The Nellie Fox Anointing 8/1/11
About a week to ten days ago, I began to think of a man whose name was Nellie Fox. When I was a kid, Nellie Fox was one of my favorite baseball players. Like most kids of my generation, I collected baseball cards and played with baseball cards all the time. We all had favorite players. Nellie Fox was an all-star and now hall of fame second baseman for the Chicago Whitesox. Now I was just thinking about him and I haven’t thought of Nellie Fox in about 40 years or more. For some reason he came up and for 2 or 3 days as I was traveling, I would think about Nellie Fox. I finally realized one morning in prayer that God was trying to speak a prophetic word to me concerning Nellie Fox. Now some of the things about Nellie Fox is that he was not a very large person. He was only 5’9” and he only weighed 160 lbs. He was one of the most durable, fierce baseball players in baseball history. There are several things that Nellie Fox is remembered for when he was a player. One is that he struck out very little; he rarely struck out. Whitey Ford, who was a famous pitcher for the New York Yankees, said that Nellie Fox was the hardest person to get out that he ever pitched against. Nellie Fox just rarely struck out and I think for 13 years Nellie Fox led the league in fewest strike outs per at bats. In other words the percentage of times he struck out in light of how many times he batted was the least of anybody I think in the American League for sure, maybe all in baseball, which is a remarkable record. It was very hard for him to strike out. The other thing about Nellie Fox is that you could almost never take him out of the game even though he was small. If you know anything about baseball, one of the things a second baseman does often is handle a double play. This is where you have a runner on first base and the ball is hit to one of the infielders. What they want to do is throw the ball to the second baseman who will get the runner out. Then the second baseman will throw the ball to the first baseman and get the batter out, a double play. When that second baseman is standing there on second base, the guy running from first his job is to try and disrupt the play. So often, the second baseman gets knocked down, flipped over, or cleated. Many things can happen. Second baseman can get beat up and bruised up pretty bad. Those who managed Nellie Fox, those who were his coaches, are quoted often as saying “It was impossible to get him out of the game. No matter how much he was bruised up, beaten up, and no matter how much pain he was in he wouldn’t let you take him out of the game.” He was a fierce warrior and fierce player. As the season wore on and they moved into the months of August and September, everybody is injured a little bit and second baseman and catchers are in particular. Nellie Fox, no matter how tired he was, again, no matter how beat up or bruised he was, he was a little guy, you just couldn’t take him out of the game. This was a word the Lord gave me through that: We are coming into a time now where God, not coming into, but we are at a time that God has released a Nellie Fox anointing. God has released an anointing if you will own, if you will declare it, if you will claim it as your own that you will stop striking out spiritually. You will no longer get taken out of the game because you’ve been beat up and bruised and because your sore and tired. Spiritually we often strike out again and again, just miss it again and again, and mess up again and again. Many of us at times have even been taken out of the game. We’ve been put on the bench or sidelined for either short seasons or long seasons while we watched the game being played out in front of us. Because we’ve gotten beat up, bruised, or injured in some way and we want to nurture that and nurture ourselves. God is releasing an anointing to have stamina. God is releasing an anointing to not get taken out. God is releasing an anointing to not feel sorry for ourselves, to pamper ourselves when we get batter, bruised, beat up, or injured. Whether it is coming straight from the enemy or through somebody else. Even somebody that we know. We know longer have to use that excuse to get taken out or so easily removed from the game. We no longer have to quit so easily. We want keep striking out, we want keep missing the Lord so severely, and we want keep not getting on base spiritually. This is an anointing that is released right now. Heaven has opened this up and if you’ve been one of those ones whose just seems to strike out spiritually again and again who just seems to mess up again and again spiritually who just seems to miss it again and again spiritually. Then it’s time for you to rise up, to take this word, to declare “I will not keep striking out spiritually, I will not lead the league in strikeouts, I will lead the league in on base percentage, I will lead the league in fewer strikeouts per at bats, I will not get taken out of the game anymore, I will not allow bruises and pain and injuries as an excuse to be taken out again. The enemy will not take me out, I will not miss anymore games, I will not be sidelined again, I will not sit on the bench while others are playing.” This is an anointing that God has released and it’s really important that you own it for yourself. It’s really important that you stand and declare that that is yours, your gift, your promise, your word, purposely, intentionally that every time that it seems like the enemy is trying to take you out, when it seems like you have swung and missed, you stand and declare again that I will not strike out, I will not be taken out of the game.