A. What is the Anointing of God?
Anointing / Messiah (mashach OT:4886), "to smear with oil or paint, anoint." This verb, which appears 69 times in biblical Hebrew, has cognates in Ugaritic, Akkadian, Aramaic, and Arabic. The objects of this verb are people, sacrificial victims, and objects of worship. Aaron and his sons are the objects of this verb;
"And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office." (Ex 30:30)
ANOINT, ANOINTING
"chrisma" Strongs NT:5545, signifies "an unguent, or an anointing." It was prepared from oil and aromatic herbs. It is used only metaphorically in the NT; by metonymy, of the Holy Spirit, 1 John 2:20,27, twice. The RV translates it "anointing" in all three places, instead of the KJV "unction" and "anointing."
We have been given "an anointing from the Holy One." This anointing renders us holy positionally, separating us to God as a royal and holy priesthood.
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9 NIV)
The gift of the Holy Spirit is the all-efficient means of enabling us to possess a knowledge of the truth. The word “anointing” in the Greek means a smearing - rubbing down or endowment. It is an endowment of the inherent characteristics, qualities, and virtues of the Holy Spirit. It gives us the power to carry out our commission. It gives us the power to move the provision of the Word into reality. It gives us the power to go from produced faith to prevailing faith. If you have produced faith from the Word and it's not empowered, then you can't carry it out. But if you have the endowment of the Holy Spirit smeared upon you, then it changes you from who you are to who He is.
When the Holy Spirit gets the whole person who is given to what He wants to do in us and through us, then He begins to bring a transformation and becomes the power source to operate in the anointed Word.
Without the Holy Spirit, we are a church operating in the natural realm. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, we cannot move in the supernatural realm. If we operate in the natural realm to fight the enemy using the Word without the anointing, then you cannot overcome a spiritual enemy.
The anointing is God's power in us to get results in our life. It's God in us, the hope of glory. It's the fire of God in us. It is not for us. The reason we draw in His presence is not so we can have it; although we are to possess it, the fact is you either use it or lose it. People will lose it when they have not exercised the presence and power of the Holy Spirit by doing what God has called them to do. The purpose of the anointing is to produce victory in your life so God may be glorified. The anointing is to produce in us the power and the ability to get the sick healed and delivered and the lost saved.
1Timothy 3:5 says: constantly operating in a form of Godliness, but denying the power therein.
The church has operated in a form of godliness too long that denies His power.
If we want something to be different, then we have to change what we are doing. We can no longer expect God to show up and be part of our service. If He shows up, we will have no service because we will be on our faces before Him. The real test is when you come in contact with the anointing of His presence so that it not only changes your moment but your whole life.
It does us no good to pray for someone and have them fall down under the power and shake and laugh and do all these things and get up and walk home the same way they came. When His presence and power are there, they will never be the same.
We need that kind of change in every person's life that moves from darkness into life, to where you are so impacted by His presence that you can't sit still, to where you are driven to God. God is calling on men and women to give their life to save His kids.
B. God Is Love
Love will energize our faith.
“Faith works by love” (Gal 5:6)
“Perfect love casts out all fear” (1 John 4:18)
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matt 22:37-38)
God desires that the Great Commandment be restored back into the first position in our lives. God wants us to begin to love Him with everything we have. Because He is love; love never fails. It's the Fruit of the Spirit, and it empowers all the rest.
We must possess and understand what that fruit is so we can be transformed into the image of Jesus and have that image empower all the gifts God gives us. The person who is willing to lay down their life to the degree we're talking about is the person who understands love. They also understand those people are hurting.
When we can feel the pain that Jesus would feel for them and feel that kind of love for them and have peace and joy that we can operate and exist in, then we can begin to impart that to them. The image of Christ overcomes everything the enemy does.
C. The Supernatural Gifts
You may have been taught that you are given a spiritual gift. It may be the gift of “Helps” or “Mercy.” Let us say that you have someone come to you for prayer that needs deliverance or healing. You will need to have discernment as to the spiritual problem and, most importantly, the root of the problem. You will also need to ask God for the supernatural ability to speak a word of knowledge, or a word of wisdom, or prophecy, or the gift of healing so that you can help this person. All of the supernatural gifts are available, not for you to have and possess, but they are there for the healing and restoration of the person you are praying.
As an example, if I give you a new car as a gift for your birthday, who possesses the gift? You or me? It is a sick person that is in need of the gift of healing. When God heals someone, they received the gift of healing.
All of the fullness of God dwells in Jesus. He possesses every gift.
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (Col 2:9-10 NKJV)
Jesus dwells in YOU! If you have all of God in you, then you have all the gifts in you at your disposal because you are His temple!
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Cor 6:19-20 NIV)
Greater is He that is IN you than the enemy of this world!
“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4 NIV)
The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you!
“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” (Rom 8:9-11 NIV)
You possess ALL the glorious riches of the Jesus, who is the Hope of Glory!
“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col 1:27 NIV)
Everything God has is to be used through us, as the body, to impart the work, so all the gifts of the Spirit are to flow. When you operate in the anointing, praying for the sick six to eight hours a day, you need access to those gifts so you can exercise them. It's not the gift that makes you strong but what you do with them. As you exercise the gift, it begins to grow.
The purpose of the gifting is to provide what is necessary to bring the person into a place of forgiveness, repentance, and restoration. The gifts of the Spirit are very powerful because they are working from Jesus IN you. The gifts begin to manifest when you empty yourself of YOU and allow Jesus to flow from the inside out!
Walking naturally in the anointing begins once you surrender to God ALL of your emotions, dreams, desires, ambitions, aspirations, intellect, talent, experience, and knowledge. You can only experience the power of the Resurrection AFTER you are dead.
The purpose of the supernatural gifts is to provide what is necessary to bring a lost person to Jesus and into a place of forgiveness, repentance, and restoration.
D. The Fruit of the Spirit
What empowers the gifts is the fruit of the Spirit.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. against such there is no law.” (Gal 5:22 23)
Without the fruit, the gift becomes corrupted. Notice the order love first. Without love, joy doesn't work; without peace, long-suffering; without long-suffering, gentleness; that's the order of these gifts. Notice at the end it says against such there is no law.
The fruit of the Spirit empowers the gifts because it is the very image of Jesus, who is in us. Jesus is love, joy, and peace; this is the very character and nature of God. The fruit of the Spirit is in us because Jesus is in us, the hope of glory. The fruit will make our character just like His. That is what empowers the gifts. The qualities the Holy Spirit imparts to us is the fruit of His presence. It moves us from who we are to who He is.
“For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom 8:29)
We are predestined as His kids to be conformed to His image, literally. We are to be conformed to His image to begin to add more into what that seed was to produce. Because Jesus was the first seed, and we are to bring in the harvest, to have the image of Christ in us to empower the gifts.
How can you pray for the sick if you don't have love, joy, or peace in your heart? When you have the fruit of the Spirit, it overcomes what the devil does.
The ultimate purpose of God's Word, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the name of Jesus, and the entire new covenant is to transform us and make our character just like His.
