The Anointing

You can be doing everything “right” and still get hit with a cave season. That tension sits at the center of Psalm 92:10, where the promise is not just oil, but fresh oil and the kind of spiritual renewal that doesn’t disappear when your circumstances change. We lean into a timeless question: what keeps you steady when the applause stops, the pressure rises, and you don’t feel as strong as you used to?

We walk through David’s story from the horn of oil in 1 Samuel 16 to the long stretch where nothing looks like the promise yet. He gets anointed and then goes back to shepherding, learning, writing, growing, and discovering that anointing doesn’t replace process, it empowers it. Along the way, we talk about why talent can entertain but anointing breaks chains, including the difference between music you enjoy and worship that shifts an atmosphere. From Saul’s favor to Saul’s jealousy, we trace what it feels like when leadership gets attacked and you start wondering, “What happened to my anointing?”

Then the message turns practical and personal: caves, criticism, isolation, Ziklag moments where everything feels burned down, and the decision to encourage yourself in the Lord. The phrase “pursue and recover all” becomes a lifeline for ministry resilience and everyday faith, reinforced with real-world pressure stories that prove the anointing is for audits, bills, and Monday mornings too. If you’re running on gas but missing oil, this one will hit home. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs fresh strength, and leave a review, what’s one area where you’re asking God for fresh oil today?

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Transcript

Psalm 92 And A Fresh Oil Promise

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Amen. Psalms ninety two. Psalms ninety two. Hallelujah. All through the years, uh, I met Pastor Stephen and at her talking, and he's he's uh your dad pastored in Palestine, right? All them years, and we know a lot of the same people, but never have met. My motto is you better live good everywhere you go, because you don't know when you might meet somebody, know somebody knows you. So you need to be good everywhere you go. Amen. Hallelujah. We know a lot of the same people, praise God. Uh, I think uh I I heard through some somebody, it's today your one-year anniversary, Pastor.

unknown 0:54

Oh, tomorrow, yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Tomorrow, one year anniversary. Give Pastor and his wife a big hand clap of appreciation. Hallelujah. It won't be near as sweet after 30 years. Enjoy the honeymoon. Hallelujah. Glory to God. No, it's a wonderful life. Praise God. That's not just a Christmas story. Amen. All right, Psalms 92, verse 10. Read just one verse of scripture. The psalmist said, My horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn, and I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Lord, we thank you today for your holy presence that has graced this house. We thank you today for the divine appointment of God. Lord, your word said that your word shall not return void, but it shall accomplish what it's sent to do and prosper therein. And today we decree the accomplishment and the prosperity of your word in your name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. My youngest girl started school, and in those days they said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. And uh teacher called my wife one day, she said, You gotta tell your daughter, we don't say amen, you may be seated after the pledge. True story. Hallelujah. Raise them up, they don't know what to do with it. Amen. Hallelujah to God. Amen. You may be seated.

The Anointing Stays When Life Shifts

SPEAKER_00 2:48

The psalmist said, I shall be anointed with fresh oil. I want to speak to you today about the anointing of God in your life. Is the same when it ain't going so good. That's not proper English for all you English teachers, but when it ain't going so good, the same anointing is in your life as it is when it's going good. So just stay with me for a little bit. The psalmist David was a teenager attending to his father's sheet. The prophet of God showed up at their house with a message from God to anoint the next king of Israel. And he had seven brothers. They stood before the man of God and he looked at them, and God said, None of them is it. And Samuel said to Jesse, You got any more kids? He said, I got one more that's tending to the sheep. And Samuel said, Go fetch him. He must have been from Texas. If it's north of the Red River, it's Yankee country. Hallelujah. Send and fetch him, he said. So they got David, and when Samuel saw him, he didn't come with a little bottle of olive oil like we use in our churches today. But he came with a horn of oil. And when David stood there as a teenager, and the man of God took that horn of oil and poured it on his head, and that oil ran down upon his body, something transformed in his life that day. The scripture said, 1 Samuel 16 and 13, I think it is, said, and the spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day forward. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day forward. From that moment, his life was touched by the anointing of God. Devil can't steal it. Devil can't take it away. You're going through a battle and you think it's because you're so good. Devil don't care nothing about you. What he cares about is the anointing that's in your life, and he wants to take that from you. Hallelujah. David went right back out there. Now, just because you get anointed don't mean you go win the world for Jesus the next day. He got anointed and he went right back to tending to the sheep. But life was different than it was yesterday. That day forward, something happened to David. He began to think different. Let this mind be in you that's also in Christ. Being not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind. He began to think different. And God began to pour things into his heart. And as he was set on the hillside overlooking uh his sheep, as he was sitting there and guarded them and watch them, the Holy Ghost will begin to pour into his spirit. And he would begin to write songs. I love this right here. I used to preach this message a whole whole lot, and it's been a long time since I preached this, but this week God really rebirthed this in my spirit. David, as he he began to write songs, as he wrote them songs. I can tell you today, David was not a Nashville one-hit wonder. David, we sang his songs this very morning. Hallelujah. That's 27,800 years old, and they're still being sang around the world today, almost 3,000 years after they were written. You know why? Because anointing makes a difference. Anointing destroys yokes, talent will entertain people all day. But when anointing steps in, yokes are broken, yokes are destroyed, powers of darkness are brought down, imaginations are brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

David’s Horn Of Oil Moment

SPEAKER_00 7:38

He would write them songs. Then he learned to play a harp. He never had a musical lesson, probably. Can I tell you all across this nation, there are musicians that ain't never had one music lesson in their life, but walked as a little child and stood in front of a man of God and said, I want to learn to play the guitar. I want to learn to play the piano. I want to learn to play the drums. And the man of God would take some anointing oil and put it on them and declare that God would give them ears for music and hear it not by might, not by power. Hallelujah to God. Half of Nashville's musicians come out of churches. Hallelujah. And David started playing that harp. He got real good at it because he was anointed. One time I was in Cracker Barrel. I've been in Cracker Barrel a lot of times, but this particular time, I start out the door and there's a stand there and it's got all these CDs on it. And so one got my attention. It was a country singer that made a gospel album. And so I bought it because I like his music. And so I bought this gospel album, but then I rolled it around, and there was a gospel singing group called the Happy Goodmans, and there was a CD of them. So I bought both of them. And I got in the car and I played the country guy first. And I liked his music, and I'm going down the highway. Nobody there but me. And I'm beating on the steering wheel, and I'm I'm liking the music and it's it's good. It's uh entertaining me. Somebody hear me right now. It's entertaining me, and I'm feeling good because I like the music. And when he got through, then I put in Vestal. When she opened her mouth, something came in that room. It was more in a guitar, more than a piano, more. Oh, glory to God. It was that holy anointing that come. Oh God, when that anointing comes, you know what that anointed music will do? It will drive back the forces of the enemy. When that anointing music plays, hallelujah. That's why the scripture said sang spiritual songs. When that anointing plays, when that anointed music plays, you can take the roughest, toughest person that can't even carry a tune. But when they get anointed and begin to sing how great thou art, something supernatural will invade the house of God because it's the anointing that makes the difference. David got real good playing that harp. One day a bear came to take one of his sheep, and he just something got a hold of him. He just jumped up like Samson and ripped his jaws apart. Then a lion came and took one of the lambs, and the same thing happened. He didn't even have his slingshot with him that day. He just jumped on the lion and killed him. And then the king or the president, he started having problems. An evil spirit started troubling him. And he said, I need I need somebody to play me some music. And a guy said, There's a little boy down in Bethlehem, the son of Jesse, he's really good. He said, Go get him. And they brought David and he sat before Saul, the president of the country, and he played his harp, and the evil spirits would lift up off of Saul. And he found favor in Saul's eyes. And he became his armor bearer. And Saul liked him so much he gave his daughter to him to be married. So now he used to be a boy tending sheep and now he's playing his anointed harp. And now he's married to the president's daughter. He couldn't make that happen in himself in a million years. But God said he'll make room for your gift when he puts a gift in your life. Oh, hallelujah! Can't nobody take it from you? Amen. God will open up doors for you that only God can open up doors for. And David plays his harp and he goes out in warfare and he wins uh battles and he brings in victories. And then he went, and you know the story about killing Goliath, and he stood before Goliath, and there were three of his older brothers in the army of Saul, and they is all cowards. And here little David is. You know what made the difference? He'd been anointed. He found a touch from God. It's not your might, not your power, not your intelligence, not your degrees hanging on a wall, not your CDs in the bank that makes you who you are. No man is sufficient of himself, but our sufficiency comes from God, and it's not our might, and it's not our power, but it's by his spirit that God has touched us, and it is he that has made us and not we ourselves, and we are the sheep of his pastor. Hallelujah. And David is now sitting in the palace playing his harp, going to battle. Things are great. He's writing songs, he's writing sermons. My God, he he's he's wrote sermons that preachers have preached for thousands of years. Sometimes preachers think they got a monopoly because they got a thought. Hallelujah. I had one preacher friend of mine got mad because I preached a sermon he preached 25 years ago. I said, if you want to get mad about that, Paul is he already getting real mad because everything you preach, Paul preached before you. His anointing has carried him. The Bible said from the sheepfold to the palace. His anointing has blessed his life and elevated him. His anointing, he has killed bears, he has killed lions, and he killed giants, the Philistine giant, and brought down that army, and he done so many mighty things. And this is what I come to tell you this morning. That same anointing that had you preaching real good and had you singing real good and had you writing sermons and had you just up in the air over your Sunday school class when it all goes kaput. It's that same anointing that's in there that will keep you going. It's that same anointing. The anointing hadn't left. When your world turns upside down, it's not the anointing that's left. It's not God's presence that is left. It's just circumstances have changed. David was doing marvelous and wonderful with this anointing.

Talent Entertains Anointing Breaks Chains

SPEAKER_00 15:13

But overnight, amen, the people began to say, Saul killed thousands, but David's killed ten thousands. And Saul started getting jealous over David. And then, oh, he said, he got so frustrated. They're having Thanksgiving dinner. And Saul reached over and picked up his javelin and threw it right at David. I can hear Jonathan, his brother-in-law, saying, run, forest run. Run, David, run. Daddy's gone off the deep end. Daddy's in a mess. You gotta run for your life. So now David's on the run and Saul's chasing him. David's running for his life, and Saul's chasing him. He's after him. He wants him dead. He wants to destroy his life. Now, now, David in the 22nd chapter of 1 Samuel, the Bible said, David came to the cave of Adulum. And now he's in a cave. And I've been in that cave before. I know what it's like to preach great sermons and everybody pat your back and shake your hand and tell you how much they love you. And I also know how it is to feel when somebody says, I don't like your preaching. I preached in a huge camp meeting up in Pennsylvania, and the next night an old man met me out there. It was a brush armor meeting, and he met me out there and he said, As a worst sermon ever heard in my life, you preached last night. I hope it's better. I said, Well, hang around. Maybe I'll preach something you will like. Because the real truth is, I don't preach to please people anyway, so it don't really matter. David's in a cave. He's a young man. And when you look back and you think, man, the blessing of God was on my life. Look where he took me. Look what I've been doing. I'm the king's son-in-law. That's pretty good, eh? Went from being the youngest of seven youngins. It don't give you much of a future. Now I'm the president's son-in-law. But then he's hated. He throwed a javelin at him. He wanted to kill him. Saul ain't playing. If you live for God long enough, you'll find out. Some people don't like that anointing in your life. If you live for God long enough, you'll find out. Everybody ain't happy you're saved. If you can't stand for people to lie on you, you need to get out of the church right now because everybody ain't gonna agree with you. David's in a cave. Here's what he's wondering. I'm not ignorant to Satan's devices. How did I get here? What went wrong? I thought I was anointed. What happened to my anointing? I've killed a bear, I've killed a lion, I killed a giant that everybody else was afraid of. I wrote songs and I played my harp for Saul. What happened? What turned on me? What how did I get in this situation? Oh, how did I even come to this place? He's wondering, he's wondering.

From Palace Favor To Cave Pressure

SPEAKER_00 18:44

And the Bible said uh 400 men came and joined him in that cave. Now you think uh you know that'd be a pretty good deal if I had a church with 400 members, but when I read the rest of the story, I don't think it's a good deal. I think I pastored that church. 400 members who was distressed, in debt, and discontented. Not one happy marriage among them, not anybody had any money, no offerings, everybody was unhappy, everybody was disgusted. 400 members like that. That was a powerful church, wasn't it? Yeah, when the man of God showed up and said, David, you need to get out of this self-pity, you need to get out of this place, and you need to go to the land of Judah, and that's the place of praise. Get yourself by the seat of the britches and drag yourself out of that self-pity and say, I'm gonna make you know why? Because I've been anointed by God, and I'm the salt of the earth, I'm the light of the world, ain't nothing hell can do about it, ain't nothing any demons can do about it. I am made and created in his likeness, in his image, and furthermore, I'm gonna notify hell today. I'm the devil's nightmare. When my feet hit the floor in the morning, the devil takes nerve pills, he's up now. What's gonna happen? You are somebody because you've been anointed, you've been chosen, you've been appointed for this hour and this generation. Hallelujah! Whoa, glory to God. That same anointing. I've been there though, I know what it feels like. Church I pastored, we is pretty good, folks. I got seven members that went to the Texas Department of Corrections. Some of them died there, some of them still there. Sit on my pew for years, every week. Good old boys, spend the rest of their life in prison. Our church now, our church in the newspaper of Tyler. Those people attended our church. We got free advertisement. Hallelujah. Put us on the map. What do you got in your church? Child molesters and D UI people, and one guy killed a guy just because he didn't like it, and he's in prison now. Other than that, we was just good old boys. We got where we couldn't pay the note on the church. Oil crisis in the 80s. I done lived through four major oil crises. I don't get upset by it when oil goes sky high. I remember growing up and hearing preaching if syrup goes to a dollar a sop, God'll make a way. I remember hearing them old preachers preach 40, 50 years ago. If gas goes to a dollar a Gallon, God will make a whale. I done paid five for it. Hallelujah. One day we was in the midst of all this mess going on in our church. Couldn't pay the bills. People in trial for their lives. Man, we was in a mess. I said, God, what am I gonna do? So all of us, you know, a bunch of us come up through the charismatic movement. And the charismatic movement's always about give me a word. So I need a word. So I called one of my friends because he's a prophet of God. And I said, I need a word. How are you today? You know what he said to me? Ain't doing too good sitting here thinking about killing myself. I said, I ain't gonna talk to you. I'll talk to you later. Bye. Hung up on him. Hallelujah. Wouldn't the devil like to get three or four guys that are depressed all jumped up together? We could turn the world upside down. So I called our old pastor. My wife's pastor grew up in. We went attended church there until I started pastoring. I called him. He's you know in his 60s and been pastoring for 40 years. And I said, Surely he can give me some good encouragement word. And so I dialed his number when he answered the phone. I said, How's it going, Brother Burns? Trying to be real cheerful. How's it going? He said, Oh, Brother Leon, my church is in the worst shape it's ever been all my years of pastor. I said, Brother Burns, I'll call you back later. I ain't got time to talk to you today. And I hung up on him. You know what I did next? I got myself by the fruit of the looms. You're going with me whether you want to or not. The only word I'm you know what the psalmist said? When mom and daddy forsake me, I will run to the rock that is higher than I am. You know what? I don't feel like I'm anointed. I don't feel like I want to keep preaching. I don't feel like I want to go to church Sunday. Matter of fact, it ain't but Monday, and I'm already deciding I ain't going Sunday. But oh, I say, God, if you'll let me get to that altar, if I can get myself over to that church, get down on my knees. Hear me, Brother Stephen. It don't matter if all hell's falling loose around you. If I can get to this altar and get on my knees, you know what I'm gonna say, God. I don't need a prophetic seminar, I don't need a how to grow a church seminar. What I need is a fresh anointing. What I need is that fresh oil to be poured on my head. I know what it felt like. I done killed a bear, I done killed a lion, I done killed a giant, hallelujah, I done played my heart and I done wrote sermons, and they'll be preaching them in the future. Right now I don't feel like none of it at all. But if I get to that hope and tell God, I need some fresh oil, I need some armor to bathe my soul. Ain't nothing else gonna help. Ain't no good luck. How you doing? Only thing gonna help me, the name of the Lord is a strong and a mighty tower, and the righteous uh run into it, and there they are saved, hallelujah. He ain't something I just do on Sunday. Don't always feel anointed. I preached many sermons and took the back door out of the church on Sunday morning because I didn't want to shake nobody's hand. Go get my car and go to the house. Have a pity party. Yeah, bombed out today. Don't want to talk to nobody. I'm gonna tell you how that works. You know, by the time you get rolling, get yourself picked back up. Here's here's something else will happen. David. Give me a swig of that water down there, man. Yours or mine, it don't matter. I drink after you, I'll kiss you and drink after you. Hallelujah.

Leaving Self-Pity For Judah Praise

SPEAKER_00 26:42

David got back on his feet. He was doing pretty good. He got him 400 men, got him 600 men. God was blessing all these guys. They was winning battles, taking spoil, paying their debts, getting back on top. They even got their own compound. It was called Ziklag. David, 600 men, and their wives and their families had their own compound. They'd go out to battle, come back in, everybody was happy. One day they went out to battle and it was gone three days, and when they came back, everybody was gone. Wives and kids, and the city was burnt down. His compound was gone, their wives was gone. The devil done thrown him a curveball, spitball. He he done he done messed up their life. And these 600 men don't forget these words. Last Sunday, they was his best friend. Man, that's an awesome sermon, Pastor. God bless you, man. I never heard nobody preach like that before. But today they looked at him. 600 men. That's 1200 eyeballs. Looking right at him. You read the Bible and it said, Today, they wanted to stone him. Today they wanted, he don't feel like preaching now. No, 600 men ready to stone you. You know, last week we took victory, paid off all our credit cards, and you was a great guy. But today, our wives are gone, our kids are gone, and it's all your fault. You know what David done? The Bible said he was greatly distressed. You don't think this is true? How many preachers have you heard commit suicide in the past couple of years? Young youth pastors at churches got big churches and big congregations committing suicide. Tell me the devil ain't real, but that same anointing that you let them in worship and had them on their feet with their hands raised, brother Stephen is the same anointing when they're looking to stone you. Hallelujah, that God will cause to rise up in you. And David said he looked around, and nobody else to encourage him, and nobody else to say you're doing great, and nobody else to say, because the devil wants to alienate you, cut you off from the crowd, and oh hallelujah to God, get you by yourself where he can take you down. But I declare it unto you today greater is he that lives in us than he that lives in the world. I feel like Py this morning. Arms ain't big as pencils, but I just eat some spinach. Hallelujah to God. David said, God, what am I gonna do? And you know what God said?

Ziklag Burned And Courage Returns

SPEAKER_00 30:17

It's in you, son. I picked you out of the field and I poured my anointing in you, and I called you and I ordained you and I made you what you are. Go and pursue your enemy, and you will recover all. You'll get it all back. No weapon formed against you shall ever be able to prosper. Don't care what my circumstances and my situations are, the Lord is my refuge, my strength, my strong and mighty tower. Hallelujah. This ain't something I do screaming and hollering. I live it my life. Hallelujah. Went to the mailbox one day about 30 years ago. There was a big letter from the IRS. The Infernal Revenue Service. Hope nobody here works for them. Open that letter. I thought it was my tax return check. Not you owe us twenty-eight thousand dollars. They audited me because our church was struggling, and I'd give half fifty percent of my income back to the church. Make the church keep going. So the IRS audited me and said, You can't do that. Don't tell me I can't do it, I already did it. It was a big ordeal. Fought them for two years, three years. They audited me for three years. The first auditor was the devil's sister. She wouldn't even take my receipts from the church as evidence. Wouldn't even take it. Didn't allow it. So I just stood up like Paul the Apostle and I said, Ain't no need of getting fearful about it because I done heard all these stories. Take your car, take your house, take your children, take your wife. They'll take everything. Hallelujah. All I could think about, there goes my car, there goes my house. But I told that auditor that day, I said, I appeal to another auditor. You have a right to do that. And so my next auditor, when I went a year later, this is government officials. He had a t-shirt on, come up to here. With a belly as big as a nine-month pregnant woman with triplets. Hadn't had a bath in at least a week. Government official. I'm not exaggerating, I'm telling you. The devil will cut you off. Say what you're doing for God, you ain't going to get blessed for that. Devil will cut you off. He will try to sap that anointing out of your life. But that anointing is just as real when you're going through an audit as it is when you're preaching and hallelujah are falling. Tell me your story, he said. Then he asked me some questions. What do you do for entertainment? And I said, I go to church. What do you do for extracurricular activities? And I said, I go to church. What do you do about funeral honorariums? I said, We're the church I pastor when people die, we're all so poor we have to take up offerings to bury people. Okay. What do you do for honorariums for weddings? I said, every couple I've married, I had to give them money to pay for their honeymoon. That's the kind of church I pastor. Hallelujah. You know what he said? He rolled back in his chair, put his arms on his naked belly. It's true. These things you don't forget, I promise you. He said to me, to my astonishment, Pastor, I believe you, sir, because my grandfather was just like you. And when he got off of that computer, I was even Stephen with the IRS. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. That anointing, from this day forward, that anointing's gonna be with you. You might go through hell and back, but God's anointing ain't gonna leave. God's anointing is gonna rest upon you. If you walk in him, he walks in you. You abide in him, he abides in you. You can ask what you will. I've been through a lot of stuff in the ministry, but I can tell you today, honestly, I have never wanted to throw in the towel. That has never crossed my mind. You know why? Because this anointing that abides within me is sweeter than a hickor nut. That's pure country right there. I've never wanted to wave a white flag. Never in almost 50 years, never even crossed our mind to give up. Because that anointing, I got a wonderful wife that stood by me 47 years. I got two children that pastor great churches, and all my grandkids are living for God, and our blessings are wonderful. But I can tell you there is nothing in this world that takes the place of this holy anointing and guard it. And this same anointing, five years from now, Pastor Stephen, when all hell sails, you just walk through it because I'm coming out.

unknown 38:17

Coming out.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

A man asked me, I'm closing right now. A man asked me this past week. Give me some stuff about your ministry. I said, I pastored 22 years of living hell. Seven men in prison going through trials in Smith County Courthouse with them. Top families in the church, families messed up. About time I thought I had it all settled and done, one of the men had an affair with his mother-in-law. Tell you that blowed up well. If you ain't anointed, you ain't gonna survive it. But when God pours that anointing on you, but after 22 years, I saw God open up heaven. I saw God do supernatural things. The most unbelievable things I seen, the hand of God, because his anointing is faithful. Can't write a book and tell you how to make it happen, but I can preach to you and tell you walk in that anointing. Would you stand? I'm done.

Fresh Oil Like Engine Oil

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Live and abide in that anointing. What I need is some fresh oil. Now, some of y'all won't remember this, but us older folks remember the days when we didn't have power windows in cars. We had roll-up windows. And we pulled in, there wasn't no self-serve stations. When you pull in a station, you got a server to come out and wash your windshield. Hallelujah. You'd roll the window down, you'd say, five dollars, please. Back then it wasn't but 20 cents a gallon, so five dollars fill it up. Hallelujah. And then you'd say, checked all. Checked all. Oh, checked all. You'd reach under there and pull the lever and the hood and pop. He'd open up the hood, get the dipstick, wipe it off, stick her back in there, bring it to you and show you. You look at the dipstick, and it might be a quart low. You'd say it's a quart loaf. You'd say, add a quarter, hold up. I'm fixing have it changed. The trouble with this generation today, trying to make a spiritual analogy here. A vehicle only runs on gasoline. All they know do is put gas in it. But the real truth is, if it ain't got no oil, it ain't going nowhere. Without any oil, one day one of your parents would get a phone call. Gramps. I heard a little noise in my car going. What is that? Lifters are tapping. Son, you better put some oil in there, or you're fixing to be parked on the side of the road. See, you gotta have some oil. Without that oil, you ain't gonna run. I shall be anointed with fresh oil. When I get low, Jesus even preached that and said there's five wise versions, and there's five dummies because they didn't have no oil with them. That's Sanford's son preaching this sermon. Five dummies didn't have no oil with them. You can't make it without that oil. And when you do get in trouble, it all it is is one call. Keep on reading Psalms. If I call, he'll answer. If I call, he'll answer. God, I I need today some fresh oil to bathe my life.