The nature of the anointing

In 1 John 2 (verses 20 and 27), three times, another term is translated to unction. Since these passages refer to the merits and abiding substance that remains with the church, lets look at what God says about the condition of the anointed.

  • Unction:

unction (ùngk´shen) noun

  1. The act of anointing as part of a religious, ceremonial, or healing ritual.
  2. An ointment or oil; a salve.
  3. Something that serves to soothe; a balm.
  4. Affected or exaggerated earnestness, especially in choice and use of language.

[Middle English, from Latin únctio, únction-, from únctus, past participle of unguere, to anoint.]

  • Unctuous

A term used to imply "excesses", or overdoing it, characterized by having "too much". This is may be something which men or women may be suspected of. It implies a sense of self-importance.

unctuous (ùngk´ch¡-es) adjective

  1. Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness: "the unctuous, complacent court composer who is consumed with envy and self-loathing" (Rhoda Koenig).
  2. Having the quality or characteristics of oil or ointment; slippery.
  3. Containing or composed of oil or fat.
  4. Abundant in organic materials; soft and rich: unctuous soil.

Middle English, from Old French unctueus, from Medieval Latin únctuosus, from Latin únctum, ointment, from neuter past participle of unguere, to anoint.]

In common usage, the term has been used as a pejorative. It is not hard to understand why. A man whose opulence and excess is noticeable is unseemly. On the other hand, one expects the Living God to be rich in abundance, and the giver of "every good gift", who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above that which we can ask or think"

Evidently, the anointing of God is of the nature of abundance, leaving great excesses and lavish, rich evidence. The anointed is sumptuously supplied and exhibits no lack.

Transition to the New Testament

If we concur that God's whole intention towards man is summed up in saving, blessing and restoring man, then it becomes easy to see the progression of God's plan. His word is "yea and amen" towards us. The many limited and symbolic demonstrations of anointing in the Old Testament were each involved in a systematic design which we call the plan of salvation. When a priest was anointed to serve in a tabernacle which was the shadow of heavenly things, it was a both to facilitate the plan of God and to provide meat to enrich our understanding, as we look across the centuries through the wonderful window of scripture.

The Baptism of the Holy Ghost
The Ultimate Method for Anointing and Blessing

The symbolic anointing of priests, kings and the blessed anticipated the nearing fulfillment of God's desire to anoint on a much larger scale. Ultimately, this would be fulfilled as foreseen by Joel the prophet:

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. - Joel 2:28-29

Ezekiel trumpeted the same awesome promise, but also noticed several essential characteristics of this anointing in at least two passages:

In Ezekiel 11, God indicates that the Spirit would not only flow OVER the recipient, but would enter and remain in the blessed. Furthermore reason for the blessing is given - "that they may walk in my statutes and do them". The ultimate anointing is provision to please God from the heart.

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. - Ezek 11:19-20

The result of this is startling. It is through this method that God says he would facilitate and bring into being a real and sincere relationship with His people. Through this anointing, God said he would realize the possession of a people, and be pleased to be their God. While Israel was the people of God by covenant, frequent backslidings, distrust, and unbelief blemished their actual relationship such that He often claimed that they had other Gods. Jesus ultimately indicated that Abraham was not their father, and that they did not even know the God which they claimed to serve.

Ezekiel 18:31 finds the prophet recommending that Israel get "a new heart and a new spirit" and thereby live and not die. This new spirit is associated with repentance. If this new spirit is associated with this one thing, then we can clearly interpret that God meant to deliver a remedy for sinfulness with this spirit, and to associate the outpouring of the Spirit with repentance.

Finally, in chapter 36, God identifies the spirit which, with a new heart, will enable men to please God. God intends to put his Spirit within man.

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. - Ezek 36:26-27

On the day of Pentecost, Peter cites the prophet Joel to identify the evident pouring out of a new spirit. Declaring the scripture as it is fulfilled in the eyes and ears of Jerusalem, it is clearly an explanation for the attending signs of tongues and prophecy that are seen by the amazed onlookers. In the moments which followed, Peter associated the receiving of the Spirit with repentance, and with the name of the Lord (Acts 2:38) clearly binding this phenomenon to the prophecies of Joel and Ezekiel.

Jesus had commanded that the gospel should be preached with the understanding that the promise of the Father (Luke 24:49) would attend to those who believed. This specific anointing clearly occurred in a recognizable, distinct experience, for in Acts 1:5 and Acts 1:8, Jesus told believers that the baptism (immersion in) the Spirit of God was soon to come. It was then that these believers would receive the properties associated with the promised anointing, in particular, power.

Some have sought to prove that the power of the Pentecostal experience is limited to a verbal or extraordinary ability to convey a message, but the Bible simply says that power would be delivered in that anointing. There is reason to believe that all of the various properties and promises which are contained in God's promise were herein generalized under the term "power". After all the Spirit was not yet poured out. Spiritual things originating in and associated with the dynamic Spirit of God, were not yet in man's possession. (see John 7:38-39 ). When the outpouring finally did occur, ALL the powers typified in the Old Testament anointings, as covered above, would be put on and IN mankind.

The Grand Demonstration of God's Provision for Every Man, Woman and Child.

We must see the Day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Lamb of God fulfilled the role of the Passover lamb, in proper perspective. In Egypt, in the blight of darkness, God's careful plan provided for an escape from the death angel and ushered Israel in passage from the bondage of slavery. A lamb was offered for each family, and the hand of death was stayed when the blood was placed over and upon the sides of each families door. Then, eating the prepared lamb in a manner prescribed by the oracle of God, people were escorted to the Red Sea (a type of water baptism), where the pursuing enemies of God's people would be rendered forever harmless.

When fifty days had passed (Pentecost means 50), Moses went up into the presence of God and received the Word of God by divine order and plan. It was here, at this time, that the definition of God's very being, His Logos, was transmitted to earthly people in such a way that would forever change their lives. When they looked at the tables of stone where the word was inscribed, they knew that this was the unchanging and perfect image of God's mind, not a concoction of some dreamer or philosopher. It was, for them, God Himself, for they knew that God had intended to represent Himself to them in that way. This was the best that they could get. However, as time went on, it grew increasingly clear that this outward and objective record was not enough to actually change their hearts. They found that what they had been so oppressed by in Egypt. Idolatry, self-will, hatred, and a powerful desire for the earthy, had actually come with them from Egypt in their own hearts. They could come close and almost touch the stone tables and the ark which carried the Word of God. However, that last few inches was an uncrossable gulf. They needed what God promised by the prophet: a transforming experience with the Living Word of God inside their hearts. Only the ultimate anointing could promise this.

It is in this perspective that we can appreciate what really happened at the feast of Pentecost, in Jerusalem, 50 days after Jesus' crucifixion. Again as before, by God's divine providence, the Living Word of God was transmitted from heaven. The Passover Lamb had been slain, and mankind was waiting (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:14, 2:1). At the appointed time, God's very essence crossed as a celestial lightning from Heaven to earth where a receptor was ready to receive its eternal charge and image. This time it was not one obedient man waiting with stone to record the incomprehensible for others to see from afar off. This time it was believing and prepared hearts ready to become a "spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5, Exodus 25:8) which was waiting in the upper room.

One Time or First of Many ?

At the outset we mentioned that many have rejected Christendom that denies the power of spiritual experience. In the early parts of the 20th Century, the Pentecostal experience was commonly rejected by confused and unfamiliar traditionalists as emotional, excessive and often called demonic in origin. With the amazing spread of Pentecost to where some have estimated said that as many as 1 in 3 will speak with other tongues as the year 2000 dawns, we are far from that original mindset of rejection. Though there is acceptance of spiritual phenomenon, not all doctrine concerning these matters agrees with Apostolic scripture. Some still hold that the initial outpouring (anointing) of the Holy Ghost was a unique event, and that God anoints men and women in a way that somehow varies from this original pattern.

The scriptures plainly show that the same experience which these first recipients had, was repeated with others who heard and believed the gospel throughout the Book of Acts.

A false picture is painted of a world transformed by the incarnation of Jesus Christ, where certain virtues are eminent in the world, and received by mental assent (easy-believism) or by association with ideas and religious activities. In this view, the advent of Pentecost had greater power than the experience of the individuals involved, and that a Church somehow grew in the glow that succeeded these events without immediate and direct contact with that experience.

If those to whom the Apostles preached and ministered could be shown to have received only a part of what was originally received, then we might give this view some credence, but the scriptures show us a much more wonderful picture! Peter, James, Philip, John, and the others were at the upper room and spoke with tongues as the Spirit of God filled first the room and then the hearts of the believers. This same experience was accompanied by the same evidence (speaking with other tongues) in four scriptural accounts, with one additional implicit account. (For reference: Acts 2:1-4, 8:5-25, 10:1-48, 19:1-6, 9:1-22 & 22:12-16 … see "The Baptism of the Holy Ghost by the author, or other similar studies). That is, the COMPLETE experience of the anointing demonstrated first on the Day of Pentecost, is in truth, a promise to every soul.

This means that the manifestation and characteristics of the anointing of the Apostles and the 120 in the upper room is to be repeated in every life, with the SAME power and characteristics present for every soul. Those who prescribe "the anointing" for the ills and limitations of humanity, and to enliven Christendom are referring to the baptism of the Holy Ghost, in biblical terms. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost is shown scripturally to be the fulfillment of all that is desired and available from God.

Furthermore, there is no scriptural evidence of another means (or anointing) by which God imparts these essential spiritual elements, or provides the "birth of the Spirit" (John 3:5,7). If separation from a binding relationship to sin, and to the elements of this perishing world is to be experienced by the church, we are glad that it is "by one Spirit [that] are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit". If any study of salvation from scripture fails to identify the Baptism of the Holy Ghost as the means of imparting that Spirit, and the means of joining us to the eternal Body of Christ, it has surely missed all meaningful marks.

The scriptures teach that this experience is available to ALL believing and obedient PEOPLE, regardless of race, religion, or background. The anointing which the Holy Ghost fulfills, includes the promise of LIFE. Given these profound truths, and without any scriptural proof of another anointing wherein the actual virtue of eternal life is imparted to the believer (not to mention the other characteristics of the child of God) WHO CAN DENIGRATE OR REJECT THE CALL FOR ALL to receive the BAPTISM of the HOLY GHOST ?

Does God's Anointing always refer exclusively to the Baptism of the Holy Ghost?

As we have shown, the term anointing is a general term which always refers to God's desire to bless. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost anoints a person with a heart to love and serve God, a divine nature that desires God's instruction, and finally regenerative power of eternal life. The Spirit of God, received through this experience, joins a person into the church through that Spirit (1 Cor 12:13)

It also serves as the basic foundation for God's operation of the gifts of the Spirit. No one ought to imagine that God genuinely operates the gifts of the Spirit in the church in those who have not yet received it.

While the blessing of God is ultimately manifested in the free gift of God's spirit through the experience of a personal Pentecost, God may also anoint (call, select and empower) for specific reasons beyond personal salvation, and being joined to the spiritual body of Christ.

  • We have shown that everyone can receive the Holy Spirit in the Pentecostal experience, but it is also true that we still anoint with oil for healing, according to James 5:14.
  • It was to the Church that Jesus spoke in Rev 3:18, saying that the eyes of the dim sighted ought to be anointed. This indicates that even inside of the gates of salvation, individuals and even whole assemblies can be weak and without needed power.
  • We have reason to believe that God can and does impart special virtue for specific reasons, in Christian ministry, although the scripture does not speak specifically to this. Sometimes we recognize a special empowerment to preach, or perhaps to pray beyond the normal limits of strength or talent. Since God supplies ability and power naturally absent from humanity, and administrates that ability allow man to fulfill the will of God through that supply, unction to preach, teach and other works of God can be called anointing.

With this in mind, the Bible does not indicate that there is a special anointing required to do Christian ministry beyond the preparation which is given every child of God who is born of water and Spirit. While we are constantly reminded that work "in the flesh" (or empowered by fleshly abilities alone) is utterly valueless, we are not taught of a need for a substance other than the Spirit of God which every Christian is admonished to "be filled with", and to "walk in".

While the Christian world often stands in awe of men whose abilities impress multitudes, the Bible simple says that signs would follow "them that believe". Perfection for the work of the ministry was not to be by anointing, but rather at the careful hands of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. (Eph 4:11-12) And further, wherever the church is addressed regarding it's "anointing" (or unction), the address is made in general. We are reminded that there is power in the name of Jesus Christ, works that are accomplished through His Spirit, and a great reward of faith. We are not taught of any limitation in these. Specifically, it is not scriptural to teach of the requirement of anointing above and beyond these components, assuming they are genuinely possessed in sincerity.

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