(Compilation) Anointed by God

I say this right now, I'm convinced of this, but it's going to be a hard thing to get it and I'm preaching to my own heart as well as you. I am saying this afternoon that I believe that the answer is not merely good theology and preaching sound doctrine. The answer is not preaching merely to this generation, we need prophets. And God found Amos, a man gathering sycamore fruit. And he found Obadiah. And he found Joel when a lion was coming way, not the way of the vulture. They were eating everything up and there was darkness. And he found Habakkuk. Why? Because out of bed there was smoke. I think he's the only prophet in the Old Testament who from the moment he took office to the moment he died had continuous warfare with the people. The prophet diagnoses, he doesn't put any band-aids on. He does spiritual surgery. He lets people know exactly what he's saying and what God... You see, what prophets do? They live with God till they see like God, they love like God, they hate like God. They have a holy anger. I've touched thy mouth and the Lord said, behold I have put my words in thy mouth. Dear Lord. I wonder how many preachers could stand up tonight and say this morning when I preached to the crowd, I didn't preach a thought of my own, I didn't preach a word. God put those words in my mouth. They're not my words, they're not my theology, they're not my doctrine. I try to live as near to the heart of God as I can. I know when he speaks. I know when he breaks my heart. I know when he gives me anger, which I need. This man is no professional preacher. Preaching is not a profession, it's a passion. A man can't preach with passion, he shouldn't preach at all. Not a profession, a passion. There's no breath of professionalism anywhere in the ministry of Paul, and thank God there's no breath of commercialism either. Peter said in his day, there are some who will make merchandise of you. That couldn't be more true than the day in which we're living. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I bear here at the back of my neck a brand which is the mark of Jesus. Which tells you that this part of my being, my thinking, my philosophy is that of Jesus Christ, my teaching. My feet. Isn't it staggering how far this amazing man went? Look at his mystery journeys, without airplanes, without trains. God put something in him. The stupid world tried to get it out of him. But God put something in him, and they lashed him 195 times, and they couldn't whip it out of him. And he hung on a piece of wood in the Mediterranean for 36 hours, and they couldn't wash it out of him. And they tried to threaten it out of him. But almighty God put something in there, you see. They were not trying to kill the apostle Paul, the idiots. They were trying to kill Jesus Christ. Because Christ lived in him. And he says, I don't know whether to desire and depart or be here, because it's not much better off up there in one sense. You know that's a tragedy with millions of people. They go through life blind, blind to God, blind to God's righteousness, blind to his justice, blind to his holiness, blind to his commandments. And in a moment of time they wake up in hell. What's the condition of America like spiritually tonight? Zero. Why? Because we've got blind men coming out of seminaries. The men there don't teach them. They don't hear a word about hell. They're blind themselves, and as blind men they lead the blind and they go to hell. And you say, I prayed for the Holy Spirit. Why doesn't he come? Because you stink. You stink with pride. You stink with indifference. You stink with laziness. You stink with bitterness. And the Holy Ghost doesn't come. How concerned are we? How much praying, how much fasting, how much weeping do we do? It says, he looked up and said, and Jesus wept. And when Paul looked around and saw the infiltration in his day of wrong teaching, he says, I tell you, even weeping there are enemies of the cross of Christ. There were never more enemies of the cross of Christ than today. The enemies of the cross of Christ are not in the tavern now. They're in God's house. And in some of our theological seminaries, trying to water down the word of God. Oh, Jerusalem, you killed the prophets. You killed God's anointed men. Your house is empty. And you're empty, he says. Oh, but he says, in essence, you're empty in an empty house. You can disagree if you like. I don't mind that. I believe God will look down on nearly every church in America or England this Sunday and say, your house is empty. Where is the living, vibrant power that like that precious meeting last night when a woman suddenly realized God had a grip on her heart and she stood up in front of a congregation and screamed for mercy. And the meeting broke. We're on to organize it. Oh, wait till then. We'll sing just as I am. You know, and you can come sweetly. I don't ask anybody to come to altar with their eyes closed. Jesus didn't say, would you please close your eyes while I go to Calvary. He met a spitting, scornful crowd. There's one thing that God requires of us. And there's one thing that's demanded of us, obviously, as preachers, if we're going to really preach, is that we can say what I think is the most unique thing to say this side of eternity. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach. And I don't see how a man can be brought into the heart of God and have the anointing of God without tears, without brokenness. We live in a broken world. Marriages are broken. Children are broken. Minds are broken with drugs. Bodies are broken with disease. Bodies are broken with alcohol. We live in a broken world, and there's nobody can heal it but God. And his agency is the church of the living God. And yet, where are the servants? I don't see how a man can live and not weep. I couldn't anyhow. He sees the tragedy. He sees the brokenness. He sees the victory of the devil. He says men and women taken captive at his will. We know once a man gets into that anointing, once he gets into the place where the spirit of God has come and touched him, and he's not thinking like other men think. He's not acting like other men. His values have all changed. I don't know how you pray. I'm very simple. I pray simply. One of my regular prayers in the closet or with my prayer class on a Friday night. Again and again, I thank God for the incorruptible Holy Ghost. Doesn't matter if you check bookies that length. You can't buy a super baptism of the Holy Ghost with a billion dollars. All he asks for is brokenness and contrition and emptiness and a recognition of my bankruptcy, a recognition the world is going to hell. The government can't help America. If you're depending on the White House, forget all about it. It's God's house that's going to save America, not the White House. It's not presidents, it's prophets. It's not men full of wisdom, it's men full of the Holy Ghost.