Residual Anointing
Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 13:21
“And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha; and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.”
Residual Anointing
From the above passage, we learn that Elisha the prophet of the Living God had died; but he had a residual anointing that was capable of raising the dead upon contact. A residual anointing could be described as the power and work of the Holy Spirit that remains with the Christian through life and manifests on the person’s behalf even beyond death. It is what remains of the work of the power of God in a Christian’s life. The last verse of the work of the Holy Spirit in Elisha’s life had been written but there is the realm of an irrevocable charter of blessings that had become Elisha’s. The power of the living God remained in his dead bones waiting for contact with a dead body to manifest.
Beloved, there is the gift of God in you that will never depart. It is by divine deposit and it is for you to use and profit withal. I knew a woman once who crossed my path in life who had a remarkable anointing for helping people. At her funeral weeping and mourning her loss, were the lives she had helped with deep love and sacrifice at the time they needed support most. From single mothers to widowed men, from women she prayed for in labor rooms to children who had lost their mothers, she had poured the fragrance of her anointing to help in her journey through life. She may have departed physically from planet Earth, but in the lives of all she reached with her deposits of help, her residual anointing is still speaking for her beyond death.
What are you doing with the gift and enablement God has poured into your life? That anointing and ability to do something good by the grace of God that is ever present in your person; are you sitting on it? Are you hiding it away? Or are you pouring it out so that by His grace you can die empty? So your residual anointing will not be in the grave like Elisha but will be in the lives of those you made contact with in life so they can speak for you beyond your time on Earth?
Reflect on this. Elisha had an excuse; he was faithful to Elijah and received a double portion of his anointing. Sadly, Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, was compromised and was not a vessel fit to pour that sacred anointing in, which caused Elisha to go to the grave with his own. But Jesus has come and made us all worthy.
Pour out your gifts now, so that they will speak for you as your residual anointing beyond your time on Earth and in eternity.
Prayer Points:
Father God, I pray that the gifts that you have deposited in my life by your anointing become a blessing in your kingdom now and forever in Jesus’ name.
Father God Almighty, I thank you for the residual anointing. I thank you because no matter what happens there is that residual anointing that is available. Dear Lord, cause me to use your blessings and your gifts in my life to bless others so that my living will not be in vain and the fragrance of your anointing in my life will spread positively into other lives and affect them for good even beyond my time, in Jesus’ name.
