The Anointing Of God ~ A Message For Leaders

THE ANOINTING OF GOD ~ A MESSAGE FOR LEADERS:

By Rodney W. Francis

The fruitfulness, effectiveness and power we have in the ministry has a lot to do with the anointing of God living within us. We cannot fulfil God’s will in our natural strength and the sooner we learn this truth the better we will grow ~ the better people will respond to us too!

Even Jesus Himself had to be anointed by the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38).

This took place at the River Jordan when He was baptized in water by John the Baptist: “As soon as Jesus was baptized He came up from the water, and suddenly the heavens opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him. And a voice spoke from heaven, ‘This is My Son, the Beloved; My favour rests on Him’” (Matthew 3:16-17, Jerusalem Bible).

God’s favour is God’s anointing!

God’s anointing is the Holy Spirit coming in us, or upon us (however one may like to describe it) ~ the main thing is to be “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Continually! Always! Now!

In Luke 4:18-19 Jesus declares:

“The Spirit of the Lord (is) upon Me, because He has anointed Me (the Anointed One, the Messiah) to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to send forth delivered those who are oppressed ~ who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed and broken down by calamity; to proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord ~ the day when salvation and the free favours of God profusely abound” (Isaiah 61:1-2, Amplified Bible).

Peter, preaching his first message to the gentile believers, said under the anointing of God:

“You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38, NASB).

God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power for public ministry.
We also need to be anointed of God with the Holy Spirit and power for public ministry!

WHAT DOES IT MEAN, TO ANOINT?

In the Old Testament the word “anoint” is translated from three Hebrew words:

“dashen” meaning “to fatten or make fat by pouring on large amounts of oil” (Psalm 23:5);
“mashach” meaning “to smear, spread over” and is applied chiefly to the anointing of kings, priests, prophets and sacred things: and
“suk” meaning “to pour out” and is referring to anointing the body after washing (Young’s Concordance and Wilson’s Old Testament Studies).

In the New testament “anoint” is translated from five Greek words:

“aleipho” which is a general term used for an anointing of any kind, whether of physical refreshment after washing, or of the sick, or of a dead body;
“chrio” or “chrisma” is confined to sacred and symbolical anointings; of Christ as the Anointed of God, and in Hebrews 1:9 where it is used metaphorically in connection with “the oil of gladness”. The title Christ signifies “The Anointed One”;
“enchrio” means “primarily, to rub in, hence, to besmear, to anoint”;
“epichrio” means “primarily, to rub on” ~ is used of the blind man whose eyes Christ anointed, and indicates the manner in which the anointing was done (John 9:6, 11); and
“murizo” is used of anointing the body for burial (Mark 14:8). (Taken from Vines and Bullinger’s).

Oil was used for anointing in Scripture. Oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit and, like oil, the anointing of God comes upon us, into us, saturates us to make us pliable in the Master’s hands. Oil lubricates to make our ministry to flow more smoothly in the purposes of God (smoothly with God, that is. A man/woman in the will of God can often stir up opposition so things outwardly do not do not flow all that “smoothly” for us!).

WHY WE NEED THE ANOINTING

The anointing of God gives us the ability to flow with God ~ to do the will of God. We have already seen from the Scriptures quoted that the anointing of God the Holy Spirit caused Jesus to do good things (He had God’s favour):-

To preach the Gospel to the poor (Luke 4:18).
To heal (“cure; to cause to live, revive, or recover from illness”) the broken-hearted (”shattered, broken in pieces by crushing”) (Luke 4:18).
To preach deliverance (“to send away; it speaks of liberation or release from captivity”) to the captives (“one taken captive at the point of a spear”) (Luke 4:18).
To give recovery of sight to the blind (Luke 4:18).
To set at liberty (“release, forgiveness”) them that are bruised (“broken in pieces”) (Luke 4:18).
To preach the acceptable (denotes a person or thing who has been regarded favourably) year of the Lord (Luke 4:19).
He went about doing good (“to work well, confer benefits”) (Acts 10:38).
He healed all who were oppressed (“over-powered”) of the devil (Acts 10:38).

Why could Jesus do all these things? Because “GOD WAS WITH HIM!” (Acts 10:38).

And GOD IS WITH US TODAY! That is why Christ, the Anointed One, came to this world: to be our “Immanuel” ~ which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23, NIV).

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