(Clip) The Cost of Anointing — David Wilkerson

The Cost of a Fresh Anointing

I just want to talk to you about the cost of a fresh anointing. Jesus said the Father anointed him to preach the gospel. When I hear it, I know that it's a man or woman that's touched God. And when I hear it, I'm convicted.

When I hear it, I'm moved. When I hear it, I know I'm driven to my knees. And there's such a weightiness about it that I can't ignore it. I have to deal with it. You see, God does not give the anointing to lazy preachers, lazy Christians.

He won't do it. There's a cost to the anointing, where you will never again be satisfied as long as you live without seeing God at work in you and walking with you. And I had to travel all over the United States.

Promoters got a hold of it, Christian promoters, and I traveled for I think two months to national television, radio television, and it went around the world, and I became what some would call famous.

Losing the Anointing Through Busyness and Complacency

I know what it's like to have the anointing, and I know when it's lifted. I know when I don't have it. I know when the death moves in, and folks, I got so busy that there's no hunger, there's no brokenness, there's no cry.

When I go into the scriptures, I look at men that God has used, and there's always been a cry. Jeremiah said, I engaged my heart to seek the Lord, and you'll find that there was a cry. There is nothing worse that I can think of for a man of God or a woman of God than to lose the anointing of God and be dead and have the knowledge that something is wrong.

I was known around the world as a man of God, and yet growing lukewarm and cold in my heart. That every kind of temptation out of hell, devil's saying, I'm gonna destroy you. I'm gonna kill your minister, I'm taking you down.

Intimacy With Christ and Seeking God's Face

You see, when you don't have this touch, this anointing, and if you're not shut in with God, and you're not serious about the things of God, and you're happy with the status quo, you have this inner struggle.

How do I get back? How do I get this anointing? How do I? Are you examining your heart like I had to do? It's not enough to be calm. I'm still calm. God still loves me. I think that all true ministry comes out of intimacy.

I say it again, all true ministry comes out of intimacy with Christ. Because the Lord said, you know the cost. You know what it's gonna take. Seek in my face. Ezra said his heart to seek the face of God.

He am I, he hears the destruction that happened in Jerusalem. And the Bible says he was overcome with grief, and he said his heart to seek God. He said his heart, and you'll find it all through the Old Testament.

He said his heart. Because see, you're gonna have to make up your mind when you get in your 50s or 60s where you're just gonna retire, and you're gonna take it easy. God can't allow anybody to retire anymore from the ministry.

Refusing Retirement From the Ministry

If you've ever been touched, you've ever been anointed of God, you don't have time. You've got to say, God, use me. I don't care where you send me, I don't care where you want me to go, but I'm not going out with my spirit drained.

I'm not going out a dry stick. I want the anointing, I want the touch of God. I'm speaking to everybody, but the pastors in particular. I speak from my heart, and I'm gonna tell you, if you believe these are the last days, folks, have you not seen prophecy fulfilled in the last few years?

It's going lightning speed. You hear secular world screaming that the time is up. And you set your mind, you set your heart now by an act of faith, by hearing the word of God, and laying hold of it. God, I hear you, I know that you've been stirring my heart.

I know I have some issues, and I want to deal with them. I want to walk with you, but I want an anointing. I want my people to know when I stand in the pulpit again that something has touched my life, there's a change in me.

God does miracles when you begin to seek his face and get back to the simplicity of this. And you devour this word of God, and you stay there. You turn everything down. But here's Daniel now, and he said, I ate no present bread.

And you're going to be fasting, friends. This won't happen until God sees something in you and me of determination to God, I want this. I will not let you go until you anoint me again. Don't miss what God's about to do, don't miss it.

Paying the Price for Renewed Anointing

By the way, I'm not going to miss it, I'm going out clinging to him. That this anointing is available to any man, any woman who's set their heart. You're calling so many, I can feel it so strong. You're calling them, you're wooing them saying, now, in these meetings here.

Not another time, you've made me promises before, but now, tonight, open your heart and say, God, once again, use me, and he's saying, I have wooed you so many times. This time, if you pay the price, I'll open doors for you.

I'll speak through you, and I'll use you again like you'd have never conceived.