Anointed to Serve God: Stepping Out of Invisibility and Becoming an Instrument of Revival

Based on the sermon by Pastor Tonny Tshibangu at Impact Centre Chrétien (ICC) Church, Montreal.

Introduction

There's a season opening up for you. A season where God is no longer content to just fill your heart so you can spend your Sunday dancing and go home as if nothing happened. A season where he places his Spirit on you so that you can serve. So that you can go out. So that you can become a light in the middle of darkness.

Pastor Tonny Tshibangu, a guest speaker at ICC Montreal on Sunday, carried this message with an insistence that unsettles and awakens: you are anointed to serve God. Not to warm the pews. Not to collect titles. Not to stay invisible while your neighborhood is dying. The anointing you receive needs action, and that action begins with a burden God wants to place in your heart.

This article picks up the highlights of that sermon and invites you to receive them as a personal call.

Article outline

1. Everything starts with thirst
2. The burden God places in your heart
3. The anointing needs action
4. Preserving the anointing like the early church
5. Stepping out of invisibility and becoming a light
6. Letting go of titles to carry the weight of souls

1. Everything starts with thirst

When God starts speaking to you more and more about his presence, about the Spirit, about seeking him in order to find him, that's no coincidence. Pastor Tonny says it plainly: it's a sign that God is preparing a category of people he will use to destroy the works of the devil, heal the sick, and set the captives free.

This preparation begins with one thing: thirst. Thirst makes you seek God. Thirst pushes you into the secret place. Thirst makes you pray without ceasing. Thirst makes you give up everything that keeps you far from him. Without thirst, no pursuit. Without pursuit, no encounter. Without encounter, no burden. Without burden, no action. Without action, the anointing sleeps.

So the starting point isn't your title, your position, or your seniority in the church. It's your desire for God.

2. The burden God places in your heart

When you seek God and you meet him, he places something in you. Scripture calls that something a burden. The burden isn't your stress, your difficult marriage, or the promotion that never comes. God's burden is what troubles God himself, and that he places in your heart so that it troubles you too.

Nehemiah is a clear example. When he's told about the state of Jerusalem's walls, he doesn't just shrug off the news. He writes:

"When I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven." (Nehemiah 1:4)

David too. When the whole army trembles before Goliath, what outrages him isn't the giant's size. It's the fact that his God is being insulted. "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (1 Samuel 17:26).

Pastor Tonny asks the question that stings: what outrages you? The streets of Ottawa littered with people struggling with addiction, the women being beaten around you, the young girls being abused, the elderly alone in nursing homes, the young people in your church caught up in immorality, does any of that touch you? Or does your Sunday prayer stop at your promotion and your marriage?

As long as God's burden isn't in you, you can receive ten laying on of hands and you'll still stay seated.

3. The anointing needs action

What Pastor Tonny hammers home is this: the anointing needs action. Acts 10:38 says this about Jesus himself:

"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil." (Acts 10:38)

Notice: Jesus "went about." The anointing didn't sit him down. It put him in motion. He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10), to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

If you receive the anointing and spend your time trembling, falling down, getting back up, without anything changing on your street, in your neighborhood, in your family, then something isn't working. The sensational isn't enough. What matters is what the captives, the blind, the weary women, and the broken men receive when you show up somewhere.

The devil only understands one language: the language of power. He is relentless, sharp, and tenacious in his work as a killer (John 10:10). You need to answer him with the power of the Spirit, right where you are planted.

4. Preserving the anointing like the early church

The heart of this sermon rests on Acts 4:23-31. Peter and John have just healed the lame man at the temple gate. They're imprisoned, threatened, and told to keep quiet. Once released, you might imagine they'd go home and rest. They don't. They join their brothers and sisters, and they pray. But listen to their prayer:

"And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." (Acts 4:29-30)

They don't pray, "Lord, protect our lives, fix our marriage, give us a promotion." They pray for the word to keep going out with power, for healings to continue, for the name of Jesus to be lifted up. God's burden is bigger than their own interests.

The result: "And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness." (Acts 4:31). The anointing didn't decrease. It increased.

That's the secret the early church understood: you preserve the anointing by staying focused on what troubles God, not on what troubles you personally. Throughout the book of Acts, they never regress: they go from strength to strength, from the small to the greater.

5. Stepping out of invisibility and becoming a light

A light placed among other lights doesn't stand out. It's in the middle of darkness that it makes sense. That's why God placed you where you are, in your complicated neighborhood, in your tense office, in your difficult family, in a city like Montreal or Ottawa. Not to hide there, but to shine there.

Pastor Tonny recounts what he felt watching a news report on the streets of Ottawa littered with people struggling with addiction. A holy anger rose up in him: "Lord, you didn't position us here for these streets to stay this way." Out of that burden came a decision: to go out. To go out into the streets, every evening, every Saturday. To go out onto campuses. To go into nursing homes, like those Impact Junior kids who went to sing with a pianist in front of seniors, and left behind tear-streaked faces.

The days of a cloistered church that only dances are over. God doesn't need professional dancers. He needs powerful instruments who go outside.

6. Letting go of titles to carry the weight of souls

One of the sharpest passages in this message targets those who hide behind their role. "I'm the leader... I'm behind the screen... I'm on the communications team." Pastor Tonny pleads: let go of your title. The musicians go into the streets. The leaders go into the streets. Everyone goes into the streets. Because there are souls to win and captives to set free, and no one is exempt.

Jesus says:

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me..." (Matthew 11:28-29)

Here's the paradox: when you take on his burden, you are delivered from your own burdens. Those who are ready to give everything to God, God is ready to give everything back to them. "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33).

Key takeaways

• The anointing you receive isn't decorative: it's meant to put you in motion.
• Everything starts with thirst; without thirst, no pursuit, no encounter, no burden.
• God's burden is what troubles God, and it must now trouble you too.
• Don't preserve your comfort: preserve the anointing, the way the early church did in Acts 4.
• Your place isn't to stay invisible. Your light is meant to shine into the darkness of your own territory.

Personal application

1. What is the biggest burden you're carrying today: your own (marriage, work, finances) or God's (the lost, the captives, the broken around you)?
2. What would outrage you if you saw your city through God's eyes? Name one concrete situation.
3. When was the last time you went out, physically, to speak about Jesus to someone who didn't know the gospel?
4. Is there a title, a role, a label you use as an excuse not to "get out into the field"? Are you ready to let it go?
5. This week, what concrete step can you take so your anointing turns into action (a service, a visit, a prayer in the street, reaching out to someone isolated)?

Scriptures cited

• Acts 1:8 · "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you..."
• Acts 4:23-31 · The early church's prayer after being threatened.
• Acts 10:38 · Jesus anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power.
• Matthew 11:28-30 · Come to me, take my yoke.
• Matthew 6:33 · Seek first the kingdom.
• Nehemiah 1:3-4 · Nehemiah weeps over the walls.
• 1 Samuel 17:26 · David facing Goliath.
• John 10:10 · The thief comes only to steal.
• Luke 19:10 · The Son of Man came to seek and save.
• 1 John 3:8 · The Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.

FAQ

What does "the anointing" mean in this message?

It's the Holy Spirit's covering on a believer's life, giving them the power to serve God effectively. Pastor Tonny distinguishes between the Holy Spirit in us (the Comforter) and the Holy Spirit upon us (the anointing for action).

How can I know if God has placed a burden in my heart?

You recognize a burden by this: it won't leave you alone. It makes you pray, fast, intercede, and sometimes weep over what God himself sees. Like Nehemiah in front of the walls. Like David in front of Goliath. Like the apostles after the threats.

Does everyone have to "go out into the streets"?

Pastor Tonny isn't saying street evangelism is the only path. He's calling out the use of titles and positions as an excuse to do nothing at all. The concrete form depends on each person's calling: a nursing home, a campus, a neighborhood, a workplace. What matters is that your anointing becomes action wherever God has planted you.