We are living today in a world that is covered with darkness. People are dying around us every day. This pandemic named COVID-19 is no respect of persons, the poor and the rich, the famous and the unknown, the big and the small.

Everyone has become a victim of this work of darkness. We are living in hope that it'll just go away. We're hoping that the vaccines that they're putting out will stop the spread.

We're hoping that it would just burn itself out as history tells us has happened in previous pandemics, or we're just hoping that it will bypass us and I will not be one of the victims, but instead of going away, it's actually gotten worse. Now the reason for this is that sickness is not only caused by viruses. There's something more sinister going on right now.

Satan wants to destroy all of God's creation, but especially he wants to destroy all believers, the church of God. And he's doing this right now by either killing them or by taking away their main source of power. The scripture says, is anybody sick, let them go to the elders and pray over them.

The prayer of faith will save the sick. But now we're not even allowed to do that in case it will spread the infection. And even the elders are not available to us.

If we have COVID-19, people do not want us anywhere near them in case they pick it up from us. So the very hope and source of us overcoming this attack of Satan has been removed. And he's winning left, right, and center.

People are dying daily. I keep seeing people posting articles online about a dear man of God that they looked to and admired and was such a great influence in their life. And he's now gone to COVID-19.

People are dying all alone without help. And if you should contract this disease and be hospitalized, you die alone. Nobody is even allowed to come close to you or to visit you.

All hope has been taken away. It's a serious situation that we find ourselves in today. What can we do? What can we do to overcome this? I'd like to give you a few suggestions today.

And I'd like to give you a fresh hope. The title of my message today is Anointed with Power. Anointed with Power.

The first thing that we can do is to identify the true source of sickness and disease. And then we need to identify what God has given us. We need to stop living and giving in to fear.

And we need to rise up in the power of the Lord. I'd like to speak firstly about the power of the anointing. God has given us supernatural power power to deal with things.

And this power is far greater than the natural things in this world. It comes from the realm of the spirit. And the realm of the spirit is always greater than the realm of the natural.

Our world was created by the spiritual realm. And we live in a spiritual realm like fish live in water. In Acts 17, Paul spoke these words.

He said, he is not far from every one of us. For in him, we live and move and have our being. In him, in the spiritual realm, we live and move and have our being.

You don't have to look for the water you're living in it like a fish that's in water. But to tap into that power that is available to us, we need to move out of the natural and into the supernatural. God has given us two sources of his power.

I like to call the first the internal anointing. And the internal anointing gives us authority. With the internal anointing, we can use the name of Jesus.

And Philippians 2.10 tells us, in the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. Those who are in heaven, those who are on earth, those who are in the world below the realm of the dead, and every tongue should acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, leading to the glory and honor of God the Father. That's the internal anointing.

And I'll explain to you shortly how it works. God has also given us another kind of anointing, which I like to call the external anointing. And the external anointing gives us ability.

The internal anointing gives us authority. The external anointing gives us ability. And with the external anointing, we can increase the power of our authority.

I'd like to give you a simple illustration of this. Authority gives a person a capability to command others and to make them obey. Imagine a little traffic cop standing on the road, and along comes this big 10-ton truck coming straight towards him.

He steps out into the road, lifts up his hand, saying, Stop. Now he has the authority to command that vehicle to stop. And that vehicle is obligated to obey the authority that has been placed in this little traffic officer by his higher authority.

He doesn't stand in his own authority. He stands in an authority that has been delegated down to him from somebody higher. Now, that little traffic cop doesn't have any power in himself to stop that truck, but he carries an authority from above, which gives him the right to command that truck to stop.

Now, what if that truck looks at this little traffic cop and says, Puny little traffic cop, I'll run right over you. And instead of stopping, he accelerates. And if the little traffic cop doesn't get out of the way, he's flat like a pancake.

Now, I want you to change the scenario here. And I want you to give this traffic cop something extra. As he stands there in the road with his uniform and his insignia showing that he has authority, he also carries in his hand a bazooka, fully loaded and ready to fire.

And he holds that bazooka at the 10-ton truck. He says, Stop or I'll fire. Now, do you suppose the 10-ton truck is going to very willingly try and run over this little traffic cop? I don't think so.

Because if he dares to try, he's going to get blown out of the road. Can you see that when you add power to authority, you greatly enhance that authority and make it far more effective. That's what the external anointing does when it gets added to the internal anointing.

It highly magnifies the authority of the internal anointing. And as we combine both, we can overcome demons and sickness and everything that the enemy can try to do. In Mark 16, Jesus spoke these words just before he ascended to heaven.

He said, And these miraculous signs will accompany those that have become believers. In my name, they will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues.

They will take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on sick people, and they will become well.

See, all of this happens when we receive not only the internal anointing, but also the external anointing. Those two verses that we saw at the beginning describe these two anointings to us. The first one speaks about the anointing that we have received, which remains and abides in us.

And the second speaks about a power that Jesus said would come upon the disciples as they went and waited in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. Now, let me show you how we get these anointings. The internal anointing comes at the rebirth, when you are born again.

When you accept Jesus as your Savior and you are spiritually reborn and transformed, the Holy Spirit comes to take up residence and to live inside of us. And he gives us the power to live the spiritual life. With it, he brings a mantle of protection to cover us and to protect us from attack.

The external anointing comes with what we call the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and this gives us dynamic power and strength. It highly enhances our authority, and it brings with it a mantle of power. If you are a born-again, spirit-filled believer, then you have received two mantles of anointing.

The internal mantle of protection and the external mantle of power. Now, these mantles you have received, but they are not necessarily fully functioning continuously. They need to be activated and brought to life and caused to function at their peak capability.

The internal mantle of protection comes when we submit afresh to the indwelling Holy Spirit. And as we do that, we come and submit ourselves afresh to him, and we receive a cleansing from defilement. You get a mask and sanitizer at the same time.

Much better than the mask and sanitizer we try and use in this world, don't you think? You have his covering of protection, you have his cleansing, and your mantle of protection is now fully in place. It's like underwear that you put on, but it transforms into a thick armor and nothing can penetrate it. It may look like ordinary flimsy cotton, but nothing can go through that.

It becomes like steel-plated armor when it's activated. Now, the external brings the mantle of power. When you activate that, you increase the power.

How do we activate this external mantle? We activate it in a very similar way to what we received it in the first place. How did we receive it? On the day of Pentecost, after Peter had preached, he spoke to the people and they said, what must we do? And in Acts 2, verse 38, he said this. He just said to them, repent or change your thinking and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you will take hold of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In this verse, we see three steps that you needed to follow through in receiving the mantle of God's power in the first place. Those three steps are the same steps that you can use to once again experience and reactivate that mantle of power that is upon you. What are these three steps? Repent is the first one.

What does repent mean? Repent means far more than being sorry for your sins. Repent means to change your way of thinking, to change your mind. Repent.

When you first came to receive the baptism, repentance was the first stage of accepting Jesus as your Savior. Then the second stage was to be baptized in water, and the third stage was to receive the promise of the Holy Spirit. But now you've gone through all of that, but you can follow similar procedures.

Repentance now, as a born-again, spirit-filled believer, means you need to change your thinking. You need to get rid of negative thoughts. You need to put faith, hope, and love in your mind instead of fear.

What does baptism speak about? Baptism is actually a covenant ritual. When we are baptized in water, we are publicly going through a ritual which originates from the ancient practice of blood covenants, where two people enter into a covenant, a blood covenant relationship together and commit themselves wholly to one another. Now, in Christ, we have entered into a blood covenant with Almighty God.

And when you are baptized in water, all you are doing actually is going through a public ritual which signifies that you have gone through a blood covenant relationship. Well, we've already gone through the procedure, and we are now in blood covenant with Almighty God and with the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that give us? It gives us rights.

When you are in blood covenant with somebody, everything that you have and are belongs to them, and everything that they have and are belongs to you. So, you have a covenant right to the power of God because of the blood covenant. So, as you come now to the Lord to receive afresh, a new anointing, a new empowerment, a new energizing or activation of your existing mantle of power, you come firstly with an open heart and mind and a readiness, and you come boldly saying, Lord, this is mine.

I don't have to beg for it. I don't have to plead for it. I don't have to work for it.

It is mine, and by faith, I can have it. Can you see that? So many people are groveling and working hard and trying so hard to get the anointing of God. It's your right as a covenant believer, and the third one is you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now, that Greek word receive means a lot more than our simple, well, I received a gift. See, the Greek word means to lay hold on and grab with the hands. It's a lot more than saying, well, I received a gift.

No, I received the gift. In other words, I took it. I grabbed it.

I pulled it. I ripped it open, and I embraced it, and I made it mine. So many believers are waiting for God to give them the gift.

Oh, Lord, give me the gift, and he says, I've given it to you. There it is. Oh, Lord, give me the gift.

There it is. I've given it, but I don't feel anything. Well, do you want him to hit you with a gift? The gift is there.

It's up to you to reach out and to take it. Now, that's how you received, hopefully, the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the first place. You should have come by faith, reaching out for his promise and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and then experienced that wonderful experience that we call the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Now, the exact same thing happens now if you want to be, as it were, re-baptized in the Holy Spirit. You come with the same boldness and faith, and you reach out, and you take it. When you take it, it becomes yours.

It's not complicated, is it? Folks, you have two anointings today. As a born again child of the Lord, you have the power of his internal anointing, which is there to protect you. And when you learn daily to come in submission to him and to put on that armor of the mantle of protection, you can go out into this world with far more protection than the mask and sanitizer or anything else that you can put on.

You're going in the covering and the protection of the King of Kings. You can go without fear. If something's going to jump on you and you're not looking, it will just fall off.

It will not touch you. But if you go without that mantle, it's going to hit you like it hits everybody else. What if it does? You don't only have the mantle of protection, you have the mantle of his power.

And his power highly enhances, firstly, your protection. It highly enhances your authority and your power and your ability to stand against this attack of Satan and to command it to go and command him to flee. You can do this.

How often? How often should we do this? How often should we activate the mantle of protection? How often should we activate the mantle of power? Whenever you want, whenever you're about to go out, whenever you are involved in ministry, as you go about your daily life, as you go about your work, before you leave your home, make sure that your mantle of protection is active and in place. Instead of going out in fear, you can go out in boldness and in confidence. And as you activate that mantle of power, you have a power that goes with you to deal with, face every kind of opposition that Satan will try to throw against you as you walk in this world.

And then you're ready to move to the next level, which is to take that power and now begin to use it to help other people in their problems. That involves a little bit more. There are additional mantles that can be placed over the mantle of power that are activated by the mantle of power and then give you divine abilities in the realm of ministry.

But you need to be able to bring these on a daily basis. You don't need anybody else to pray for you. You don't need anybody to lay hands on you.

It's wonderful when you go to a meeting like in a revival environment where the Spirit of God is moving and the cloud of God's glory is there and somebody lays hands on you and you feel that fresh touch of the anointing. It's wonderful. But you can't do that now, can you? You've got to stay at home.

You're not allowed to go to church. You're not allowed to go to revival meetings. But you're not stuck because God is there, right there with you in your home.

You can stand before COVID. You could stand before poverty and any attack that Satan tries to bring against you. You are protected by the power of God.

You have something far greater in your hands. You are commanded to flee in the name of Jesus. You can command it to flee from those you love who are under attack.

You can lay hands on one another and release the power of your mantle. And you can do it right there in the home where you're allowed to be. See, the home is where the elders of the church live because you're one of them.

You've now become anointed. You now begin to rise up in power and authority. And if you're a parent, you're the elders in the home.

Your children don't need to look to the elders of the church because you are the church. And right there, if you will choose to stand up in the anointings of God and be the leaders of the church that's in your home, nobody in your home ever needs to fear that these things are going to overwhelm them. I'd like to pray with you now, not to impart anything to you unless God should solely, but I'd like to help lead you through this procedure which you can carry out on a daily basis.

And you can walk in the power and the anointing of God. And we can rise up and shine his light and command this dark cloud that's hovering over this world to lift and to leave. Are you ready to do that? You ready to be part of that? And let's come into his presence now.

I'm going to pray a typical prayer and I want you to just follow me in this. Lord Jesus, I submit myself fresh to you now in spirit and in soul and in body. Holy spirit that's living inside of me now since I accepted Jesus as my savior.

I'm giving you license and control of my life. I thank you Lord for cleansing me from all known sin and every bit of guilt that's on my mind right now that's accusing me and that's blocking me from coming into your presence. I confess it freely Lord, I have failed and I receive the cleansing of your blood from all of these things right now and I come boldly into your presence now fully cleansed.

I receive the power of your anointing and I receive the mantle of your protection over me now as I submit to you. I can hide behind that protection which you offer me by your spirit that dwells within me. Thank you for it Lord in Jesus name.

You've tapped into the internal anointing. You've put on and you've activated your mantle of protection. Now we must move beyond that because the power and authority that you have from that internal anointing must be magnified and amplified and that can only happen when we add the external power of God.

Now if you've never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and you never received that anointing you can even do that right now. Let's start there shall we? In case somebody that's watching this is still not received the baptism of the Spirit. Oh Jesus I submit myself afresh to you and make you Lord of my life and I thank you for cleansing away every sin in my life.

I come to you now on the basis of the blood covenant that you made for me on Calvary and as your child now I come acknowledging that I have a right to receive the gift of your Holy Spirit because this promise has been made to me as a believer. I don't need to worry that perhaps you don't want to give it to me because it is my right to receive this because of the blood covenant and therefore I come confidently and boldly to you and I say Lord I want now your promise and by faith I am reaching out now to take this gift which you are offering me. I'm reaching out with my hand of faith to lay my hands on that gift of the Holy Spirit of the anointing of the Holy Spirit and of his power and I receive it and I take it now in Jesus name.

That's how easy it is to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You say what about speaking in tongues? Speaking in tongues is a gift that you get after you've received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A lot of people receive it at the same time that they receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Some people don't. If you have by faith now reached out and taken the gift of the Holy Spirit you now have again the right and the ability to reach out for a gift that is available to every believer and you may speak in tongues. You may now come to the Lord in prayer and just reach out and begin to speak in tongues and it may come on you gently and simply as you open your mouth to speak expecting him to put words in your mouth.

Not in your mind, doesn't come through your mind, but expect him to put words in your mouth. You open your mouth and you speak what is not English. You don't say oh Lord I come to you.

You say well was that a tongue? I don't know. Keep trying it. Keep doing it.

Sometimes it helps when somebody lays their hands on you and prays for you, but it's not necessary. Okay, now if you've already received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I'm sure that applies to most people who are watching this right now, you can go through the same procedure to get reignited and re-anointed and the scripture calls that being filled with the Spirit. On the day of Pentecost the disciples waited and the flames of fire came down upon them.

The external anointing came upon them and the scripture says and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Now that word filled quite simply means that the external anointing that's come upon you combines with the internal anointing. The internal anointing is like an underground stream that was placed within you and as the external anointing comes upon you it causes that internal flow to bubble up and bubble up until it starts to pour out and you're now filled with the Holy Spirit.

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit both of the anointings are combined together and the power is highly magnified and you'll see in the scriptures when people did things like signs and wonders and miracles very often you'll see the scripture says and so and so filled with the Holy Spirit said or did. You can get filled with the Holy Spirit again as we go through our day even though we received the baptism before we don't walk in a condition of being filled but if you'll now come and reignite the power and receive a fresh touch of the external you can get filled again right now and the internal and the external will combine together and then you are ready to do amazing things for the Lord. So Lord Jesus I submit to you and I come boldly and I say dad dad I'm coming to take your promise I'm coming to receive from you my blood covenant right I want more I want more I want a fresh touch from on high I want a fresh experience of your anointing power upon me and I reach out and I take it by faith now and I receive it and it is mine it is mine it is mine hallelujah thank you for it lord thank you for it lord thank you for it lord my bullet the two begin to flow together oh it can be a very powerful experience it can happen to you anytime anytime it's available to you it lies in your hands lies in your hands believers are waiting for something to happen God never imposes himself on us they're going somewhere else to find somebody who's learned how to do this and try and suck out of them some of their overflow oh if I could go to somebody that's highly anointed and get them to lay hands on me and pray for me so I can experience the presence of God again it's not necessary sometimes it may be necessary just to get you going there's nothing wrong with it you don't have to depend on it right now it's not available to you because you can't go out there so why don't you stay right where you are and right there in your home get ignited and if you can get ignited and lit and on fire for the lord start passing it around to the rest of the members of your family you get them all on fire for the lord you're going to have a little revival taking place right there in the church in your home it makes the spiritual life exciting it gives us power when we go into this world we go on fire we go protected we go ready to not only resist the enemy but to now go and help other people who have fallen prey to this devilish pandemic God can set them free and if you meet somebody who's already infected you don't have to be afraid that you're going to get infected you can bring that power of God and you can command that thing to leave their body the Lord can set them free it's time God's people rise up tap into the supernatural realm and the power of God and begin to do mighty exploits for the Lord are you one of those I'm sure every one of us desire to be used by God and to experience his power you can do it I've showed you some simple principles today and how to do it and if you want to learn more we're about to release our school of the supernatural this week and if you want to learn it in much more detail if you want to learn all of the principles and come to the place where there's a continual build up in your life until you rise up in his power that you can go out and be used mightily by the Lord the opportunity will be available to you look out for the announcements for now take what I've shared with you today go and apply it go and apply it wherever you desire try doing it on a daily basis you'll see that each time you do it gets better and the power gets greater and your experience improves until eventually you're walking in that power continuously may the Lord bless you

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