that says,

“I want blessing; I want more. More Lord!”

What for? Have you given out what He gave you yet?

“No, but I want more.”

Go and give it out and you will get more. And the more you give out, the more you’ll get.

Temptations of Jesus

I want to look at the temptations of Jesus in the Wilderness, to show you how Satan set about destroying the anointing. Jesus had just been baptized in the River Jordan. And when He came out, the Spirit of God descended as a dove upon Him. Then He went out into the Wilderness, freshly anointed in the power, and He fasted and waited in the presence of the Father.

While He was there He broke every natural influence that could block that power. Jesus was moving in the fullness of the power, so the enemy came with three temptations that were designed to block it.

Use it for Yourself

I am not going to go into it in a lot of detail, but the first thing he did is he came and said,

“If you are the Son of God; if you are anointed. . . Are you really anointed? Do you think you are? I think it is all your imagination.”

He tried to sow doubt and said,

“Did you really get the anointing? Is this really of God? Are you really the Son of God? You’re starving aren’t you? I can see that you are hungry. You haven’t eaten for 40 days. Just a loaf of bread would be so good now don’t you think?

“Do you know how far it is to go into town and get bread? And you’re so weak because you have been fasting all this time. Why don’t you just turn one of those stones there into bread?

“You have the power to do it. You’ve got the anointing. You can do all things. Come on, why don’t you use the power for yourself and for your own benefit?”

This is the first mistake that you can make. The anointing of God is not for your benefit; it is for somebody else’s. The power of God is not for you to receive blessing. It is not for you to use for your own prosperity and your own gain. It is to use to give out to bring blessing, prosperity, gain, healing and anything else to others.

Now the subtlety is that there was a real need. Jesus was hungry; He did need food. It would not have been out of order for Him to ask the Father to turn the stones into bread. But it was so subtle that it would have been a starting point for Jesus to use the power for Himself, not for what the Father had called Him to do.

Getting Attention

The second temptation the enemy brought to Him was to climb up onto the pinnacle of the Temple and to jump down. Satan even quoted the Word a bit and said,

“The Bible says that the angels will catch you. They won’t let you dash your foot against a stone. Why don’t you do it? Do it right in front of everybody where they can see you. Use your power to make a name for yourself. Use your power to get attention, to come into the limelight.”

Jesus would have been on evening news in Prime Time. They would have said,

“Today a man jumped from the pinnacle of the Temple, and He did not fall and die. He just floated down safely. It was a marvel; a wonder. And we have our News Reporter on the site now to speak to this Man to ask Him how He did it.”

Can you see it? Jesus would have been an overnight success. Everybody would have been clamoring for His story. They would have been inviting Him everywhere to come and say how He did it. When God anoints you with His power and begins to use you, there is such a temptation to begin to rise up in the limelight.

It is inevitable. People will become aware of it. Jesus became aware of it. The crowds flocked after Him, but Jesus did not seek that. He actually tried to escape them. Again and again He said to them,

“Don’t go and tell anybody.”

Jesus did not want to draw attention to Himself. He wanted to draw attention to the Father. When He healed people, He did not want to draw attention to Himself by saying,

“See, I have healed you. Now go and get all your sick friends and bring them here, and I’ll show you how good I am.”

No, He said,

“Don’t you go and tell anybody. Just go and praise God and serve Him because He healed you.”

It makes you wonder when you see healing evangelists today keeping a record of the number of healings taking place in their meetings. They publicize it for the whole world to see how effective they are.

Supreme Authority and Control

The final temptation that Satan brought to Jesus was the temptation to take control of the kingdoms of this world; to get back to where Adam was, in charge of the whole world.

Satan took Him up on a mountain and showed Him the kingdoms of this world; all the cities, the countries - everything in the world. And Satan said,

“I have control of these. I can give it to you right now.”

It was the temptation for power and authority. It was the temptation to control others and to be in supreme control; to become untouchable.

These are valid temptations, and any person who is anointed by the Spirit of God will face the same kinds of temptations. You will have to watch out about being caught up with things, fortune and fame.

You will have to watch that you don’t get caught with political control; rising up and taking control of other people and using your power for selfish reasons. The anointing has been given to you to minister forth to others.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

CHAPTER 15

How to Assist the Anointing

169 | Page     Chapter 15 – How to Assist the Anointing

Chapter 15 - How to Assist the Anointing

I want to end this chapter now with the things that will assist and help the anointing to flow out. There are three of them and you have heard of them before. They are called faith, love and hope. All spiritual power is contained in those three forces.

Faith

How can you increase your faith? You can increase it by meditating on the Word, because faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God.

If you want to use the anointing effectively, you will have to believe in the One who has anointed you. You will need to have the fullest of confidence that when you send forth His power into the earth, it will accomplish that for which it is sent.

Consider some of the men and women of God that have been used mightily in the anointing of the Spirit in the past. You will see somebody like Smith Wigglesworth. He didn’t only moved in the anointing, but he had such faith and authority that he could take a dead body, stand it up against the wall and say,

“In the name of Jesus, walk!”

Now that takes a lot more than anointing. It takes faith to use that anointing. Smith Wigglesworth was a man who lived in the Word of God. He had the Word with him and he read it all the time, whether he was riding on the bus, riding on the train, or going anywhere.

If you sat down to have dinner with him, he did not just give thanks for the food. He would pull out his Bible and give you a short message from the Word before you ate. His son-in-law visited him at one time with a newspaper under his arm and he said,

“What’s that?”

He said, “It’s a newspaper.”

“You don’t come into my home with that. Leave it outside, please.”

He would not have anything but the Word. Was he paranoid? I would like his kind of paranoia, wouldn’t you? I would like his kind of power and authority.

Where did he get it? He got it from the Word. There is power in the Word, and there is faith that will come from the Word of God.

If you have the anointing power of God, and you want that anointing to be highly magnified and highly powerful and operating through you, then get into the Word. Fill yourself with faith, because the anointing operates by faith.

A Powerful Lesson

We often tend to boast so in the Pentecostal gifts and manifestations. When God taught me this lesson a long while back, I had completed my prophetic training and God had moved us to another city. I was moving freshly in the prophetic anointing and in God’s power and it was wonderful.

I met a man through a work situation. He was a Colored man and he was a lovely saint of the Lord. We began to share together, and as I spoke to him I began to find out that he was with a group of people who were really strong in the Word and serving the Lord.

But they did not believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. They did not believe in speaking in tongues and the gifts. According to them that was done away with. I enjoyed fellowshipping with this man, and he said to me one day,

“You know we have little home Bible studies every week. I’d love you to join us for one of them.”

I thought, “He’s going to try and push his ideas on me.”

So I said, “Yes, I’ll come sometime.”

He persisted and nagged me, and every time he saw me he said,

“When are you going to come to one of our Bible studies?”

Well I could not really tell him,

“The bottom line is I don’t really want to come, bro.”

I prayed about it and the Lord said,

“Go. This is of me. I want you to go to the Bible study.”

He gave me the directions to his home in the area where they lived, which was way out of town. I got lost and couldn’t find the place. Secretly I was hoping I would get lost so I would have an excuse for not attending.

But eventually I found it, and there they were waiting for me. The women had head coverings on because they felt that a woman had to have a head covering. They were very strong on that.

They were very quiet and unemotional with no outbursts of the glory like I was used to. But they sat down and the old brother who was in charge opened the Bible and said,

“Okay, we continue with our study in the book of Hebrews.”

We opened at the chapter and read a passage and he said,

“Okay, the floor’s open.”

Then he looked at me and said,

“Brother, feel free to share whatever God gives you.”

Well that was great. I was used to those kinds of studies. I loved them. I thought,

“I can’t believe it. These guys have the right pattern. This is how Bible studies should be done. It’s the way I love to do it. This is wonderful.”

I sat there and I waited to hear these legalistic, dead, non-spiritual people, to see what they were going to come out with, and I was shocked. They began to share spontaneously, and every time the old guy who led the study opened his mouth, the anointing of the Spirit of God came out of him and it hit me.

I said, “Lord, this can’t be possible. This man does not believe in the anointing. He doesn’t believe in the power of the Spirit, in the Baptism of the Spirit and the gifts. How can he be so anointed?”

I could feel it. It was oozing out of him. The Lord said,

“The anointing is in the Word. He is speaking my Word. And when he speaks my Word he is sending my power forth, because he believes the Word.”

Well I left there a very humbled man. I left there with a whole new insight concerning people, concerning the Body of Christ and the power and authority that there is in the Word of God.

There are people who have performed miracles in faith using nothing but the Word of God, who have never spoken in tongues or had any manifestation of the Spirit. There was no glory cloud or falling under the power.

They just stood on the Word and spoke it forth in faith. And when they did it, the laser beam of God’s power went out and touched the sick and they were healed.

But you can add to that the glory cloud, and then what do you have? You have magnificence. We Pentecostals are often so narrow-minded that we leave that to the Baptists and the Brethren and the folks who major on the Word. We say,

“We don’t really need Scripture. We can get a prophetic word.”

It is foolish. You need the power of faith that the Word will give you. If you take that power it will open wide the door for the anointing that is within you to gush forth in a mighty flowing river.

Love

Let’s look at love next. What is the key to love? The key is to have an other-orientation; to have an outlook that does not look inwards to me all the time. It doesn’t say,

“What am I going to get out of this? And what are people going to think of me?”

The key is looking out at others. This one is so simple that we often miss it. I remember when God first baptized me in the Spirit. I was zealous and full of fire, and ready to go out and conquer the world for the Lord. A senior pastor spoke to me and he said,

“Les, if you want to be used by God, the key is love. Because unless you can love and flow out in love, God can’t use you.”

As simple as what that was, it came as a revelation to me. And oh I wanted to be used. I wanted the power; I wanted the works. I realized that love is a choice. It is something I have to choose to do. I thought,

“Lord, how am I going to flow out in love?”

He said, “Start looking at the people you don’t love.”

Well there were lots of them all round me. So I began to practice while riding to work in the car. As I rode I would look out in the street and I would see somebody walking. I would say,

“That is somebody that Jesus loves. Lord, if you love that person then I should be loving them too.”

So I made a choice and I said,

“In Jesus’ name I love that person.”

I had never seen him before. I did it with every person that I saw. I would be sitting waiting for something and people would be walking past. I would look at each person and say,

“Jesus loves you and I love you. Mr. Ugly, I love you. That ugly obese person, I love you. That scrawny really ugly looking person that only a mother could love, I love you.”

Look Through Jesus’ Eyes

Something began to happen inside of me. I cannot explain what it was, but something began to happen. I felt something rising up out of the pit of my stomach; something I had never experienced before.

I looked out at people of different racial groups that at times I must admit I had found hard to love. I began to look at them and see them through Jesus’ eyes. The love began to well up, and the first ministry that God began to use me in was to those very people.

I began to pour out His love and His anointing, and God began to perform signs and wonders. People started to get healed and they started to get saved. It was because I cared enough to love them and to get my eyes off myself. It is so easy really.

You say, “I can’t drum up love.”

Listen, love is a choice. I think it was Kathryn Kuhlman that is reputed to have said,

“Love is something you do. Love is not a feeling.”

You need to be sensitive to the needs round about you. You need to be sensitive to peoples’ feelings and their cares and concerns. You need to take the time to find out what people are suffering with. You need to take the time to ask people how they are doing.

You should not just be saying,

“Good morning, how are you?”

Then you expect the person to come right back with a lie and say,

“I’m fine thank you.”

True love means being prepared to be involved in the lives of other people, and I mean really involved. It will cost you. Do you want the power? Do you want the anointing and the glory?

Do you know that love, light and life are used almost interchangeably in Scripture? Do you want the light of the radiance of the glory of God to shine forth from you?

Then you had better get the light of His love to shine forth from you. His life will pour forth from you and reach out to destroy the death that is in the lives of others. Forget about your own needs for a while. Just leave them with the Lord. Start being concerned about the needs of others.

You say, “But I have this anointing and I have nobody to minister to. The pastor won’t let me preach. I never have a chance to do anything in church.”

Look around you. Do you see that person walking down the street? They have a need.

You say, “How do you know?”

“Well do you have any needs?”

“Sure.”

“Do you know of anybody who doesn’t have any needs? You see that guy walking down the street there? He is a candidate for ministry.”

“Well how can I help him?”

“Go and find out what his problem is and use the power of God to minister to it.”

You do not have to look far for ministry opportunities. You do not have to look far to pour out the power of God. I am not going to major on that now because I am going to zero in on that in the next section.

Hope

The final key to releasing God’s power is the force of hope. What is hope? Hope is a positive expectation. I want to ask you this question:

Can you see God using you? Can you close your eyes and see it? Can you visualize it? Or are you almost too afraid to think of that possibility?

How big is your vision? Can you see yourself standing in front of a bunch of people and sharing? Let’s start a bit lower. Can you see yourself speaking to one person and ministering the power of God to him?

Okay get that one out of the way. Now let’s make it a bit bigger. Can you see yourself speaking with two or three people? Can you see yourself praying with them?

Let’s make it bigger. Can you see yourself speaking to a whole room full of people? Can you see yourself prophesying, praying and sending forth the power of God? Can you see yourself getting revelation and saying,

“I see that God says this about you.”

Can you see that? Let’s make that a bit bigger. Can you see yourself standing in front of a hall full of people, with the anointing power of God on you, and ministering forth that power?

Okay, let’s let your mind go wild. Can you see yourself standing in a stadium with thousands of people all around? They have come to receive of the anointing that God has placed on you.

How big is your vision? I remember when God first called me to the ministry at about the age of 20 and His power came on me for the first time. I was as timid as they come. I was so insecure.  I was asked to close in prayer at a youth meeting once and I refused.

But when God’s call came on me I had this picture. There I was, standing and preaching, and the power of God was on me. I preached to the people and they came forward and I saw this long healing line. I saw myself going down the line and laying hands on them and God was healing them. It was my imagination. I thought,

“There’s no way I can be used like this. Me getting used like that? I don’t think so. I don’t come from that kind of category.”

But you know I lived in that dream and that vision. And over time it became modified and it changed, and God began to lead me into different gifts of the Spirit. He gave me opportunities to actually minister live to people. I was able to pastor a church and preach before groups of people, to call people out and to have lines and to pray over them.

I began to desire the gift of prophecy and the power that there was in that. I so wanted to be able to prophesy over people, and I lived in that dream and that vision. I visualized it, and in my private prayer time I imagined it. I walked up and down and I began to practice prophesying,

“Thus says the Lord. . .”

I was giving really powerful prophesies. I could see it in my mind. I could see it happening. I could see me praying with someone, and as I prayed God would reveal their problem to me.

I would tell them what their problem was and God’s power would come on them. And the Lord would minister to them and set them free. I lived in it in the Spirit. I visualized it and saw it very clearly.

Now I can report that everything that I have ever visualized has come to pass. Everything that I have ever set my heart to do in the Lord; everything that I have ever desired and cried out to the Lord for, though it seemed an impossibility at the time, God granted me the opportunity to fulfill.

Big Dreams and Visions

I do not want to end there, because my goal does not stop and I am never satisfied. God is continually taking us into bigger things. He has given promises that He will take us out to where the harvest is; to where the needs are and to where His power needs to be manifest.

I have been living in it and walking in it. I have been visualizing it and seeing it in my spirit. And though in the natural it may be an impossibility, with God there is no impossibility.

I will not accept impossibility thinking. I do not care what it costs. I do not care what price I have to pay or what I have to give up to get it. I am going to move in His power and in His glory, and I am going to give it forth.

The power of hope is there, the power of faith is there and the power of love is there. As you open those three doors and swing wide those three sluice gates to God’s power, it will gush forth.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

SECTION 05- UNDERSTANDING THE REVIVAL EXPERIENCE

CHAPTER 16

Different Views of Revival

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Section 05 – Understanding the Revival Experience

Chapter 16 – Different Views of Revival

Isaiah 57:15 says:

For thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name [is] Holy; I dwell in the high and holy [place], with him also [that is] of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Revival means a lot of different things to different people. And each person seems to have their own idea or opinion of what revival means. But one thing that everybody seems to agree on is that revival involves a change in people. And it involves a change in the way that we relate to God.

So with that basic understanding under our belt, I want to look in this section at the subject of revival in more detail. I want to understand what it is, how it works, where it comes from, who needs it, and how we go about obtaining it.

This section is just going to be an introduction. I am going to lay a groundwork or a foundation on the subject so that we have something to build on. There are many different views that people have on this subject of revival. Here are some of the common views that you have probably heard.

Related to Evangelism

Some people see revival as a mighty move of evangelism in an area. In many places revival meetings really are nothing more than evangelistic outreaches where souls are gathered in.

In some of the revivals in times gone past, there has been a shaking of the community and souls have been coming in by the hundreds. So for many people, revival means an influx of the lost.

Outpouring of the Spirit

To others, revival means a mighty manifestation of the anointing of God, with signs and wonders and a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God. Certainly in many places where revival is taking place right now, we are seeing God move in fresh ways. A fresh anointing power of God is coming in meetings, and people are saying,

“This is revival. This is what we’ve been praying for.”

So many people seem to think that this is what revival is. Revival is an increase of the anointing presence and power of God in the meetings.

A Change of Heart

Some see revival as being a change of heart that takes place in individuals, rather than an outpouring in a group. It is said that revival is ‘of the heart’, and not an external thing. Revival is something that takes place within.

Other people following on further, say that revival is having a greater awareness of our sin. It brings a greater emphasis on holiness and sanctification, and in walking righteously with God. So revival to them means a move of holiness and separation from sin.

Back to First Love

To others, revival is simply a restoration of first love to those whose hearts have grown cold; who have strayed away from the Lord and lost that first love. To them revival means coming back again to the place where you once were, back into that relationship experience of being deeply in love with the Lord all over again.

These are the different views of revival. And I dare say that you will be able to identify with one or more of these. Right now you are likely thinking,

“Yes, that is what revival is. That is what I’ve always understood by revival.”

Well are you right or are you wrong? Is revival all of these? Is revival any of these or none of these? Is revival perhaps something else altogether?

Will I be teaching heresy here? For the sake of producing something new, am I going to give you a view on revival that you have never heard before? I will not give you the answer to that though, or you will stop reading right now.

So let’s go on and look at the subject. Let’s see if I agree with these viewpoints or not, and if the Word of God agrees with them or not. Let’s consider if that is really what God wants to say to us at this time concerning this subject of revival.

I am going to pose a few questions now and I will try and answer those questions very simply.

What is Revival?

Firstly what is revival? That is a good start. What does the word revive mean? People are digging in the dictionary to try and understand what revive means.

They are splitting hairs over exactly what the dictionary meaning of the word revive is. They are therefore trying to interpret it into the context of their own pet view on revival. And they try to use it as an excuse to escape what they know God wants them to do.

What does revive mean? Revive means literally ‘coming to life’. You may say,

“Oh wow, I thought you were going to give me something a bit more complicated than that.”

Revival vs. Resurrection

Romans 14:9 is one of the few New Testament passages where you will find the word revival. But you have to look the word revive up in the King James version, because revival is not a New Testament word.

It does not occur in the New Testament. Why not? It is for a very important reason. It means something different in the New Testament. That Scripture says this:

For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

What this verse literally means is,

For this reason Jesus died and came back to life.

That is all revive means. Jesus died and was made alive. Revival means coming back to life. It is really quite a simple definition. If revival means coming back to life, then surely revival means to resurrect. So why do we use the word revival instead of resurrection?

If both the words revival and resurrect mean coming back to life, why are we using two different words? Why do we not say,

“We had a wonderful resurrection in our church.”

People usually say,

“God is moving in revival power,”

But why do we not say,

“God is moving in resurrection power.”

Is it just terminology? Is it splitting hairs over words? Perhaps it is. But in the very use of those words, we are acknowledging that there is a difference between resurrection and revival. They are not the same thing.

Revival Greater Than Resurrection

We have taught in some of our School courses the concept of birth, death and resurrection. We have seen that we have to go through a death in order to enter into a greater resurrection.

So what is the difference between revival and resurrection? I would like to offer a suggestion. Resurrection does not imply a change. Resurrection is simply a restoration of what once was. In other words, for those who believe that revival is a return to first love, it is not a revival; it is a resurrection.

We read in the Gospels about how Jesus raised a couple of people from the dead. When He healed the young girl who had died, and He raised her from the dead and restored her to her parents, she did not come back to life a couple of years older.

Her hair was not a different color. She had not changed her gender. She was the same person in every way. She had simply died and He brought her back to life again.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, there was no change from the way he had been before. He was the same old Lazarus and he carried on with his life and died in the normal way. Again, resurrection does not necessarily imply a change. It simply means bringing the person back into the state that they were in before.

Revival involves a little bit more. Revival involves the impartation of a new element to the person. It involves an impartation of raw life and energy; an explosive release of power. It means not just a bringing back to life, but an elevation above the previous level of life that existed.

In other words, when a person is revived they are not brought back to a state that they were in before. They are brought into a state that is greater than the one that they existed in before.

They are brought into a condition that never existed in them before. They move into a higher spiritual plane and a greater spiritual experience than what they ever had before.

Revival cannot be somebody who is returning to the Lord from a backslidden state. Revival has to be coming into a condition that is greater than anything that you have known and experienced before.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

CHAPTER 17

Revival in Individuals

189 | Page     Chapter 17 – Revival in Individuals

Chapter 17 – Revival in Individuals

Who then needs revival? Firstly, individual people need revival. There are so many people out there who are under the misconception that they do not need it.

I would like to show you who needs revival. And if at the end of it you can say that you do not fit into one of these categories, then I will agree with you that you do not need revival. But if you fall into that category you are to be pitied.

Backsliders

There are those who say,

“Revival is only for those who have backslidden and grown cold. As for me, I’ve never turned my back on the Lord. I’ve served Him faithfully all my life. I have never gone back on my original commitment or doubted my salvation.

“I’ve served the Lord faithfully, been firm and continued on through all these years. For 25 years now I’ve served the Lord as a stalwart Christian. Don’t tell me I need revival. I don’t need to be revived; I’m doing fine.”

For Emotional or Extreme People

Some people seem to think that revival is only for the emotional. They think it is for those who are swayed by the wind and are living from one high to another. Or it is for those who flit from church to church to get a blessing.

They think revival is only for the glory-seekers and the people that love the ‘Bless Me Clubs’. You keep hearing about the Bless Me Clubs. People say,

“Yeah, revival is for these flaky people. They have to go from revival to revival, so that they can go and fall under the power again and experience it again. It is not for me. I don’t need that kind of stuff.”

Other people say things like,

“Revival is only for the Charismatic extremists; people who have gone overboard on the Gifts of the Spirit and have forgotten about the fruit.”

Have you heard things like this?

Who is Revival For?

Let’s look at who revival is for.

For the Lost

Revival is for the lost. That one caught you didn’t it? Revival is for the unsaved.

You say, “Hang on, surely revival means to bring back to life what was there before?”

“No, that is resurrection. Revival is bringing life where there is death.”

Well are the unsaved dead? Do they not need life? Do they not need the life-giving impartation of the power and glory of God, to raise them up out of their state of death? Then the unsaved need revival just as much as the believers. They need someone to come and speak life into them.

Many of them grew up with a knowledge about God, but they did not know Him. They had a mental knowledge and understanding. And as a child they may even have been open to the Lord. They never gave their lives to Him though.

Nobody ever shared the Gospel with them, and they followed the way of the world and ended up in spiritual death. The Lord wants to call them to life. He wants to revive them and lift them up. But we ignore the unsaved because we think revival is for the church. You may say,

“Brother I am a star for revival. The Lord has called me to spread His revival power everywhere.”

“And how many souls have you won to the Lord?”

“Well the Lord has not really called me to be an evangelist. I’m more of a revivalist you see.”

You missed it. Winning the lost is part of the purpose of revival. What do you think God is reviving you, raising you up and putting His power into you for? Is it so that you can have a wonderful time? So that you can have glorious meetings and say,

“Man, we had a party at church this weekend.”

Living for Fantasy

That does not sound much different to the world, who get together on a Monday morning and say,

“So what did you do this weekend?”

“Well I went to a party on Saturday night. Wow you should have seen it. Man we got high! We had a glorious time. Oh boy I got so drunk I couldn’t walk. I was falling all over the place.”

Well these days you hear Christians talking about the same thing.

“So what did you do this weekend?”

“We went to the revival meeting and man we got high! We were so drunk we couldn’t drive home.”

Is there anything wrong with that? No, it is God. It is the Spirit of God and the power of God that causes these things. And yes it is much better to go and get high on the Holy Ghost than it is to go and get high on alcohol and drugs.

But is that what your life consists of? Is it another social event for the weekend just like the world, so that you can trade with the world? They can say,

“I had a party, and I got high and I was stoned.”

And you can say,

“Well we also had a party, and we were also high and also got stoned. But we didn’t have to do it on your stuff. We did it on the Lord.”

It sounds good but it is the same motivation. It is living for fantasy. It is living for emotion and feelings. The Lord has greater things than that in store for us. We are like the man on the Jericho road who lay there dying. And everybody walked past him and said,

“I don’t have time to mess with this horrible person.”

Give Hope to the Lost

The Body of Christ have become just like that where the lost are concerned. They do not want to touch the unclean thing. They do not want to be part of it or mix with it. They do not want anything to do with the world. They want to disassociate with those rotten sinners that are going to hell, and rather go to their spiritual party.

Jesus went to their parties, but He took His party with Him. He took His own booze with Him. He took the life of the Spirit and His power with Him everywhere He went. When He went to the well, He said to the woman,

“I have better water than what you’re drawing.”

He had something better to give them. He took it out there where they were. If you have a better drug to offer, why are you taking it in churches? You should rather be getting it out there, where you can give people something better than what they have been shooting themselves up with every week.

The church must wake up and realize that God has a passion for the lost; that Jesus died for the lost. You were once down there with them and nobody cared about you. The church must wake up and realize that revival involves the lost as well.

It burns in me and I know it burns in Him because I am feeling His heart. If you want to talk about revival, you cannot talk about it without considering the salvation of those that are dead in sin; those who need the reviving power of God to go forth and bring them to life.

When God puts His revival power in you, the first thing that you should be thinking is,

“Where can I give it out?”

And if you cannot find any place to give it out, look next door. Look down the street or at the people you work with. You do not have to look far to find somebody who needs life. Start giving it out and spreading that revival power around.

Backsliders Need Life

Revival is for those who have turned from the way; for those whose hearts have grown cold over time. It is for those who have backslidden and fallen away from God, and for those who grew weary on the way and gave up in the fight.

You say, “Miserable rotten sinners - they had their chance and they turned their back on the Lord. They don’t want to come to church anymore. They are not interested. I’ve invited them to church and they don’t want to come.”

They need life. They need the inspiring, awesome glory of God to come upon them and to rekindle the fire that was once in their souls. The chances are the reason they have fallen away, is because they came to church to have their needs met, but their needs were not met in the Body of Christ.

They came, and in the place where they came to be helped, they were stabbed in the back. In the place where they came to be treated they were injured. So they said,

“It’s pointless me continuing here. I might as well stop this. I can live without this kind of pain. I really don’t need this in my life. If this is what it means to serve the Lord then you can have it. I don’t want it.”

You say, “Well those people need the judgment of God. They need God to take out the sword and sort them out; to kill them and just destroy them.”

No, revival is not bringing death. Revival is bringing life. You do not bring life by taking a sword and destroying people. Well, sometimes a sword is needed. Sometimes a doctor needs the scalpel to do a bit of cutting. But the idea of the cutting is to cut away the bad part in order to bring life.

Yes, there is a time for rebuke. There is a time for preaching sin and condemnation. There is also a time for preaching judgment. It is there. Jesus spoke judgment too.

There is a time and a place for it. But the purpose for it is to bring life. The purpose for it is to remove the obstacle that is standing in the way of that person. It is causing them to fall and stumble, and miss all that God has for them.

Many Christians say,

“Who cares about the backslider? They had their chance and they messed it up. Let them go on their way. I’m not interested in somebody who couldn’t be bothered. I don’t have time to mess with somebody who’s just whining and complaining all the time, about all the problems they have in their life.”

As a result there are not too many Christians out there praying for revival of the lost. There are not too many Christians out there praying for revival of those who have backslidden and fallen away from the Lord, and whose hearts have grown cold.

No, they are busy praying for revival of,

“Me and my church. And our this and our that.”

They are praying,

“Lord, revive us; Lord, give me; Lord, make us. . .”

We have it wrong don’t we? It is because we have this narrow view of what revival is supposed to be and who it is supposed to be for.

You say, “Well who is revival for then?”

I have already told you. It is for the lost and for those whose hearts have grown cold.

Spiritual Plateau

You say, “But I’m not lost; I know the Lord. My heart hasn’t grown cold. I’ve never turned from Him or backslidden. I have served the Lord faithfully, so why should I need revival?”

Revival is also for those who have come to a spiritual plateau in their lives. You seem to have reached your limit spiritually. You have come to a place in your spiritual progression where you can go as far as it seems that you can get; where there does not seem to be much more that you can learn.

You have studied the Word; you have studied the doctrines and filled your head with everything. You have accepted the Lord, been baptized in water and been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

You flow in the Gifts of the Spirit and you have learned to minister prophetically. You have laid your hands on people and prayed for them and God has healed them.

You may be an elder in the church or you may be a pastor there. You are ministering well and people are getting saved. The church is growing, the people are paying their tithes and things are going well. Everybody is happy.

They come to church on Sunday, you feed them and they go home again happy. Everybody is happy. You are doing great here. Next week the people come back and you do the same thing all over again. Sometimes somebody gets saved and you add to the lost and it grows. It is wonderful. You are just on this steady little progress.

Then you hear of somebody else. Something happened in his church. Suddenly there was an explosion. There were not enough chairs to go round on a Sunday night.

Suddenly people start falling under the power and they are being healed by the hundreds. Souls are coming to the Lord like they were drawn by a magnet.

People start visiting from other churches. They are travelling from across the country to come and visit this church to hear this guy preach.

You have heard him preach, and he cannot preach his way out of a paper bag. The guy never learned any homiletics. Sometimes you do not even know what he is talking about. What could have happened? Why do people want to go to him?

Something happened. That person broke out of the spiritual plateau that you and he were both in, and he began to climb the mountain.

What is revival? Revival is climbing the mountain to the next peak. That is what revival is. Revival is never being satisfied at the height up the mountain that you have accomplished. It is aspiring and desiring to go higher with God.

It is wanting to go deeper with God and to know a greater measure of His power; to have a greater revelation of His glory, and to see His power manifest in your life. And in your ministry, revival is having a greater power than you have ever known before.

No Effort Needed

To put it simply, revival means that instead of working hard you can work smart. Have you ever heard that expression in business?

You should not be working hard; you should be working smart. The guy who slogs it every day from early morning until late at night, is the guy who normally does not have enough bread to put on his table.

But the rich fat cat is sitting back there. And if he does not feel like working he doesn’t need to, because somebody else is running his business for him and he is coining the rewards. It does not always happen, but it can be that way. So people say,

“Man you need to work smart, not hard. I work the same number of hours as you do, but you know what? I get more dollars per hour for my time than what you get. You know why? Because I’m smarter than you and because I have greater skill and ability than you.”

Well that applies in the natural business world, but what about the spiritual? In the spiritual God is saying,

“Hey, why do you keep trying to push your car to work, when I have given you a gasoline engine to take you there?”

You say, “Well you know I’m doing okay. I’m strong enough to push. Hey, I get there okay and I get back and I’ve done it that way for years. What is the problem?”

A Greater Dimension Available

Go and take a ride with the engine on and experience the difference. That is the difference between carrying on along the plateau that you have been on, and moving into God’s revival power. You will enter into a new dimension.

You will get a new boost of octane in your gas tank and take off like a rocket. And you know what? You will be using the same amount of effort that you did before and accomplish 100 times the result. Why? It is because God is your partner now. He has empowered you and given you a greater impartation of His spiritual energy and power to accomplish these things.

You might say, “Well I don’t need that.”

Are you stupid? You are as stupid as the guy who wants to push his car to work instead of ride it. Who is so foolish as to say,

“I would rather do it the hard way?”

Who is so foolish as to say,

“Well my results haven’t been that marvelous, but I’m satisfied with them.”

Who is so foolish in a business as to say,

“I’m happy to get $1000 a month.”

But you can be having a million. Nobody in this world is that foolish, except God’s people. They are too stubborn and proud to admit that they have reached a plateau. They have hit their head against the ceiling and they cannot go any further. But they are too stubborn to say,

“Yes, I acknowledge it; I admit it. Lord, I have reached my utmost for you. But Lord, I want to go higher.”

Well are you in any of those categories? If you do not know the Lord, you need revival. If your heart has grown cold and you have strayed from Him, you need revival. If you knew Him once, but you have lost that sharp edge of your commitment, you need revival.

If you are serving Him fervently and have reached a plateau in your spiritual experience, you need revival. If you are dead and no longer breathing, you do not need revival - not in that sense. You need resurrection.

Everyone of us needs revival. Not a single one of us can say,

“I don’t need this. It doesn’t apply to me.”

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

189 | Page     Chapter 17 – Revival in Individuals

CHAPTER 18

Revival for Groups

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

Chapter 18 - Revival for Groups

Revival is also needed by groups of people, not just individuals. I am not going to major on this because I would like to share more on this later. But I would like to look at some groups that need revival, and a few reasons why they need it.

Churches on a Plateau

Firstly, local churches need revival. Well which ones need revival?

Churches whose members have become self-satisfied need revival. You will usually find that these are churches where the leaders have reached a plateau. The members have come under that same plateau. They have received that communication from the preacher, who has said to them,

“Things are okay; we’re doing great. We’re wonderful. Come up here where I am.”

He makes sure that they are below him. Then they always have this aspiration to come up to where he is, because he is continually higher than them. What we have to do is stunt the growth of those who are below us, to make sure that they always have something to aim for.

We have to keep them down there. We have to take them through first grade for five years so that they do not grow too quickly and overtake us. A church like that needs revival.

Churches With No Care

Churches that need revival have members that have become self-centered. They do not care for one another. Where there seems to be any kind of care or understanding towards one another, you will usually find that it is for selfish reasons.

There is no care for the lost. They say,

“We don’t have time to care for other people and other peoples’ problems. There is no time to care for the lost out there, because I’m too busy looking after number one and maintaining my own spiritual life.

“Man I need to hang in there and try and make it to Heaven. I’m doing my best to serve the Lord and make it to Heaven.”

I think a church like that needs revival, don’t you? They need the reality of God’s power. They need to come to life, and they need to break out of that plateau.

And if the pastor does not want to break out of the plateau, I have news for him. He will likely have a couple of members of his church who will surpass him, and they will break him out of that plateau.

Sometimes God has to split the church in half to allow that growth to take place, because it has been stunted. Local churches need revival because they are caught in a rut.

Cities and Counties

Cities and counties need revival. Why? It is because they are filled with local churches that have become self-centered. Each one is trying to build their own little empire, and each church has their little vision.

They say, “We have our building fund and the projection for the next year and what we are going to accomplish in this ministry. We know what we will be doing for God and how wonderful we are going to be.”

Each one is competing with the other. If the church down the road happens to get a few more members it is just not good enough. Then the pastor says,

“Brothers and sisters, we must do something about this. We’d better get some new members in. You had better start inviting your friends and you people must start coming to church. The church down the road is getting more members coming to church than we are.

“We have to wake up. We can’t be the smallest church in the community. It just can’t be. I will not have this church being the smallest church in this county. It is not acceptable. We’d better wake up. You people need revival.”

Yes, they need revival. All the churches need revival.

Unity With Everyone

Revival is needed in a city and county when local churches have united incorrectly. Now we have the opposite extreme here.

Firstly they are competing with one another. And we have this fragmented bunch of churches out there, like a body that is fighting itself instead of fighting the disease.

Then you get the Ecumenical movements that try to bring together harmony and unity.

They say, “We must gather together all of our brethren and discuss things. We must have a big meeting and set up a Board of Directors. We need to understand one another. We must begin to understand our brothers in the Jehovah’s Witness and Mormon camps.

“We must understand our brothers who are Muslim. We need to bring a unity and harmony in this place: all men under one God.”

That is baloney! That is not God’s way of bringing about revival, let me tell you. Revival is something that takes place by the power of God and the Spirit of God. It takes place when people are open and ready for God to bring life; when they are open and ready to flow together as one for the Lord.

Instead they are putting this administrative control, with hierarchical authority. It is really no different to local Government and the structures of the world. And God does not have place to move in that community.

God needs to shake a community like that. He needs to bring revival power amongst all the churches in that area.

Country-Wide Revival

A country can need revival. This is because denominations have organized the Lord out. Each denominational structure has become this hierarchy that has strict control of all the churches under its authority. The denomination says,

“You’re allowed to do this and you’re allowed to do that. You’re not allowed to do this and you’re not allowed to do that. We will have no disorder in this denomination!

“We will not have prophets standing up and giving their prophecies whenever they feel like it. We will not have visiting preachers coming in that do not agree with our doctrinal stance. We won’t allow any of these things that are outside of our control to take place.”

But the Holy Spirit has no control. Instead we have domination by human leaders. We have an emphasis again on administrative procedures, and the church fossilizes and dies. You will see it in every revival movement and great move of God that has taken place in the past.

The Spirit of God begins to move in people and they break out of the boundaries and restrictions that they have been under. God begins to move spontaneously, and eventually somebody says,

“This is chaos. We must do something about this. We have to organize it and bring structure.”

They begin to organize things, and they organize the Holy Spirit out. Then we have to start praying for revival all over again.

The Government and the Church

There are countries that are ruled by major denominations that eventually begin to reach into Government hierarchy. And you begin to have Government ministers and leaders that are part of a denominational structure.

They take the concepts of their denomination into Government, and they take their Government concepts back into their denomination. They mix the Body of Christ with a worldly structure, and they begin to run the church like they run the country.

That is not God’s order. There is only One ruler permitted in the Body of Christ, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ; not any Government structure or human authority, even if that human authority is a man of God.

Jesus Christ alone is the head of the church, and He leads and moves through the structure that He has set up, not the structures of man. But the Body of Christ has come under the structures of man and is beginning to interpret itself in the structures and the ordinances of man.

What happens then? It dies. Well then it needs revival, doesn’t it, because it is dead. It needs to be brought to life. It needs to spontaneously break out of those restrictions that it has been placed in.

Worldly Temptations

Denominations have willingly subjected themselves to the ordinances of man and to the control of worldly ordinances. Why? They have compromised with the world for the sake of convenience and in an attempt to get recognition from the world.

Why is this? It is because they have fallen for the same temptations that Eve faced in the Garden of Eden; the same temptations that Jesus faced in the Wilderness.

One of those temptations is to rise up and to dominate and control others. One of them is for recognition, and the other one is for money and wealth. When those temptations begin to come into the church, we start to think like the world and start to follow the World System.

And when a man of God rises up, he begins to see wealth as being a goal to his ministry. He begins to see recognition and fame as being a goal to his ministry. Then he rises up and says,

“I want to dominate and control. I’m not satisfied just being a pastor of a little congregation. I’m not satisfied at being a leader of several local churches, or a denominational moderator who is in charge of churches all over the country.

“I want to rise up higher. I want to be recognized by other churches and other denominations. I want them to vote me in on their Councils. I want them to ask me for advice and council.

“I want to be able to advise the President and the Government leaders. I want to be able to get in there and have some kind of influence.”

They begin to reach beyond the boundaries of what God has called them to. They have compromised and fallen prey to that temptation, to rise up, to dominate and control, and to be recognized by others.

When a country gets to that state, that country is in a sad state of affairs. They need the reviving power of God to come and move in and smash through all of those structures; to destroy them and break them down, and to start building all over again from scratch.

God is the Source

Who is the source of revival? Is that a trick question? No, it is God of course. But do we believe it? The way some people preach revival you would say that man was the source of revival, and they kind of imply,

“Well God is just obligated to do whatever we tell Him.”

God is the source of revival. It is His power. Habakkuk 3:2 says:

O LORD, I have heard your speech, [and] was afraid: O LORD, revive your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

Then he says in verse 3 and 4:

God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

God came in glory.

And [his] brightness was as the sunlight; he had rays [coming] out of his hand: and there [was] the hiding place of his power.

The prophet cried out and said,

“Oh Lord, revive Your work.”

His prayer went up and God heard. I think his prayer was answered quicker than he realized. As he finished praying he looked up, and in the Spirit he saw God coming to answer his prayer. He saw God coming in awesome glory and power and it frightened him.

He was an awesome sight. He was radiating glory. When He lifted out His hands, Habakkuk just saw like laser beams coming out.

I do not think Habakkuk doubted that God was the source of revival. If we are to see God’s revival power work in our midst, we will have to start looking beyond ourselves. For most people revival begins with an introverted look. People start looking inside and saying,

“What’s wrong with me? I had better deal with my sin. I must give up this, give up that and the other thing. I’m going to have to deal with sin in my life.”

We start examining ourselves and making a list of all of our weaknesses and sins; all the wrong things we do and don’t do. We start working on ourselves to patch ourselves up. We try to make ourselves worthy, and to somehow earn and merit God’s revival power.

Have you ever seen a dead body prepare for coming to life? I can see the body lying there in the coffin and saying,

“Well, I’m about to get raised from the dead. I’d better just put my legs together nicely and be neat.”

Can you see that? God is the one who brings revival, not man. There is just one condition. He only brings to life something that is dead. Are you beginning to get a hint here?

207 | Page     Chapter 19 – The Cost of Revival

CHAPTER 19

The Cost of Revival

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

207 | Page     Chapter 19 – The Cost of Revival

Chapter 19 – The Cost of Revival

What is the price of revival? Is there a price to pay or does it come for free? Does God dish this out like candy? Does it just come easily or when He feels like it? And if He does not feel like giving it, am I praying in vain?

Do I need to bother wasting time asking the Lord for this thing? Do I need to bother praying about it, or is there something that God requires on my part that could somehow qualify me and make me a candidate for revival?

To answer all these questions, I would like to give you a couple of things that I have seen.

A Gift from God

Firstly, desire is vital. Revival is a gift from God. It is something that He gives in His grace and His love. He earnestly desires to give it, even as a parent desires to bless their children and to give them wonderful gifts.

Now the problem with giving gifts for us as humans is we often give the wrong kinds of gifts. Have you ever noticed that when somebody gives you an unexpected gift, that a lot of the time they give you something that they wanted?

Have you ever unwrapped a gift that was a beautiful surprise? You opened it in joy to see what it was, and found out it was something you did not want. When you look at the person who gave it to you they will probably say something like this.

“You know I always used to want one of those, so I figured maybe you would like it too.”

Did they bother asking you if you wanted it? A gift given that way is not a nice gift. And you know something? When you give somebody a gift that they do not want and they do not appreciate, it is embarrassing for both of you.

You know what it is like to give somebody a gift. You give it to them and you wait for the thank you to come back and it does not come back. You begin to wonder why this person is so rude as to not get back to you and say,

“Hey, thanks for that gift. It was wonderful. I really appreciate it.”

You find out afterwards that the reason they did not get back to you is that they were too embarrassed to tell you that they did not want it. They did not need it or they hated it. Do you know how embarrassing it is for you when you give somebody a gift like that?

It may have been a beautiful gift and may have been very costly. It may have cost you money that you could ill afford. It does not matter. You gave that person a gift that they did not desire or want.

I remember as a child once being given a gift that was not what I wanted. I just wanted a beautiful toy to play with, but all I got were boring books. Oh Lord, how do you tell the person who gave it to you,

“I don’t like reading, and especially those books. Hey it would have been great if you had bought me a toy; something to play with.”

“Well, you’re supposed to increase your education, boy. Read the books.”

You Must Desire It

Do you know what I am talking about? But you know God is wonderful. He never imposes on us. It is the wonderful thing about Him. But you know what? He is not going to give you something you do not want or desire.

I look at our kids, and I see them getting excited about some of the new toys and the things that are available. They get so excited. They say,

“Mommy, I really want one of those.”

“Well, we’re going to pray and ask the Lord for that.”

Man, they are crying out for it. They sit and dream about it and talk about it. I see my son and how he shows me the pictures of all the series that are available. Then he says,

“Dad, next time we get money I want one of those.”

You know what? When I get the money, I am going to buy it for him as soon as I can because he is earnestly desiring it. He is excited about it and he will appreciate it. He is going to throw his arms around me and say,

“Thanks so much, Dad.”

He will be thrilled when I buy it for him. He is going to play with it all the time until it is worn out. He will really appreciate that gift.

God Never Imposes His Will

The Lord is standing here and He is saying,

“Here it is. I’m prepared to give you my revival power and my very life essence.”

But people are saying,

“Well I don’t need it. I’m doing okay. What do I need revival for? I am not backslidden. What’s wrong with me?”

“Well you know what God is going to do? He’s going to force the revival power on them to just knock them off their feet.”

No, He is not. God is a gentleman and He will never impose or force Himself on anybody. The Lord will give you what you desire. If you want His revival power you will have to start desiring it.

You are going to have to start earnestly desiring it to the point where you cannot stop talking about it; to where you are telling everybody,

“You know what? The Lord is going to give me His revival power. I’m going to move into a new level and a new experience with the Lord that I’ve never had before. It’s coming, you’ll see. You just wait and see.

“The Lord has promised it to me. I’m not going to let Him go. I’m going to nag Him and bug Him. I’m going to pray and fast and do everything I need to do. I don’t care what it costs. I don’t care what I have to give up, I’m going to get it. It is mine and I can’t live without it. I have to have it.”

When my child gets that excited I want to start borrowing money to buy it for him, don’t you? Oh it stirs the heart of God and He gets excited about it. He says,

“Wow, they want it! Come on guys, let’s give it to them.”

He is not going to withhold it from you for one moment. He delights in giving it to you, but He will not give you something you did not ask for. He will not give you something you did not desire, and He will never impose Himself on you in any way. So do not stand back there all smug and say,

“Well if God was going to revive me, why hasn’t He done it yet?”

Do you know what you are going to be doing? You will be sitting playing with one of those old electronic calculators. But the guy next door will be sitting with his new palmtop because he really wanted one. He got excited about it.

You may say, “Well my old calculator still works fine. I can still add, subtract, divide and multiply.”

But do you know what that guy is doing with his little color laptop computer, and all the fancy technology? He is having a ball. He is surfing the Internet in his back yard, and you are saying,

“One plus one equals two. Well it works fine. I’m happy with my calculator.”

Okay, be stupid and be happy with your calculator. But you know what happens? That person starts getting all sour and miserable. He says,

“That’s not fair. How come he got the fancy thing and I’m still sitting with the old one? Lord, why do you bless this idiot up the road who can’t preach? Lord, why do you bless this guy? Can’t you see he’s a moron?”

Well you know what? He earnestly desired it. He got excited, and when he got the gift he said,

“Wow, I got it!”

You looked at it and said,

“I can live without it.”

Who God Will Give It To

You say, “I know some things in that other guy’s life that are lacking. I know for a fact that he lets a swear word slip every now and again. I’ve seen him. I’ve seen him lose his temper with his kids. His life is lacking. Why should he have God’s revival power? Why is God blessing his church?”

Covet and Lust for it

It is because he earnestly desired it. It is quite simple really, isn’t it? What does Paul say after he has given us a full summary of the Gifts of the Spirit and he goes into love? He gives us a summary in 1 Corinthians 14:1 and says:

Pursue divine love, and earnestly desire (earnestly covet; lust after) spiritual [gifts], but rather that you may prophesy.

If you want God’s power, you are going to have to lust after it. You will have to lust for it better than you do for a member of the opposite sex. You will have to lust for it better than you are lusting for your next meal.

You are going to have to lust for it better than you are lusting for the sports car or whatever else you are wanting in life. You will have to lust and covet for it, earnestly desire it and say,

“I’m just not going to let go. I’m going to carry on losing sleep and tossing and turning. I will not be happy until I get this thing.”

That is the price you are going to have to pay if you want revival.

Faith

Another price you will have to pay is faith. That is quite a simple one really. We must come to God expecting Him to grant our desires. Hebrews 11:6 says:

But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.

We must come without wavering in doubt. James 1:6 says:

But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed [about].

Submission to Him

And finally, the price we have to pay is submission to His divine will. We have to allow Him to apply the cross to our lives. Hosea 6:1 and 2 says:

Come, and let us return to the LORD: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up.

After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

That sounds like revival to me. Do you know what comes then? Verse 3 says:

Then shall we know, [if] we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come to us as the rain, as the latter [and] former rain to the earth.

That is what will happen when you begin to pray and seek the Lord for revival?

Death to All

There is another price that you will have to pay, and it is a painful price. I will share much more about this as we continue in this book. I am going to share some of my own experiences on this. But I want you to realize that there will have to come a death to your natural desires and aspirations.

Why must this happen? It is because revival comes from death. There will have to come a death to your natural strengths. In fact there needs to come a complete death to everything that you have been up until now. Why? Because you have reached a plateau.

God wants to take you higher up the mountain. In order to do this though, you will have to cast off some of the weights and the obstacles that have held you back.

You will have to let go of things that seem valuable and important to you. You are going to have to give up virtually everything that you have accomplished up until now and put it beside you.

Those things that you relied on and counted on in the past will no longer be valid because He is taking you into a new dimension. He is taking you into a new level, and new rules will now apply. New ministries will operate in you and new gifts will function in you.

Everything will be new in you, even as the Scripture says,

If any man is in Christ he is a new creation. Behold, old things have passed away. All things have become new.

Revival is just like a new birth. It is a new birth out of where you were, into something new. It is coming out of the chrysalis to become the butterfly. You cannot be the worm any longer. You have to become the butterfly. To do that you will have to leave the worm behind, and it is going to be costly.

You say, “How much is it going to cost me?”

It is going to cost you everything.

In conclusion, I would like to ask you this question:

“What is your current spiritual state?”

No matter what it is you can seek revival. I do not care where you are at right now, you can seek revival. There is no excuse. There is no reason whatsoever for you to hold back on what God has for you, but then you must be able to answer the following:

1. Do you earnestly desire it?

2. Are you prepared to pay the price for it?

If you can sincerely and honestly say yes to both those questions, then you have what it takes. You are a suitable candidate to move into God’s revival power.

My Prayer

I am going to pray now and ask the Lord to challenge you and make it real to you; to stir you up and put that desire in you.

“Father, in the name of Jesus right now I speak a spirit of conviction. Come Holy Spirit, you are the one who convicts. I speak a spirit of conviction. Convict by your Spirit.

“Stir up and challenge, draw and bring to death that which is on the point of giving into death right now. That person is now ready to give up and ready to let go.

“Lord, I ask you just to minister to that person who is struggling and to cause the struggle to cease. Help them to let go, in order that your revival power may come upon them.

“And Father, those that are sitting back smug in conceit and self-sufficiency, I am asking you just to shake them and to make their life a little bit uncomfortable. I am asking you to take what I have said and do that; to take it and ruffle a few feathers.

“I am asking you to stir people up and give them sleepless nights. I want them to toss and turn and not rest until they eventually say, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’

“I know that you do not work that way, Lord. But I am asking you to take your Word and convict now, to cause people to stir and to rise up and say, ‘Okay Lord, I want your power. Okay Lord, I’ll become all you want me to be.’

“Holy Spirit, move on each one now I pray and have your way. I thank you for it, Lord. I send forth your Word into the earth right now. And it shall not come back empty, but it shall accomplish that for which it is sent.

“It shall take place and souls shall be revived. Hearts will be drawn and brought back to life. In the name of Jesus I ask for it, and I thank you for it, Lord.”

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

SECTION 06 – THE RESULTS OF EXPERIENCING REVIVAL

CHAPTER 20

Revival in Individuals

Section 06 – The Results of Experiencing Revival

Chapter 20 – Revival in Individuals

2 Chronicles 5:13 and 14 says:

It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers [were] as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up [their] voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, [saying], For [he is] good; for his mercy [endures] for ever: that [then] the house was filled with a cloud, [even] the house of the LORD;

So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God.

John 1:14 says:

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Signs of Revival

How do we know when revival has come? What does revival bring with it? Are there any signs that we can point to that show us that revival is here; that it has arrived? Can we say,

“Yes, those are the signs. Those are the evidences that revival has arrived.”

Is it possible for us to identify in that way when revival comes, and are there degrees of revival? Can revival be repeated? Is it an ongoing thing, or does it come once for a short spell and then leave again?

As we continue looking at this subject of revival, we are going to consider some of these questions and try and give some answers. In doing so we will understand more clearly exactly what revival is.

We will see what it brings and the effects that it has, and how we can prepare ourselves for it. We will see what we can do, both to cause revival to come, and what we should do once it has arrived.

So in this section I want to start by pointing out some of the signs that indicate that revival is here. Maybe you are thinking to yourself,

“Well I don’t know if I need revival. Our church is already in revival you know. And me, I’ve never strayed from the Lord. My commitment to Him is still strong. My zeal for Him is still strong, so I think I am in revival already.”

Well let’s look at some of the evidences and see if you can identify with them. See whether you can honestly say,

“Yes, it is here.”

Tick them off one at a time and say,

“Yes, got that. I’ve seen that. I’ve done that and am doing that.”

Then you will have an idea of where you are at as far as revival is concerned. You will know whether there is still something that you should be aspiring for; something that you have not yet attained. I am trusting that by the time I am finished, your heart will be so stirred that you will be saying,

“I want some of that.”

I think that you are going to find that you do not have all the signs of revival.

I am dividing this up into two main sections as we go through. We will look at revival as it applies to an individual or a single person, and revival as it applies to a group of people, or a church. According to the Greek word ekklesia, it means a gathering. It means ‘the called out ones; those that are gathered together in the Lord.’

I want to look firstly at the signs that revival has come in an individual. These are the signs that show, that you as an individual person have entered into and begun to experience God’s revival power in your life.

Always in His Presence

The first evidence that revival has come to you as a single person, is that you are able to come into His presence at any time. Revival brings with it an awareness of God.

Revival brings you into a closeness of fellowship with the Lord. You come to the place where God has become more real to you than He has ever been before. He is starting to become as real to you as any other person that you can see, touch, speak to or interact with.

When revival comes, you will come to a place where it will be easy for you to come into the presence of the Lord to sit down with Him and converse with Him. It will be as easy as sitting down with another human being and talking to them.

Revival brings you into a closeness of fellowship with the Lord where He is there all the time. You can separate yourself to Him and come into His presence, and you do not have to try and get into His presence.

You do not have to work it up by praying for hours. You do not have to do anything except come into His presence. And almost immediately, as you step into His presence, He is there and you will be aware of it.

You say, “Is that possible? Can I come to such a place? Surely every great man or woman of God has to spend hours in prayer every day. They have to really be prayed up to come to that place.”

No, every person who moves into this realm does not spend hours in prayer every day. They spend all day in prayer.

You say, “Well how is that possible? How do they get anything done?”

I did not say that they have a prayer meeting all day. The Scriptures say that we must pray without ceasing.

How do you do that? You do it in the spirit. Your spirit is in communion with the Spirit of God 24 hours a day. And when you move into God’s revival power, you move into a relationship where your spirit is highly magnified. The spiritual intuition and sensitivity in you is so magnified that you are conscious of His presence all the time.

You have to come out of His presence to come down to earth, to do your daily job and what you are doing. But even while you are doing it and your mind is preoccupied with the things of this world, there is that deep tug within.

He is there, and you can snatch any moment during the day just to close your eyes and say,

“Hello, Lord.”

He is there, and you can come into His presence at any time.

Longing for Him

Revival has come when you cannot wait to get alone with Him to spend quality time speaking with Him. You want to tell Him what is in your heart and hear Him speak back to you again.

Revival is there when you cannot wait for your daily responsibilities to end, so that you can snatch a time alone with Him. Revival has come where when you have a lunch break you do not go and waste it on worldly things. You rather snatch that time to get away from people, to be alone with Him and to spend a bit of time with Him.

Revival has come when you get up in the morning before everybody else is up, so that you can spend some time with Him. Revival has come when you go to bed at night after everybody else has, so that you can have some quality time with Him.

You cannot wait to get into His presence. You want to be with Him all the time. You are like a person who is courting and deeply in love. You just cannot wait to get away from the humdrum of life to go and be with the one that you love. That is the evidence of revival in you as a single individual person.

Number One Priority

Revival has come when being with Him is the most important thing in your life. People are inviting you to social events and to entertainment, and you have to decline because it does not interest you. You cannot bear to go and waste time on things like that when you would rather be with Him.

You are consumed with Him. You want to be with Him all the time. There is nothing in this world that satisfies you more than being alone with Him in His presence.

The Spirit and the Word

Revival has come when the Spirit and the Word are more important to you than your natural bodily desires. Feeding on His Word and drinking of His Spirit are more important to you than physical food and drink.

You have to tear yourself away from Him to go and eat because your body needs the food. And sometimes you forget to have a meal, because you are so consumed at being in His presence, that food begins to lose its interest to you.

You find yourself ending up fasting. It is not to try and get into His presence, nor is it to try and get His blessing or get revival. But because revival has already come, you are so consumed with Him that even food is not important to you anymore. Before you realize it, you have gone the day without food and you did not even miss it.

Revival has come where reading His Word is more important than switching on the TV or picking up a local magazine; reading the local newspaper, or filling your mind with the garbage that this world has to offer. You would rather be in His Word.

You would rather be reading books about Him. You would rather be reading teaching about the spiritual life. You are consumed with the Lord and with His glory, His power, His presence and everything to do with Him.

You want to know more about Him and find out more about Him. You are just so taken up with Him that you have become paranoid. People will say to you,

“It’s time you come down to earth, man. You’ve become too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good!”

When people start saying that to you, rejoice and say,

“Hallelujah, I’m thrilled that you said that. It shows doesn’t it? You can see. He’s become so important to me that I forget about this life.”

That is the evidence of revival having come in your life.

Take Him With You

Revival has come when you are not only able to get into His presence, but you are able to take His presence with you wherever you go. Not only do you get alone with Him, but when you leave your private closet and come out of that time of separation with Him, you do not leave Him behind.

You do not lock Him behind when you shut the front door and walk out of the house in the morning. You do not leave Him standing waving good bye while you get in your car to go to work.

He is with you. He is walking by your side and holding your hand. He is speaking to you and fellowshipping with you everywhere you go.

When you get into your car and you pull out of the driveway, He is sitting in the seat next to you talking to you. When you are driving along the road to work, He is right there beside you. He is fellowshipping with you, and you are talking to Him, sharing with Him and worshipping Him all the time.

When you arrive at work and you take your place at your desk or wherever you work, He is right there helping you. He is giving you advice, showing you how to do your work better and giving you direction.

He is there all the time and becomes part of your life. You cannot do a single thing in life without Him, or without being aware of His presence in what you are doing.

Giving it to Others

Revival has come when you are able to impart His presence to others. When people start to look at you and say,

“You’ve changed; something’s happened. You are not the same person you used to be. You’re walking around with that smile on your face. Man, you seem to be glowing. Are you high on something or what? What’s with you?

“I’ve never seen you down or losing your cool. There is just something about you. There’s an aura about you. I can’t put my finger on it. I can’t explain it, but there’s like a glow all around you. Where does it come from? What’s happened to you?”

It is so easy for you to say,

“Do you want some of it? I’ll show you how. I’ll show you what I’ve got. I’ll give it to you.”

You are ready to impart it and pour it out to others because you are literally oozing it. People begin to see it and they begin to get drawn to it. It is like moths coming to the light. They want to reach out and touch it. They want more of it.

Animosity from Others

Revival has come when people who do not want to go on for God begin to hate you for no reason. You begin to irritate some people and they start to say,

“You are walking around with that supercilious holier-than-thou attitude. You’re bugging me! What’s with you? You’re so religious and so super-spiritual? You’re always standing in judgment over everybody else and looking down on them, as though you are something so special and we are all second-rate Christians here. You’re arrogant and lifted up.”

People start to hate you and persecute you. They can’t stand you. And it is not so much the unbelievers who do it. It is those Christians who have lived flat spiritual lives, who are too afraid to admit that they need revival.

They are not prepared to pay the price for revival. And they do not want to get to that place, or they would have tried to get there and would have failed to reach it. Now it is a case of sour grapes. It is a case of,

“I couldn’t get it, so why should you have it?”

They become envious and jealousy of you. They cannot stand you. They want to separate from you, and they start looking for mistakes and finding ways of tripping you up.

They did that to Jesus didn’t they? They had to come with their fancy questions to try and trip Him up. Why? Because He was manifesting revival power, while those arrogant religious leaders who had dominated the scene before, had nothing at all to offer the people.

CHAPTER 21

My Revival Experience

Chapter 21 - My Revival Experience

It is going to happen. I have been there, so I know what I am talking about. This is not just theory. I have been in that place where God brought a change in my life and these things became evident in my life immediately.

I grew up in a Christian home. I knew the Lord from before I can even remember. I grew up knowing Him as My Savior and trusting Him. I knew all about Him. I knew about salvation and the Gifts of the Spirit. I knew about the Baptism of the Spirit and about signs and wonders and miracles.

I grew up in a Pentecostal church that was born out of the Azusa Street revival which was started by John G Lake. It was a mighty denomination at that time that moved in the power of God. It was the environment I grew up in.

I heard my parents speaking about the days gone by, when God would work in signs and wonders, and miracles would take place. People would pray over anointed handkerchiefs and cloths and give it to the sick.

I remember hearing about my grandfather who had a cancer in his lip. They prayed over an anointed cloth and took it home to him. He wrapped the cloth around his mouth and went to sleep with it on. And the next morning when he got up and took it off, the cancer fell out in the cloth.

That was commonplace; it was normal. Everybody was doing it. It was happening all around you. If you became involved in the Charismatic and Apostolic Church - the Pentecostal Church of that time - that is what was continually happening. God was moving in signs and wonders.

But you go to work and tell people,

“I belong to the Apostolic Church.”

Then they start to make jokes and they say,

“Oh yes, you are those people that switch off the lights during the meeting and roll around on the ground, aren’t you?”

They start to criticize you and make jokes about you. They start to separate themselves from you and want nothing to do with you. I heard about it, but I did not experience it, because by the time I grew up and was old enough to move into these things it had died. It was gone.

Revival was dead. The church had become a staid denomination. It was just like all other denominations that were born out of revival. It came forth in power, but it stagnated and died and fossilized.

Listening to my parents speak must have been what it was like for the Israelites listening to their parents speak about the days gone by, when God had delivered them and taken them out of Egyptian bondage. They must have heard stories of the God who caused signs and wonders and parted the Sea, who brought the plagues and did so many wonderful things.

I can imagine kids just looking at their parents with their eyes wide and saying,

“Wow, that must have been wonderful. But why doesn’t it happen anymore?”

Youth on Fire

Well it was happening. It seemed to be taking place everywhere except the church I was in. Then we would begin to hear about it. Once a year, there was a special Youth Camp that our denomination had. People would travel into another part of the country, and they would spend a week or so in the presence of the Lord having special youth meetings.

Often I would hear the young people come back from those camps and they were on fire. They spoke about signs and wonders. They spoke about God pouring down His Spirit, and about mighty revival taking place.

They would come back charged up and excited and just wanting to go on for the Lord. It lasted about a week or two, and then the church was back to normal. All the emotion and the excitement was over. The leaders would say,

“Calm down now. You guys had a good time at the camp. It is youthful exuberance you know; just calm down. Let’s come down to earth. Just remember we have to carry on with normal life here. You know you can’t live on the cloud.

“Just remember you cannot live on dessert. You can’t live on sweet things all the time. You have to come down and eat bread. You have to fossilize like the rest of us and be normal.”

It did not take long and it was all over again. And everybody waited anxiously for the following year, when the next Youth Camp would be and when it would happen again.

Hunger for the Lord

Well I came to that place where I really hungered for the Lord; where I wanted more of that. I had served the Lord all my life. I had given myself to Him. As a young child I was witnessing for Him, but I never knew that dynamic power in my life. Eventually I figured,

“I must just be missing this. Everybody in the world seems to be having such fun. Their life seems to mean more to them than mine. I’ve just grown up as this stale, old Christian. They come to School after a weekend saying what a wonderful time they had over the weekend.”

They would say to me,

“What did you do?”

“Well, I went to church.”

“Oh, so you went to church?”

“Yeah, I sat through another meeting; nearly fell asleep. I sat and doodled and drew things in my Bible while the preacher was droning on and on.”

Oh boy church was such an exciting thing. I was too ashamed to even tell anybody I was a Christian. I was too ashamed to say,

“Hey, I’ve committed my life to the Lord and I’m serving Him.”

This was because I had nothing to offer them. My Christianity was not real. It was not alive or vibrant. I figured maybe I should consider joining them. Maybe I missed something and this whole Christian thing was a waste of time. I thought I would give it a try and do some of what they were doing.

I want you to realize that up until that point I had never done anything bad. I grew up in the early Pentecostal era when the church was based on holiness. Drinking and smoking, swearing and going to the movies was considered a sin. Dancing was also considered a sin.

You separated yourself from the world, and the only thing you ever did was go to church. That was holiness. I had never stepped out of that, never spoken bad words and never touched a drop of alcohol. I had never ever been to a dance before.

The Wild Side

Well Satan put this idea in my mind. I got to that stage where I was interested in looking for members of the opposite sex, and those in church were not worth looking at. So where do you go? You start looking in the world.

But when you start looking in the world, they are not going to look at you twice if you are a staid, boring old Christian. So I had to change and start throwing a few bad words out so I could sound like them. I had to start going to the School dances so they could see I was not a prude.

I had to start dropping a bit of alcohol back. This was largely to give me the courage to ask somebody to dance at that time, because I was so insecure I had never mixed with anybody.

I thought I was going to have a ball. I was going to have the time of my life. Not! It was the most miserable time I ever had. Life became hell. Do you think it is bad serving the Lord in a dead church? Just try serving the Devil out there.

It took me less than a couple of months to know that this was not a good move. I had to get back in the flow again, but I did not want to go back to that dead church, so what do I do?

Back in the Flow

The Lord was very clever though. He threw a bit of bait in for me. He brought on the scene a member of the opposite sex that was on fire for Him. I never found her going to the world, so maybe I would stand a chance here.

Well you can’t go to church and start showing interest in a member of the opposite sex when your spiritual life is lacking. She was on fire for God so I had to change. I had no choice. I had to come back in line and commit myself fervently to the Lord.

I tried to do that. I was baptized in water. I had not been baptized yet, but I knew I should have been. I tried to serve the Lord. I tried to get her to fall in love with me, but it did not work. It was just one big false front. I was serving the Lord in a way, but there was no fire and no reality.

Discovering Revival

I needed revival so I did the next best thing. I went to the Youth Camp to see if there were some girls there that I could meet. The Lord used the same bait. I went to the Youth Camp and nobody was interested in me.

But God did a wonder at that Youth Camp. He caused two young girls to get down one night in their little bungalow to pray. They were having boyfriend troubles, and He poured out His Spirit on them. Revival power began to come down in a little bungalow that had two small beds in it, with barely enough room to move.

As God came down in power on those two little girls and they began to pray in the Spirit, He began to move and pour His glory down in that little room. Somebody heard the noise and came to see what was going on, and when they walked in they got zapped.

They began to speak in tongues and get in the glory of the Lord. Now the noise was so loud that other people started to hear it. Before you knew it that place was drawing people like moths to the light.

It did not take long for that small little bungalow that could only hold two or three people, to have about 10 or 15 people in it. I was sitting outside by the fire, strumming my guitar and trying to woo somebody with my great skills, and they were all there in the room having a glory time with the Lord.

Somebody came to me and said,

“Is there anybody here who has not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. God’s filling people with the Spirit in that bungalow there.”

The Call

Well my guitar dropped pretty fast and I was there in a flash. People had prayed for me again and again, but I just never got it. I wanted God’s power badly, but I could not receive it. I walked into that room and God began to take hold of me.

I want you to know that up until that time I was very analytical and withdrawn, inferior and very insecure. I was also somebody who did not push myself forward. I did not even have the courage to close in prayer at a youth meeting when they asked me the one night.

I was so withdrawn and introverted into myself. But I came into this place where little 10 year old kids were going mad in tongues. They were laying hands on everybody and the power of God was moving. There was revival there and I said,

“Lord I want it.”

The Spirit of God began to move on me. As that happened, I guess it was easy with all the noise going on round about me, but I started to get louder and louder until I was shouting at the top of my voice.

Then some people came to lay hands on me. I do not even know what happened to me that night. All I know is suddenly something took a hold of me. And I did not even realize that I was speaking in a high-pitched, very loud voice and crying out to the Lord.

Suddenly I was in His presence, and I felt like Isaiah did when he had that vision of the Lord high and lifted up. He said,

“Oh no, I’m a man of unclean lips. I’m living amongst a people of unclean lips.”

Conviction of Sin

I came into His presence with my arrogant self-righteousness. I had served the Lord all my life. I had always been faithful except for my short time of going off. I had never really done anything very bad. But the Spirit of God began to move on me, and in that instant I saw myself the way He saw me.

Then I saw how He saw me and all the rottenness that was in me. It was not the rottenness of vile sin. I had never done vile sin. I had been a Christian all my life and had never really done anything rotten, vile and bad.

Stealing the peaches next door to me was too big a sin. Cheating at School was too big a sin. Telling a lie to get out of not doing your homework was too big a sin. I could not do it. That is how righteous I was in the natural.

I was like Paul the apostle, who was so proud like the Pharisees and said,

“I have always kept the law. I am wonderful.”

But the Spirit of God hit me between the eyes. I saw my stinking rotten pride, and I fell to my knees and began to sob my eyes out. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed.

I had never done anything like that out loud in front of other people before, but I could not stop. I was shaking inside. My stomach was just turning, and I was pouring out the tears before Him and sobbing before Him when I saw how miserably useless I was without Him.

Real Encounter with God

That night for the first time I found out that God was real. He came in there and He touched me, and He took me and turned me inside out. He transformed my life and changed me. He began to shine the light of His glory upon me and I started to glow.

They prayed for me again. At one of the meetings they invited people to the front and said,

“If anybody wants to be filled with the Spirit, come up.”

I had not spoken in tongues yet. I stood up and they laid hands on me, and I guess I babbled something; I do not know. They said I spoke in tongues but I did not think I had. And when I went home I still did not speak in tongues.

But I want to tell you, we came back after that meeting, and we got together in a normal church prayer meeting, and the young people were on fire. I saw the same thing I had seen time and time again every year when those young people came back.

I saw that they were on fire. The difference was, I was one of them this time. I was on fire with them. They were jumping up one at a time and giving their testimonies at the prayer meeting. I also jumped up and gave my testimony at that prayer meeting.

Everybody was excited, then we sat down to a boring Bible study. We suffered through it. The pastor at that time was an evangelist and he could not teach. I do not know why he had Bible Studies because he could not teach.

It was horrible. We couldn’t wait for the Bible Study to get finished, then we wanted more glory. We wanted to talk some more. We got all the young people together and began to talk about what a wonderful time we had had at the Camp.

A New Fire and Boldness

I felt like preaching; I couldn’t help it. I grabbed a chair and jumped onto it, opened my Bible and said,

“Now I’m going to preach to you guys.”

This is the guy who was too scared to close in prayer before in a little youth meeting. Now I was standing there with all the young people gathered around me, and all the old people sitting around staring at me and thinking I was nuts.

I did not care. There was a new fire in me. And that fire burned and continued to burn, and there was nothing that could put it out. But those who were senior in the church began to look at these young people and say,

“Now get a hold of yourself guys. You’re going overboard now. This is just emotion. You must learn to control this. You can’t just go mad like this.

“You can’t go looking down on us older people. We’ve served the Lord for many years you know. Don’t you come and point fingers at us and call us spiritually dead, as though you are so special. You are just a young person who got a touch of God for the first time. Just cool it.”

I could not cool it. We used to get together during the evenings when there were no church services, and we would have prayer meetings as young people.

Why? Because we wanted the glory. We wanted the power. We wanted to experience more of the stuff we had had at the camp. We were not getting it in church or from the pulpit.

Do you know what we did? We came together before the church service and we had our glory time. The pastor did not come to it. He was not interested, so we had our glory time before the meeting. Then he preached, and when the meeting was over we had another glory time afterwards.

We just wanted more of it. When they eventually chased us out of the church so that they could switch the lights off and lock up, we went to somebody’s home and had some more.

We began to have several prayer meetings a week. We would get together and just have a wonderful time seeking the face of the Lord. God began to speak to us in prophetic words and we went out and handed out tracts, because the Lord said,

“You need to go out to the lost.”

I was terrified of going out to speak to strangers, but God said that we must go out. So we took some tracts and we put them in peoples’ post boxes, because that is all we had the courage to do.

Opposition to the Call

God moved on us and people began to hate us. Certain influential people in the church, whose children were our age, were not interested in this revival thing. They began to criticize us and put us down. They hated us.

I could see then why every single time there had been a revival of this nature, it was squelched and died. I could understand it now. But I want to tell you my life was changed. It was transformed and turned around.

You know that young lady, who before did not want anything to do with me, amazingly was all of a sudden very interested in me. Suddenly now that I had risen up as a leader amongst the young people and was on fire for God, her whole attitude changed.

She was on fire for the Lord and she saw something real in me. I began to realize why she was not really interested in me before, because I was putting up a front and pretending that I was serving the Lord. There was no reality though. No revival had come, but now revival had brought change to my life.

For the first time I realized that God had called me to the ministry. I began to tell people,

“I don’t want to go for a career anymore. I want to serve the Lord.”

I was 20 years old and just starting out on what I would do for the rest of my life. I did not want to do anything except work for the Lord. I just wanted to go into the ministry but people said,

“You’re nuts. You’re mad. What do you want to go and be a pastor for? What do you want to be a preacher for?”

There were so many things going against it, but I was revived. I was on fire, despite the very opposition that was coming against me. Satan even tried to send somebody right into the midst of our prayer meetings that was demon possessed, to try and bring division and to scatter it.

But I stuck it through. Unfortunately most of the others that I was trying to bring together bowed to the pressure. The time came when it ended and it could not go on.

A Noticeable Change

This is a sad situation. It is something that I will share on later concerning revival, as to why it does not continue and what causes it to stop. But I want to tell you, when you as an individual begin to experience God’s revival power, you will not be the same person. People will look at you and say,

“You’ve changed; you’re different. What’s happened to you?”

It will show. I found I could pray with people and things began to happen. They began to have manifestations of the Spirit that I had never ever had before. I entered into a spiritual dimension that I did not know existed before.

These are the sort of things that you can expect to see when God brings revival to you as an individual.

245 | Page     Chapter 22 – Revival in Groups

CHAPTER 22

Revival in Groups

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

245 | Page     Chapter 22 – Revival in Groups

Chapter 22 - Revival in Groups

What are the signs that revival has come to a group?

God is Present in the Meetings

The first sign of revival in a church group is when God turns up for the meeting.

You say, “Well that’s stupid. Of course God turns up for the meeting.”

I don’t know about you, but I have been in a lot of meetings where the Lord did not show up. The preacher showed up, the elders and the deacons showed up and the musicians showed up.

A lot of people were there. They had a church service, they preached and they prayed, but God was not there.

How do I know He was not there? Because revival had brought me to a place where I knew His presence. It had brought me to a place, where when He was there I would know it, because I had come to know Him in an intimate way.

When I came into that meeting, I could sense straight away that the Lord was off sick today or something. I think He took one look at the meeting, and it made Him so sick He had to leave. I can imagine the Lord saying,

“I’m sick of what they call church! I’m not coming. You can go on without me, please.”

People think that God is there but He is not. The glory has departed. The cloud has lifted and gone on, and the Tabernacle is still standing there. They are still going through their rituals and routines and calling it church.

Sad to say, there are many churches even amongst the Pentecostal and Charismatic groups, that are going through the motions of serving the Lord and worshipping Him. The Lord has to say of them,

“These people worship me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

It is so sad.

The Right External Structure

You say, “Well the structure is all wrong. People are doing it all wrong and they are running the church wrong.”

Listen, I have been in churches that are the perfect structure. I could look at the way they have set it up, and I could judge it by the Scriptures and say,

“The pattern seems to be right. They’ve got it right.”

In theory everything that they are doing is exactly the way I would do it if I were in charge. You come to the meeting thinking that a church that has the pattern so right must surely have the anointing power of God present. But you walk in there, and you look for the Lord but you cannot find Him.

They begin to sing and worship, and it hurts. They are singing, “Hallelujah, Lord.” They are making a noise and the praise team is singing. But your spirit hurts, because you can feel that God is not there. Then every now and again somebody who is moving in revival power will stand up.

I saw it happen in a church once. It was a church just like that. It appeared that their structure was perfect. The pastor stood up and tried to lead the singing. He tried to work it up and work it up and get everybody in the Spirit, but it was horrible. It was giving me a stomach ache. I could not handle it.

Then he introduced a guest singer that he had that night. This singer was someone who was a bit of a recording artist. She was a Christian singer at that time, and she was given the opportunity to sing a couple of Gospel songs.

She stood up there and you could see the glow of the Lord on her. She opened her mouth and began to sing in worship to the Lord. As she did it, I imagine the Lord said,

“What’s that? We have to go and have a look.”

He was there immediately. You could just feel His presence right there. It was glorious. As she began to sing she lifted the whole congregation up, and it just took her two songs and you could hear a pin drop. The power and the glory of the Lord had come down. The pastor got so excited he said,

“Thank you, sister!”

Then he took over and tried to jump on the wave, and it collapsed on the beach. It was gone. It did not take five seconds for the anointing that she had built up in just two songs to be over and gone.

I sat that night and composed a song. I was bored to tears for the rest of the meeting, and I wrote in my Bible and made notes. I used the time wisely. I was not prepared to waste the next hour, certainly not listening to somebody speak something that was not the Word of God, under a power that was not the anointing of God.

That church desperately needed revival. The sad thing was they thought they had it. But they did not because the Lord was not there.

God is in Control

Revival has come to a group when God is in control of the meetings, not man. Revival is there when the program has to bow to the Spirit of God; when the Spirit of God begins to move unexpectedly, even from the praise and worship. God begins to move and Gifts of the Spirit begin to flow.

Peoples’ needs are exposed and they are ministered to. There is suddenly an altar call right at the beginning of the meeting, because the Spirit of God is moving and people need to come forward and have their needs met.

It is seen where God moves in a mighty way and people have been ministered to. And the preacher stands up and says,

“Well I had a message prepared for tonight, but I’m not going to preach it because God has taken over here. The Lord has done what He wanted to do here tonight. I’m not going to spoil it and mess it up. We had a whole program, but we’re just going to scrap it. We’ll have it another time.”

How often have you seen that happen? You will see it happen in a church where revival is. But in a church that is dead and that has no revival they say,

“We have to have our program, brother. We have to sing choruses just for so long. Then we have to go into the Word, and the preacher must only preach for so long.”

Perhaps he preaches overtime, or the anointing of the Spirit of God comes down on him, and he oversteps his usual 20 or 30 minutes and preaches for an hour and a half. If that happens people start getting irritable. They get edgy in their seats and want to get out of there. They start looking at their watches right in front of him as if to say,

“Are you blind? Can’t you see how late it is?”

God has no control of the meeting.

Many New Souls

When revival starts coming to a church, souls get saved in the meetings. The people bring their unsaved friends and loved ones. They cannot help it. They come into the presence of God and they get saved.

I have heard people saying,

“You know, we have to be careful in gospel services.”

Do you still have gospel services? I remember how when I grew up, Sunday morning was the worship service and Sunday evening was the Gospel service. Sunday morning was largely for Christians. But on Sunday evening they told you to bring your unsaved friends because they were going to preach a Gospel message. It was the basic that said,

“Christ died for your sins. You’re a sinner. Accept Him as your Savior.”

That was a Gospel service. People would say,

“Now at a Gospel service you mustn’t upset the sinners. You mustn’t do any flaky thing like speaking in tongues and manifesting Gifts of the Spirit. You’ll scare them off.”

A Salvation Experience

I remember being in a meeting where the power of God began to move. The Spirit of God just took over, and we had an unbelieving friend there that night. He had never known the Lord. He had grown up in a home where the Lord was not known.

He was a heathen and knew nothing about Christianity. But the Spirit of God began to move. They called people forward for prayer and God began to hit people with the power.

I remember one young guy that night. He had never been filled with the Spirit before. He had been like me where he grew up in a Christian home and had never received it. The Holy Ghost took over that night and he began to speak in tongues. He spoke in tongues and just carried on and on.

He could not stop speaking in tongues. He lay there on the floor speaking in tongues - and not just murmuring it. He babbled on and on and the preacher had to ignore him and just carry on with the meeting.

Well God moved in signs and wonders that night, and here was this young guy who had never ever put a foot in a church where the Gospel was preached, let alone a Charismatic Pentecostal church. He took one look at this and said,

“That’s God. I have to get there!”

He accepted the Lord as his Savior and was saved.

When the meeting was over, we took the young guy and bundled him in the car and he was still speaking in tongues. We took him home and put him in his bed, and he lay in there still speaking in tongues. I believe he spoke in tongues for half the night until he finally went to sleep.

When the presence and power of God is in a meeting, unbelievers can see it and they know it. They can see that it is miraculous and supernatural; that it is God. They take one look at it and say,

“Wow, this is not a theory. This is not just words that you people are talking about. You guys have something real. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Signs and Wonders

They are amazed. They cannot help it. They see those things take place and they begin to get saved.

What do you think happened in the Apostolic Church? Do you think when they came together in their little home meetings, they sat down and read a Scripture and prayed a prayer? Somebody stood up to preach, then they closed in prayer and went home. Was that how they did it?

No, the power of God was freshly poured out on those meetings. Signs and wonders were taking place. If a guy walked in with a broken arm they were going to get it healed before he left. If he walked in with crutches, they had to help him get rid of them.

They were inviting their unsaved friends to come to the home meetings, and the Scripture says,

The Lord added to the church daily, those who were being saved.

When a church is in revival, people will be saved automatically without you even having to preach a Gospel message. You will have people joining you and coming to you afterwards and saying,

“Please will you tell me how to get saved. How can I get some of this stuff?”

Every Need Met

Revival power brings the presence of God in such a real way, that in an unbeliever sin cannot stand. When revival is in a church, needs are met. If a person comes to the meeting feeling down and depressed he should leave feeling liberated and set free. If somebody comes to the meeting sick they should leave healed.

If somebody comes to the meeting in bondage to sin or to bad habits, they should leave delivered and set free. You cannot help it. When you bring darkness into the light it vanishes. You bring evil into the presence of the Lord and it will look for the door.

If you walk in with a demon, the demon is going to start to become uncomfortable. Sometimes he will get so uncomfortable that he will begin to manifest through the person. If a person comes into a meeting, you start having demon manifestations taking place right in the meeting.

What do you think happened when demons came into the presence of Jesus? They began to manifest immediately. But they could not stay. They had to go.

You do not have to sit and struggle, fast and pray, and go through hours of deliverance for somebody who is in bondage. When God’s revival power is in a church, His anointing is so strong that no demon can stay in the presence of His glory.

Lives Changed

Above all, when revival is in a church lives are changed. People leave differently from the way they came in. Nobody can come into the presence of the Lord and leave the same. Something has to happen.

You cannot walk into a rain forest and not get wet. It just cannot happen, unless you have closed your heart. Usually though, even when a person has closed their heart and comes into the presence of God, the convicting power of the Holy Spirit comes down on them. They fall to their knees and cry out,

“God, be merciful to me.”

Manifestations of Revival

What are the manifestations of revival? You have heard about the manifestations. People start to say,

“I heard about this church where they were supposed to have revival. And you know what? They do all sorts of weird things.”

Well manifestations have always been there. In the Scripture we looked at in the Old Testament, when God’s glory came down in the Temple the priests could not stand to minister. They fell under the power.

On the day of Pentecost, the crowd gathered around and looked at these weird disciples. They were doing strange things. When the Spirit came on them they were acting like a bunch of drunkards.

Well what happens when you get drunk? Usually you get noisy. Have you ever sat down in a Restaurant where alcohol is served? You can go in at the same time as other people. Everything is relatively quiet and people are just talking quietly to themselves.

Then you watch the tables around you as they start to consume the alcohol. Their tongues become loose and they get louder and louder. Before you know it, you can hear the private life of everybody in the Restaurant. They are speaking loudly, they are laughing, joking, acting raucous and doing all sorts of stupid things. The more drunk they get, the louder they get.

Can you imagine 120 drunk people getting louder and louder? That is what it was like on the day of Pentecost. Why? Because the people came and said,

“What’s with these guys? It’s only nine o’clock in the morning and they are drunk. How can they be drinking so early?”

They were acting like drunk people. They were doing things that they did not normally do. There was a manifestation, and I am not speaking about the manifestation of the Gifts of the Spirit. I am not even speaking about the manifestation of tongues, which was there. I am speaking about the way they were acting and the way they were carrying on.

The early Pentecostal church was called the Holy Rollers, because they used to fall down and roll all over the floor. People said they were mad. They said,

“Don’t go into those meetings. Those people do strange things.”

Throughout history, whenever God’s Spirit has moved in revival power on a group of people, there have been manifestations. I want to look at some of these manifestations very quickly.

Signs of Revival in Individuals

Firstly, what are the manifestations that show that revival has come in an individual?

Love for Jesus

The first manifestation will be a deep love for Jesus. When revival comes to you as an individual, you are going to fall in love with Jesus like you never have before. You will understand what true agape love is for the first time.

You will not only have that love for Jesus. You will also have a loving care for the Body of Christ, and you will start being concerned for the people all around you. You will start flowing out in love and wanting to minister to others, and suddenly you will have a care for the lost. Before you would look at them and say,

“That miserable, rotten sinner - he deserves to go to hell.”

Now instead you will see him through the Lord’s eyes and you will be saying,

“Oh Lord He’s blind. He can’t see where He’s going. Oh Lord, open His eyes.”

Awareness of the Spiritual Realm

There will be a greater awareness of spiritual things. God’s presence will become tangible to you and you will be walking in the realm of the Spirit.

You will start coming into confrontation with demon powers, and you will be more aware of the spiritual realm than you ever were before. There will be a newer, deep desire to pour forth and bless others.

Because of this, personal recognition will become unimportant. You will be so taken up with the Lord and in glorifying Him, that you will not care what people think. You will not be afraid of making a fool of yourself. You will be prepared to be a fool for Jesus.

You are sometimes going to do stupid things. You are going to act in stupid ways and do erratic things, but you will not care what anybody thinks. When the glorious power of God comes on you, or when people get happy, they do strange things.

When people are watching a sports match and their side is winning, they start jumping up and down. They start throwing their hats in the air and kicking their shoes off. They start going mad. They do strange things.

Well people sometimes also do strange things when the anointing power of God comes on them. Some people, when they get drunk, become sullen and quiet. Other people start doing strange things. They burst out into song and dance and do weird things.

Let’s not say that the Holy Spirit did these things. No, the Holy Spirit imparted something to the person, and that is how they have responded and reacted to it. In many of these manifestations, that is all it is. People are responding to something wonderful, something joyful and magnificent in their lives.

Signs of Revival in Groups

What are the effects of revival in a group? What are the manifestations?

Awareness of Sin

The first thing that will happen is there will come a deep sense of awe at the presence of God. The Scripture says concerning the early disciples, that everybody was filled with awe and wonder.

People were getting in there and becoming involved. Or they were too scared to come close, especially after Ananias and Sapphira were struck down. There is a sense of awe. When you come into the meeting and God is there, there is a sense of the supremacy and the awesomeness of a mighty and Holy God.

There comes a conviction of sin. When people come into that meeting and they come into the presence of God, they become aware of their sin. It becomes highly magnified. The tears begin to flow, and the people begin to smite their breasts and say,

“Oh Lord, I’m rotten. Oh Lord, I’ve failed you miserably.”

You do not have to preach it. You don’t have to hammer it and push it down their throats. Just bring them into the presence of God and they will see. In His light their evil deeds will be made known and will show.

A Release of Joy

In a group where God’s revival power is manifested, there will become an assurance of joy. There will come a mighty abundant release of joy which could start you laughing. It could start you giggling and acting stupid.

You say, “I can’t stand these people who get this laughing anointing.”

When is the last time you laughed? When is the last time you had a bit of joy? The Scripture says,

In the presence of the Lord is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures for evermore.

When we come into His presence we should expect His joy to bubble up. We should expect a full functioning of the Gifts of the Spirit, and a whole variety of manifestations in God’s presence.

All that will happen is we will come into His presence and drink in His glory and power. And when that happens each person will respond differently. The whole group will respond differently. God’s power will be present though, and people will come again and again.

Why? Because every day we have needs. We have needs every week and every month. And when you can go to a place where your needs are met by the power of God, you will come back again and again.

Every time you have a need you will come back again. There is nothing wrong with it. People came to Jesus all the time to have their needs met.

I want to end now by just asking you a couple of questions.

Have you experienced revival the way I have been speaking about it? If not, do you desire that revival?

It is available to you, and in the next section we will be looking at how revival comes. Then you will know how and what to expect, how to prepare yourself for it, and how to move into it.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

SECTION 07 - HOW TO EXPERIENCE REVIVAL

CHAPTER 23

Revival from Jesus

Section 07 – How to Experience Revival

Chapter 23 – Revival from Jesus

Acts 3:19 and 20 says,

Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the [kairos] times of revival will come from the presence of the Lord;

And he will send Jesus Christ, who before was preached to you:

2 Corinthians 4:6 says:

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In the last two sections we have been considering exactly what revival is. We have come to a better understanding now of what revival is and what it brings. Now we just need to know how to get it.

How does revival come? And is there something that we can do to make it come? This is the million-dollar question isn’t it? It is no good understanding what revival is or even wanting it, if we do not know how to come to the place where we can obtain this blessing from the Lord.

And so in this section, I want to carry on and begin to describe a little bit of how revival comes. I want to have a closer look at the mechanics of revival, and exactly what occurs when we enter into this revival experience.

I am going to look at revival as it relates to our relationship with God, because revival is coming into a place where God is manifest to us. It is where the power of God and the presence of God becomes more real in our lives.

Revival is coming into a closer relationship and interaction with Almighty God. So if you are to understand how revival comes, you need to understand how God will come into your life, how He will appear and how He will manifest in your life.

As soon as we look at that, we begin to take our eyes off ourselves and our circumstances and begin to look to the Lord Himself. We need to understand exactly what to expect and how we need approach Him.

Many Questions

As you take your eyes and look towards Heaven and towards God, what do you see? Here is where the problems begin, because when you begin to look at God you start getting into your theology.

You say, “Well what is God? Who is God? Well God is a trinity. God is a Father and a Son and a Holy Spirit. So revival means I’m coming into a relationship and an experience with God.

“So who am I coming into a relationship and experience with? Am I experiencing the Father? Am I experiencing the Son? Or am I experiencing the Holy Spirit?

“Who am I experiencing, and when and how am I experiencing the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? Am I supposed to be concentrating on the Father alone? Am I supposed to be zeroing in on the Spirit alone? Or should I be thinking about Jesus alone?”

There comes confusion in the mind, because the mind cannot comprehend God. As we look at the Godhead, and we look at the Doctrine of the Trinity and our understanding of God, we realize that our finite minds cannot fully comprehend an infinite God.

We begin to stumble over doctrines and over the thoughts of our minds. We begin to stumble over ways and methods of doing things. We forget that we are meant to be interacting with someone who is far higher than we are.

All Interrelated

I want to try and break it down now and look at how revival comes from the Father, how it comes from the Son, and how it comes from the Holy Spirit. But I want you to understand something very clearly as we begin to look at this. We cannot separate the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Although we can see the distinction and can experience each in different ways, you need to realize that you cannot touch the Father without touching the Son and the Spirit. You cannot touch the Son without touching the Father and the Spirit. And you cannot experience the Spirit without touching the Father and the Son.

They are one. They are three, but they are one. The human mind cannot comprehend God being three and one. We speak about three in one and one in three. And we get hung up because mathematics says one does not equal three. Mathematically one cannot equal three. But God defies mathematics, because in God He is one and He is three.

I am not getting into the Doctrine of the Trinity here. But I just want you to try and keep something clear in your mind. Although we may be considering one member of the Godhead at a time, realize that what happens in your interaction with one will affect your interaction with the other because they are all interrelated.

When you come to a full experience of the revival power and relationship with Almighty God, you will eventually have to come to the place where you will have to interact with, understand and experience all three. Only when you come to that fullness can you say that you have fully entered into that revival power that the Lord has for us.

Revival From Each

Let’s move on now and look at how revival comes from each. I have chosen an order for a reason, but the order that I have chosen is not necessarily the order that we experience God in. I am going to tell you what I have seen from experience that tends to take place.

The first interaction, experience or contact you make with Almighty God is done by the Holy Ghost. The first member of the Godhead that you ever experience in this life as you begin to enter into and grow in the Christian life is the Holy Spirit.

However, the very first person who becomes real to you is the Lord Jesus. It almost seems like a contradiction doesn’t it? I am going to try and explain what I mean as we go on. The very first member of the Godhead who becomes real to you; the first one really that is communicated to you is the Lord Jesus.

Why is that? It is because the very first experience that we ever have with God is the salvation experience.

Can you see now why I am saying that you cannot touch one member of the Godhead without the other? When you are saved and you are born again, you accept Jesus as your personal Savior. But when you are born again, you are baptized by the Spirit of God into the Body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is working to make Jesus real to you. He is the One that takes you and places you into Christ. So although your first experience with God is coming into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, that experience is brought about by the action of the Holy Spirit.

So the very first member of the Godhead that we begin to have a relationship and experience with is Jesus. But that experience requires the move of the Holy Spirit.

Once we have entered into that salvation experience, we then move on into a greater experience with God and a greater experience with the Holy Spirit. We then move up into an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus, and finally into a relationship with the Father.

So the ultimate goal in revival is to come to a place where you have an intimate relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost – all three.

Until you have reached that point you have not reached the peak of what God requires and is offering you spiritually. Until you have come to that experience and that relationship with God, you cannot truly say that you have entered into the fullness of revival.

So when revival comes, it will come via the Son, via the Spirit, via the Father, and via the entire Godhead.

Revival from Jesus

Let’s look first at how revival comes from the Lord Jesus. As I said, the order I am following through is not necessarily the sequence of events. But I will try and explain this sequence as we go, so I hope it is not confusing to you.

The Salvation Experience

We start with our salvation experience. The first thing that takes place is that we are reconciled to God. The Scripture says that,

God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.

Before you came to Jesus; before you were born again and received Him as your Lord and Savior, you were outside of Christ and outside of God. Your spirit was dead towards God. You did not know or understand Him. You had no communion or communication with God whatsoever.

But when you were born again your spirit came to life. The Holy Spirit came to dwell within you in your spirit, and caused it to come to life towards God. It does not mean your spirit never existed before. It does not mean it was dead in the sense of not functioning.

It was there. It just could not function towards God. So the salvation experience is the very first revival experience, in that it brings you into a restored relationship with God.

The moment you are born again the functions of your human spirit begin to operate. They have been operating before, but they now begin to operate towards God. The function of intuition - that inner knowing - has always been there before. But it could not relate to God because your spirit was not in a relationship with God.

The communion function or the ability to communicate with another spirit used to function before, but not towards God. But now you begin to enter into a communion with God in the Spirit, through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

You enter into a relationship with the Lord Jesus; having committed yourself fully to Him as your Lord and Savior, and having received the cleansing of His Blood that He shed on Calvary. Now through the Blood Covenant that He entered into with Almighty God, you become born again and become part of His family. Now you enter into a relationship with God.

It Starts with Jesus

Jesus is the entry point to God, and a lot of people make a mistake right at this point. You speak to somebody and say,

“Think about God and what do you see? Who do you see?”

Most people will see an austere, awesome man, who is very angry and very holy. They see someone who is always full of judgment and is ready to destroy with one breath of His mouth.

The moment you say, ‘God’, we start thinking of this austere man which we know as the Father and which nobody has seen at any time. So we think of entering into a relationship with God and we begin to come to the Father.

When people pray, they pray to the Father. They are coming to Him. But the Scripture makes it so very clear when Jesus said,

I am the way, the truth, the life. No man can come to the Father except through me.

The Scripture also says,

There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.

You cannot touch God except through Christ. You cannot enter into a relationship with God except because of Jesus.

If you want to reach the Father, Jesus will have to introduce you. If you are to experience the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus will have to impart that to you. Why? It is because Jesus is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit.

Peter stood up on the Day of Pentecost to describe what had happened. He spoke to the people and he said,

“This Jesus whom you crucified, has risen and ascended. And He received the promise of the Father - this which He has poured forth now, which you can see and hear.”

Jesus was the one who poured it out on them. So the starting point and the most important entry point of revival, is to come to a place where you have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are many people who are born again that do not have an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many people who experience the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit and have flowed in the Gifts of the Spirit. But they have not entered into an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Comforter

Jesus is our comforter.

You say, “But I thought the Holy Spirit was our comforter.”

I told you that you cannot have one without the other. What did Jesus say in John 14:16? He said:

And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

Is there another Comforter? He was saying,

“There is another one like me.”

Then verse 17 says:

[Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him, nor know him: but you know him; for he dwells with you (that is me), and shall be in you

He said, “I am coming back to you by the Holy Spirit.”

And just so that you do not misunderstand what He was saying, He says in verse 18:

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

What is Jesus saying? He is saying,

“I have been here as your comforter in my human body on the earth. I’ve been present to be your comforter and your helper. But once I ascend to the Father, I am coming back to you again in the Holy Spirit. I am coming back to you in the Spirit to continue to be your comforter.”

You see you cannot touch one without the other. Jesus remains our comforter. He remains the One who is with us, as He was for the early disciples. But He is not with us in physical form now. He is with us in the Spirit.

Are you confused yet? This is not a mental thing; it is spiritual. You will begin to understand it more as you start to experience more of these things in the Spirit.

Intimacy with Jesus

You need to come into a place of intimacy with the Lord Jesus. And the reason we miss this very often is because we have not come to know Him as a person. We tend to see spiritual influence and spiritual essence as an experience.

We tend to see the Holy Spirit as an ‘it’; as a ‘something that happens to us’. We see it as a feeling or an anointing; as an experience, a high, or as power. We do not see Him as someone real like a person.

Because we have accepted Jesus by faith, we have not come to know Him as a person. We think of Him as being up there in Heaven somewhere. He is interceding for us and that is great. We can send our prayers up there to Him and we hope it will get to Him.

But we do not know Him as a person. What is His address? Where is He living? Our little kids can tell you that one. We say to them,

“Where’s Jesus?”

They say, “He’s in my heart.”

It is so simple a child can understand it. But as adults we cannot grasp it. He is in your heart; in your spirit by His Holy Spirit, and He is a real person.

He is not an it. He is not an influence or a feeling. He is a person and He loves you. And He wants to come into an intimate relationship with you, far more intimate than you can have with anybody in this world.

He wants to bring you into a loving relationship. Why? Because the Scripture says that He is the heavenly Bridegroom, and we as the Body of Christ are the Bride. He wants to enter into a love relationship with you.

Fall in Love

So what is the first stage in revival? It is falling in love with the person you married. There are a lot of married people today who need to fall in love with the person they married. You have been living with them; you have been experiencing them and you have reaped some of the benefits that they have given you. But you are not in an intimate relationship with them.

Perhaps you were at some time but it is not there anymore. Revival is coming into an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus and experiencing His love.

How is that going to take place? It will take place as He pours it into you by His Spirit. The Scripture says:

The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

Now you may have been a Christian for a long time, and you may have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit. You may even have had an experience at times, and come under conviction as you come into the presence of the Father.

But until you come to an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus, you are never going to know the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Until you come into an intimate relationship with Jesus, you will never be introduced into a personal relationship with the Father.

It has to be a very important starting point. And many people who have experienced so much of what they call revival, did not understand this loving relationship. They have not fallen in love with Jesus yet.

259 | Page     Chapter 24 – Revival from the Holy Spirit

CHAPTER 24

Revival from the Holy Spirit

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

269 | Page     Chapter 24 – Revival from the Holy Spirit

Chapter 24 - Revival from the Holy Spirit

There are different kinds of revival and different levels of revival. There are different stages of revival, and as we go on I am going to try and share some of the experiences that I have had in some of these areas. Before I get to this however, I just want to go back and look at how revival comes from the Holy Spirit.

The very first encounter you have with the Holy Spirit is at salvation when you are born again. This is when your life is transformed, and the Spirit of God moves into you to transform your life and bring you back to life spiritually.

The Baptism in the Spirit

But the first real experience that you have with the Holy Spirit is what has come to be known in Charismatic and Pentecostal circles as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

What happens when you are baptized in the Holy Spirit? It is an experience that takes place after salvation and it brings you into a new dimension. Up until now you may know Jesus as your Savior.

You may be aware that you are born again, and you may serve God and have a certain amount of love for the Lord. But the Holy Spirit bursts you into a whole new dimension in the Spirit. You become aware that there is another realm that transcends this earthly realm.

As you begin to move into that realm, all of a sudden you find that there is another spiritual realm that you were not fully aware of before because there are two spiritual realms.

They are in conflict with one another. When you experience the Baptism of the Holy Spirit you begin to enter into that dimension in the Spirit. You start becoming aware of the fact that there is a dimension in which God lives.

You also become aware of the fact that there is an enemy out there who also lives in a spiritual dimension. You suddenly start becoming aware of demonic and spiritual attack. You become more aware than you ever were before, of both positive and negative experiences.

Your experience with the Holy Spirit goes much further than that though. Before you can move into the next dimension, which I would like to think of as being ‘The Revival Dimension’ of the Holy Spirit, you will have to start with an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus.

So the order is something like this. Your first experience with the Lord is as the Holy Spirit moves upon you to bring conviction of sin, to transform you and draw you to Christ. Jesus said,

No man can come to me, except the Holy Spirit draws Him.

The Holy Spirit works first and draws you to Christ, and you come to accept Jesus as your Savior. You are born again and enter into a relationship with Him, and make Him your Lord and Savior.

The experience that comes after that is the anointing, baptism or gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter said on the day of Pentecost,

Repent and be baptized and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You have entered into the foundation of the spiritual life if you like. And you are now ready to move beyond that into the dimension that I would like to think of as being the Revival Dimension.

Some Personal Stories

I experienced that very first touch of God, and I shared in the last section, how I became so on fire for the Lord. It happened on the night that I was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of God came down on me and took me into that dimension.

I had known Jesus all my life. I had experienced salvation and knew what it was to know the Lord. But I had not touched that spiritual dimension. I had never come into confrontation with demons before.

A New Spiritual Dimension

The night came that the Spirit of God came on me and filled me, and I experienced that thing that they call the Baptism of the Spirit. As they laid hands on me and I stood there with my hands raised just worshipping the Lord, I began to feel myself experiencing something that I had never known before.

There was a new dimension. I stood there with my eyes closed and felt as though I had almost been lifted up off the earth. And suddenly I felt a strange sensation and experience in my hands. At first it just felt like a glow, and then it started to feel like pins and needles.

I thought, “This is strange. I’ve held my hands up for too long. The blood must have drained from them because I have pins and needles in my hands.”

I looked at my hands and they were doing strange things. Not only did I have pins and needles in them, but the muscles were actually beginning to pull in. The fingers were beginning to close together so tightly that it was hurting me.

It was like I had been connected to one of those weight loss machines that cause your muscles to contract and pull as they pass an electric current through. I felt as though I had taken hold of the mains.

It felt as though I had taken the full power, and the muscles and nerves in my hands and arms were beginning to pull in tightly. I could not control it or stop it. What was happening?

Reaction to Demonic Presence

It took me a while to find out the answer. I began to have all those times of prayer and waiting on the Lord; learning about this new spiritual dimension and about the Gifts of the Spirit. As I did this I discovered that God had given me a gift that night that I did not know about. I began to tell everybody about it, but nobody had heard of it before. People said,

“Yes I’ve experienced things like that in my hands.”

But they had not experienced it the way I did. Periodically it would come on me again as we would have our youth prayer meetings. It took me a long time to find out what was going on. But eventually, as God began to lead me into confrontation with demon powers and the kingdom of darkness, I discovered that what was taking place was a kind of gift of discerning of spirits.

What was actually happening was that as I came into confrontation with a demon, or an evil power began to attack me, the Spirit of God within me began to raise up a standard against that evil power. A reaction then took place in my body that caused my muscles to pull. I felt it in my hands like an electric current.

There are many other people who experience this, but at the time I could not find anybody who had experienced it. I only eventually found out one day by reading a sermon or printed message by the late William Branham.

He was a man mightily used by God in healing the sick and dealing with demon powers. He was describing what would happen when he laid his hands on a sick person and there was a demon power present.

He said the demon in the person would set up a reaction with the Spirit of God in him, and he would feel it in his hands. He said it felt to him as though he had taken hold of the main current. He said there was a power in his hands that was so strong it made his watch stop.

I said, “Wow, that sounds like what I’ve been experiencing. That’s it! Lord, is this what it’s about? Is this about demon powers?”

So I learned through experience, a lot of it the hard way, in dealing with demons. I began to realize that every time I had this sensation in my hands I was coming into confrontation with a demon power. I found out I had entered into a new spiritual dimension.

A Demonic Dimension

It was exciting to move into that new dimension with the Lord. I just wanted to get up and go and have these prayer meetings and glory times. Things were going wonderfully until the one night the Devil sent somebody into our meetings with a demon.

Demons and demon manifestations were things you read about in books that came from overseas. It did not happen here where you lived. I had entered into a new spiritual dimension though, and I realized that there was another spiritual dimension there that was not of God.

I knew about it with my mind. I had heard about it and read about it, but I had never experienced it. I had been a Christian all my life but I had never experienced it. Why? It is because I had never entered into that relationship and experience and power of the Holy Spirit.

I went through that time of revival that I described last time. It was a time when I really took off spiritually; when I began to consume the Word and started to prepare for the ministry.

Many years later God did open the door for me to go into ministry. He held me back, because there was training and preparation that I needed to go through.

I never experienced the fullness of the revival power that was available to me, although at that time I had visions of myself laying hands on the sick and they would be healed. I could see myself ministering to crowds of people, but it never seemed to materialize. Why? It was because there were further dimensions of moving into revival power that I had not yet experienced.

Death to Everything

So I had to go through some of those deaths that we spoke about before. We have also taught about it extensively in much of our teaching ministry. I had to go through some of those death experiences, in order that I could rise up into a higher level in the Lord.

Some of these experiences come when you least expect them. In fact most of the time they come when you least expect them. That night at the Youth Camp when I was first filled with the Spirit and moved into the spiritual dimension, it was the last thing I was expecting.

It came totally by surprise. I was so thrilled that it happened, but God caught me by surprise and He captured me. Then I went through that time of death, where eventually it seemed like it was all a dream of the past.

It was a dim distant memory. As I said before, it was like the Children of Israel telling their children about what God used to do in time past. As I shared in the last section, I became one of those people that could tell everybody about what God did back there.

What happened in the meantime? What happened is I died. I lost it. I went through the death process until one day, unexpectedly it happened again.

I never turned my back on the Lord. I am not saying that. I just lost that sharp edge and that zeal. I carried on serving the Lord. I carried on having a zeal for ministry, but I reached a plateau. I just went so far and could not go any further. I became weighed down with the cares of life.

Then one day I reached a situation where I needed to call on the Lord. Life was tough. Finances were in a mess and we had deep and heavy needs in our family.

I was working in a job that was paid purely by commission and I was not getting too many sales. I so wanted to serve the Lord. I so wanted to preach and minister for Him still. But you have to live. You have to survive.

Eventually that thing had died in me and I had given up the idea of going into ministry. I figured I was just going to be an ordinary Christian because none of it worked. Every time I tried it, it turned sour. I have told my story elsewhere so I am not going into it here.

Sin Exposed

The one day in desperation I came home at lunch time from work. Things were tough. My wife was explaining to me our financial situation and we were in a bad way.

I said, “Let’s pray. God has to perform a miracle for us here. We have to do something.”

We got down on our knees to pray for finances. We started praying and asking God to provide our needs. That is what I set out to do. I came to the Lord, like most of us do, with all our needs and all our cares.

I was not thinking of revival. I wasn’t thinking of anointing or the Gifts of the Spirit. I had forgotten about ministry. I had given up the idea. I got down on my knees to say,

“Lord, we have a financial need.”

I do not even think I got that far. I think those words had barely come out of my mouth, and God came down and His Spirit came upon me and hit me between the eyes. He hit me in an even more powerful way than He did that night when He moved upon me and showed me how rotten I was. Once again He came to me and He said,

“You want to serve me. You want to work for me. But you still have bitterness in your heart.”

He began to name each one and say,

“You have a problem with this person and that person; this preacher and this person that was in leadership that you kicked against. Then there is this person that you rebelled against. This person who hurt you back there that you are still bitter against. This hurt that you still have in your heart and unforgiveness that you will not let go of.”

I fell to my knees and I began to weep. I said,

“Lord, I thought I had dealt with that. I thought I’d let go of that.”

But I knew that I had not. It had happened years ago. It was part of what took me into that death. But the hurt was still there and so was the pain. The bitterness and the anger was still within me.

I was angry with men of God who had stood in my way and who had stopped me from going into the ministry. They were people who had blocked me, and prevented me from fulfilling the call of God on my life and things that I knew God had called me clearly to do. They had opposed me, torn me down, humiliated me and stopped me from moving into all that the Lord had for me.

It was easy to blame them. It was easy to say,

“Well I’ve given up this ministry idea. Lord, I tried and I gave it my best shot. But Lord, all of these people stopped me. There’s no way I can go into ministry now. It’s over.”

Beginning of Revival

The Lord said, “I’m taking you into the next dimension now. But before I do a single thing in your life; before you even come to me and open your mouth and ask me to break you free of your financial bondage, you deal with that bitterness in your life and you get rid of it now.”

I never went back to work after lunch. I stayed home that day. The whole experience was so staggering and so startling; so unexpected and traumatic. God had begun to work on me. He had begun to draw me into a new dimension. When I saw it and realized what was happening He did not condemn me, He convicted me.

There is a difference. And when the conviction of the Holy Spirit came on me and I saw myself in that way, I realized that I was miserable and rotten and full of sin. Who did I think I was to rise up in the power of God and go and minister to others?

The Lord just hit me, and I fell on my face before Him and I wept and cried out to Him for forgiveness. And Jesus was there to forgive me. You see the Holy Spirit again moved upon me and brought me to the Lord Jesus.

God began to move on my life that day unexpectedly. I began to experience His power once again. I found myself moving back into that dimension that I had experienced so many years earlier when I first moved in the Spirit.

It was so exciting and so strong, that I could not go to work the next day. I had a responsibility, but I was being paid on a commission basis. If I did not work I did not eat.

Things were bad enough. They could not have become any worse. I might as well use the time wisely and spend it with the Lord. In fact, for the next three days I did not go to work. I couldn’t. I was consumed by His presence. I was consumed by a desire to get back again into that relationship with Him.

I began to spend time in prayer in the morning, the afternoon and the evening. I just began to wait on the Lord all day. I walked in His presence. I began to pray in the Spirit and wait on Him. I began to sense something new taking place within me; a new dimension of the Spirit that I had not experienced before.

Jesus Became Real

Then a night later as I stood before Him, praying and reaching out to Him, for the first time in my life I saw Him in the Spirit. The Lord Jesus stood before me in such a clear vision. He had rebuked me a day or so before concerning my bitterness and everything else. I had repented and dealt with that.

There were a couple of other things in there that I knew He had not mentioned. There were some other things in my thought life that I really would not like Him to know about.

But there I stood, and there He stood right in front of me looking at me. He did not say a word, but just looked at me with those eyes that I knew could see right through me. As He looked at me I knew that He knew everything there was to know about me.

I knew that He knew the thoughts I thought in privacy at night when I lay on my bed. I knew that He knew the evil thoughts that went through my mind at times, and the temptations that I faced.

I knew that He knew the thoughts that went through my mind as I went out in the world. I knew that He knew everything about me. My initial reaction was to run and hide because I was an open book in front of Him.

But as He stood there looking at me, and I knew that He knew everything about me, I did not feel threatened. I could not understand this. I thought,

“I’ve always known God to be an austere person. I’ve always known God to be a God of judgment and thought of Him to be one who is Holy and hates sin.”

I expected Him to open His mouth and see that sword go out that John spoke about; to just zap me there and drop me to the ground.

Abba Father

But He stood there, and what came from Him was not the judgment that I expected. Instead what came from Him was a look of love, and I began to have a sensation and an experience in the Spirit that I had never experienced before.

I had heard people talking about love. I had studied the Bible and I knew what agape, phileo and eros love meant. I had been into Bible teaching. I had even done some teaching on those things myself.

I had never preached on 1 Corinthians 13. I did not dare. I could not understand how anybody could possibly love that way. It was a figment of the imagination. Only God and Jesus could love that way.

I had read where the Scripture speaks about how the Spirit of God within us causes us to cry out Abba Father, but I had never understood Abba Father. My mind and my intellectual and theological studies told me that Abba means Daddy. And that when the Holy Spirit cries out Abba Father He is saying,

“We see the Heavenly Father as our loving Daddy.”

I could not see the Father as my loving Daddy. I could see Him as this God of judgment. I could not understand His love. But Jesus stood before me, and I knew that in the Son of God there is no condemnation but only love.

Then He showed me the Father and my vision changed, and I saw and felt myself sitting on His lap. I was a little child. I was sitting on His lap, He had His arm around me and He was holding me close to Him. I could feel myself leaning against His chest and against His side, and it felt so secure and so wonderful. I looked up at Him and I wanted to say,

“Daddy, I love you.”

I understood for the very first time ever what the Scriptures were talking about when they say the Spirit causes us to cry out, “Abba Father.” Then He taught me His love.

I have shared this experience so many times in my teachings that I do not want to go into detail. But He showed me His love; His uncondemning love. And from that day began a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and a new relationship with the Holy Spirit.

From that day began a new understanding of the fatherhood of God. But I did not understand it all yet. I did not understand the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit or the fullness of the Father yet. I began to understand the Son; the loving Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I fell in love with Him.

I fell more in love with Him than I had ever been in love with any woman in this world. I loved Him so that my heart yearned for Him, so that I had butterflies in my stomach thinking about Him. I could not sleep or eat.

You know what it is like when you fall in love? I just wanted to be with Him all the time. It was a relationship with the Lord Jesus.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

CHAPTER 25

Experiencing the Holy Spirit

285 | Page     Chapter 25 – Experiencing the Holy Spirit

Chapter 25 – Experiencing the Holy Spirit

As I began to walk in that relationship with the Lord Jesus, He began to take me into a realm in the Spirit. I started to experience what it is to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.

That took a little bit longer. I had experienced the Holy Spirit. I knew His power. I had begun to function and operate in the Gifts of the Spirit. But I did not know the Holy Spirit in an intimate way. So in the weeks and months that followed I began to spend more and more time in His presence.

I had lots of time, because shortly after that the Lord led me to leave the church where I was and to pack up my job. He called me to spend nine months dedicated completely to waiting on Him and to learning about Him. So I began to spend time every day in the Spirit and in prayer.

As I spent time in His presence, the very first thing I found myself doing was I was no longer coming to Him with requests. I was no longer coming with just petitionary prayer and the usual kinds of ways that people pray. But I began to come into His presence with love and adoration and worship.

I was in love with Him. When two lovers get together, they are so stupid they keep saying the same thing over and over again. They say,

“I love you.”

“Yes I know. You said that.”

“Well, I love you.”

“Yes, I love you too.”

“Oh, I love you.”

You cannot stop saying it. It just comes out of you. You want to do it all the time. You just want to keep showing your affection and expressing your love to the one that you adore.

Singing and Poetry in the Spirit

The rest of my family were watching TV at night and I was in my room. I did not want to fill my mind with garbage.

I said, “Lord, what am I supposed to do?”

He said, “Come and I’ll show you better television. I’ll show you movies that are better than anything Hollywood can produce.”

So I came into His presence and I began to worship Him. I worshipped Him in tongues. I started out by praying in tongues, then I found myself singing in tongues, and eventually I found myself making up songs in tongues.

I found myself making up poetry in tongues, and singing different styles of things in tongues. I would spend hours just singing and worshipping.

It came to the point where sometimes I felt like I was standing up like a big opera singer and just letting rip. It was wonderful. I couldn’t sing in the natural, but at least in the Spirit I knew I could have a glorious time and it felt like I was singing like a star.

It was beautiful. I had some wonderful times, and I began to realize that there was a dimension of the Spirit that I had not experienced before.

Spiritual Breakthrough

I began to realize that the longer I prayed in tongues and sang in tongues, I began to feel after a while as though I was being lifted up off the earth. It is like I was rising up off the ground.

And sometimes as I continued in the Spirit, it was as though I was looking down and seeing the ground way below me. It is like I was flying; moving up higher and higher. I can imagine it was sort of how Jesus experienced it as He ascended to Heaven and looked down and saw the ground disappearing.

I began to pray and pray in tongues, and I began to realize that it was like when an airplane begins to climb and it hits the clouds. Initially when you hit the clouds it gets dark. You cannot see clearly and sometimes there is turbulence and winds.

But as the plane continues to climb through the clouds, you reach a point where you break through and you fly above them. That is what most airplanes do. They climb up high, far above where the clouds are.

If you have flown in a plane and looked down on a cloudy day, you have seen what it is like. It is like there is a blanket of clouds underneath. It is flat, as though you could step out and walk on it.

I began to experience that in the Spirit. I began to realize that if I continued to worship and praise, to sing and pray in tongues, that it is as though I would get lifted higher and higher until I broke through the clouds. Then suddenly there was sunshine. Suddenly there was no more turbulence. There was no more interference and it was plain sailing.

I found that every time I prayed through until I had come to that kind of experience, suddenly things began to happen. Suddenly I began to experience things in the Spirit that I had never experienced before, and in my life things began to change.

Finances began to change. Circumstances began to change. Everything in my life became transformed. I had broken through and moved into a new dimension.

New Spiritual Experiences

Then as I continued waiting on the Lord He began to teach me more about His Holy Spirit, and I began to experience other things. I found myself doing things that I had never heard of anybody doing before.

As I began to walk up and down I wanted to dance. That was wonderful. I would sing songs in African dialects and do an African dance. If only people could have seen me. I kept my door locked so nobody could come in and watch me while I was doing that. They would have thought,

“He has gone stark raving mad.”

But I began to dance before the Lord. I want you to know I have never been a dancer. I grew up where dancing was a sin, so I do not know how to dance in the natural and it does not come easily to me. We all tap our feet to the music but dancing is another story. So if I was to dance before the Lord, you had better believe I was doing it in private.

I began to let go in the presence of the Lord. You see what had happened is I had moved beyond just having it all in the Spirit and internally. Now it was beginning to flow out and manifest in my body too.

It came out not just through my tongue and through my words, but through bodily action. I began to release my body to the Lord and let him control it now. This meant that my body would move in motion with what was taking place in my spirit, and the songs and the music that were coming out.

So I began to let rip a little bit. I continued to sing and dance, until the one day as I was doing what I normally did, I found myself doing some strange things. I found myself carrying out some strange actions.

In fact I almost felt like I was somebody else; as though I was acting. It was as though my body was pretending to be somebody else and I was actually going through the motions of what a human being would do under certain circumstances. I did not understand it.

Acting Scripture

I remember finding myself going down towards the floor and I thought,

“Don’t the Muslims go down like that to pray to Allah? Lord, what am I doing in the Spirit? Am I going mad? Is this deception? What is going on?”

I found myself walking over into a corner. I just kept my head bowed and I felt terrible. I thought,

“Lord, I’m going mad. What is going on?”

The Lord said,

“All that’s going on, is you’re acting out in my Spirit something from my Word. Don’t you know what you just did? You just acted the Pharisee and the publican.”

He said, “That bit where you were going down and making a big show, that was the Pharisee standing on the street corner and saying, ‘Oh God, I’m so wonderful. I pay my tithes. I’m such a good holy man.’

“Then you stood in the corner and just wanted to hang your head and felt so horrible. You were the publican then and you were feeling rotten for your sin.”

I said, “Wow Lord, I’ve never heard of anybody doing that before.”

I told a couple of family members and other Christians that I knew about what happened to me. They began to get that look in their eye; you know that look that says,

“Oh he’s gone over the edge all right. Brother, you’re getting into deception. You’re missing it.”

I went back in the Spirit again and I began to sing. And I found myself marching in the Army, going into battle. I could see the drummers beating their drums. I could see the soldiers marching. I could see the battering rams. I sang the whole thing in the Spirit like an opera. Every time I sang I could see in the Spirit what was happening. I thought,

“Lord, this is strange.”

Abraham and Paul in the Spirit

Then the one night I was praying and I was walking up and down. I looked and saw an altar with a young man on it, and I knew the scene only too well. This was Abraham and Isaac. I walked up and down and I had a knife in my hand.

I said, “Lord, what is going on now?”

He said, “You’re Abraham.”

I saw the whole scene. I acted it out and I was one of the players in the play. I was Abraham himself, and there was my son Isaac lying on the altar and I had to kill him. I felt what Abraham was feeling. I knew what he was experiencing. I could feel it. He was saying,

“I’ve got to kill my son. I can’t kill my son. I can’t do it. I love him but I’ve got to kill my son.”

He walked up and down.

You say, “Now you’re showing stuff that is not in the Bible.”

Yes I am. Please do not take this as doctrine. I am just telling you what I experienced in the Spirit. I tell you, I know exactly what Abraham went through because I experienced it. Do not think that Abraham just casually walked up and said,

“Okay Isaac, time to die. Here we go.”

Do not believe it. It tore his heart out. He could not bring himself to do it. I know, I was Abraham and I felt myself bringing that knife up. Then the Lord spoke. I know exactly what Abraham went through. I saw the ram caught in the thicket. I can picture it very clearly in my mind. I saw it clearly.

On another occasion as I was singing I was standing with my hands all tied up. He said,

“You’re Paul. You’re a prisoner and in a straitjacket.”

I do not think it says that Paul was in a straitjacket, but let me tell you he was. There was a time when he was tied up. He could not move.

Negative Words from Others

I began to experience some of these things. And at the time I shared them with other people they said,

“I’ve never heard of this. Les, I think you’re going a little bit overboard now. Really I think you should just cool down a little bit and you should come back to reality, because brother you are going to get into heavy deception.”

It became so bad that I began to think that the Devil got a hold of me. I began to think,

“Hold it. Nobody else does this kind of thing. Nobody experiences these things.”

Of course nobody experiences them. Nobody begins to move into that new dimension in the Holy Spirit. They get as far as being baptized in the Holy Spirit and moving in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and they stop right there.

They never come into a relationship with the Holy Ghost, where they begin to react and interact with Him. They do not come to that place of moving up into a higher spiritual dimension above the clouds, because they do not spend long enough in His presence and commit themselves enough. I began to think,

“This must be of Satan. The Devil’s getting a hold of me. God doesn’t force you to do things.”

He did not force me. I just felt myself doing it. I came under such condemnation and such guilt that I stopped doing it. I was afraid to go and pray in case this thing got hold of me again and I would get into deception.

Then the Lord pointed out a very clear Scripture. It said,

If a son asks his father for bread, will he give him a stone? If he asks for an egg will he give him a serpent?

The Lord said, “If you ask for my Holy Spirit will I give you a demon? My child this is of me, and there is a reason I’ve given this to you, because I want you to experience the mind of the Spirit.

“I want you to not only think, and know and feel what my Spirit is thinking. But when you come to minister with somebody else, I want you to realize that in the Spirit your spirit and that person’s spirit will become one in the Holy Ghost, and you will know what that person is thinking.

“You will know what that person is feeling and you will experience what they are going through. For the first time you will honestly be able to say to a person,

‘I know exactly what you are going through. I can feel it. Believe me, I’m with you all the way, brother. I know what you’re going through and this is what God says to you.’ Then I can move in and minister to this person effectively.”

Seeing Angels and Demons

As I began to move into this new relationship in the Holy Spirit, I started to become more aware of the spiritual realm. I became more aware of demons.

I began to operate in that gift of discerning of spirits that was placed in me at the baptism and that I first felt manifested in my hands. Now God began to add further gifts of revelation, and I started to move into the full gift of discerning of spirits. I started to see into the spiritual world in a way that I had never seen before, and I became aware of angels and demons.

At times I would see evil powers, and at other times I would see an angel standing before me. I came to realize that there were different kinds of angels.

I had to go back into the Scriptures to identify some of what I was seeing in the Spirit. Sometimes as I was worshipping I began to see whole groups of angels standing with me. They had wings and they were worshipping with me as I was worshipping.

There were times when I would see an angel standing before me. He was dressed like a normal angel I guess, if you think of a normal angel. Some of them were fairly tall, and some of them were of normal height, dressed in a regular white type robe.

They were regular angels if you like. At times I began to realize that these angels were communicating or wanting to communicate with me. Sometimes they would have scrolls in their hands.

Then I began to see another kind of angel who was short and stocky and had a sword in his hands. It took me a while to realize that God was showing me three different classes of angels. I have shared on this elsewhere, but I started to become aware of the different categories of angels.

The Angel of the Lord

Then as I continued to wait on the Lord, one night I saw a new kind of angel that I had never seen before. This angel stood with a sword in his hand and shone like a light. He was rather like the Statue of Liberty.

There is a certain movie company that has an emblem that they use which you see at the beginning of a movie. It is of a person standing with a torch in their hand and with light radiating from them. It is about the closest representation I could use to describe this angel.

The first time this angel appeared before me I felt something that I had never felt before when I had seen angels in the Spirit. I felt as though a hurricane was blowing. It was as though the air was charged with a kind of power that I had never felt before, and I began to feel a fear.

It was not fear in the sense of being afraid. It was a kind of reverential fear; the kind of fear that said,

“I can sense the awesome presence of God here.”

The first time that happened, I did not understand it but I wanted to fall on my face. I could not look up. I fell to my knees and began to worship and cry out to the Lord. I felt an awesome power and presence in the room that made my very flesh cringe.

I did not understand what was going on. It was not the Lord Jesus that I was seeing. I had seen Him. I had entered into a relationship with Him and we would get together and have a chat.

I would speak to Him face to face and friend with friend. I never ever felt threatened. I felt comfortable in His loving, uncondemning presence. Now I felt an awesome power, unlike anything I had experienced before. As I looked to the Lord and asked Him what this was He said,

“Have you never read in the Scriptures about the Angel of the Lord?”

Yes I had read about the Angel of the Lord. In fact if you read through the whole of the Old Testament you keep hearing this term, ‘The Angel of the Lord’.

Well what is the Angel of the Lord? He was the manifest presence of God to the patriarchs of old. The Angel of the Lord was what appeared to Moses. The Scripture says that God gave the law by the agency of angels. The Scripture speaks about how Moses went with the elders up the mountain, and it says,

They saw the God of Israel.

When Jacob prayed and blessed Joseph’s sons he said,

The angel that redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.

There was a relationship and experience that men had with God. Jacob wrestled with an angel; with a man. When he was finished he said,

I have seen God and have lived.

Manoah and his wife saw the Angel, and afterwards they said,

We have seen God.

The Full Power of God

You will see the term Angel of the Lord throughout the whole of the Old Testament. The Angel of the Lord was a manifestation of the God of Glory. God, the invisible One; the Father that no man has seen at any time, began to manifest His presence by the Angel of the Lord.

I began to realize that there was an awe and a majesty in God that I had not touched. I began to realize that I was coming into confrontation with the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit. I was beginning to move into a little taste; a little touch of what it was like to be in the presence of the Father.

I am not saying that the Angel of the Lord was the Father. But he came from the presence of the Father, and he came radiating the glory of the Father. I have seen the Angel of the Lord many times, and whenever He comes I always have the same experience.

I fall flat on my face. I cannot look up. I dare not take a step to where I see him standing in the room. In fact I find myself backing away.

I can remember an occasion one evening when He appeared suddenly as we were in prayer. I was standing near a wall, and suddenly as he came, that power radiated so strongly that it pushed me against the wall. I stood there sprawled against the wall with my hands on it, and I felt like somebody was pushing me against it.

I stood there and He began to speak to me and began to radiate His power against me. I was so afraid I was trying to hang onto the wall. I did not have much choice, because I was being pushed against it.

I stayed there for a good long period of time as He remained there. And His glory and majesty began to radiate on me and permeate through me.

I realized that there is a power in the Holy Spirit that is greater than the power that we experience when we have the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. There is a newer relationship with the Holy Spirit; a new dimension in the power of God.

When you begin to move into revival that comes from the Holy Spirit, you begin to move into a dimension that is far greater than the dimension that you experience when you receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is an intense power.

Different Manifestations

I began to experience this power in such a way that it would begin to take hold of my body. I would get such a knot in my stomach that I could not speak. It was so strong.

Then I would rise up and want to laugh. Suddenly a joy would begin to bubble up, and I wanted to laugh and laugh. You start giggling and you want to start laughing.

You say, “So you’ve also been to Toronto?”

No, I have never been to Toronto. I have never been to Canada, nor have I been prayed for by anybody who was from there. I have never been near any of the Toronto churches. But in the privacy of my bedroom as I began to pray, God’s Spirit moved upon me.

I do not know what it was that I found funny, but I started to laugh and laugh. And everybody around me also started to laugh. They were not laughing under the anointing though. They were laughing at me because I sounded so stupid. I was laughing and giggling and carrying on like I was a drunk person.

You say, “Well couldn’t you control it?”

Yes, but I didn’t want to. It was fun; I was enjoying it. It was a new dimension of the Holy Spirit. It was an interaction and experience with God.

No Yes-Buts

You know I grew up in the Pentecostal church, and people do strange things when the Holy Ghost comes on them. There was one thing I could not stand. It was those dear old sisters who would be in church, the Holy Spirit would come on them as they had their hands upraised there, and they would start to shake. I used to look at them and think,

“They’re mad. Oh Father, don’t ever let me shake. Oh Lord, these are over-emotional women. Lord, just don’t ever make me do that. Lord, I’m never going to do that in the Spirit. I will never ever shake under the power of the Holy Spirit.”

You know for years I succeeded in getting away with that. That was until a time when the Spirit of God said,

“Okay, it’s time to break free of all control now. It’s time to learn to become possessed by the Holy Ghost.”

“Possessed?”

The Lord said, “Yes, possessed. It’s time you give me full control, and you let go and take away restrictions.”

You say, “So you mean to tell me that God was making you do all these stupid things we hear about in the revival churches?”

Yes, for a while He made me do it just to prove a point. Just to get out of my mind all the condemnation and criticism that I had had about what I had heard, and all the criticism that I had heard about these churches. I assure you I was one of the biggest critics. The Lord said,

“Okay, now I want to show you something. You want to have my Spirit? You want to move in a greater dimension of my anointing?”

“Yes Lord, give it all to me.”

He said, “Are you prepared to shake?”

“Well, um. . .”

“Are you prepared to shake?”

“Lord, if I really have to.”

And I began to shake. The anointing of God began to move on me as I started to shake. I said,

“This is absurd. I will not shake.”

Then I stopped shaking, and the anointing stopped too. The Lord said,

“Do you want my power?”

I said, “Yes, Lord.”

“Then shake!”

“Oh dear, here we go.”

Shake, shake, shake - and the anointing came back again. And the stronger and harder I shook, the stronger the anointing came on me.

I said, “Okay Lord, if I have to shake to get into the anointing, let’s shake.”

I had to go through some of these things. Maybe you are one of those people who are so staid, that want to say,

“I’m not going to let this happen, and I’m not going to do that.”

You have given God a ‘yes-but’. You have given Him a condition. You have not let the Holy Ghost possess you and take full control of you, spirit, soul and body.

If you want to move in the revival power of God, I think sometimes the Lord does some of these things in the revival churches just for that very reason. It is to get hold of us; to get rid of those traditions, and all the stiff upper lip that we have. He wants to get it out of us.

You say, “So now do you still shake?”

No, I don’t shake anymore. I do not need to shake to get the anointing. But I will tell you, until I was prepared to shake, I could not move into that new dimension of His power. I had to be prepared to say,

“Okay Lord, if you want me to act like an idiot for you, I’ll act like an idiot. I don’t care what it costs. I don’t care what the price is. I’m giving it all to you, Lord. If you want me to shake, make me shake. If you want me to do silly things, Lord if that’s what it takes, hey, here I am. Holy Ghost do your thing.”

Do you want revival? It could cost you that. It could cost you being humiliated in front of a whole lot of other people. It could cost you things you have never done in all your life, or you letting go of your staid upbringing.

The Lord wants to be in control of everything. If you are to move into the power of the Holy Spirit, you will have to be prepared to let Him manifest in you in any single way that He chooses, at any time that He chooses.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

CHAPTER 26

Revival from the Father

293 | Page     Chapter 26 – Revival from the Father

Chapter 26 - Revival from the Father

Revival comes from the Father. What happens when you enter into a relationship with the Father? When you enter into a relationship with the Lord Jesus, you begin to experience love such as you have never known. For the first time you will have the ability to pour out His love to others.

During that time, as the Lord began to teach me His love He gave me a new kind of anointing. I am not going to speak about anointing here because I have dealt with it in the first three sections of this book.

Love Anointing

I began to experience the love anointing. I began to sense that when I prayed with people I would feel His love for them, and I would begin to love them.

Man, here was this person, and if I looked in the natural he was so ugly. He was vile. He dressed horribly and smelt. But the love anointing would come upon me and rise up within me. And I would find myself instinctively wanting to put my arms around him, hug him and tell him I loved him. I would think,

“This guy’s going to think I’m mad. I don’t think he’s going to understand this if I do it. I doubt whether anybody has ever done this for him before, except maybe his mother.”

I could not help it though. There was a new anointing that came on me. And trust me it was an anointing. It was an experience from the Lord. Why? It was because I had experienced that revival power from the Lord Jesus.

As I began to move into the revival anointing power of the Holy Spirit, there came a new dimension of releasing His power in praying for others. There came a new dimension of speaking forth healing to the sick, of speaking to demon powers and seeing them flee.

There was a dimension of speaking deliverance to the captives, and speaking prosperity on those who were battling financially. There was a new dimension of releasing God’s power and blessing into the lives of people by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Facing the Father

Then Jesus spoke to me and He said,

“I would like to show you and introduce you to the Father.”

Well I had sort of seen the Father once or twice in the Spirit. I probably saw about as high as His big toe. That is about as high as I dared to look. I knew if I looked any higher a laser beam was going to come out there which would turn me to ash.

I was scared to look. I knew I could look at Jesus because He would look back at me in love. He would understand and He would care. But I was afraid to look at the Father, let alone stand before Him or communicate with Him and talk to Him.

Why did I not want to face the Father? Because when I came into the presence of the Father I began to feel what Isaiah felt when He saw the Lord high and lifted up.

I began to realize that I was full of sin. And I began to realize that the Father does not tolerate sin because He is a Holy God. But Jesus said that we have access to the Father through Him. Jesus said,

“I want to introduce you to the Father.”

And He called me to climb that mountain, to come into the presence of the Father. He had been preparing me for that over a long period of time.

The Holy of Holies

The earliest experience I ever had of the glory of God was one night as I was praying. I had been spending a time in prayer and fasting. And as I was praying I saw myself moving into a kind of a structure and coming into a room. I was in a very small, enclosed room. I looked and everything was a dull kind of yellow. I thought,

“What a strange room this is. Where am I?”

As I crawled into that room I said,

“Lord, what is going on here?”

The Lord said, “I am bringing you into the place that only the High Priest was allowed to go once a year with blood in His hands. I am bringing you into the Holy of Holies.”

I knew then why it was yellow, because the Holy of Holies was constructed of wooden boards overlaid with gold. The walls were made of gold. There were no lamps in there, but yet I could see. There was light. And I knew that in front of me stood the Ark of the Covenant of the glory of the Lord.

You say, “What does the ark look like?”

I do not know. I was too scared to look. I was on my face. I knew there was light in there, but trust me I was not going to look at it. It was the first experience I ever had of coming close to the Father Himself, and His shekinah glory and power.

Conviction of Sin

What happens when you come into a relationship with the Father? You start to become aware of your sin. You do not come under condemnation. You come under conviction of sin. You start to see yourself as He sees you, and you realize also that you are cleansed by the Blood of Christ.

You will not dare to approach the Father until you have come to that relationship with the Lord Jesus where you know Him intimately. You need to know His total lack of condemnation, and the fact that the Blood of the Lamb cleanses you from all sin.

You need to know first that He is interceding for you at the right hand of the Father. You will not approach Him until you know these things. Then you can come to the Father in love and in faith. The Scripture says,

Having entered into the Holiest by the Blood of the Lamb, we can come boldly to the Throne of Grace.

We can enter into the very Throne Room of God, and we can come to see the Father. Where are we going to see His glory? Moses said,

“Lord, show me your glory.”

God said, “You can’t see my glory. You’ll die.”

In the New Testament however, it says that we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The ultimate revival experience is to come into the presence of the Father. It is to know that your sins are forgiven, that you are cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb, and to come boldly and stand with unveiled face before the God of all the earth.

A Look at Moses

When you can come to that place where you can come boldly into the presence of the Father, you will walk out there as Moses came down from the mountain. There is going to be something radiating from you. You will have a glow on your face that is going to make you shine.

I have dealt with this more as we looked at the anointing and as we looked at Moses. I want to look at Moses and the various experiences he went through though. Because you see Moses went through very similar stages to what I have been speaking about here.

Moses began to experience God in simple ways that became more and more intense. The relationship that he had with God entered into a deeper intimacy and a greater level of power and experience with Him. God wants to take us there.

You say, “Well thank God I’m saved.”

It is not good enough.

You say, “Well I thank the Lord I’m baptized in the Holy Spirit. I thank God that I speak in tongues and I move in the gifts of the Spirit.”

It is not enough. Are you happy to be there? No you are not.

You say, “I’ve come to know Jesus in an intimate way. I’ve seen Him in the Spirit. I’ve spoken with Him as friend with friend. I have experienced that love that you are speaking about.”

Are you satisfied? It is not enough. You are going to have to come to know the fullness of the love of Jesus Christ. You will have to come to know the fullness of the majesty and the power that there is in the Holy Spirit. And you will have to come to know the fullness of the holiness of the Father of all; that you can stand boldly in His glory and His presence and power.

Then when you come into the presence of others it is going to show. You will glow. You will radiate as Jesus did on the Mount of Transfiguration. And when you do that the cloud will come down. The cloud of God’s glory will come down as it did with Moses in the Tent of Meeting, and as it did on Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.

The voice of God is going to speak and He will say,

“Hey, look at this, my beloved son. Look at this one who has drawn into a relationship with me, who I’m proud to call my son and my child.”

Instead of coming into His presence and saying, “Oh (cringe),” you are going to say,

“Hi Dad, it’s good to see you today.”

Could you have that boldness to come into the presence of the Father? Could you ever be righteous enough to come into the presence of the Father? Absolutely you could. In Jesus you are covered by His Blood. That is the ultimate goal of revival.

Related to Apostolic

We are speaking on revival now. But what I am sharing here could just as easily have been put into our apostolic courses in GBM Academy.

Why is this? It is because we are trying to show you that the new apostolic move of God is going to cause a revival power to come upon this earth such as has never been known before.

And as God raises up leaders, He will raise up mighty men and women who have learned to move in full relationship with the Son, and with the Spirit, and with the Father. They will move in the fullness of His power, His glory and His holiness, and manifest His power in the earth.

When that happens revival will take place, because that is how revival comes.

Ministering in God’s Power Made Easy by Les D. Crause

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Other Books From Global Business Ministries International

You Can Find All These Books on the Amazon Kindle store or on GBMI Bookshop

Books By Les D. Crause

Bible Doctrine Made Easy Volume 1 – Elements of the Gospel

-              Doctrine of Man – Elements of the Gospel

-              Doctrine of God and Christ – Elements of the Gospel

-              Doctrine of Salvation – Elements of the Gospel

Key Teachings of the Bible

How to Hear From God: Prophetic Listening For All Believers

Apostolic Calling

Solomon The Apostolic Entrepreneur

Conversational Prayer Made Easy

Finding Your Ministry Gifts Made Easy

Finding Your Ministry Calling Made Easy

Prophetic Ministry Made Easy

Finding God’s Perfect Match

The New Way of Blessing Part 1 – Discovering Your Blessing

The New Way of Blessing Part 2 - Using Your Blessing

The Blessing Code

Making Your Dream Come True: 12 Steps to Success

Way to Success

Keys to Creativity: Unleashing Your Creative Abilities

Keys to Self-Motivation: Releasing Your Core Desires

Finding Your Fivefold Business Calling

Four Weeks With God in Business

The God Kind of Business

The God Way to Wealth

Psychology in Business

Developing Business Relationships

The Practice of Business: Even You Can Learn to Sell Easily

Books By Daphne Crause

Daily Good News Volume 1 – First Quarter

Daily Good News Volume 2 – Second Quarter

Books By John P. Crause

Abe Volume 1 – In the Beginning There Was Abe (Comic Book)