And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God...

— Genesis 3:8

Man was created by a God of love for relationship and fellowship with Himself. Man walked with God, talked with God, and lived in the glory of God. But Adam then disobeyed God’s command, violated His Word, and sinned. When the sin occurred, God did not hide from man, leave man, or separate Himself from man, but man hid himself from God! Fear became man’s master, and guilt and condemnation ruled His thought-life; Adam had disrupted the very reason for his existence: intimate fellowship with God. So God sent Jesus to the Cross; Jesus became sin, became the curse, to restore man’s fellowship to God. He made man righteous and holy, with a God-nature in the new birth, so fellowship could be restored by His Blood. Even though this work is finished and Jesus will never suffer and die again, many Christians are still hiding from God, not enjoying His presence, because of an evil conscience. An evil conscience is a mind-set that is focused on your daily performance rather than Jesus’ performance on the Cross. It focuses on sin rather than righteousness and will produce fear, guilt, and condemnation rather than peace with God. Let the Blood purge your conscience from dead works so you can serve and have fellowship with God (Hebrews 9:14). Put your faith in His Blood, not in your performance.

And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

— Luke 4:1

To be filled with the Spirit is an experience that we have overlooked in the Body of Christ.  It is one thing to be able to say you are filled with the Holy Ghost, but it is another thing to live filled with the Holy Ghost.  When you live filled with the Holy Ghost, the divine nature of God will manifest in your life.  You will be patient and kind and never rude, irritable, angry, or out of control.  There will be a peace that rules your life in the midst of storms and you will be stable, no matter what comes your way.  Even if the devil himself shows up and starts to challenge you with “if’s” and “but’s,” you will be in a position to say “It is written” and run him off.  You will worship the Lord your God and simply tell Satan to get behind you in the time of temptation.  Why is this life available?  Why can you live in peace and joy in the midst of a sinful world?  Why can you live free of the curse and be used by God to set others free?  Because not only are you filled with the Holy Ghost, but you are now led by the Holy Ghost.  You can hear His voice, you can follow His promptings, you can be led into all truth and all the right decisions.  Practice hearing His voice, expect Him to speak to you, get alone with Him in your secret place and get to know Him!  The result will be a life in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14).

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

— Luke 4:18

Not only was Jesus anointed with the Spirit of the Lord, but He knew He was anointed.  He knew He had received the ability to preach, to heal, to deliver, to recover, and to set at liberty all of mankind.  He did not deny the power and ability that He had received in order to remain humble, but He proclaimed the Spirit that He had in His life.  He was not like the Church of today, which claims “God has all the power and I am just weak and hopeless.”  He claimed what He had received and told others of His ability and anointing.  Don’t you ever be ashamed to claim the gift that God has given you and that Jesus has provided.  Do not get caught up in the religious cliché of the day.  If the Spirit came upon you, then you are anointed to preach, to heal, to deliver, to recover, and to set free.  It is not humility to deny what God has given you; it is unbelief to refuse to claim what you have been endued with.  Jesus proclaimed “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and He has anointed me!”  If you refuse to claim the “God-ability” given to you, you will resort to giving sympathy to the brokenhearted, a dog to the blind, a hearing aid to the deaf, and a card to the sick and bound.  You have the Spirit upon you-–you are anointed with the Spirit and power.  Tell others, tell yourself, of the ability you now possess.

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,

— 2 Peter 1:3

God “hath” already given us everything we need for the natural life and the supernatural life.  We are lacking nothing.  He “hath given” the believer an anointing, which is the power and ability of God.  The anointing is the spiritual equipment that allows you to live prosperously, healthily, and victoriously.  For over 2000 years now, the Church has been given all it needs–-yet we see Christians sick, depressed, broke, and defeated.  It is not because God does not care or because we have no choice, but it is because we have failed to understand the power and ability that is ours in the anointing.  We spend hours praying for power, asking God to send the power, depending on a God in heaven to do in our lives what He has given us the power to do.  We have bowed to situations that we have power to overcome, we have sought God to free us from circumstances that we have ability to blast out of our lives.  We blame God for the state of the world and of the Church, as if He is holding back on us, keeping His power and ability locked up in a reservoir in heaven until we pray and plead enough for Him to release just a dab.  But the Word says He has given us all we need to overcome and live in victory.  The problem is not with God or on God’s end.  We must learn to receive and believe what He has given us!