Welcome to Waymaker Church! We are so excited to have you join us today! We exist to Encounter, Live for, and Advance the Kingdom of God!

Recap of Part 1:
Open your bible again to the book of Philippians 1. I am going to share with you part two of the message to live is Christ. If you weren’t here last week, I will give you a brief recap to give you a bearing on today’s message, but I would encourage you to go back and listen to the message on our podcast or social media.

Paul the apostle is writing to the Philippian Church to encourage, instruct, and commend the believers. A key lens I wanted you to know about the time of Paul’s writing is that he is imprisoned.

As Paul commends the believers, he expresses his confidence in Philippians 1:6 that He who has begun a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

The process of renewal through the Holy Spirit leads us into a life of abounding love in the Kingdom. Remember that nature of the kingdom life is to produce fruit. Fruit in our lives is not the result of works, but of the inner working of the Holy Spirit.

A major principle that I shared with you last week is that in our pursuit of Christ we will face obstacles, trials, and at times hardship. When we do our natural response is to want to get out of the trial or hardship because it is uncomfortable.

What we learned last week is that sometimes getting out of the tough time is not always the best solution, because God has prepared a table for us right in the middle of it. He has prepared a place of intimacy and encounter.

The place of trials is the maturing process that helps us to learn the power and potency of the word that God has spoken to us. What we find out in the trial is that His word becomes an anchor for the soul, and the hope of our salvation.

The greatest gift of intimacy in trials is the anointing of the Spirit that comes upon your life as a result. Someone asked me this past week after the message to explain the anointing. Let me give you a brief understanding of the anointing and how it operates before we look at how Paul was delivered through prayer and the supply of the Spirit.

The Anointing is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. It enables the believer to understand, apply, and administer spiritual truth. The Holy Spirit connects us to the spiritual realm so that we can learn to live from heaven towards earth.

Personal revelation increases through fellowship with God. The anointing of the Holy Spirit allows us to discern truth from error.

The anointing is a simple thing! It is the power of God activated in a person’s life when they believe. Isaiah 10:27 says, “The yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” Another word for yoke is chain.

The anointing destroys bondages, chains, and anything the enemy tries to place on us. It has the potential to change everything in and around us! But it will not set us free from the works of darkness if we don’t understand how to activate it.

Walking in the fullness of what the Anointing provides also requires conformity to the truth. What you hear, you must obey. If the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, He will not operate in an environment where there is no truth at work.

If you are operating in a lie – worldly wisdom that does not agree with God’s truth – then The Anointing won’t kick in for you. Enjoying the fullness of the Spirit’s anointing also requires living in love. In other words, you cannot be against your brother illegitimately and be hurting the body of Christ and expect to fully experience God.

The anointing of God on Paul’s life is what allowed him to look at situation and see God at work. The bad things that happened to him in his life ended up being the very things that God used to further the gospel.

Two things I see here:
1. There comes a point in our lives when we must make the decision to walk by faith. Even though we can accomplish much in our own strength, we ultimately need to trust in Christ.

Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.” Jeremiah 17:7 ““Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord.”

When we live life in the spirit through relationship with Christ there is a God confidence that arises in our lives. Proverbs 3:26 “For the Lord will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being caught.” 1 John 5:14 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

Paul had an earnest expectation (an intensely desired expectation with a high confidence of fulfillment) and hope that in nothing he would be ashamed. He had confidence that all things God was working in His life would turn out. Paul with all boldness determined to glorify Christ in his body, whether by life or death. Paul had come to such a place of trust in Jesus that whether He lived or died he trusted the working of the Lord in his life.

2. Deliverance was supplied through prayer and the Spirit. When I read this it reminded me of Zechariah 4:6 “So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.”

This is the place and outflow of intimacy with Christ. The place of prayer and intimacy with Jesus is the catalyst to power. We go into it commissioned, but we come out anointed with power for our purpose.

Paul saw the big picture of His life.

Paul’s singular aim was to bring glory to Jesus. He knew that if He departed from this life that it would certainly be more beneficial personally, but it would leave those He was serving at a disadvantage. His maturity in the faith recognized that it was more needed for Him to remain and produce fruit.

Paul wrestled between the idea of being with Christ vs. continuing his labor for the Lord. His personal desire was to be with Jesus, but He knew his assignment was to reveal and preach Jesus. He was willing to put aside His personal desires to meet the needs of others.

This is maturity in the faith. Realizing that our life is about service to others. We labor so that Jesus gets the glory and souls are added to the kingdom. Our goal is to imitate the example of Christ in all we do. To do this we pursue the knowledge of Christ not just to obtain a set of facts, but to know Christ himself.

This means that Christ is our focus, our goal, and our chief desire. Christ is the center point of our mind, heart, body, and soul. Everything that we do, we do for Christ’s glory.

If we will look unto Jesus and walk in unity with one another we will see the purposes of God fulfilled in our lives.