How has God anointed you?

Several years ago, while having a conversation with Mike Bickle, he encouraged me to do something that would end up being transformational in my calling as a creative.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Rizzcast podcast. My name is Justin and this is episode one. I've thought for a long time. What am I going to do for episode one? You know, cause episode one is kind of a big deal, right? You want people to enjoy what they're listening to, receive some value from what they're listening to with the hope that they would come back and listen to episode two and three and four. And so I finally landed on, what I'm gonna talk about and it is the most popular blog that I wrote about a year ago. I've been blogging consistently for about two years, but this blog that I'm going to talk about today has really stood out. I've gotten the most feedback and the most comments from people on it that it was just really, really helpful for them on their journey. And so I hope as we get into that content here in just a minute, that it will do the same for you, that it will encourage you, that it will strengthen you on your journey as a creative. So before we get into that, I want to just summarize again why I'm doing this podcast. There are several reasons, but the main one is this: I've been a creative for most of my life. I've written songs, recorded them, I've written musicals, I love writing. And as I began to step out and really begin to pursue that through high school, into my twenties, I began running into a lot of roadblocks. And if you're a creative listening to this, you can definitely concur and relate to what I'm saying. Some of the roadblocks were external things, but a lot of the roadblocks I began to find were inside my own mind, inside my heart and inside my soul where I'd be paralyzed by fear, fear of failing, fear of messing up, fear of looking like a fool in front of people. I struggled with insecurity and would say I'm never going to do that. That person can do that. I'll never be able to do that, which leads to jealousy, envy, and comparison and all these things that we all struggle with. And so this podcast, my hope is that it would just be a place of encouragement for you as a creative, whether you're a mom at home with kids or you're a barista at a coffee shop or whatever it is, that you would be strengthened on your journey of creativity, that whatever you're giving yourself to in your life, you'd be able to do it with more confidence and with more clarity. Also, stick around to the end of this episode if you like coffee or if you like hearing about coffee. If you follow me at all on social media, you'll be aware that I have a fond love for coffee and I travel quite a bit and I love finding coffee shops that have not only amazing coffee but amazing atmospheres and so I'm going to be talking about a shop that I visited in Zurich, Switzerland at the end of today's episode. HOW HAS GOD ANOINTED YOU? Have you ever thought about or asked this question? How has the Lord anointed me in my life? This question had never ever crossed my mind until probably about 12 years ago. I was having a conversation with Mike Bickle, who's a director of the International House of Prayer here in Kansas city where I led worship full-time for 15 years. We were having this conversation and he said, have you ever asked the Lord, Lord, how have you anointed me? And of course my response was, uh, no, I've never even thought about that. And he said, well, you need to ask that question. My response to him was, well, I think it's pretty clear. I lead worship full time. That's kinda my gifting. I have this desire to impact people through worship and see people see congregations engage with him. So I think he's anointed me to lead corporate worship. Mike responded and said great, that's a great first step. But how has the Lord anointed you to do that within corporate worship? And I was slightly frustrated at this point, though I didn't show it. As he continue explaining it it began to make so much sense. So I began to ask this question, Lord, how have you anointed me? As i did this it would prove to be life changing for me. And I hope that it will be for you as well. So let's look at this a little bit. Your annointing is how you are blessed or empowered. All believers are anointed as we know from Isaiah 61 to heal the brokenhearted, to bring good news to the poor, bring sight to the blind, freedom to the captives. And of course we know that Jesus quoted this verse in Luke 4. But the question is, how has he anointed or gifted you to do that, to express your anointing? For example, for myself as a worship leader, as I began to really ask the Lord this question, I began to see, okay, do I find that when I sing a certain type of song, like a high praise song, that the Lord comes in a more frequent or tangible way? Or is it when I do more of a slow, intimate type ballad song where I begin to find the Lord more frequently? Or maybe it's when I play a certain instrument when I lead from the guitar or when I lead from the piano. Maybe your heart comes alive when you're writing a cello piece or when you're writing an arrangement for a choir. Within the worship gamut, there's so many different ways that the Lord can specifically anoint you. So for example, if you're in the business world, the business world is vast. So I'd say, ask the Lord, Lord, how have you anointed me in the area of business? So how do you begin to discover this? How do you find out, Lord, how have you anointed me? Well, first you ask him that question just in a time of prayer. Lord, how have you anointed me and ask him a couple times over the next couple of days, over the next couple of weeks. Another thing that I began to look for is what moves my heart. What moves Justin's heart when he's leading worship. Because most of the time when your heart is moved, others will be moved as well. So in the coming weeks and months after Mike had this conversation with me, I started paying attention to how God was using me, both when I was on a platform leading worship. When I was off stage interacting with people, I began to understand what Mike was referring to of asking God and studying the anointed in your life. And here's the thing. When you begin to solidify who you are and the way God has gifted or anointed you, it gives you freedom to let go of other things, other areas that perhaps you're not supposed to be pursuing so that you can grow in confidence in what you are supposed to be pursuing. You can take more time to do with the Lord has anointed you to do. Now doing this, you know, it doesn't mean that you're being locked into one thing and one thing only. You know, it's like the the people- I'm not sure what personality these people have- but the people who don't like personality tests because it feels like it's locking them i n t o having to be a certain way. Do you know any of those types of people? So this isn't locking you in to one thing and one thing only. It simply means that you're maturing and you can actually pinpoint some of the ways that the Lord has anointed you. Some of the strengths that he's given you, some of the giftings that he's given you. And it doesn't mean that you should be constantly analyzing yourself and being introspective either. It means simply pay attention to what moves you. Pay attention to the trends that you're beginning to see in your heart. Because sure enough, for me, this was about 12 years ago and I began to pray this prayer- and it was a couple of years after that when the Lord began to do something else in my life. And I began to pray this prayer related to that specific topic as well. And I began to find, Lord, you are moving and flowing and I want to stay in step with you. So I encourage you to make this prayer a normal part of your prayer life. Lord, how have you anointed me? And I want to say this as well, the anointing of God cannot be earned. You can't earn God's anointing. It's something that he has freely given to us and it flows from within us as we agree with the Holy spirit who dwells inside. But though the anointing can't be earned, it can be tended to and it can be increased as you spend time with the anointed one. So I encourage you, begin praying this prayer. Lord, how have you anointed me in my life? And I believe that your life will be transformed and changed just as mine was. I hope this was encouraging to you and I always want to hear from you. So please shoot me an email at podcast@justinrizzo.com. Or you can hit me up on social media. COFFEE. Like I said earlier, I travel a lot and I love coffee. So when I travel, one of the things that I do is I find coffee shops that not only have amazing coffee- well actually for me there are 3 things that make up an amazing coffee shop in my own little opinionated way. It's the coffee- I want it to be an excellent coffee- but it's also the customer service, and it's also the space that the coffee is served. Kraftwerk Coffee. I'm probably pronouncing that wrong- in downtown Zurich. I went there this past fall. I'm not even going to try and pronounce the street that it was on. But it was such an amazing experience. Parking downtown was a bit of a challenge. We had to walk a little bit of a ways, but then you come upon this little river, which I'm not going to try and pronounce the name of that either. This place is nestled up right against the river. You walk into the shop and then the ceiling goes really, really high. And there's all of these shipping containers- probably like six or nine of them stacked left to right. And then on top of each other as well. And there are workspaces inside these shipping containers and there's glass on the ends of them so you can see in and there's all these people working or having meetings. So a big, big plus on the space these guys have. It was just fantastic to look at. Even before I tasted the coffee, I was like, Oh my goodness, I'm sold. This place is amazing. I loved, which is a rare thing to find in Europe, my espresso tonic. It was made with a single origin Brazilian roast, which I really, really loved. I sat in this space with a friend of mine, got some work done, it was fantastic. Kraftwerk coffee, you can check on my Instagram coffeejustinrizzo(https://www.instagram.com/coffeejustinrizzo/?hl=en) for some pictures of this place. It was fantastic and I highly recommend it. https://www.kraftwerk.coffee/ Thanks so much for listening to the Rizzcast podcast. I always want to hear from you. Hit me up at podcast@justinrizzo.com. Also a big thanks to Judah Earl for the original music for the podcast and also to Michael Dinsmore for the art design.