The Anointing

by Rocky Fleming

Day 5: The Power of the Anointing

I grew up watching Superman and his exploits.  Every superhero that was in the movies or TV was supposedly endowed with some special ability that would whip any man or force that came against them. Contrary to the characters now days, my heroes were all good guys.  They fought for good, and because they were good they had their abilities to help them do what they did, which was to do good things.  

Little wonder that real guys such as you and I grew up thinking that this is how we need to look and what we do to make us good.  Deep down we know that we are just guys and we cannot be super heroes.  But we want to be and in some cases we try to be, and we fail with our inconsistency.  This is why many Christian men come under pressure to look and act better than the man he is inside.  Eventually he sees himself as a fraud, and if and when this happens, his ability to be better than himself has conceded victory to his enemy Satan.  He settles, at best, with trying to be a nice guy and just get along with everybody.  Men, we can be better than our self.  That is the good news.  But we need to get a new self.  When that new self emerges, the power of God’s anointing reinforces our effort, and His power will then become part of the life God favors.

Since many of you operate with a little confusion with what God is trying to do in you, let’s start with getting a better picture of the self that Christ is trying to have emerge in you.  I think most Christian men think they are being taken into becoming a “Nice Guy,” and that is God’s objective for them.  I think that is the picture we get when we close our eyes and think of the most consistent Christian men that we know and go to church with and work with, based on their appearance.  However, what we do not see are the fears and hang-ups going on within many of them.  We don’t know the pornography, the lust, the frustrations, or the many struggles going on within this man.  We only know they look like nice guys on the exterior.  We become so surprised when we learn that some of these nice guys are actually mean, evil men.  Next time when this happens, understand that all you were seeing was a fake façade. The truth lies in the inside of the man, and not his image.

So here’s a news flash you need to understand.  Jesus is not trying to make His men into nice guys.  Nice guys do not impact their world with the power that comes from an anointing from God.  Many times what we are not seeing in this man is a passive, self-protecting man instead of a put together man, and this man will have to get real inside before God’s anointing will fall on him.  The Holy Spirit is trying to reform His man into a dangerous, courageous, good man.  There is a difference in a nice guy and a good man.  Jesus wants good, for good is what is going on inside of the man, and this is the man that will receive His favor. This is the man who will be a steward of God’s favor, and will not use it for selfish purposes.

You will always find me tracking our thoughts back to the abiding relationship in Christ for it is there that we experience the yoking of our fears to Christ, which in turn instills courage.  This allows a different self to emerge.  This new self is courageous, dangerous and good.  He is the man that God will make into a real hero.  But, he is likely the last man to realize it, for he thinks Jesus is the only Superhero, and he is right.  That is where his strength lies.  It is  Jesus in Him having His way.  Are you ready to become this man?