THE ANOINTING BREAKS THE YOKE
By Pastor James May
It seems that the church is under an all-out attack from the powers of darkness. Everyone I speak to is experiencing new troubles, new attacks that they have never seen before. The devil knows that his time is short and he is doing all he can to destroy God’s people and to discourage them in their work for the Lord.
Every one of our churches is under this same duress. Not only is God doing a sifting process to make our lives pure and holy before him, but Satan desires to sift each of us like wheat, just as Jesus said to Peter, in Luke 22:31, "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:"
My brothers and sisters, we cannot stand under the power of Satan’s sifting by ourselves. We must have the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost that gives us the power to be over comers in this life.
Isaiah 51:23, "But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over."
Never, in the history of mankind, has there been so much sin abounding in the earth. Satan is like the enemies of Israel who said to the Jews, Bow down to me, I’m going walk all over you. I’m going to use your life to accomplish my will. I’m going to use you as my stepping stones to defeat the Kingdom of God. I’m going to trample your life, stomp on your Jesus, and push your face into the mud of your sin.
All too often, God’s people do just exactly what the devil wants them to do. I see God’s people as they bow down before the devil. They may not know that’s what they are doing but that’s exactly what they are doing.
The devil shouts into your ear that you will never make it – you don’t have what it takes to live for Jesus. Do you know that Satan knows how to use God’s own words against you if you can’t discern his methods. He twists that word until he makes us believe what he wants us to believe. NO, we don’t have what it takes to live for Jesus within our own power. NO, we will never make it on our own.
But praise the Lord Jesus Christ and give glory to his wonderful name for we don’t have to bow down and let the devil trample all over us because we have the power through the anointing of the Holy Ghost that will break that yoke of fear that grips our hearts.
I know I can’t preach without Him! I know that I can’t do anything on my own, but bless the Lord, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! I’ll not bow down and be a part of the devil’s pathway to destroy the church. I’ll not be a stepping-stone for him to trample under foot.
The devil has only one place in your life and that’s under the feet of Jesus Christ who lives inside of you!
Pastors, its easy to become discouraged sometimes when we seek our congregation shrinking instead of seeing it grow. It’s easy to get down, bow down, if you will, to the fear that Satan whispers in your ear that your church isn’t going to make it. The devil knows that if he can get you down in the dumps, discouraged and downhearted, and get your attitude to become negative toward the Lord, then he has effectively destroyed your faith in God’s ability to deliver and destroyed your church and your ministry.
My brothers and sisters, we cannot bow down and become a stepping-stone for the devil. We must stay on our faces before the Lord, seeking his face, seeking for revival, praying without ceasing, petal to the metal praying for the anointing that breaks the yoke of oppression, doubt and fear.
Young man and young woman, don’t let Satan make you to bow down before him. He will scream in your face to bow down and serve him. He will pass every temptation he can bring before you in an effort to draw your eyes off of Jesus. He will bring fear of failure to your heart and convince you that you will lose every enjoyment in your life. He will use your old friends to make your knees buckle, not in prayer to God, but in service to his will and to fulfill the desires of the flesh. Satan will send the hounds of hell after you to fill your life, your heart and your mind with every sin that hell can muster.
You can’t stop the thoughts of sin from flashing through your mind no more than you can stop a bird from flying over your head, but, you don’t have to let that bird build a nest in your hair, and you don’t have to dwell on the thoughts that Satan brings either. If you are caught up in sin and it has gripped your heart, there is only one remedy – fall on your face before God in repentance. You can’t get rid of it by yourself!
Speaking to a large audience, Evangelist D.L. Moody held up a glass and asked, "How can I get the air out of this glass?" One man shouted, "Suck it out with a pump!" Moody replied, "That would create a vacuum and shatter the glass." After numerous other suggestions Moody smiled, picked up a pitcher of water, and filled the glass. "There," he said, "all the air is now removed." He then went on to explain that victory in the Christian life is not accomplished by "sucking out a sin here and there," but by being filled with the Holy Spirit.
You need the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost to overcome the onslaught of Hell’s attacks! Just showing up in church is great. Singing songs of praise and worship is great. But, you need the baptism in the Holy Ghost if you are going to be a warrior in God’s Army and clean out all of the sin in your life.
Most of God’s people are afraid to witness about Jesus to anyone! It’s as though we expect to lose the battle and the war against the powers of Hell. We are afraid to stand up and be counted. We are afraid of being rejected. Understand this, that it isn’t you that’s being rejected, it’s the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice upon the cross that’s being rejected if that happens.
You don’t hate the mail man, you just don’t want to get the bills! You don’t hate the TV, you just hate the filth it can bring into your home! You don’t hate the messenger, you hate the message!
That’s the way it is with witnessing. Don’t let the devil make you bow down and walk all over you when he shouts rejection of the message you carry.
Get full of the Holy Ghost, then you can look him dead in the eye and tell him that he can reject the message all he wants to but the truth is the truth whether he accepts it or not. If that one that you are witnessing to rejects your message, then you have done your duty and they will have to face the consequences of not receiving and obeying God.
It’s not your ability to talk that matters; it’s your willingness to be a vessel in God’s Kingdom. It’s not your power of persuasion that will make the difference; it’s the anointing of the Holy Ghost within you that will break the yoke of sin in the heart of the unbeliever. It’s the anointing of the Holy Ghost that will cause the witness that you give to spark belief into the heart that is prepared and ready to come to Christ.
Acts 1:8, "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 Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
I see a lot of Christians who bow down and become a street for the devil to trample into the dust when they refuse to be faithful to the house of God. They would rather walk around all week carrying their own burdens than to give them to Jesus. They would rather satisfy the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and they are filled with too much pride to admit that they have bowed their body to the devil to fulfill the lusts thereof.
My friends, we need the anointing of the Holy Ghost to break that yoke of an uncommitted life. You can make all the resolutions you want. You can make all the vows to God that you want to make. But, nothing but the power of the Holy Ghost in your heart and life will bring the victory you need.
Zechariah 4,6 still says, "...Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts."
Satan has invaded our churches. He has invaded our homes. He has invaded our families. His demonic powers of hell have invaded every facet of life. You can’t turn on the TV without some Physic line commercial coming on. You can’t even look at the daily newspaper with the occult being made manifest in the Astrological charts and the horoscopes. You can’t pick up many books, outside of the Bible, anymore where you don’t run the risk of being confronted with sexual immorality, drugs and violence. You can’t turn on your computer and get onto the Internet without running a risk of getting caught up in a flood of pornography that will clutter your mind and destroy your living soul.
Yes, my friends, Satan’s power has come in like a flood. But Jesus’ promise still holds true today…
Isaiah 59,19 "...When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him."
What is that standard? What is it that will drive back the powers of hell from your heart, life, mind, eyes and ears? It is the anointing of the Holy Ghost that will break that yoke of sin and lift up the blood stained banner of the Cross of Jesus Christ. It is the power of the blood of Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Ghost in your life that brings you victory in all of these things.
Isaiah 10:27, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing."
In the day that the anointing of the Holy Ghost comes, in the hour that we finally get filled with the power of God, in the same moment that we are endued with the power to over come – that’s the time when the burden of sin shall be lifted! That’s the time when the weights that have caused you to stumble and fall in the race of life will fall away! All because it is the anointing that breaks the yoke that has you bowed low!
You will be able to lift your head up high! Your step will be quicker and lighter! You will mount up in your spirit as though you were lifted on eagle’s wings. All because the anointing of the Holy Ghost has broken the oppressive power of sin in your life.
Isaiah 10:33-34, "Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one."
I’m sure that most of you feel as I do – it’s time for us to take the upper hand through the power of that God gives us to over come every hindrance to building a district, building a church, building a ministry, building a kingdom in the hearts and lives of the lost.
I’m tired of the bragging, high-minded and proud spirit that I hear from so many of the preachers and people who call themselves Christians. I can hardly stand to watch preachers on the TV or listen to many of them on the radio anymore because they have such a “high-minded” spirit about them. “Look at me! Look at my church! Look at my ministry! Look at how God is using me! - I hear the bragging words, the prideful spirit is evident and self-serving attitude will knock you down. They prey upon those who have no power to discern a wolf in sheep’s clothing!
One preacher said, "I believe firmly that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and everything that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts. But if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. We must be emptied before we can be filled
God will not share his glory with any man! It’s by no power of your own that you have been blessed preacher, and if you don’t quit bowing down before the devil so he can walk over your back to fool God’s people into following a man, the anointing is going to break that yoke too. God knows how to bring down the proud. He knows how to stop the mouth of the arrogant! The anointing will break your yoke and you will find that the yoke of sin has snapped it’s terrible weight around you!
But there is good news for you too! The anointing power of the Holy Ghost can break that yoke if you will just turn to him in repentance! Remember 1 Peter 5:6, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:"
One thing that Satan has screamed into the spiritual ear of the church is that it isn’t necessary any longer to be faithful to the house of God to make heaven your home! What a lie from the pit of hell that is!
Yet we see churches canceling Sunday evening and mid-week services. We see pastors who change their service times to accommodate the will of the people without hearing the will of God first. We see churches that have Friday evening services so that their people can get their weekly fix, feel that they have done God a favor for showing up for an hour and sleeping in God’s house, then they are free to spend the rest of their weekends satisfying the desires of the flesh.
GOD HELP US – its no wonder that the church of today is such a weak, emaciated, powerless, social club and not a soul saving station. The anointing of the Holy Ghost has departed and written Ichabod across their doorways. They claim to have a great move of the Spirit when it is mostly flesh that’s being satisfied and the spirit inside of the members walks away from God’s own house stilled starved to hear from God Almighty.
Leviticus 10:7 says, "And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you…." And Leviticus 21:12 says, "Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the LORD."
My God, no wonder so many people are falling away from the Kingdom of God! No wonder so many churches are dying and closing their doors for good. It’s a testimony to the absence of the anointing of the Holy Ghost! Leave that anointing behind and you die spiritually. Leave that anointing behind and we begin to take for granted the presence of God in our midst and it won’t be long until we begin to profane, or mistreat, or disregard altogether, the things of God. The Sanctified life is no more! Holiness is a thing of the past! Reverence for the House of God disappears! We are left in a pitiful state of spiritual death!
James 5:14, "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:"
Is your soul sick tonight? Is your heart broken tonight over the condition of the church? I your mind troubled by the shouts of fear, dread, arguments, vanity of the flesh and any other yoke that Satan has laid upon you bow you down so he can trample over you?
James has your answer! If you have heeded the call to bow down and Satan has convinced you of his lies, if you feel there is no hope of revival coming to your church, to your life, to your family; if you are afraid of what the world may think; if you are afraid of what your friends may say; if you are totally caught up in fulfilling the needs and desires of this life and you haven’t had the time or taken the time to be close to the Lord – tonight is your night!
All of the pastors, ministers and elders of the church are here. Maybe even some of them need to be delivered from the same yoke! None of us are immune to Satan’s lies!
I know that the anointing of the Holy Ghost is here right now! I know that it is that anointing that can break any yoke that has you bowed down before the devil. Don’t let the devil keep walking all over you! Get to this altar right now and let the power of the Holy Ghost flood over you and break that yoke!
Come on, come on right now, and don’t delay! God is here! The Holy Ghost is here! The Lord is here! And he is here to set you free and break that yoke!
Lord Jesus send the power of the Holy Ghost right now! Refill your people with that power from on High! Let your people be set free from every yoke of bondage! Give us faith for out doubts and fears! Give us healing for our sin-sick souls! Give us the anointing that breaks the yoke right now!
