What's Missing?

For the last several days, over and over in my spirit, I've been hearing these words – “something is missing". I just can’t shake the thought from my mind. So, I prayed, and this is the scripture God led me to, and He gave me a word to help some people today who have been missing something.

2 Kings 6:1-7 (KJV)

1 And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us.

2 Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye.

3 And one said, be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go.

4 So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood.

5 But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed.

6 And the man of God said, where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim.

7 Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand and took it.

I told my wife just yesterday, food used to be my friend, now it has become my enemy. I used to enjoy eating, now I fear it. Every time I eat, I get sick. Instead of looking forward to eating, I look at it as a necessary evil that I must participate in to survive. Food doesn’t even seem to taste the same to me. Have you ever eaten something, something you really like, maybe your favorite meal? You love the taste of it. It's cooked a special way. Maybe something your grandmother used to make for you, then you taste it, but it doesn't taste the same. Something is missing and you immediately recognize that something is missing. You can still eat it, it won't kill you, it won't poison you, but it's just not what you anticipated. You were anticipating the joy it was about to bring to your body, but it leaves you disappointed. Your taste buds were ready for a party but instead they experience a funeral.

If you have never tasted the real thing, or if you have never tasted the best, you can be satisfied with a substitute or an imitation. But once you have tasted the ‘real thing,’ you can never be satisfied with anything else. You immediately recognize that something is missing. But if you stay with the imitation, the substitute long enough you can get adjusted and get used to it, like sugar for example. When I had to stop using sugar and started to use artificial sweetener. At first, I was like, ‘this stuff is nasty.’ But after years of using the imitation, now I hardly notice. But they have discovered now, that the imitation can lead to cancer – it can kill you.

I am sad to report, that is what the Lord showed me is happening to many of God's people today. They've had the imitation for so long now, that they’ve gotten used to it. But thank God when you're exposed to the authentic again you recognize what you've been missing.

I grew up in a denomination that used to emphasize the gifts of the Spirit as essential. Where messages in tongues and interpretation were normal occurrences. Where holiness was preached and adhered to. But today if you visit one of their churches, you would be hard pressed to find, in most of them, anyone following the old paths.

Instead of staring the service with prayer, they might as well start by saying, ‘lights, camera, action.’ Instead of preaching holiness and leading God’s people into His presence, they have become entertainers. And the standards of holiness: women who look and dress like men with their short hair and tight pants or wearing skirts that barely cover them. Men who refuse to lead, who refuse to stand and worship God or come to an altar of repentance even though they know they need to.

I can't speak for everyone today, so I'll just speak for myself and speaking for myself, in the last five years I've tasted the authentic again. And I can tell you that I have become thankfully and painfully aware that something had been missing. Something had been missing, and it had been missing for a long time. And I had accepted a substitute, I had bought into an imitation, and I had become an entertainer, an actor instead of a pastor. I had gotten used to the imitation. Spiritual cancer had set in and it almost killed me.

I had neglected the presence of the Holy Ghost. I didn’t seek the gifts because I didn’t think I needed them. I was educated, articulate and well groomed. I had all I needed to put on a good show. And for years that is exactly what I did. I put on a show. But without the real thing, eventually sin crept in, until I was exposed as an imposter. Don’t get me wrong, I was called, but I wasn’t equipped. My armor was paper mâché and it was easily pierced.  

Something has been missing many churches and many of your lives and I want to talk to you today about what is missing. I'm going to start by saying, many of you will exclaim, ‘nothing is missing in my spiritual life,’ and I say if you think nothing is missing then your spiritual taste buds are dead, and they need to be restored.

So, what’s missing? In the passage in 2 Kings 6 there was a young Prophet who had borrowed an axe, as he was working the axe the head flew off the handle and into a water hole and sunk to the bottom. The young Prophet immediately recognizes that something is missing. His work became ineffective. He could have just kept going through the motions, trying to cut wood with just the axe handle, but he refused to continue without the axe head.

You are probably saying to yourselves, of course he recognized the axe head was gone it would have been ridiculous to continue working and swinging an axe handle with no cutting power, but in the spiritual realm, it happens all the time. The axe head symbolizes the anointing that makes our work and our effort productive. It is the anointing that produces the signs that Jesus said would follow them that believe.

The prophet immediately quit trying to accomplish the work in his own strength and in his own ability. His words to the prophet Elisha are very interesting: “alas Master! For it was borrowed."

In other words, we do not own it, it is a gift, it's not ours, it belongs to another. It is the anointing of the Holy Ghost. God simply trusts us with His anointing so we can do the work that He has given us. The anointing is that touch of God upon a thing or upon a person that produces Supernatural results. The anointing of the Holy Ghost is the only power that can deliver, it is the only power that can heal, it is the only power that can produce miracles. One of the greatest tragedies of this so called ‘modern-day Christianity’ is they lost the ability to discern when the anointing is present and when it is absent.

The result is that many believers and churches are busy with all kinds of activities and performances that are birthed out of human effort and human wisdom. Not that it's all evil, wicked, or sinful, but it is missing the main ingredient, they are missing the anointing.

The question should not be how talented you are, how good you can sing or play the piano, or preach or teach. The only question that we should all be asking ourselves is: Do we have the anointing of the Holy Ghost? I don't care how good it is, how entertaining it is, how cutting edge it is, or how popular it is, all that matters is whether or not the anointing is present.

Our purpose is to get people to heaven, not to stroke their egos in an ‘I’m okay, you’re okay’ false religion. It is the anointing that breaks the bondage of addiction, it is the anointing that heals, it is the anointing that repairs broken marriages, and it is the Holy Ghost that brings the anointing. You can try and fake it all you want, but without the anointing, there’s something missing in your life and ministry. And that missing ingredient, will eventually cause the Lord to spit you out.

Revelation 3:14-19

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Jesus tells us with his own words the works that I am doing I am doing them by the power supplied by the anointing of the Holy Ghost. He said I cast out devils by the Spirit of God. “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” – Matthew 12:28

Acts 10:38

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him.”

The healings, the deliverances, the feeding of the multitudes, walking on the Water, calming the storm, every miracle that Jesus performed, wee the result of the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Although Jesus was fully God from birth, He never did a miracle or anything of a supernatural until after He was anointed with the Holy Ghost at the Jordan River.

After Jesus was anointed with the Holy Ghost, He immediately began to perform Miracles, cast out devils, heal the sick and do signs of a supernatural character. Friends, if Jesus needed the anointing, how much more do we desperately need the anointing.

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.”

The yoke, the chains of sin are destroyed by the anointing. Nothing less than the anointing can destroy the works of the devil. Nothing less than the anointing can convict us of sin. Nothing less than the anointing can heal the wounded soul and set the captives free.

The young Prophet immediately recognizes something is missing. There is no power, there is no fire, there is no unction, there is no Edge. I believe this should be the motto of every church: “The God that answers by fire let him be God.”

So many today are looking for the churches with the most people. They are judging everything by what is most popular, what is most attractive, what is most socially accepted, what is everybody doing, what is cutting edge, or worst of all, by what is marketable. But popularity has never been the mark or the distinguishing factor of that which is of God. It is the anointing that bears witness to that which is born of Heaven.

Whether it's in a cathedral in Europe, or an arena in Houston Texas filled with a hundred thousand people or whether it's under a brush Arbor or a barn with sawdust on the floor or a tent. The one distinguishing and identifying factor that God is in it, is now and always has been, the anointing. If the anointing is there, heaven will invade that place and miracles will happen, bondages will be broken, the sick will be healed, and lives will be changed forever. But if the anointing is missing, you’re just selling tickets to hell.

So many today are being pacified with look-a-likes and sound-a-likes, with imposters and impersonators. Many people and churches are mistaking charisma for the anointing and talent and passion and excitement are replacing the fire of God on the altar. But the Word says, "Where the spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty.”

Not just excitement, but liberty! Freedom, deliverance, breakthrough, healing, salvation, trans- formation, and miracles! The anointing is the liberating power of God! The anointing liberates those who have been in captivity to sickness and disease, to religion and tradition. The anointing is the Yoke destroying, burden removing power of God. Without the anointing, we may have entertainment, we may have excitement, and we may even have a crowd, but without the anointing, we don’t have real church, and we will never have liberty.  Without the anointing something will always be missing.