Anointed

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If you are born again, baptised in the Holy Ghost, I want you to pay close attention to what I'm about to say because I have some news for you.

It's good news. So good it will cause you to shout and jump and praise God. So good (if you'll dare to believe it) it will inspire you to jump out of bed in the morning, grin real big and holler, "Look out, devil. I'm up again, and I'm going to whip you all day long!"

What news could produce that kind of joy and confidence?

The news that you are anointed.

I can almost hear someone's religious mind working right now. It's saying, "Well now, Pastor Jones, I'm just an old sinner saved by grace. I would never presume to say I am anointed."

You mean you aren't a Christian?

"Why certainly I'm a Christian!"

Well, if you're a Christian, then you're anointed because the very word Christian is derived from the Greek word Christ which means the Anointed One. Translate the word Christian and you'll find out it means to be anointed like Him!

In fact, to say you're anything less than anointed is to reject the inheritance Jesus purchased for you with His own precious blood. I realize that's a strong statement, but it's true. Jesus didn't go to the cross and pay the price for sin just so you could sail on to heaven in the sweet by-and-by. He did it so you could be cleansed and become a temple of the Holy Spirit Who is the Anointing (2 Corinthians 6:16).

Jesus suffered, died and rose again so that He could give birth to a new race of reborn men and women who would be equipped with His own Anointing. Jesus laid down His life so that He could raise up a race of believers who would walk this Earth, not only doing the same works that He Himself did, but even greater works! (John 14:12).

The very thought of doing the works of Jesus staggers the minds of most Christians today. They just can't see how such a thing could be possible. No doubt, the first disciples felt the same way. Especially after the crucifixion when they scattered and ran in fear, they must have wondered what Jesus could possibly have meant when He'd said to them, "It's expedient for you that I go away."

Expedient? Up to that point, it had been a complete disaster!

Then everything changed. Jesus rose from the dead. He met with the disciples and instructed them to remain in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father. Then He said something that must have thrilled them to the very core:

For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence...But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:5, 8).

Due to our religious traditions, our Western mind- sets, and our failure over the years to translate the Greek word Christ, most of us have had very little revelation of what that scripture truly means. When we think about being witnesses for "Christ," we usually think about walking around passing out tracts and telling people the four spiritual laws.

As wonderful as those things might be, I can assure you, that is not what the disciples were thinking about when they heard Jesus speak those words. No, they were thinking about the fact that the Christ–the One Anointed with God's own mighty Spirit and power–had just told them He was going to immerse them in that same power!

Peter, in particular, was probably thinking of the revelation he had blurted out one day when Jesus had asked, "Whom say ye that I am?"

"Thou art Christ, the Anointed One," he had answered, "the Son of the living God."

Peter, perhaps better than anyone, knew what that Anointing could do. He saw how the Anointing operated in Jesus' life. As a fisherman, he'd seen Jesus draw every fish in the river of Galilee around his boat. Even though Peter had fished all night the night before without catching a thing, when Jesus stepped on board, he ended up with a net-breaking, boat-sinking load!

Peter had watched Jesus feed thousands with just a few loaves and fishes. He'd seen Him heal multitudes and deliver them from demonic oppression. Peter had pulled money for taxes from a fish's mouth at Jesus' instruction. He'd walked on water at Jesus' word.

So when Peter heard Jesus say, "You will be baptized with the Holy Ghost and receive power to be my witnesses," he knew what Jesus was talking about. He was saying, "Listen, Peter, the same Anointing that's on Me is about to come on you so that the works I've done, you can do also."

Don't you know Peter's heart was pounding with excitement when he heard that? The thought of having that same anointing on his life was probably more than Peter could imagine.

Then came the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit roared like a 747 into that upper room where Peter and the others were praying, and the fiery glory of God sat upon them all. "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4).

Can't you just imagine what Peter was thinking? My God, we've got it! We've got that Anointing. The power that was on Jesus is on me now! The fish will come to my boat now! I'll be able to walk on the water if I have to, to get this gospel out!

That had to be what Peter was thinking. He didn't know anything else. He'd never been to seminary. There were no theologians there to calm him down and tell him God's miracle-working power had passed away. All Peter knew was, "Jesus is the Anointed of God, the Son of the living God, and now His Anointing has come on us!"

In the light of all that, let me ask you a question. Why aren't believers today as excited about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as Peter was? Why, instead of charging out into the world and turning it upside down with the power of God like those first disciples did, do most modern-day believers do little more with the Anointing than talk in tongues now and then?

For the most part it's because we have had such a limited revelation of what can actually happen when the Anointing of Jesus operates through us.

We've been mistaken to think that only preachers are anointed. Business people are anointed. Doctors are anointed. Mothers and fathers are anointed. If you know Jesus, and you're baptized in His Spirit, you can expect the power of God to function wherever you are. You can expect the spiritual gifts or manifestations of the Spirit to work in your life as you need them.

Those gifts are available to anyone who knows God. Of course, we don't choose on our own how and when they operate. The Holy Spirit causes them to function as He wills and as we need them to help other people. You may experience one particular manifestation of the Holy Ghost because you're in a situation where it's necessary, and then never again experience that particular manifestation.

Although you may not know exactly how the Anointing will manifest, you can have faith it will manifest in some way because you've been called to be a witness. The Holy Spirit intends to use you wherever you are as a witness to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is Anointed with the Holy Ghost and power. He intends to use you to demonstrate the fact that Jesus is still going about doing good, healing those who are oppressed of the devil...and He is doing it through you!

I know of one situation, for example, where a young man went into surgery to have a tumor removed from his brain stem. It was a very dangerous operation, almost too dangerous to do. But the doctor was a born-again, Holy Spirit- baptized man, and the young man's family was also well-taught in the things of God, so all of them agreed to proceed with the surgery, believing God to direct the procedure.

As the operation got underway and the doctor lowered the scalpel to cut that tumor away from the brain stem, suddenly the Spirit of God arrested him and said, Don't do it!

The doctor stopped a moment, prayed in other tongues, and waited. Then the voice of the Spirit spoke further. The standard-procedure incision is too thick, He said. Shave it as thinly as you possibly can.

The doctor made the adjustment and proceeded. Sure enough, when he separated that tumor from the brain stem he realized that if he'd made the cut he first intended to make, the results would have been disastrous.

What happened there? The Anointing of God on that doctor to help him do what he's called to do went into effect. The word of knowledge was made available to him to help him know what he could not possibly know in the natural. He was anointed with supernatural power and skill, and it saved that young man's life.

"Pastor Jones," you may say, "surely you're not saying that I can be anointed in everything I do. Surely you're not saying I can be anointed all the time."

I don't have to say it. The Apostle John already said it! In 1 John 2:27, he wrote, "But the anointing which ye have received of him (Jesus) abideth in you..."

The word abide means to remain continually. So that scripture is telling us that if we'll remain continually in Jesus, His Anointing will remain continually available to us.

We haven't even scratched the surface of that glorious truth yet! We haven't even begun to see what can happen in our lives if we'll just learn to receive the Anointing by faith, stop hindering it and let it flow. I've seen glimpses in the spirit of the amazing things that will take place in days to come as we learn to walk fully in the Anointing. They're so wonderful and astounding, if I were to tell you about them, you wouldn't be able to believe it, so I won't even try.

I can tell you this, however: When we step fully into the Anointing Jesus has made available to us, we won't just sit around saying, "Praise the Lord," and feeling spiritual goose bumps. We'll start seeing the real, supernatural, dunamis power of God at work.

We are already in the beginning stages of that outpouring. Where is it coming from? It's coming from within believers like you and me. And it will keep increasing as the river of the Anointing overflows the banks of our hearts and floods into our homes, our workplaces, our neighborhoods and our world.

But let me warn you, the increase is not going to come while we sit around watching TV and filling our time with the ordinary details of life. It's going to come as we dig into the Word of God and build our faith in the Anointing. The more we learn to expect the Anointing and align ourselves with it, the more manifestations of it we will see.

So get out your Bible and start studying. Every time you see the word Christ, translate it and meditate on the fact that it means the Anointed One and His Anointing. Learn how to protect the Anointing and how to live your life in such a way that the Holy Ghost can work freely through you.

Ask God for a revelation of what it really means to be Anointed with the Anointing of Jesus, to be baptized in the Holy Ghost with God's own burden- removing, yoke- destroying, world-changing, devil- chasing, healing, delivering, explosive, supernatural, universe-creating power. Ask for a revelation of what it really means to be a Christian.

Once you walk in that revelation, the world will never be the same again.

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~ Lyn ~