There is a purpose for your life that was assigned to you before you were born that has not expired despite your age and that no one else on this earth can fulfill. You may believe that your season of usefulness has passed. You may believe that whatever purpose God had for you was meant for your younger years and that now in this later chapter you are simply waiting, no longer needed, no longer significant, no longer carrying an assignment that matters.
But that belief is a lie. And it is one of the most damaging lies the enemy has ever sold to the people of God. Because the truth is that God anointed you for a special purpose.
a purpose that is specific to you, designed for you, and impossible for anyone else to fulfill in your place. And that anointing did not retire when you did. It did not fade with your strength.
It did not pass with your prime. The anointing on your life is as active today as it has ever been. And the purpose for which God set you apart is still waiting to be fully expressed.
Perhaps in this very season that you assumed was the end. This teaching is going to reveal the reality of your divine anointing and the specific purpose for which God set you apart. A purpose that has not been cancelled by your age, your circumstances or your failures.
EW Kenyon understood the anointing not as a special endowment for a select few but as the divine equipment given to every believer for the fulfillment of their god- ordained purpose. He wrote every believer is anointed. The anointing is not reserved for prophets and apostles.
It is the divine enablement given to every child of God for the fulfillment of the purpose for which he was created. The Holy Spirit, who is the anointing, dwells in every believer, and he brings with him the specific equipment for the specific calling that God ordained before the foundation of the world. The believer who does not know he is anointed will never fulfill his purpose.
But the believer who recognizes his anointing will discover that he was created for something significant, something specific, and something that only he can do, something that only you can do. That is the heart of this teaching. You are not a spare part.
You are not an afterthought. You are an anointed vessel set apart for a specific purpose that God designed for you and equipped you to fulfill. Stay with me through this entire teaching because what you discover about your anointing and your purpose will transform the way you see this entire season of your life.
Let us confront the lie that has silenced so many believers, especially those in their later years. The lie says that purpose is tied to productivity, that your significance is measured by your output, and that when your output declines, your significance declines with it. Under this lie, the young, the strong, and the productive are the ones with purpose, and the aging, the weakening, and the slowing are simply running out the clock.
And this lie is reinforced by a culture that worships youth, productivity, and achievement. A culture that quietly communicates to its elders that their best days are behind them and their usefulness has expired. But this lie is a complete inversion of the biblical understanding of purpose.
In the scriptures, purpose is not tied to productivity. It is tied to calling. and calling does not expire.
Romans 11:29 declares, "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. " Without repentance means without change, without reversal, without revocation. God does not call you for a season and then cancel the calling when you age.
The gifts and the calling of God are permanent. They do not expire. They do not retire.
They remain active and operative for as long as you live. And the believer who measures their purpose by their productivity has accepted the world's standard rather than God's and has allowed a cultural lie to silence a calling that God never cancelled. EW Kenyon confronted this lie with the authority of one who understood the permanence of the divine calling.
He wrote, "God does not discard his servants when their strength declines. The world may retire a man at 65, but God has no retirement age. " Some of the greatest works in the kingdom of God have been accomplished by those the world had written off.
The anointing does not weaken with age. In many cases, it deepens because the vessel has been refined by years of walking with God and is now more capable of carrying the weight of the anointing than it was in its younger, stronger, but less mature years. The anointing deepens with age.
That is the opposite of the world's lie. The world says you decline. God says you deepen.
The world says your purpose expires. God says your calling is without repentance. And the believer who embraces God's view rather than the worlds will discover that their later years can be the most purposeful and most anointed years of their entire life.
Consider the testimony of scripture. Moses did not begin his greatest work until he was 80 years old. Abraham did not receive the son of promise until he was 100.
Caleb claimed his mountain at 85, declaring that he was as strong for the battle as he had been at 40. Anna the prophetus was 84 when she recognized and proclaimed the infant Messiah. Simeon was an old man when he held the Christ child and declared the prophecy over him.
The scriptures are filled with examples of God accomplishing his greatest purposes through those whom the world would have considered past their prime. Because in the economy of God, the later years are not a time of diminishing purpose. They are often the time of the deepest, richest, most significant assignments given to those who have been prepared by a lifetime of walking with God.
So let us understand the nature of your anointing and your purpose. First, the anointing is the Holy Spirit himself dwelling within you and equipping you for your calling. 1 John 2:27 says, "But the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you.
The anointing abides in you. It is not an occasional visitation. It is a permanent indwelling.
The Holy Spirit who is the anointing lives within your recreated spirit and he is the divine equipment for whatever God has called you to do. You do not lack the anointing. You possess it.
It abides in you and it is fully sufficient for the purpose God has assigned to you. The word anointing itself carries rich meaning that deepens our understanding. In the Old Testament, when a king, a priest, or a prophet was set apart for their office, they were anointed with oil.
The oil was poured over their head, symbolizing the spirit of God coming upon them to equip them for their assignment. 1st Samuel 16:13 records David's anointing. 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. The spirit came upon David from that day forward. The anointing was the impartation of the spirit for the assignment.
And under the new covenant, every believer has received this anointing, not as oil poured over the head, but as the Holy Spirit poured into the heart. You have been anointed, set apart, equipped by the spirit for the assignment God has given you. The anointing that came upon David, that came upon the prophets, that came upon the kings, has come upon you, and it abides in you permanently.
Second, your purpose was assigned before you were born. Jeremiah 15 records God's words to the prophet. Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.
And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Before you were formed, God knew you. Before you were born, he set you apart and ordained your purpose.
Your purpose is not something you stumbled into or something you must invent. It was assigned to you by God before you ever drew your first breath. And a purpose that was assigned before your birth is not cancelled by the aging of your body.
It is woven into the very reason you exist. Ephesians 2:10 confirms this with new covenant clarity. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Before ordained. God ordained specific good works for you to walk in. And he ordained them before the foundation of the world.
These works have your name on them. They were designed for you, suited to you, and reserved for you. And the anointing within you is the equipment for these specific works.
You are not anointed in general. You are anointed for a purpose, equipped for an assignment, set apart for works that God prepared in advance for you to accomplish. EW Kenyon connected the anointing directly to the believer's specific purpose with a clarity that should awaken every believer to their assignment.
He wrote, "The anointing is not given for display. It is given for function. God anoints the believer to do something, to fulfill a purpose, to accomplish a work.
And the anointing is precisely matched to the purpose. Whatever God has called you to do, the anointing within you is the exact equipment for that calling. You are not underequipped.
You are not lacking. The anointing is sufficient for the purpose because the same God who assigned the purpose provided the anointing to fulfill it. The anointing is precisely matched to the purpose.
That is the divine wisdom in your design. God did not give you a generic anointing and a random purpose. He gave you a specific purpose and the exact anointing required to fulfill it.
The two were designed together, fitted to each other, matched perfectly by the God who made you. Third, your purpose is unique to you and cannot be fulfilled by anyone else. This is one of the most important truths about your calling.
God did not assign your purpose to a category of people. He assigned it to you specifically because it requires the unique combination of your experiences, your personality, your relationships, your wisdom, and your walk with God that no one else possesses. 1 Corinthians 12:18 says, "But now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
" Every one of them set in the body individually, intentionally, purposefully. You are a specific member set in a specific place for a specific function. And if you do not fulfill your function, there is a gap in the body that no one else can fill because the function was assigned to you.
Let me give you a picture that captures the uniqueness of your purpose. Imagine an orchestra in which every instrument is essential. The symphony was composed with a specific part for each instrument.
There is a part that only the cello can play, a part that only the flute can play, a part that only the timony can play. If any instrument falls silent believing its part is unimportant, the symphony is diminished because the composer wrote that part to be played by that instrument and no other. Now imagine an instrument that has been playing for many years, an instrument that believes its best music is behind it and decides to fall silent.
The symphony immediately suffers because the part that instrument was playing was not assigned to anyone else. The composer is still conducting. The symphony is still being performed and the part is still written, still waiting, still needing to be played.
That is the picture of your purpose in the body of Christ. The composer wrote a part specifically for you. The symphony of his kingdom requires that part.
And as long as the music is being played, your part is still needed, still written, and still waiting for you to play it. Consider the implications of this for your daily life. The words of encouragement that only you can speak, drawn from a lifetime of experience, may be exactly what a struggling younger believer needs to hear.
The prayers that only you can pray, refined by decades of walking with God, may be holding back forces of darkness that no one else is positioned to resist. The testimony that only you can give, shaped by the specific journey God has walked you through, may be the exact word that unlocks faith in someone who has given up. The wisdom that only you possess, accumulated over a lifetime, may be the very thing a confused generation needs to find its way.
Your purpose is not abstract. It is woven into the specific relationships, conversations, and opportunities of your daily life. And the anointing within you is equipping you to fulfill it even now, even in this season, even if the world has told you that your usefulness has passed.
EW Kenyon spoke directly to the significance of the individual believer's purpose with words that should restore dignity to every life. He wrote, "There are no insignificant believers. There are no purposeless lives in the body of Christ.
Every believer carries an assignment that affects eternity. The quiet, faithful saint who prays in secret may be accomplishing more in the kingdom of God than the famous preacher on the platform. God does not measure purpose by visibility.
He measures it by faithfulness to the assignment. And the believer who is faithful to the purpose God assigned, however hidden, however quiet, however unrecognized by the world, is fulfilling a calling of eternal significance. God measures purpose by faithfulness, not visibility.
That truth liberates the believer from the need for recognition and frees them to simply be faithful to the assignment God gave them. Knowing that the faithfulness itself is the fulfillment of a purpose that affects eternity. Now, let me address a question that many sincere believers wrestle with.
How do I discover the specific purpose God has for me? Because it is one thing to know that you have a purpose and another to know what it is. The discovery of your purpose comes through several avenues that work together.
First, it comes through the word as the Holy Spirit illuminates scriptures that resonate with your spirit and point toward your calling. Second, it comes through the desires God has placed within you, the things that stir your heart, the needs that move you to compassion, the burdens you cannot shake. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
" God plants desires that align with your purpose. Third, it comes through the gifts and abilities God has given you, the things you do with a grace and an effectiveness that point toward the function you were designed to fulfill. And fourth, it comes through the doors God opens, the opportunities he arranges, the people he brings into your life who need exactly what you have to offer.
EW Kenyon counseledled believers to discover their purpose, not through anxious searching, but through faithful walking. He wrote, "The believer does not need to strain to discover his purpose. He needs to walk faithfully with God and the purpose will unfold.
As he stays in the word, yields to the spirit, and remains available to God, the assignment becomes clear. God does not hide the purpose from the willing heart. He reveals it step by step to the believer who is walking close enough to hear his voice.
Do not strive to find your purpose. Walk with God and your purpose will find you. Walk with God and your purpose will find you.
That removes the anxiety from the discovery. You do not have to figure it all out at once. You simply have to walk faithfully, stay available, and trust that the God who assigned the purpose will reveal it in his time.
And there is something deeply reassuring in this for those who feel they may have missed their purpose.