Have you ever been in a situation that you knew just did not feel right in your heart, in your soul, and you knew you should just leave it but instead did nothing and entertained the flesh?
Do these moments of weakness cause Christians to lose the consecration the Lord anointed over their lives when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and are washed clean by His blood?
In his recent discussion with Charisma Media founder Stephen Strang on the Strang Report podcast, author and evangelist Benny Hinn opened up about times in the past that he had been wrong, even when he felt unsure of the correctness of his actions. Especially when it came to prophecy and the prosperity gospel.
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“I was not too wise a number of times with prophecy,” Hinn says.
It was in these errors that Hinn admitted to bringing harm to himself and others by offering up such statements.
“Their prophecies were not really a prophecy. They went outside the borders of redemption,” Hinn says. “There were times when I thought God had showed me something that He wasn’t showing me. And I spoke it out.”
Hinn is no stranger to the study of God’s anointing within the text of the Bible. He even wrote a book about it called “Mysteries of the Anointing” and came to the conclusion that, yes, a Christian can lose the anointing God has over their life.
These are the six ways Hinn found that the anointing can leave the life of a Christian:
- Entertaining the Demonic. How do they entertain the demonic? They allow demonic things into their lives, like Achan in Joshua 7, who took some kind of a demonic image and hid it in his tent in direct violation of what God had instructed.
- Allowing the Flesh to Pollute It. God says in Exodus 30:32, “Upon man’s flesh shall [the oil of the anointing] be poured.” He is saying, “Do not let the flesh interfere. Do not let your carnal nature and the world get in there.”
- Allowing the Anointing to be Imitated, Borrowed or Stolen. The anointing on you for your ministry or office is the only anointing you can release. You cannot release the anointing inside you, the abiding anointing. You can only release the one on you, the empowering anointing. Releasing it to the right people is the key because this anointing weakens when you release it to undeserving individuals.
- Allowing the Wrong People to Get Close to You. The people you allow to be close can fight God’s plan for you and weaken the empowering anointing on your ministry. If you have people on staff in wrong positions or promote them to positions God has not called them to, it can cause division and hinder the anointing God put on your ministry or office.
- Controlling Spirits. In 3 John 1:9, John warned the church about a controlling man named Diotrephes, who wanted preeminence. He was trying to control peoples’ lives with his religious spirit. If you let someone around you with a religious spirit, they will weaken or kill what God has given you.
- Other People’s Sin. If the wrong people touch you, they will weaken the anointing on you. It says in 1 Timothy 5:22, “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.” So do not lay hands on them—and do not even let them touch you lest you partake of their sin and impurities. Protect yourself from the danger, the witchcraft and the demonic they bring with them.
Thankfully, for all of us, there is redemption in Jesus Christ. No man or woman, either Christian or otherwise, is beyond Jesus’ grasp.
There are times and seasons of correction, repentance and renewal, but according to the words of Paul in Romans 11:29, we do not lose the calling God has for us, “For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.”
We may step out of line and lose God’s protection of our own volition, but we are just as able to get right with Him and correct our mistakes and continue fulfilling the Great Commission.
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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
