God's people both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament have a choice - either be an empty cistern which cannot hold God's Living Water or be a Full Reservoir of God's Living Water.
God spoke through Jeremiah, "For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hew themselves cisterns - broken cisterns that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13, NKJV).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. God was saying that Israel had committed two evils: One evil was they forsook God, the God of living waters. The second evil was they hewed out for themselves cisterns - broken cisterns which could hold no water. In other words, they left God's plan and made their own plans. And because their own plans were man-made, they couldn't prosper.
2. God is speaking the same thing to the contemporary Church. We need to follow God's plan for everything we do so we won't be empty, broken cisterns that can hold no water. God doesn't want His people to be empty cisterns; He wants them to be full reservoirs able to hold much living water of the Holy Spirit. Believers won't be able to be full reservoirs without the anointing of God upon their lives. When all believers are anointed the entire Church will be anointed to fulfill God's plan.
Anointing for the Office of Priest and King
In the Old Testament anointing oil was used to commission men to stand in the office of a priest. A good example was the anointing of Aaron and his sons as priests:
"And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister to Me as priests" (Exodus 30:30, NKJV).
Anointing oil was also used to commission men to stand or function in the office of a king - for example the anointing of David.
"Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him (David) in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward" (1 Samuel 16:13).
God said, "I have found My servant David, with My holy oil I have anointed him" (Psalm 89:20).
All believers have already been made kings and priests unto God
The New Testament Scripture clearly says we have been made kings and priests and we should be reigning as such in this world now:
"To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" (Rev. 1:5, 6, NKJV, emphasis added).
".... and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth" (Rev. 5:10).
Paul said, "For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Christians are "Those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness" and they should be reigning through Jesus Christ at the present time - not during the next age!
2. All believers are called to be priests and kings. Because of this fact, all believers are expected to function as intercessors (priests) and rulers (kings).
God desires His Church to be a Full Reservoir
I believe God wants every one of His children to be a full reservoir to His glory. But believers won't be able to be full reservoirs without the anointing of God upon their lives.
You may say that you are already an anointed of God because you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, you speak in tongues and you have it all. But the sad truth is that one initial filling with the Holy Spirit years ago is never enough and you need continuous filling if you want to do God's work effectively.
Someone once said, "People living on past experiences are living on stale manna".
A Spirit baptized Christian without the flesh anointing or unction of the Holy Spirit is living on stale manna. By the way, the word "unction" means "The continuous act of anointing of the Holy Spirit" according to my Greek Dictionary. In short, "unction" means "flesh anointing".
The psalmist said, "But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil" (Ps. 92:10).
Here are some Scriptural incidences of refilling (fresh anointing) of the Holy Spirit:
1. Peter and John arrested (Act 4)
Peter and John were arrested by the Jewish leaders. Later they let them go after forbidding them to speak or teach in the Name of Jesus. Then they gathered the disciples to pray for boldness (Acts 4:29).
"And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31, NKJV, emphasis added).
These early Christians were initially filled with the Holy Spirit (in Acts Chapter 2). But now they received the unction of the Holy Spirit - the fresh anointing.
2. Christians in Ephesus (Ephesians Chapter 5)
Paul said to the Christians in Ephesus, "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, ...." (Ephe. 5:18).
In saying this, Paul was not telling these Christians to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit again; they had already received the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts 19:1 - 6. Paul was telling them to maintain a constant experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Unction is generated through the Word by the Holy Spirit
The divine unction of God is always associated with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. The spoken Word must be quickened and anointed by the Holy Spirit to give power.
The writer of Hebrews said, "For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12, KJV, emphasis added).
The Word is quickened and made powerful because of the anointing. The anointing is a divine quickening that is released from the Holy Spirit through the one speaking as the Word is communicated to bring life and reality to the hearers. In other word, unction gives power to the preacher and this unction ministers the Word to the spirit (heart) of the hearers. Without the anointing and the unction the Bible and the messages preached are just words without power. Some Bible teachers called the spoken Word as "rhema" Word - but this is not a Biblical sord and you cannot find it in any version of the Bible.
Paul said, "... that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheitance in the saints, ..." (Ephe. 1:17, 18).
You can listen without hearing and you can look without seeing. Truth can be truth on fire or truth on ice. The difference lies in the unction of the Spirit working through the one who speaks and the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon the listeners.
John said, "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him"(1 John 2:20, 27, emphasis added).
Taking what Paul and John said together, the "all things" actually means "the revelation in the knowledge of Jesus". Furthermore, Jesus is the Word (John 1:1). To abide in Jesus means also abide in His Word - quickened (anointed) by the Spirit of God.
Breaking the Yoke with the Anointing
In Scripture the word "Yoke" speaks of bondage, burden and pressure upon God's people - both literally and figuratively (spiritually).
Israel was under the yoke of bondage of the Assyrians:
"It shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil" (Isaiah 10:27, emphasis added).
God allowed Israel to come under the heel of Assyria, a nation He called "the rod of His anger" (Isa. 10:5), because of their disobedience, neglect, willful refusal to listen to God. Notice that God did not only take the yoke away, but He destroyed it because of the anointing. The power of the enemy was broken and God's people were set free.
God is also doing the same thing to Christians today. His anointing will break the yokes of religious and traditional bondage. God wants us to return to the understanding that when the Son sets us free, we are free indeed. Knowing the truth of this is what sets us free. God wants us to live by His light, not by our own light. He has an anointing and a flow of life and power for His people so that all Christians can live in freedom and without fear of bondage.
The Yoke of relationship with Christ
Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28 - 30)
Jesus is telling us that while there is a yoke of bondage, there is also the yoke of relationship with Him. He wants us not to be yoked with the world, but to be yoked with Him. In other words, He will carry our burden. The world's yoke gives us burden and pressure, but His yoke is easy to bear.
In Christ all yokes of bondage are already broken
Paul said, "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee" (2 Cor. 1:21, 22, NKJV, emphasis added).
We need to live in this truth - God has anointed us, we have the Anointed One (Jesus) within us. Christians are sealed with the same Holy Spirit that came upon Jesus:
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; ... " (Isaiah 61:1).
We are living in the last of the last days and end-time prophecies are being fulfilled - earthquakes, terrible floods, terrible droughts and all kinds of natural disasters, famines, new diseases, global-warming, wars and rumors of wars, devastating accidents causing the loss of hundreds of lives, senseless killings and uprisings and rampant evil.
One of the strongest yokes of bondage that people are living under today is fear which is linked to the bondages of pressure, stress and anxiety. The divine answer to fear is found in - 1 John 4:18 and 2 Tim. 1:7, 9.
God wants us to live in victory over our circumstances that the curse has brought upon this world. The curse came through Adam, but the victory comes through Christ. We can rejoice in the midst of all our troubles for the yokes that Satan put upon us are already broken because of His anointing over our lives.
Be full reservoirs, and never settle for empty cistern which cannot hold the Living Water of God!
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