“A Recipe for the Anointing”
As Pentecostals we often talk about "the anointing". We pray for the anointing of God on our lives, our ministries, our activities - everything. We recognize that we need the power and presence of the Holy Spirit or our efforts are worse than useless.
WORSE than useless because if we are attempting to minister in our own strength alone…
- it is tantamount to saying we don’t need God (that’s humanism);
- we’re saying our own ideas and ways are worthy in themselves (that’s idolatry);
- we’re doing things our way rather than God’s way (that’s rebellion - which the Bible says is as the sin of witchcraft.)
I don’t know if you’ve ever thought of working in your own strength in terms as strong as those before, but it will do us good. Our own ingenuity and strength are not our helpers, they are our undoing most of the time. Because we so easily abandon our reliance on God for methods and plans that put us “in control”.
We must depend on God. Zechariah 4:6 – “It’s not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.” We must minister in the power of God - under this "anointing" of the Holy Spirit. But let me ask you, what is "the anointing". We talk about it all the time. We desire it. We pray for it. But what is it exactly?
The most simple understanding of the anointing is to think of it as a "setting apart". When God anoints something He sets it apart - it’s "holy" - separated for His use.
When a new king was anointed in Israel the prophet would take a horn full of oil and pour it over his head, and it would run right down his clothes. They would do the same thing when there was a new High Priest. The symbolism was that this person was "set apart" - to be God’s man; God’s instrument.
When we say someone "preached under a real anointing", or "that was an anointed song", or "an anointed moment" - it means it was set apart. God had His hand on the preacher or the song or the place and was moving. The anointing isn’t a "force" (like electricity), and it’s not just an emotion (although the anointing may produce emotion) - it’s really nothing other than the presence of God in favour.
In the Old Testament the Tabernacle, and all the furniture and utensils used for worship in the Tabernacle, had to be anointed before they could be used. They didn’t anoint with just any old oil - they had special oil for this anointing, made from a recipe that God gave them ... We read about it in:
READ: Exodus 30:22-30
You see God prescribed the ingredients that were to be used, and how it was to be made. And in fact it was a capital offence in Israel to make this oil and use it for any other purpose - punishable by death!
The recipe for this oil gives a picture of what we need in our lives to know God’s anointing. So look with me for a few minutes at the special ingredients mentioned here in Exodus 30.
The first ingredient was …
1. Liquid Myrrh.
Myrrh was used to prepare bodies for burial. To get its beautiful sweetness you had to crush it.
Myrrh speaks of death. There is no anointing without death. If we want to know God’s anointing we have to die to ourselves. Die to the old person that we once were. Die to our own agenda - our own desires and dreams, not born of God. If we’re going to depend on God we have to die to our own abilities and resources. DEATH!
And if we don’t come to this place of dying to ourselves on our own, then God may have to bring "crushing" circumstances into our lives to bring us to the place where we will die to ourselves.
Don’t despise those crushings God allows into your life. Sometimes we’re really quick to say it’s the devil’s work - it may just be the Lord dealing with us because He wants to bring us to a place of anointing so we can be used by Him.
But the other thing to learn is this - it’s far better for you to come to a place of brokenness by yourself, seeking the Lord in prayer. Then He can anoint you, and it’s far less painful than God having to allow those crushing experiences into our lives.
You know, that’s what this 21 days of fasting is all about. When we fast we are denying the “outermost man” – our physical appetites, and the appetites of our “outer man” – our soul. We won’t be governed by our emotion or intellectual thoughts. These things are a gift from God, but we will bring them into subjection, under the rule, of our “inner man” – our spirit – that central part of us where the breath of God resides – where we commune with God. We are saying, “My appetites don’t control me – my desire for God takes the leading hand.”
This last week – turn up the heat on your body and soul and say, my spirit rules. “God inhabits that Temple within me, and body and soul you will fall in line.”
There’s that beautiful picture in Matthew 26 of the woman who brought an alabaster box of precious, expensive perfume and anointed the feet and head of Jesus. And the fragrance filled the room. The kind of box you wouldn’t want to break – the box itself seemed so precious. But unless the outer box is broken, there can be no fragrance. The perfume is locked up to itself, never to fulfill it’s purpose.
Unless there is a breaking in our lives, the fragrance of Christ in us will never be smelt. Sometimes we hold our lives, and control of lives, as so precious to us. We treasure it more than anything. But those things need to be broken. We are not called to be Ming vases, but clay pots. 1 Corinthians says that we hold this treasure (the glory of Christ) is earthenware vessels – clay pots. That all the glory may be His not ours.
We need to come to the place of brokenness.
The second ingredient was …
2. Sweet Cinnamon.
Cinnamon was used for flavouring, and it gave off a very pleasant smell. Its fragrance was beautiful in the Tabernacle because it counteracted the stench of the animal sacrifices.
Cinnamon speaks of sweetness. If you want God to take you up and anoint you to use you, there has to be a sweetness about your life.
My uncle Bill - a pastor in Wales - has a saying. Whenever I’ve speaking with him on the phone, he always finishes saying goodbye with the phrase "keep sweet". What he means is - keep a sweetness of demeanor about your life. It’s so easy to allow life and circumstances to make you bitter. Don’t do it. Keep sweet! Let your life develop a graciousness about you. Deal with others with grace, don’t be a reactionary.
My uncle Bill not only says "keep sweet" - he is without a doubt the sweetest man I have ever met.
God will anoint you and use you if there’s a sweetness about you. The sweetness of Jesus.
This is what the fruit of the Spirit is all about. Read: Galatians 5:22-25.
The third ingredient was …
3. Sweet-smelling Cane (or calamus).
The Calamus plant grows in miry soil. To get this plant to smell you had to beat it. The more you beat it the better it smells.
Again, God’s anointing is able to increase in your life the more you pass through the school of hard knocks, and God is able to fashion your character.
Anybody been through some hard knocks? Some are harder than others aren’t they. But they are working in you character – as long as you respond to them as God wants you to. He’s fashioning you for anointing.
God is more interested in anointing character than great abilities.
The fourth ingredient was …
4. Cassia.
This spice grows only at elevations above 8000 feet. You’ve got to get up on the mountain to get it.
If you desire God’s anointing - you’ve got to reach up to the heights. Get on the mountain with God. There’s no shortcut to the anointing - we’ve got to PRAY. Jesus lived in the anointing of the Spirit - and for that He maintained a close walk with the Father in prayer at all times.
Again, we’re in this 21 days to get near to God – to get up on the mountain without all the distractions. PRESS in to Him this final week.
Finally,
4. All the ingredients were mixed with olive oil.
And it was the mixture that was called "holy".
Over and over again in the Bible, oil symbolizes the Person of the Holy Spirit. In so many ways, in so many types and pictures, oil represents the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the principle character in the anointing of God. Of the three persons of the Godhead, anointing is primarily to do with the work and moving of the Holy Spirit. When God anoints, it is the outpouring of His Spirit.
Now look at the picture we have here. All these ingredients mingled together with a hin of oil produced the anointing compound that was called “holy”. Watch now … the Lord will combine all the good and difficult things in your life with the oil of His Holy Spirit. A sweet anointing will form in you, and He’ll be able to use you in incredible ways.
For a long time I had a very Old Testament concept of the anointing. Because in the Old Testament when the Holy Spirit “came on” (and that’s the phrase that’s used) a person, they were anointed for a task – for a job – for a moment – for a season. “Then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hands and took it and killed a thousand men with it.” You see, the Spirit of the Lord “came on him” to do that. That’s what happened in the Old Testament. And a lot of Christians today think of the anointing in the same way.
I used to get up on Sunday morning to preach and think to myself, “Gee, I hope the anointing is here today! Lord I need your anointing to come upon me for this task.” And after the 40-minute preach was over I guessed that the anointing kind of “lifted”.
Now it’s not wrong to pray for the anointing. I need God’s anointing – so do you. But we ought to pray rather for the RELEASE of God’s anointing. The anointing which has already been formed in us. The oil of the Spirit’s presence, mingled with a character forged in the experiences of life, daily dying to self and alive to Christ, full of grace and sweetness. This anointing flows from within us … “out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water” Jesus said.
1 John 2:27 – “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
One of the great problems we have seen in the Pentecostal church has been the idea that we can live any old way that we please, and then come to witnessing or preaching or ministering in some other way, and simply ask for the anointing of God – and He’ll come on us and help us for that moment, and then we can go back to being our normal unspiritual selves.
IF God uses a person who is cold hearted toward Him, living in sin or worldliness, that is only His amazing grace – and probably because of His love for those who are being ministered to. You should never presume on the Holy Spirit’s empowerment - but prize it – cherish it – pursue it – and guard it.
But that’s the necessary caution - here is the wonderful thing. If you put the old man to death every day and live for Jesus, and if you cultivate a sweet disposition (dealing with others in grace), and if you allow life to make you “better not bitter”, and if you daily seek God’s face in prayer and fellowship with the Holy Spirit – THEN, you won’t just have an occasional anointing – a hit and miss empowerment. God’s anointing will incubate in your life, and equip you for every good work. You’ll reside in that anointing, even as it resides in you. And you’ll just minister out of the release of that anointing.
Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2 – “be instant in season, out of season”. In convenient times, AND at other times. All the time. How’re you going to do that. LIVE in the anointing of the Spirit.
There is a recipe for the release of God’s anointing in us – we see it here in Exodus 30. Let’s seek to excel in these things and live in that wonderful anointing!
I want to finish with one verse …
Read: 2 Timothy 2:21.
Amen!
