Welcome to Word of Life Study Series- Our glorious inheritance! As born again Christians, we are already anointed. What does “anointing” mean? Well this term has its use from Genesis to Revelation. In the Old Testament, olive oil was poured upon the head of the prophet, priest and the king to be commissioned for service. It represented the Holy Spirit upon their lives, to empower them to carry out God’s work in the earth.
1. Old Testament Examples
The events written in the four Gospels was still considered under the Old Testament era, with the Old Covenant in effect. Yet the Holy Spirit was active upon the lives of the Old Testament saints even until the beginning of the Age of Grace. The few Old Testament saints that had the anointing upon them is now within every born again Christian! Jesus had said in Mark 9:23, “Everything is possible for them who believes.”
2. The Anointing is a Person
It is easy to misunderstand the anointing as some esoteric cosmic force (Like “Use the Force Luke” in Star Wars), impersonal and generic like the forces of nature, such as electricity or gravity- invisible yet very real. Certainly the anointing is a powerful energy that produces tremendous results- parting of the Red Sea, raising the dead, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk and any other miracle that you can think of. The anointing is the result of a Person, the Person of the Holy Spirit. The anointing is the grace of God, the power of God, the creative force of God manifested through the Person of the Holy Spirit.
3. How the Anointing is Increased
There is an anointing on us, whether we recognize it or not; we are all called to stand in an office or ministry. And no matter which office we stand in, or what we are called to do, we can have something to do with determining the degree of our anointing. We can prepare ourselves for this anointing. If it doesn’t come on us, it’s because we didn’t prepare ourselves. Furthermore, the anointing can be increased. We can increase the anointing by studying the Word, by being prayerful and consecrated.
4. The Transference of the Anointing
Remember the story about the woman with the issue of blood. Medical science had given up on her, her condition was growing worse, her only option was to receive a healing form God. One day Jesus had showed up in her home town, and she said to herself, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” She heard of reports like in Luke 6:19, “and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.” Through faith this woman pressed through the crowd in order to touch the edge of His garment. It was the touch of faith that released the anointing into her body to be healed- faith is always the key to receiving and ministering in the anointing of the Holy Spirit!