David Diga Hernandez - 4 Keys to Restore the Anointing on Your Life

I wanna show you how to get back to the place where God is using your life again. Perhaps you’ve made some mistakes that you feel disqualify you from the call of God and you’re hanging your head in shame wondering if God can ever again use your life. The good news is, no matter how far you’ve gone, God can restore you. No matter what you’ve done, the Lord can bring you home. Maybe there was some compromise that you allowed in your life. Maybe there was a major fall into sin, or maybe you’re watching this and there is simply a subtle weakening of your spiritual life, your devotion to the word your prayer life, not quite the same as it used to be and you’re wondering how to get back on track. So whether you’ve wandered far away from the path or you’re noticing just subtle compromises in your life, it’s important that you get it right. It’s important that you align yourself with the perfect will of God according to his word once again, I wanna show you the path to restoring the anointing on your life. Now the truth is, the Holy Spirit does not leave the believer when the believer makes a mistake, rather the Holy Spirit abides and he remains so that he might help you walk in holiness. The Holy Spirit is not a reward for holiness. He’s the source of holiness. So it wouldn’t make any sense for God to remove the Holy Spirit from you because you’ve made a sinful mistake. It makes perfect sense though that the Holy Spirit would remain because the presence and power of the Holy Spirit is the only way that you’ll truly live holy. So the Holy Spirit has not abandoned you. God has not given up on you and don’t believe the lies of the enemy when he tells you such things. Instead, look to the word of God, find the freedom in forgiveness and begin to take those steps back toward the destiny that God has given to you. I wanna show you how to walk in repentance.

I wanna show you how to get back to the place where God is using your life again, number one, repent. This means to turn away from your wrongdoing. First John chapter one, verse nine says, «But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness». We must learn to live a lifestyle of repentance. Now, repentance literally means to change your mind and in the biblical context, it means the changing of the mind that results in the forsaking of sin. So it’s to say in your mind, «Lord, I agree with you about this thing in my life that needs to go, God I agree with you that this is wrong. God, I agree with you that this should have no place in my life, in my mind in my heart, in my soul, in my body whatsoever. I’m coming into agreement with what you say about this particular thing in my life». It’s not just feeling bad for having done wrong. It’s not just feeling shame for a mistake that you made. Repentance is aligning yourself with God’s standard of holiness and saying, «I’m not going to allow myself to do this again. I’m not going to allow this back into my life. I’m not going to allow this back into my life, even in small increments. I am going to walk according to God’s standards. I’m going to come into agreement with God on this issue». That’s repentance. And then you turn from that thing, you forsake it. You head down the path that God has set before you, turning away from your own selfish desires. That’s the first step. If you want God to restore the anointing on your life. Now, again, let me emphasize, the Holy Spirit has not left you or abandoned you. So when I talk about restoring the anointing, I’m not talking about the Holy Spirit coming back to you. Rather, I’m talking about you coming back to the place where God can use you for his glory once again, that power is there. It’s an untapped reservoir of the anointing and you must come to the place now where you’re again receiving of that anointing that he’s placed in you that it might flow through you and reach those around you.

So number one, you have to repent. You have to turn from that thing that took you off track to begin with. And then number two, return. Return to pray around the word, return to a lifestyle of worship, return to having a standard of holiness in your life to where you won’t let these things creep in, to where you turn your eyes from wicked things, you turn your ears from wicked things. You set your feet on the righteous path and don’t go to the places that you know you shouldn’t be but return to your devotion to the word. Return to the prayer room. Get back to the place where you’re praying good portions of your day. Get back to the place where you’re consuming the word of God, not just the verse of the day, not just the scriptures that you see randomly when you’re scrolling down some social media feed. Rather coming back to the place where you get in the word to where the word begins to transform you, where you’re digging deep into the scripture and the scripture is changing your mind. It’s changing your nature. It’s changing the way you talk. Return to these places again, you don’t have to look back on your past and long for the days when you first began to seek the Lord. You don’t have to look at your past and long for the days where you were devoted to the word of God. You can dig those wells again and God can begin to flow through your life with His power as you return to these spiritual disciplines, return to that standard of holiness even if people make fun of you for it, return to that devotion to prayer, even if it means sacrificing large amounts of your day, return to that devotion to the word, even if it means setting aside the distractions that would actually result in no fruit to end with anyway. Revelation chapter two, verses two through five say this, «I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting but I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first. Look how far you have fallen. Turn back to me and do the works you did at first». Return to that place of prayer despite the guilt that you fill, return to your devotion to the word despite the frustration over lost time, return to holiness despite your blemished record. See, sometimes we don’t like to come back to these places because coming back to these places and these disciplines reminds us of what we missed out on. It reminds us of how far we had come in our past only to see where we are now spiritually. That’s one of the pains of falling away. That’s one of the pains of getting off track for a season because when we go to pray, we feel as though God is going to say to us, «And where have you been all this time? What amount of time you have wasted». We don’t want to get back into the word because we realize, «My goodness, I could have been getting into the scripture all this time and it’s just so frustrating to see that I failed in this area». Or maybe you’re afraid to attempt living holy again because of the shame of the past or because of your blemished record or because you feel like you’re just going to mess it all up again. I’m telling you, you must return despite the feelings of the flesh, especially to these basic spiritual disciplines. When you go to pray, yeah, you will feel that sense of lost time, but the Lord isn’t wanting you to hang your head in shame going, «Lord, I’m sorry I miss so many days of prayer». Rather, he is filled with joy to see you back in the prayer room again. God isn’t angry with you for having not read the scripture for X amount of days, but he’s happy to speak to you now if you’ll simply begin to return to the spiritual disciplines.

So number one, repent. Forsake that sin that took you off track in the first place. Number two, return to these spiritual disciplines. Number three, and this is more of an internal practice, realize, realize that God has forgiven you. Realize that God makes you new. Realize that you are a new creation in him. Realize that your sins have been forgiven. You must learn to let go of the past and forgive yourself. Psalm chapter 103, verse eight through 14, powerful portion of scripture says this, «The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us». Notice what the scripture says there, «He will not constantly accuse us». So if you are feeling constantly accused, who is it that’s doing the accusing? It’s not God, let’s continue to read. «Nor remain angry forever». Verse 10, I love this. «He does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him, for he knows how weak we are. He remembers that we are only dust». One of the most difficult things about returning is actually realizing that God can restore and accept you again. You see, this is where people who return to ministry or who return to preaching or simply who return to church, this is where they get stuck. This is really the battle because, yes, they’ll forsake their sin. Yes, they’ll begin to implement their spiritual disciplines again. But right here, this is where the battle is. They can’t help but overcome that internal struggle with the shame of their past. They can’t help but be tormented by how much time they imagined they lost. They can’t help but be anguished deeply by the regrets that they have for the things that they did and they have trouble getting over this mental, emotional, psychological barrier. They know in their hearts God forgives. They know in their hearts God has restored them. They know that God forgives. They just have trouble believing God forgives them. They know that God forgives sin. They just have trouble believing that God forgives their specific sin. They know that God is merciful and kind and compassionate. They just aren’t sure if they are the recipients of that kindness, that mercy and that compassion. They say things like, «Well, I knew better and I still failed». The good news, the grace of God applies even to those who knew better. Now, this is not an open door to go and abuse the forgiveness and the mercy of God. Rather, this is an encouragement to know that you can experience the freedom of forgiveness if you just stop listening to the flesh and you stop listening to the enemy, people will still accuse you. Sure, people will come against you, but people aren’t God. You may still hold things against yourself but you are not God. The enemy may accuse you, but the enemy’s not God. There are no more stones to be thrown. Jesus does not hold a stone in his hand. He says, «Neither do I condemn the, go and sin no more». He’s with you. He forgives you. Now it’s time to allow yourself to move on. Stop replaying the mistakes. Stop replaying what could have been. Stop wearing the shame that other people may try to put on you for your past, and instead, embrace the forgiveness of God and realize that God’s grace applies to you too and realize that God’s mercy applies to you too. His compassion, his kindness, his tenderness. All of that applies to you too, realize that.

And then number four, reach ahead. So number one, repent. Number two, return to those spiritual disciplines. Number three, realize that God’s grace reaches even you in your very specific situation. And number four, reach ahead. Once your soul has been restored, it’s time to reach ahead. Once God has finished the restoration process, it’s time to begin letting him use your life again. Now, only the Lord can determine the timeframe that you need in order to be restored. And don’t listen to religious voices who tried to put constraints on you that God himself has not placed on you, rather move forward. There’s no one in scripture who God used who didn’t have a past. You must reach on ahead to the future in God. Philippians 3:13 through 16, say, «No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it but I focus on this one thing, forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God through Christ Jesus is calling us. Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made». Get back in ministry, get back to serving. Get back to reaching the world. Let God restore the influence of his power on your life. Become a vessel, a tool in the hand of God. Once more, repent of your sin. Return to the spiritual disciplines. Realize that God has forgiven you. And after you’ve been restored, reach ahead to the destiny that God has ordained for you.