THE ANOINTING

THE ANOINTING

                Yesterday I picked up my grandson Seth, from his driving class and after a quick stop off at Hardees (AKA: Carl’s Jr. on the West Coast) we headed out to our place to build a fence. Seth is fifteen, soon to be sixteen, and he is tall and strong and a great help in wrestling around those 100 foot rolls of wire. Seth and His dad Zach are both several inches taller than I am and a joy to be around. We had great fellowship as we rolled out the fence and fastened it to the posts.

                Near the end of our endeavor, Bonnie called us in for Pizza and drinks and then it was outside to finish the last 50 feet of fence. We put up about 200 feet around the perimeter of the yard and just at the edge of the woods that surrounds it.

                Now the reason for this newly built fence is a new member of our family, Nicky. He is a 65 pound Australian Shepherd, black with beautifully placed white markings, and incredibly loving, yet mischievous  eyes ( The kind of eyes that say, “ I’m sorry I ate your shoes… are there more?)

                Nicky is still young and still in that stage where everything goes in to the mouth. Consequently, everything of any value is now on a high shelf.

                Bonnie’s sister brought the dog with her when she came out to visit us, but at her age and frail condition, she was unable to care for Nicky… so when she flew back to Oregon, she left Nicky with us. (We acquire more dogs this way… hmmm.)

                So Nicky and Seth met for the first time yesterday and it was love at first sight. As soon as Seth sat down, Nicky jumped into his lap. (All 65 pounds of him) and started licking Seth’s face and laying his head on Seth’s shoulder and… well, I have never seen any two creatures bond so quickly and so while we had to keep Nicky on the fenced front deck while we were putting up the fence, Nicky was whining and mourning for his new friend Seth as if the two of them had spent some heretofore undiscovered previous life together.

                At the end of the day, I took Seth home, having slipped my bass guitar into the pickup, so that I could go directly to worship practice at the church.

                Some days are just full of blessings. Somedays you enjoy that sweet calm of knowing that you are right where you are supposed to be and doing exactly what God has assigned you to do. I have discovered a secret. That is, if you do what God tells you to do you end up fulfilling your deepest desires. But if you go after the desires themselves, you end up missing everything. It is an amazing thing really, that in doing what God has called you to do, you end up fulfilling the things you were created to do and when you do the things you were created to do, you experience the maximum amount of peace and joy and satisfaction.

                This ties in with our subject today for indeed, if we belong to the Lord, then we are anointed to fulfill a particular role in the body of Christ and the sooner we find that role, the happier we and everyone else will be.

                David was anointed to be king and while it took a lot of time and pain and trial, he became what he was destined to be, He did become king because of the anointing. He was faithful to God and in the proper time and with the proper maturity, David did ascend to the throne to become one of the greatest kings of all time, while reigning over an undivided nation.

                In the body of Christ there are always a percentage of people that want to take shortcuts. They want to bypass the anointing and depend on their natural talents and abilities. Way too often we place people in positions based upon their natural talent, rather than on their anointing.

                John speaks about this in 1 John 2:17-20. He said: “And the world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.” John likens the people that are opposed to God as antichrists. There is a last day antichrist that will come and rule over the globe, but there is another sense in which everyone who lives life without the anointing to do what they do, are antichrists as well.

                The word “Christ” means “the anointed One.” IF we belong to Him and call ourselves by His name, then we too share in His anointing… and so every legitimate member in the Body of Christ must be anointed for service and that anointing is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is what equips us to do the job that the Lord has assigned to us.

                In speaking of those antichrist types, (the anti- anointed types), John said of them:  “They went out from us but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out in order that it might be shown that they are not of us.” And then John says: “But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know.” 1 John 2:19, 20. So what do they all know? They know that they are of the Body of Christ and that they are doing in that Body what they have been anointed to do and as such they are not likely to stray away from their calling, or to become lax in the thing they are anointed to do.

                When un-anointed people function in the Body of Christ, they come and go upon a whim. They are not dedicated because they are not anointed. David fulfilled his calling because He was anointed to fulfill it. Saul started out with an anointing, but in a sense, He didn’t have a full anointing for his role as King. It was a concession on God’s part to give the people what they wanted.

                Nevertheless He could have also been a great king after God’s own heart had he lived according to the anointing rather than according to the flesh. But he was tall and strong and impressive in the flesh and in time he began to operate in the natural, based upon his own natural abilities. But in time His anointing was replaced by another spirit, so that David had to sing for Him just to break the spell of the evil spirit in him. So having the anointing is a fearful and holy thing, for it a person strays from God they are in danger of being anointed by a different spirit and that is happening more than ever in these last days.

                So, Saul, in a sense became an antichrist… a king anointed with a wrong spirit.

                There are people functioning in churches today that, because of greed, or selfish ambition or self-serving, have moved from the anointing of God to the anointing of the enemy and as such they are leading many people into the great falling away that we see going on in the world today. As such, these anti-anointed leaders have become attracted to the anointing of the false prophet who has been anointed by an evil spirit to unite all of the religions together to serve the chief anti-anointed one, the antichrist that will soon appear.

                Peter, in talking about the precious promises by which we may partake of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, says that we will bear the virtues of the Holy Spirit in our lies and if we don’t bear these virtues we will be blind and unable to see afar off. In other words, we will not have a prophetic view and understanding of God’s plans and purposes and in time we will forget that we have been purged from our sins. Then Peter goes on to warn us saying: “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things you will never fail.” 2 Peter 1:10

                So if we are diligent in making our calling and election sure, then the promise is this: “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” WOW!

                It is somewhat easy to tell the difference between those in the church who are anointed and those who are still in the flesh. Those who are in the flesh tend to come and go, to show or not show   and to always be plagued with many distractions, fights and troubles, while the anointed ones  tend to be single in purpose, operating by the power and presence of God, doing quietly what God has anointed them to do. They are a part of the 20%, who carry on the mission of the church. The eye knows that it is an eye. The ear knows that it is an ear. The hand knows that it is a hand and the foot knows that it is a foot. Thus being fitted together by the Holy Spirit each part does what it has been anointed to do, with great joy and satisfaction along with dedication.

                This learning how to operate in the anointing of the Lord is what brings us into maturity, whether we are an eye or a hand or a foot and we must not grow weary in well doing, for heaven’s reward system is different than the world’s. For in heaven some who functioned as a faithful foot here will be given positions of a head or an eye there, while some that appoint themselves as heads or eyes here will become feet in the kingdom. Or as Jesus puts it, “The last will be first and the first last.” Luke 13:30.

                Think about your own physical body for a minute. Is there any part of you r body that doesn’t serve a function? Has not each part of your body been designed to do the thing it does? You can’t walk with your ears or listen with your feet.

                Likewise in the body of Christ every single member serves a purpose. IF it is growing in the body, but doesn’t serve any purpose, then chances are it is a tumor. It is drawing life from the body, but it is not giving back anything for the good of the body. Many of the big mega churches today are designed to have a few stars and thousands of spectators. This is not what Christ intended when He anointed each of us before we were ever born to be a member of His kingdom.

                WE see this principle born out in the life of Jeremiah. And the Lord said to him: “Before I formed you in the womb I know you and have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jer. 1:5

                Romans 8:29 says that we were predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ… and whom He predestined he also called. But we often think of the image of Christ as a static condition of holiness, or physical appearance, but to be in the image of Christ includes His functioning as well.  Jesus said:

                “Truly, truly (Stated emphatically) I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14:12, 13

                To be conformed to the image of Christ then is to be able to function as He functioned and this is exactly why He poured out the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. It is in that baptism that we are anointed to do the works of Christ and each of us according to our calling and placement in the Body… not done by the will of man, but by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

                So when Bonnie and I came all the way from Washington State to Tennessee and landed in a strange town, we asked of the Lord to place us, since it was He that told us to move here in the first place. He divinely guided us to the church of His choosing and within a couple of weeks we had been placed in the positions that we have been anointed to fill, Bonnie in the kitchen and I in the music department. We will aspire to no greater positions, nor do we care to climb any ladders of leadership. We are doing what God has anointed us to do and doing it faithfully and we are happy.

                People tend to be unhappy over the long run if they are not satisfied to be a foot and so they try to climb the ladder to be a hand or an eye. Rather we should all be satisfied to be feet or hands, and then if we are truly anointed to serve a different function, the Joly Spirit will place you when He knows you are mature enough to fill that position.

                If Bonnie and I fulfill any other offices or jobs in the church it will be due to divine appointment alone and nothing else. But we do what every member in the Body must do regardless of which Body part they are and that is to love and to serve, to encourage and pray for and to grow in grace and knowledge.

                In all of this I am not bragging, for it has taken me a lifetime to learn these things and I share them with you because… well, I am getting older and if I don’t share it now, then when?

                If we have not done so, then we must go before the Lord, to seek our purpose before Him and especially for the anointing without which our efforts are in vain. We were designed to be functioning members in the Body of Christ. As far as I am concerned, we would all be better off to find a smaller church that really needs us. Don’t be satisfied to become a spectator in a large and comfortable arena. Many of those big churches will fall away and when they do, you will to need friends and fellow members in the Body of Christ who know you by name and care about you. Small groups are so much better when it comes to growing in the Lord and having fellowship with like believers.

                And it is important to go to a church where they understand the anointing and function in the anointing, for they will see the anointing on your life and they will respect it and they will follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in placing you by divine appointment.

                It’s time for the Body of Christ to begin functioning as it should. Too many churches are being run like corporations today. The Holy Spirit is no longer consulted and in general you can follow the money to see what is going on. Just as in society, big business runs the show and makes the decisions and it is no longer a government of the people and by the people and for the people.

                The churches and the nations run in parallel and as a result a great shaking is coming in which everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that what remains will be of God.