The Anointing Grace

By Sherita Jones | The Anointing Grace

I've been sitting with something lately, just meditating on how grateful I am to have been washed and made pure by the blood of Yeshua.

I started thinking back on all the relationships I was in before I surrendered my life to Christ. Some were short-lived. Some lingered for years. And when I lined them up and really looked at them, I saw a pattern I couldn't unsee. I always attracted certain people.

You know the saying, "you are what you eat"? I believe there's a spiritual version of that. You attract what mirrors the spirit you operate in, or what pairs well with the spirit you carry.

We Attract What Mirrors Us

Yes, we all have physical attractions. I'm not denying that. But if you keep attracting a narcissist, or people with narcissistic behaviors, over and over again, something in you is mirroring that. It's not just bad luck.

Some spirits attract all different types. Fear is a good example. Fear can open the door to so many other spirits, because it pairs well with control, manipulation, insecurity, and people who feed on it. But more often than not, we attract what mirrors us.

Scripture says it plainly: "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man" (Proverbs 27:19). When you lean over still water, you see your own face looking back. The heart works the same way. It recognizes its own reflection in someone else.

That's why it can feel so alive and so powerful when you meet certain people. You get comfortable really quickly. It feels like you've known them forever. Our spirit picks up on what's familiar, even when we're not consciously aware of it. And familiar is not the same as godly.

"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3). Agreement in the spirit comes before the walking. Most of the time it happens long before we ever realize we've agreed to anything.

Ye Know Not What Manner of Spirit Ye Are

We go through life making decisions, dating, fornicating, building relationships, all while operating from a place in our spirit that leads us further away from truth. And we don't even know it. We are not nearly as self-aware as we should be.

I think about Peter. In Matthew 16, Peter boldly declared, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus blessed him for it. Then just a few verses later, Peter tried to talk Jesus out of going to the cross, and Jesus turned and said, "Get thee behind me, Satan" (Matthew 16:23).

Same man. Same conversation. Two completely different spirits speaking through him, and Peter had no idea.

In Luke 9, when James and John wanted to call fire down on a Samaritan village, Jesus rebuked them: "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of" (Luke 9:55). These were His own disciples, walking with Him every day.

Here's what convicts me. Peter wasn't faking. James and John weren't pretending. They were sincere. And that's exactly the danger. Sincerity is not proof of which spirit is speaking. You can be completely sincere and completely wrong about the source.

Deposits Only Truth Can Uproot

So why are we so unaware? Because most of us learned how to love, how to trust, how to cope, and how to choose from human kind, not from God and His truth.

People have left deposits in us. Parents, past partners, friends, hurts, habits. Those deposits settle so deep that they start to feel normal. They feel like us. And that's why we can't diagnose ourselves by how something feels. The thing that needs to be uprooted feels like home.

Only truth can reach that deep. "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). The Greek word for discerner there is kritikos, one who is able to judge and sift. The Word sifts what we can't.

But it requires something from us. We have to be willing to look in the mirror. James warns about the man who looks at his face in a glass, walks away, "and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was" (James 1:24). A lot of us don't want to look. Looking means admitting what we've been carrying.

That's why David's prayer has become mine: "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24). I can't search myself. He has to.

Washed Once, Being Made Pure

I want to be careful and precise here, because this matters.

The blood of Yeshua cleansed me completely. That work is finished. "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14). That is justification. I stand before God clean, not because of my progress, but because of His sacrifice.

But look at the end of that verse: "them that are sanctified." In the Greek, hagiazomenous is a present participle. It describes people who are being made holy, right now, continually. And 1 John 1:7 says the blood of Jesus Christ "cleanseth us from all sin." That word, katharizei, is also present tense. It keeps on cleansing.

So both are true at the same time. One is finished. The other is ongoing.

Holding both keeps me balanced. When an old pull shows up, I don't fall into condemnation, because I know I'm already washed. And when the old pull doesn't show up, I don't get complacent, because I know He's still working on me.

I No Longer Attract What I Used to Attract

Since coming to Yeshua and truly surrendering my life, I'm really His. I'm in Him. I'm being cleansed and made pure. I'm no longer defiling myself. I'm cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. And I've noticed something: I no longer attract what I used to attract.

But the strongest evidence isn't just that the old types of people stopped showing up. It's that what used to feel familiar now feels foreign. The connection that once felt "alive and powerful" now registers as a warning. That's not me getting smarter. That's a new nature.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

When the spirit you carry changes, what it recognizes changes too.

Questions for Reflection

Look back at your past relationships. What pattern do they have in common, and what in you did that pattern mirror?
What has felt instantly "familiar" to you that God never called good?
Where have you been sincere but operating in the wrong spirit, like Peter?
What deposits did other people leave in you that you've been calling your personality?
Are you willing to pray Psalm 139:23-24 and mean it, even if He shows you something you'd rather not see?

Root Work: Why Judging the Fruit Will Never Heal the Ground

By Sherita Jones | The Anointing Grace

For the woman who has heard the Word a hundred times and still can't figure out why it won't take root.

The Lord Woke Me Up

The Lord woke me up around 3 in the morning and put roots on my heart. Not a sermon. Not a scripture to post. Roots. So I got up and started researching root systems, and what I learned left me in awe and, honestly, shocked.

There are two kinds of root systems. One grows the way it was designed to grow. The other grows wild. It pushes into areas it was never supposed to be in and entangles everything in its path. When a farmer finds that kind of root, he can't just yank it out. He has to strategically take his time and untangle it. Then he has to plant something new in its place. And even then, he doesn't walk away. That new planting has to be nurtured and cared for, brought back to life, before anything else can be done with that ground.

I sat there with that, and the Holy Spirit started connecting it to everything I've watched happen in the Church. Even to me. This one convicted me first.

The Heart Can't Be Read at a Glance

The prophet Jeremiah said it plainly:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9, KJV)

Read that last question again. Who can know it? And God answers in the very next verse: "I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins" (Jeremiah 17:10).

We are not the ones who search hearts. God is. Which means we should be a lot slower to act like one look at somebody's life tells us everything about what's going on inside of them.

If the heart can't be known at a glance, then judging by fruit alone will always miss what's happening underground.

We are so busy judging the fruit that we never ask what's entangled at the root.

Sowing on Unbroken Ground

Jesus taught us about the sower in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. The seed is the Word of God, and it falls on four kinds of ground: the way side, stony ground, thorny ground, and good ground. Same seed. Same sower. Different results. The difference was never the seed. It was the ground.

And I keep thinking about my little sisters in the Church. How many times have they heard, "God is your Father. You don't need validation from a man"? It's true. Every word of it is true. But if the ground hasn't been dealt with, if nobody ever helps her face the father wound, the rejection, the abandonment, the stronghold sitting at the root, then we are sowing good seed on ground that was never prepared to receive it.

God already told us what to do about that:

"Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns." (Jeremiah 4:3, KJV)

"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD." (Hosea 10:12, KJV)

The Hebrew word for fallow ground, nîr, speaks of ground that has to be broken up and tilled before it can be used. Ground that has been left hard. Sowing on it anyway isn't faith. It's waste.

Now the Ground Requires Work

Go back to the garden. Before the fall, God placed Adam in Eden "to dress it and to keep it" (Genesis 2:15). Tending was always part of the assignment. But after sin and disobedience entered the world, the ground itself changed:

"Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee... In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." (Genesis 3:17-19, KJV)

Then God sent man out of the garden "to till the ground from whence he was taken" (Genesis 3:23).

Do you see it? Before the fall, the ground cooperated. After the fall, the ground resists. Thorns showed up for the first time. Tilling became toil. Work was now required.

And those same thorns show up again in the parable of the sower, choking out the Word (Mark 4:19). The fall made our ground hard and thorny. That means healing is not automatic. Somebody has to till. Somebody has to sweat. Root work is not optional in a fallen world. It's required.

The Word Is Also the Plow

Now let me be precise, because I'm not saying stop declaring the Word. The Word isn't only seed. It's also the plow.

"Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" (Jeremiah 23:29, KJV)

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12, KJV)

The Word can break stony ground. The problem is not that we declare it. The problem is that we declare it like a slogan instead of ministering it like a surgeon. We quote it at the fruit instead of carrying it down to the root.

We Are Managing Symptoms

Here is what I've learned. We are being taught, directly and indirectly, to manage our symptoms but not how to be totally free.

It's like going to the doctor. You leave with a prescription to manage the symptoms, and you go through life only managing the symptoms. Nobody ever deals with the cause. And in the Church, the believers who can manage their symptoms best, the ones who keep their behavior in line, are the ones who get acknowledged. So we raise up women who are skilled at hiding roots, not women who are free.

You can speak all you want. Until the root of the behavior is dealt with, the fruit will keep coming back.

Restore Her in Meekness

We are quick to call out bad fruit. We yell. We speak out of our judgment and our anger when we correct. And we offer little to no help identifying and doing the root work. But hear what the Word says:

"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." (Galatians 6:1, KJV)

The Greek word for restore is katartizō. It's the same word used for the disciples mending their nets in Matthew 4:21. It speaks of setting a broken bone back in place. You don't set a bone by yelling at it. You set it carefully, with skilled hands, because you know it's going to hurt.

And the word for meekness, praotēs, is not weakness. It is strength under God's control. Gentle, but not soft on sin.

Yet I notice we are trying to restore in anger. Paul said meekness. And he said considering thyself, because the woman doing the correcting has roots too.

It takes more time to restore than to rebuke. Rebuke takes a sentence. Restoration takes a season.

Let It Alone This Year Also

Jesus told a parable about a fig tree that hadn't produced fruit in three years. The owner said, cut it down. But the dresser of the vineyard answered:

"Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well." (Luke 13:8-9, KJV)

The owner judged the fruit. The dresser went to the roots. He dug around it. He nourished it. He gave it time. That is the farmer in my 3am research. Untangle. Replant. Nurture. Then expect fruit.

And if we don't, Hebrews warns us what happens: "lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled" (Hebrews 12:15). Roots don't stay private. Left alone, they grow wild into everything around them, just like that root system I read about.

Every woman's journey is different, and each of us arrives at the destination of healing at different times. So before you correct the fruit, sis, kneel down and ask about the root. And before you correct anybody, ask the Lord about your own.

Reflection Questions

What fruit in my life have I been managing instead of letting God deal with the root?
Is there a truth I've heard over and over that hasn't taken hold? What might be hardening that ground?
When I correct someone, do I come in the spirit of meekness or in anger?
Who is God asking me to "let alone this year also" and walk with patiently?
Am I willing to do the sweat work of tilling, or do I only want the harvest?

Father, search my heart, because I cannot fully know it. Break up my fallow ground. Untangle what has grown wild in me. Plant Your Word in its place and nurture it back to life. And make me a restorer, not just a rebuker. In Jesus' name, amen

Maybe It's Not Lust. Maybe It's Longing.

By Sherita Jones | The Anointing Grace

It Was Just Coffee

It was supposed to be just coffee. An old friend reached out, and we made plans to meet. On the surface there was nothing wrong with it. No plans to cross a line. No intention to sin. Just two people catching up.

But something was happening in the spirit, and I could feel it. Memories I had not thought about in years began to stir. Flashbacks surfaced uninvited. And I knew, in the place where the Holy Ghost bears witness, that I did not want any part of what was quietly being set up.

So I did the only thing I knew to do. I canceled before we ever sat down. Then I started casting those memories down. I pushed my mind toward God and His Word, and every time a memory tried to replay, I replaced it with Him. And somewhere in that wrestling, the Lord showed me something I did not expect.

I was not craving that person. I was craving intimacy.

Maybe that is where you are too. Maybe you are not as lustful as the enemy wants you to believe. Maybe underneath the pull is a deep, holy ache to be known, and that ache was never meant to be filled by a man, a memory, or a screen. It was meant to be filled by God.

So I began to say it out loud: God is enough. Not because it sounded spiritual, but because He is.

Desire Is Not the Enemy. Direction Is.

The Greek word most often translated "lust" in the New Testament is epithumia (ep-ee-thoo-MEE-ah). It simply means a strong desire, a longing set upon something. The word itself is not wicked. Its target decides whether it is holy or sinful.

Here is the proof. At the Last Supper, Jesus said:

"With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer." (Luke 22:15 KJV)

That word "desire" is epithumia. The same word used for the lust of the flesh is used for the longing in the heart of the Son of God. So the problem was never that you desire. God made you with the capacity to long, to reach, to want to be known. The problem is where that desire gets pointed.

Lust is not a new desire. It is a hijacked one. It takes a God-given longing for intimacy and aims it at a counterfeit.

So ask yourself honestly: when the pull comes, what am I actually hungry for? Is it the person, or is it the feeling of being seen, wanted, and held?

Lust Is Looking for an Opening

Lust is familiar. It knows your history. It wants to be your default, the place your mind drifts when you are tired, lonely, bored, or hurting. And it is patient. It waits for an opportunity to present itself.

God warned Cain about this before he ever lifted his hand:

"If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." (Genesis 4:7 KJV)

The Hebrew word for "lieth" is rabats (raw-BATS). It describes an animal crouching, lying in wait. Sin is not wandering around aimlessly. It is crouched at the door of your life, watching for the moment you open it.

Paul says the same thing in Romans 7:8: "But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence." The word "occasion" is aphorme (af-or-MAY), a military term for a base of operations, a launching point for an attack. Sin needs a foothold. It needs somewhere to set up camp.

A coffee date. A late night text. A song that takes you back. A scroll that lingers one second too long. None of these look like a battlefield. That is exactly why they work.

Where in your life has the enemy been quietly building a base of operations?

Recognizing the Trap Before It Closes

James tells us exactly how the trap works:

"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." (James 1:14-15 KJV)

"Enticed" is deleazo (del-eh-AD-zo), a fishing and hunting word. It means to catch with bait. No fish bites a bare hook. The bait always looks like food. The trap always looks like something you need.

Notice the progression: drawn away, enticed, conceived, sin, death. The trap does not close at the end. It starts closing at the beginning, the moment you let yourself be drawn. That is where discernment has to work.

Here are some signs the bait is on the hook:

The past starts replaying. Memories you had laid down suddenly resurface, and they come with feelings attached.
You start explaining it away. "It's innocent." "We're just friends." "Nothing is going to happen." If you have to convince yourself, the Spirit has already spoken.
You want to keep it quiet. Anything you would hide from your pastor, your spouse, or your accountability partner is already in the dark.
Your hunger for God dims. Prayer feels heavier. The Word feels dry. Something else is feeding you.
You feel the check in your spirit. That quiet unease is not anxiety. It is the Holy Ghost saying, "This is not for you."

Which of these have you felt and ignored?

Resist, Then Draw Nigh

When Jesus was led into the wilderness, the devil came to Him at His hungriest moment, after forty days of fasting. Every temptation offered something real: bread, protection, a kingdom. And every time, Jesus answered the same way: "It is written" (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10).

In Greek, "it is written" is gegraptai (GEG-rap-tai), in the perfect tense. It means it was written and it still stands written. Jesus did not debate the devil. He did not negotiate. He stood on a Word that had already been settled.

James gives us the same pattern:

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." (James 4:7-8 KJV)

"Resist" is anthistemi (anth-IS-tay-mee), to stand against, to set yourself in opposition. It is not a feeling. It is a posture. But notice the order. Submit first. Then resist. Then draw nigh. You cannot resist in your own strength what you have not first surrendered to God.

This is where we must be honest. You do not overcome lust by willpower. Paul says, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). The power is His. Your part is to choose Him.

And when the memories come, Paul tells you what to do with them:

"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV)

"Imaginations" is logismos (log-is-MOS), reasonings and mental arguments. The replay in your mind is not harmless. It is building a case against the knowledge of God. You do not entertain it. You take it captive.

Are you trying to fight temptation, or are you standing on what is already written?

When It Shows Up: Shut It Down

The trap will come. What matters is what you do in the first moment. Here is a plan for when it knocks.

Name it. Do not dress it up. Say to yourself, "This is temptation, and I see it." What is named loses its disguise.
Say no to the invitation. If it is a coffee date, a conversation, or a place, decline it. Joseph did not reason with Potiphar's wife. He fled (Genesis 39:12). Some doors you do not crack open to see what is behind them.
Speak the Word out loud. Do what Jesus did. Have scriptures ready before you need them, and say "It is written" with your mouth. Keep Romans 6:14, James 4:7, and 1 Corinthians 10:13 close.
Cast down the replay. When a memory surfaces, do not linger on it to see how it ends. Take it captive and replace it with a truth about God.
Redirect the desire, do not just suppress it. The longing is real, so give it somewhere to go. Worship. Pray. Open the Word. Tell Him plainly, "Lord, I want intimacy. I want it with You."
Guard your defaults. Idle time and mindless scrolling are open doors. They are not always sin, but they are often the setup. Trade some of that time for time in His presence.
Say it until you believe it: God is enough. Not as a slogan, but as a confession of faith. He is.

And remember, God has already made a way out:

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." (1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV)

The way of escape is there. Will you take it?

Sin Is Not Your Lord. Grace Is Your Help.

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6:14 KJV)

"Dominion" is kurieuo (koo-ree-YOO-oh), to rule as lord, to exercise ownership. Sin may still knock at the door, but it no longer holds the title deed to your life. It is not your master. It does not get the final word. If you are in Christ, you have a new Lord.

And when the pull is strong, you are not left alone to white-knuckle your way through it:

"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16 KJV)

"Boldly" is parrhesia (par-ray-SEE-ah), freedom of speech, confidence without shame. You do not have to clean yourself up before you come. You come boldly, right in the middle of the pull.

"In time of need" comes from eukairos (yoo-KAI-ros), meaning well-timed, at the right moment. God's grace does not show up late. It arrives right on time, in the exact moment the trap is set.

So here is the truth, sister. You were made for intimacy. That longing is not your enemy. But no man, no memory, and no screen can satisfy what was designed for God. Draw nigh to Him, and He will draw nigh to you. Seek Him earnestly, and you will find what I found in that moment of wrestling.

He is enough.

Verse Reflection Questions

Luke 22:15 "With desire I have desired..." If desire itself is not sinful, what is the deeper longing underneath the pull you feel? Where has that longing been pointed?

Genesis 4:7 "Sin lieth at the door..." What doors in your life have you left cracked open? What would it look like to shut one of them this week?

James 1:14-15 "Drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." What bait has the enemy used on you before? How can you recognize it sooner next time?

James 4:7-8 "Resist the devil... Draw nigh to God." Is there an area where you have been resisting without submitting first? What does drawing nigh to God look like in your daily rhythm?

2 Corinthians 10:5 "Casting down imaginations..." Which memories or thoughts replay most often? What specific truth about God will you replace them with?

Romans 6:14 "Sin shall not have dominion over you." Where have you been living as though sin is still your lord? What changes when you believe it no longer holds the title deed?

Hebrews 4:16 "Come boldly unto the throne of grace." Do you run to God in the moment of temptation, or only after you have fallen? What keeps you from coming boldly?

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