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Two Anointings for Everyone:
By
Steve Highlander
Copyright
2007 Steve Highlander & C3M Ministries All rights reserved.
Permission granted to download and distribute this article free of charge
for personal use, provided contents
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author.
Surprise: God has
already anointed you. You may or may not be walking in the full
understanding or benefit of that anointing, but if you are a
Christian, you have received at least one anointing. One purpose of
this study is to help you see when, how and why God has anointed you
and how you can walk in it more fully. The other purpose is to help
some believers realize there is more anointing available to them.
Many Christians have
a couple of erroneous ideas about the anointing. The first is that
only special people are anointed. The second is that the anointing
comes and goes on a person. These two thoughts might be summed up in
sentence such as: “Gee our pastor was really anointed today.” The
belief behind that thought is that the anointing is only for certain
people and specific times, and that, on other occasions, the pastor
was less anointed.
Whether we mean to
believe this way or not is irrelevant, the fact is that in some ways
our basic understanding of anointing is askew; especially when we try
to convey it in a New Testament sense. This is mostly due to the fact
that we hear very few sermons dealing with the issue of anointing. And
that is because the church has erroneously reserved it for the few.
In this essay we
want to look at the true New Testament anointing. We often see the
anointing symbolized by the pouring or rubbing on of oil. Of course
we understand this to represent the unseen application of the Holy
Spirit. Oil almost always represents the spirit in the Bible.
But what is
important, the symbol or the reality? The reality of course!
In the New Testament
church we are often content to go through the outward ritual of
“anointing with oil,” but fail to realize the true anointing that has
come to abide with the church and individual believers. We have a
tendency to view the anointing only in terms of a specific result,
such as a great sermon or an answered prayer. The Spirit, however,
does not come and go in the life of the believer. He abides! The
apostle John tells us, “The anointing that you have received of him
abides in you.…” I John 2:27.
One thing is certain
though; there was always a definitive act of anointing. The anointing
is a line of demarcation that divided the past from the present and
future. With a vial or horn of oil a man was “anointed” to a specific
job or function. Anointing was always considered to be both the
commission to the work and the investment of divine power to get the
job done. He didn’t cease to be anointed, just because he failed to
walk in it at all times.
With these thoughts
in mind I want to look at two specific anointings revealed in the New
Testament.
"Then
the same day at evening, being the first of the sabbaths, when the
doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the
Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, Peace to
you! And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and
His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Then
Jesus said to them again, Peace to you. As My Father has sent
Me, even so I send you. And when He had said this, He breathed on
them and
said to them, Receive
the Holy Spirit."
John
20:19 - 22
MJKV
Truly, O Theophilus, I made the first report as to all things that
Jesus began both to do and teach until the day He was taken up, having
given directions to the apostles whom He chose, through the
Holy Spirit; to whom He also presented Himself living after His
suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them through forty
days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And
having met with them, He commanded them not to depart from
Jerusalem,
but to await the promise of the Father which you heard from Me.
For John truly baptized
with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not
many days from now.
Then, indeed, these coming together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, do
You at this time restore the kingdom to
Israel?
And He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the
seasons, which the Father has put in His own authority.
But you shall receive
power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you.
And you shall be witnesses to Me both in
Jerusalem and in
all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And
saying these things, as they watched, He was taken up. And a
cloud received Him out of their sight.
Acts 1:1-9 MJKV
(Emphasis mine in
both passages.)
Setting the Stage for Two Anointings
The
events related in these two passages of scripture take place 40 days
apart. John 20 takes place in the upper room on the night of the
resurrection. The events in Acts 1 take place 40 days later on the
Day Jesus is taken up into heaven, 'being seen of them 40 days,"
according to verse 3.
Acts 2
occurs 10 days later,
"When the day of
Pentecost had fully come."
Thus we have a complete 50-day setting for these events.
This is very
important. It is precisely this 40 day period (and then 10 more days)
that help us to understand two important things about the anointing of
God in our lives.
In John 20 Jesus has
risen from the dead on the first day of the week. Not yet having
ascended to the father and presented his own blood in the heavenly
Holy of Holies (Hebrews 9:12), He tells Mary not to touch Him. As the
true High Priest he can not be defiled before performing the important
task of obtaining eternal redemption.
Later that evening,
having visited the heavenly holy place, and having obtained that
redemption, He now returns to proclaim the accomplishment of His
mission and to commission His followers to carry on from where He left
off. His message was,
“as the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Jesus then does a
strange thing. He breathes or blows on them and says,
“Receive the Holy Ghost.” We often
read passages of scripture like this with a vague feeling that there
is something more there than meets the eye. However, we often
continue reading without stopping to search the matter out.
Why would Jesus
breathe on them? Why not lay hands on them as we (and they) might
have expected. They were used to Jesus laying hands on people and
seeing things happen. They had even experienced the power of God
flowing through their hands as Jesus had sent them out two by two.
Later on we find the Apostles laying hands on people and imparting the
Holy Spirit to them. But tonight Jesus deviates from norm and breathes
on them. This little deviation should give us pause.
The reason, I
believe, is found in Genesis 2:7:
“And
Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. “
When God created
man, He BREATHED life into him. The Bible tells us that when the
“breath of life” touched the dead flesh of man; man became a “living
soul.”
We know that God
told Adam that the day he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, he would surely die. Since Adam did not die physically that
day, or for hundreds of years in the future, we are left with the
reality that Adam died spiritually that day, since we know that sin
and death (physical and spiritual) passed to all men through him
(Romans 5:12). One fundamental fact of the gospel message is that a
person is spiritually dead until he or she repents and accepts Christ
as savior (John 5:24-26).
Romans 10:9 tells us
that the requirement for salvation is to believe that God has raised
Jesus from the dead. Without faith in the resurrection we cannot be
born again. This brings us to the upper room on the evening that
Jesus rose from the dead. For the first time in history a person
could believe that Jesus was raised form the dead. Earlier, Mary
believed, but the work had not been completed yet. It was not until
Jesus reappeared to His disciples that evening that eternal salvation
could find its first recipients. Finally the plan of the ages was
beginning to bear fruit. He showed them His hands and feet and they
believed in His resurrection. They had now fulfilled all the
requirements for salvation. Jesus took a breath; heaven waited; the
disciples knew something was about to happen. Then Jesus breathes
out. The Spirit of God rushed back into mankind for the first time in
4000 years. Once again God had found the dwelling place he had longed
for – a temple made without hands.
With this one act
Jesus brought life to mankind for the second time. Man now had eternal
life. God did not have to breathe physical life into man again. Just
as Adam passed physical life (and death) to the entire human race; the
disciples gathered that night were to propagate eternal life to the
human race.
Just as you and I
are direct descendants of Adam and Noah, so are we direct spiritual
descendants of those gathered that night in the upper room. One of
them preached the message or shared the gospel with someone who in
turn shared it with someone, and on and on it went for nearly 2000
years until it reached the person who was instrumental in leading you
to the Lord.
You have a spiritual
family tree as well as a physical one. If it were possible it would
be fascinating to see our spiritual family tree. Could you be a
direct spiritual descendant of Billy Sunday, John Wesley, Martin
Luther, Brother Lawrence or even Paul? Was it Peter or John or maybe
even Mary who started your personal spiritual family tree. If we could
only know the route the anointing took to reach us, we might be
overwhelmed. But reach us it did, and that is the important part.
The anointing, breathed out on that spring evening in Jerusalem, has
come to find a resting place in you.
With this anointing
came the commission: “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending
you.” You are to continue passing the anointing of eternal life to
others, continuing the chain of eternal life. How many people have no
spiritual offspring? How many spiritual family trees have existed for
nearly 2000 years only to have a branch die with our generation
because someone did not understand that one reason they were saved,
was to pass it to someone else.
This anointing with
the Holy Spirit for salvation transcended the Old Testament anointings
of the prophet, priest and king. Now the Holy Spirit resided in a man
instead of just coming upon him. Jesus’ prophetic words recorded in
John 14:16-17 had come to pass.
“And
I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, so
that He may be with you forever, 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 shall be in you.”
This is a
significant statement, “He dwells with you (now) and shall be in you
(future).” Jesus was referring to the anointing of salvation; the
transition from Old Testament to New Covenant; from an external
anointing to an internal one.
This first anointing
with the Holy Ghost brought the power of resurrection life to a
person’s soul. Paul refers to this in Titus 3:5:
“…not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal
of the Holy Spirit….”
The word translated
“regeneration” is actually the combination of two Greek words:
-
RE: Palin (Strongs
3825) this word carries with it the idea of a repetition of a cycle,
as if you took something back to the place where it started and
started over again.
-
GENERATION:
Genesis (Strongs 1078) literally “Nativity” or birth
The idea conveyed is
that God takes us back to the original state man was created in.
Jesus visually demonstrated this principle when he breathed on the
disciples, causing them to be regenerated or born again. A Christian
is in the truest sense “recycled.”
Following through on
this idea of “recycling,” Paul reveals an important truth in I
Corinthians 15:45-49:
“And
so it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul," the
last Adam was a life-giving Spirit. But not the spiritual first, but
the natural; afterward the spiritual. The first man was out
of earth, earthy; the second Man was the Lord from Heaven. Such
the earthy man, such also the earthy ones. And such the
heavenly Man, such also the heavenly ones. And according as we
bore the image of the earthy man, we shall also bear the image
of the heavenly
Man.”
Jesus is given two
names here: 1. The “last Adam;” and 2. The “Second Man.”
Where Adam failed,
Jesus triumphed. What Adam lost, Jesus regained. What Adam did,
Jesus undid. The term “Second Man” tells us that the cycle started
over. The term “Last Adam” tells us there is no need for another
cycle. Jesus succeeded where Adam failed. The incarnation of Jesus
brought us to the beginning of the original cycle. God brought a man
who would be victorious over the lies of the enemy and the power of
sin. Thus He would be able to pass those spiritual genetics on to a
new “genesis” or generation of spirit-men. II Corinthians 5:17 says:
“So
that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new
creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become
new. And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to
Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of
reconciliation….”
We find here that
the born again person becomes a “new Creature” or a new creation.
Salvation is not simply moral reformation. It is not turning over a
new leaf, “getting religion” or adopting a new philosophy to live by.
Salvation involves a transformation of the soul. Literally we are no
longer simply human beings; we have become new creatures – Spirit
Men. It is because of this that Paul tells us we will bear the image
of the heavenly, just as we have born the image of the earthly.
We are not human
beings going through a spiritual experience;
we are spiritual beings going through a human experience.
I saw a poster
recently that summed up this whole thought. It said, “We are not human
beings going through a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings
going through a human experience.” This simple reframing of our
existence changes the whole point of our perspective. It is our
bodies that are temporary and our spirits that are eternal; therefore
it is our spirits that should be the emphasis of our lives. Salvation
brings this point into sharp focus.
You will notice once
again this transformation comes with a responsibility: We have been
given the “ministry of reconciliation,” a commission to pass it on.
The sum of all of
these thoughts is this: When a person is born again he or she
receives the genuine anointing of the Holy Spirit to become a new
creature. John put it this way in John 1:11-13:
“He
[Jesus] came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many
as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God.”
Salvation cannot
originate with man. You must receive POWER to BECOME. This is the
anointing we receive at salvation.
Wait in Jerusalem
The story now jumps
40 days into the future. In Acts chapter one we find Jesus has been
showing himself alive for 40 days, at one point being seen by over 500
people at once. As He leads his band of disciples to a mountain for
one last earthly visit before his ascension, he shares with them his
final instructions: Wait in Jerusalem until you have received the
promise of the father and have been endued with power.
Luke puts it this
way:
“And
behold, I send the promise of My father on you. But you sit in the
city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Luke 24:49 MJKV
Here and in Acts 1
we find Jesus instructing his disciplines to do something that might
seem a bit strange when we stop to think about it. He tells them to
tarry or wait, for in a few days they would be baptized in the spirit
and clothed with power from on high.
The thinking person
might say, “Hold on a second, I thought that just happened back in
John 20 in the upper room, 40 days ago. Why is Jesus telling them
that they must now wait a few more days for the anointing of the Holy
Spirit to come upon them?”
Good Question. We
are left with one of two possibilities.
-
Jesus breathed on
the disciples, saying “receive the Holy Ghost” and that they didn’t
actually receive it until 50 days later on the day of Pentecost.
Or
-
That there are two
anointings; taking place on two different occasions; for two
different purposes.
If you subscribe to
the first theory, it means that nobody was saved on the night of the
resurrection or in the ensuing 50 days that people saw Jesus and
believed in His resurrection (the condition for salvation). It would
also mean that the picture Jesus painted by breathing into them the
Holy Spirit would be marred. Jesus breathed out the Holy Spirit, but
it wandered around for 50 days waiting to get into them. If this was
indeed the case He would have instructed them to do something they
could not have done right then: receive it.
If language means
anything, we are left with the impression that they did in fact
receive the Holy Ghost the night of the resurrection when Jesus told
them to receive it. This means that the command to wait in Jerusalem
was for something different than they had already received.
Let’s look at the
terminology used to describe the soon-coming anointing.
-
The Promise of the
Father – Acts 1:4
-
The Baptism of the
Holy Spirit – Acts 1:5
-
A clothing (KJV:
enduing) with power – Luke 24:49
In both passages
Jesus links the “promise of the Father” to an anointing of spiritual
power that is to come upon the believers. In Acts He links it to the
“baptism of the Spirit” in fulfillment of John the Baptist’s prophecy
that he baptized with water but that Jesus would baptize them with the
“Holy Ghost and fire.”
Clothed With
Power
The King James uses
the word “ENDUED” to speak of how this power would be given to them.
Most modern versions use the word “CLOTHED.” While either word is
correct, we are more familiar with the concept of putting on a
garment. “Endued” is a transliteration of the Greek ENDUO which
means, “to invest with clothing.” The combination of Greek words
literally means to “Sink into a garment.”
This distinction is
particularly relevant to the study at hand because it shows us not
only a distinctly different event, but a distinctly different
experience. The first anointing was an internal anointing. It
changed the nature of the person. It was symbolized by breathing out
and breathing in.
This second
anointing is portrayed in a word picture as putting on a garment, or
most accurately, sinking into a garment. The idea is that you are
totally immersed in it or swallowed up in the garment. This is why
the term BAPTISM of the spirit is used. The Greek word BAPTIDZO means
“to wholly whelm” or in other words, to immerse.
The whole concept
being presented is that the person who is baptized with the Holy
Spirit is whelmed or overwhelmed by the spirit and is invested with a
garment of power. The whole idea is of an external anointing, not an
internal one.
Next we discover the
purpose of this anointing or spiritual baptism. It was not for
salvation as was the first one. It was for the power to serve God.
Specifically, to “Be witnesses.” Jesus told them not to go out and
spread the gospel until they had the power to do so. That power came
on the Day of Pentecost. The result was that Peter preached a message
by the power of the Spirit and 3000 people believed in Jesus and
accepted Him as savior in one day.
Setting aside the
controversy raging in the church over the baptism of the Spirit and
how one is baptized in the Spirit or with what proof they show that
they are, we discover that there were indeed two separate events in
the lives of the believers.
As the Bible says,
“In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let everything be
established.” Another scripture bears this out also. In Acts chapter
8 we find Phillip traveling to Samaria and preaching there. We are
told that they respond to the message, repent and are baptized in
Jesus’ name (8:12). Sometime later the Apostles come down and laid
hands on them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit (8:15-17). It
is impossible to say that the Samaritans were not born again
Christians, because they had believed and had been baptized in Jesus’
name. Once again we see two distinct experiences and two distinct
anointings.
One last Biblical
picture should suffice. While it is not in the scope of this essay to
delve too far into the Feasts of the Lord, we do see a consistent
picture in these annual Old Testament prophetic events.
God gave Israel
seven individual feasts grouped together into three annual
celebrations. The first three feasts were: Passover, the Feast of
Unleavened Bread and The Feast of First Fruits. These three feasts
grouped together occurred in the first month of the Jewish ceremonial
year, at the time of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus died on
Passover and was raised on the Feast of First fruits. The Bible tell
us that Jesus is our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7) and that He is the “First
fruits from the dead” (1 Cor. 15:20). It is significant that Jesus
died and rose on these two feast days, fulfilling the Old Testament
prophetic types and shadows. The Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures
the process of removing sin form the life of the believer. These three
feasts combine to represent salvation in all three aspects: I am
saved from the penalty of sin, I am being saved from the power of sin
and I will be saved from the presence of sin.
Counting 50 days
from the Feast of First Fruits we come to the Feast of Pentecost. We
have already discovered this was related to the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. This was a distinctive feast set apart from the first three.
The last three
feasts were the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast
of Tabernacles. These three occurred over a period of 22 days in the
7th month of the Hebrew ceremonial year. They
prophetically portray a third, separate anointing and the church
events of the last days.
God specifically
commanded Israel to “appear before Him three times in the year.” (Ex.
23:17 and elsewhere.) Since these were separate feasts and represented
separate times and purposes we are left with the distinct impression
that they prophetically symbolized three distinct experiences in the
life of the New Testament believer: salvation, the baptism in the
Holy Spirit and final sanctification.
Some Conclusions
In conclusion we
find that the two anointings we have been discussing are entirely
different:
-
They are
demonstrated scripturally to be two separate events (although in
reality they may occur closely together chronologically in the life
of a believer).
-
One is inward; the
other outward
-
One brings
salvation and regeneration; the other brings power to serve
-
One has to do with
our life changing; the other has to do with us being used to impart
what we have received to others.
-
One anointing
results in the nine inward fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-26);
and the other results in the 9 outward gifts of the Spirit (I
Corinthians 12:4-11)
Our conclusion is
then that God has two, if not three, anointings for every person.
Many people try to
operate in the church without any anointing. They try to ‘be
Christian’ without first ‘becoming a Christian.’ In other words they
have never had the anointing of salvation to regenerate and transform
them.
Others operate on
only one anointing. They have been born again and their lives are
changing, however they have no power to really live for or serve
Christ. In the opinion of most Christians this anointing is for
pastors or missionaries. Some have been taught the baptism of the
Spirit is not for today, only the early church needed power to get the
job done. However a quick look around shows that the need is the
same. Sin still controls people, demons still exist, and people still
need the gospel shared in an anointed way to get saved.
In Acts 2:39 we find
Peter holding out the same promise to those listening to his sermon as
Jesus held out to His disciples 10 days prior,
“For the promise (of the
Holy Spirit) is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are
afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
God has not left His
church to do spiritual things with carnal power (I Cor. 10:4). Peter
assures us that the power of the Spirit is available, and indeed
promised, to every person, not just clergy. And that it is available
in all ages, not just the first century.
In reality the
anointing is not some ‘extra’ portion of spirituality that is given to
a select few in the church. In the truest sense of the word, God
wants every man, woman and child to experience the two-fold anointing
of salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit so they might have the
power to live for and serve God acceptably.
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Steve Highlander is a Elder and Pastor
at River of Life. He was born again in 1980, filled with the
Spirit in 1983 and started in the ministry in 1985.
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