The Anointing, Part 1

Please pray for me. I have been struggling. I have to assume it is my fault since we know the Lord does not make mistakes. There have been more random thoughts rolling around in my mind lately then there have been focused thoughts. That is why these posts are so far apart lately. I refuse to do shabby work. There just has not been any inspiration. There has been a lot of stress and distraction lately and apparently I do not handle those things as well as I might.

I started writing a post last night, but that would have ended up being shabby work I think. If one simply wants to write, that is not a problem. The substance of the writing is the point. Perhaps there will be more substance here. Plato said, "Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something." No, we are not often inclined to quote Plato in these pages, but truth is truth. In any event, I guess my soul was quiet enough in the shower this morning to hear one word, "anointing". Now I have something to say.

When I hear a word or phrase in my spirit, other words, thoughts and Bible verses often begin to tumble out. This morning, "ability" was right behind "anointing". Behind that, Isaiah 10:27, "...And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil." Following on its heels was Luke 4:18,19 which is a quote from Isaiah 61:1,2, which you regular readers may remember are the verses the Lord gave me oh so many years ago as my call to the ministry. About the time I heard those verses today I knew there would be too much information to get everything that needed to be said about the anointing into one post.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Isaiah 61:1,2) Let me add a disclaimer to that.

Believe it or not, I have actually had people say to me that God would not have used those verses to call me to the ministry. Their reasoning (read as soul) brought them to the conclusion that these verses only apply to Jesus, not anyone else. I am not allowed to use profanity in these posts so may I just say, the ignorance of such a belief is, well, beyond ignorant. In fact, I began to protest when I realized what God was saying to me during that time of calling. He assured me He wants me to be just like Jesus. Let me let you in on a little secret. God wants you to be just like Jesus as well. These verses actually represent exactly what God expects us to do as the body of Christ on earth in these last days.

When we see references to the anointing in the Old Testament, as in the verses in Isaiah quoted above, they do not refer to the results of the anointing, but rather to the action or the substance (oil) of the anointing. In other words, we do not see the enabling or ability that results from one being anointed. Instead, we see the noun "oil" or the verb, "to apply the oil". In fact the two passages in Isaiah show us both those things. The yoke is broken by the anointing oil (noun) and the Spirit is upon Jesus because God anointed (verb) Him. We will come back and discuss those two passages in more detail later in this series if not in this post.

Our real anointing comes from the Holy Spirit in these last days. That anointing was not available before Jesus returned to heaven. Many churches will anoint people who are starting in new places of ministry or are being sent out from their fellowship to begin some other ministry. There is, of course, no magic in the oil of the anointing or in the prayer per se, but we are invoking the real power, the Holy Spirit, to work in and through the ones being anointed. The anointing in the Old Testament points us toward the coming of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. He is the real substance, if you will, of the anointing. When He anoints us, we have the ability to do those things in the spirit we would never have been able to do without His help. He also does anoint our own natural abilities so that our minds and emotions are elevated to levels that would otherwise not be possible.

Before we collect too many more passages on the anointing, let us first discuss the two we have already mentioned. In Isaiah 11:27 we are told the anointing oil breaks the yoke. Again, there is no magic in the oil used for anointing. Isaiah is foretelling the future in this verse as he is in 61:1,2 which we will discuss shortly. In context, God is telling Israel they will be punished for turning away from Him. He will use the Assyrians to bring the punishment. Once that is done, Israel will return to God and the Assyrians will be punished for not honoring God. This kind of thing seems to trip some people up. It is simply the classic battle between good and evil. The only real difference here is that God is telling us beforehand what He is going to do. It would all be the same if the Assyrians (God's enemies) attacked Israel (God's people) and were punished for it. We would have no problem with that. There should be no problem in understanding this scenario either. The Assyrians are going to attack Israel because they are just that kind of people. That is what they do. God is going to use that attack and the subsequent difficulties to show Israel His power in bringing them back to their land in peace. He is also going to punish Assyria for attacking His people. The spiritual lessons for us here are that God will bring punishment on us for disobeying His commands. He will also punish those who attack us--regardless of their reasons for doing so.

When we disobey God we allow the devil to place a yoke on our necks. He uses this yoke to make us do his work. His work is to steal and to kill and to destroy. (John 10:10) In an honest moment, most of us would have to admit we do the devil's work much more often than we would like to. The remedy for this situation, the release from the yoke is the anointing. Note that this scenario plays itself out in the lives of believers every day. We sin. When we do not immediately confess our sin and repent, Satan has the legal right to place a yoke on our necks. The thing that removes that yoke is the anointing. That anointing comes from the anointed One, the Christ (the term Christ literally means "the anointed one"). Jesus Christ is still the anointed One. His anointing is also upon His anointed ones, acting in His behalf, doing His work on earth today. It is the anointing that is the ability to do the yoke breaking work that can be done no other way.

Ok, so we are not going to get to Isaiah 61 this time. We will not keep you waiting too long for the second installment, Lord willing. In the meantime, begin to recognize the anointing in your lives and in the lives of others. See you soon. God bless.