“Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money and said, ’Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’ Peter answered: ‘May your money perish with you, because you though you could buy the gift of God with money.’”

Acts 8:9-20

Simon the Sorcerer was freed from his past and became a new creation in Christ. However, he didn’t truly understand how the Kingdom of God worked. All things, by the Power of God are for God’s Glory and God will anoint who He wills in order to carry out His Purpose.

Anointing…what does that mean?

Anointing:  To choose by or as if by divine intervention.

God chooses and uses people to carry out His will here on Earth. He is God and He decides to whom He will give his gifts and abilities. All are gifted and able, but used in a variety of ways…each is to compliment the other. That is why the Bible says clearly,

“But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.” 1 Cor. 12:11

The Lord desires that each Believer seek the Lord their God with all of their heart, mind and soul (1 Chron. 16:11, Psalm 105:3 & 4)

When we seek the Lord he will be found by us and He will reveal to us our gifting and our call. However, He does not desire us to be like Simon the Sorcerer. He loves you with and Everlasting Love and He desires to give to you good gifts. Nothing gives Him so great a pleasure as to see us each discover our gifting and call upon our life and to develop the gifts and use them for His Glory and Purpose. For the Purpose of the Lord will always prevail. We cannot force God to give anointing where He has decided not to give. We cannot have the anointing of another, nor does He want us to covet someone else’s gifts and ability. No! He wants you to celebrate your gifts and who he created you to be. You are truly a unique, hand crafted original made by a Mighty God. To try and be something or someone you are not is like telling the Lord He made a mistake or He didn’t do a good job. In order to be effective in the areas you are gifted, may I offer some words of encouragement…

God has blessed you! If you truly Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and you abandon your self will and pleasure for God and His purpose and desire for your life, then you will surrender all in order to gain even more. This is how the Kingdom of God works. If you truly want your life to be a Magnified Reflection of Him, drawing the hurting, the lost, to Him, then you must fall in love with Him. We are in the world but not of the world so we cannot look like the world.

Sometimes, in order to be effective, you must pour yourself out like a drink offering, filling others to the brim. For when they are truly filled to the brim, they will begin to overflow. And when they overflow, they will begin to Glow. And when they glow, the world will know they are so much more than words of affection gliding from a pen or dripping from ones lips. No, indeed, they will know that the love, Joy and Peace they profess is real, genuine as they see it manifest from the heart all over their countenance.

True Love wraps around you like the endless channels of the sea,

Taking one deeper and deeper, entangled

Mysteriously, yet Comforting.

This is what it is to be truly Enamored by My King.

Your life is like a great storybook, each day an new opportunity to write a new page. Make it one that keeps the on looking world sit on the edge of their seat. Keep it simple. Love with genuine affection. Never seeking for yourself attention, but directing all Glory to the King of Kings.  I cannot speak for you, but I can for me, I want God to have all of me, whatever that may mean.

Let me close with the words of one of my favorite worship songs,

“There is a God who loves me, who wraps me in His arms. That is the place where I’m changed and that’s where I belong. Take me to that place Lord, to that secret place where I can be with you. You can make me like you. Wrap me in your arms.”

Prayer: “Wrap me in your arms Lord and I pray, you take the hurting, the broken, the lost, and you wrap them in your overwhelming arms of love, too.”

God has a place and purpose in His Kingdom, just for you.

~Nicole