August 15
What Is the Anointing?
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. ––Luke 4:18:19
anoint
verb – ə-ˈnȯint
a: to apply oil to as part of a religious ceremony
b: to choose by or as if by divine election
“Anointed” is one of those biblical words we don’t use very much in everyday speech. You hear it in movies, such as when a king is anointed at his coronation, or when a soldier is anointed (or dubbed) a knight by his superior. If you are from a charismatic or Pentecostal background, you’ve probably heard the word used in terms of a person’s calling or assignment from the Holy Spirit. (As in, “The Lord has anointed you to preach the Gospel.”) Still, I think there’s a lot of confusion over the word’s use and meaning—which is both powerful and important.
Both the Old and New Testaments are sprinkled with the word anointed, typically in reference to the practice of anointing a person with oil as a symbolic act of acknowledgement or assignment. Samuel anointed David with oil even before he was officially declared king (See 1 Samuel 16). This was a prophetic act, signifying God’s recognition of David as the one He had chosen to become Israel’s next king. Likewise, Jewish kings were commonly anointed with oil to recognize their divine calling to serve God and the nation. The priests also anointed animals prior to sacrifice, as a sign of reverence and consecration.
In the New Testament, John warns true believers to carefully discern between those who follow Jesus, and those who have fallen away. He says,
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. ––1 John 2:20-22
This is a critical distinction: Spiritual anointing only comes from the Lord. In that sense, it is a delineator between true followers and those who claim to follow Christ but who are deceived.
The point is that not everyone who claims to be “chosen” (i.e. anointed) by God necessarily is. We must use discernment and always examine the fruit of a person’s words and actions.
When you hear someone say, “Oh, that person walks in the anointing,” it can be a bit confusing. I’ve heard the phrase thrown around a lot, but here’s the bottom line: God has anointed—chosen by divine appointment—every believer to do the works of Jesus. So boiled down to its core, that’s what it means to be anointed: to be chosen by God to do His work in the world.
But here’s the question each of us must wrestle with: Have we activated the anointing the Lord has given to us? Or put differently, have we sought the Lord and asked Him to reveal our specific calling or assignment, and have we then taken practical steps to activate or realize that calling?
Today’s verse is the capstone when it comes to our understanding the anointing: Notice that Jesus—who is quoting the prophet Isaiah—mentions the anointing in relation to the actions we are to take as carriers of His “holy oil”? The anointing, ultimately, isn’t for us alone—it is meant to be shared. To be anointed is to do the works of the Kingdom.
Father, activate the anointing in me and allow me to be a willing vessel through which the Holy Spirit can work.