Abiding and Multiplying | Apr. 26, 2026 | Pr Raph

Abiding and Multiplying

This week, I was reading the story of Samson. It is such a tragic story because you learn about this young man who had everything to be mighty and used by God in his generation, but instead, the plot follows Samson as he continually rejects the anointing on his life.

He was an anointed man from birth, but he allowed the immediate cravings of his flesh, such as hunger, sexual desire, pride, and self-reliance, to lure him out of God’s provision to make him a powerful and useful instrument to deliver God’s people from the oppression of the Philistines.

Judges 16:19-21 19 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. 20 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. 21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison.

Because he leaned on his own flesh, he failed to stay under grace. He missed out on the fullness of what God wanted to work through him.

What is anointing

A simple magnifying glass alone cannot generate heat. But when you align it with the sun, it focuses that light to start a raging fire. 

We are the glass. We do not generate the power. The anointing focuses the Son of God through our lives, igniting supernatural multiplication in our families, our workplaces, and our ministries.

Once, a young man approached an elder and asked, "Brother, what is the anointing?"

And the man asked: "Do you see that ox grazing over there?" "Yes." "That is not the anointing." "Do you see that little bird sitting on the power line?" "That's not the anointing either." "But when you see the ox up there singing like a bird — that is the anointing.”

The anointing is when the Spirit of God moves in your life, and you do what you could not do before. It is when you say what you wouldn't say before — you are moved by a supernatural power.

That is the way the Lord wants us to live. It is the anointing of the Lord that makes all the difference. 

It is the anointing of the Lord. It is His presence. It is His life. It doesn't matter how we refer to it — it's all the same thing. It is the action of God's Holy Spirit.

χρῖσμα - chrîsma, khris’-mah - anything smeared on, unguent, ointment, usually prepared from oil and aromatic herbs. 

It is the root word for "charm". Over time, the term shifted to denote a more general "personal leadership magnetism.

But our charisma is something else, way more attractive and meaningful. It is the manifested presence.

Exodus 33:15-19 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” 

…

 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

Moses recognized that without God’s presence, the Israelites were just a massive crowd of wandering former slaves.

Consider a blank piece of paper and a hundred-dollar bill. Physically, they are both just paper. But one carries the seal, the signature, and the backing of the treasury. 

God's presence is the signature upon your life. When you walk into a room, you do not walk in with just your resume or your natural limitations; you walk in carrying the weight of His abiding presence.

What makes us different is not our power, our morality, or our resources. It is God Himself going with us.

Jesus is our Anointing

Matthew 26:36 'Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”’

It is no coincidence that the night before Jesus went to the cross, He entered a garden located on the Mount of Olives—the garden of Gethsemane. 

To extract oil from an olive, the fruit cannot merely be plucked; it must be placed under a heavy stone and crushed.

Jesus was stepping into the ultimate press. He was entirely crushed under the weight of the sins of the world, absorbing the full penalty of our guilt so that we would never have to experience it. 

His crushing became our anointing. We possess the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit today only because Jesus was willing to be the olive pressed into oil.

He was pressed in the darkness so that the oil of the Holy Spirit's permanent power could abide in every born-again believer forever.

(Isaiah 53:5) 'But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.' 

The crushing was His; the peace is ours. 

The agony was His; the anointing is ours. 

Jesus endured in Gethsemane and on Calvary. The anointing He provides is entirely secure. The Holy Spirit now applies this finished work to us.

That is why we can say we have an abiding anointing.

You have an abiding Anointing 

Under the Old Covenant, human inability was and is constantly exposed. Remember, that is the very purpose of the law.

The law sets the standard, but it provides no power to meet it.

In the OT days, the Holy Spirit would come upon individuals for a specific task, like in the case of Samson. But then His presence would lift. They operated under temporary power.

But praise God, the New Covenant is completely different.

1 John 2:20 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

1 John 2:25-27 25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life. (everlasting, unending life)

26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. 27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Under the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit does not just visit; He moves in permanently. 

The anointing abides—meaning it stays, rests, and makes its home in every born-again believer.

The anointing is not an emotional feeling or a temporary spiritual high; it is the permanent seal of the Holy Spirit over your life, marking you as Christ’s own.

That seal is a brand over us. It is a mark of grace upon your life.

Anointing makes us Priests and Kings

Anointing was the inaugural ceremony for priests.

Because of God's anointing, our identity is completely transformed. We are not just saved from hell; we are selected for a heavenly purpose.

(1 Peter 2:9) 'But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.'

The anointing is what seals and selects us as a holy nation and a priestly people. This is not a status we earn by showing up or trying really hard to be good. It is a royal identity gifted to us entirely by the grace of God.

When you are issued a passport from a powerful nation, you immediately gain the right of entry and the full protection of that government while traveling abroad.

You didn't build the country, but you enjoy all the benefits of its citizenship.

You also gain the antipathy, the aversion of the enemies of that nation. 

This anointing is your spiritual passport, guaranteeing your standing before the Father.

(Revelation 1:5-6) ’and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.'

Notice the past tense: He has freed us. He has made us a kingdom. 

Our foundation is unshakeable. You cannot lose your salvation, your anointing or your calling because you did not earn them; Jesus purchased them perfectly.

Under the Old Covenant, the priesthood was restricted to one specific tribe, and they operated in a limited capacity, subject to strict adherence to the law. 

Under the New Covenant, Jesus has unilaterally made us a kingdom of priests. We did not earn this title.

1 Samuel 16:13) 'Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.’

David received the anointing before he faced the giant, and this anointing is what empowered him to defeat the lion and the bear. In the biblical timeline, Samuel anoints David here in chapter 16, and the famous battle with Goliath takes place later in chapter 17.

1 Samuel 17:34-36 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”

When David recounts killing the lion and the bear to King Saul, he is describing the supernatural strength he had already been experiencing as a shepherd since the day the Spirit of God rushed upon him.

David was a teenage shepherd. In the natural, he had no business fighting a lion, a bear, or a seasoned warrior like Goliath. But the Spirit of God multiplied David's natural ability.

The Holy Spirit takes our natural weakness and multiplies it with Christ's supernatural sufficiency.

God’s provision always precedes His assignment. 

David did not achieve mighty victories to earn the anointing; he was anointed, and that presence produced the victories.

We will win our battles even before entering them. The anointing that speaks victory.

This is of utmost importance: you need to have a testimony to fulfill what the Lord has placed before you. The bear and the lion are not comparable to the giant, but they were certainly battles David fought that gave him credibility before God. Our problem is that we want to go straight to the giants without passing through the bear and the lion... We want to start big, a fast-food generation, immediate and impatient. 

Many don't want to build anything in secret because who would know about David's victory over these two animals? No one, because he had built all of that in secret.

The change made possible because of the oil

When you are working with wood, one of the elements of attention is the hardness and stiffness of the wood fibers. You must anoint it, treat it before you start working on it. 

Think of a dry sponge. If you try to bend a dry, stiff sponge, it might tear. But when it is "soaked in the presence," it becomes completely flexible. 

Consider an engine without oil. It will overheat and could burn out.

Sometimes, because of the lack of flexibility in the fibers, the piece of raw wood that was meant to be a beautiful and useful tool, a piece of art, a structural element or a support pillar becomes useless and wasted when it breaks.

(2 Corinthians 3:18) 'And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.' 

Transformation happens by "beholding" Jesus. As we soak in His presence, transforming us into His image without us even being aware of the change.

The reason this happens to so many people in the church is the lack of anointing oil in their lives. They do not soak themselves in the oil of the presence, and when it is time to chisel the roughness of their character, instead of becoming more useful, they break. They leave the church, they leave the group, they become hurt and bitter.

(Hebrews 12:15) 'See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.' 

Bitterness is the sign of wood that has gone dry

Refuse today the path of Samson, and completely yield to the abiding anointing.

Step out in faith today. Trust that the Holy Spirit will multiply your limited resources and abilities for the Kingdom. 

Activate it.

Have you ever stared at a problem, a calling, or a crisis, and realized that you are entirely out of your depth? 

Our natural strength, our bank accounts, our intelligence, and our patience simply run dry. 

That is not the lack of anointing. It is the lack of its activation.

A few weeks ago, I went to a physiotherapist to deal with discomfort in my right leg. One interesting thing she did was test the strength of all my lower-body muscles to find where the discomfort came from. And from suprise, the problem was not with the strength of my legs. It was my lower back core. The way to fix it is to activate it through stretching and exercise.

How can you activate the anointing?

Ephesians 5:15-21 15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 1

9 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

This anointing is not an abstract force. It is the very presence of God with us and in us.

The Holy Spirit never leaves. But the anointing — it is like fuel. You spend it, and you need to be filled again. If you were filled with the Spirit ten years ago and never again — now is the time to change that story. 

How do you expect to be led by the Spirit if the car has no fuel? And the fuel is the Spirit himself — it's the anointing of the Spirit — but you are the one who gets filled.

When you feel empty, remember that the Spirit lives inside you. The presence of God goes with you. He takes your little and multiplies it into something completely supernatural.

David prayed: "Lord, do not take your Spirit from me." Why did David pray that? Because he was in the Old Testament. Don’t pray that prayer anymore, because today you are under the New Covenant and you can no longer be separated from the Holy Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 6:17 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

This verb "to join" in Greek is "kolla" — glue. It means there is no way to become unglued from the Lord. It is an amalgam. What is an amalgam?

Epoxy it comes with two parts, one white and one gray. They are soft. If you press them, they are very flexible. But when you mix one with the other, they become solid as rock.

The people of the world, the Holy Spirit is around them. But now that you are born again, the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in you — within you, in your very spirit. But there is still a third — let's say, a third stage

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

One thing is the Spirit within — another thing is the Spirit upon you. The Spirit within is regeneration. The Spirit is upon anointing.

But this believer still needs an extra experience with the Spirit — what we call the anointing. Many people also refer to the new birth as the anointing. That's fine — no problem, as long as you understand they are two distinct aspects.

The anointed life gives the victory over flesh.

Galatians 5:16-18 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.’

Even after justification is permanently secured by the blood of Jesus, the born-again believer still possesses the unredeemed flesh. This creates a continuous, internal battle. However, victory is to “walk by the Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit provides the supernatural power to overcome the flesh. Sanctification is the process of learning to stop relying on the flesh and start resting in the Spirit’s ability to apply Christ’s finished work to your daily choices.

Romans 8:5-6 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.’

The battleground is the mind. To set your mind on the flesh is to operate in self-reliance, trying to manufacture your own righteousness or fulfill your desires through natural human strength. But to set your mind on the Spirit is to fix your attention on the absolute sufficiency of God's grace and the reality of your new identity in Christ.