All of us have a special drawer we use for storing spiritual things that we don’t really see any use for. Kind of like the junk drawer in the house, where you keep all the stuff you don’t want to throw away, but you’re not sure if you’ll ever use it. For many years impartation was one of those things I would just take with a complimentary smile, only to later stuff it into the drawer of “not sure if it works, and not sure if it’s real”. Starting out as a pastor’s kid, and living as a missionary kid from the age of 11, I can’t remember how many times I would head up to the front of church to get prayed for by a minister for some kind of impartation of anointing. Sometimes I would be touched powerfully by the Holy Spirit, but sometimes I would not feel anything. It’s not that I was in doubt or bitter or anything, but I just had a hard time seeing any measurable results from this spiritual ritual, we spirit-filled Christians love to practice.

Then everything changed. Something happened while I was attending the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. After completing the Healing School with Randy Clark and Bill Johnson, Randy really convinced me with his teaching on impartation that this was actually real, not only in the bible, but in our time also. I’m not sure I understood what happened, but something in my heart shifted after he prayed for all of us for impartation of anointing. Perhaps that time when I received prayer for impartation, it was different. The funny thing is this was not the first time I was prayed for by Randy, who happens to be famous for starting revivals, and releasing impartation to others. We actually had Randy Clark ministering at our church in Ukraine many years prior to this moment.  In fact Randy is a good friend of my parents.

Well… that day, as I was praying for people, I saw two instant healings through my own hands. This was new for me. One man had pain in his neck go away completely while I prayed for him, and a young lady who had one leg longer than the other was healed, and her leg grew out so it was the same length as the other. When the girl’s leg grew out, I found myself doubting what just happened, even though I saw it with my own eyes. That was the moment I realized I better go dig around in that junk drawer and see what else I was missing out on.

Is impartation the secret missing link?
Not necessarily, however… Bill Johnson often talks about how, he’s glad to pray for anyone for impartation of anointing, but we all have to create our own history with God. And that’s not something that can be imparted. This isn’t your “get rich fast” method for getting anointed. However, it’s a good thing to pursue Spiritual gifts! Paul encouraged it. It’s not just some modern idea cooked up in charismania to get stuff for free. It’s actually biblical, and ironically mentioned in Hebrews 6 as one of the “elementary doctrines of Christ” that the church has neglected for too long.

So how do we get impartation?
If you’re really serious about diving into this topic, then get Randy Clark’s book called There Is More!: The Secret to Experiencing God’s Power to Change Your Life. This book rocked my world! I wouldn’t be surprised if you get a load of anointing imparted to you, just by reading it. Randy brilliantly uncovers all the scriptural basis for impartation, and shares countless mind-blowing stories of how the Holy Spirit used impartation in our time to start revivals, release people into their callings, and he shares raw stories from his own life that uncover the sacrifice, and the hefty price impartation actually costs if we’re serious about carrying Gods anointing.

Here are four keys from my personal experience that I believe helped unlock impartation in my life:

• By believing in impartation

You’ll never get a lot of something you don’t believe in. In Numbers 11:16-18 God told Moses “I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them”. In this passage the transference of anointing from one man to another is obvious. However it is also clear that this was not something that man could do. It is an act of God totally depending on His calling and anointing. Obviously we are touching on an area full of mystery, when it comes to understanding our partnership with God vs. His sovereignty, however it all starts with believing. “You don’t see in order for you to believe. But you believe in order to see!” Kevin Prosch

• By getting anointed people to lay hands on you!

To be clear, when I use this modernly coined term “Impartation” I’m using it in broad terms. Including everything that has to do with; the gift, or gifts of the Spirit, power, anointing, filling of the Holy Spirit, and the transfer of mantles. In scripture this often happened through the laying on of hands, but this is not the only way God released impartation. One of the very much overlooked ways people received impartation was through waiting on God through prayer, and several other ways that we can clearly see in both the old and new testaments. Some people catch the fire of what God is doing without anyone praying for them. It has a lot to do with the posture of our heart, and Gods sovereign calling and anointing. You really have to want it, and go after it. Sometimes that means going to the other end of the globe in hopes of catching the fire of a revival you heard about going on. I have personally noticed that the people who like to say things like “God can touch me right here. It’s not like I have to go all the way over to that city for God to touch me…” aren’t typically the ones who catch the anointing.

• By being humble and thirsty

I often find there are two dichotomous routes my heart tends to take. One seems very accurate and precisely straight, but it’s kind of like a sanitary pipe line that leaves you worse off in the end. The other is kind of like an ambiguous, forgotten trail that leads to the hidden treasure.

1. The Pharisee route; crossed arms, skeptical, doubting and comparing. Much like the people in Jesus’ hometown who wouldn’t believe His miracle stories.
2. Or I can posture my heart as humble, thirsty, hungry and not the expert, but a desperate learner. More like the woman who grabbed onto the hem of Jesus’ garment, or the audacious individuals who took Jesus’ roof apart to get someone healed.
If I’m honest with myself, it’s not very difficult to diagnose and determine what route my heart has chosen at the moment.
While some stand on the sidelines criticizing the new wine, others rip Jesus’ roof open to get a sick man healed, and to the bewilderment of the cynics, Jesus pays no attention to the vandalism, only seeing an open heaven blasting a hole through the crust of doubt and resistance.

• Through honor

Impartation is inheritance in essence because it’s something we receive that someone else paid for. I am convinced that the more I honor the anointing on others, the more I get to receive from them. Once Kris Vallotton prophetically uttered something he didn’t even really understand when he said it. “The Kingdom is not a round table. It’s a rectangular table with levels of honor.” A bit surprised, the leaders he was sharing with asked “Why would we want to be at a rectangular table?” Kris continued: “because if we’re at a round table we’re relegated to sowing and reaping. We only get what we work for. But if we’re at a rectangular table and we honor those who have more than us, then through honor, we receive for free what we would have otherwise had to work for.”
Here’s another example:

“We don’t honor people because they require it or deserve it, but because we’re honorable people. Elisha honored Elijah, and that’s how he received the double portion. Elishah’s servant didn’t follow that path. He didn’t honor the same way. Was mindful of earthly things. The result? Elisha’s anointing went to the grave with him.”-Bill Johnson
Instead of disqualifying someone who is anointed by God because you don’t like their style, or have a few theological points you don’t agree on, why not honor the anointing God gave them, spit out the bones, and receive impartation? Too many people miss wonderful opportunities of impartation because of stumbling blocks of personality, style, or even minor theological differences.

Hopefully these few thoughts have provoked you to dive in deeper into what you may have been missing out on. If this post cracked the package open for you, I highly suggest buying Randy’s book, in order to see the full picture. I’m so grateful for how Randy is able to take you into scripture and intelligently unlock things so ambiguous and controversial.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

There Is More!: The Secret to Experiencing God’s Power to Change Your Life – Randy Clark

(a fun little bonus story, if you’re not tired of reading yet…)

A reckless altar stampede.  The story that flipped the switch.

Kevin Dedmon, a pastor at Bethel, was teaching on Impartation in the school. By the end of his teaching, I was one of the first students literally jumping over chairs, scrambling to get to the front as fast as I could to receive prayer and to receive impartation of anointing of a revivalist by the name of Lonnie Frisbee.
Here’s the story that caused this reckless altar stampede by us students.
Lonnie Frisbee was a significant catalytic figure in the Jesus Movement and the primary reason for the explosive growth of both the Calvary Chapel and Vineyard movements.  Kevin Dedmon was a vineyard pastor in So Cal before he became part of Bethel where he learned more about the concept of anointing and mantles being transferred from one person to another. Kevin actually knew Lonnie and ministered to him before he died in 1993 from a sickness due to his tragic moral failure that ended his career in ministry.  Not having a value for this concept of impartation at the time, Kevin never asked Lonnie to lay hands on him and pray for the transference of anointing. Now, when he had been studying the lives of various revivalists, including Lonnie Frisbee, he felt like he missed an opportunity of a lifetime. He was deeply frustrated, and decided that even though Lonnie had passed away, somehow he would just have to get the impartation of Lonnie’s anointing, even if he had to “suck it out of the walls of the house Lonnie lived in” Kevin said.  Literally a month after he discovered this long-lost doctrine, he got an invitation to preach at a church in Novato, CA where Lonnie had once partnered with four other radical new Christians to open a Christian commune they called The House of Acts.  Kevin contacted the pastor who invited him to ask if he knew where the House of Acts was located so they could visit the site to receive an impartation of of the anointing Lonnie carried as a catalyst in the Jesus Movement. To the utter discouragement of Kevin, the pastor never located the site. Kevin was desperate. As he was preaching in a leaders meeting in Novato, he was sharing about his pursuit of Lonnie Frisbee’s mantle when a 70 year old woman stood up. With tears running down her face she said “I knew Lonnie. I was his art teacher when he was in junior high school. The year Lonnie died he came to my house. When I opened the door he pointed his finger in my face, and said ‘When you are 70 years old, there will be a man who comes looking for my mantle, and when he comes, give him my mantle, and it will be released to him and to everyone who wants it, because Jesus wants to fulfill what He started through me.'”
At this point in our class, Kevin shouted out “so who wants it!?” That was when we all went crazy, running to the front with a ravenous hunger for more. One of Kevin’s interns was utterly astounded, and told me personally that he had not seen any students so desperately hungry for more, like us.