Understanding the Anointingbecause you're walking in all the light you have.)
The first time I preached, I preached 45 minutes. Some
beginners go 10 or 15 minutes. I went 45. And I've been going
ever since!
For a number of years I was a preacher—and, oh, I could
preach! I was a preaching machine! I liked that anointing! When
it came upon me, I'd preach so hard and fast, the congregation
would say, "Slow down! Slow down! We can't get half of what
you say, you go so fast."
I didn't have the baptism in the Holy Spirit then, but I had
the Holy Spirit in me, and an anointing would come on me,
because I was called to that office. (In the Old Testament, too,
the anointing came on people to stand in certain offices.)
The Glory Cloud Manifests
I could relate some phenomenal things that happened when
the anointing to preach came upon me as a young Baptist boy
preacher.
One Sunday night I was preaching an evangelistic-type
sermon from James 4:14, where James asks, "For what is your
life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and
then vanisheth away." I'd been preaching about 15 minutes,
anointed by the Holy Spirit, when the power of God came into
that church auditorium and filled it like a cloud.
I could not see a single member—I was in the cloud. I could
hear the sound of my voice, but I didn't know one word of what I
said. For 17 minutes—I looked at my watch—I couldn't
distinguish a word.
Finally I could see people on the first three rows of seats.
Then the anointing began to go away. It was just like a cloud
lifted from the whole group. I didn't say anything about it; I
closed the service normally.
Several days later I asked a very spiritual old gentleman who
had been there, "Was anything different about the service
Sunday night?"