I'd like to focus on the anointing, and talk about doing things in ministry with or without God's presence. It's very easy to do things without His presence and be content and satisfied that it was a "success"-even though the Lord might not have been with it.

I noticed something in reading Judges recently about Samson's life. I don't know if this contradicts what others teach or believe, but for now, it doesn't seem to me that the anointing necessarily has a feeling to it.

When Delilah saw that he [Samson] had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up again, for he has told me all his heart." Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him. (Judges 16:18-20)

If you are reading through the chapters in Judges on Samson's life, it will strike you that he didn't know the Lord had left him. I'm not going to use this text to build or dismantle when the presence of the Lord is or isn't upon us in greater measure than normal, but I'd still like to make some points. I'll concede, this is in the Old Testament and that we each have the Holy Spirit as believers now under the new covenant. But some applications can still be drawn for practical purposes.

What is so significant about this passage? One thing at the very least: if Samson couldn't tell it [the presence of the Lord, or 'the anointing' or whatever term you'd like] was missing, then he probably couldn't tell when it was present either.

Other verses in the book of Judges describe instances where the Spirit of the Lord came on Samson in some kind of force to get something accomplished that he couldn't have done in his own strength, such as described in 14:6, 14:19, 15:14. Obviously we know that the power in his strength did not lie in the fact no razor had touched his head, but in the obedience of doing what he was instructed to do by the Lord, which was to not cut his hair or shave his head, and drink no strong drink, etc...because he was consecrated to the Lord.

The reason this caught my attention, is because we all know about Samson's lust. We all know that despite sleeping with a prostitute, and despite the multiple marriages--or marriage attempts anyway--God still used him in a mighty way. My point in drawing your attention to Judges 16 is not to say that you can keep sinning (or lying to your wife!) and still be anointed. Every time his wife asked him the secret to his strength, he lied to her and the power of God was still on him to break free from the ropes each time. This passage probably messes with popular charismatic theology. Does it bother any of you that God still used Samson in power despite his obvious sinning? I submit to you for consideration that the anointing of God is more mechanical than it is relational. Give it a thought before rebuking me.

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