God Offered Solomon Anything. He Asked to Discern

Sermon outline

The anointing is the Holy Spirit's divine empowerment for every believer, and like Solomon, who asked for an understanding heart instead of riches, we receive it by hungering for God, surrendering, letting Him break our ego, and waiting on Him.

1. To be super, you need God's super

   Every believer is a leader; the questions are what you are leading and who you are leading for, and the moment it is about me you disqualify yourself. The anointing is the divine empowerment and supernatural enablement of the Holy Spirit to do what is beyond your natural capacity, education, experience or age. Truth and maturity come with knowledge, not age, and it is better to learn early than through the university of hard knocks.

   Illustration: People who try to do life alone end up like punch-drunk boxers, Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, with teeth knocked out, and then blame God, though He was never in the picture.

   “If you want to be supernatural, you have to add God's super to your natural.”

2. Solomon asked for an understanding heart

   Solomon loved the Lord, put no one above Him, and was liberal in giving, offering a thousand burnt offerings. When God said, ask what I shall give you, he asked for an understanding heart to discern between good and evil, because he knew the people were God's, not his. God noted what he did not ask for, long life, riches or his enemies' lives, and gave him wisdom and also riches and honour. Everything in your life, your spouse, your children, your church, is not your own; you are a steward and need God's discernment to handle it.

   “Anything in your life does not belong to you. You are merely a steward of what God has given to you.”

   • 1 Kings 3:3-14
   • Proverbs 22:6

3. Seal it with sacrifice, and the wisdom is proven

   When Solomon woke he went to Jerusalem and offered burnt and peace offerings: when God does something for you, you seal the deal with an offering, not a burger on the golf course, and you keep the pledges you make. Straight away his new wisdom was tested by two mothers claiming the same baby, and all Israel saw that the wisdom of God was on him. God gave him largeness of heart like the sand of the seashore.

   “We seal the deal with an offering and with a sacrifice.”

   • 1 Kings 3:15-28
   • 1 Kings 4:29-32

4. Wait for the Holy Spirit

   In the Old Testament the Spirit came only where needed, but at Jesus' death the temple curtain tore, giving us access to the throne of grace. The risen Jesus gave the assignment, the direction, the vision and the dream, and then told the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. This empowerment breaks limitations, destroys yokes and brings transformation to bank accounts, marriages, children and workplaces.

   Illustration: The anointing is like putting on a special suit that gives special abilities, so that you function in a realm that is not your own.

   “In order for us to be super, we need God's super. And that only comes through the Holy Spirit.”

   • Matthew 27:51

5. Key one: hunger and thirst

   The journey begins with a divine dissatisfaction with the ordinary and a spiritual desperation for more of God, no longer satisfied with religion or form. Seek and you will find. When you seek Him with all your heart the anointing responds, as Solomon sought God first and received what he had not asked for.

   Illustration: The ordinary life: two slices of bread and tea, a fifteen-minute tea break at ten, polony sandwiches at one, home at six, TV, one kiss in the morning and one at night, taxes and VAT at every corner, and Christmas presents from China Mall that are broken by the end of December.

   “The journey begins with the divine dissatisfaction to be ordinary.”

   • Matthew 7:7
   • Matthew 5:6
   • Psalm 42:1
   • Isaiah 44:3
   • Matthew 6:33

6. Keys two and three: total surrender and the crushing

   Surrender hands the keys of your life to the Holy Spirit: not my will but Yours, all the time. You cannot be filled with the Spirit while full of yourself. Then comes the process of dying: as a seed falls into the ground and the olive is crushed for oil, God breaks the ego, reputation and self-reliance. You die each time you obey, submit or zip the lip instead of having your say, and each time you choose the Bible and prayer over endless entertainment.

   Illustration: A little girl at cell asked why the pastor kept saying 'die, die, die', and he notes that children take the Word wholeheartedly. When a young man told him he was projecting, he said the difference was that he reads his Bible and prays, and the young man needed to do two things: read his Bible and pray, and read his Bible and pray.

   “You cannot be filled with the Spirit if you are already full of yourself.”

   • Matthew 26:39
   • Romans 12:1
   • Isaiah 55:9
   • John 12:24
   • Psalm 51:17

7. Key four: waiting on the Lord

   The anointing is not given to those in a hurry; it is not a drive-through. Waiting is found in the secret place of prayer and is not passive but focused, separating impure motives from the desire for power, because God will not give power that makes you more of yourself. He takes simple people with a heart for Him and raises them up. Dying to self also applies in marriage: leave father and mother, do not use your parents as weapons, and live in the unity where God commands the blessing.

   Illustration: Waiting is like a protein bar with no sugar, or oats without condensed milk: hard, but worth the wait.

   “God will never give you power if it's going to make you more of yourself.”

   • 1 Corinthians 1:27
   • Genesis 2:24
   • Ephesians 5:21-25
   • Psalm 133:3

In this message