Welcome to the River Mountain Church Preaching Library. It is our prayer and indeed our hope that this message might inspire your life. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the preaching of God's Word. The Bible instructs us quite plainly on how to walk with God. The Apostles' teachings, which the Bible indicates the entire church has been built upon. It is the foundation along with the prophets, Jesus being the chief cornerstone, and The instruction that are given by the Apostles are quite clear on what a person must do to maintain this walking with God relationship. And the one I would like to look at, the Apostle I would like to look at is the Apostle John. I don't think there was any man greater than the Apostle John, the writer of the book Revelation. the writer of the Gospel of John, the writer of the epistles of John, that had a greater idea of what was required in order for us to walk with Jesus and walk with God on a daily basis. Perhaps there was no apostle that was more faithful to the calling. He was the only one who stayed with Jesus all the way to the end. He was the only one that was given charge of Jesus' mother, and he is the one, we're told in 1 John, instructed us very clearly what it meant to walk in the light. So let's look at John this morning and let's look at a few of his words that I think will be helpful as we look at how to walk with God. In 1st John, chapter 2, if you have your Bibles you can look there, not just look at the screen, it says this, but you have been anointed by the Holy One and you have or you all have knowledge. Now, the next verse I'd like to look at is verse 27. It says, But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you, but as his anointing teaches you about everything. We're going to look at what it means to be anointed or to have this anointing. The Bible seems to indicate to us according to John, that every believer has an anointing, or is anointed. I want to look at this word anointing, because it's very important for you to understand all things, or to understand God, and to walk with God, that you understand this anointing. The word is chrisma. It means to smear. It's a word that refers to a very common practice of taking anything and smearing it. Sometimes, if you're in the Old Testament, of paint. If you painted something, you would smear the paint on. But the implication that we have is talking about the smearing on of oil. Now, what does oil represent, biblically speaking? Oil is always represented in the Old Testament, one thing. Why is that? The Spirit of God. So it meant that we have been smeared by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has smeared something on us. Oil. It is used 143 times in the Old Testament, the word anointing. It's used 20 times in the New Testament. And as I've already said, it has a spiritual implication, but it also has practical implications. The spiritual are twofold. Can you guys see? Am I in the way here? Can you see what we're talking about? Good. Twofold. Number one, when something was smeared with oil, it was set apart. In the Old Testament, furniture in the temple was smeared. The priests were smeared. The kings were smeared. Oil was placed upon them. That means they were set apart for God's use. They belong to God. They're gods. They're holy. They're sacred. You have been set apart that way. The Holy Spirit has smeared oil on you. You no longer belong to you. You belong to God. Smeared. Anointed. But the second use was that when you got this anointing, you also got power. You got something that was beyond yourself. Why? Why did God give us power? Does anybody know why God gave you power? Did God give you power for you? Sort of, but not really. The main reason he gave you power is that you might have something to give other people. You might have an anointing or some form of power, some form of gifting that you could use for other people. Let me just say this, because I believe this. I believe everybody in here is called to a ministry. I don't think there's anybody in here who's not called to serve God in some capacity. The word ministry means service. And if you've been called, you've been anointed, and this anointing empowers you to do something. Now, most people, most Christians don't know what they're called to do. They just don't. They have no clue. But if you've been anointed, you've been empowered to do something, and the first thing you have to do is you have to walk with God in order to bring this out. So, we're going to look at this walking with God in relationship to the anointing, because the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament is in the Old Testament the priests were smeared, the kings were smeared, but it was only a certain group of people, a select group of people set apart for God, empowered by God. But in the New Testament we're told this. that everybody, Martin Luther gave his life for this, because the Catholic Church believed that there was a certain group of people that were anointed. They were priests, they were holy, they were set apart. Luther said, well, what about the Scripture? The Scripture says that everybody is a chosen race, everyone is a royal priest. We're a priesthood, we're a holy nation, we are a people for his own possession, everybody, and we're all given a calling. What is the calling? That you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." Everybody's a priest. Everybody is God's possession who has been anointed, his church, and we've all been given a ministry that is to proclaim his excellence. Everyone in here has the anointing. Okay, so let's start with that as our first point. Why is that important for you to know that you've been anointed by the Holy Spirit to walk with God? Here it is. What connected Old Testament people to God? Yes, it was the sacrifices that they made in the temple, but it was also this, keeping 713 commandments. If you kept the commandments, you were walking with God. You walk with God by keeping the commandments. 713 of them. Nobody could do it. So everybody felt burdened by keeping them and they never could keep it. In the Old Testament, it was called a yoke. You were yoked together by the law to God. Jesus said this here's what he said when he came He said take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle lowly in heart And you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy. My burden is light He says you have been yoked to the law to try to keep the law to please God to walk with God He says that yoke is too heavy I can show you many scriptures that say that this yoke that he's talking about was keeping the Old Testament law He says that I have a new yoke Take my yoke This will link you to God in a way that the law can never link you. And here's the thing. It's easy and it's right. And you're going to find rest for your soul. What is a yoke? This is a yoke right here. A yoke is this. There was an oxen who was put on this side. There was an oxen who was put on this side. And this thing kept them walking together. Jesus was yoked to his father to keep his father's will to walk with his father by a yoke. What is this yoke? It's not the law, it's not keeping of the law, it is the Spirit of God. We found these words in Galatians. For freedom Christ has set you free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit yourself again to the yoke of slavery. There was a yoke that enslaved you, and Paul said that the yoke that enslaved us was the law. The law killed us, the law was death to us, we were under bondage to this law because nobody could keep it. And so Paul says this in Galatians, he says this, But I say to you, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. How do you please God now? Well, you walk in the Spirit. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. You're not under the law. You're not yoked to the Father by the law. Now, the Spirit is yoking you to Jesus and to the Father. Walk under that. Walk under the Spirit. The Spirit is easy. The Spirit is light. You will be able to please God that way. So, walking with God requires being yoked. The Spirit yokes us to the Father and to Jesus in the will, and the yoke of the Spirit is easy light. In other words, when I'm walking in the Spirit, listen, my spirit always obeys God. Always obeys God. It always does what is right. I don't have to worry about anything if I'm walking in the Spirit. I think it was Luther who said, get your heart right with God and do as you please. Because when your heart's right with God, the Spirit of God is living in you, you're walking with God, the Spirit will do what's right. So we walk with God, first of all, by understanding this, that it's only the spirit that can make us walk with God. So let's go back to these verses. But you have been anointed by the Holy One and you have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not have the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth. Let me say this. Who is the liar but him who denies that Jesus is the Christ? OK, let me tell you what this means. This yoke of the Spirit, this anointing of the Spirit, not only kept you walking with God, but it kept you on the right path doctrinally, in a doctrine. Because what happened to the church is bad teachers came in, bad prophets came in, and they began telling people all kinds of different stuff. And these people believed it. Why? Because they were not yoked to the Spirit. In other words, they were not anointed. They were simply listening to the leader because the leader was telling them something. See, here's the problem in the church. All our sheep have gone astray. So here's how sheep were slaughtered. I mean, I don't know if this exists today, but for hundreds of years, this is how they slaughtered sheep. All the sheep were in the pen. They would put a goat in the pen. Sometimes it was called the Judas goat. and sheep are followers. So, when they see the goat, they realize that the goat knows where he's going, more confident, seems like he has a purpose, and because sheep follow, they would follow the goat. What they didn't know this, is the goat was trained to climb up a ramp, and then exit stage right, and they would follow, and then the goat would exit, and they would fall, one after another, falling one another, into the slaughter pit. That's how they killed sheep. Follow the goat. Follow the confident one. And you know what? Satan uses the same device. He puts a goat, a false teacher, somebody in the church. Everybody follows. Because we're dumb sheep. John is saying, you don't have to follow. Why? You have an anointing. You should know the truth by now. One of my fears is this. Is that the only reason you'll listen to me is because you trust me. You see, if you trust me, then you trust what I say. And the problem with that is, what if I say something that's wrong? And you say, well, you said it, so you know. See, everything I say, you should listen to and say, is that biblical? Does that confirm with my spirit? I want you to challenge me if you think I'm wrong. You know why? Because if I don't teach you that you have an anointing, and the anointing will teach you, and you have to listen to me through the anointing, then when somebody comes up here, a guest speaker, if you go to another church even, and there's a pastor speaking, and you just believe him because he's a pastor, you're going to make a big mistake. Listen. I think of this story. There was a church out in Seattle. Seattle, Washington. Had 6,000 people. 6,000 people. Mega church. Everybody believed the pastor was a man of God. Everybody believed the pastor heard from God. One day the pastor says this. The Lord has given me a revelation. It came from the Holy Spirit. Everybody in here has a soulmate. You have a soulmate. God says you've got to find your soulmate. He says, the Lord showed me that how you'll know your soulmate is you'll look into their eyes and something will register. Your spirit will register. And he says, and you got to get together with your soul mate, you know, maybe once or twice a week. Now, he never said who the soul mate was, and he left it open to interpretation. As a matter of fact, he didn't discourage the fact that you might not be married to your soul mate. So guess what happened in this church? People began looking deeply into one another's eyes. And before you knew it, Husbands and other persons' wives were locking eyes and becoming soulmates, getting together once or twice a week. Then the pastor says this, I have an idea. Let's have a dance. Listen to me. Listen to me. Let's have a dance for all the soulmates, where you can come together and spiritually dance together. Now, does this sound crazy to you? Six thousand people bought this. And one after another, divorce after divorce after divorce happened in this church. It turns out that the pastor was having an affair with somebody. So, listen to me. Because some leader says something crazy, and if it doesn't line up with the Bible, doesn't line up with the document, do not listen to it. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, comes up with this great revelation. And one of the things he said is, Jesus and Satan were brothers. How many of hundreds of thousands of Mormons do we have out there who believe that? It doesn't line up with the Bible, but they believe that. It's a doctrine from demons. So what am I saying to you? Walking with God means you have an anointing. Listen to this anointing. He said it will teach you all things. The anointing you have received from him. But look, you don't need that anyone should teach you. See, the problem was not that you shouldn't listen to teachers, but listen to me. You don't really need a teacher. See, if you need me to teach you, you need me, then I haven't done my job. Because that means you can't get together with God, a real Bible, and hear God directly. You cannot do that. And there are thousands of years in which the Roman Catholic Church says, we're going to make sure you never do that. Because if you get together with God and you get together with the Scriptures, they said, you'll get confused. So listen to us. And slowly, blind shepherds led people down a doctrinal road that is unbiblical. Had they had the scriptures read and if they were being taught by the Holy Spirit, I don't think the church would have drifted. John says, you don't need a teacher. What? The anointing will teach you about everything. As a pastor, I have failed. if in this church you need a teacher. Now that doesn't mean you shouldn't have a teacher, but you need one. You should be able to get with God and the Bible and be able to have the Holy Spirit instruct you. This is what Jeremiah said, and this is where God's heart was. When the New Testament comes, this is Jeremiah looking into the New Testament, they shall teach no more every man his neighbor. Every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. Why? For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. In other words, you're not going to need a teacher in the new covenant because the Lord will be your teacher. Hebrews says this, for when for a time you ought to be teachers, he's talking to the whole church here, he says everybody in the church should already now be a teacher. You need that one teach you again. The church has succeeded in when the pastor has adequately equipped people to hear God, to know the scriptures, in which every one of them now can become teachers. Now, that doesn't mean publicly, but it means you know enough to be able to help another person disciple them. Okay, walking with God. When Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, he returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Here's the second thing I want to tell you, is that when you're anointed, you're going to be led by this anointing. The Spirit of God is going to lead you. Jesus said, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and then here's his job description. Preach, proclaim, deliver captives, set free those who are oppressed. When the anointing comes upon you, it's going to give you a job description. It's going to say, here's what you've been anointed to do. Here's what your calling is. And the Bible says in Proverbs that this gifting will make room for you. Some people want to know what they're called to do. I say, walk with God, develop intimacy with God, and your gift will eventually become so clear to everyone that people will push you into your calling. Eventually, if you walk in the anointing, you will hear God say, this is the way. Walk in this way. See, look at this. The final thing I want to say to you about the anointing is this. It's okay, you're anointed. You're yoked with the Father. You can hear him teaching you. He's guiding you into the ministry he wants for you. How do you stay there? Well, this is requiring daily maintenance. The Bible says about Jesus that he was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. The anointing yokes us to God, and God goes with us everywhere we go. And it's God who does the work through us. It is not us. And when we are anointed to God, every problem that we face is destroyed. The Bible says that the yoke of God destroys the yoke of the enemy. The anointing, that is to say the yoking of God, destroys the yoke of the enemy. So how do we keep it? The Apostle Paul told young Timothy, he said, stir up the gift. Stir up the anointing. How many of you know that you're not where God wants you to be right now? I mean to say, God probably sees you as being further along the path than maybe you really are. How many people know that you're not where God really wants you to be? That you have a lot further to go. So how are you going to get there? Well, if I said to you, how big is the flame of God? How big is your passion for God right now, today? And you said, well, there's a little fire in me. It's a little fire. I'm a little on fire. There's a little warmth. There's a little heat. Then what I would say is the same thing Paul says. He would say, fan that little flame. Just fan it into a fire. Fan into flames the gift of God. Blow on it. Let the Holy Spirit blow on it. Throw gasoline on it. Do anything you can to inflame that gift. To me, what inflames this gift, what gets this gift going, listening to worship music does it for me. I'll listen to worship music, I'll worship God. The highest form of fanning it into flames, I think, is not when I listen to worship music, it's when I'm singing to the Lord a new song. When I'm in my car and the Lord just gives me a song, or I sing a song to the Lord and I just feel the whole thing, I'm just aflame. Prayer. All of these things fan us into a flame. Walking with God. The secret to walking with God is to walk with God. Sounds like an oxymoron, but let me just recap here by saying this. How do we walk with God? Well, first of all, we have to walk to Him. Then, when we walk to Him, we have to make sure that we are yoked by His Spirit to Him. Then we have to be under this anointing, allow this anointing to teach us, allow this anointing to lead us, allow this anointing to empower us, and then stay there. How many people know we're prone to wander? The Old Testament prophets put the anointing around themselves. We put the anointing around ourselves. But guess what? Eventually we say, I don't know what this is. Let me put this over here. And we put it off. The only thing we do then is walk in the flesh. Thanks for listening to this week's message from River Mountain Church. If you'd like some more information, visit our website, rivermountainchurch.org