Now What’s Next?

Let’s think about David. He was summoned by the greatest prophet of Israel. He was anointed to be the next king of Israel. The anointing oil was shining on his forehead, running down from his head, and trickling all the way down to his feet. He was on cloud nine. It had been such a great night.

Did he wake up the next morning and think, “What’s next? I’m still that shepherd boy. I have the anointing of a king, but my position is the same”. Although he may have changed, the world hadn’t. So, he went back to his normal life. The only difference now was that he was looking after the flock, but with a kingly anointing. He stayed on course with the anointing he had received, and, step by step, he was led to where he was supposed to be. But he had to go through a process.

You might be in the same place as David. God may have given you a vision, a dream, and you might even have received the anointing for it. But what do you do when you wake up in the morning expecting everyone to be on the same cloud nine as you, but realise the world is still the same as it was yesterday?

Although you have been anointed for a vision, that vision might not come to pass when you wake up the next morning, or the next day, or the day after that. A situation you were battling with is still there, just as it was yesterday. It didn’t magically disappear because you were on cloud nine, full of the anointing, or because you had had an encounter with the Lord.

You soon realise you have to go back to what you were doing before the anointing. Not everyone is in the same place as you. You’re back to the same situation, environment, and people, or even the same job, or position in the church. Nothing has physically changed. The only difference is that you’re now carrying an anointing of where God wants you to be. You must approach things from a perspective of someone who’s carrying a kingly anointing, although you’re not doing a kingly job right now.

I guess the biggest challenge is staying on course, walking through the process, even when you don’t see any change around you. It is not quitting from the path of that calling, and it is being courageous and brave enough to go through the preparation for the ‘palace’ in the right way, within God’s timing, without looking for shortcuts. The reason we are anointed today and tomorrow we’re back to the fields is so that the Lord may continue moulding, equipping, and shaping us for the next level. The best thing is to submit to the Holy Spirit and trust God.

Stay on course, even if an opportunity presents itself to do things your own way to hurry up the process. David had an opportunity to assassinate the only person who stood between him and what he had been anointed for, but he chose not to. He chose to trust God’s ways and God’s timing for him to come to the throne.

It’s best to allow God to exalt us to the position of our anointing in His timing, rather than using our own mechanism to ‘rush’ His timing.