Holy Spirit Anointing
HOLY SPIRIT ANOINTING is fully scriptural. In the Old Testament, all who served God had to be anointed. This is replaced in the New Testament by the Holy Spirit for all believers.
The first thing to learn is that “anointing” is just one of the synonyms of the baptism in the Spirit; there are others.
For years we have sung Psalm 23, “My head Thou dost with oil anoint,” which actually refers to the practice of oiling the head of sheep for their protection; but the anointing of the Spirit, or the baptism with the Spirit, is more than merely a protective health measure.1
Let us see what we can learn in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36–50). Jesus is making a complaint using language similar to that of Psalm 23. He is saying to His host, “You did not anoint My head with oil.” He was comparing Simon and an unknown woman. She had poured perfumed oil upon His feet and had continued kissing them, but Simon had done nothing. It was the social welcome for guests to anoint them with fragrant oils and greet them with the double kiss on the cheeks—as is still the practice in the East. Simon had been too casual and had shown Jesus no such respect.
The social anointing of guests was a cosmetic, not only imparting a pleasant smell to the guests but also helping their appearance by making their faces shine (Ps. 104:15). An oiled and shining face was considered admirable in those days. Cones of perfumed ointment were placed on the heads of guests so that when they became warm, the ointment would trickle down their faces and onto their clothes, pervading the atmosphere with a pleasant odour. Jesus accepted it from this woman who lavished on Him the best that money could buy.
Mary also anointed Jesus. Her ointment was spikenard, described as a very precious, rare preparation of nard brought from northern India at immense expense and prepared with the almost secret art of the perfumer. Sold in long-necked alabaster containers, it kept for years—it would even improve in quality and value. Many of these containers have been found on archaeological sites. Filled with ointment, they were kept as an investment, a household treasure.
The fragrance of Mary’s oil was so rich that it pervaded the whole house. It was a tremendous sacrifice and an act of love’s prodigal extravagance. It speaks of the love of God, through Jesus Christ, which brings us the priceless gift of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is no cheap experience; it’s God’s best.
The most common ingredient of cosmetic ointment was myrrh, refined from the sap that oozes from slits made in a small tree. We often read of it in Scripture. The girl loved by Solomon had fingers that dripped with sweet-smelling myrrh, and Solomon himself came from the dusty wilderness “perfumed with myrrh and frankincense” (Song of Sol. 3:6). Part of the beauty treatment for Esther for her presentation to King Ahasuerus was six months with oil of myrrh.
The value of it is shown when the Magi brought the infant Jesus myrrh as a special gift. People carried myrrh in their clothes. Taken medicinally, myrrh was used as an opiate, which is why Jesus refused it on the cross.
The idea of anointing oil originated in the pouring of ointment upon priests to ordain them for service. There was a special anointing oil described in Exodus 30, used only for the Lord’s tabernacle and priests. Kings were also anointed. Most commentaries say prophets were also anointed, but in fact not one of them ever was, because they were never appointed to be a prophet as if it were an office, like priest or king. They were independent men of God, not socially appointed. God chose and gave them the real anointing with the Spirit. Nobody made prophets. They were God’s men. By divine command, Elijah should have anointed Elisha, but he failed to do so. God Himself anointed Elisha with the Spirit.
It was the habit to call the Spirit of God by the name of a prophet—the “spirit of Moses” or the “spirit of Elijah”—as a personal and rare distinction. The “spirit of Moses” was to be put upon the elders of Israel, and Elisha wanted a double portion of the “spirit of Elijah.” The Spirit was identified with the prophet, and when God anoints believers today, it is with “the spirit of the prophets” or the “spirit of prophecy.”
The true anointing is always by the Lord. Oils and precious ointments were emptied upon priests and kings as mere symbols or acknowledgments that God’s Spirit had chosen to rest upon them. God was the originator, and such men were therefore called “the anointed of the Lord” or “the anointed of God”—especially Christ (Hebrew, mashiyach, which means “anointed” or “Messiah”), who is “the Christ (anointed) of God.” Today, among believers, the anointing is a sovereign act of God.
Disciples and apostles were never anointed with oil. In the New Testament, Christians received the Holy Spirit for their work of service. Oil was never poured upon Jesus except by a woman for His burial, as I mentioned previously. Before the Day of Pentecost, priests were anointed and carried the fragrance with them, but since Pentecost, believers carry the “Spirit of Christ.” “They realised that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). The real had come.
Anointing with oil was retained in the New Testament only for the healing of the sick.
Our anointing flows out of Christ’s anointing, and we receive it only from Him. “Of His fullness we have all received” (John 1:16). To John the Baptist it was revealed that “upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptises with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33). John identified the source—Jesus Christ, the giver and the authority of the giving.
We may pray and lay hands on people to be baptised in the Spirit, as the apostles did (Acts 8:17), but we must realise that a man cannot, and need not, give his anointing to someone else. The anointing comes out of Christ’s fullness, not somebody else’s fullness. I want my own anointing from God, not a secondhand anointing. To bestow “an anointing,” even as a temporary effect, is foreign to biblical thought.
It comes “out of His fullness” as a constant outflow. Jesus alone is the baptizer. The blessings of God may flow in many ways through our lives as rivers of living water from Christ, but that is a very different thing from doing what only Jesus can do—impart the Spirit. The virgins refused to share their oil and were counted wise.
However, the word anointing today has acquired a broader meaning among believers. It is a word for general blessing. When people offer to bring us “an anointing” by laying their hands upon us, we need make no great objection. Scripturally there is no such thing as an anointing, only the anointing, but we need not be too strict about the use of a word, provided, of course, it does not convey a wrong piece of theology and that the exclusive sense of giving the Holy Spirit is not intended; it should only be a prayer for help, strength, guidance, and so forth.
I once, by nothing less than divine leading, found myself far from where I should have been, staring at a house in Clapham, London. A nameplate outside referred to George Jeffreys, whom many consider to have been the greatest British revivalist since John Wesley. This man had filled the greatest halls and pioneered, in the face of universal opposition, the glorious message of Jesus Christ as Saviour, healer, baptizer, and coming King. I could hardly believe it—I had just read one of this great man’s books. Was he really there?
I dared to go and ask—and he heard my voice and invited me in. There he prayed with me, and it was as if his mantle had come upon me—to use a scriptural expression. God heard that man’s prayer for me. I was already baptised in the Spirit—anointed—but sometimes we lack language to describe all that God does. I know that making contact with George Jeffreys and hearing his prayer for me was a special experience, which brought me a sense of equipping and readiness for service when I had just that day left the Bible college at Swansea to begin my full-time service for God. God had called me to His work, and now this special experience seemed to cover me.
David was anointed king by Samuel, from which David understood that he was the Lord’s anointed. Later, the elders of Israel also anointed him as their assurance of his call to them as king. “Anointings” are not to be expected every time we meet a special evangelist or teacher. For me it was one time only, after my call, when I met a man who had done the same work as God wanted me to do, like Elisha following Elijah.
Some experiences, which we may call anointings for lack of a better expression, may come as the assurance of God to a particular call, like that to Elisha or of the elders of Israel to David. To some they have come when listening to some other man of God, when they knew God was thrusting them forward as what Paul calls “the more honourable” members of the body of Christ.
Anointing and appointing go together. As I mentioned previously, the only people anointed were those selected for a particular task, especially that of priest or king. It was not a mere experience for emotional enjoyment. Nor did it signify that a special level of holiness had been attained. The anointing was given solely to equip and condition ordinary people to serve the Lord. The anointing was not available apart from service. Today the anointing is for all believers, for all are to serve. We are “a royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9). Note carefully that anointing is not a kind of emotional pleasure, but it comes into activity when we serve. David did not feel anointed in any particular sense, but when he faced Goliath, he knew it. Samson became strong only when he went into action for God, and then the Spirit of God came upon him (as in Judges 14:6). A strong man does not feel his strength when sitting down; he feels it only when he exerts himself.
Donald Guthrie, ed., New Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1950), s.v. “ointment.”
1 Donald Guthrie, ed., New Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1950), s.v. “ointment.”
Bonnke, R. (2012). Taking Action: Receiving and Operating in the Gifts and Power of the Holy Spirit. Charisma House.
