Rivers not Swamps

00:00 - Speaker 1 I mean, if you're poor and stuck in a mud hut and poor, it's good to have your sins forgiven, but you also need a message that brings you out of the mud hut. Amen, and the anointing brings the abundance of God. Listen to me now. The anointing brings the abundance and prosperity of God. So the message to the poor is you don't have to be poor anymore. Amen. You have to believe that. 00:26 - Speaker 2 Welcome to the CityLight Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com. Pastor Boyan Jancic and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you. 01:05 - Speaker 1 I want to read to you Isaiah 61. You know, the anointing is such an important subject you have to think it's strange that you don't hear more teaching on it. It seems to be like two extremes. Some churches it's all they talk about. Too many of those have no anointing. But it's all they talk about Just everything, is the anointing. Someone screams into the microphone why isn't that anointed? No, they were loud. They're not necessarily anointed. And then you have churches they never talk about the anointing. 01:43 Yet it's how Jesus ministered. In fact the Bible tells us that Jesus' custom, because he was the traveling, they recognized him as the traveling rabbi, a traveling teacher, and in Luke, chapter 4, it says he would come into town and, as was his custom, and he called for the book of the prophet Isaiah. So that was the custom back then, when you were a traveling rabbi and you rolled into town, they wanted to give the new guy a chance to preach and to read from the Holy Scriptures. So that would be Jesus, and it says his custom was to read. I believe it's not just referring to that one moment in Luke, chapter 4, but when Jesus had an opportunity to bring one message, this was his message from Isaiah 61. The anointing was his message, which is fitting because his last name isn't Christ, but it's a title that means the anointed one, so he was preaching about himself. Amen, we're all on the same page. Okay, let me just so. Christ is not his last name name. Amen, we can all agree on that, because you never know what you run into. 02:52 I was ministering to my contractor. He's over 70 years old, gone to church his whole life, and I'm witnessing to him and ministering to him. And religious people are funny. They got a lot of pride. They usually don't know much. They're the person who comes up to you and says I've read the Bible, but they never read the Bible. But because they went to children's church when they were a kid or something and they know the story of David, they read the Bible. So you know he's going in all these different directions. 03:22 I just want to focus on the cross and the resurrection. The gospel is the power of God. So I bring him to the cross. This is all in the space of a few minutes. Bring him to the cross, to the resurrection, and he says well, what about the flood? Then I said what flood? He said the flood after the resurrection. Wasn't there a big flood that wiped out the earth? And I go, oh man, we got like. 03:45 I'm at the point, you know, I'm celebrating over 25 years of ministry, full-time ministry this year, it just so happens. So I'm at the point where nothing shocks or surprises me anymore. So I have to say no. You mean Noah's flood, that was like way back, like long time ago. Jesus' resurrection, that actually wasn't too long ago, what's a couple of thousand years. 04:13 So it never surprises me how some people view what their lens is, how they view the Lord, how they view the scriptures, how they view this earth that they live in. So a good place to start is just understanding that Christ is not Jesus's last name, it's his title, the Christos, the Christ. It means the anointed one and his anointing, and that anointing makes all the difference, that anointing on you will make all the difference in your life, and that anointing is available to you. That anointing changed my life. If the anointing were to dry up, CityLight wouldn't make it not even one Sunday. The whole thing would fall apart, because the whole thing is sustained by God's presence, CityLight. If there wasn't an anointing, CityLight wouldn't have made it past a few months To just be in the flesh, dry as a bone, forcing things, striving trying to make something happen. Yet everything is just dry and ooh. So this would be Jesus's main message and he says the spirit of the Lord, God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. 05:26 Everything Jesus ever did, he did in and by the anointing. That's why you don't see him doing any kind of miracles until he was anointed at his baptism. Before his baptism he was still fully God and fully man, but he wasn't functioning under the anointing. I know, when I was in Ethiopia, they have these old murals and they showed like a teenage Jesus. Somebody had broken some pots. These are all paintings and you know Jesus was turning the shattered clay pots. He was touching them and turning them into pigeons, probably doves, but, and I go that- seems nice, but it's unscriptural. 06:04 He wasn't. He was not walking on water. Hey Joseph, look what I can do. You're not my real dad anyway. Look what I can do Moonwalks on a lake. He wasn't doing that. Not one blind eye open, not one deaf ear, unstopped. But when he was anointed, his miracle ministry began. 06:30 The Spirit of the Lord, God, is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. So there's a purpose to the anointing. And then he begins to describe what the purpose of the anointing is To preach good tidings, to preach the gospel to the poor. Amen, amen. Writings. To preach the gospel to the poor. Amen. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. 06:53 So the anointing assists in the preaching of the gospel. There's a message to the poor, and it doesn't end with your sins are forgiven. You, I mean, if you're poor and stuck in a mud hut and poor, it's good to have your sins forgiven, but you also need a message that brings you out of the mud hut. Amen. And the anointing brings the abundance of God. Listen to me now. The anointing brings the abundance and prosperity of God. So the message to the poor is you don't have to be poor anymore. Amen. 07:29 You have to believe that For you for your life personally. You have to understand that God's way is abundance, God way is prosperity. Picture a field and it's just full of bramble, bushes and thorns and dust, and does that seem like God's field? That seems like the devil's field. Then picture a field full of flora and fruit and it's just producing abundance, and you ask a five-year-old child hey, which one do you think belongs to God? Which field and which field belongs to Satan? A five-year-old will go oh yeah, the nice green field must be God's. Yet people grow up, they kind of become religiously demented and then they get confused and they don't want to fall into some kind of money trap. No, God will touch you and he'll bring prosperity into every area of your life. The anointing produces prosperity. 08:27 You just need to look at the life of Jesus. Do you ever see him lacking anything People love to talk about? Well, what about Jesus? You know he wore the sandals, the flip-flops, like he just walked around in a white robe and flip-flops. I'm like, brother, can you spare a dime? I need to get to the next town over. I need to get to the next town over. He was a money magnet. They tripped. Look at John, it's either six, seven, they tripped over themselves to give him money when I was suffering financially. I knew the secret. What was going to help me out? It wasn't trying to undo poverty, it was getting more anointing, and that acts as a magnet. This wasn't my point, by the way, but I like to stir up. 09:14 In order for a move of God, you've got to stir up religious people. It's a weird formula to it, but you can't you actually can't make everyone happy and have a move of God. You have to, and that's why, by the way, when Jesus preached this message in Luke 4, when he was done, it was like a two-minute message they gnashed at him with their teeth and took him to the edge of a cliff to toss him headlong over the cliff. So, and then it says I love this part. It says then Jesus, passing through the midst of them, went on his way. What was that about the anointing? Just, he was like I'm not the Messiah you want to kill. You're not the Messiah we want to kill. And he just. But it just means when it's not your time, it's not your time, hallelujah, hallelujah. This means when it's not your time, it's not your time, hallelujah. Yeah, the anointing will bring abundance to you and the anointing is for the brokenhearted. The anointing goes where no therapist can go. The anointing goes where no surgeon can go, and we all pick up a lot of baggage on the highway of life. And people are really, really talking about mental health now and being whole. But the anointing will heal the deepest hurts. Hallelujah To proclaim liberty to the captives. If somebody's bound up, the anointing sets them free, amen. If somebody's bound up, the anointing sets them free, amen, amen. And the opening of the prison to those who are bound. 10:56 By the way, when the anointing comes, when you cooperate with the anointing, it typically pushes you out of your comfort zone, like as you're receiving the anointing. Like the first time I experienced the anointing, I'm 16 years old and I started to weep uncontrollably. That's not very comfortable for a 16-year-old teenager with people around Like you know, 16,. You're like I'm a man, I just stopped crying. I came here by the subway, all by myself. That's what I was thinking, and now I'm shaking like a leaf, crying, and you know, in that moment I have to make a choice. Do I try to be cool and pull away from the anointing, or is this too precious? I'm going to yield. So I chose to yield. Well then, it wasn't just tears running down my face, but a whole lot of something else Snots, mucus everywhere, real messy. But I'll just throw this out there. It's impossible to stay cool and receive from the anointing. God will make sure of it. You can't be proud. You can't be proud and receive from God. There's always a humbling. 12:22 There was a leper called Naaman and he came to Elisha to get a deliverance, to get a healing, and Elisha didn't even look at him. I mean, this was like a general of the Syrian army. There were proper protocols, respect. Elisha wouldn't even talk to him directly. He sent a servant Tell him to dip in the River Jordan seven times. 12:45 The River Jordan is not a pretty river. It's a muddy river, it overflows, it's clayish and the general this is in the Bible. The general goes we have and he lists the rivers in Syria they're pure, they're clean, and this supposed prophet won't even come out and tell me himself. This supposed prophet won't even come out and tell me himself and he wants me to dip in a dirty river. What was the point of that? God will expose your pride to reveal your heart. God will also offend your mind to reveal your heart. 13:14 So when it's time to come to the Lord and you want a miracle breakthrough from the Lord, you can't be cool. You can't. You got to be undone. So I mean, I know how this works. I'm like either I'm going to keep going down my path with my stupid decisions, I'll end up undone anyway the bad way and I'll be just a byword on the side of the street, or I'll become undone in the presence of the Lord and then he'll lift me up, hallelujah. So the Syrian general he goes. You know what. He gets some good counsel. They say look, what do you got to lose? You came out all this way. Just listen to the prophet. And he dips one. And it wasn't just one time, it was seven times. Why? So that he would have six times to feel really stupid? It's like he's dipping in Like I still got this Somebody. It's like he's dipping in Like I still got this Somebody's. I'm on candid camera, aren't I? They're recording me right now. They're trying to make me go viral being a fool. And it says the seventh time he came up he had baby skin. Hallelujah, hallelujah. 14:21 The anointing is to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn. The anointing will comfort you, not with just a there, there, that's earthly, fleshly comfort. Aw, there, there. When the anointing comforts you, it means it fixes the problem that causes your discomfort. That's real comfort, right, I mean the Holy Spirit is known as the comforter. See, we need to teach this more, because the first, the Holy Spirit, is the comforter. I pictured an old man going there. Sonny, things will get better. The Holy Spirit in the sweet, by and by the Holy Spirit, he's the comforter. He comes in to where the mess is and that thing that's causing you discomfort, he aligns and fixes. How am I comforted? I'm comforted because the problem stopped. Amen Brought me great comfort. The problem of sin caused great discomfort. He didn't go there, there, try harder. No, he came in the person of man and went to the cross and gave his life in exchange for ours. That's how he comforted us and eliminated the sin problem. By nailing it to the cross To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes. 15:56 God has a great recycling program. God's recycling program actually works. Any of you ever suspect that the recycling program doesn't work? It doesn't work. People are dropping Apple Air tags in their trash and realizing it all goes to the same place. If you don't believe me, just go buy a Starbucks and a Whole Foods and you know how it has, like the 17 different slots you're supposed to put and you're looking, all the same stuff is in each of the slots. But God's recycling program works. You give him ashes, he gives you beauty. You come with your trash, he gives you gold. When I, in times in my life when I was just broken, I had no Lord, what can I give you? All I have is this mess that I created. He would there. There, come, bring me that nasty, bundled up mess and watch what I can do with it Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. And just please know that God is a God of joy. 17:11 The Bible says that Jesus rejoiced the Greek. There is alegria. It means he leapt, he twirled, he danced and he shouted. That's alegria, because if you're a frontalobian religious scholar, you see everything through a weird religious lens. So you see, you know, in that day Jesus rejoiced. In the movies he goes, and that's Jesus rejoicing. Can you imagine the Son of God and the scripture notes, first of God and the scripture notes. First of all, the scripture says that Jesus was anointed with the oil of joy far above not just a far more and far above than all of his contemporaries. That means in any crowd Jesus was the most joyful one in the bunch. But then when scripture says, in addition to him always being the most joyful one and the movies always show him all weird and depressed, like a 70s California surfer who just took a hit Well, my father has sent me and always like this weird, aloof, distant. Look. No, there was a fire in his eyes and great joy on his countenance. And then the scripture says he rejoiced, that means it was extra extra joy. 18:25 So just note though, because I know sometimes people laugh and then I see others kind of get uncomfortable, they start looking around. Just note that joy does have a sound Like when you think Jesus, how do you think? What do you? What do you think? Joy sounds like? It doesn't sound like a funeral parlor. Joy to me sounds like a party, amen, a festivity. 18:55 The oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. So the anointing is good stuff. The anointing works a change in us. The anointing flows from God, the Holy Spirit. Here he brings God's anointing. In fact, the Holy Spirit's presence is the anointing of God, and it's not Jesus' last name, it's his title, and the Bible pronounces us Christians or little Christs, little anointed ones. So we should have an intimacy with the anointing, an understanding of how the anointing functions, and be in daily contact with the anointing. You show me a sad, miserable Christian. I'll show you a Christian who hasn't experienced a fresh touch a the anointing. You show me a sad, miserable Christian. I'll show you a Christian who hasn't experienced a fresh touch, a new anointing from the Lord in a while and they get swampy. Don't get swampy. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Acts 10.38, let me just read that, acts 10.38, let me just read that. Hallelujah. 20:10 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth. Everything Jesus did, he did in and by the anointing God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and as a result of the anointing, what happened? Good things happened. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Also, we should note, in order to become more advanced theologians, that God is good and the devil is bad. Some people think that God puts sickness on us to teach people a lesson, which means that Jesus went around earth undoing the Father's lessons. Did you catch that? So people think that God causes people to be sick to teach them a lesson? That means Jesus went around undoing the father's lessons. That's crazy. No, the devil brings the sickness. All who were oppressed by the devil. All right, oppressed devil blessed God. Can we agree on that? All right, Jesus went about doing good. And what is the good thing he did? Healing, delivering, setting free. 21:26 I have to get everybody on the same page here, because if you secretly believe that God does sometimes bad things to you, to teach you a lesson, because you believe that your heavenly father is a sociopath. You're not going to go too far with him. You're limiting what you can receive from him because secretly you're wondering if he's going to just cause the other shoe to drop at any moment. So you're like going to receive, but you're skittish Lest a lightning bolt come up. God, good, devil, bad, amen, amen. All right, mark, chapter 5. All right, mark, chapter 5. Jesus always ministered by the anointing. 22:08 It was Luke, chapter 5, where it says that the power of the Lord was present to heal. Also in that same chapter, concerning that meeting that Jesus had, that's, when the men came, there was a paralytic and his friends, and they ripped the roof off and lowered. That's, by the way, the kind of aggression you need to have. But when the whole meeting was finished, you know what they said. We have seen strange things this day, hallelujah. So, as you can see, whenever we don't see strange things for too long, the Lord makes it. So we keep our strangeness. 22:58 Now, a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse. And when she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, if only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well. Why did she want to touch his clothes? Because she recognized the anointing on him. She saw. 23:24 You think, if you saw Jesus, I mean, there wasn't something different about him. They call it it's like a resurgence of the word aura now, aura, aura. Oh, look at the aura on that guy. And that's just your own soulish aura. Maybe you have extra charisma, maybe you have extra confidence, but when the anointing is on your head it glows like a light bulb. And then imagine the Son of God where it says he had the Holy Spirit without measure, God in the flesh. So they recognize there is some stuff from heaven on him, even if they couldn't put it into words and say it's the anointing. I see heaven's substance, I see heaven's stuff. And this woman was illegally outside because under Jewish law, with an issue of blood, she couldn't even be outside, but she was so hungry. And that's a major ingredient to receiving from heaven, to receiving the anointing is a cry, a desire, but not a desire that keeps you on your couch because the evidence of desire is in pursuit. So she illegally left her house Just like in Luke, chapter five, the paralytic wouldn't be deterred and said to his friends listen, lower me down. 24:36 Well, there's no hole in the roof. Well, make one, tear the roof up and lower me. I have to get to Jesus. There's got to be a hunger and a desperation. It is impossible Hear me out. It is impossible to have a desperation and a hunger consistently and for God to not meet you. 24:52 I've never known a person whose testimony was you know, I sought the Lord really intensely for three weeks and he never showed up. It was real. What a waste of three weeks. I have never, I would be honest. I collect testimonies. I've been trying to figure this thing out for a long time now. I've never heard that person. 25:11 There's always something on the other side of the equation, because he said if you search for me with all of your heart, I will be found of you. But he's a God who must be sought after. I will be found of you, but he's a God who must be sought after. There has to be, because people's default position is passivity and they put all the responsibility on God. Well, if he wants to, he'll do it. No, you pursue, you chase, you rip a roof off. You be like Zacchaeus who dangled himself from off a tree just to take a better look at Jesus. She said if I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well. And she illegally goes through the crowd. She recognizes that anointing is just draped over Jesus and she sneaks some off him and immediately the fountain of blood was dried up and she felt, she felt what did she feel? She felt the anointing go into her and she felt the anointing do a work and she felt that she was healed. She felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 26:20 There's a lot of feeling here. For those who say I don't like feeling churches, you know, feeling churches get too emotional. Why is it always about feeling? It's not always about feeling, but it's not always about your frontal lobe either. Do you know what I mean when I say frontal lobe? There's a lot of serious people in the second half of the sanctuary looking at me. So I say frontal lobe and you're your cerebral cortex. Thank God for intelligence. But he's not the holy brain, he's the Holy Spirit and he's going to communicate to you, to your spirit. So if you endeavor to try to understand an eternal God, who is spirit, with your brain, there's going to be a real mismatch there. You aren't going to be able to do it, which is why those theologians, those frontal lobe and scholars are such a hoot. 27:18 You see them on TV, like on a History Channel documentary. I was watching one and they talked about Samson. You know, samson was anointed by God, he had supernatural strength and he killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. And they're telling that you know the reenactment. And then cut and there's the frontalobian scholar. He's got all the books in the background, he's looking very deeply into the camera and this is real and he's playing with the jawbone of a donkey and he goes. As you can see, a jawbone of a donkey is quite angular and there's a lot of sharp edges and what Guy's got more degrees than a thermometer and educated way beyond his intellect. These are the same people who said well, moses, he crossed through the Red Sea with two million Hebrews behind him. But you know, there's a real shallow part of the Red Sea. There's certain tides that come in and it's only like six inches to a foot. So maybe which would be such a miracle because it means that God drowned the entire Egyptian army in six inches of water. So I'm just explaining to everybody. 28:29 That's what I meant by frontalobion. Be a full heart, ian. Don't check your brain in at the door. God gave it to you. Use it, but don't only focus on your intellect, because the things of God are spiritually discerned and your head will second guess him all the time. You'll get the paralysis of analysis if you try to reason and rationalize that there has to be a step of faith every time. Still, when I go to pray, you know what I liken it to because I actually have bungee jumped, if you have. You know what I mean. It's like a bungee jump. You don't know what it's going to be like. You don't know what's waiting for you. You just all right, I'm going. I'm going to meet with and Jesus. 29:19 So she felt power go into her and she felt herself get healed. And Jesus next verse, immediately knowing in himself see a lot of feeling. He felt virtue. The King James Bible says virtue, power, anointing the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit. He felt it come out of him and she felt it go into her. And there's nothing wrong with getting to that place in your life where you can feel his presence and enjoy his presence. 29:53 David, I believe it's Psalm 67 or 63. Psalm 63, he said. He said I meditate on you in the night, watches my flesh cries out, my body, my flesh cries out for your presence. I want to feel your presence on my body. Nothing wrong with that, as long as it's not the only thing that you hinge your faith on, because then, when you don't feel him, you have a panic attack and a crisis of faith. 30:18 You always have the word, you always can go by faith, but thank God for when you feel him and don't ever settle for the lie that you go, well, I just don't, whatever. No, no. You say well, that's not my culture I love. No, you say well, it's not my culture I, I love you, but I don't care about your culture. We got 80 different nations. Do you know? It said that we have 80 different nations represented here? It's because you know why, because I'm so woke. 30:46 People know right in, they go, they come in, they go. There's a progressive pastor and we draw such diversity. Sounds like we have the penguin in here. Got a lot of cultures in here. I mean, I come from the Balkans. If you don't see me bringing my accordion, put your personal culture on pause and open the Bible and go. What is Bible culture? What is biblical culture? I've got my culture, but then the Bible tells me to shout unto the Lord with the voice of triumph, to rejoice in the Lord. Oh so maybe my culture is really quiet and has stifled me my whole life. And then I Wow, biblical culture sets me free. Hallelujah, hallelujah. So he knew power had gone out of him and he turned around in the crowd and said who touched my clothes? But his disciples said to him you see the multitude thronging you and you say who touched me? Because it's strange, right. It would be like I mean, imagine you're on a subway train at 5.30 pm in Midtown and all of a sudden you go who touched me? 32:31 And your friend is like bro, and there's like 50 people all around you Everyone's touching you, but Jesus is like no. And there's like 50 people all around you, everyone's touching you, but Jesus is like no. That was a special touch. It was the touch of faith, the touch of hunger. If you knew your next level is so close. It just requires you getting desperate enough to pursue the Lord and get a fresh touch. I'm telling you, it's right there, but some people are waiting around. I've been guilty of that. You kind of wait around. Eventually you get sick and tired of being sick and tired and you go all right, it's not just happening, it's not just happening like ripe cherries falling off a tree. So you know what? I think I'll pursue the Lord. And then you feel like a dope because the breakthrough comes so quickly and the pursuit wasn't even that difficult. You're like I really wasted a lot of time just sitting around doing nothing. Had I known I could just meet with the Lord, chase after him, engage him, and the anointing would fix everything. Lickety split, Amen, amen. 33:44 But the woman fearing and trembling I mean there's several reasons she was fearing and trembling. She was there illegally, but the trembling part, when you actually focus on all of Jesus's miracles. You notice he doesn't have any dry miracles. There's always a response she's trembling, sometimes people tremble under the presence of God. The Quakers, by the way, were called Quakers because they quaked under the presence of God. How do you think they make such good oats? It's the anointing, but it's true. The only problem is the presence of God withdrew and they kept on quaking in the flesh, and that's kind of always what happens. You know you do it in the flesh and then your brand becomes oats instead of the power of God. You know I have nothing against Quakers, I'm just having fun here this morning. So serious. Some of you have family members. You got very defensive about the Quakers and he said to her daughter your faith has made you well. 34:54 Worship to him. He can come up, go in peace and be healed. Go in peace, go in shalom, go in nothing missing, nothing lacking, nothing broken. The anointing causes your life to have nothing missing, nothing lacking, nothing broken. Go in peace, go in the shalom of God and be healed of your affliction. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Go ahead and just lift your hands to heaven. Go ahead and just lift your hands to heaven. Be filled. I release the anointing of God upon you in Jesus name, the anointing that refreshes, the anointing that heals, the anointing that sets straight and aligns. Come upon you in Jesus name, be blessed, be blessed. Come upon you in Jesus' name, be blessed. 35:58 - Speaker 2 Be blessed. This is the CityLight Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jancic and CityLight Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com. That's CityLightNYC.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. 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