The Anointing Is a Person“…God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son….”Galatians 4:6

Anointing…

Everyone is talking about the anointing.

“We need the anointing.”

“What a powerful anointing!”

“I want my ministry to be anointed.”

These words are buzzing among the people of God. But what are we talking about?

The word “anointing” immediately evokes the thought of some great man or woman who lives and moves in the power of the Holy Spirit, one who manifests the power of God—some great individual, past or present, who was or is mightily anointed.

The Bible and Church history are filled with incredible stories of men and women who have been anointed in the name of the Lord. Thank God for personal anointing. I am anointed to write. You are anointed, enabled, and gifted by the grace of God to do what He has placed you in the earth to do.

We have begun to understand personal anointing and destiny. But now we must also consider corporate anointing and destiny.

Our mind-sets must be transformed from a primarily individual viewpoint to a corporate way of life and thought. Both Testaments reveal the highest anointing to be corporate—it is the plural, compounded, collective anointing upon a people. God wants to anoint His whole family, His Church, the Body of Christ.

The anointing is not a feeling, an idea, or an atmosphere. It is a knowing. It is the assurance that God is with us. And there is more…

The anointing is a Person—Immanuel, God with us; the Messiah, the Christ!

The Old Testament prophesied the coming of the “Messiah,” and the New Testament faithfully records the fulfillment of those prophecies with the birth and ministry of the “Christ.” This word was transliterated from the Greek word christos, which like its Hebrew equivalent, Messiah, means “the anointed one.” Those are wonderful facts to know, but why is all this important to us today?

It is important because the dispensation of the fullness of times has dawned! The day of restoration and worldwide revival has come. Now is the time in which the Father predetermined that He would bring all things in Heaven and on earth together under one Head, even Christ.1 The only way that will happen is through the anointing of Almighty God because our best efforts over the past years since Pentecost have produced a weak and tasteless mixture of fleshly compromise, bickering, and only a little holiness.

The fountainhead of all anointing is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Root of David, Earth’s one true Messiah. All truth, by precept and practice, must be founded upon the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ, the everlastingly preeminent One. That is why it is important to understand that the anointing is not a thing but a Person.The Anointing Comes Only Through the Anointed One

In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed or consecrated with oil to set them apart unto their offices of authority and leadership.2

Jesus, however, was and is the Messiah, the Christ, the very Anointing of God. He is the Prophet, the Priest, and the King.3 Yet the New Testament also reveals that “Christ” is even more: He is both Head and Body! Again you may be asking the question, “Why is this important?”

Jesus is our glorious Head and we are His earthly Body, the Church of Jesus Christ—the corporate Messiah! This anointed, sanctified “royal priesthood” is a prophetic people who have been made kings and priests unto God.4 The threefold anointing of prophet, priest, and king that abides upon and within us all is the corporate anointing.

The Holy Spirit Is a Person

Jesus Christ is the “Anointed One,” but His anointing flows like a river from Him who is our Head down to His earthly Body through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son described by Paul in Galatians 4:6. The Spirit of the Son is therefore also the “Anointed One.”

Once you understand that the Holy Spirit is also a Person sent from the Father and represents the Son, you will better understand why the Bible does not refer to Him as an “it,” but rather uses the pronouns of Deity.5

God in the Person of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Son…

1. Teaches (Jn. 14:26).

2. Testifies (Jn. 15:26).

3. Reproves (Jn. 16:8-11).

4. Guides into truth (Jn. 16:13).

5. Speaks (Acts 13:2).

6. Calls men into service (Acts 13:2).

7. Directs men in service (Acts 16:6-7).

8. Prays and intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26-27).

9. Searches all things, even the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:10).

10. Works through us (1 Cor. 12:11).

The Person of the Holy Spirit can be…

1. Blasphemed (Mt. 12:31-32).

2. Lied to (Acts 5:3).

3. Tempted or tested (Acts 5:9).

4. Resisted (Acts 7:51).

5. Grieved (Eph. 4:30).

6. Insulted (Heb. 10:29).

It is important for us to rearrange our thinking to conform to God’s mind, as revealed in His Word. I’ve listed all these attributes of the Holy Spirit to make it clear that our actions (or lack of them) toward Him do play a part in our success or failure in God’s Kingdom. To understand the corporate anointing, we must understand that the Holy Spirit is God’s anointing abiding in His earthly temples. This Person is the Spirit of the Father and the Son who together have come to make the saints their “mansion” or “abode.”6 For this reason, our bodies are called the “temple” of the Holy Ghost.7

Bear with me when I repeat this important point: The anointing is a Person (not a thing). “For in Him [not ‘it’] we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28a). The wonder of this new creation reality abiding in the hearts of believers is described by the apostle Paul as “Christ in you” (Col. 1:27). Now let me blend these thoughts about Jesus the Christ and the christos or “anointing” of the Holy Spirit by noting two primary truths about the Christ, the Anointed One of God:

1. Christ is more than an individual.

2. Christ never left the planet.

“Christ” is more than an individual. The apostle Paul unfolded this Messianic mystery in his Epistle to the Colossians.

Col. 1:25-27, NIV

I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—

the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

1 Tim. 3:16, NIV

Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body….Christ in and Among All of You

The word “you” in Colossians 1:27 is a plural pronoun. Why is this important? The highest anointing is the corporate anointing, and the mystery of godliness is best summed up in the properly translated foundational phrase, “Christ in and among all of you.”

Some see Jesus Christ the Head, but have never discerned the Lord’s Body.8 They have yet to experience the Holy Ghost in the Pentecostal dynamic, to speak with other tongues and discover the supernatural gifts of the Spirit.

Men have confined apostles and prophets and the charismata or grace gifts of the Spirit to the “past history” of the Book of Acts.9 They have failed to understand that in God’s economy, these things happened only the day before yesterday!10 Calvary predicated or laid the groundwork for Pentecost: First came the blood of redemption, then the oil of anointing and consecration. My dear brethren among the “staunch evangelicals” need to be introduced to the mystery of “Christ in you”; they need to see the Body of Christ by the Spirit manifesting all the fullness of Christ instead of the limitations of man.

Others have tended to emphasize the mystery of Christ in His aggregate Body while failing to “hold fast” or maintain their connection to the Head, even doing away with Jesus’ literal return to this planet.11 Their basic weakness is that they have made the emphasis of their sonship singular or earthbound. They worship the process rather than the One who does the transformation.

Both views are necessary—the Anointed One of the New Testament is revealed in both Jesus the Head and His Body the Church.12

I am not “Christ.” You are not “Christ.” Christ as He is revealed in the earth is not an individual. Why? In His fullest expression, Christ is plural. His Church, His Body, collectively comprises the fullness of Christ in the earth. Paul said it best in his letter to the Ephesians:

Eph. 1:22-23, NIV

And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church,

which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.

For that to happen corporately, Christ must first be experienced personally. Paul reiterated this new creation reality to the Galatians and the Ephesians.

Gal. 4:6, NIV

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

Eph. 5:18, KJV

…be filled with the Spirit.

Christ in you…the Spirit of the Son sent into our hearts…being filled with the Holy Ghost—all these spiritual synonyms express the same truth concerning God’s anointing. The Persons of the Son and the Spirit are distinct and yet so closely intertwined that they defy separation.

Paul defined “Christ” as “the image of God” to the Corinthians.13 The image of God, which is our future and destiny, is held within the Messianic seed! The ultimate goal of Jesus’ present reign is to see the Father’s ultimate intention and expectation birthed in the earth: to raise up a vast family of sons and daughters conformed to the image of the Firstborn, a corporate expression of Jesus’ life and nature.14

To accomplish this, the Father sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Just as the spirit of Moses the Old Testament mediator was multiplied and placed upon the 70 elders, so the New Testament Mediator has become a many-membered Man in His corporate Body!15

The mystery of this New Testament revelation began with a Seed being planted in a habitation of purity, Mary’s virgin womb. Paul’s apostolic, intercessory burden was that Christ, the Anointed One in the Spirit of the Son, be fully formed in a virgin Church!16 This glorious Body of Christ is the Church of the firstborn, Mount Zion, the city of the living God.17 Paul had firsthand knowledge of the reality of the indwelling Christ. He wrote to the Galatians:

Gal 1:15-16, KJV

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace,

To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him….

Now it is our turn. It’s time for the Messiah to appear, for Christ to come. It’s time for the Head of the Church to manifest Himself, to unveil Himself, to form Himself in us as a separated people, as His Body—the unified, many-membered Messiah on earth endued from on high with corporate anointing.“Christ” Never Left the Planet

Christ is more than an individual. The Father, through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost (the Spirit of the Son), has multiplied His Son Jesus into a many-membered Man. For this reason, I can declare with absolute confidence that “Christ” never left the planet! Consider the spiritual precedent of Elijah and Elisha in the Book of Second Kings.

2 Kings 2:8-14, KJV

And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it to gether, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.

And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.

And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.

…and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

And Elisha saw it…and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.

He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan;

And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah?…

Elijah went up, but his mantle came down. Elijah ascended, but the mentor’s anointing remained in the earth to rest upon his spiritual son. The parallel is obvious: Jesus went up, but His Spirit came down. Jesus ascended, but “Christ,” the anointing (christos) of the Anointed One, remained in the earth to rest upon His Church.

The Hebrew word for “mantle” in this passage is the feminine form of ’addiyrr, which means “something ample; wide, large; figuratively, powerful.”18 It is also translated as “excellent, famous, gallant, glorious, goodly, lordly, mighty, noble, principal, worthy” in the King James Version. The reason I’ve quoted so many adjectives is simple: They literally describe the collective anointing that rests upon Jesus and His Church. The root word for “mantle” means “to expand, be great or magnificent.” This “double portion,” literally, “the portion of the firstborn,” belongs to all of us who are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ!19Where Is the Lord God of Elijah?

The only criterion for receiving Elijah’s anointing was that Elisha “see” him as he was taken up in ascension. Too many Christians only see the Lord Jesus in His crucifixion. They need to discover the resurrected Lord who ascended, the greatest Son of David now exalted and enthroned far above all things. We must see Him as He is, not just as He was.

When Elijah ascended into Heaven by a whirlwind, Elisha the younger prophet “took” or “raised up” the mantle of his spiritual father after Elijah’s mantle “fell” from him.20 Centuries later, Elijah’s spirit also rested upon John the Baptist.21 In an even greater day, when Jesus the Son of God was raised up to the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit of Jesus “fell” upon the early Church.22 The Greek word for “fell” is epipipto, and it means “to embrace with affection.”23 The love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Ghost, and the Lord God of Elijah literally dwells in the corporate Body of His Son today!24

The end-time Church is “amphitheatered” about or surrounded by those who died in Christ by faith long before His first coming.25 Although they are not complete apart from us, their anointed way of life—their spoken and written words, and especially the laying on of their hands—and their spirits live on. They are not dead. When we think of them or recall their feats of faith and prophetic anointing, they are instantly right here with us. Even the memory of them is anointed.

“Christ,” their collective christos or anointing, never left the planet. It did more than simply fall to the ground. It is multiplying and compounding itself exponentially! Like the rising waters of the river in Ezekiel’s prophetic vision, this generational, corporate anointing has steadily risen to the ankles, knees, and loins. Now we have finally come to that epochal span when there are waters to swim in, a river that cannot be passed over.26

We know from Peter’s Epistles that “…one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet 3:8). In the realm of the prophetic, even distances can take on eternal meanings and significance. Each time the waters were measured in Ezekiel’s vision, the distance was 1,000 cubits (or 1,500 feet). The total span of the “waters to swim in” was 4,000 cubits or 6,000 feet (Ezek. 47:3-5). In biblical chronology, the purposes of God have brought us 6,000 years or “six days” from Adam, and at the same time, 2,000 years or “two days” from the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. We are living in the dawning of the seventh day from Adam and the third day from Jesus!27

Every great advance of God’s corporate people is preceded by warfare. The twentieth century marks a stretch of unprecedented spiritual warfare. Moses and Aaron had to confront the magicians of Egypt before Pharaoh would let God’s people go.28 The prophet Elijah had to challenge the false prophets of Baal to move the Israelites into the corporate action of rounding up the false prophets for destruction.29 The apostles Peter and Paul resisted the demon-inspired sorcerers Simon and Barjesus (Elymas) when they hindered the apostles’ declaration and demonstration of the gospel.30

In this day, the corporate, generational anointing upon the corporate Son, the end-time Body of Christ, has begun to confront head-on the collective, supernatural powers of darkness as well!

This anointing is a Person—the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Son. Jesus, the divine Seed, fell into the ground and died.31 He has come forth in glorious resurrection and is now enthroned in unparalleled majesty and splendor. From that kingly posture He has poured out His own Spirit upon the nations of the earth.32 As with the woman in the days of Elisha, the oil of anointing has multiplied, and the anointing upon the Head has flowed down to His Body—the corporate anointing!33 The apostle John saw this corporate Man in the midst of seven golden candlesticks, having a voice as the sound of many waters.34

1 Cor. 12:12, KJV

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is [the] Christ.

In America, men have substituted talent for anointing, but the anointing is still a Person. As we continue to define the anointing by examining the Hebrew and Greek words of the Old and New Testaments, we will soon realize that the corporate anointing is revealed in three dimensions….