Chapter 1
CHARACTER AND THE ANOINTING
The anointing and the presence of the Holy Spirit is a necessity in the life of every believer. This is due to the fact that it sharpens and equips us for a perfect, victorious and a glorious life in Christ. Without it, we believers are incapacitated and spiritually disabled. We are highly incompetent for any spiritual discipline without it. In fact, we are not too different from the outsiders without it.
That is why Samson told Delilah the prostitute on the very last occasion owing to the pressure given to him that, his strength would be gone from him and would become as any other man, the very moment the locks on his head are shaven.
Samson was a mortal man just like us and was even subject to like passion as we. There was nothing physically strange about Samson that any man lacked except for the fact that he was born a Nazarite, which was quite uncommon then and even now.
What distinguished Samson from the other sons of men was the fact that He had some kind of Supernatural aura, strength and force backing his life. This was what separated him from the other sons of mortals. The kind of strength and power he wielded was very uncommon to the men of his days.
That’s why he could say, “. . . If I be shaven, I shall become weak and be like any other man.”
”That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I [have been] a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: If i be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and i shall become weak, and be like any [other] man.” (Judges 16:17)
The hair on Samson’s head is just like the influence and the presence of the anointing and the Holy Spirit on the life of the present day believer. Therefore we like Samson can also say that without the Holy Spirit or the anointing, we are and will be like any other man.
This is because it is the anointing that defines our life and grants us empowerment as Christians. The day we will lose the Holy Spirit is the day we will lose power, strength, influence and intimacy with God. We will be like the ordinary man.
The church is even more or less a social gathering without the presence of the Holy Spirit. That’s why King David was very strategic in his prayer to God after his fall by entreating God not to take His Holy Spirit away.
David in agony said: “Cast me not away from thy presence and TAKE NOT THY HOLY SPIRIT AWAY FROM ME” (Psalm 51:11).
David was very particular about this prayer because he knew the consequences of losing the Holy Spirit. He knew all that happened to Adam, Samson and even his predecessor - Saul - when they lost the influence of God’s divine Spirit and was not ready the least to go through that ordeal. He happened to be a witness himself to how Saul was tormented day and night after the Spirit of God had left Him.
“But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him (1 Sam. 16:14)”
He also knew how Samson suffered affliction, torment and mockery after he had lost the source of his power – the locks of hair on his head. David was therefore distraught concerning his plea: he didn’t want to be a victim. You and I can’t also afford being a victim.
The anointing undeniably is very imperative in the life and ministry of every believer. The church can’t even do with its absence. Without it, there is no church, no power, no believer and no witness.
That’s why Jesus charged His disciples not to depart from Jerusalem but rather to wait for that promise of the father in sending down His Holy Spirit. Because He knew without His Holy Spirit, there will be no power available to them. They will be like ordinary men and will labor in vain to establish His Church.
“But YE SHALL RECEIVE POWER, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and YE SHALL BE WITNESSES UNTO ME both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and UNTO THE UTTERMOST PART OF THE EARTH.” (Acts 1:8)
This tells us how superior, influential and powerful the anointing can be. But even with that, we see men like Samson and Saul messing up their lives.
So my question here is why do some men and women of God with powerful anointing fall into scandalous sin and condemnation even when they have such powerful influence over their lives?
The problem, I know, is because such men and women lack character. They have not taken time and pain to develop a godly character.
We live in a generation and in a dispensation where believers have placed too much premium and importance on the anointing and the giftings of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing wrong with that. I love the anointing and I always thank God for it. But this is what we have to bear in mind: that no matter how anointed we may be, if we lack a strong, solid and a godly character to stiffen it up, we will only end up destroying ourselves. We will be messing up big time.
Samson for example fell, not because there was a problem with the anointing. He fell because he lacked the needed character of discipline, decency and obedience.
Many of the problems of believers have to do with a vessel problem and not a defect in oil. Our character is what determines the influence of the oil - the anointing – we carry. This makes the correlation between character and the anointing very strong.
Therefore, in desiring the anointing, the first thing we have to work on is our vessel by exercising ourselves first unto godliness. Because until we have taken the time and pain to develop a solid and a godly character, there is no way God will trust us with a serious anointing.
In his book, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Peter Tan wrote: “The anointing that God puts on His servants is such a precious commodity that God expects consecration from His vessel before He puts it upon them.” He was making reference to character in that comment he made and it is very scriptural.
This makes character building a strategic and a stepping stone to unlimited access in the supernatural. But unfortunately, many folks see it not as so.
They are interested in the manifestations of the Spirit more than the fruits of the Spirit. The oil rather than the vessel. The mantle rather than the body (vessel). And of course charisma rather than character.
Many folks in Christendom today are too obsessed about the anointing. Some even leave the comfort of their homes to stay on mountains tops and in forests, seeking the face of God for it. Some can be there for as long as three to four or five years praying and seeking the face of God through fasting and thirsting for the anointing. They neither eat, bath nor pomade themselves. All they do is to holler in prayers from morning till evening expecting some supernatural power to fall on them.
They are all good and I write not condemn any. But the truth here is that, there is rather a diplomatic way of approaching such request and in doing so it necessitates that we do the first things first. Until we have done what is supposed to be done, there is no way we can be blessed with what we seek. But unfortunately, many folks don’t understand it that way. They rather believe by fasting themselves to death and by being harsh on their body, they will receive some kind of “power.”
I attribute this ignorance to lack of Wisdom and also youthful exuberance.
My own experience.
I happen to be a victim myself. I fasted and waited on God for three good years expecting to receive some kind of anointing. I was only a secondary school student then. I would fast from 6:00 in the morning to 6:00 in the evening every day without even taking a sip of water.
All this while, I was also a nonresident student, I would journey all the way from my house to school spending hours in buses and several hours walking. I didn’t know I was killing myself then.
Those days were my crazy moment as an adolescent believer. I was so desperate and thirsty for spiritual power. At some point in time, my own mother and sister even began to suspect me because I wouldn’t even pomade nor comb my hair.
As a means of deterring me from that miserable lifestyle, there were even times she refused me money for school as I refused to take breakfast. She always gave me an option every morning to choose. That is either I will take a breakfast or will have no money for school. Anytime she proposed that option, I just ignored her and looked for money elsewhere and went. This was how stubborn I was. She would later suspect that I was an occultist.
I grew so lean and malnourished to the extent that, if you had known me before, you would begin to fear for me. You would either think I have been attacked by a deadly virus or was being abandoned to die.
I was engaged with questions at every corner of the street both from relatives, friends and sympathizers. They asked me questions like, “Is there anything wrong with you? Are you sick? Why have you grown so lean?” and many others I don’t even want to mention.
My mother reported me to several elders and pastors but they all couldn’t convince me the least because I felt I knew what I was doing. I would listen to them all right but would later turn back living my old life.
I can remember vividly that one evening, my mother came back from a prayer retreat with bottled water in her hands which was so unusual of her. When I asked for its purpose, she told me it was given to her by a visiting prophet for her personal use. I believed her because she further explained to me that it was for a prophetic direction that came up.
Unknowingly, I was the cause of that water. She had told the prophet the problems she was having with me and as a remedy, the prophet gave her the bottled water. He told her to sprinkle it in my food anytime she cooks for me.
She was told by the prophet that I was under a strong occultic spirit and that the only way she could deliver me out was to be sprinkling the water in my food, which will expose and liberate me with time.
That couldn’t be by the spirit of God because it wasn’t true. I was only on fire for God. I wonder the spirit at work in that prophet then. If we were to be in the Old Testament era, he would have been stoned to death. I would have personally enforced that.
But then, I opened myself for all this to happen because I lacked wisdom then. However, as I began to mature in Christ, I realized I had it all wrong and was off at a different tangent.
God in His wisdom, who knows all the heart of men, knew I would have messed my life up had He given me that kind of power I was seeking. Perhaps, it could have infested me with pride as a young boy and would have shattered my ministry for good. I see that as a great deliverance from evil.
Moreover, I failed in doing the first things first. I was seeking for an oil without a vessel to contain it. I didn’t know I was calling trouble for myself.
Correlation between the vessel and the oil
The word character is not often seen in scriptures. Most of the time, when we come across it, it points to a different connotation other than what we are looking at in the scope of this book.
Despite the scarceness of this word in the bible, it will intrigue you to know that it is given considerable attention in it. It is just that, the Bible speaks of it allegorically or figuratively.
One way it speaks of it is by referring to it as a vessel. It happens to be the main vessel that carries the oil: not the converse. (The oil also happens to be a symbol of the anointing.)
The correlation between the oil and the vessel is a mutual one in that they both benefit from each other.
However, there are instances where they don’t get on well with each other. They become harsh on themselves. When that happens, they are both ruined and wasted as the bible describes.
In one of Jesus’ answers to the disciples of John and the Pharisees, He said, “. . . NO MAN PUTTETH NEW WINE INTO OLD BOTTLES: ELSE THE NEW WINE DOTH BURST THE BOTTLES, AND THE WINE IS SPILLED, AND THE BOTTLES WILL BE MARRED: BUT NEW WINE MUST BE PUT INTO NEW BOTTLES.” – (Mark 2:22).
In the above scripture, what Jesus was simply saying was that, an oil or wine has to be placed in its suitable or rightful vessel. The reason He gave was very simple: that is to avoid ruining the vessel and the subsequent spilling of the oil.
When an oil or wine is not put into its rightful vessel or bottle in the natural, it is likely to be spilled. This happens after it has ruined or marred the vessel like Jesus said.
The same way spiritually, we are likely to lose the oil (anointing) we carry if our character doesn’t suit it. This is why we don’t have to despise character. Because it has such a great influence on the oil.
Many young ministers today have either despised, rejected or are ignorant of the impact their character have on the anointing they carry. They care less how they live their life as long as the anointing still flows. They see nothing wrong with themselves fornicating or committing adultery, as long as they can still give a word of knowledge, wisdom, and can discern the spirit behind every manifestation.
I once heard a prophet say to a bartender, “Don’t look at what I do. When the time comes for me to drink, I drink, referring to alcohol, and when it is time to prophesy, I prophesy.” This is amazing. Isn’t it?
At one time also, I heard one evangelist say that he visits the night club every Saturday evening to see what goes on there for himself. I wouldn’t even have been much bothered supposing he had said, he went there once. But he said emphatically, “I go there every Saturday evening only to see what happens in the house of Satan.”
“I never knew Satan’s house was that lively and refreshing” he continued preaching.
As I listened to him intently, I just said in my heart, “your own mouth has started betraying you.”
Just as Solomon asked, the question is, “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?” or “Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?” The answer is a BIG NO. That man will either end up burning his clothes or bruising his feet.
Such always end up losing the anointing. They also end up ruining their lives and ministries.
How we live our lives as men and women of God is very important. It has an influence on the anointing and we shall be judged for it as well. We shall be judged for every single thing we do in and with our bodies.
This is why we have to be selective in the type of music we listen to, the places we visit, the companies we keep, and most importantly, the character we present or put up. Because it can either make us or unmake us.
But unfortunately, many Christian folks don’t understand and see it that way. Once they are anointed, they care less what happens to their body or what they do with their body and therefore get into error. Hardly do they know that what is done with the body is as important as what is done with the anointing. Because we shall equally account for them as we will do for the anointing.
The Apostle Paul in his second epistle to the Corinthian church wrote, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; THAT EVERY ONE MAY RECEIVE THE THINGS [DONE] IN [HIS] BODY, according to that he hath done, WHETHER [IT BE] GOOD OR BAD.” We have an account to give for every single thing that happens to our body.
Just as we expect God to supernaturally anoint us, He also expects consecration from us. One way we can do that is by exercising ourselves unto godliness just as Apostle Paul wrote to Pastor Timothy.
Character does not come with the anointing package. It is something we have to develop ourselves just like Paul said, “. . . exercise yourself. . .” We are to exercise ourselves in it.
God for example, gave Adam many things including a garden, a wife, a congregation of wild lives, trees and other stuffs which in this particular context can be portrayed symbolically as the anointing.
On the day of his inauguration as the Senior Pastor of Eden, he was commissioned by the General Overseer-Jehovah- to have all the created things under subjection and to bear rule over them. (Gen.1:28). More importantly, He was also told to work, dress and to keep the garden (his church). God presented to him the dos and don’ts of that garden.
”And the LORD God took the man and
put him into the garden of Eden TO
DRESS IT AND TO KEEP IT. And the LORD
God commanded the man, saying, Of
every tree of the garden THOU MAYEST
FREELY EAT: But of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, THOU SHALT
NOT EAT OF IT: for in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
(Genesis 2:15-17)
Just as seen in the Scripture above, God told Adam to dress and keep the garden.
Adam truly fulfilled the ministry of the garden dressing. He did that by naming the animals, feeding them with food, trimming the bushes and the herbs, nourishing the weak creatures and by making sure, the rivers were flowing freely and stuff. Adam really worked and dressed the garden as the resident pastor of Eden.
He actually had no problem with that assignment because of the anointing he carried. He was supernaturally empowered by God to do that. Notice that God breathed into Adam in Genesis 2:7 and that was a form of supernatural and spiritual empowerment.
Adam depended on the anointing to work and dress the garden. The anointing and the Spirit he had made that very simple for him. But when it came to the ministry of keeping, he failed totally as the ordained pastor and shepherd of His local congregation. He couldn’t subdue nor keep his church members under subjection. He gave names to all the animals including the serpent and the woman, but then he couldn’t have them in subjection. He also pruned and dressed all the trees but also couldn’t resist their temptations.
All these befell him because he lacked a vessel. Adam failed completely in the ministry of keeping because of his character. He couldn’t have the woman and the serpent in subjection and ended up disobeying God. Adam messed up completely even though he carried divine inspiration.
What went wrong? Very simple. It all had to do with character. He lacked discipline and decency.
He had an anointing to work and dress the garden but then, he lacked the needed character to keep it. God only gave him the anointing but never included character. He made character an alternative for him.
You see, God is a perfect gentleman and never overrides our will. He allows us to decide for ourselves. He doesn’t compel us to love Him, neither does he compel us to worship Him. He allows us to decide for ourselves.
This is what exactly transpired in the Eden. God gave Adam the liberty to make and take his own decisions. That is why God could say, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.” In other words, God was telling Adam he was responsible for his own decision and actions because after all, the bible bears witness that: THE Heavens are His but the Earth hath he given to the CHILDREN OF MEN.
As seen in Genesis chapter 2:16, God said to Adam, “thou mayest freely eat . . . but of . . . thou shalt not eat.” The words mayest and shalt were used by God in telling Adam that he had a choice to make and that it was his alone. He was indirectly telling man that he could either decide to obey or disobey or also choose to be faithful or rebellious. It is quite amazing. He never imposed anything on Him when it came to the issue of decision making which happens to be an aspect of character.
Notice that when God said,” . . . thou mayest freely eat”, it was different from his earlier statement to Adam which said, “BE FRUITFUL, MULTIPLY, SUBDUE . . . AND HAVE DOMINION”. Clearly, we can see that the former looks like an advice while the latter undoubtedly appears to be a command.
In the former statement, all what God was saying was, over to you: possess your own vessel the way it pleases you. But at the end of the day, Adam portrayed a character and took a course that matched not with the anointing he carried and fell by losing everything.
Adam could dress the garden but then failed in keeping it. It was all because he lacked the character of decency and discipline.
Many preachers in our dispensation happen to be victims of this adamic plague: they are good in dressing and addressing people with the sweet fragrance of the oil they carry but when it comes to keeping and stabilizing them in Christ, they fail. It is so because they lack character.
There are many pastors today who are very good in starting projects and churches but in the long run, they end up losing all that they’ve labored for.
With the anointing upon, they are able to make innovation and spark revolution but the absence of character alone kills everything.
As ministers of the gospel, our greatest focus should be in how best we can keep and not how we can dress.
We shouldn’t only be known by the anointing we carry. We also have to make ourselves known by our character.
It is the anointing for example that makes a preacher attractive to a congregation but it takes character for the same congregation to approve him. It is just like a young man who feels attracted by a woman’s beauty to marry her. After they’ve married, it takes the single factor of character to sustain the marriage covenant. Beauty doesn’t sustain marriage; it is character that does. Other than that, the most beautiful women would have had the most stable marriages. But it doesn’t always happen that way. We need the anointing and we also need character.
With the anointing, we show forth the power of Christ but with character, we showcase His pattern of life. The combination of the two will make us better people on earth. That was what made Jesus’ ministry unique. He was a man of character and of power (dunamis and exousia). He knew when to walk on water and when to walk on land.
The Importance of the vessel to the oil
As much as an oil or ointment is important in every household, the Holy Spirit and the anointing is also important in the life of every believer.
We discussed early on that the oil - anointing - and the vessel are involved in a mutual relationship. The vessel needs the oil and the oil needs the vessel. But in my own opinion, I believe the oil needs the vessel more. Because as a matter of fact, any vessel can be without liquid but hardly will any liquid exist by itself without a container to keep it.
Owing to this I shall seek to explain how important the vessel is to the oil.
From our knowledge of matter, we know that liquids have no definite or defined shape: they are free moving and unstable. They are very wild when left alone. They are only tamed and defined when they are inside a vessel.
Physically, liquids are shapeless: they have no shape. They only mimic the shape of their vessels or containers they are poured into. When a liquid for example is poured into a circular bowl, it appears circular and when it is also poured into a cylindrical container, it appears cylindrical. The shape they assume is dependent on the shape of their vessel.
Liquids are not very stable. We can verify this by pouring a sample of liquid-water- on the ground and observing its motion thereof. We will notice that they all move in different directions creating different branches and heads not knowing exactly where they are flowing to. They are undefined and very unstable.
That’s why when someone really wants to leave you with a curse; he does so by pronouncing this unique feature of liquid, specifically water, upon you – the curse of instability.
Reuben - the first born son of Jacob - was a victim of such pronouncement. The pronouncement upon Reuben can be analyzed in two different perspectives. That is either as a curse or as a word of caution.
I want us to briefly consider it because it has a lot to say to us especially under this particular context.
Jacob said to Reuben: “Reuben, thou *art+ my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: UNSTABLE AS WATER, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou [it]: he went up to my couch.”
Jacob pronounced this curse as some would say on Reuben due to the grudge he was harboring in his heart against him: Reuben went to bed with one of his concubines, Bilhah.
When analyzed in that direction, all Jacob was saying to Reuben was, “Reuben, just like the instability and unsteadiness of water by itself, you will not excel.” Of course this sounds like a curse.
But looking at this pronouncement again in a different sense, you will find it to be a word of caution and an advice, not a curse. What Jacob was implicitly saying to Reuben was, “ Reuben, you are not too different from water in that, you allow your motives, feelings, temper and its likes to warp your judgments, convictions, and actions: if you feel like having sex, you have it. If you also feel like insulting you insult. There is no self control in you just like how water by itself has no control. You have no visions and ambitions: you flow to where you so wish.”
The man of God went to say: “Reuben, if you continue to behave like water, which has no control by itself, you will not excel. If you continue to live your life without Jehovah - a life with no direction, you will not prevail.”
When the scripture is looked at this way, it becomes a word of caution and not a curse. And I strongly believe that this was what the man of God was really insinuating. Jacob was cautioning him, other than cursing him. Yes it is true that Reuben lost his birthright – a symbol of preeminence in power - to the sons of Joseph but that doesn’t mean he was cursed. Losing your position to a person of a lower rank at your work place doesn’t mean you’re cursed. Does it? No.
Notice what Jacob said to Reuben in Genesis chapter 49:3. He said, “Reuben, thou [art] my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. . . ”
The Message Bible goes at it this way: “Reuben, you're my firstborn, my strength, first proof of my manhood, at the top in honor and at the top in power . . .”
What Jacob meant by this was, “Reuben, you are my first born and through you, I was made a man. In my weakness, you became my strength and in my failure, you showed up as my success. You are at the top in honor and at the top in power . . .”
Who is Jacob speaking to here? Is it not Reuben? He kept referring to him as his strength and the first proof of his manhood. If that was what Reuben was unto Jacob, then I personally don’t think such a person deserves to be cursed. Jacob didn’t curse him either.
When Jacob said, “. . . unstable as water thou shalt not excel”, he was rather cautioning other than cursing him. With regards to the incidence that had previously happened, all Jacob was saying to Reuben was, “Reuben, you could have chosen to resist the temptation of sleeping with my concubine. But because you lacked self-control and stability like water, you couldn’t resist that temptation. You went right ahead and climbed my bed, defiling it. But if you continue in such unstable behaviors, thou shalt not excel. ” As simple as that. Isn’t this the best advice a father can ever give to a backslidden son?
But whichever way we look at this pronouncement, what really matters to us in this particular context is the phrase, “UNSTABLE AS WATER.”
Like many liquids, water is very shapeless, unstable, and undefined. The Oil – a symbol of the anointing – operates in like manner. It is very unstable, undefined, and of indeterminate dimension. Once it comes upon the head, it flows where it wills. “It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, [even] Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments” (Psalm 133:2).
The anointing just like water is unstable. It only becomes stable when it is put in a vessel - a godly individual or a person of character. Character is what shapes and molds the anointing. It makes the anointing more stable and defined. The oil (anointing) can’t exist by itself. It needs a vessel. Without a vessel, it is unstable and unsteady. So in a nutshell, what a vessel does to an oil is that it molds it. Under this context, it means, character molds the anointing.
Also, one thing a good and available vessel does to an oil is that, it multiplies it. We can verify this in 2 Kings Chapter 4:1-7. A woman who happened to be a wife of one of the sons of the prophet lost her husband. The creditor came in to take her two sons to be bondmen because of the outstanding debt left behind by her dead husband. After crying to Elisha