Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative
This podcast was intended to resource our Dream Teamers at LifePoint Church, with biblical fundamentals on worship, life and a variety of leadership principles.
Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative
Walking in the Anointing
This episode explores the transformative power of the anointing in leadership and creativity. Elmer, Willie, and Tiffany discuss how the anointing elevates everyday tasks into impactful ministry through God's grace, encouraging listeners to seek clarity and faith in their personal assignments.
• Overview of the year’s focus on the anointing
• Discussion on multiplication in ministry
• The distinction between natural ability and anointing
• Importance of creativity in all life aspects
• Encouraging community, unity, and service
• Call for prayer and seeking the anointing in personal lives
Hey, willie, you know what time it is.
Willie:What time is it, elmer? It's game time, come on.
Elmer:It's time for the podcast, bro.
Willie:Oh yeah, it's time for the podcast.
Elmer:Let's go, hey what's up everybody and welcome to Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative. My name is Elmer Canyas Jr and it's always a privilege to be with you here on the podcast.
Willie:And, like always, my friend Willie C Simpson.
Elmer:Jr. Yo, what is up? Family Orale Willie. What's up?
Willie:I am great, muy bien, muy buen. I learned the word yesterday from some of our Spanish speaking members. I say hey, how do you say I'm blessed in Spanish? And they said bendecido, bendecido.
Elmer:Bendecido, bendecido yeah.
Willie:Come on now. Gloria a Dios.
Elmer:Hey, and we have the one and only.
Willie:Come on the often duplicated, never imitated GSP. G S P.
Elmer:Grocery store. Grocery store Princess Tiffany Tackett Come on, give it up.
Willie:Hey, tiffany Tackett, I like that nickname Way better.
Tiffany:GSP.
Willie:Yeah, I'm just saying what is GSP? You can make hats, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make what is.
Tiffany:GSP, you can make hats. I'm going to make it mean something real cool. I'll just have a different.
Willie:I think grocery store princess is really cool. I like it. Okay. You know it reminds me of the word Christian. That was first used as an insult when they were first called Christians in Antioch, and it was meant to be an insult, but now it's a badge of honor.
Tiffany:Right, it was meant to be an insult, but now it's a badge of honor. Right, I am going to walk through that grocery store like a princess.
Willie:You're a grocery store princess. You're a royalty. Do you know who you're talking to? Come on now. Do you know who my daddy is? So I love it. I love it, gsp, I'll eat it.
Tiffany:I'm just going to.
Willie:Just roll with it.
Tiffany:It is what it is.
Willie:Let's roll with it. Gsp. Grossly Stored Princess All right. Grossly Stored.
Elmer:Princess, well, tiffany, welcome. Thanks, we're glad you're here today. Today we're going to last week. We spoke on leadership and we got to talk about our own experiences and how we perceive things and go about making decisions in our leadership roles and opportunities. And today we're going to just pull back a little bit and we're gonna talk about creativity and the creative space and but specifically, yeah, on the anointing, come on somebody this past sunday, pastor mike shared an incredible message on you know.
Elmer:He shared the annual report for our church, that which we do every every year but then he shared like three things that we're going to focus on this year at Life Point Church.
Willie:Yep, that's right. Yeah, he said first it's going to be a year of the anointing, and he did a wonderful job in teaching on the anointing. It's the wind of God, it's the blessing of God, it's the favor of God, the spirit of God. He talked about it being a year of movement and multiplication, and so that's literally moving, but also recognizing that you got to get up out of your seat, get on your feet. And then multiplication, that's discipleship, that's kingdom. The whole point of the kingdom is that the kingdom would advance, and you can't advance unless the people multiply themselves, that they make disciples. And then lastly and I'm really excited about that too is a year of ministry to men. Come on somebody. It's a year of ministry to men. Come on somebody. Calling our men to rise up and take their place in leadership and serving and being kingdom-focused. Come on somebody.
Elmer:Amen, I think. Going back to his second point on multiplication, it's something that we've been talking about since last year. Yes, just multiplication. And there's just something that when God's hand is on something, it's not just like you don't just see addition, you don't just see like slow growth.
Willie:Yeah.
Elmer:Things just begin to spread a lot quicker, and we see that in multiplication. And then, I love, we shared a reel on Pastor Mike's social media where he's talking about the services, how currently we have six services Right and he's, like you know, by next year we're going to be at 10 services. The response that he got to that reel was insane. Yeah, people are excited, people are already committing to Tiny Town.
Elmer:Okay, which is the campus we're building right now, our new campus here in Clarksville, which will be open, hopefully, around September of this year. Come on, and people are already like let's go. They're just excited to hear like, hey, we're in this place where we're going to have more than just the six services.
Willie:You think about six services. That's a lot. I mean, yeah, most churches they're like man, you do six services every Sunday? Yeah, absolutely. But then they say, no, we're about to go to 10. And that's just unheard of for most churches. I mean, honestly, pastors are surprised when they hear that Pastor Mike preaches four times every week.
Elmer:They're like man, you do have four messages the same.
Willie:Yeah, absolutely so. Yeah, I'm excited. Yeah, that multiplication, that growth, that expansion. Again, the kingdoms are made to expand and Jesus said I'm going to build my church.
Elmer:And so we thank God that we get a chance to be laborers, co-laborers with them and building this church. And some people what I love is some people get comfortable with like, oh, look at our church, we do four services and we air quote, yeah, yeah, like that's a great thing, that's a lot of work. Yes, it is.
Elmer:And you. It's a lot of work. Yes, it is. Our call time for our creative team is 545. We have other people that get here at 515, 530. You have our guest experience team. They're setting up things like the signs in the parking lot and all these things are already set up by 530 in the morning, and then the last service ends typically 1.20, 1.15.
Willie:That's a long day.
Elmer:Yes, it is, and we have a lot of people that serve all four along with our pastor to support what he's doing, and we're blessed that we get to do it. We're blessed that we get to rotate our teams to accommodate for that. But it is a lot and we want to create more opportunity for people to serve. And so you know the the game plan for for what's going to happen to go to 10, it's actually going to allow us to do three services at Rossi instead of four, but with our tiny town campus we'll be able to do an additional three out there, which allows us to do 10 services total Come on.
Elmer:It's going to be fun. Yeah, man, I'm excited, it's exciting. Man, people don't like change.
Willie:No, they don't. The quote talks about change requires pain. So I think, naturally, people, we're creatures of habit, we like our comfort, we like what we're doing, and so I think, when it comes to change, we just have to be willing to continue to move forward and say, okay, you know, I'm going to embrace this, this is good for, it's good for us, it's good for what God's doing in the kingdom and I think that's part of it too is like, whenever change happens, the first question we tend to ask is what about me? Like, how is this going to affect me? You know, instead of saying you know this, you know, man, think about what this could mean.
Willie:Like for others, we always think, like, what about me? Like, how is this going to impact me? And I think that's why we're so resistant to change, because we're, we are, the ones impacted by the change as well. So we think, well, what about me? Kind of going to survival mode, you know, instead of thinking, man, this is going to be awesome for others Right being others might yeah A little bit uncomfortable.
Willie:Yeah, come on.
Tiffany:Yeah, yeah, and I mean it reminds me of the book of Acts, like the gospel never would have spread, like you know, I mean it would have, but let's you know of course it would have.
Tiffany:But getting a little bit uncomfortable and moving like growth doesn't need to be vertically, like we're not building, you know, a church right here on Rossview road. Like being able to go to tiny town and reach people that never would be able to get to Rossview. They would be able to or, you know, wouldn't come to Rossview. We're going to reach more people and you know if that means being a little bit uncomfortable for a season in order to multiply the kingdom and, and you know, people meet Jesus. Like Come on, you know people meet Jesus like Come on.
Elmer:You know, get uncomfortable, yeah, and so we're we're making all these changes and we're we're building our teams, we're developing with one of our core values develop leaders and to grow intentional. So we're we're doing that as leaders and but we're also asking our dream teamers and our coaches to to grow and to develop others around them as well, because the gifts that God's given us, they're not for us to hoard. That's right, you know, it's one of the things that we want to make sure that that we equip people and also give them a path to like. Hey, this is like sometimes you don't identify the call of God on your own life and then God will send people into your life to to help you kind of discover what that is.
Elmer:And we do that through our growth track and relationships here at the church. That's right. And so, as we're growing and we're strategically following the lead of the Lord in all these future plans, it's one thing to do it with our own ability, but it's another thing to trust in the Lord and to trust in his anointing.
Willie:Yes.
Elmer:And so that's what we want to talk about today. So I think it's a perfect segue. We weren't even planning on saying all that, but on how some people will think it's crazy. Like you're already doing what? Six services collectively with all our campuses, and you want to add more, and we hear that a lot.
Willie:Yeah.
Elmer:We do hear people in our church say like, why would you want to do that? And the thing is because there's people that don't know Jesus and so we don't want to fill up a room with people that are just attending and consuming and they're just being self-satisfied with receiving and receiving. We want to make room for people to come and know Christ.
Elmer:Our city is growing, so everything we do is to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus. And so, if you know and this is a challenge for those of you that are listening and if you belong to LifePoint, and even if you serve on a team, like we don't do what we do for our own benefit, for our own, you know, benefit in the sense of, like I want to get better at this, I want to grow, I want an opportunity. We don't do this to move ourselves forward, like this is. I'm laying it all down for the sake of somebody coming to know Jesus, and we talked about this earlier. This was a long weekend. We had Clarksville Feeds, the World.
Willie:Come on, that was amazing.
Elmer:Yes, it was insane 504,000 plus meals.
Willie:Come on and again you think a meal feeds at least eight people. So you're talking about well over I mean probably almost close to two, maybe three million people that could be blessed by our city's amazing generosity. I'm telling you, I have never seen Clarksville United so strongly around a humanitarian effort a serving effort, a serve opportunity, like I saw this past weekend. That I mean it really brought tears to my eyes just walking through the arena there and I'm like man. Look at the power of unity and generosity too, yeah.
Elmer:And shout out to all the churches and businesses, to Austin, peay and all the student groups and high schools came out with their teams. And, um, we had soldiers from Fort Campbell. And, uh, I do want to shout out, mayor Marks, yeah, she, she led the charge behind the scenes, organizing and coordinating and bringing everyone together. And, mayor, we're so proud of you. I'm telling you you did an incredible, incredible job you led with a spirit of excellence.
Willie:Come on, Come on somebody. Yes, you did. Let's go.
Elmer:Come on, I had to find it, she's amazing. We love you man. I love it. I don't think I've ever used it I love it, man.
Willie:We got to get my DJ Kalan on. You know what I'm saying? Dj Khaled, and another one, and another one.
Elmer:All right, let's go back to the end. So it is. You know it's been an exhausting weekend. Clarksville Feeds the World, four services on Sunday, and then we had our night of worship. And so we do all these things, not because we're capable of it. Thank God, we can. We have the ability to to move our arms and use our bodies and our voices, but because I believe God anoints us to do it.
Willie:Amen.
Elmer:And so you know, pastor Willie, if you don't mind, just like what is an example of maybe someone's hearing about the anointing for the first time or they don't clearly understand it. You know, because sometimes we do have. God-given gifts and abilities and we operate in these daily. We sharpen our gifts, we grow, we go to school, we get educated, we learn, we get educated, we learn. And then so how do we, when do we differentiate when our gift is under the anointing versus?
Willie:when I'm just more than capable to do something on my own? Yeah, great question. So I remember a couple of years back, pastor Mike gave a great leadership talk in talking about anointing and adrenaline, and I think that's really the best way to describe it. So, in our own natural giftedness, which is still God-given, but, like you said, we sharpen it, we cultivate it, we better it, we hone it, that really is driven by the flesh. You know what I mean. Like that's driven by the flesh. It really is. Like you know you have to. If you play the piano or you play a musical instrument, you have to sit now and practice with your instrument the scales, the rudiments, the foundationals, to get better. Yeah.
Willie:Like the Lord is not just going to sit there and touch your mind and, oh, I know how to play. You know Bach's Ninth Symphony. Like you know? No, no, you're going to have to practice.
Willie:There's some skill set there, but you got to start there and hone it. And the problem is is that over time, your effectiveness and your own ability to do those things, it fades. You know whether that is just overuse, age fatigue, you know, just growing older like that, that recedes With the anointing. The anointing is supernatural, so it supersedes your own limitations. So when we talk about adrenaline, one thing they talk about with adrenaline is this law of diminishing returns, meaning that in order to get the same amount of effort and results, it actually takes more adrenaline each time. So just for nice round numbers, let's say in order for you to do 100 units of work, you need 100 units of adrenaline. That's your effort, that's grit, that's bootstrapping it up. Well then, the next time you have to do 100 units of work now you might need 110 units of adrenaline. Then 120 units of adrenaline. Now that's diminishing return. You see, I'm using more adrenaline but I'm not getting more work done.
Willie:And that's what happens in the world. The world says, hey, man, it's on you to figure this out, it's on you to make your own way. These gifts, you have to work them. And the gift that your talent, your mind, your ability, that's the key to unlock your future. That's how you're going to get the more that you've been desiring this abundant life, this rich life that you want. The quote unquote American dream, whatever it is, hey, all of it falls on you. The problem is you only have so much adrenaline, you only have so much natural willpower, you only have so much natural skill and ability and it will take more of you to get the same result. And then pretty soon you'll be using more of you and getting less results, less effectiveness, less fruitfulness. And I like to think of the anointing as just this supernatural infusion of God's power, blessing and presence that helps you supersede your own natural limitations.
Willie:We think about the tabernacle being built Now. God used skilled laborers, but he anointed them. He says he filled them with the Spirit. Why they undertook an unprecedented building project. Nobody had ever built a tabernacle. You think about Noah. Noah hadn't even known what a boat was he's like. I want you to make an ark out of gopher wood. You can imagine Noah raising his hand. First of all, what is an ark? No, first of all, what is rain?
Tiffany:What do?
Willie:you mean it's going to rain. So he's talking about unprecedented weather condition. And then he says I want you to build the first marine conveyance, the first seafaring vessel. I want you to build that. And Noah did it because he was anointed. He was given the spirit to do that. And so when I think about creative spaces, the anointing is not ingenuity. That comes from man. God gave us a brain to creatively come up with solutions. I mean that's why we have all these incredible engineering marvels. And I'm not saying the Lord's not behind that, but he gifted man with the mind to do those things.
Elmer:So when you're just referring to Noah him building the ark. That was his skill.
Willie:Yes.
Elmer:Because he probably had built a lot of things.
Willie:Sure.
Elmer:So he had to understand how to use tools. Right so there was probably a lot of things. So there was. He had to understand how to use tools, so there was probably a lot of skill already there for God to entrust him, and so the part of the anointing was the revelation of here's the blueprint that he says according to the pattern.
Willie:I show you that's anointing. To see the pattern. To see the pattern. Okay, what is a seafaring vessel? You call it an art. Here, here's the pattern. So you take God's pattern. Come on, you take God's pattern, his anointing, and you pair that with man's skillfulness, his ingenuity, okay, that's how you have effectiveness, that's how you have fruitfulness. That is the power of the anointing. So, to your point, the anointing. What the anointing won't do is make somebody who is unskilled all of a sudden become skilled, like if you can't play music, like I can't carry a note in a bucket. I like to think I do. But God's anointing won't produce vocal what's the word? Vocal dexterity. It won't produce that. But if I am a singer, under the power of the anointing, when I worship the Lord, because he's pleased, his spirit can rest in a place, and now we have an atmosphere of freedom and deliverance, right, and people now have a life-changing connection with the Lord, not because of me. I'm just a vessel.
Willie:But his anointing that's like Pastor Mike, that's the wind of God that he got his pleased. While he is being glorified, he is being honored and he says okay, my spirit, okay, I'm going to send my spirit to rest in this place and I'm going to wreck people in the name of Jesus. But the anointing God needs vessels. He must use human vessels.
Elmer:And that's why there's sometimes you'll go into like a church service or an event or something, and you're listening to the singer, to the person leading worship, and you're like they're not the greatest singer, like you're not impressed but something's happening, absolutely the place not impressed, but something's happening, absolutely. The place is just focused and surrendered to the lord. The individual on the platform has his supernatural command of the room per se, and it's not because of their ability, right, but it's it's so much because of their ability surrendered to god, their availability right to the lord, and then god anoints it. And then, all of a sudden, there's just things that we can do in leading moments, like worship, or creating things, building things that are beyond our own Versus someone that has a professional voice, and sounds incredible, like from the Voice or America's Got Talent, and they blow everything out of the water and you can impress people, but you can't change their heart.
Elmer:Yeah, you can move, you can get a, can impress people, but you can't change their heart.
Willie:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can move, you can get a little emotional response, but you can't change their heart. I think about preachers, public speakers, right, or preaching specifically. I mean I've heard thousands upon thousands of hours of sermons. And then there are people, man, I mean they got the vocabulary that would put anybody to shame, folks at Oxford to shame, but then when they get done preaching like I didn't learn anything. And then there are folks who just man, they just speak plain Jane English and are humble and full of the spirit, and you come away saying man, it was like they were talking directly to me.
Willie:Everything they said was like they were reading my mail, and that's just the power of the anointing. It takes our ordinary and makes it extra.
Tiffany:Yeah, yeah it does. I love that and I love that it's just number one that God wants to use us Right and we get to have that, and I just love that. When we spend time with Him, when we spend time with the Lord like we're talking about worship leaders and pastors that it just naturally kind of flows Like it's not something you can force. That's right.
Tiffany:Like it's not something that you can just turn off and on, and it's not up to us, it's not our power, it's not our abilities, that's right, it's not our, you know. But all you have to do is just spend time with the Lord. All you have to do is just be in His presence and just know His voice and know where he's going. And you can be in a room full of people, but you know that, where he's leading and guiding and what he's doing. And so it's just really cool that we don't always necessarily get to know all the plan, we don't necessarily always get to know everything, but that he will always, you know, lead you to do things greater than yourself, but for his glory, and he will always lead and guide. So it's just great, and you know to your point, you're right.
Willie:I love how you said you can't force it. And let me just say this too the anointing is for believers.
Tiffany:Yeah.
Willie:The anointing is for Christians. You're anointed with and by the Holy Spirit. Yeah, Jesus, he's baptized by John the Baptist, and John the Baptist first of all you should be baptizing me. And he's like no, let me do this to fulfill our righteousness. Then the Bible says that the Holy Spirit descends bodily in the form of a dove and rests upon him. And then right after that you hear the Lord got the Father from heaven. This is my son, in whom I'm well pleased. Like that's the anointing. We are pleased, God is pleased with us Right.
Willie:And the proof of that is that he gives us his Holy Spirit. Yeah, scripture says that our spirit bears witness with his, that we belong to him. So the anointing is for Christians, it is for believers, christ. Pastor Mike taught on this Christ, christos in Greek it means the anointed one. It's the same word Messiah in Aramaic or Hebrew. And so to your point, like you can't force it, you actually just receive. You actually open yourself, you enter yourself to receive the anointing of God. It's not something that you can buy, sell. You can't coerce God, you can't arm, twist him into doing it, you can't pay for it, you can't even learn it, you just receive the anointing of God, and I think the first thing is humility.
Willie:That's why Jesus says I do this to fulfill our righteousness. He identifies himself with sinners and in his humility he receives the anointing of the.
Tiffany:Holy Spirit, and I love how you pointed out the difference between adrenaline and anointing, because anointing isn't a moment.
Willie:Come on.
Tiffany:The anointing isn't like something that happens that minute and then it's gone the next, like if you think about David. Yeah, I mean David was anointed as years before, you know, like forever before, but he had spent time with the Lord, you know, he knew God and then he was anointed, but it wasn't like a one minute thing. You know like sometimes we think, oh, that was, you know, so anointed. And you know like it's just, we have the Holy Spirit within us, that's right.
Tiffany:It's not just a moment, it's not just a fleeting thing, that, like you know, like I said, you can't force it to come back because it's not going to, you know. But I love how you mentioned that, like the difference between adrenaline and anointing.
Willie:Because I do think.
Tiffany:Sometimes we look at it as an experience or a moment.
Willie:Right, yeah, that's even, that's great too. You don't want to confuse the anointing with. You know this emotional feeling and again, of course, our emotions are engaged because God blessed us with them. But to your point, again, the anointing, the source, the root of it is the Spirit of God. And again, like you think about Noah, you think about the craftsmen who built the tabernacle. You think about, you think about even in the New Testament, when their church is expanding. And then you have these Hellenistic Jews that are coming and complaining about their needs not being met. Hey, listen, you know, we all pass out all of the supplies, the various sundries, like, don't leave us out. Well, the apostles get together and say, hey, listen, we got to preach the gospel, so we can't be waiting tables. We got to preach the gospel. Like, this message is brand new. The world, like you said, the world got to hear it. So what does it say? Get some men and women filled with the Spirit. They mentioned Stephen by name. Get some who are anointed. Yeah.
Willie:So, hey, find some folks so it wasn't to your point. Find people that you who are real, charismatic and real expressive. Find people filled with the Spirit who are anointed to do this. Why? So they could effectively minister to the people while the gospel spread.
Tiffany:Yeah in all areas of life.
Willie:Yes.
Tiffany:I mean, it's not just a worship leader that is anointed. I mean like to your point. You can be anointed to serve tables and serve people and you know, it's all areas of life. It's not just something that's just in the even, in just the creative, you know area, which I think everybody can be in, creative area, anything you're doing, but it's all areas of life.
Elmer:Yep, come on now I think, like you guys were talking about, um, there's a lot of reference to the old Testament because typically, when you study the anointing or you, you hear stories of someone being anointed. Right, it was in the context of Kings and prophets.
Elmer:And um you you mentioned David earlier and then the them being anointed was, you know, symbolic of them being set apart, consecrated, or a position of authority. And so I remember growing up, just when someone called you anointed, they're like, oh, you've been set apart for the Lord, and you almost feel like, oh, I'm extra special. They said that about me, but that's Old Testament.
Willie:Jesus came yes.
Elmer:And you know, I believe we're all called to walk in his anointing.
Willie:That's right.
Elmer:You know, if we're to be more like him, if we've accepted him, if you know we've been washed by the blood forgiven, redeemed, you know we're righteous because of his. His righteousness, that's right, you know. I I believe we're filled with His Holy Spirit. Come on. Like we are called to walk in His anointing, so meaning that you don't have to be in a particular area of service, like you were saying you don't have to be a musician or even an artist per se. That's right To walk in the anointing of God.
Elmer:Like. We're all called to live consecrated lives, to be set apart and to fulfill the purpose and the plan that God has in each of our lives. And that's going to look different for all of us, because you have builders, you have writers, you have fathers and mothers, there's different ways that we'll serve others, and we have all these opportunities to be creative in all of these spaces at work, at school, on the road, wherever we're at and so a lot of people are waiting to identify. Oh, this is the call of God on my life.
Tiffany:This is what it is, this is my task.
Elmer:But it's not about the task, it's about it's like, hey, like, do you call yourself a child of god? Come on going back to pastor mike's sermon last week it's like you know where, where he challenged us, like it was a challenging sermon yeah last week and part of it is like you know, I could love the church yeah I could love my family, I could love all these things, but if I don't love jesus first, like if he's not my first love, I'm gonna struggle, struggle with everything down that list.
Elmer:Yeah, you know and I think the same thing for all of you that you call yourself a believer, you call yourself a follower of Christ. Well, you're also called to be set apart.
Tiffany:That's right.
Elmer:And what does that mean? That means that everything that he tells us in scripture, that Jesus tells us, to flee from everything he tells us to lay down and surrender to him. That means we got to do it, yeah you're exactly right.
Willie:I love that. Yeah, lay it down and then pursue, right it's. I'm laying like, when you preach, you know the, the put off, put on, put away, like that. That's again. Jesus won't do that for you. That's why you have the anointing, so you can do that.
Elmer:You can do it.
Willie:yeah, 1 John, 2, which I love how you talk through again, like Old Testament, new Testament, the typology, it's different. Yeah.
Willie:So this is in the context of John warning his audience about Antichrist, Starting at verse 18, children, it is the last hour and, as you have heard, the Antichrist is coming. So now many Antichrists have come. Therefore we know it is the last hour. So he's talking about the spirit of the antichrist, not like the personality, but the spirit, this disposition. It's really anti-kingdom and that spirit's always been around, Like an anti-kingdom spirit has always been around.
Willie:Verse 19. They, these antichrists, these antichrist disposition, went out from us, but they were not of us, For if they had been of us they would have continued, but they went out. That it might be complained that they are not of us, right? So these imposters, these hypocrites, whatever. But verse 20, 1, John 2, verse 20, but you have been anointed by the Holy One and you have all knowledge. Then he says verse 21, I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth.
Willie:So to your point, Pastor Elmer, when we are saved, we are anointed. He says the Holy One, that's Jesus. We are anointed by Christ, how? Through his spirit. Because he says in John 15 and 16, I have to go, it's better, I can send you another helper, which means Jesus was the first helper. Another helper, the comforter, the Holy Spirit. What does he say? He'll do? Guide you in all truth. That's why John says hey, y'all know the truth. So that's another thing that the anointing does. It brings clarity and discernment and wisdom. When you receive the anointment, come on. That's how they say it in the church. I grew up with the anointment. The anointment Say hold on can.
Willie:I get the anointment at Walgreens Is that at Not where you get it from.
Elmer:That's the ointment.
Willie:Okay, that's the ointment. Well, I want the anointment. I want the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And guess what you receive? The anointing at your salvation when you say yes to Jesus so he guides you in all truth. So that's another. You know what? That's another aspect, or a description of an anointed person. They walk in wisdom, they know the truth. They're not believing lies. They're not teaching other lies, Like you said. They're not living in a way that shows that they don't know the truth. No, you're living according to the word of God. You're living according to the teachings of scripture. What Jesus said? He said if you love me, you'll obey my commandments. This is anointed people do that. Anointed people are obedient people because they know the truth.
Elmer:Yeah, there's a just to share something personal. Probably over the last seven years of my life, I've heard the voice of God every year, calling me closer to him, but in doing so, it's not like so much like spend more time in the word and praying. It's's like don't give up this and that it's. It's he's calling me into consecration and it's like so every year. The challenge has been what? What do I need to lay down? Like god reveal it to me yeah and and he will if you ask him he will right, and sometimes we're like, nah like, but he'll show you.
Elmer:and so a lot of times we feel like, oh, I need to do more in order to get closer to God or to walk in a greater anointing. But it's not doing more, it's actually being obedient. Yeah. And I've said that before it's walking in the obedient and it's actually surrendering more of yourself.
Willie:Yeah.
Elmer:And so it's not what can I do, it's what can I give up?
Willie:Yeah.
Elmer:And so I's not what can I do, it's what can I give up, and so I do personally believe that God will anoint you for different assignments. So only because you're anointed doesn't mean you can go to the next level, are a lot bigger, and your faith has to grow and your trust in the Lord has to continue to grow and you know, and, like you said earlier, the revelation there's a lot of things we won't understand. We're like God. I need your wisdom. I need your discernment.
Elmer:How do I speak to these individuals? How do I lead? How do I what? I need your wisdom. I need your discernment. How do I speak to these individuals? How do I lead? How do I? What do I say? How do I pray?
Elmer:Like there's some things, like we'll go into things and we think like, oh, I know how to pray, but then, like God tells you, you know, like you're going to say this. You know, last night, at night of worship, I was just going on the platform to introduce the Reyes family so we could pray for them, and then I was going to pass it over to Pastor Mike and he was going to pray for them, but then the Holy Spirit reminded me of Samuel and immediately he's like you need to share 1 Samuel, chapter three.
Elmer:And what is it? To hear the voice of God. I didn't think much of it. I'm like I'm just going to be obedient. At the end of the night, I got several texts from different individuals. Like man, I've been praying through the fast Lord. What do I do? What do I do? How do I hear your voice? What does that sound like? And they're like I've been waking up and they all shared their stories and at the end of the day, they're like I just need to say God, here I am, you know, and I'm like praise God. Come on you know, and it's.
Elmer:I was just obedient. Yeah, it didn't make me extra special, I was just obedient.
Tiffany:Yeah.
Elmer:And there's always a reason God anoints you because there's something you have to deliver.
Tiffany:Yes.
Elmer:There's something that you have to fulfill, there's something that you have to accomplish, and it's always going to have to do less with you and other but it has to do all about other people. Absolutely so it's such a simple two minute, hey, just if you feel like God's calling you, you know to say Lord, here I am. It didn't require much of me but the courage and the faith and the obedience to step out and just say it. And then it wasn't even for me it was for somebody else.
Willie:That's right.
Elmer:And I could have been like that's dumb, like I ain't going to say that it has nothing to do. I'm gonna go up there and do what I have to do, right, you know. But it's, it's not what. What can I do more of it's? What can I lay down more? Amen, come on man.
Willie:I love that. Man, that's good. You got me fired up the anointing. I love that. For each assignment those of you that are listening as you're praying you're spending more time with the Lord. He will anoint you for specific assignments. That's why you get any opportunity, any open door. Pray, man, god, I need your Holy Spirit. I love that. Pastor Mike, every time he gets up on a platform he says I step out of me, I step into your anointing. I must decrease, you must increase. Every week. He preaches that's an assignment and he can't do that, apart from the anointing. He just can't. He can't do it. He can give a speech, he can give a talk, but preaching a sermon is different. That's different. Now you're doing it under the authority and inspiration of the Spirit, and only the Spirit can reach the heart. Only the Spirit can translate what's being said here and make somebody's eyes open up and say, man, I gotta move on this, come on. That's awesome. I love it. The that's awesome.
Elmer:I love it, the anointing, and I don't want to continue this year without asking God. Hey, anoint, everything I step into and start with your home.
Tiffany:Yeah.
Elmer:In your own life and, you know, in your relationship with your spouse, with your children, decisions you make at home, decisions you make at work, at school. Like God, anoint me to make the decisions that you've called me into Come on yeah. And there's things that he'll show you, like what do I need to build? What do I need to do? Who do I need to talk to? Who should I be pouring into? Who should pour into me?
Willie:And I believe God will give you clarity on all that Just ask Come on, you know, one thing I've learned personally, especially this year during the fast, is that the anointing you're right, it's not for you but it really does bless others. Like I think about the prayer of Jabez. You know he says bless me, indeed, enlarge my territory. Like that's not for him. You know, like if you have a house that's a certain size and the house gets, you know, and you double the size of your house, like that doesn't really benefit you, like personally, because you were just finding the house that you had, like it's for others. So like you know, enlargement of territory, the enlargement of the territory is not for you. So like the anointing, it can't, you can't be the end user in mind from God for the anointing, others have to be in mind for that abuser in mind from God for the anointing.
Willie:Others have to be in mind. For that and for the fast. I remember I was praying and I, just I told the Lord in November. I said, lord, I want you to give me what to pray for. You know, typically I'm, you know, I'm always praying for our church, for our family. But I'm like God, I want like what's on your heart, like what are some things that you want? Me you know to to pray through. Yeah.
Willie:And the first word he said was discernment. He said I want you to pray for sharpened discernment. I'm like okay, lord. And I was like for me or for he's like you just pray for discernment. I'm like okay. So I started reading scripture, doing research on what discernment is, and the first place that the Lord wanted me to use my discernment to pass around was point was for my own family. Yeah.
Willie:So I went to my wife and my daughter and my son and I asked each of them how would you like me to pray with you during this 21 days of prayer and fasting? And they each shared with me and I said okay. And I said I told him, I said I commit, I'm going to pray with you individually every single night before we go to bed for these 21 days and only by God's grace I was able to do that and to see the change that's happened in our household, just because of discernment. Okay, this is what the Lord said. But then being anointed to pray, like just being okay, we're going to pray through this. Here are scriptures on that.
Willie:And I was talking with my daughter, destiny, and I know she wouldn't mind me sharing this, but I asked her. I said hey, how have you seen the Lord move during our two to one days of prayer? She wanted me to pray against fear, and a lot of teenagers they deal with that, with this fear, because, man, they're just weighed down by so much more than what we were at their age. And she said, dad, the nightmare stopped. And I said what she was like? Yeah, she said I used to hate having to go to sleep. She was like I don't want to go to sleep because of the nightmares and I've talked with other kids, other students, about that, just dealing with night terrors, and I didn't even know that that was an issue.
Willie:But I just got teary-eyed like man. Well, praise God. But I just thanked God for him speaking and leading and guiding me Because I thought I knew what I needed to pray about for my family. Like I had it out, you know what I mean. And the Lord was like no, you're going to ask them what they want. And now my daughter she was like I'm not scared to go to bed anymore Because she would stay up super late. I thought, well, teens, stay up late. She's like no, she's not wanting to go to bed because of fear. But the anointing is what broke that?
Willie:The anointing is just because, again in discerning, okay, this is the Lord's will, and then praying over that, god broke that through anointed prayer, because I'm just praying by the Spirit and I just thank God for that.
Tiffany:Yeah, I think our homes is just one of those places that that should come first. But sometimes it's easy to just kind of set aside of, like, you know, it's a place of rest, it's a place where we just kind of do the routine, it's a place where we just kind of, you know, right.
Tiffany:But I think you know you think about the dinner table, like having conversations with your kids and you know your family and I think it's just it sets the tone. Yeah, you know, I love that. You saw that with Destiny and that you know, like had you not asked.
Willie:Right.
Tiffany:You know, and that sounds like a simple question, Absolutely, why aren't we asking more simple questions? And you know, just really leaning into our family? Because that does, and they're only little, for so long Gosh you know Jesus, you know I've been thinking a lot through.
Willie:I'm really glad we're talking about this. I'm going to tell you like I've been slow reading through Isaiah and I just got to chapter 6. And you know Isaiah, he's a prophet and what's interesting is for the first five chapters he gives prophecies. Like you can see him speaking for the Lord, like the Lord says he's going to do this. It's five prophecies Three are of judgment, two are of redemption. Like that's kind of how the book is. It kind of waffles back and forth.
Willie:But then in chapter six it's completely different. Like it's, you know, a king dies who was like a mostly righteous king. Then Isaiah has a vision. The Bible says he has a vision of the Lord. King Uzziah dies. He's a mostly righteous king, but Isaiah says that he saw the Lord. He saw him on his throne and he says the train of his rope filled the temple. The cherubim fly back and forth crying out holy, holy, holy. It says that the foundation is like they're shaken. And Isaiah's response? He says woe unto me. I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among people of unclean lips. He says I'm lost. And he says this as a prophet who's already been commissioned by God, he's already prophesied to the people, and so you would have thought that that would have happened at the beginning of his commissioning. And that's what I'm saying. I'm not saying he wasn't anointed, he was commissioned, he was sent.
Willie:But in chapter six an angel comes and he has a flaming ember taken from the fire, some altar, and he presses it against his lips and he's like he says now you have been cleansed. And I thought, well, I thought he was cleansed because he's prophesying Like you can't have a sinful man prophesying for you. Then the Lord responds who will go for us? And I just think that that's the anointing. I think the anointing listen, if anybody wants to grow in the anointing, just looking at the example of Isaiah, I think first you have to start with conviction, and I've been writing notes down just from looking at that scripture I think conviction is a mix of two things.
Willie:I think it is. I think it's desperation and humility. You can't be full of yourself. Isaiah says woe unto me. He sees the Lord, and so conviction is like you have to see God for who he is. And then humility you see you for who you are.
Willie:He says I'm a man of unclean lips. I've just given all these prophecies. I've been a mouthpiece of God. I'm unclean. I am a man of unclean lips. And he says I'm lost, meaning like, okay, lord, you're the one leading the God in this.
Willie:And then the Lord cleanses him. So I think it's conviction, I think it's cleansing right. That cleansing right, that's sanctification, that's purification, that's putting off, putting away. That's Lord. You got to do a work in me. You got to turn over the soil of my heart, put in the right desires. Man, he is a consuming fire. God, burn away things in me.
Willie:Psalm 139,. Lord, check my heart. If there's anything in me that displeases you, you got to remove it. This is what I've been praying for the last few days Lord, if there's anything in my heart, reveal it and remove it. It ain't enough. Don't just reveal it, god, don't just show me. You have to take it out. You got to do it. And then David says restore me back on the path to righteousness, restore me back on the path to eternal life. So I, then it's the commission, then it's the commission, then the Lord says who will go for us? And Isaiah says send me, I'll go. He says send me, I'll go here. Am I send me.
Willie:I wonder if, and again, scripture doesn't say this. I don't want to go outside the bounds of Scripture, but when Isaiah is given all those prophecies, was he commissioned? I don't know, because Isaiah 6 shows it right there. That's where he's commissioned and he says now go give this message to the people Seeing. Having eyes they won't see. Having ears they won't hear. Having a heart they won't understand. Okay, well, it's like. Well, why was Isaiah given those first five prophecies? Well, we may never know until we go see Jesus.
Elmer:Well, I think, just in context, we can have a lot of questions just by reading Scripture, and there's things we won't know until we get to heaven. But I think there are seasons that you'll step into things and you'll be like I don't deserve this, I ain't good enough. And so, man Lord, I don't deserve this, like I ain't good enough, you know. And so, man Lord, like I'm sinful. I think there's many times I've walked into moments in my life and I'm like I don't deserve to be in this room, I don't deserve to be at this table. And you're, like God, like I mess up, like I'm not perfect, and you start questioning your identity. And I think one thing obviously this was before Christ. There's a lot of prophecies from Isaiah that just connect to the Messiah, to Jesus.
Elmer:Christ, and so I'm just connecting the dots in my mind on how he was identifying himself as himself and the angel had to come and cleanse him.
Willie:That's exactly right, and it started in his mouth because it's what he was saying of himself.
Elmer:And it's like a lot of times God will anoint us, he'll call us into something, our assignment, but we talk ourselves out of things or we hear voices that are speaking into it. So the angel touched his lips.
Tiffany:He didn't touch his mind.
Elmer:He didn't touch his heart, he touched his lips because, it's through what he was saying of himself.
Willie:Yeah.
Elmer:And God, you know, the angel says you're forgiven. Yeah, you know, you're clean.
Willie:You're clean yeah.
Elmer:And so I think that's when I read. When I've read that scripture, that's one of the things that I've. I've seen myself that sometimes you step into moments that are way bigger than yourself.
Willie:Yes.
Elmer:You're like God, why Like? Why me? Why would I do this? Yeah, yeah, you know. And then you just start talking yourself out of it.
Willie:Right.
Elmer:And you're like well, I'm not good enough, yeah, and like God's like no like you are.
Willie:I'm going to cleanse you.
Elmer:I'm going to cleanse, you Come on and, and.
Elmer:So that's one way I think of when you think of consecration, it's like what are you saying about yourself, and so it's easy to promote and to really praise other people and to be honoring of others and a lot of times I know for me I struggle with acknowledging sometimes the things that God's called me to and my own gifts and abilities. You know I write. I probably have more songs than anything and probably people have only heard like a fifth of the songs yeah and that's because I probably don't think they're good enough. And so I think, in that creative space that we're talking about earlier, um, god, will you know, just thinking, isaiah, he's in front of people as a prophet like like he has the gift of communication.
Elmer:Yeah, and he has god gives him the discern. He has the gift of communication and he has. God gives him the discernment and the wisdom to say and the courage and the boldness to speak. But there is a gift there already on communicating to people and having command from a platform wherever he goes. And so, um, I think he had the gift, but all of a sudden he felt like I can't communicate, and all of a sudden what he was facing is like I can't do this.
Willie:Yeah, can't do this yeah.
Elmer:You know, and um, and I think a lot of times fear will just come in and make us think that we're not worthy that you know, and so and again, this is old Testament, but now, with Jesus, with the Holy spirit, like we're man, we're equipped completely different to Isaiah.
Tiffany:Yeah, yeah, come on, and I think comparison, I think any time. You know, if you look at others or you look at the Lord, like we're never going to be perfect, we're never going to be Jesus. We are always willing and obedient and you know, like you said God, search me and show me you know, but like we're not going to reach perfection, yeah, yeah.
Tiffany:So, like you said, feeling unworthy of this it's not about us, it's not about our, it's about Him and it's about being obedient to God and walking in that and not talking yourself out of it. Because, oh, I have not reached perfection yet, but are you willing to take the next step? Are you willing to do the next thing for the Lord, because you're never going to reach, you're never going to grow if you don't do that. We're not going to reach perfection and then take a step I like that. We're striving towards.
Willie:Yeah.
Tiffany:We're not, I like that. It's not like a finger snap and there it is.
Willie:It's like brushing your teeth before you go to the dentist, trying to, like you know, like you're going to fool him, like he's going to be like oh you floss like a champ Drinking mouthwash, not even rinsing, not even rinsing, you're drinking it. Now you're there, you get pulled over for DUI because you're three times over the legal limit.
Speaker 3:Right Officer asks where you're going, sarah's going to the dentist To the dentist.
Willie:Really, really. Oh, I heard that before.
Elmer:Why is your breath so minty? It's called scope, oh man.
Tiffany:That was a little off track.
Elmer:That was a little yeah. No, that's great. I love that.
Willie:That's an awesome perspective on the anointment. I'm going to start saying anointment. The anointment, that's just the church I grew up in. That's what we said. The anointment.
Elmer:There's a song Pastor Mike asked me to. Actually, Pastor Stephanie asked me to sing this at our last staff chapel. Okay, I remember the song growing up and I know it in Spanish and in English. I just didn't remember the song growing up and I know it in Spanish and in English. I just didn't remember the chords, Like I was struggling and it's like this song is super simple and if you know this name, ron Canole, let's go. You guys, you know.
Willie:Ron Canole, oh Tiff. You know who Ron Canole is? Come on, he's a gospel legend. Look at that here. Ron Canole, oh Tiff. You know Ron Canole, come on, he gospel legend.
Elmer:Look at that here, Ron Canole, and the song is called Anointing Follow Me Look at that Mm.
Speaker 3:Follow me Anointing. Follow me Anointing. Fall on me. Let the power of the Holy Ghost fall on me, Anointing.
Elmer:Fall on me, Anointing Fall on me, lord, let your love. And I don't play anymore, just in case I don't want to get booted from the podcast. But, man, it's one of those songs. It's just a simple prayer, like anointing, fall on me and I just pray. You know that, as you've heard, this podcast today just joined us that you pray to the Lord like anoint me in everything that I do. Come on, I want to make a difference, willie. Yes, I don't just want to live this life just for me. Yeah, you know, I want my kids to see that every moment I spent away from them it's for other people.
Willie:Amen.
Elmer:That as I raised them and leading with my wife, they realized that we're called to something way bigger than our own satisfaction. Amen, and so, man, but I can't do it on my own strength Come on you got to have the anointing. I'd have the anointment.
Willie:You got to have the anointment of the Holy Ghost, the anointment of the Holy Ghost, the anointment of the Holy Ghost. The anointment Come on somebody.
Elmer:The anointment. You almost sound like Mike Tyson.
Willie:What? I don't sound like Mike Tyson. You sound like him. I sound like old preacher from Yamacraw, Mississippi. You got to have the anointment of the Holy Ghost. Come on, somebody.
Elmer:Tiffany hasn't looked at us. She's been like looking.
Willie:She's looking at your various photographs in the studio.
Tiffany:I just got nothing.
Elmer:No deal.
Willie:Any last words. You sound like a villain.
Tiffany:I sound like a villain.
Willie:No, he made it sound like the movie. Any last words?
Tiffany:Yeah, Like he's going to give, like he's just going to give the whole plan, though, and then we're going to be able to get out of it. Oh, what's that? I don't hear nothing, any last words.
Elmer:What Goodbye? No, do that again. No, that was cool. These are like sound effects right here. Let's see that was.
Tiffany:This is a robot.
Willie:What I like the robot. I like the robot.
Tiffany:Is there any glittery ones? Sparkly like, add glitter to your voice. Maybe this? No, not it.
Willie:Like a superhero.
Tiffany:No, no, you don Like a superhero. No.
Willie:Can you put that on our mics too?
Tiffany:No, I don't want it.
Willie:Wait a minute.
Tiffany:That's kind of glittery. I like it. No, that sounds icky.
Willie:Can you put that on our?
Elmer:mics too. I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just pushing buttons.
Tiffany:I don't want it, I just want to be me.
Elmer:I'm just trying to get to this.
Tiffany:I'm a princess all on my own. We're trying to end the show and.
Elmer:I'm just pushing buttons. That was cool. Come on, Give me the deep voice one. The deep voice one I don't. We're never out of here. Thank you for joining us for today's podcast on the anointing of God.
Speaker 3:Oh man, hey if you hung out this long, it's because you love us.
Elmer:You know you love us. Hey, thank you so much for hanging out with us on the podcast. I'm talking about the anointing. Again, we're praying for you, praying that you have an incredible year and all that you do, that you walk in God's anointing Amen. And also, if you have any questions, we're here to answer. We're here to help you out as much as we can. You can email us at the church. You can find out more about our ministry here at LifePointChurch at LifePointChurchtv. You can follow our social media at LifePointChurch on Instagram Not TikTok, not TikTok, no no, not TikTok, we don't have.
Elmer:TikTok no. And you can follow our creative social media at LifePoint Creative. We love you, fam, and until next week Peace out. Bye, creative, we love you, fam, and until next week, peace out.
