Anointing the 1984

I'd like to begin by reading verses four and five from Psalm 23, King James Version. That's the version we're most familiar with in the Psalms. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.

Thou anointest my head with oil. What does this mean? It means that while I begin the 23rd Psalm as a sheep lying down in green pastures, led by my shepherd beside the still waters, restored and refreshed in soul, guided in the paths of righteousness, I get to the place where I am no longer a sheep. Where I become a son or a daughter of the Most High God.

And he anoints my head with oil as if he were crowning me to be a king or a queen. This anointing is the oil of blessing, the oil of healing, the oil of gladness, the oil of the divine presence, the oil of power. Greetings from 1 Samuel chapter 9, verse 27.

As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, tell the servant to pass on before us. And when he has passed on, stop here yourself for a while, that I may make known to you the word of God. Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people, Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you shall save them from the hand of their enemies round about.

And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage. When you depart from me today, you will be met by two men at Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin and at Zelza. And they will say to you, the asses which you went to seek are found.

And now your father has ceased to care about the asses and is anxious about you saying, what shall I do about my son? Then you shall go on further and you shall come to the oak of Tabor. And there are three men will be going up at Bethel and meet you, one carrying three kids, another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept at their hand.

After that, you shall come to Gibeath Elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. There, as you come to the city, you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you and you shall prophesy with them and you shall be turned into another man.

Now, when these things meet you, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you. So we see that the oil that Samuel pours on Saul's head is the outward sign of an inward miracle. And the inward miracle is the anointing of the Spirit.

And the Spirit of the living God, the Lord God, will come upon you and you will prophesy with these prophets and you will be turned into another man. Thou anointest my head with oil and the anointing oil comes into this man and he now is indwelt by the presence of the living God in a way he never experienced before. A few years pass and it becomes obvious that Saul is not going to stay under this anointing.

Somehow or other, he constantly moves away from it and goes off on his own tangent and chooses his own way of darkness rather than the way of light. And so Samuel is again ordered by the Lord to go to Bethlehem and find Jesse and anoint one of his sons to be king in Saul's place. And so a feast, a sacrifice is prepared and before they sit down to eat, each of his sons is paraded in front of Samuel and each time the Lord says, he's not the one, he's not the one, he's not the one.

And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. And Samuel said to Jesse, are all these sons, are these all your sons? And he said, there remains yet the youngest, but behold he is keeping the sheep. Samuel said to Jesse, send and fetch him for we will not sit down until he comes.

And he sent and brought him. Now he was ruddy, had a beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, arise and anoint him for this is he.

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. All through the history of Israel, the anointing oil is connected with the moving of the spirit of God always. As time passed, centuries passed, Israel began looking for the Messiah, meaning the anointed one to come, the son of David, who is to deliver the people of Israel and bring them in the kingdom of God.

Finally, the last of the line of prophets appears on the Jordan river, John the Baptist. And as he calls the nation to repentance, people began to wonder whether perhaps this isn't the Messiah. Perhaps he's the one.

And John answers, I'm not the one, but I'll tell you who it is. Reading from John chapter one, verse 29. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me. And John bore witness. I saw the spirit descend as a dove from heaven and it remained on him.

I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain. This is he who baptizes with the Holy spirit. So the spirit fell on Jesus and immediately he becomes the anointed one, the Christ, the Messiah.

Everything that happens in his life from this point on is directed by the spirit. He's driven by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He's led by the spirit back again into the, among the people.

And he proclaims the kingdom of God calls them to repentance by the spirit. He opens the eyes of the blind by the spirit. He raises the dead by the spirit.

He calls people to repentance. He opens the truth of the kingdom of God and shows it to people by the spirit. He's led to the cross to lay down his life and it's by the spirit that he raised from the dead.

Everything he does is done by the spirit and the spirit dwelling in Jesus is the father dwelling in him. He's divested himself of whatever divine prerogatives he had and becomes only a man. God, the son, truly human, and everything is done by the power of the spirit.

Everything. It's God in him, God flowing out of him, God guiding him, the anointed one. After his death and his resurrection, he returns to the headquarters of the universe, this deep heaven, whatever this is, for us to comprehend.

And he sends the same spirit that came to him upon his followers. And they become anointed in the same way he was. And so we read in Acts chapter two, verse one, when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

And suddenly a sound came from heaven, like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as a fire distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance.

What prophets and priests and kings of old longed to experience, but only tasted, now comes to ordinary men and women, empowering them to do things that prophets and priests and kings could only dream of. They did not see this anointing, did not look upon it as a kind of an emotional high or an experience that comes and goes, but they perceived this anointing as the continuous presence of God in the human soul, showing them where to go and giving them the power to get there. And the term, the anointing, was familiar to them.

They knew what that meant. It was common in the apostolic age. Hence, we read in 1 John chapter 2, verse 26, I write this to you about those who would deceive you, but the anointing which you receive from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you, as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. So what happens to us when the anointing comes to us? Specifically, what takes place? Just as we've been spending months and months really talking about Matthew 5, 6, and 7, sermon on the mount, it would be well worth our time to take looking at the upper room discourse, John chapter 14, 15, and 16. The upper room discourse is a description of the anointing, what happens when the spirit comes.

It's like showing us where the power comes from to enable us to live the sermon on the mount. But today, let's just look at a few little passages in John chapter 16, and then we can privately, and perhaps in other ways, look a little more carefully at that passage later on. The first thing that happens when the anointing comes is that we begin to see with new eyes.

Reading from John 16, 16. A little while, and you will see me no more. Again, a little while, and you will see me.

Some of his disciples said to one another, what is this that he says to us? A little while, and you will not see me. And again, a little while, and you will see me. And because I go to the Father.

And so, of course, what happens in a little while, he's gone. The natural eye no longer is able to look upon him. And then, in a very short time, the spirit falls.

And when the spirit comes, they begin to see Jesus really for the first time. They spent three and a half years walking around with him, eating meals with him, working at his side, but they never really saw him. They had glimpses.

This is the Christ, the Son of the living God. They had visions, but they never saw, until Pentecost, who this really is. Now they begin to see in a way they could not possibly see before.

When the natural eye is no longer able to see, now the eye of the spirit begins to behold. And we often become impatient with people when we think they can't seem to grasp who Jesus is. And it's ridiculous really to become impatient with them, because it's impossible for anybody to see who Jesus is.

Anybody, apart from the anointing. The anointing has to do it. Unless the spirit opens our eyes, we'll never see.

Second thing that happens to us when the anointing comes, is that we start to think with a new mind. Again in the same chapter, John 16, verse 12. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will declare to you things that are to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All the Father has is mine. Therefore I said, he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

All of us know something about this. It's really, until our mind is anointed and until somehow our mind is breathed upon with the breath of God, it's very difficult to even hold our attention on anything that has to do with God. God becomes the last consideration, a religious form we go through.

When the anointing comes, God begins to become an obsession. Under the anointing we begin to think of God. Scripture is boring, absolutely dull, nothing to be gotten from it, until the anointing comes upon our minds and we now think with new thoughts and we begin to see things and understand things in scripture that were never visible to us before.

Prayer. We try to pray, we make resolutions to pray, we try to discipline ourselves to pray, we try to picture what we're praying through and it's all so hard. Then the anointing and now we begin to think along the lines of the kingdom.

Prayer becomes so much easier, so much more alive than it ever was before because the anointing brings to us the mind of Christ, the anointed one. He gives us his mind, permits us to begin to see things that we could never see before, think thoughts we could never think before. Finally, under the anointing, as we were saying last week, we begin to speak with new tongues.

In the same chapter, chapter 16 of John, verse 7, nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the counselor will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because they do not believe in me, of righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no more, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged.

The Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. How? Through the tongues of these people. The Spirit does not speak directly to the world, never.

The Spirit only speaks to the world through the kingdom, through the body of Christ, through our tongues. Now it is our turn and he gets possession of our tongues and he loosens our tongues and we begin to speak and we find ourselves bearing witness to Yeshua the Messiah in a world that considers sin a joke, righteousness absolutely impossible to discern. What's righteousness? Everything's relative.

Who cares? And judgment, absolutely an off-the-wall thought. Judgment? I'm my own judge. I don't stand under anybody else, but now under the anointing of the Spirit, we proclaim Yeshua, Jesus, and now all sin is taken and absorbed in him.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, so the only sin left is the sin of rejecting mercy when it's offered. Mercy is offered. The only thing that will ever keep us from experiencing God is to turn away from that mercy and we speak Christ.

Under the anointing, we begin to speak of Jesus and righteousness, which was embodied in him, begins to come forth. People didn't know who this was and they got offended by him, but they knew when they looked at this man, they were looking at incarnate righteousness. Nobody could deny that.

And now in ways that are beyond our comprehension, as we lift up the Lord, a stream of righteousness begins to flow in the world and people know that they are listening to and looking at righteousness and they are shaken by it. They are convicted by this. Judgment.

He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, judgment. The Prince of this world was judged on the cross and the final judgment was foreshadowed in the resurrection. And now even though it sounds absolutely weird to the spirit of the age in which we live, we proclaim that this age, every man, woman, and child in some way beyond our comprehension is going to be judged by the standard of the righteousness embodied in this man.

And there will be a day when everyone, everyone who has ever or will ever be born, will stand before that judgment. Now people may not be converted, born again, transformed by our festival, but if we speak under the anointing, one thing will happen. They will know that they have been confronted with something that they cannot deny.

They will never again be able to say, but Lord, I've never heard that. Lord, I didn't understand that. They will never again be able to say this.

Thou anointest my head with oil. We're not talking about a feeling. We're talking about the issue, the outflow of Jesus' death and resurrection.

The whole purpose of his coming was to make it possible by his death and his resurrection that you and I should be anointed, filled, baptized in the spirit of the living God. And it will be. But the Holy Spirit of God does not rape our minds.

He does not violate our wills. He doesn't force his way upon us. He only comes when we desire him and welcome him.

So there are some things that we have to do if the anointing is to come. It won't come automatically. First of all, we have to welcome him.

We have to receive him. On Pentecost, they were gathered together in one place, waiting. They didn't fully understand what they were waiting for, but they were told to wait.

The Ethiopian eunuch is reading the book of Isaiah in his chariot, going back home. He had taken the trouble to learn Hebrew, to travel all the way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem, because he was thirsty for God. Cornelius, the Gentile soldier, didn't know a lot of things.

He was ignorant of much concerning the kingdom of God, but he was waiting. He was open. He was receptive.

The man who goes next door for bread because his friend has come at midnight and he's got nothing to give him, bangs on his neighbor's door and pesters his neighbor and will not let that man sleep until he gets up and gives him bread. And the anointing of the Spirit of God will come to us when we get desperate and ask and seek and knock for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his father asks for bread, is going to give him a stone? So if you who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Then we have to stay under the anointing.

Saul didn't. Saul received the anointing, but he kept bumping up away from it, turning willfully to darkness. David, on the other hand, stayed under his anointing.

David did all kinds of crazy things and wrong things and sinful things, but this man knew how to repent. And it's interesting to notice that when Nathan nails David about his sin with Bathsheba, David repents. Doesn't try to justify himself, he repents.

And Psalm 51 is obviously his response. And notice this response of penitence, how it connects with the anointing of God. He says, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

The anointing, get that anointing back to me, Lord God. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Don't take the anointing away from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Give me the anointing, the anointing, the anointing. To stay under the anointing, we obey the Spirit.

Instant repentance when he puts his finger on something in our life that is out of line. Constant prayer as a sign that we thirst and long for God to guide us. And finally, we move with the anointing.

As it begins to guide us, we go with it. When Peter is told to go to the house of Cornelius, he's absolutely offended. When the vision first comes of this, she coming down with these unclean beasts.

And Peter says, look, I've never touched anything unclean. I don't go to the house of Gentiles. I don't sit down and eat with them.

And the Spirit says, go. And it's a devastating thing. Awesome.

We have no conception of what a difficult thing this was for Peter. But he, but he obeyed, even though he knew he was going to get in trouble with everybody around him for doing it. And when the Spirit said to those five men who were fasting and praying in Antioch, separate from me Saul and Barnabas, for the work to which I called them, they do it.

The more willing we are to be guided, the more we will be guided. The more clear it will become. And so if today we become aware of an area in our life where we are to repent, or an area in our life where we are to get reconciled with somebody, or something that needs to be changed and we know it, act on it.

Move with it. Don't wait. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.

He's taken us through the valley of the shadow of death. We have died with Jesus and we have risen with Jesus. Our old life is in the grave.

Our new life is with him. And now today he prepares a table before us in the presence of Satan. And Satan and the angels of evil have to stand and watch in utter confusion while we eat this crazy meal.

His body, his blood. Satan still doesn't know what that means. But now he also wants to anoint us with his spirit, so that we can be servants of the spirit through whom the world is convicted of sin, righteousness, judgment, and brought to the door of the kingdom of God.

He holds the vial of oil over our heads and says, open your heart and receive. Stay under this thing. Move with the spirit until your cup runs over with power from on high.

Let's just take a moment in silence. If you've entrusted God to guide you and place your confidence in him, you'll find him always there beside you to give you hope and strength within. The anointing.