The Power of God - Part Five - The Anointing

The Power of God – Part Five - The Anointing
Sermon Notes – Jim White
Sunday 14th February, 2020
• I was tempted this week to title my message – “Growing Pains” – because out of the process of change and growth that we are going through as a church – and the call to maturity and faith that many of us are walking through personally – there’s some pain involved. For some it’s emotional pain. For others it’s the challenges to our faith – a time of really sorting out what we believe about God and about life. For some it’s relational pain. In many ways it’s just straight out attack from the devil.

• But do you know what I really think it’s all about? God is calling us to Christian maturity – He’s calling us to “grow up” – even you young people – I believe God is doing a quick work of establishing your lives on the solid foundations of the Word of God – and faith – to leave behind the milk and the baby food – and to rise up and become the leaders and mentors and influencers to your generation. 100% focus on Jesus Christ – and 100% commitment to becoming who you are meant to be.

• But I decided – I’m not going to focus on the growing pains – I’m going to focus on the Anointing – so this will be number five in the series on the Power of God. We’ve talked about the Power of the Word, the Power of the Blood, the Power of the Holy Spirit and the power Praise.

• The Anointing is of course the Holy Spirit’s empowering and equipping presence in our lives to walk in our calling – to grow up in Christ – to walk in the Spirit and not strive in our own natural ability and strength. If we are going to grow up to maturity in Christ, and to overcome the growing pains, we need to know what it means to be anointed.

• To fully understand the Anointing, you can’t separate the significance and meaning of the Old Testament practice of anointing someone with oil, and the New Testament reality of the Holy Spirit’s empowering in every believer’s life.

• So, my first point this morning is this:

• 1. The Anointing is the difference between the natural man, and the man or woman who walks in the supernatural.

• David was the youngest of the eight sons of Jesse. David grew up as a shepherd boy, looking after a few sheep in the backside of the desert. On the social scale, David would have been just a little better than a leper. That was the natural!

• But God told Samuel the prophet that one of Jesse’s sons would become the future king of Israel – and as the man of God, Samuel had the role of anointing the young man for the call on his life – for his role and destiny in God.

• 1Sam 16:1 – God said to Samuel – “Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself with a King among his sons.”

• When Samuel met the eldest son, Eliab, he said, in verse 6 – “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him! But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

• The more you learn about the things of God, the more you realise that the outward things – the seen things – are nothing compared to what’s going on in the heart and in the spirit.

• Samuel met all of the sons of Jesse, as they were presented to him – but he said, none of these are the one. Are there any more sons? And finally, David was called in from the field.

• Verse 12 – “So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.”

• Back in those days, God anointed and appointed certain men and women to fulfil His purposes on earth. Not all those who knew God were anointed or had the Holy Spirit. But church, we do. The Holy Spirit has been given to us freely, so that we can do all that Christ did, and even more.

• If you have received Christ as your Saviour, and have received the Holy Spirit – then you are also anointed.

• 1John 2:20 – “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.”

• Verse 27 – “the anointing which you have received from Him, abides in you..”

• Just like David – you have been set apart – consecrated – you have been divinely appointed to be who you are, and to be empowered to serve God in a unique, awesome, and supernatural way.

• Remember – it’s not about how things look on the outside. It’s not about how we see things through our natural eyes and understanding. God’s ways and thoughts are far higher than ours. God might very well anoint someone for a particular role, and we think – who do they think they are? But that’s the very point. It’s not about who we think we are. It’s what God sees, and he looks at the heart.

• Samuel took David aside and poured out the oil over his head. That oil would have flowed right down over his head, onto his clothes, right down to the hem of his garments.

• From that moment on, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David.

• In both the Hebrew and Greek – the word anointing means to rub and smear with oil – to cover over – to consecrate.

• You have been anointed with the Holy Spirit – smeared with His presence – covered over with the oil of anointing. We’ll come back to David in a moment, because he is a wonderful example of how the anointing works in a person’s life.

• So this is the second point I want to pick up on before we go any further – that:

• 2. The Anointing flows down from the head to the hem.

• Ps 133 – “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.”

• The anointing flows – it flows where there is unity – it flows freely over the whole body.

• Our Head is Jesus Christ – the Anointed One. He is the Head of our lives. He is the Head of the Church. There is a principle of what flows down from the head, covers the whole body.

• The Anointing flows from Jesus – over the pastors and leaders – over the whole body of Christ. No-one misses out. The whole body – the whole garment – receives the anointing oil.

• You can be sure that David was saturated with oil by the time Samuel had finished. He would have poured out the whole horn full of oil.

• Matt 9:20 tells the story of an amazing woman of faith. “And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of his garment. For she said to herself, If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” And we know the story from the other gospels as well – how Jesus felt the power go out of Him, and she was made well.

My point here this morning is that there is power and anointing throughout the whole body – right to the hem. Whatever you have been anointed to do – be confident that the power of the Holy Spirit – the Anointing of God – will bring about miracles as you faithfully serve Jesus in your calling. You might see yourself as least and the lowest in the overall scheme of things – but the Anointing flows right through to the hem.

• In the home – Husbands are called to be the head. The Anointing flows down over the husband to the wife to the children. Husbands you mightn’t think you do it all right – you make mistakes – in your eyes you come up short compared to other men. But remember – God doesn’t look at things the way we do. He looks at your heart. That’s what He cares about – and that’s what releases the Anointing of God.

• 3. The Anointing Changes You and Challenges Those Around You.

• Once you know you are anointed - and you begin to look to fulfilling Christ’s plan for your life – don’t be surprised if you have to face a few bears and lions.

• Before David was anointed – he was just a shepherd boy. But once he was anointed and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, opportunities came to prove and train him in his appointment – and in his journey toward maturity.

• He had to kill bears and lions with his own bare hands while he was still out looking after the sheep. This was all part of his preparation for ministry. Preparation of a courageous heart – a committed heart – a persevering heart.

• When David went to the front line of battle, simply to take his brothers some food – he took another significant step toward his destiny. When he saw Goliath taunting the Israel army – and all the men were afraid and fled from him, something of the anointing that was on David’s life rose up and he said – “who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

• Everyone thought he was crazy. His eldest brother said to him – “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?

• Isn’t that all you need when you want to step into your destiny with God? Your own brothers – your own brethren – your own family – saying – who do you think you are? Go back and play with your few sheep. Go back and pull your head in.

• Sometimes, it’s within the dynamics of the relationships that are closest to us that we experience the toughest pain. But perhaps it’s really our own growing pains that we are feeling. Change and growth can cause pain.

• David said – “What have I done now? Is there not a cause?”

• Then Saul comes on the scene – and he wants to put his own armour on David. Saul was a big man – and his armour was so heavy, David couldn’t even walk in it.

• Isn’t this often the case as well – Someone who is too scared to do the job wants to tell you how to do it, and put their stuff on you. Other people, with good intentions, can sometimes just hold us back and burden us because they think we should do things the way they would do it.

• When we are anointed to fulfil our role in life, it will most likely be a very unique and special anointing just for us – according to who we are – what our personality is – what our experiences of life have been – what is at the very core of our heart.

• We can’t wear another person’s armour. We probably won’t do it the way other people do it. The anointing is the Holy Spirit empowering us as individuals – it’s a very personal thing.

• So – when you are anointed – expect some opposition – expect to be trained for battle – expect other people to not understand. You are anointed to be you! In the end, as you keep your eyes focused on Jesus – you will defeat your Goliaths – and you will go on to defeat the enemy that comes against the people of God.

• You may think that you are just an ordinary person – nothing special – but under the anointing – you will do things that you never imagined you could do. Again, it’s the difference between a shepherd and a king.

• David went on to defeat Goliath with what he had himself – just a few stones and a sling – but with a powerful anointing on his life that no enemy or devil could stand against.

• 4. The Anointing Doesn’t Come Cheap.

• If there was ever a man who knew the heart of God, it was David. He was called a man after God’s own heart. You only have to read the Psalms – the beautiful songs that David wrote – and you see a man who had an intimate relationship with His God.

• As much as we are all anointed – we all have the Holy Spirit dwelling and abiding within us – we ourselves determine how much of that anointing is released in our life.

• It costs you to walk in your anointing. It costs you time in the Word – time in prayer – time with God in relationship.

• Often we will say that someone is anointed when they preach – or the song leader was anointed – or the person doing communion was anointed. But to be truly anointed means much more than that.

• When you are anointed by God – you are set apart and consecrated for Him. Your whole life is smeared with the anointing oil. Every aspect of our life should display and impart the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

• There are two beautiful examples of the Anointing being released through intimacy – but released at great cost. The first is in John 12:3-8.

• Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, brought a pound of expensive perfumed oil – and she poured anointing oil all over Jesus’ feet. And she washed His feet with her hair – and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

• Judas, who was only looking out for his own interests, said to Jesus, you could have sold that oil for three hundred denarii, and given it to the poor. But of course Judas missed the whole point of Mary’s expression of great love and sacrifice. She was effectively anointing Jesus for His burial.

• Then in Luke 7: 36-50 – there is the story of the sinful woman, who brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and she washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. She kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

• These are beautiful expressions of how the anointing is released in a person’s life. The anointing oil in both cases cost a lot. It not only cost a lot of money. It cost these women the humility of bearing their heart and soul in front of the other disciples and religious leaders, and being ridiculed for it. It cost them a broken heart, as they expressed their love for Jesus – one preparing him for death – the other recognizing her own sin and shame.

• But these are the most wonderful expressions of intimacy – hearts that were broken and contrite before Jesus. And remember – He looks at the heart.

• If you want the anointing to be released in your own life – this is the kind of relationship that you need to have with Jesus – with the Father – with the Holy Spirit. It’s an attitude of humility – repentance – brokenness – of dying to self, and giving all to Jesus.

• 5. The ingredients of the Anointing Oil Represent Our Anointed Life.

• Exod 30:23 – says – “Take for yourself quality spices – five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon (two hundred and fifty shekels), two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling cane, five hundred shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. And you shall make from these a holy anointing oil…”

• The first ingredient was myrrh. Myrrh is a type of resin from a tree, which acted as a narcotic or a kind of anaesthetic. It was also used as a pain killer.

• When the wise men came to Jesus as a baby, He was presented with myrrh. It speaks of the fact that Jesus came to bear our pain and carry our sorrow and to remove our hurt. At Jesus’ crucifixion, the soldiers offered Him a mixture of wine and myrrh to ease the pain, but He refused it. Jesus chose to carry the fullness of our pain and hurt and sin on our behalf.

• Myrrh was used to prepare bodies for burial. The myrrh of the anointing speaks about our own death – not our natural death – but our death to self. Dying to our own agenda and desires.

• Unless there is a dying and breaking in our own life, the fragrance of Christ – the fragrance of the anointing – will never come forth.

• The second ingredient was pure cinnamon oil. Cinnamon was used as a flavouring and it gave off a very sweet fragrance. Plus, cinnamon oil was flammable. It would burn. You could use it to fuel fires.

• So cinnamon speaks of having a sweetness about our lives – as opposed to being bitter and hard.

• But it also speaks of the fire and burning of the Holy Spirit – that comes with the anointing. John the Baptist said that Jesus would come and baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. The anointing is what ignites our spirits and gives us a passion for the calling of God on our lives.

• The third ingredient was calamus. This was a scented cane that was found among the lilies that grew along the water ways of Palestine – and when it blossomed, they would pick all the flowery petals off, and crush them or bruise them to release the fragrance.

• The Holy Spirit does a work in our life – if we allow Him – as we go through the times where we feel crushed or bruised – but if we can respond with maturity – with forgiveness – keeping our hearts soft toward God – then there is a sweet fragrance that is released.

• John Wesley once said – “forgiveness is the fragrance of the rose on the heel of the one who crushed it.”

• When we are crushed, we can release revenge, bitterness and hatred – or we can release the power of the anointing which has a beautiful sweet smelling aroma.

• Lastly, there is the cassia. Cassia comes from the bark of a tree. Cassia means to split, to scrape off, to purge. Cassia bark was used as a laxative. So it represents the part of the anointing that cleanses and purifies us.

• Cassia also only grows at elevations of 8,000 feet. You’ve got to get up on the mountain to get it. The anointing comes from being on the mountain with God. It’s that place of intimacy that I was talking about before. It comes through prayer – through relationship – through walking close with the Father.

• These four ingredients were mixed together with olive oil – and together it was called holy.

• One other thing about the anointing. Even though once you are anointed, the anointing is there to be released from your life – there are times when God wants to give us some fresh oil.

• Ps. 92:10 – David says – “I have been anointed with fresh oil.”

• David recognizes here that he has already been anointed – but there is a fresh anointing – fresh means new and prosperous and flourishing.

• Isa 40:31 – “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”

• Remember Acts 3:19 – “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

• Church – when we answer the call to maturity – in obedience to the Word of God – we don’t have to do it on our own. There is an Anointing from the Holy One. There is even fresh oil to be poured out so that times of refreshing would come.

• The Anointing is what brought David from being a shepherd boy to a king. It’s the Anointing that flows down from the head to the hem – so that all of us are covered and smeared in the Holy Spirit’s presence and power.

• The Anointing will change you – and challenge those around you. The Anointing is like a precious flask of perfume, that is released through relationship and intimacy with Jesus.

• And the Anointing speaks to us of the price Christ paid for us – the pain and sin He took on our behalf, plus our own dying to self.

• It also speaks of the sweetness and the fire of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It means that in the circumstances of life that want to crush us, there is a fragrance released as we respond with grace and forgiveness.

• And there is a cleansing and purifying that only comes as we stand on the heights of the mountains in close relationship with Jesus.