Text: 1 Samuel 16:10-13
Memory text:
“But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock,”
‭‭I Samuel‬ ‭17‬:‭34‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

It’s a good thing to desire spiritual authority or the anointing. Yet, God never promotes anyone on desire alone without faithfulness. Your next level is hidden in and dependent on your faithfulness in your current assignment in your routine and ordinary duties.
What is faithfulness? It is your consistency, reliability, and obedience to what God has already entrusted to you, be it human, material, and financial resources. It is upholding your allegiance and dignity in spite of the odds or remaining true to your covenant.
Before God increases anyone in authority, anointing, power, influence, or spiritual depth, He first tests faithfulness in small things (Luke 16:10). This is not human exaltation. An unfaithful man can contest, scheme, or manipulate others to secure a position of authority in religious matters. You can get a position by human scheming, but it takes faithfulness to secure the anointing required for that position. If David had manipulated people to be enthroned as a king, he would have been long dead under the cruel hand of King Saul! God anoints the one He calls, and His anointing secures them. ‭‭(Psa‬ ‭20‬:‭6;1 Chro 16:19-22).
God will never give anyone greater revelation without first watching how he or she handles basic instructions. He pegged King Saul’s progress when He observed his consistent disobedience to His instructions. Samuel said to Saul, “…You refused to do what God told you, so God has decided that you can no longer be king.” (1 Sam 15:23 CEV).
God tests obedience before He bestows greater anointing. Jesus did not only inherit the anointing as the Son of God, He earned it (Phil 2:9-11; Heb 1:9). Likewise, God did not just pick David from nowhere or randomly, but he was found. A steward should be found faithful. Faithfulness is not imputed but tested. David had a track record of being faithful (1 Sam 16:11, 17:34-35; Psa 89:20). He was faithful with sheep before he was anointed as a king and trusted with a nation. Every person God anointed greatly was first tested in small, hidden responsibilities. The oil did not locate David in the palace but in the field. It was his faithfulness in the ordinary that attracted his extraordinary anointing.
Friends, beware of anointing without faithfulness. Such anointing is noise without power; it is doubtful, suspicious, and deadly to its carrier. True oil only flows where faithfulness grows.

Prayer points
1. Father, help me to be faithful in all my routine and ordinary assignments and hidden responsibilities; let me never seek anointing without faithfulness, in Jesus’ name.
2. Father, let faithfulness promote me and attract greater anointing to my life. Let anointing protect me and defend me as I serve faithfully, in Jesus’ name.

Today’s declarations
1. I won’t seek anointing without faithfulness lest I receive a strange anointing and then stray away from the faith.
2. I will not only desire spiritual growth and greater anointing, but I will be faithful in my routine, ordinary, and hidden assignments, knowing that anointing flows where faithfulness grows.