A.A.A.
An Anointed Affliction
In this final part of this series, I want to deal with the meaning, outcome, and reasons for Afflictions, not just any affliction, but An Anointed Affliction. When something is anointed then it has supernatural strength! Your suffering & pressure right now is not just affliction, but it is anointed. It has supernatural power to take you to another level in God & into your destiny. It is anointed because you are not alone in the affliction.
Let the Weak say, "I am Strong!" There is knowledge in your sufferings and afflictions. Thank God for the journey of the affliction. The weaker you are in the flesh, the more anointed and stronger you are in the spirit (2 Corinthians 12:9). Because your affliction is driving you to your knees in prayer, it is causing you to fast and seek God as never before. The flesh cannot uphold you because it is weak, but you are tapping into the strength of your spirit in order to conquer your affliction.
"The Height of the heights is determined by the deeper the depths."
Affliction is a part of the pathway to Destiny! It is when you are going through that the best of you comes forth.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The 4 Steps of An Anointed Affliction
"But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you" (1 Peter 5:10).
Affliction is defined as a state of pain, distress, grief, misery, misfortune, or adversity. It is also the cause of mental or bodily pain, and may manifest as sickness, loss, calamity, or persecution. No matter what it is that you are going through, it is not just an affliction, but it is an Anointed Affliction. Your problems are perfecting you. The anointing is the supernatural power of God that touches and strengthens our natural state in order for us to be overcomers in our adversities. When you add the anointing, then your affliction actually starts to work for your good. There are four steps to An Anointed Affliction:
Step #1 Perfect: To bring to completion, to finish, to bring to perfection, and to make flawless or faultless. To perfect the defects or shortcomings, to improve and make fully skilled, and to make one pure.
What you are experiencing now is the perfecting process of God. He is bringing you to completion. You are experiencing the birthing of who you really are. God used trouble to bring out the best in you. He used pain to bring out the purpose in you. He is using sufferings to bring out the success that is within you! The perfecting process does not feel good, but once finished, it sure does look good. Your before is about to meet your after!
Step #2 Establish: To institute, build, or bring into being on a firm or stable basis, to install or settle in a position, or place, to show to be valid or true; prove, to be accepted or recognized, to enact, appoint, or ordain for permanence.
This second step of the Anointed Affliction process makes you feel like you finally have your footing because now you realize that God is right there with you and has been there all along. God took you through so that He could establish you, build you up, reposition you, and set you in your seated place. God even increased your understanding during the process of what you went through, and you realized that He trusted you to handle it with grace. God is ordaining you so that you will be able to stand.
Step #3 Strengthen: To make stronger, to give strength to, and to support and fortify. In step three, you are able to gain power and strength you never thought possible when trouble first hit you. You realize at this moment that what held you down, you are now able to take hold of and conquer. God will supernaturally give you greater strength than the trial you are going through. Your spirit rises up in strength to overcome the weakness of your flesh that feels like it is not going to make it, feels as if it is going to break, and feels like giving up. The support and the anointing are shifting you from weakness to strength. You don't comprehend or obtain this level of strength until you have gone through An Anointed Affliction.
Step #4 Settle: To appoint, fix, or resolve definitely and conclusively, to place in a desired state or in order, to close, to quiet, calm, or bring to rest, to conclude or resolve, to make stable; place in a permanent position or on a permanent basis, in which to be secure.
Finally, the battle is over and you have won! You stood against all odds and you have proven yourself worthy to be counted as a strong child of God. God has settled you and made you stable, secure, and most of all, placed you in the permanent position of your destiny. No one's destiny is ever obtained without the journey of An Anointed Affliction. It is out of afflictions that you learn God intimately, know yourself, and realize how important and precious life really is. You can rest when you have been settled. You can shout when you have been settled, and you can now help someone else going through An Anointed Affliction.
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all"
(Psalm 34:19).
"Life is not Fair, but it is FAVORABLE!"