A Mother’s Anointing
Mother’s Day 2010
Scriptures: Genesis 3:20; 21:1-2; Exodus 2:3-10; 1 Kings 3:26; 2 Timothy 1:5
Introductions:
My message this morning is titled “A Mother’s Anointing”. I believe every mother is anointed by God to walk in motherhood. I fully began to understand the vastness of this anointing as I watched my wife with our children and began to think back through the years of other mothers that I have encountered. I want you to understand that I am not saying every “woman” who is a mother walks in this anointing, but I do believe that anointing is there for them even if they choose not to receive or walk in it.
When I was growing up I had a wonderful mother and yet while she was living I did not fully appreciate or understand the anointing that rested on her as a mother. Even though I was a mother’s boy and had a great relationship with my mother, she died before I was able to fully express to her my appreciation for her walking in the anointing of motherhood. If my mother was alive today I would tell her “thank you”. Thank you for the sacrifices you made to ensure that I had the opportunity to live the life that I do today. Thank you for the times when you punished me for my disobedience ensuring that some temptations I did not give in to. Thank you for not wanting to be my best friend and being strong enough to let me know it. Thank you for taking miscellaneous ingredients found in the kitchen and ensuring we always had something to eat. Thank you for keeping me with you. My mother told me that a distant relative offered to take me and my brother and raise us as her own because my mother had five of us to take care of and my mother said no. I would like to thank her for the prayers – her prayers surrounded me with angels to help me understand God’s calling on my life. Her prayers opened doors that man could not close. Her prayers enabled me to get through school without failing. Her prayers healed me when I was sick. Her prayers calmed me when I was scared. Her prayers comforted me when I was hurting. Thank you Muddear for showing me the love of God which allowed me to have a relationship with Him. (Mothers, know this: if you are praying for your child to be saved or any other relative, I want you to know that God has answered your prayer. Understand, as soon as you prayed the prayer, God dispatched angels to help bring the person to the point of making a decision. God will not over-ride their free will, but He will ensure that they know they have a choice and there is a God that loves them. It doe not matter how many times they say no, the angels of God will not give up. They will keep trying. You prayers are answered!) Finally I would thank my mother for all the things that she did that I did not know that she did. With that said I would hug her and tell her sincerely that I loved her. But I cannot do that because she is no longer here, but God did send others.
You see, I have always been surrounded by strong mothers, mothers who understood their role as it related to their children. When my mother died, God had already placed another mother in my life. I have a wonderful mother-in-law in whose eyes I am like a son. This is not by mistake, but by design. My other mother is here today and I want to say thank you, Mom. Thank you for holding me and comforting me on the day after my mother died as I was in your basement crying. You did not have to do it, but you did. I also thank you for the counsel you gave me a few years ago that enabled me to make the best decisions for my life. You may not realize what you did, but today I want to acknowledge it and tell you thank you and I love you. I truly thank you for allowing God’s anointing to flow through you.
I. A Mother’s Anointing
This morning I want to share with you a few examples of how the anointing of motherhood is displayed in those mothers who choose to walk in it. I do not have time to talk about all of them, but my intentions are to give you an idea so that if your mother is still alive today you can call them or go by and see them and tell them “thank you” and that you sincerely love and appreciate what they are doing in your life. Let’s start with Genesis 3:20.
The Giver of Life. Genesis 3:20 records the following: “Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.” Another translation says refers to Eve as being the “life-giving one.” When Adam looked upon the woman God had made for him as a help mate, he called her Eve and said she was the mother of al living things. Understand this concept. Adam and Eve were the only two living persons in the Garden of Eden. All of the animals were created as adults animals – there were no births. Where did Adam get the concept of “motherhood” in order to be able to call Eve the “mother of all the living”? This knowledge came from God. From the time of creation, God had anointed the woman to be the bearer of life, and not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. The mother is the one who imparts a lot of the emotional and spiritual responses a child has to the life around them. This is a special anointing – the life giving one. From the beginning God anointed women to be the ones to bring forth life – to be a mother. He instilled that understanding into Adam and Adam spoke it. God did not give that responsibility to men but that is another subject for later.
The Inner Desire to Be a Mother. Sarah was Abraham’s wife and through her body God had promised to fulfill the promise that He had made to Abraham. Through her body would come a nation whose descendants would be too numerable to count. Genesis 21:1-2 records the following: “Then the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.” Sarah waited almost ten years for God to fulfill His promise to her, but she had actually waited a life-time. Sarah had always wanted children, but there was an appointed time for her to specifically bring a son into the world. Think about what this means. Had she given birth to Isaac years earlier Moses would not have been born? Have you considered the impact of what would have happened if Isaac would not have married Rebecca? But let me return to Sarah. She wanted a son and did everything within her, even to giving her handmaid to Abraham for her to conceive a child on her behalf. It was something within her to have a son and that something was the anointing of God. Even as she approached the age of eighty, the desire was still there. She was close to ninety when she had Isaac and that represented two miracles. The first was that she actually conceived and had a baby in her old age and the second was the fact that she wanted the baby. The fact that she wanted a baby at the age of ninety is a miracle. I will turn fifty this year and while the thought of having a small child running around the house is intriguing, I look forward to that child being a grandchild versus my own child. But that is Rodney speaking and I do not have a mother’s anointing. I truly believe if it were left up to my wife, we would still be having children. The second anointing that we must recognize operating within a mother is that the desire to be a mother will always be there on some level. Long after their child bearing years are over they will not be able to look at a child without having compassion and love for that child. It does not matter who the child belong to, a mother will always look upon a child with compassion and grace. It is a part of who God has called them to be.
Will Move the World to Save Her Child: The third anointing that is part of motherhood is the willingness to move the world to save her child. I know a woman who was outside with her son when a car jack slipped and the car fell on her son. There was no time to call 911 and this mother had to do something. This mother reached down and lifted that car off of her son. Under normal conditions this would have been impossible for her, but on this day, God empowered her and sent angels to help her lift that car. She did not ponder what needed to be done; she just reacted to save her son. The Bible records a similar story with Moses. Exodus 2:3 records the following story: “But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile” Moses’ birth mother defied Pharaoh’s decree and saved her son’s life. Pharaoh had delivered a decree that all males should be killed at birth as he tried to stop God from sending the deliverer for the Children of Israel. Moses’ mother defied Pharaoh and saved her son – but it does not stop there. She placed her son in a basket and set the basket afloat on the river. God took that basket and guided it to Pharaoh’s house to be discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter. Now look at the tenth verse. “The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses, and said, ‘Because I drew him out of the water.” Moses birth mother defied Pharaoh and now Pharaoh’s own daughter defied her father and adopted a child that he had ordered to be killed. The same child that Pharaoh was trying to kill was going to be raised up in his house, eating his food, learning under his teachers and living as a prince. This was all accomplished because two mothers defied the order of a king. Now maybe Moses’ birth father was involved in the decision but the Bible does not record that. What we do know is that his mother refused to let him die as the other children were dying. A mother’s anointing will enable her to find a way to save her child.
One more point I want to make in reference to Moses’ birth mother and Pharaoh’s daughter before I move on. Moses’ mother recognized that she could not take care of him. She knew she could not protect him or give him what he needed because a death warrant had been issued for him. She chose to give him up; to allow someone else to raise him and thus save his life. She literally put him up for adoption believing that God would guide that basket upon the river to safety. Pharaoh’s daughter adopted Moses and raised him as her own. She did this knowing that he was a Hebrew and had been chosen for death. I bring this up because there are many times when a mother will adopt a child and raise the child as her own because of this anointing that is within her. Likewise, that same anointing will cause a mother to put her child up for adoption because in her heart she wants what is best for her baby. Our society sometimes frowns upon mothers who put their child up for adoption, but I see it as God working through the mothers to provide for that child.
One more story along these lines. The book of First Kings records the story of two mothers who stood before Solomon both claiming that a baby was theirs. Solomon did not know which mother was telling the truth so he recommended that the baby be cut in half and both mothers receive half of the baby. Solomon knew that the real mother would never allow this to happen. 1 Kings 3:26 records what happened next. It reads “Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son and said, ‘Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kills him.’ But the other said, ‘He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!” The real mother chose to give her child to the other mother versus killing him. This is how Solomon knew who the real mother was. What is so interesting though is that the other mother did not want the child, she just did not want her friend to have a baby and she did not. Why would she ever agree to divide her own child to settle a dispute? Contrary to what we may think, there are woman out there with this same attitude.
Will Bring Their Children to God. The Bible also records a story of a mother who chose to give her son to God. 1 Samuel 1:11 records the following: “She made a vow and said, ‘O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head.” Hannah was a woman who wanted a son. She had prayed and prayed, but yet she was barren. She went to the temple and prayed for a son and in that prayer she promised God that she would give her son to Him. The prophet Eli was there and told her that her prayers would be answered. Hannah was true to her word and as soon as Samuel was ready, she took him to the temple and gave him to God. Do you know that it is generally the mothers who bring their children to God? I believe this is another anointing that mother’s have. There is something within them that will make them want their children to know God. They make sure that their kids go to Church, and not just go, but also participate in the activities of the Church. When you look around most Churches, you will find more women and children than you will men. Remember what I shared with you about Eve being the mother of all living things? When a mother brings her child to God, she is giving that child another opportunity to live. This new life is a life of eternity with God. This should not surprise us that this anointing is within mothers. With this anointing comes the final one I want to share with you today.
Anointing to Instill Faith. Now you may be wondering how in the world I reached this conclusion since everyone must walk in faith. Well let’s go back to something I shared with you in the story of Hannah. Who generally make sure that the children are in Church? The mother. Who generally spends time on their needs praying for their children? The mother. Who can generally be found in Church supporting the activities of the Church? The mother. Who generally can be found teaching their children about the Lord? The mother. Whether this is because of our society pressures on the men of the perceived duties of the mother is for others to argue, but I believe it is because of an anointing that God has placed on mothers. They are the givers of life. Faith is a vital part of our life force and what we witness with our parents will directly impact how we walk in faith. Yes there are exceptions to every general rule and we have some exceptions here where the men work side by side with their wives, but generally our ability to have faith in God often comes through our mother because of what a child sees the mother doing.
Years ago my father told me a story. In our household there were five children. My father was a blue collar worker and sometimes there were no jobs to be had. I remember him working 3 and sometimes 4 jobs just to make sure that we had the basic of necessities. Because money was always tight, my father did not always tithe. He gave what he could when he could, but it was sparingly at best. My father told me that my mother talked him into tithing and to believe that if he gave to God first and trusted Him, everything else would be taken care of. Out of his love for my mother, he began to tithes. It was not because of what the pastor, Sunday school teacher, bible study teacher or any other Church leader had said to him, it was because of my mother. He had witnessed the faith of my mother and believed her. He told me that after he started tithing and placing his faith in God, God always provided for “us”. Notice I said “us” his children and not just “him”. God is about family. My father honored God because he believed what my mother said about God taking care of things when we put Him first. When God proved Himself to my father, my father never stopped tithing and giving more than his tithes to the Church. Even on his death bed he wanted to ensure that his tithes got to Church. I share this with you because it was not the Church leaders that brought this change in my father, it was my mother, his wife.
Paul also bears this out when he wrote to Timothy. Timothy was a young pastor who was going through some difficult situations in his congregation. When Paul wrote to him the second time, he reminded Timothy of the faith that was in him that had also existed in his grandmother and his mother. 2 Timothy 1:5: “For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.” Paul reminded Timothy of the faith that had been passed down to him – not through his fathers, but through his mother and grandmother. And one thing we need to keep in mind is that during this time it was very much a male controlled society and for Paul to credit Timothy’s faith to his mother and grandmother was something special.
Conclusion
I wish I had more time. If I had time this morning I would love to talk about those mothers who stayed awake during the night because their child was sick. I would love to talk about how they prayed for healing and was willing to give up their lives for their child. If I had time I’d love to tell you about the mothers who went to the school, found out what their child was doing wrong and helped the teacher get that child back in order. If I had time, I’d love to tell you about those mothers who would go into the kitchen and find the cupboard nearly bare and yet when their child came to the dinner table there was food on the table. If I had time, I’d love to tell you about that mother whose child went to college because she had the forethought to plan ahead for their child’s education. If I had time, I’d tell you about the mother who came to the decision that their child must leave their house because they refused to live by the house rules. Only if I had more time I could tell you stories about mothers who made sure their children were at Church on Sundays, at choir practice on Monday, at Bible Study on Wednesday and did volunteer work on the weekend because they had just too much free time. If I had just a little more time I’d tell you about the mothers of old who walked amidst criticism; who withstood abuse to protect her children; who set a standard for their children; who were not afraid to say no and mean it. If I had just a little more time, I’d tell you about those mothers who are now in heaven but because of the work they did while here on earth, we are here.
If I had just a little more time, I’d tell you to be thankful. Thankful for the love that a mother, even if she were not your own, placed within you under God’s anointing. Thankful for the discipline that stopped you from growing up to being on vacation at the government’s expense (in prison). Thankful for the kind words that a mother spoke into your life when you needed it. Thankful for all the prayers that saw you through and enabled you to be right here, right now, listening to this message.
I am thankful for my mother and I wished I could tell her what I’ve shared with you. If your mother is still alive, no matter how many times they have gotten on your nerves, take time today to tell them “thank-you”. Don’t just give them a card or a bunch of flowers, give them your own words that will live within them. Tell them from your heart what they mean to you. If your mother is in heaven, call the person that stood in their place when you needed them. Let them know that you are thankful for what they have done in your life.
For every mother in this room right now, or who is reading this message, I say to you “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.”
God bless you.
