Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Presence and the Anointing of God

The Presence of God and the Anointing of God are two great gifts that the Lord wants every servant of His to have. These two gifts are not the same and this will become real to you as you read on. You will realize that you will not receive the Anointing of the Holy Spirit unless you have experienced the presence of God first. In other words, the presence must precede the anointing. Notice that we are not talking about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit here although it is extremely important. Briefly, the presence of God is the presence of His glory; the anointing of God is the power of God.

The Presence of God

Every Christian needs to have the assurance that he is constantly surrounded by the presence of God and that the Almighty's presence abides with him through thick and thin.

God said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5, NKJV).

The psalmist said, "He keeps his eye upon you as you come and go, and always guards you" (Ps. 121:8, TLB).

We are compelled by honestly to admit, however, that although the Scripture assures us that we are constantly guarded and surrounded by the presence of the Lord, we do not always feel it. There could be many reasons for this, of course, but the fault is always in us and never in Him. But before we talk about how we can cultivate the presence of God we must first find out from the Scripture what exactly the presence of God is.

The glory of His presence

Let us consider the experience of Mose as found in Exodus 33. He received the promise of God's presence.

Moses asked God to show him His Glory, believing that it could be experienced and known:

Moses said, "Please, show me Your glory" (Exodus 33:18).

God replied, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion" (Exodus 33:19, emphasis added).

God promised to show Moses His goodness, mercy and compassion in a concrete, visible way.

Look at what happened a few verses later on:

"Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed: 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy of thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and children's children to the third and fourth generation'" (Exodus 34:5 - 7, NKJV, emphasis added).

Notice the Glory of God or the Presence of God came with the attributes of God: grace, mercy, longsuffering, forgiveness, compassion and goodness. Moses was totally changed by God's presence.

The Fruit of the Holy Spirit

So we see the presence and glory of God brings the fruit of the Spirit, as described in Galatians 5:22, 23. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is the qualities or characteristics or attributes of God. I hope you see the revelation of this truth. The fruit of the Spirit, so missing in the Church today, is connected to the presence of God. Believers in Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches are all talking about the gifts of Holy Spirit but seldom the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

The major difference between the fruit and the gifts is - the fruit comes to you and leaves you as God's presence comes to you and leaves you. If you lose His presence you lose His glory which is His fruit. But the gift which comes with the power of God is given to you to fulfill God's purpose in the Church. The power of God comes upon you as a gift. It stays with you simply because it is a gift. If God withdraws it, He cannot call it a gift - but a loan instead!

Paul said, "The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable" (Rom. 11:29).

It is possible for the presence to withdraw and the gifts to remain, at least for a while. But that will ultimately lead to disaster. Since the manifestations of the gifts are for the benefits of the Church you can abuse it but its effects on other people will remain the same. But ultimatly, it will be a disaster to you when the presence of the Lord is removed and the Holy Spirit has left.

The fruit of the Spirit which comes with the presence and glory of God are not progressive - it comes in an instant. There is nothing in the Scripture to suggest that the fruit enters your life and then "grow". Remember, it is not your fruit but God's. If a preacher in your Church have ever told you that the fruit of the Spirit takes time to grow, it will be better for you to unlearn it!

If you think what I say is not true, look at Paul the apostle, previously called Saul, a man felled by the glory and presence of God on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3, 4). He fell and came up a new man. He had been a persecutor, a murderer, and immediately after his experience with the presence of God, he was no longer a killer. Prior to that, he had no genuine knowledge of God. Suddenly, however, he knew God and lived for Him. He was even willing to die for Him. It did not take him years to "grow" and change!

The Anointing (the Power) of God

The power or the anointing of God is a must if you want to be used by God effectively, no matter what ministry you hold, or even without holding a specific ministry in the Church. In witnessing and sharing the Gospel to unbelievers; in just performing your duty in fulfilling the Great Commission you need the power of God.

Jesus said, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8, NKJV, emphasis added).

After the power came, three thousand were saved, then another five thousand, and then all Jerusalem was shaken. That is the power you must have with any service to God. In tandem with the presence, you can touch any life - believers or unbelievers.

You can have the wonderful presence of God and you can stand behind the pulpit to minister. But if there is no power you will be the only one having a good time. The people listening to you can feel His presence but there will be no conviction of sins, no healings and no binding of the Devil. No matter what your ministerial calling is, you need the power of the anointing of God to fulfill it. You will never accomplish what God wants you to do without it.

The three anointings

The Scripture reveals three anointings of the Holy Spirit in our service to God.

1. The Leper's Anointing

Leprosy is a type of sin. Leviticus 14:1 - 32 describe the ceremonial cleansing of lepers by applying the blood of animals followed by the application of oil - speaks of the anointing oil. This was the shadow of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God. Jesus is the substance that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Every born-again believer has experienced the leper's anointing which deals with salvation.

David was a good example of a person, under the Old Covenant, who received the leper's anointing (1 Samuel 16:12) which was the first anointing. After this, he still served King saul. Similarly, the apostles experienced the leper's anointing when Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). They were still not ready to serve God. That is the reason why Christians who are saved are still not spiritually ready to serve God until they have received the Priestly anointing.

2. The Priestly Anointing

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the priestly anointing of the Holy Spirit upon us. This is the anointing for ministry unto the Lord, including our duty to lead souls to the Kingdom of God. All Christians are priests of God (1 Peter 2:5, 9).

It is important to note that this priestly anointing is meant for the entire Local Church because it brings unity and harmony (Ps. 133). There is no such thing as a private priestly anointing; it comes in oneness, in unity, as the Church functions as one body. On the day of Pentecost 120 people, including the apostles, were praying and waiting upon the Lord, in one accord, in the Upper Room (Acts 1:15). The Holy Spirit came upon all of them with fire and power.

Another important point to note is that this priestly anointing is not a one-time anointing, which the leper's anointing is. Under the Old Covenant, the priests were anointed with oil every day. The same with you under the New Covenant, for you need a daily anointing in order to be an effective servant of God.

In the case of David his anointing came to him during his conflict with Saul and his household - over a period of time.

3. The Kingly Anointing

This is the hightest level of anointing that the Lord wants you to receive. Whereas the leper's anointing comes by accepting Jesus and the priestly anointing comes by fellowshipping with Jesus, the kingly anointing comes by obeying Jesus.

With this anointing comes with the voice of the Lord. You become sensitive to the rhema Word of the Lord which enables you to prophesy. You become a mouthpiece of God; you are able to say, "Thus saith the Lord". You will see miracles of healings and signs and wonders following your ministry - like those described in Mark 16:17, 18.

David was 30 years old (Biblical age of maturity) when he received the kingly anointing.

"Therefore all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King david made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord. And they anointed David king over Israel" (2 Samuel 5:3).

Before that, David reigned over only Judah from his headquarters at Hebron. After he received the kingly anointing he reigned over all Israel and Judah from Zion which was called the City of David (2 Samuel 5:7).

The apostles received the kingly anointing even before they were arrested by the high priest. They boldly said, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). They stood their ground, and God sent a heavier anointing that produced a supernatural manifestation with the power to reach the World. As for Peter, the anointing was so strong that people were healed when he passed by and his shadow fell on them (Acts 5:15).

Two Basic Keys

Let us summarize the truth we have so far discovered. So many people want the power of God, but they fail to understant that it will not come until they first experienced His presence. And when the presence comes, the first evidence will be the manifestation of the Glory of God which is the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit will be evident in your everyday contacts with those around you. And when the fruit is genuinely there, the Lord will anointing you with His Spirit, which is power. Power follows the presence, not the other way round.

Two basic profound doctrines

The two basic doctrines, which form the foundation of the Christian faith, are the doctrine of repentance and the doctrine of the blood of Christ. It is beyond the scope of this message to study these doctrines in details. The fact is that our sins keep us from the presence of the Lord and only the blood of Christ can clease us from our sins:

Peter said in his first sermon after Pentecost, "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:19, NKJV, emphasis added).

John said, "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7, emphasis added).

Note the present tense of the action: cleanses. It is a now experience. Forgiveness deals with what you did; cleansing deals with what you are doing. Also note that when we fail to walk in the light we will not live in His presence and in His power (anointing).

The true meaning of repentance

Repentance is a daily experience. And it is a supernatural experienc, not something you can humanly accomplish by yourself. It is a gift of God and it needs to be granted by God (1 Tim. 2:25).

Solomon said, "He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy" (Prov. 28:13, emphasis added).

Repentance involves two actions - confessing and forsaking our sins.

Repentance must occur in every sinful action of your life, even in some simple things like - repenting if you haven't prayed, repenting if you haven't read the Word, and repenting if you failed to walk in wisdom toward those who are outside (unbelievers) (Col. 4:5).

Like the apostle Paul, we need to die daily (1 Cor. 15:31). We need to be crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20):

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; ..." (Emphasis added).

If Christ is truly living in you, you will surely experience His presence and His power (anointing)!