Power Shift #5 - Anointing
Notes
Transcript
If you have ever grown up in the church or you have attended church for any number of years, you have probably heard the word anointing or anointed. We sing songs about it and we teach about it, but do we fully understand it and what it means to us.
Today, I am concluding the Power Shifts series. Power shift number 5 is anointing. I want to conclude this series by looking at the anointing and understanding what the anointing is and what are we to do with it. Please understand this, without the anointing of God, life and ministry are shallow, and lacking in fruit. We need the anointing so, what is it?
Anointing was, and remains a common practice in many Middle Eastern regions. In the Bible, rubbing oil on the hair and body was part of getting dressed.
3 Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
The use of oil or ointment was an expression of joy and celebration.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
The use of oil also indicated grief or sadness.
3 I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.
We see anointing used and referenced to all throughout scripture, but I want to dig deeper and hope to give you a clearer view of the anointing of God and the anointing of his people.
If you have your bibles, go with me to the book of Isaiah. I want to read 3 verses from chapter 61.
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
Jesus is speaking as the anointed Prophet preaching “good news to the poor,” those who humble themselves before God, gently taking a low place and acknowledging their need.
Jesus would later quote this during his earthly ministry. It is found in Luke 4:18
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
Today, I want to answer three questions.
1. What is Anointing?
1. What is Anointing?
Websters Dictionary uses this definition for anoint.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) (Anoint)
1: to smear or rub with oil or an oily substance 2: a: to apply oil to as a sacred rite especially for consecration b: to choose by or as if by divine election also: to designate as if by a ritual anointment
When we talk about anointing, we can break it down into different types of anointing. To name a few, people are anointed for service, they anointed for healing, so on.
Simply put, the act of anointing is pouring or apply oil to another person. The anointing that we refer to is a calling that God has placed on a person’s life through the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ Hebrew name Messiah means anointed one.
Now, I want us to look at the second question, who is anointed?
2. Who is Anointed?
2. Who is Anointed?
Sometimes anointing had a special, spiritual connotation. It represented something or someone begin set apart, consecrated, or empowered for God’s service. God required anointing for three specific offices; kings, priests and prophets.
Kings
Kings
Historically, the Israelites lived without a king. After Moses, they were led by Joshua, and then by a series of judges whom God raised up and empowered to deliver them in times of trouble. The era of judges and the prophets ended when the people, influenced by their environment and wanting to be like their neighbors, requested a king. After debating with the people and interceding before God, Samuel finally agreed. God told him to anoint Saul. Anointed kings and menarches represented dominion and authority, and were positioned by God to carry out specific tasks. They led in war and in executing judgment and justice.
Priests
Priests
The need for a priesthood is that sin separates us from God, and we need a mediator, or priest. Before their captivity in Egypt, fathers served as priests for their families. In their wilderness experience, God raised up Aaron’s family and consecrated its members to serve as priests.
Aaron’s anointing represents a change from the father being the family’s priest to the family of Aaron becoming the nation’s priests. To go to God on behalf of a sinful people each participating priest had to go through the ceremony of anointing that is described in Exodus 29.
Prophets
Prophets
A priest goes to God on behalf of the people, but a prophet comes to the people on behalf of God. A prophet is one who is divinely inspired to communicate God’s will to his people and thus disclosing the future. A prophet admonished and reproved sin; he brought warnings of terrible judgment, but he also brought messages of consolation and pardon. In First and Second Kings supernatural events surrounded the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. The power of God was activated in the life of these prophets’ through consecration which was symbolized by anointing.
16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.
The Anointed Christ
The Anointed Christ
The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament, uses the word chrio, the root word for the name “Christ,” which literally means “The Anointed One.” It’s easy to understand that a physical anointing with oil represented God pouring out the Holy Spirit on someone to empower them to accomplish the task to which they were called.
As I said before, in Luke chapter 4, Jesus went into the synagogue, picked up Isaiah’s scroll and read from Isaiah 61:1-3. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me and sent me.” he then continued, “Today this scripture is fulfilling in your hearing.” This was a proclamation of His position as the long awaited Messiah. Jesus then began his anointed ministry of miracles and preaching the kingdom of God, and this proved that the Father had sent him.
The bottom line here is that Jesus, as God’s Anointed One, fulfilled all three offices that were crucial to the life of the nation of Israel: King, Priest, and Prophet.
He was and is the King of the entire world.
7 I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.
8 Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.
Jesus rules all. He was and is the Priest for all mankind, serving as the mediator between God and man.
15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
And finally, Jesus was and is the Prophet. He is God’s spokesperson. His announcement to the people of Nazareth begins and ends with His call to:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Jesus Christ was and is the complete package. He is King Jesus. He is the Priest. And He is the Prophet.
Christians
Christians
The final who that I want to talk about is you. Those of us who claim to be christians. You are anointed.
A Christian is often defined as “one who follows Christ—one who imitates His character and His actions.” Paul says many times in his letters to “follow me as I follow Christ.”
Jesus’ followers were first called Christians in Antioch.
26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
The residents of the city of Antioch were calling these new believers “little Christs.”
A “little Christ” is actually a “little anointed one.” Being a Christian involves much more than just escaping the eternal judgment of hell. We are saved by faith, completely by God’s grace, but also look at how Ephesians describes us.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Actions don’t save us, but they do reflect the change in character that occurs as we imitate Christ.
The “works” we do as individuals and as the Church should be the same as the works of Christ. We are empowered to serve as kings, under His headship, leading God’s people into spiritual warfare and assuming authority over everything that would hinder the advance of God’s Kingdom.
19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.
20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
We are empowered to serve as priests, seeking God’s mercy on behalf of a sinful and dying world.
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
And we are empowered to serve as prophets, giving God’s message of love and discipline, and expecting His Spirit to work through us to accomplish His revealed will
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
17 “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
This is who we are. We have been anointed with the same anointing that Christ was anointed with. We have the same Spirit moving through that moved through Christ. You have been anointed to proclaim good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom to the captives, and release the prisoners from the darkness. You are to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Why? Because the Spirit of God is upon you.
3. What Are We to Do With It?
3. What Are We to Do With It?
Use it. Take the anointing that God has given you and go and do.
We must move from ignoring spirit powers to emphasizing God’s omnipotence over spirit powers.
4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Elijah knew this. He met the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Baal was weather god, and the Israelites had succumbed to the idea that they had to appease him in order to have a bountiful harvest.
Baal’s prophets built an altar and prayed for their god to burn up the sacrifice. After several hours, Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
Elijah let those false priests exhaust themselves, then he took his turn. He built an altar, put the sacrifice on it and soaked the whole altar with water. He prayed, and within seconds, the sacrifice, altar, water, even the dust that surrounded it, disappeared in fire that fell from God in heaven.
Elijah prophetically represents the true God and demonstrated God’s power over all powers that stood against His purposes.
We need to shift from just teaching the gospel to demonstrating the gospel. What I mean is, instead of just teaching that Jesus set free those that were demon possessed. We need to command the demons to be released from people’s lives. Instead of just teaching that Jesus healed the sick. We need to lay hands on the sick and watched them be healed. Instead of just teaching that Jesus raised the dead. We need to go and raise the dead. Do you understand what I am talking about? Talk is cheap. It is time for action. It is time that we put our faith to action.
The spirit of a sovereign God is upon me because he has anointed me…
All of the ministry of Jesus was empowered by the anointing His Father provided for him. Signs, wonders and miracles flowed from his ministry, and he repeatedly demonstrated power encounters. He came supernaturally against Satan and his demons, by the power of His Father. That same anointing and power is available to us as we are filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We should strive to have it said of us what was said of Barnabas in Acts 11:24
24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
The Spirit of the sovereign God is on me because He has anointed me.