In the Old Testament, prophets, priests and kings were anointed by olive oil (speaks of the Holy Spirit) to perform the duties of their callings. In the New Testament all who are Christ's are priests and kings (Revelation 5:10) in the spiritual sense and they receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit from God Himself to perform the duties of their callings.
"Now He who established us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God" (2 Cor. 1:21, NKJV).
I believe an important spiritual principle is, no one is considered fit to work the works of God unless he is truely anointed by the Holy Spirit.
The New Testament Scripture reveals three ways by which the Holy Spirit can affect the life of the believer. The holy Spirit can be with the believer, in the believer and upon the believer.
Jesus said, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you" (john 14:16,17, emphasis added).
In the above context, Jesus was speaking to His disciples. I believe when Jesus said, "he may abide with you forever" He meant the Holy Spirit will dwell with them and in the midst of their gethering together. This, in fact is the foreshadow of what Paul said in 1 Cor. 3:16,17, the Church (an assembly of believers) is the temple of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus said, "and will be in you" He meant the Holy Spirit will dwell in individual believers. This again, is the foreshadow of what Paul said in 1Cor. 6:19,20, the individual believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit dwells inside him.
Notice carefully that, without the Holy Spirit abiding with or in the individual person, no one will get to know the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in an intimate way. Also, no one can be saved:
"And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8).
An unregenerated person without the conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment to come will not repent.
Jesus said, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; ..."(Acts 1:8).
This is how and when the "anointing of the Holy Spirit" came upon the believers (who have already received the Holy Spirit when they first believed) on the Day of Pentecost and subsequently, after the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for all christians. It is the manifestation of the presence of God that gives power to work the works of God.
Jesus said, "Behold, I send the Promise My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:29, NKJV, emphasis added).
In other words, Jesus said believers must be baptised in the Holy Spirit before they are empowered to be effective witnesses for Him so as to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19).
The Scripture says that Jesus needs the anointing of the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor ...." (Luke 4:18, emphasis added).
Take note of the word "upon". Jesus was anointed because the Holy Spirit came upon Him, not only because He is the Son of God.
My opinion is, if Jesus needs the anointing of the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel and to work the works of God, how much more christians needs the same anointing to do likewise. Therefore, any Local Church that plans to send out missioneries who are not baptised in the Holy Spirit is wasting their time and financial resourses. In fact, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is only the inituial stage. A chrisian in any ministry also needs to walk in the Spirit to maintain the anoiting.
If we ignore the works of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts we will not be able to understand what is the true anointing of God. The Book of Acts is full of examples of the working of miracles of the early christians because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The anointed preaching of Peter and Stephen; the opening of prison doors (Acts 5:19); miracles of divine healing (Acts 3:1 to 8) are some examples.
Many christians who are not baptised in the Holy Spirit fail to understand that everything written in Acts is the Word of God and still holds true today. Because of unbelief, they presumptuously say that the days of the apostles are over, and none of the works of miracles and other manifestations of the Holy Spirit will happen again. Jesus Himself said miracles and signs will only follow those who believe (Mark 16:17). It is always, believing is seeing.
The Scripture says, an unbelieving heart is an evil heart.
The writer of Hebrews said, "Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12, emphasis added).
We can look at it this way. If a person do not believe everything God says in His word, it is tantamount to telling God that He is a liar and cannot be trusted!
If we do not see miracles in our Local Churches today, it is because we have grieved and quenched the Holy Spirit and therefore there is no true anointing in our meetings. When this happens many Churches use soulish substitutes for the true anointing of the Holy Spirit in all their activities - Worship, praise, singing, praying and preaching. Human wisdom takes the place of divine wisdom; theology instead of revelation; exercising blind faith instead of genuine faith. Seek to please men instead of seeking to please God.
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