ARE YOU ANOINTED?

ARE YOU ANOINTED?

                The word ”anointed” or “anointing” is very familiar in Pentecostal circles, but it is  not used much in mainline denominations. However, I would hope that whether we use the word or not, we are indeed anointed. The title” Jesus the Christ”, or “Yeshua the Christ”, means Jesus the anointed one and Yeshua the Messiah means the same thing. One who is anointed.

                So if you call yourself a Christian, then you are saying that you are anointed. Paul says this in what I’m sure you have figured out by now is my favorite chapter in the Bible:

                “”And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” Romans 8:8, 9.

                If you are not anointed, then you don’t even belong to Christ and should not call yourself a Christian. This is a serious matter and in fact the difference between the wise and foolish virgins was found in the oil. The foolish did not have any. They had lost their anointing.          

                The anointing (AKA Shekinah, or Presence) eventually departed from Solomon’s temple and it did not return. In fact there was no presence ever in the 2^nd temple when Jesus walked the earth. Because of Israel’s rejection of God the anointing had departed the temple and returned to heaven.

                The next time the anointing came to earth was in the Person of Yeshua. And if you will remember in Gabriel’s announcement to Mary he said. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High God will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.”

                This was the infilling of the Holy Spirit that came upon Mary and planted the seed of the Father in her and Jesus was born filled with the Holy Spirit as a legitimate Son of God… the only begotten Son of God.

                But now it is interesting that at His baptism, it says in Luke 3:22 “And the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove and a voice come out of heaven, “Thou art My Son. In Thee I am well-pleased.” So the first infilling of the Holy Spirit happened prior to His birth and the second  anointing of the Holy Spirit, Known as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit came upon Him to anoint Him for ministry.

                Today Pentecostal people know that there are two anointings of the Holy Spirit. (The infilling and the baptism of the Holy Spirit)The first happens when we are born again and baptized into the Body of Christ and the second gift is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit which comes upon the Christian equipping the anointed one to carry out the ministry of Christ and to do His works in the world.

                Many Christian religions strangely deny this second work saying that we get it all when we are saved and so, we don’t see many of the works of Christ going on in the church.

                When Samuel anointed David as king, this did not make him a king instantaneously. He had many trials and miles to go that would train him and prepare him for his office. But that was a part of the anointing just as much as was his eventual role as king. When we receive Yeshua as our Lord and Savior, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We are anointed and in truth, this runs parallel to the conception. We call it being born again, but in truth we are conceived by the Holy Spirit when we receive that Seed of Christ into our lives. A new spirit is conceived in us and we become new creatures.

                After conception the baby has 9 months to gestate and to become mature son or daughter and then he or she may be prepared to receive the second anointing for service to fellow humans and to do the works of Christ. This is what equips us to do the works of Christ and even greater works because He goes to the Father. This promise will be fulfilled during the final harvest when the works we do will far outshine those seen in the Bible. It will be Pentecost times 7. Why? It is because the Pentecostal anointing came with leavened bread, but under the anointing of Tabernacles the leavening will be baked out so that the power of God may be manifested to the world through His living temple the purified church.

                If we truly understood this, then church would have an entirely different program. We don’t disciple people like Jesus told us to. We are like deadbeat dads that plant a seed and then take a hike to let the child develop on the streets, to be babysat by video games or hirelings or a TV.

                We expect newborn babes to put on a three piece suit and act like mature Christians (According to our traditions and culture) We never teach them anything about walking in the anointing, or receiving the baptism for service and we judge them in the flesh and put them up front if they have talent and we never enroll them in the training of the Lord.

                So we have a church full of babies that come week after week to get their serving of milk. They have never developed any stamina, or understanding. They have not learned to find their strength in the anointing and so they must be spoon fed and coddled and kept in a stall where we can milk them of their talents and their money. The churches of this world, many of them are almost devoid of the anointing and so thirsty souls sneak away to Pentecostal or Charismatic places to get the anointing and then they come back dutifully to their church with “the Truth” and keep it a secret that they have come to life in the Holy Spirit. They have become anointed, with nowhere to use what they have received except in their private prayer life. The anointing is largely rejected by many churches.

                Listen friends. We have come into a time when we must seek the anointing at all cost. We must press into God for it. We don’t want to be found at the wedding supper of the Lamb without oil and with no pass to get into the marriage ceremony. If you belong to a dead church that doesn’t believe in the anointing, then I would not be satisfied just to sit there and look to these people for my salvation if I were you. It is not enough to keep the right day or have the right doctrine. We must be anointed or we will be found as foolish virgins at the Lord’s return.

                The anointing left Solomon’s temple because of the apostasy of Israel. It did not return to earth again until it arrived in the person of Yeshua. Then it went back to heaven with Yeshua and He told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem. He instructed them not to do a bloomin thing but to watch and pray until the promise of the Father came upon them. Then on the day of Pentecost, the anointing, the presence, or the Shekinah fell upon them in tongues of fire and they were anointed with the same Shekinah that had been in the Tabernacle of Moses and Solomon. Yeshua’s followers became the new temple of God.

                What does this tell us about the present state of the church? How many seeds once conceived are brought to maturity? How many go on to receive the anointing, the promise of the Father for service? How many actually go forth to do the works of Christ? In most cases we can’t because we have never learned how to walk in the Spirit let alone operate in the Baptism. In many ways we have become like the second temple. We have the form of the temple, but not the power. We have a building, but the Most Holy Place is empty.

                I believe that we are entering into the time of the final harvest and if we want to be a part of it then we must begin to contend for it before God. We must claw on the gates of heaven for it. And it’s not that God is unwilling to pour it out, it is rather that we have never prepared our vessels to contain His glory. We have never really allowed Yeshua to cleanse our temples. We have allowed the money changers to pollute our sanctuaries. Our porticoes are dirty with the traffic of the world.

                There is no doubt in my mind that God is going to have to judge and purify His church so that we can bring in the final harvest. At this point the sheep and goats are all together. The wheat and tares are all in the same congregation.  The wise and foolish virgins are hanging around and waiting for the Bridegroom’s return and no one knows who has oil and who does not.

                In my thinking only tribulation and persecution will separate the real from the pretenders. God will allow strong delusions to come and to draw those away… those temples that have no Shekinah glory, empty wells with no water.

                And when it becomes a matter of life and death, then it will be revealed who has oil and who does not. So don’t just read the Word without the anointing... don’t just keep polishing your doctrines. Don’t just sit back and think that you belong to the right church… that you are on the right train. The real question is are you anointed? Have you indeed become a temple of the living God? Have you been learning to walk by the Spirit or are you just sort of winging it in the flesh?

                The time of testing will reveal it to you, but why wait until the door is shut and you are kept out of the marriage to find out if you have oil or not. Contend for it. Pray for it. Find someone who has oil and ask them to pray for you, because the Baptism is passed on by the laying on of hands.” The disciples laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” Acts 6:6-8, Acts 8:14-17. And when you read these texts ask yourself how they knew when the people had received the Holy Spirit. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit will be manifested in one of the gifts of the Spirit. Every anointed Christian is then gifted with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit so that he may do the works of Christ in the world and we have whole churches full of people who do not know their gift or their calling or their purpose other than to fill a pew and pay their tithes. We have failed to equip the saints and we have failed to lay hands on them for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Study 1 Corinthians 14 more carefully than you have ever studied it before,. Most churches teach it wrongly and thus deny God’s plans and purposes for the individual. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you understanding. Don’t take someone else’s word for it.

                God fully intended to make Israel a kingdom of priests, but they rejected His voice and told Moses to speak for them and listen for them. So God had them build a sanctuary so that He could dwell among them (instead of in them) and He set aside the tribe of Levi to be the representative priesthood. But the Levitical priesthood was not God’s plan A and so when Jesus came to earth, He came to bring a new priesthood and a new Law; (”The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:2) “For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.” Hebrews 7:12 and that is why we are to walk not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit. We are anointed. We are temples of the living God. We are being built together into a dwelling place for the Lord. We have a High Priest who is now anointed according to the order of Melchizedek. (Heb. 6:19, 20, 7:1-28) And He fully intends for us to be a kingdom of priests. But like Israel, we have handed the priesthood over to the few. We hang on their words.  We pay them to study and to pray for us and to bring down from the mountain what God has said.

                Unfortunately many pastors are not bringing fire down from the mountain. Many of them have become hirelings as well who no longer bring fresh manna and fresh fire from the mountain of the Lord. Many pastors are not anointed with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit either. So how can they pass it on to their congregations?

                God is about to pour out His Spirt upon all flesh and the message that we are hearing from all of the true prophets and watchmen of God right now is “Get your house in order.” The anointing is coming, but it is going to come amidst the judgments of God that will purify us and separate us from the goats, the tares and the foolish. God will have a pure bride… one that has eyes only for Him. She will not be flirting with other gods. She will belong to Him entirely. And she will be a carrier of His presence.

                Again I ask. Are you anointed? Are you a living stone in the temple of God or a dead stone that has not found where you fit in yet?

                I know it is hard to find a living church to go to. Most are dead and cultural and self-satisfied, having the form while denying the power…the anointing. Do you want to leave it up to a dead church to make you alive, or are you going to go before God and pray for the fire, for the anointing? The church in other countries is far more anointed than the American church. We have become rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. We don’t know that we are miserable and poor and blind and naked. God is about to change that.

                When you ask Him for it, he may begin to reveal to you just what remains in you that keeps you separated from His presence. The flesh is still strong. The world still clings to you. You have placed your security in other things. The Old man is still alive and fighting against your spirit. Give all of these things to the Lord and ask Him to cleanse your temple even as Jesus cleansed the temple in His day. He will do it. He has promised that what He started in you, He will finish.

                When I came face to face with these things in my own life, I fell down before God and I asked Him to do whatever it took to make me one of the wise virgins… no matter the cost… for life or for death. I want to be a part of that wedding feast and there is nothing in the world more valuable than that. I do this every day and I will not be satisfied until I am operating in the fullness of the power that Jesus intended for me in this final harvest.You too must now contend for the anointing in your life. Ask the Lord to anoint you so that you too can be a priest of the Most High God. It is your calling in Christ Jesus.