It all started with one sermon: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me…” (Luke 4:18).
That “anointing” message is what launched Jesus into ministry. It was the heart of everything He preached. It was the power behind everything He did.
Yet as awesome and marvelous as the anointing was in the life of Jesus while He was on this earth, it wasn’t enough for God.
You see, had Jesus ended up being the only person anointed, we would still be under the devil’s oppression today.
Why?
Because all that anointing would have gone with Jesus when He returned to heaven. And it’s only by the Anointing of God that burdens are removed and yokes of oppression—sickness, disease, poverty, fear, death and so forth—are destroyed (Isaiah 10:27).
No. God was not satisfied for Jesus to come into the earth, manifest the awesomeness of His Anointing and then leave, taking all that power with Him. Had that been the case, we would still be in a mess today.
God had a “new birth” in mind. Through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, God made it possible for each one of us to be born again. He made it possible for us to become “a new creature” in Christ—a new creature in the Anointed One, a new creature in His Anointing (2 Corinthians 5:17).
That’s why to this day we are called Christ-ians…“little anointed ones.”
You Have That Anointing
The moment you received Jesus as your LORD and were “born again,” you received access to the very same power of Almighty God that Jesus Himself demonstrated and manifested during His earthly ministry.
The Apostle John tells us “the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you” (1 John 2:27).
In other words, you have the Anointing of God inside you right now. And that anointing is the power of God that enables you to live a life free of all burdens and all yokes of oppression. All you have to do is feed that anointing with The WORD of God and connect your faith to it so it can be released into your life.
First John 2:27 goes on to tell us that this Anointing of God inside us will also teach us. I call it the “knowing anointing.” And it has many applications in life.
For instance, when this knowing anointing is fully engaged in your life, you do not need someone to tell you what you believe. Neither do you need to be told if someone is accurately preaching The WORD or not. You can know these things by the anointing. The Holy Spirit will give you an inward witness as to whether or not someone is teaching the truth.
This anointing to know can also assist you in times of crisis.
Let’s say your child is in the backyard and gets hurt while playing—and it’s not really a time when you can call your pastor for a “word from God.”
Don’t panic. Just turn inward to the Holy Spirit. Get counsel from the Counselor Himself. Find out from Him how you should minister to your child in that situation. I cannot tell you how many times I have done that where my own children were concerned.
Apart from all the crises in life, this knowing anointing can help you in raising your children, conducting your business affairs, keeping your marriage on course and so on. And it’s all by the Anointing of God that abides within you, enabling you to live everyday life.
But now there is another aspect to the anointing. And that is the anointing that comes on us to minister God’s burden-removing, yoke-destroying power. The anointing to meet the needs of people.
Remember what Jesus said in Luke 4? “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (verses 18-19).
We know God’s Spirit had been in Jesus since forever past—long before He was born of Mary. Yet, the Spirit of God came upon Him after He was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River (see Luke 3:21-22).
This anointing that came upon Jesus was the anointing to minister. It was the anointing to lay hands on the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead. It was the anointing to preach The WORD in power and to prophesy. It was the Anointing of the gifts of the Spirit and the manifestations of the Spirit. It was the anointing of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher.
So where is all that anointing to minister today?
Ministry Within Your Reach
The power of God to meet the needs of people lies predominantly in the men and women called by God to fill what we usually refer to as the fivefold ministry offices—apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher (Ephesians 4:11-12).
Though no one minister of the gospel carries the fullness of the anointing for all five of those offices, all of us together have every bit of it.
And here again, if only the apostles had been anointed by God—as many people have been deceived into thinking in the past 2,000 years—we would still be in one, big mess.
And what if in today’s Church only the pastors were anointed, and maybe a few evangelists?
It wouldn’t be any different.
In fact it’s that kind of religious tradition that has cheated the Church out of the full manifestation and demonstration of God’s Anointing.
Meanwhile what about the majority of people sitting in the congregation? Where is the anointing for them to minister to the needy people they encounter every day?
What about the farmers and business managers, the police officers and schoolteachers in life? Where is their anointing to minister—like the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, the teacher?
The answer to these questions is found in partnership.
The Apostle Paul wrote to his partners in ministry at the church in Philippi and said, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:3-5).
Here the word fellowship is an Old English translation of the Greek word for partnership. It means “equal part in a single endeavor.”
Paul, who ministered in at least three of the offices—apostle, prophet and teacher—considered these believers in Philippi to be his “equal partners” in ministering the gospel. And that’s why he went on to say: “Even as it is meet for me [even as I am able] to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace” (verse 7).
Partakers of my grace.
When you see the word grace, particularly in Paul’s writings, don’t just think of it as “God’s unmerited favor,” which it is. But also see it as a reference by Paul to the anointing. Because he equates the two as one and the same.
And why not?
The very fact that the Anointing of God can be in us and on us is an ultimate act of grace on God’s part.
So Paul was saying, “Because you supported me in every way possible—not only when I was with you in Philippi, but when I ministered in other places—you can expect the same anointing that’s on me for ministry to be on you and your household. You are equal partners—equal partakers—of my anointing.”
Applying that to our lives today, the businessman or businesswoman who is plugged into a local church should have the same anointing for ministry on him or her that is on the pastor of that church.
For that matter, every believer should be equal partakers of the anointing that is on the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers of our time.
How?
By joining those in fivefold ministry in equal partnership in the gospel. By getting in there and praying and supporting their ministries in any way God directs them.
Remember God is not satisfied for Jesus to be the only one anointed.
What good would it be for all that anointing to remain “sitting at the right hand of the Father” in heaven when all the burdens and yokes are down here on earth?
What’s more, He is not satisfied for just a handful of apostles to have been anointed 2,000 years ago. They’re no longer in the earth where ministry anointing is needed.
No, God will not be satisfied until every member of the Body of Christ—the Body of His anointed ones in the earth today—is walking in the fullness of His power.
So let the Spirit of God connect you with the ministry He is calling you to support. Then get into “covenant partnership” in the gospel with them. Once you do, start partaking of their grace. Draw on the fullness of those anointings. Expect the anointings to minister that are on their lives and ministry to rest on you and your household.
You have the anointing to live life. Now step over into that anointing for the lost and dying world around you.
Be the first person—the first banker, nurse, student, homemaker, salesman—in your church who “goes about doing good, healing all who are oppressed of the devil.”
Go for the full measure of God’s Anointing!
*Article taken from February 2015 issue of BVOV Magazine. Read the PDF version here.
