The Cost of the Anointing

There is a holy hush that falls when truth is spoken without embellishment. Words like these do not invite applause, they invite the soul to bow. The anointing is not a gift lightly worn. It is not a mantle draped over ambition or talent. It is a sacred weight, carried by those willing to be undone before they are ever used.

There is a cost that cannot be measured in time, talent, or applause. The anointing is not added to a life, it claims a life. Scripture never presents it as a reward for effort, but as the fruit of surrender. What God anoints is what has already been laid down.

The life and ministry of Kathryn Kuhlman remind us that God does not anoint what we protect from Him. He anoints what we surrender to Him.

The first price is absolute surrender.

Scripture calls it becoming a living sacrifice, not partially offered, not cautiously reserved, but wholly yielded.

📖 "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." — Romans 12:1 (NKJV)

Ownership changes hands at the altar. What once belonged to us now belongs to Him, because

📖 "You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s." — 1 Corinthians 6:20 (NKJV)

She spoke plainly of the price, not as a warning to frighten the willing, but as an invitation to honesty. Absolute surrender meant releasing ownership of self. In Hebrew, the word often associated with surrender, qarab, carries the sense of drawing near, of coming close enough to lay something down at the altar. Surrender is not loss for loss’ sake. It is nearness purchased through trust.

The second price is obedience, even when it hurts.

Obedience is not proven by agreement, but by faithfulness under strain. Even Jesus walked this road.

📖 "Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." — Hebrews 5:8 (NKJV)

Heaven weighs obedience more heavily than visible sacrifice, because

📖 "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." — 1 Samuel 15:22 (NKJV)

Obedience, even when it wounds, refines the ear to hear Heaven more clearly. The Hebrew shema is not passive listening, it is hearing that results in action. Delayed obedience dulls discernment, while costly obedience sharpens intimacy.

The third price is loneliness and separation.

 God often draws His servants away, not to punish them, but to speak to them.

📖 "I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her." — Hosea 2:14 (NKJV)

Even Jesus withdrew from the crowds to be alone with the Father.

📖 "He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray." — Matthew 14:23 (NKJV)

Depth is born where noise is absent.

Loneliness, too, has a language in God’s economy. The wilderness was never punishment, it was preparation. Separation makes room for depth.

The fourth price is being misunderstood.

Those who walk closely with God are often misjudged by those who see only the surface.

📖 "I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children." — Psalm 69:8 (NKJV)

Yet the servant rests in God’s defence, knowing

📖 "He who justifies Me is near." — Isaiah 50:8 (NKJV)

Misunderstanding strips away the need to be explained, leaving God as our only defence.

The fifth price is brokenness.

Success does not heal brokenness, it exposes it. God does not despise this place, He honours it.

📖 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise." — Psalm 51:17 (NKJV)

Broken vessels carry divine power precisely because the glory is clearly His.

📖 "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." — 2 Corinthians 4:7 (NKJV)

Brokenness, shabar, to be shattered, is never the end. It is the place where pride loses its grip and usefulness is born.

The sixth price is discipline and guarded living.

What God entrusts must be stewarded with care.

📖 "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." — Proverbs 4:23 (NKJV)

Discipline protects the anointing from erosion.

📖 "I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest… I myself should become disqualified." — 1 Corinthians 9:27 (NKJV)

Discipline guards what Heaven entrusts. Words, time, focus, and emotional stewardship become acts of worship. Carelessness cannot coexist with holy fire.

The seventh and final price is letting God have all the glory.

The anointing cannot rest where self-promotion lives.

📖 "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord." — 1 Corinthians 1:31 (NKJV)

The servant steps back so God alone is seen.

📖 "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory." — Psalm 115:1 (NKJV)

Letting God take all the glory is the final laying down, the quiet agreement that if He moves, He will be seen, and if He is silent, He will still be trusted.

The cost is real. Scripture never softens it. Yet the reward is beyond measure.

📖 "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." — 2 Timothy 2:12 (NKJV)

The anointing costs everything, yet it gives us Jesus in return. Nothing could be more tender. Nothing could be more severe. Nothing could be more worth it.