Luke
4:18 - The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He
has anointing me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to
heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
What is the Anointing?
n this message I want to speak on the subject, "Understanding
the Anointing". It is going to be the first message in several that
relate to the anointing, so it is going to be a general teaching
covering various aspects of exactly what the anointing is. Well, what is
the anointing? We have all heard the term. Everybody speaks about it,
but what exactly is it? Is it something that you can put your finger on?
Is it something that you can look at under a microscope? Is it something
that you can measure on a meter? What is the anointing? How do you know
when the anointing is there? And, can you tell when it is not there?
The Anointing Will Show
I remember a little graphic that I saw a long time ago and it is
probably still in print. I think it was in a book by Leonard Ravenhill
from way back called, "Why Revival Tarries". It was a picture
of a preacher standing behind a pulpit, a normal church-type scene. And
the caption said, "Unction in the pulpit; action in the pews."
Or, to use a better term, "Anointing in the pulpit; action in the
pews." When there is anointing on the man of God who is speaking
forth the Word, there will action on the people who are hearing it.
There will be results. When the anointing is there, it will show. When
the anointing is not there, it will not show.
You will be able to see when the anointing is there. And anybody who
has ever stood up to preach knows what it is like to preach when the
anointing is there. And oh, if you are a preacher I can guarantee you
know what it is like to stand up and preach when the anointing is not
there. It’s like chewing on rubber. It is horrible!
It is one of the most devastating and humiliating experiences that
you can have to stand behind the pulpit and try to preach the Word
without the anointing. You feel like crawling out after the meeting. You
don’t know what to do with yourself. You feel a failure. You feel
useless. You feel miserable. People are trying to avoid you at the door
so that they will not have to say to you that it was a nice message
because it would be a lie. It is a horrible experience, let me tell you.
It is like the Lord came to the meeting and said, "I’m not
attending today. Do it on your own." And He just left you and
walked out the door and you had to struggle on your own. Oh, it’s a
horrible experience.
Now how do we come to the place where we have that anointing all the
time? Or is it one of those hit and miss things, that when you stand up
to preach you say, "I sure hope the Lord’s going to be here
tonight. I sure hope the Spirit is going to be here. I sure hope the
anointing comes on me tonight." Or does it depend on me? Do I have
to have prepared my heart right? Do I have to have been walking in close
relationship with the Lord? Do I have to have been fasting and praying
or dealing with sin in my life?
There are a lot of different things to be taken into account here. I
remember the first time I ever went into ministry and I was pastoring a
church, and I had my first opportunity to be the one standing and doing
the preaching every Sunday. I began to have these experiences where
sometimes the anointing was there and it was powerful, and at other
times it was lacking and I would have that bad experience. I sought the
Lord and I said, "Father, I don’t want this to happen anymore. I
want to be sure that when I stand up to preach, the anointing is there.
Lord, I want to know how to make sure that the anointing is there. How
do I receive it? When are you going to bring it to me? When will it come
on me?"
Searching for Answers
So I began to dig in the Scriptures to find out about the anointing.
I pulled out my concordance to look up the word ‘anointing’. I
figured, "There has to be lots of Scriptures. We all know that the
anointing comes down on you and comes upon you, and the power of God is
there. We all know that don’t we?" So I looked up ‘anointing’
to find out all the Scriptures that would tell me about how I could have
the power of God and the anointing of God to come down on me, and I
could not find one, not in the New Testament. In fact, the only two
verses I found in the New Testament told me that the anointing was a
once only event, not to be repeated.
I was confused. I thought, "Hang on, Lord. For all these years I
have grown up in the Pentecostal Church and they’ve had tarry meetings
to wait on You for the anointing; to wait on the Holy Spirit to come
down upon us; to wait for a fresh touch of Pentecost. Why doesn’t Your
Word teach that I need to seek the anointing?"
Change of Ideas
I began to change my whole theology. I began to realize that what I
had believed for so many years did not seem to line up with the Word,
certainly not where the anointing was concerned. So I learned a few
principles, or I began to learn a few principles. You know those famous
last words are, "One thing I have learned …" They are famous
last words, because the moment you open your big mouth and say,
"Well, one thing I have learned …" be sure you are going to
be learning it all over again. Oh yeah, we know all about that. Don’t
ever say, "One thing I have learned," because you are going to
find you are going to learn it all over again.
I remember many times boldly proclaiming from the pulpit, being
dogmatic and firm on what I believed and did not believe. And the Lord
brought me to an experience where I had to change my mind; where the
things I stood up and so boldly proclaimed from the pulpit did not hold
water anymore.
It is not easy to go back and say, "Remember what I used to
preach so fervently? It was wrong." Oh boy. So, what I am teaching
you here is, "One thing I am learning …" I am
learning day by day about the anointing. So way back there God began to
teach me, and I began to learn some new things about the anointing that
I did not know before, and I am going to share some of them with you in
this message.
Anointing Oil
Where does this word come from? The word means quite simply to pour
something over somebody, or to rub on. The way they did it in the Old
Testament is they used a special oil, an anointing oil. Sometimes the
word ‘ointment’ is used in the King James, referring to this oil. It
was a special combination of oils, a special secret formula that God
gave to the Israelites; a special combination of certain oils in certain
quantities. And they mixed it together, and that formula was not allowed
to be used for anything except the anointing. It was forbidden for them
to take those same oils and make that same anointing oil for themselves.
It had to be made only by the priests and for the priests, and to be
used specifically in the anointing.
Anointing for Priests
That oil was poured upon Aaron and his sons as they were ordained to
the priesthood. And Aaron became the first High Priest. That oil was
poured over his head. We read about it in Psalm 133: "How
good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is
like the ointment (the anointing oil), that
was poured on the head of Aaron and flowed down onto his beard and onto
his garments."
When you had that oil on you, you began to glow. It was those nice
aromatic oils, those nice spicy oils that made a nice warm glow on your
skin. If you rubbed it on your skin you began to feel warm, you began to
glow. Why? Because God was using in the Old Testament, a type, a
picture. The whole Old Covenant is a picture of what was to be fulfilled
in the New. God was using a symbol, a picture in oil, of what He was to
do with His Holy Spirit; that when His Holy Spirit would come upon
people it would have that effect – a glow, a warm glow, a nice effect.
Anointing for Kings
That same anointing oil was used to anoint kings and to place them
into office. It is the first mention we have in the Scriptures of
anointing. Then God began to pour His Spirit out, and the type of the
anointing, the oil, which symbolized the Holy Spirit, began to show
itself as God began to pour His Spirit out upon people in anointing
power. And when God’s Spirit came upon people under the Old Covenant,
there were a lot of different effects that took place. It produced power
in them, and gave them divine ability to do exploits for God. And if you
look at Hebrews 11 you see a list of some of the heroes of the Old
Covenant and some of the things they did. In Hebrews 11:32 the writer to
the Hebrews says:
And what more shall I say? For the time would
fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of
David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms,
worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of
weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight
the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life
again.
Mighty Exploits
Miracles, power and anointing. The anointing of the Spirit of God,
when it came on those heroes of faith, made them do mighty exploits.
Gideon
Gideon, this mighty man – the angel came to him to tell him that
God had called him, and he was hiding away from the Philistines. The
angel came and said, "God is with you, Gideon, you mighty man of
valor." And I think Gideon looked around and said, "Who are
you talking to? Who me?"
"Yes you."
"Me, a mighty man of valor?"
"No, you’re a little wimp, but I am going to make you into a
mighty man of valor. Now the first thing you do is go down and cut down
that idol that your father and his family are worshiping."
So you know what this mighty man of valor did? He sneaked in at night
when nobody was looking, and cut it down. But you see, he took a step in
the right direction. And the Scripture says, "And
the Spirit of God came down on Gideon." Then he stood
up and blew the trumpet! Well, you cannot hide when you blow a trumpet.
Something happened to this little wimp when the anointing of the Spirit
of God came on him. He had a new power, he had a new boldness. And he
went and defeated the whole Philistine camp with 300 men. Talk about
change! The anointing of God will do that to a person. It will bring
change. It will bring power. It will bring strength, and it will bring
wisdom and boldness.
Samson
Samson – well Samson received something else from the anointing.
When the anointing came on him he just became so strong he could break
anything. They tried to lock him in the city, but he just picked up the
gates and carried them with him. He was mad at the Philistines, the
anointing of God came down on him, and he just picked up a jawbone of an
ass and wiped them out! Strength, power. When the anointing of the
Spirit of God comes on you, you become a new man. You become a different
person. You do things you cannot do in the natural.
David
How about David? David said, "By my God I
can run through a troop; I can jump over a wall." David, the
Psalmist who released the power of God through song; who could go
against the giant Goliath with just a little sling and a stone, because
he came against him with the anointing of God. The power of God was upon
him.
So we see some of the early prophets – Samuel, Elijah,
Elisha, and
the mighty miracles and signs and wonders that they performed when the
Spirit of God came upon them. The anointing gives you supernatural
divine abilities. It brings a change.
External Anointing
But what kind of anointing are we talking about? As we read in the
Old Testament we see the same expression coming again and again. It
says, "And the Spirit of God came upon
Gideon..."
"And the Spirit of God came upon
Samson..."
"And the Spirit of God came upon Saul …"
"The Spirit of God came upon …"
You see it again and again, that same expression, "The
Spirit of God came upon..." Well, it is that same picture
of the anointing oil. It is the same picture of this oil being poured on
top of a person, on his head and running down and spreading throughout
his whole body. It is an anointing that is external. It comes from
without and comes upon the person. It comes upon their body and seeps
into their soul and into their spirit and fills them and saturates them.
It is like being caught in a rain storm and walking in a rain forest,
or getting a thunder shower suddenly coming down upon you. It is going
to drench you. It is going to make you wet. It is the external
anointing. The anointing came upon the prophets and they prophesied. We
read how Samuel said to Saul that the anointing would come upon him and
he would prophesy.
Transferring the Anointing
We read again and again of the anointing coming upon someone. We read
of Moses, how God said, "I want you to pick seventy people and
gather them together in one place. And I am going to take of the Spirit
that is upon you and I’m going to put it upon them." And
as they gathered together God came down, and He took the same anointing
that was on Moses and it came upon the seventy elders, and something
began to happen to them. We are going to look at that shortly as we look
at what happens when the anointing comes upon a person.
Even Saul, who was a king, when the anointing came on him he fell
under the power, and he lay there naked for a couple of days
prophesying. You would swear he was drunk the way he was behaving. The
anointing came on him and had an effect. It had a physical effect on his
body.
New Testament Effects
Well, that was the Old Testament, the Old Covenant. What happened in
the New Covenant? We read that on the Day of Pentecost, as the disciples
were gathered together in the Upper Room, they heard a sound of a mighty
rushing wind, and tongues of fire came down and rested upon them. And
they began to act like drunk people, because everybody came along and
said, "What’s with you guys? It is nine o’clock in the morning
and you’re drunk already!" It began to have an effect on them.
And we will look at some of the effects shortly.
Prophecy and Tongues
It is the same kind of thing as what you see in the Old Testament.
The Spirit came upon them. And you see it repeated throughout the book
of Acts. You see Peter standing preaching to Cornelius’s household,
and while he was preaching the Spirit of God falls on the people and
they start to prophesy and speak in tongues, and something begins to
happen. It shows.
You see Philip go to Samaria to preach the gospel to them, and they
send Peter and John down to come and lay hands on these people that they
can receive the Spirit. Simon the Sorcerer also became a believer. He
had dabbled in Witchcraft in the evil powers of Satan. He was impressed
with all the miracles and things, but he had seen all that before. Now
Peter and John come and lay hands on people, and as they lay hands on
them they receive the Holy Spirit.
Simon looks and he says, "Wow, I wish I could do that?"
Do what? Do what Peter and John were doing. Well, what were they
doing? They were laying hands on people, and when they did that the Holy
Ghost came upon them. Well, what happened when the Spirit came upon
them? The Scripture does not tell us what happened, but whatever
happened it must have been outstanding enough for Simon to say, "I
want some of that." Something happened. It was tangible; it was
visible; it was physical. Something real takes place when the anointing
comes upon a person.
The Anointing Affects the Body
So we have seen these various signs. In the Old Testament we see with
Samson, supernatural strength takes place. We see another example where
Elijah, after he has prayed for the restoration of the rain, he picks up
his cloak and he begins to run because the rain is coming. And the
Scripture says, "The Spirit of God came upon
him, and he outran the chariot." He outran the chariot! He
became an instant marathon runner, and he probably broke every record,
greater than we even have today. Why? Because the anointing came upon
him. The anointing has an effect on the human body. It is a very
powerful release of energy that comes upon a person when the anointing
comes upon him. And you will read the same expression there in the New
Testament as what you read in the Old Testament.
We read that Paul, coming into Ephesus, finds some disciples who have
accepted the Lord but they do not know the fullness of the truth and he
said, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit since
you have believed?"
And they said, "What are you talking about? The Holy Spirit? We’ve
never heard of it." Then you have another group who had been
baptized, and it says they had been baptized but had not received the
Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them.
It Caused Miracles
So you see the expression again and again, "The Spirit coming
upon them." And every time the Spirit came upon them something took
place. The exact same sort of thing is what took place in the Old
Testament. There were miracles that took place in the Old Testament when
the Spirit of God came upon the prophets of old.
There were miracles that took place in the New Testament when the
Spirit of God came upon the early disciples and the apostles. It had the
same kind of effects, but there was something new that took place in the
New Testament. There was something new that did not happen in the Old
Testament. That is what I really want to major on here. I want to show
you that the anointing in the New Testament is different to the
anointing in the Old Testament.
Evidence in Speech
The first difference that took place had to do with speech. Jesus
said that there would be various signs that would follow those who
believe. In Mark 16:15 and 16 as Jesus gave the commission He said, "Go
ye into all the world and preach the gospel. He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved. And these signs shall follow those who believe;
in My Name they shall cast out demons …" Strangely,
you did not see that in the Old Covenant. "In
My Name they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents;
and if they drink anything deadly it shall not harm them."
There seemed to be a greater power here than there was in the Old
Covenant. Somehow there seemed to be something extra. But one thing
stood out above all the others. "They shall
speak with new tongues." Now, in the Old Testament when the
Spirit came upon people it had an effect on their speech. How do I know
that? Let’s look at that passage where the anointing came down on the
elders. You will find it in Numbers 11:24:
And Moses went out, and told the people the
words of the Lord, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the
people, and set them round about the tabernacle. And the Lord came down
in a cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him,
and gave it to the seventy elders. And it occurred that when the Spirit
rested on them, they prophesied, and did not stop.
What happened to Saul when the anointing came on him? He began to
prophesy. What happened when the anointing came on the prophets of old?
They began to prophesy. Well, prophesying involves speaking. It showed
in speech. They began to speak out under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit took control of their tongues in some way.
Tongues in the New Testament
Now, what happened in the New Testament? In Acts 2:4 it says, "And
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other
tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance."
You say, "Didn’t they prophesy in the Old Testament?"
Well, they did that too. It says in Acts 19:6, "And
when Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them; and
they spoke with tongues and prophesied." You see
there is something very similar about the anointing in the New Testament
to what there is in the Old Testament. It is very similar.
You say, "Well, what’s the difference?"
So far the only difference really seems to be in the tongues. They
did not speak in other tongues in the Old Testament. In the New
Testament they spoke with other tongues. And just about every time this
anointing came upon new believers in the Acts of the Apostles, we read
that they spoke with other tongues.
External Anointing and Speech Linked
There seems to be a link here with the external anointing and with
speech. There seems to be an indication here that when the external
anointing comes upon somebody it takes control of the whole person in a
way that controls their language as well. And when a person begins to
speak and their very tongue is under the control of the Spirit of God,
it is a sign that God has come down upon them; that the anointing of God
has come upon them.
All these are signs of the external anointing. And apart from
tongues, if you look at the Old Testament and you look at the New
Testament, they look exactly the same. They look very similar. And if
you look back in the Old Testament, you find out that God only poured
His Spirit down upon individuals who fulfilled certain criteria. He didn’t
pour it down on just anybody. He was very selective. He was very choosy
about who He put His anointing on. And when Saul turned his back on God
he lost his anointing.
Old Testament Anointing Influenced by Works
It was possible under the Old Testament to lose the anointing. It was
possible under the Old Testament to increase the anointing, depending on
the kind of life you lived; on the kind of commitment you had to God; on
whether you walked fully in His covenant. The anointing was dependent
upon your commitment. The anointing was dependent upon your
righteousness before God, and your total commitment to Him.
But then came the New Testament. So far, we have not seen any
difference between the two, but yet there is a difference. I told you at
the beginning there is a difference, and I am going to show you that
difference now.
Something Greater Offered
We go back to Hebrews 11 where it was speaking about the heroes of
faith, and we read in Hebrews 11:39 these words, speaking of all these
Old Testament heroes of faith. It says, "And
these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the
promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without
us should not be made perfect."
There is something that God promised to us in the New Testament that
they did not have. There is something that is promised in the New
Testament that makes the New Testament believer far greater than any Old
Testament believer. So much so that Jesus, speaking about John the
Baptist, says of him that he is the greatest prophet. He said, "Amongst
those born of women, no greater one has arisen than John the
Baptist." He is the greatest prophet. "Nevertheless,
he that is the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John the
Baptist." Why?
Obviously there is a difference. Obviously there is something that
the New Testament saints have that the Old Testament saints did not.
They had the external anointing. They had the Spirit come upon them. In
the New Testament we have the external anointing. We have the Spirit
coming upon us. But where is the difference?
Sending the Comforter
In John 14:16, before He went to the cross, Jesus, speaking to His
disciples says, "And I will ask the Father,
and He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you
forever; even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive,
because it does not see Him, nor know Him. But you know Him, for He
dwells with you, and He shall be in you." Then Jesus said, "I
will not leave you comfortless." In other words,
"I
will not leave you without a comforter." "I
will come to you."
Now hold it, what is He saying there? What did He mean when He said,
"I’m going to ask the Father to give you another
comforter."? Why another comforter? Who was the comforter now? It
was Jesus. Jesus said, "I am going to ask the Father to give you
somebody else to take My place when I leave. Don’t worry about it,
guys, I’m coming back. I won’t leave you comfortless. I am coming
back to you, but I am not coming back to you the same way. I’m coming
back to you in the Spirit."
This was something different. This was a different kind of Spirit.
Yes, it was the Holy Spirit, but it was Jesus coming to His people in
and through the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 4:6 Paul says, "And
because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ " And Jesus went on
to say to them, "If you believe in Me, and
the Father Himself, we will come and we will make our abode in
you."
Spirit Living Within Not Just On
We. Who? The entire godhead - Father, Son and Spirit. Jesus was
offering the New Testament saints something that the Old Testament
saints did not have. He was saying, "Not only are you going to have
the Spirit with you; not only are you going to have the Spirit upon you;
but you are going to have something in you that has never been there
before. Nobody has ever had that before."
Nobody could have that before because Jesus had to pay the price for
the sins of the world. Jesus had to make man suitable for God to come
and live there. God could not live permanently in a sinful vessel. He
could not. He could only come upon; He could only be with, while that
person was walking with Him. But Jesus made a way for that vessel to be
purged and to be made suitable; and to be made righteous; and to be made
holy, so that the Holy Spirit of God; that the Father of glory Himself,
and the Son could come and dwell in that redeemed vessel.
Jesus made some promises during His ministry concerning the Holy
Spirit. On the day He spoke to the woman at the well, the Samaritan, and
He began to get her attention by asking her for water, He said to her,
"If you knew who I was, you’d ask Me to give you water, because
the water that I am going to give you is going to be different."
And He used these words in John 4:14:
Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in
him (in him) a well of water springing up
into everlasting life.
What are you going to do with a well? You are going to drink from it.
Who is going to drink from it? You are going to drink from it. "Whoever
drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst."
Why?
Because you are able to drink from your own well.
The Inner Anointing
Jesus was speaking about a new kind of anointing. He was speaking
about an inner anointing. He was speaking about an anointing that was
for you, not for others but for you. It is for you to tap into yourself.
It is for you to sink down your bucket and to draw from yourself. It is
to tap into for your own needs; for your own thirst; for your own
hunger, whatever your needs are. Jesus was offering a source, a power
within that you can tap into yourself. He was speaking about a new kind
of anointing. He was speaking about an inner anointing. How does that
inner anointing come about? By the Holy Spirit coming to dwell within,
not upon but within.
But there is still the external isn’t there? So what is the
difference? In John 7:37 Jesus attended a feast. It was a special feast
where they were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a time
of rejoicing. And on the last day of the feast, at the crowning ceremony
as they would gather together, the Priest would go down to the Pool of
Siloam and he would bring out a jug of water. Then he would stand in the
ceremony and he would pour water out of this golden goblet into a couple
of silver goblets. As he would pour it they would read from the Psalms
where it says, "Therefore with joy shall you
draw water out of the wells of salvation."
Water of the Spirit
It was a standard ceremony. They did it every year. Nobody knew what
it meant, but they did it. Jesus knew what it meant. He was going to be
the fulfillment of that type, of that shadow from the Old Testament. You
see, He is the golden goblet. He was the one who was going to go to the
pool and get the power. He was the one who was going to go into the
presence of the Father to receive on our behalf, that new anointing,
that new Spirit. And He was going to come down, gold being a type of
deity. Jesus being very God and very man was going to pour out the water
of the Spirit, and He was going to pour it out into a silver goblet. And
silver, in the Scriptures, always speaks of redemption.
Jesus stood there and He saw it, and He knew it! He was the golden
goblet, and the silver cup was you and I. It was those who were going to
be redeemed by His blood and through the work that He was going to do.
And once He had done the work of redemption, He was going to go and
receive the promise of the Father, and He was going to come and pour it
out into those whom He had redeemed.
Rivers Flowing Out
In John 7:37 it says, "On the last day,
that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, ‘If
anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He that believes in Me,
as the Scripture has said, out of his inward parts shall flow rivers of
living water.’ "
From his inward parts shall flow out, rivers of living water.
It says, "But He was referring to the Spirit
which those that believe in Him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was
not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."
Jesus spoke about two different things here. He spoke about an
anointing within that we could drink into ourselves, that we could tap
for our own needs and for our own thirst. And He was speaking about a
gushing stream that would gush up and pour forth and produce rivers, rivers,
of living water that would flow out to meet the needs of others. Can you
see the difference? The one is a well springing up that we tap into. The
other is a gushing forth that pours out to meet the needs of others.
External and Internal Combined
Jesus was speaking about a new kind of anointing. He was speaking
about an outward anointing combined with an inward anointing. He was
saying, "You can still have the anointing of the Old Testament, and
you can still go and soak in the rain and become wet, but I am going to
give you a bit more than that, because after you’re wet you are going
to open your mouth and you’re going to pour out water. And you will
make everybody else wet, too." He is speaking about an outward and
an inward anointing combining together.
Now there is something about the inward anointing that is different
from the outward anointing. Because you see, the external anointing came
upon a person at God’s sovereign will. It came upon a person when God
chose. It came spontaneously and unexpectedly. It came with devastating
results, and it remained while God poured it out. But Jesus spoke about
a new anointing that would come. The Holy Spirit of Truth that He said
would remain with you forever.
Power on Tap
He is never going to leave. He is going to remain with you forever.
And there is going to be a power there that is going to be on tap that
you can tap into and that you can pour forth and use at any time.
Heresy? Well let’s see what the early disciples did with this?
Peter Opened the Tap
Peter and John were going up to the temple to pray and they come to
the Beautiful Gate and there is a beggar begging them for money. And the
Scripture says, "And as Peter stood there the anointing of the
Spirit of God came upon him …" No it doesn’t. Peter stood there
and looked at the guy and said, "Look here!"
The guy said, "Oh, you have money for me?"
And Peter looked at him and he said, "Sorry, I don’t have any
money. But I do have something I can give you. I have something to give
you, and such as I have I am choosing to give to you." Then Peter
opened his tap wide and he just reached out and took that man by the
hand and he pulled him up and said, "In the Name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk!" Pow! He opened his mouth and just
gushed out and drenched him. And when the anointing hit his body the
crippledness just had to leave.
The Scripture says he jumped up and ran all around, walking and
leaping and praising God. Why? Because Peter had a power. You see, the
anointing had come upon Peter and saturated him. But the anointing was
gushing up inside of him as well. Man, the guy was just riddled with it.
He opened his mouth and it just shot out. Imagine somebody opening their
mouth and something comes out. Well normally what comes out of a mouth
you don’t want to come at you. But imagine somebody opening their
mouth, and every time they do, something hits you. You cannot help it.
Why? Because the anointing comes out of the mouth. We will deal with
that later. We are not going to have time to cover that here, but we are
going to look in a lot of detail at exactly how the anointing is
released and how we can use it – both the inner anointing and the
outward anointing.
But you see there is power. In the New Testament there is something
there that is available to the New Testament believer that is far
greater than what the Old Testament saints had. And when Jesus spoke to
His disciples concerning the works that He did, He said, "These
works that I do (with the external anointing) you are going to do the
same. But I want to tell you something, you’re going to have the
capacity to do greater works than these, because I am going to My
Father. And when I go to My Father I’m going to give you back
something more."
The disciples had moved in the external anointing even while Jesus
was with them. He gave them power and He sent them out and said,
"Go and heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons."
They had operated under that power already. They knew it. They
understood it. They worked with Jesus and did the same miracles that He
did by His side. But He said, "I am giving you something greater.
Just wait."
When He ascended up into Heaven He said, "Now you go and wait in
Jerusalem until you receive the promise of the Father, and then power is
going to come upon you. Power is going to come upon you when the Spirit
of God comes upon you. You’re going to have something new. You are not
just going to be soaked from without, but the underground stream from
within your spirit is going to gush forth in mighty power; far more
power than what you guys have known before."
Differences Between Old and New
Old Testament Had External Only
So we see there is a difference between the Old Testament and the
New. In the Old Testament we see that they had an external anointing
only. In the New Testament we see that believers still have the external
anointing. But we have now a new power that has been placed within us
that can gush forth from within.
Old Testament Given to Select People Only
In the Old Testament God gave His anointing only to selected
individuals. In the New Testament, "Whosoever
will may come." Peter said, "This
promise is to you and to all that are far off, and to your children,
even to as many as the Lord our God shall call." This
promise is to everyone who accepts Jesus. This promise is to everyone
who believes. This promise is to every single person who is born again
of the Spirit of God.
You don’t have to wait for God to say, "Well, you’re my
favorite. I am choosing to give you this anointing." You have a
right to this anointing! Jesus paid the price. He shed His blood to give
you this anointing. It is your right, it is your inheritance, and He has
given you His robe of righteousness. And He has given you the right to
reach out and to take what He has bought for you at Calvary. It is
yours, believer. Every single one who knows Jesus as their Savior has
the right to that anointing.
Spirit Came Upon in Old Testament
In the Old Testament the Spirit came upon. In the New Testament the
Spirit is within. In the Old Testament they jumped into the river to
swim.
Ezekiel had a vision. In Ezekiel 47 he had a vision where he saw the
temple and he saw from the threshold, the door of the temple and there
was water pouring out, water trickling out in a stream. Everybody knows
this passage so well, it has been preached so well. Everybody is talking
about the river of God. "Get in the river."
And the angel came and measured up, and each time he measured up the
water became deeper. It started up to the ankles, then up to the knees,
then up to the thighs. Then it became a raging river that you had to
swim in. It is the river of God, it is the anointing of God. It is the
power of God. It is the external anointing, the outpouring of God’s
Spirit. You had to get in it.
A River in You
Well, the Old Testament saints had the river. They could get in the
river. But I want to tell you something, if you are a New Testament
saint you have a river in you! You can give out the river. You don’t
have to go and get in the river, you can give out the river. "Out
of his innermost being," Jesus said,
"shall
flow rivers …"
He did not say, "Little trickles." He didn’t say, "A
stupid little stream." He said, "Rivers." He didn’t
even say, "River (singular)." He said, "Rivers
(plural)." You have the capacity to pour out!
People are always going to find where the river is flowing.
"Oh, if only we could go and find a church that has revival, we
can go and get in the river and have a good swim."
Revival Starts in People
Do you know why that church is in revival? Because somebody in that
church knew how to let out their river, that is why. You will find every
one of these churches where revival has come, the revival is based on
individuals; it is based on people. You will see in some of these great
revival churches, an individual has come there and he has remained to
keep that revival going. Why? Because he knows how to pour the rivers
out, and everybody is coming to jump in his river. You gather a few
people together, and they join their rivers together. We are going to
look at that shortly.
You have a river in you. Do you want to get in the river? Do you want
to go for a swim? Are you feeling dry? You are saying, "Oh, I wish
we had revival in our church. Oh, I wish I didn’t have to fly a
thousand miles to a revival church to go and get in the river."
What is wrong with your river? Did it dry up? You probably did not even
know it was there. You have never learned how to let the river flow. You
have never learned how to release what God has put within you.
Corporate Anointing
So we come to the corporate anointing. What is that? That is what
happens when you take a couple of people together who both know how to
pour out their river. Do you know how a great big major gushing river is
formed? It starts with a little trickle up in the mountains and it pours
forth, and then a tributary joins it from somewhere else, and it gets
bigger. Then another tributary comes in and joins it from somewhere
else, and it gets bigger still. Before long you have all of these
tributaries coming in, all emptying into the one river. And before you
know it you have a great big, fast flowing, gushing river.
Two or More in Unity
Jesus said, "Where two or three are
gathered together in My Name, there I am in their midst." What is He saying? He is saying, "I’ll tell you what. If two or
three of you will put your rivers together I will come and add mine and
we’ll have a gusher." That is all it takes; two or three, even
two people standing together in one accord. Do you recognize that
expression? Go back and read the book of Acts and you will read
concerning the disciples, 120 of them, waiting for the promise of the
Father.
And it says, "And when the Day of
Pentecost was fully come they were all of one accord in one place."
They were in one accord. They had one heart, one soul, one mind, one
spirit. They were flowing together, they were thinking together, they
were pouring together. They were pouring their streams out. They were
ready as one. And then the Spirit of God came down upon them and (pow!).
Disciples Had Internal Anointing
You see, when Jesus appeared to His disciples after He had risen from
the dead, the Scripture says, "He breathed
into them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ " When
did they receive the inner anointing? Was it on the day of Pentecost?
No, it was not. It was after Jesus had risen from the dead, ascended to
the Father, and He came and He breathed into them and gave it to them
then. Now for the first time, they had the right to have the Holy Spirit
dwelling within them.
Internal and External Coming Together
Okay, now I am going to bring the two together for you. I want you to
see something. The disciples had the inner anointing already. They had
not received the external anointing yet. How did they receive the
external anointing? How did it come about? How did they put themselves
in a position to receive that power that was going to come upon them?
Unite Your Hearts
"Tarry in Jerusalem, and wait."
How? By uniting their hearts together and becoming of one accord. Can
you see what Jesus was talking about now, when He said, "Where
two or three are being gathered together in My Name, there I am in their
midst." Jesus was saying, "If you will put your inner
anointings together I’ll give you the external one. If at least two of
you will just get together and pool the inner anointing together, you
will draw the external. I will come in and I’ll pour it out on
you."
Two or More People Together
Now, you go back to the Acts of the Apostles and you will find that
in every single case where the external anointing came upon somebody,
there was more than one person involved. There was always more than one
person involved. When Paul laid his hands on the converts at Ephesus,
the Holy Ghost came upon them. As Peter stood there and preached the
Word, the Spirit of God came upon them. As Peter and John went to
Samaria and laid their hands on the people, as there came that unity of
spirit, the anointing came upon them.
There is a key to receiving and obtaining and flowing in the external
anointing. And if you want to see the external anointing of God begin to
flow, it is going to take at least two people standing together as one.
It is going to take a kind of a catalyst. It is going to take a kind of
a chemical reaction, if you like, that when you put two chemicals
together they begin to ignite, and automatically something begins to
take place.
Potential for a Bomb
I used to have fun doing this in my early days. I think it was
glycerine and potassium permanganate that you mixed together and
suddenly it would begin to froth and bubble and burst into flame. I am
sure all the kids today with their pyrotechnics know exactly what I am
talking about. You just mix the right couple of things together and you
have a potential bomb. Jesus gave us the recipe for a bomb. He said,
"If two or three of you will pool together what I have put in you,
and become of one heart and one spirit, then I will ignite the
bomb."
The Anointing Abides Always
We have been looking for the key to revival. We have been looking for
the key to the anointing of the Spirit of God, about how we can receive
the anointing. And people are saying, "You must fast for long times
to get that anointing. You must deal with sin in your life." And
yet again and again you see people who are moving in the anointing of
God whose lives are lacking. You see people who have been used by God
who fell into sin, and the anointing is still there.
The Spirit of God does not leave you when you fall into sin. The
inner anointing is a permanent abiding anointing, and the Spirit of God
will continue to strive and to work in you to deal with that sin. But
the external anointing, the power that is going to come upon you, has
nothing to do with that. It has to do with you, in faith coming together
and uniting your heart with others. That is why you cannot do it alone.
That is what the body of Christ is about. That is what fellowship is
about. That is what the church is about. It is about coming together as
one. How often have you seen that?
I remember growing up in churches and the one meeting I hated was the
weekly prayer meeting. No, I didn’t hate to pray. I loved to pray. You
just give me a couple of people who liked to pray and we would have a
party. Oh, but you come into the church prayer, and oh man. People are
getting up there, and they are wailing and they are weeping. And they
are crying out to God and praying for the government, and for the people
behind the Iron Curtain, and … Oh Lord, these people never pray at
home. They come and do it at church. You are falling asleep while one
guy there is praying for half an hour. And he is just praying because he
likes the sound of his voice! No, that is not one accordness.
Power in Unity
I used to hate those prayer meetings. They were horrible. And as a
young person, freshly anointed of the Spirit of God I would gather a
couple of young people together after the dead meeting and we would go
and meet in somebody’s home. And we would get down and start to
worship.
"Oh hallelujah, praise you Jesus. Glory! Thank you, Lord."
And KAPOW!, the power of God would be there. God would give us words
of prophecy, and He would tell us to go out and speak to the lost. He
would anoint us with the Spirit, and we would pray for one another.
Things began to happen in those meetings. Why? There was one accordness.
The early church, when they came together in one accord after they
had been persecuted and they came together, they began to pray in one
heart, one soul and one mind to the Lord and say, "Lord, look at
the way these people are threatening us. Now Lord, stretch forth Your
hand to heal and let signs and wonders be done by the Name of Your Holy
child Jesus. Lord give us boldness." Man, I tell you what happened.
The building began to shake.
You say, "Boy, it took quite a crowd of people to do that."
No, it only takes two. How do I know that? Paul and Silas were in
prison. They had been beaten. They were sore. And they said, "Well,
brother, let’s have a prayer meeting." They began to worship. You
have one accord when you sing together, let me tell you. They began to
worship and sing praises to God. And somebody said, "God began to
tap His foot to the music it was so good." And man, He tapped it so
hard the ground began to shake! There was an earthquake and it cast of
their chains.
It was the power of agreement, the power of uniting two human spirits
together. Jesus said, "If you will do that, I’ll add My power to
it and you can have the fullness. You can have the external anointing.
You can receive the power. It is right there for you. All I want is for
you to come together as one. That’s all it requires."
Questions on Internal Anointing
I am going to end now, in looking at these two anointings in
conclusion, and I want to just answer one little question. How often do
you need to receive the anointing?
Anointing Given Once Only
As I read the Scriptures - and I told you that at the beginning -
when I first began to look into the Word on the subject of the
anointing, I discovered two main verses. The one said, "He
that hath anointed us is God." As I went into the Greek I
noticed that the word ‘anointed’ was in the Greek aorist tense,
which speaks of a once only, not to be repeated, event. He who anointed
you, once and for all, is God.
Anointing Abides Forever
Then in 1 John 2:27 the Apostle John says, "And
the anointing which you have received of Him abides (remains,
lives permanently there) in you forever."
The anointing stays. It is in you. It is there all the time. You only
receive that anointing once. When do you receive that inner anointing?
You receive it when you accept Jesus as your Savior and you are born
again of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God comes to dwell within
you. You then have the capacity for that inward anointing.
External Anointing
Baptism in the Spirit
What about the external anointing? How often do you receive the
external anointing? This is a difficult one. Those from the Pentecostal
camp believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. What is the baptism of
the Holy Spirit? If you like it is a kind of point where the inward
anointing and the outward anointings meet together and overflow in an
utterance, the most common sign being speaking in other tongues. That
event only takes place once.
Bridge Between the Two
If you like, what happens is a bridge takes place between the outside
and the inside. A pipe is sunk down from your body through into your
spirit. There comes a channel that is produced that allows now that
whenever the anointing will come upon you it will flow out of you. And
when you flow out the external will come. The two begin to flow together
and they begin to work together.
You will find that if you begin to speak in tongues – and I have
shared this so much elsewhere in our prophetic course – but if you
will begin to speak in tongues and pour out the anointing, after a while
you will begin to feel some of that external anointing as it begins to
flow out into your body. You begin to sense the effect of that anointing
pouring forth.
Filling with the Holy Spirit
But there is an additional expression, another terms that is used in
the Scripture, and that is to be ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’. Now
this is where we confuse it. The anointing and the filling are not the
same thing, and yet they take place together. If you read in the Acts of
the Apostles it says, "And the Spirit of God
came upon them (the fire came down upon them) and
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit."
If you like, it is like somebody just drenching you with water until
you are saturated and full. There comes a filling, an infilling. There
comes a pouring out and a gushing forth from within until it saturates
your whole being. That is what it means to be filled with the Holy
Spirit, where the anointing of God is on you. And if you have
experienced the anointing of God you know what I am talking about. You
can feel it. It is flowing. There is power there. But after a while it
goes away. We don’t walk in that 24 hours a day. We do not live in it
continuously.
So there is an anointing, and there is a filling process. In
Ephesians where Paul gives us the commandment from the Lord that says, "Be
filled with the Holy Spirit," he uses the Greek present
continuous tense, which effectively means, "Be, being filled. Be in
a situation of being continuously refilled with the Holy Spirit."
You have to receive the refilling of the Spirit all the time.
Pour Forth by Praying in Tongues
Now how are you going to do that? You are going to do that by pouring
forth the inner anointing, by speaking in tongues, by praying in
tongues, by worship. We are going to deal with so many of those and how
to release the inner anointing. And you are going to do it by getting
together to stand together in the prayer of agreement with at least one
other person.
When you do that, and there comes that one accordness, you both are
filled. And after you are filled you start to bubble over, and the
stream starts to flow and the rivers start to gush forth. Then the
rivers start to join together and you get the river of God, the
anointing power of God. And anybody else who comes into the room is
going to feel it.
Have you ever experienced that? A couple of people are worshipping
the Lord. They are praying in the Spirit under the anointing of God, and
you walk into the room and you say, "Wow, I can feel it! There is
something here; there is power here. There is something different
here." The external anointing has come with it.
Top Up Continually
But the process has to be repeated. Just because you were filled with
the Spirit last night, does not mean when you get up tomorrow morning
that the flow is going to be there. But I will tell you what, the
underground stream is still there, and the Spirit of God is all around
us, and His anointing is all around us, because the Spirit of God is
everywhere. It is like the radio waves in the air round about us. They
are there all the time. You cannot see them, you cannot feel them. But
you turn on your radio set and tune into them, and you have a program;
and you have music; and you have whatever is being broadcast.
Well, the Lord is broadcasting 24 hours a day. Do you want to flow in
the anointing? Do you want to feel the flow? Do you want to get drunk?
You don’t need to go to the bar. You do not need to go to the bottle
store. It is in the air. He is here. How far away is He?
"Thank you Father, in Jesus’ Name."
Just reach out and touch Him. Pour forth from within. Reach out and
touch Him, and suddenly there comes this cloud of His glory. It is like
sending up the vapors, and the cloud forms, and the rain begins to come
down on you. You can come into the presence of God at any time. You can
have the anointing of God at any time. And all that has happened in
revival churches is people have learned to do it, and they have got into
the habit. And they cannot wait to go back to the next meeting. When
they come back to the next meeting they do it automatically without even
realizing it. They just come in one accord, expecting it. And God never
lets them down.
You say, "I wish our church was like that."
Find two people. Well, if you are the one who is on fire, find one
person. Just one. Find just one person who will unite with you totally
in agreement. If you can find a third one, that is all the better. Just
pool your spiritual power. Learn to pray together and release the
anointing of God together, and come together as one. And God is going to
be there. Jesus said so. He promised it.
If you are going to reach out by faith and claim that promise, and
take Him at His Word, He will never let you down. The anointing will be
there. The anointing will always be there when you need it.
