Dani Sayag teaches on “Pathway to anointing” at Kehilat HaCarmel on September 8, 2018.
If you want the anointing of the Lord, it has to come through service. You will never be able to experience the anointing for the Lord if you don’t learn to serve. Yeshua prepared His disciples for that day when they would wait in Jerusalem for Him to pour out His Spirit and they would go out with the Gospel to ‘all the world’. They had to learn how to serve.
In the Tanakh, there’s an account of Elijah and Elisha in 1 Kings 19. In verse 19, Elijah threw his mantle on Elisha. This mantle was something made of out of wool. Think about this sight: Elisha was ploughing and this guy with the mantle, who was not the most clean, passes by him and throws the mantle next to him. Elisha saw this and understood what it meant. And at the end of verse 21 it says ‘he arose and followed Elijah and served him.’ Elisha knew that the moment he picked up the mantle, he would receive the calling and he would leave his family, he would leave his work, he would put his dreams by the side and he would follow Elijah and he would serve him. And that’s exactly what he did.
This is a similar example of what Yeshua did with His disciples. It’s something we see in the book of Matthew when Yeshua was walking near the Kinneret. There, we see two brothers – Simon Peter and Andrew – and He saw James and John. They were fishing and they were with their father. Yeshua said ‘follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.’ Their response was to leave their nets, family…everything and followed Yeshua. And they learned how to serve.
Service, if you do it in a faithful way, will bring the anointing. It will bring you into the calling God has for your life. We see this years after Elisha served Elijah faithfully. In 2 Kings 2:9, Elijah was about to leave and Elisha knew it. “And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”” Elijah left behind the mantle and Elisha put on the mantle and the rest of the prophets saw the anointing that was on Elisha and they said the spirit of Elijah has rested on Elisha. He received the anointing.
There is a difference when you take up the mantle in your hands. That means you have decided to follow and serve. But when you serve faithfully, one day you put the mantle on and the anointing of the Lord will be upon you.
There is a great responsibility that comes with the anointing. It can destroy you. But if you learn how to serve, then when the anointing comes upon you, you will know how to use it in the right way, in a way that glorifies God.