The Truth About God’s Anointing
“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.”
1 John 2:20
Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m anointed to __________!”? You can fill in the blank because there are many flavors of people claiming to be anointed–and their “anointing” is always better than yours. That is, if you even have an anointing. I say this sarcastically because this is the gist of a lot of smoke-and-mirror teaching out there.
Some claim they are anointed to preach, and some preachers even claim they are anointed just so their congregations will give them more money. Isn’t it amazing how the only people getting rich off of tithing are the anointed preachers who teach that tithing will get you rich?
“You just gotta have more faith and give more! If your tithing isn’t working, give me–er, I mean God–give God, an offering above the tithe! Then He’ll really open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing you can’t contain! It will be all over your lap! Test Him in this and you’ll see! If your faith is big enough, He’ll pay you back a ten-fold portion!”
Trash. I’ll stop my description of that teaching with one word.
Some people claim they are anointed to sing, and others even call themselves “anointed prayer warriors.” Why do we need to be prayer warriors? As if we are at battle with our loving Heavenly Father, “fighting hard” to get Him to change His mind? Why not just ask Dad, and then trust Him? And who in the world anoints prayer warriors to be prayer warriors, other than themselves? Nobody.
Some people are even making the claim that they are anointed to prophesy, as if they are modern-day future-tellers like the prophets of the Old Covenant. New Covenant prophesying is meant to build people up and encourage them with God’s truth, not freak them out by saying, “God told me to tell you to go to Antarctica and start an orphanage for baby penguins.” BULLCRAP. God’s Spirit talks to each of us directly, we don’t need some yahoo to be our middle-man.
Are we blind to such stupid arrogance? Has our egos gotten in the way of the gospel? And have you ever noticed that those who claim to be anointed, claimed that anointing for themselves? That, or their momma did?…I’m kidding, but honestly, if this subject upsets you, you’ve fallen way off course. THE GOSPEL AIN’T ABOUT YOU–and I’m not sorry to say that. I love you, but please refocus on Christ. Only then will you see what I mean.
Friend, if you’ve experienced someone saying, “I’m anointed!” let me ask you, how did that make you feel? More than likely it made you feel like you weren’t anointed, as if you were lacking something that only they had. The devil loves this. He loves it when we put on religious outfits with the goal of having people gaze toward our presence, thinking, “Wow, look at how holy they are.” Lucifer loves it when we believe that God is treating others as if they are more important than us. He loves factions. He loves denominations. He loves pride.
Today, I plan on punching this idiot in his face with this devotional. I want to ease your mind and help you recognize his demonic lies. Here’s the truth about God’s anointing:
- All Christians are anointed on the exact same level because we are anointed with God’s Spirit. Our good, good Father does not have favorite kids.
- God is not doling out “special anointings” on this side of the Cross. Old Testament anointings were meant to protect the line of Judah, which Christ came from. Now that Jesus is here, that stuff is over.
So what does anointed even mean? The definition is: to smear or rub with oil. So why are modern-day Christians hootin’ and hollerin’ up on stage saying they are anointed? I mean, after all, I don’t see them drenched in olive oil. And aren’t we supposed to be exuding self-control? (See Galatians 5:22-23).
Here’s what’s wrong with this insanity: they’ve taken their eyes off of the undiluted truth of the gospel. They might have started with it, but now they are trying to add to it, make it better, or sustain it.
When we take our eyes off the gospel–God freely making His home in us for good–and instead fixate on what we think our gifts are, bad stuff happens. Arrogant stuff happens. It’s sad to say but we’ve switched the word “gift” with “anointing.” This has thrown a huge monkey-wrench into the gears of our churches. It has created envy, resentment, hierarchies, and confusion, all of which is exactly what Satan wants for us. His desire is to cloud up the waters of God’s grace with stupid crap that doesn’t matter.
We have to stop this mess and refocus on what the truth is about Christians being anointed. We are all anointed the same! I’m not talking about your gifts and talents, I’m talking about God’s Spirit living inside of yours! John attempts to explain this phenomenon as he wrote to the early Christians:
“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.” (1 John 2:20)
We have an anointing from the Holy One! We’ve been smeared with His Spirit because we’ve been placed inside His Spirit! Unlike pre-Cross anointings of the Old Testament, we are not being anointed to be called to do great things, but we’ve been anointed with God’s own Spirit, so we are called to do great things! Use-it-or-lose-it is a lie for New Covenant believers! Every Christian is equally called to act according to God’s purposes because He is infused with our spirits! WE ARE ONE WITH HIM! Just look at what Paul told the Colossians:
“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3)
Do you see that little two-letter word I’ve underlined–in?! Your old spirit died, and now your new spirit’s life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God! Ain’t nobody gonna win a hide-and-seek challenge with the Creator of the universe! You are hidden away inside of Him for good! YOU ARE INSIDE OF GOD’S SPIRIT!
What does this have to do with anointing? Well, the only way you could be hidden in Him is if you were spiritually smeared with His Spirit. Friend, are you getting this? In the spiritual realm, Christian, you are inside of God! Smeared with! Anointed! But not only that, God is inside of you! It’s hard to understand this because our minds are finite, but Paul still tries to put it in words when he wrote to the Corinthians:
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19)
Believer, the Maker of the heavens and earth is in you! God is Spirit and He is in you! In that physical body of yours God resides, and in that body, your spirit resides with Him. You’ve been mashed together with God Almighty and there is no difference between your spirits because you are one! You are separate, but you are one! How can this be?! How can we be in God and God in us? How can Paul tell the Colossians they are in God, but then he tells the Corinthians that God is in them?! HOW?!
I’ve used some different examples in my writings of this anomaly, such as a handkerchief being immersed in a glass of water. Both the water and handkerchief remain separate, but both are now inside of each other. Here is a new one, the example of water and a tea-bag:
Let’s say you have a glass of hot water, and you have a tea-bag, again, both are separate. You take the tea-bag and place it in the hot water and what happens? Does the tea-bag disappear? No. Does the water? No. They become one, yet they are still separate. The tea-bag and the water get mixed together and there is no changing it back. The combination is complete even though the elements of both are still individual.
This same thing happens with your spirit and God’s Spirit from the very moment you first believe Jesus has forgiven you! The only difference is you, as a tea-bag, is that you have to be a new, resurrected tea-bag before you can be joined to Him! This happens once by grace through faith! (See Ephesians 2:8-9, John 1:12, Hebrews 10:10). Your old tea-bag spirit has to first be killed off so that God can give you your new tea-bag spirit! Only then can you be immersed in the water of Jesus Christ! (see Romans 6:6-7, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 2:20, 3:27).
THIS IS HOW YOU ARE TRULY ANOINTED!
“But Matt, what about James 5:14? That verse is from a New Testament letter, and it talks about anointing people with oil to be healed.”
This is a very legitimate question, and if we read that passage in context, we will see the correct meaning. Crazy idea, right? To actually take Scripture to heart in context? I know, I know, it’s not normal, but let’s try it out. Here’s the verse in full:
“Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.” (James 5:14)
This verse is a call for church members to pray for sick people, it’s not a gathering to perform an oily magic trick. It is in that prayer, from a group of God’s children, that we have the opportunity to be healed. It’s not in the oil, but in the prayer. That oil is but a symbol, in the same way that water in water baptism is a symbol. Neither have any supernatural power. If jugs of water and Wesson Cooking Oil had power, then Wal-Mart wouldn’t be able to keep it on the shelves. Power from God doesn’t come from any physical thing, it comes from His Spirit within us! We are the ones who are anointed with power, because we have the Holy One inside our spirits!
So today, my friends, know this: All Christians are equally anointed because all Christians have the Spirit of God in them. Do we have different gifts? Sure. Are we each individual body parts in the Body of Christ? Absolutely! We all have different functions! God likes variety and we all work together! However, we are still equal in His eyes. It doesn’t matter if we are on stage singing and preaching, or if we are showing people where the restrooms are and helping in the nursery. It doesn’t matter if we are writing books, or taking care of the kids after school. It doesn’t matter if we are doing mission trips in South America, or reading the Bible with our teenager after dinner–WE. ARE. EQUAL. Our geographical location does not make us more anointed and neither do our gifts! We all have God’s Spirit living in us and through us–equally! We all are anointed with God in full! Let’s enjoy Him and live Him out!
A prayer for you: Father, thank you for your anointing. For so long, I thought that if I wasn’t heavily involved in church work I wasn’t anointed. That was a lie from Satan to make me feel not good enough. He always wants me to feel like I’m a two out of ten, but your Spirit always reveals the truth–that I’m off the charts with you! That’s why you chose to live in me! Thank you so much! Right now, I lift up all who are reading this, directly to you. So many of them have felt inadequate because of the misrepresentation of the gospel from self-centered people. They’ve heard others proclaim that they are anointed to do certain things, and these lies have created stress for these dear readers. You don’t want us stressed out, so reveal the truth–you don’t have favorite kids! They’ve felt left out, so please let them know you’ve included them in full! Reveal that when Jesus was lifted up, He drew all people to Himself! HE INCLUDED US FOREVER! And by faith alone He makes His home in us, anointing us for good, with Himself. We are grateful for this! Take us deeper into the knowledge of such grace, and give us wisdom about our true anointing. In Christ’s awesome name I pray, amen.
This devotional is from 60 Days for Jesus, Volume 3. Get your copy here!