🫒 The Abiding Unction: The Purpose for the Things You Didn’t Know You Would Need

👉🏽 Section 1: The Oil Remains

Ok, so boom…

A few nights ago, Rocky Jack Jack was at the front door, cutting up! Pacing back and forth, growling and barking, like somebody was outside.

So, naturally, I got up to see what this little dog was carrying on about.

I looked through the peephole.

Nothing.

Looked out the window.

Nobody.

Now mind you, Rocky is STILL pacing, growling and barking. So eventually, I opened the door and let him outside, basically like, See?! Ain't nobody out here! 😂

But wait.

Just because I couldn't see anything, didn't mean there wasn't anything there.

Come on now.

As believers, we KNOW better than to think that everything that exists can be detected by our natural senses.

Just because I couldn't physically see danger, didn't mean danger wasn't present.

Just because I couldn't identify what Rocky was responding to, didn't mean there was nothing to respond to.

And listen—I'm not telling you that I know there was some evil spirit standing on my porch. I don't know what was out there.

But what I DID know was this:

I know how to pray.

And prayer didn't require me to first identify the threat. (It never does 🤏🏾)

WHEW!!!

Somebody needs that right there!

You do not have to know what you're fighting in order to know Who to call!

So, I grabbed my anointing oil.

I went outside and began praying in the Spirit. I prayed a hedge of protection around my home. I prayed over my household. I prayed that God would command His angels concerning us. I prayed that no evil would come nigh my dwelling.

And as I prayed, I poured anointing oil down the walkway and across my porch.

Then I went back inside.

That's it.

I wasn't thinking about a devotional.

I wasn't trying to “receive a Word.”

I wasn't out there looking for a sermon illustration.

I was protecting my house the way I knew how—through prayer and faith in God Almighty.

And wouldn't you know, the language I was praying, is sitting right there in Psalm 91:

“Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”
— Psalm 91:9–11 KJV

Now put that in your pocket.

We're coming back for it.

Because the next day, Cookie was outside cutting the grass.

And this man noticed some stains on the walkway.

Apparently, he thought somebody had taken the trash outside and something had leaked from the bag.

Reasonable assumption.

So what does he do?

GETS SOME CLEANER AND STARTS SCRUBBING MY ANOINTING OIL OFF THE CONCRETE!!!

🤣🤣🤣

Sir!!!!

When I realized what he was doing, I had to remind him:

“That's the oil I poured out there!”

He had forgotten.

And we laughed.

At the time, I didn't think much of it. My thought was basically, Well, it doesn't matter anyway. I'm protected.

And I went on about my beautiful black business.

Until Holy Ghost brought it back to my remembrance.

👀

No amount of washing can get rid of the oil.

Wait.

What?

No amount of washing can get rid of the oil.

Even if it gets dirty—

THE OIL REMAINS.

Even if water is applied—

THE OIL REMAINS.

Even if cleaner is poured on it—

THE OIL REMAINS.

Even if somebody mistakes it for something that leaked out of the trash—

👀👀👀

THE. OIL. REMAINS.

BABY!!!!

Now we ain't talking about my walkway anymore.

🔥🔥🔥

🕊️ Section Two: What Was the Oil For?

Now, come back in the house. 😂

Because if we stay outside staring at the oil stains on my walkway, we're going to miss the revelation.

The oil was the illustration.

The oil was not the revelation.

Holy Ghost used something that happened naturally—something I could see with my own eyes—to help me understand something spiritual.

And that's important, because when He brought those stains back to my remembrance, the revelation wasn't simply:

“Look! The oil is still there!”

Okay…

But what does that mean?

Why does the fact that the oil remained matter?

And even bigger than that:

What was the oil FOR?

👀

Because when we look at anointing throughout Scripture, the oil wasn't just poured on people and things for no reason.

There was purpose connected to it.

There was consecration connected to it.

There was service connected to it.

There was responsibility connected to it.

God instructed Moses:

“And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto Me in the priest's office.”
— Exodus 30:30 KJV

WAIT.

Read that again.

Anoint them.

Consecrate them.

THAT THEY MAY MINISTER UNTO ME.

There was a “that they may” attached to the anointing!

Come on now!!!! 🔥

The oil wasn't the trophy.

The oil was connected to the assignment.

Aaron and his sons weren't anointed so they could walk around telling everybody they were anointed.

They were consecrated—set apart—unto God for His service.

And we see this connection between anointing and purpose again when Samuel anoints David:

“Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward.”
— 1 Samuel 16:13 KJV

David was anointed before he ever sat on the throne.

👀

Hold THAT thought too, because we're going to need it later.

But for right now, I want us to see the pattern:

The physical oil pointed beyond itself.

It marked something as set apart unto God.

So when Holy Ghost brought those oil stains on my walkway back to my remembrance, He wasn't teaching me to put my faith in physical oil.

He was using the physical oil to point me toward what Scripture says about the anointing we have received from God.

NOW we can go to John.

“But ye have an unction from the Holy One…”
— 1 John 2:20 KJV

There is our word:

UNCTION.

And unction is not just another churchy word for being talented.

It speaks to divine enablement.

But John doesn't stop there.

A few verses later:

“But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you…”
— 1 John 2:27 KJV

👀👀👀

ABIDETH.

Now go back outside and look at my walkway again.

Cookie scrubbed.

The oil remained.

Cleaner was applied.

The oil remained.

Time passed.

The oil remained.

And Scripture says of the anointing we have received of Him:

IT ABIDETH IN YOU.

BABY!!!!!

Now the illustration has Scripture underneath it.

And that is why the stains mattered.

Not because there was something magical about what remained on my concrete.

But because Holy Ghost used what remained on that concrete to turn my attention toward what He says remains in us.

🔥🔥🔥

🏺 Section Three: He Knew Before He Formed

So, if unction is divine enablement, let's go back to the question we ended with:

What is God enabling you FOR?

Because God doesn't just enable us for no reason.

There is purpose.

There is assignment.

There are good works.

There are things Father God has already determined that we are to walk in.

But before we even talk about what we're supposed to do, we need to establish something about who God is.

HE IS SOVEREIGN.

He is the Lord God Almighty.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He doesn't discover our purpose as we go along.

He doesn't wait to see what we're good at and then figure out somewhere to put us.

He doesn't look at our lives halfway through and say, Well, let's see what I can make out of this. 😂

HE KNEW.

And Jeremiah 1:5 gives us a glimpse into just how far back that knowing goes:

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…”
— Jeremiah 1:5 KJV

Before.

BEFORE.

Before Jeremiah had a body.

Before there was a baby Jeremiah for anybody else to meet.

Before Jeremiah could perform anything, accomplish anything, fail at anything, understand anything, or tell anybody who he thought he was—

GOD KNEW HIM.

Now, yes, the specific prophetic commission in this passage belongs to Jeremiah.

But don't you dare read past what the Lord God just revealed about Himself.

“Before I formed thee…I knew thee.”

😭🔥

That is sovereignty.

God's knowledge of Jeremiah did not begin with Jeremiah's knowledge of himself.

And neither does Scripture leave the rest of us wondering whether God has intention concerning His people.

“According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world…”
— Ephesians 1:4 KJV

BEFORE.

There goes that word again.

And then:

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
— Ephesians 2:10 KJV

Before ordained.

Prepared in advance.

Come on now!!!!

You were His idea before you ever had a body.

🔥🔥🔥

And THAT is why purpose precedes performance.

Because how could your performance create something that was already in the mind and knowledge of the Sovereign God before you could perform?

Your success didn't create your value.

Your failure didn't erase your value.

Somebody recognizing you didn't give you value.

Somebody overlooking you didn't remove it.

The Lord God knew what He was doing when He formed you.

And I need to say this plainly:

GOD DOES NOT CREATE GARBAGE.

👀

God does not create trash.

Now, we can become contaminated.

We can walk in sin.

We can make terrible decisions.

We can mishandle what God gave us.

Other people can mishandle us.

Life can leave some dirt on us.

And yes, there are absolutely things that need to be removed from our lives.

But none of that gives us authority to look at something God intentionally formed and declare:

“Worthless.”

Remember Be a Dumpster Diver?

We talked about how something can end up in a dumpster and, because of where we found it, we assume we now know what it is.

It's dirty.

It's been discarded.

Somebody didn't want it.

Therefore:

Trash.

But wait a minute.

Who told you the dumpster had authority to determine value?!

🔥🔥🔥

The location of a thing does not determine the intention of the One Who made it.

And Scripture gives us an even better picture.

The Potter and the clay.

🏺 Ask the Potter

Paul writes:

“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?”
— Romans 9:21 KJV

And Romans 9 is dealing with something much larger than a cute motivational message about finding your purpose. Paul is talking about God's sovereignty.

The Potter has authority over the clay.

Not the other way around.

Which means the clay doesn't get to climb off the wheel, put its little clay hands on its hips and say:

“Excuse me, Sir. I don't particularly care for what You're making.”

😂😂😂

YOU'RE CLAY!

Get back on the wheel!

But seriously—

Who are we, as the clay, to tell the Potter what we should have been?

Our responsibility is to become what He formed us to be.

Paul uses the vessel imagery again in 2 Timothy:

“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth…”
— 2 Timothy 2:20 KJV

And then:

“If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work.”
— 2 Timothy 2:21 KJV

WAIT!!!!

“MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE.”

👀🔥🔥🔥

There we go again!

This is not about being special so we can admire ourselves.

This is about being useful to the Master.

Sanctified.

Set apart.

Prepared.

Unto every good work.

And didn't Ephesians just tell us that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works?

Come on, Bible!!!!

The Potter forms the vessel.

The vessel belongs to the Master.

The vessel is sanctified for the Master's use.

And the good works were already prepared for us to walk in.

Purpose precedes performance.

✝️ And While We're Talking About Ownership…

We don't even belong to ourselves.

Paul says:

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price…”
— 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 KJV

YE ARE NOT YOUR OWN.

WHEW.

So even “What do I want to be?” has to bow to a greater question:

“Father God, what did YOU create me to be?”

Because I belong to Him.

My gifts belong to Him.

My abilities belong to Him.

My experiences belong to Him.

My resources belong to Him.

My testimony belongs to Him.

My life belongs to Him.

And if Holy Ghost has given me divine enablement, then even the unction isn't something I possess so I can make much of myself.

It enables me to accomplish the will of God Almighty.

That's why the oil is connected to responsibility.

We are His.

🪵 But What If You Don't Know You're a Builder Yet?

Now THIS is where Be a Dumpster Diver comes walking back through the door.

Because here's the problem.

God knows what He formed.

You might not.

God knows the good works prepared in advance.

You might not.

God knows what the assignment will require.

You might not.

God knows why you're learning what you're learning.

You might not.

And because we don't always know what God knows—

we don't always recognize provision when it arrives.

👀👀👀

BABY!!!!

That's it.

What if God provides something that has absolutely no apparent value to you at the time?

You look at it and think:

What am I supposed to do with this?

Why do I need to know this?

Why am I here?

How does THIS have anything to do with THAT?

And maybe it doesn't make sense—

YET.

Ask David.

Samuel anoints him:

“Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward.”
— 1 Samuel 16:13 KJV

And then David still has sheep to tend.

🐑

WAIT.

You mean I'm anointed…and I'm going back to the sheep?!

😂

We aren't told everything David thought or felt about that season, so I'm not going to put words in that man's mouth.

But we ARE told what happened while David was tending those sheep.

Later, standing before Saul with Goliath out there terrifying everybody, David says:

“Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him…”
— 1 Samuel 17:34–35 KJV

Then David says:

“The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.”
— 1 Samuel 17:37 KJV

👀👀👀👀👀

OH, COME ON!!!!

Now tending Daddy's sheep makes a little more sense!

🐑➡️🦁➡️🐻➡️GOLIATH

The sheep weren't meaningless.

The lion wasn't meaningless.

The bear wasn't meaningless.

David had already experienced the Lord delivering him while protecting something entrusted to his care.

The king needed what the shepherd learned.

🔥🔥🔥

The oil had already come.

But preparation was still happening.

The pasture wasn't necessarily an interruption between David and purpose.

There was purpose IN the pasture.

And that's why we have to stop assuming that something has no value simply because we don't presently understand how it fits.

🗑️ This Is How Things End Up in the Dumpster

Now go back to Be a Dumpster Diver.

Because perhaps God provided something before you knew why you would need it.

Maybe He gave you the lumber—

before you knew you were a builder.

🪵

Maybe He gave you the training—

before you knew what you were training for.

Maybe He let you learn how to tend sheep—

before Goliath ever showed up.

Maybe He put something in your hands that seemed completely unrelated to where you thought your life was going.

And because you couldn't see the value then…

you discarded it.

🗑️

Not because it had no value.

Because you didn't recognize the value yet.

That's different.

And THIS is why discernment matters.

Because Be a Dumpster Diver was never:

GO GET EVERYTHING YOU EVER THREW AWAY!

Absolutely not. 😂

Some stuff needs to stay right there in that dumpster.

There are mindsets God delivered you from.

Relationships God removed you from.

Sin you repented of.

Bondage Jesus Christ brought you out of.

Old identities that have absolutely NO business coming home with you.

LEAVE. IT. THERE.

But there may also be something sitting among the discarded things that Holy Ghost says:

“Go get that.”

👀

Because you threw it away based on the understanding you had then.

And now God has revealed something you didn't know then.

The provision didn't suddenly become valuable.

It had value before you understood its value.

🔥

And THIS is where we have to become very careful about calling things trash.

Because if the Sovereign Lord God knew us before He formed us…

If we are His workmanship…

If He is the Potter and we are the clay…

If we are vessels intended to be meet for the Master's use…

If the good works were prepared in advance…

Then perhaps Father God also knew what those good works would require.

And He could have provided what you would need long before you understood why you would need it.

You might've thrown away the lumber.

You might've forgotten the key.

You might've despised the pasture.

You might've thought the job had nothing to do with ministry.

You might've looked at something God was using to prepare you and called it:

“irrelevant.”

But Holy Ghost knows what belongs in the build.

And if He brings you back to the dumpster and shines His Light on something you discarded?

Baby…

put your PPE on.

😂🔥

Because we might have to go get something back.

🔦 Section Four: Ask Holy Ghost Before You Throw It Away

Now listen…

After everything we've talked about, I do NOT want anybody leaving here thinking:

“Welp! Apparently everything I ever threw away was actually provision. Let me go get all my stuff back!”

😂😂😂

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Some stuff belongs in the dumpster.

Leave it there.

Some mindsets need to stay there.

Some habits need to stay there.

Some relationships need to stay there.

Some versions of yourself that Jesus Christ delivered you from need to STAY. RIGHT. THERE.

We are not retrieving things because we're nostalgic.

We're not retrieving things because we miss them.

We're not retrieving things because we're afraid we made a mistake.

Nostalgia doesn't determine retrieval. Assignment does.

And that's why we need Holy Ghost.

Remember what we learned in Be a Dumpster Diver:

You don't climb into a dumpster in the dark, barehanded, picking up everything you touch.

Stay in the Light.

Wear your PPE.

Use discernment.

And let Holy Ghost tell you what to pick up, what to bring out—

and what to leave sitting right there.

Because:

Everything in the dumpster isn't treasure. But everything in the dumpster isn't trash either.

Discernment tells the difference.

🔥

And maybe this time the correction isn't about what you're trying to retrieve.

Maybe it's about what you're getting ready to throw away.

Before you discard it…

ASK.

Before you decide it has no value…

ASK.

Before you decide that season was a waste…

ASK.

Before you decide that skill has nothing to do with your purpose…

ASK.

Before you decide that opportunity didn't work, so God must not have been in it…

ASK.

Because you may be looking at a key before you've reached the lock. 🔑

You may be looking at lumber before you've seen the blueprint. 🪵

You may be tending sheep before you've met Goliath. 🐑

And you may be standing inside the training that is part of the provision you've been asking God to provide.

💎 And Stop Letting Other People Tell You What's Trash

Oh, because we have to deal with THIS before we close.

Sometimes you weren't the first person to call it trash.

Somebody else didn't value it.

Somebody else didn't understand it.

Somebody else couldn't see what you saw.

And after enough rejection, dismissal, criticism or indifference, eventually you started looking at it through their eyes.

👀

But somebody else's inability to recognize the value of something does not establish its value.

Come on!!!!

Jesus said:

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine…”
— Matthew 7:6 KJV

Now, before we start running around calling everybody who doesn't appreciate us a swine—come back in the house. 😂

That's not what I'm saying.

The principle is discernment.

A pearl does not stop being a pearl because somebody doesn't recognize its value.

💎

And you don't have to keep dragging the pearl back to the same person saying:

“LOOK! Don't you see it?! It's valuable! Look at it again!”

Baby…

STOP.

Maybe they aren't assigned to it.

Maybe they don't have the blueprint.

Maybe—

they aren't a builder.

👀🔥

They see boards.

You see walls.

They see something taking up space.

You see provision.

They see a dirty piece of lumber somebody threw away.

Holy Ghost showed you where it belongs in the build.

Stop requiring people who were never given the blueprint to recognize your building materials.

And here's the other side of that:

Sometimes YOU don't have the whole blueprint either.

Abraham certainly didn't.

“…Get thee out of thy country… unto a land that I will shew thee.”
— Genesis 12:1 KJV

God didn't hand Abram the entire itinerary.

He gave him enough revelation to obey.

And sometimes that's all we're going to get.

Enough Light for the next step.

Enough instruction for the next move.

Enough understanding to know:

Don't throw that away yet.

🙏🏾 And Forgive Them

And if somebody mishandled something valuable because they couldn't recognize it?

Forgive them.

Jesus Christ said:

“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
— Luke 23:34 KJV

And no, somebody failing to recognize what God placed in you is not equivalent to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We're taking the principle of forgiveness from His example.

Because everybody who failed to recognize something wasn't necessarily trying to destroy it.

Remember Cookie?

That man wasn't outside declaring war on my anointing oil. 😂

He thought trash had leaked.

He was trying to clean up what he thought was a mess.

He didn't recognize what he was looking at.

And sometimes we have spent years angry with somebody because they couldn't recognize our building material—

when maybe they weren't a builder.

Forgive them.

Their inability to recognize it still does not give them authority to define it.

And while we're forgiving people…

Maybe you need to forgive yourself.

Because perhaps you were the one who threw away the lumber.

You didn't know.

You couldn't see it.

You hadn't reached the lock yet.

You didn't know you were a builder yet.

Father, forgive me. I didn't know what I was doing.

And if Holy Ghost says go get it?

Baby…

GO GET IT.

🏗️ Then BUILD

But don't miss the whole point of this devotional.

We aren't retrieving lumber so we can sit around admiring lumber.

We aren't finding pearls so everybody can tell us how valuable our pearls are.

We aren't discovering keys so we can start a key collection. 😂

We aren't receiving unction so we can brag about being anointed.

There is something to DO.

Remember:

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
— Ephesians 2:10 KJV

And maybe the work looks small.

That's alright.

“For who hath despised the day of small things?”
— Zechariah 4:10 KJV

And LOOK at the context!

They're BUILDING.

🔥🔥🔥

And just a few verses earlier:

“…Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.”
— Zechariah 4:6 KJV

There is the unction again.

Not by your strength.

Not by your ability to make everybody understand.

Not by how impressive the assignment looks.

BY HIS SPIRIT.

🕊️

So abide.

Listen.

Discern.

Obey.

Plant your seed.

Water when you're assigned to water.

Throw your pebble. 🪨

Tend the sheep.

Carry the key.

Retrieve the lumber.

And when Holy Ghost shows you where it belongs—

BUILD.

Because the pebble doesn't have to create a tsunami to have an effect.

The seed doesn't have to give itself increase.

The clay doesn't have to understand the Potter's entire plan.

The key doesn't have to see the lock to have purpose.

The lumber doesn't have to understand the blueprint.

And you don't have to know everything Father God knows in order to obey what He told you to do.

The Lord God Almighty knew you before He formed you.

He knew the good works before you walked in them.

He knew what the assignment would require before you encountered it.

And perhaps some of what you've been asking Him to provide…

He already did.

You just didn't know what you would need it for.

🫒

The unction abideth.

The provision has already been provided.

And now?

It's time to build. 🏗️🔥

🙏🏾 Spoken Prayer

Father God, in the Name of Jesus Christ,

You are the Sovereign Lord God Almighty, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You knew us before You formed us. We are Your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works that You prepared beforehand for us to walk in.

Forgive us for trying to make Your purpose fit inside the smallness of our own understanding. Forgive us for calling useless what You have called provision, for discarding what we didn't understand, and for allowing the opinions of others to influence how we value what You have entrusted to us, in Jesus Name.

We are not our own. We were bought with a price. We belong to You.

So today, Father God, we surrender our plans, our timelines, our expectations, and even our ideas about who we thought we were supposed to become, in Jesus Name.

Holy Ghost, reveal what we cannot see. Bring to our remembrance what we need to remember. Show us what to retrieve, what to release, what to steward, and what to build. Teach us to recognize Your provision—even when we don't yet understand its purpose, in Jesus Name.

We don't need the whole blueprint.

We trust You, Father God, the Master Architect.

May the unction we have received from You, abide in us, and may we faithfully become and do everything You created us to be and do—not by might, nor by power, but by Your Spirit.

We surrender the clay to the Potter.

Have Your way.

In the mighty Name of Jesus Christ,

Amen. 🙏🏾🔥