THE ANOINTING:
  A New Covenant Perspective

  By Stephen Crosby
   www.SteveCrosby.com

The term “anointing” is as prevalent in Pentecostal/Charismatic circles (hereafter abbreviated: P/C) as salt in the ocean. The word is used somewhat indiscriminately to refer to:

* Things that are called, selected, or commissioned by God.
* Being gifted for effective ministry.
* Experiencing His manifest presence or being “touched by God.”
* Deposits of grace or power in individuals that are “transferable” to others

There’s hardly a more significant difference between the Old and the New Covenants than regarding this issue. The New Testament’s sparse usage of the term should tip us off that we’re sailing in tenuous waters. The implications of the change that took place on the Day of Pentecost upon our theology and practice concerning the anointing and the presence of the Lord are generally not well thought out in many P/C and non-P/C Churches. A strong Old Covenant paradigm dominates our beliefs and practices.

Isaiah 10:27 says the anointing destroys the yoke. Yokes frequently represent oppression, bondage or living under the rigors of precepts and law. The term destroyed means corrupted, ruined, spoiled, or broken. In the prophet’s language, the anointing causes yokes to become corrupted and hence, destroyed. I’ve no problem with this. However, this single verse from Isaiah is nearly the entire substructure of the P/C anointing belief system. As it’s typically interpreted and applied, it’s inherently subjective and sensory.

For example, a preacher whose doctrine is correct but whose ministry lacks a discernible “kick” or authority would be considered as lacking the anointing. The special singer who makes you cry, or “feel the Lord’s presence” instead of just enjoying good singing would be considered anointed. The issue before us is correct understanding of what constitutes the New Covenant anointing.

The New Covenant is “not according to” the Old (Heb. 8:9). That means it takes no part in, draws nothing from, takes no download from, and opposes Old Covenant methodologies and systems. In the original language, it’s a strong double negation. This being explicit with far-reaching implications, why do so many of our “operational systems” reflect Old Covenant values and practices, particularly in regard to our understanding of prayer, worship, and so-called impartations of transferable anointing?

There’s been a good deal of Old Testament typology floating around since the Latter Rain Movement of 1948-52 regarding the presence of the Lord and the restoration of the Tabernacle of David that needs some careful reexamination for New Covenant applicability. There are only six verses in the New Testament that mention the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19; 1Cor. 1:29; 1Thess. 2:19; 2Thess. 1:9, Heb. 9:24, Jude 24): and none of them have anything to do with praise and worship.This is significant. What were inhabited praises in the Old Covenant (Psa. 22:3) have become inhabited hearts in the New (John 14:17; 1 Cor. 6:19, etc.). Inhabited praises were the best God could do . . . until Calvary/Pentecost. Pentecost changed everything.

The apostles did not link the restoration of David’s Tabernacle to praise and worship, but rather to the in-gathering of the Gentiles (Acts 15:16). David’s Tabernacle is not about my cathartic touch from the Lord in a worship service, but ministry to the remnant of Edom: either disaffected brethren or the heathen (Amos 9:12). When David’s Tabernacle is restored, I stand a good chance of being seriously inconvenienced for someone else’s sake. I may “feel” nothing.

Jesus said He would manifest Himself (Gr. make evident to the five senses) to those whose love is evidenced by obedience (John 14:21, 23). We can’t compensate with an hour or more of frenetic singing for what is lacking in kingdom integrated being and lifestyle and call it “the anointing and the presence of the Lord.” Stimulus on Sunday is not more spiritually significant than mundane obedience on Monday. Sunday singing flows from Monday living.

Jesus said the believer has already been given the glory: PAST TENSE (John 17:22). Why do we believe, act, and sing like that is not true? What more do we want? It all hinges on our definition and expectation of “glory.” The root of all heresy is the itch for something more and something new. Why do we think it is up to us to “create an atmosphere” to make some sensory event happen? Rather than reckoning into and appropriating by faith the reality of what is objectively true (because Jesus has said so, regardless of what we might “feel”), we think we have to go through certain spiritual gymnastics to get a reluctant God to manifest Himself to our senses. Self-effort is the primal sin. This includes self-initiated spiritual “techniques.” Sadly, our misguided beliefs and practices in this regard are at their philosophical root, diluted paganism.

I opt for Jesus’ and the apostles’ specific words as the basis of doctrine and practice preferentially over typological Old Covenant inferences of sincere and well-meaning individuals from 1948-1952 (and their descendants). My premise is that Old Covenant and Latter Rain mindsets and practices deter faith, hinder the unfolding of Christ in all His riches in our midst, and open the door to all kinds of otherwise avoidable difficulties associated with “manifestations.”

I know the sound I’m making will ring in some ears as heresy. Daring to critique value systems that we’ve been individually touched by and profited from for decades as being “not necessarily so,” will open me up to charges of being anti-worship, anti-Spirit, hopelessly left-brained, anti-glory and worse. I’m not. I’ve been a musician and worship leader in Latter Rain and P/C environments for 35 years. I “get it.” If, because of the carnality of my audience like the Apostle Paul (2.Cor.12) I were forced to brag about my personal supernatural experiences with the Lord, “touches” of His presence and so forth--I could hold my own. The New Testament is demure about such things. I choose to be also.

I’m not “anti-presence.” If we want to avoid going around in circles, our kingdom boat needs two oars: Word and Spirit. Spirit-less and stale theology is useless. Holy Spirit visitations sanctified in ignorance are a dead end. I’m pro-Christ and Him crucified as the only essential. I’m not opposed to manifestational glory, when it’s the Calvary/Cross-centered real thing, rather than psychically induced mass catharsis.

There’s often an assumption that an increase of endorphins in my blood stream is the same as the anointing or the presence of God. This is simply not true. An adrenaline rush is an unreliable evaluator of what is, or is not, anointed. Just because I really liked or witnessed to what the preacher said, doesn’t necessarily mean he was anointed. It could be agreeing to error together. Because I may be emotionally moved in a meeting, doesn’t mean that the minister or the meeting is necessarily anointed. I was just emotionally moved—for whatever reason. It is neither right nor wrong. It just is what it is. There’s no intrinsic spiritual value associated with my subjective feelings.

In Acts 5 when the Holy Spirit was killing Ananias and Sapphira, the room was full of “anointing” and “presence” and “glory.” It just would not pass the bar of how the P/C Church defines those things. The New Testament says that three “greatnesses” were upon the early Church: great grace, great power, and great fear (Acts 4:33, 5:11). Great fear relates to the foundations of genuine revival: God’s holiness and our repentance--concepts the modern church has virtually banished from consciousness. In many of our Church value systems the idea that something unpleasant or severe could be anointed is as rare as wings on a cat.

The Greek word for Christ, is Christos, which is the translation from the Hebrew for messiah (mâshîyach): the anointed One. The word “Christian” means “little anointed ones.” It originally was a derogatory term. Every believer shares in the Spirit of Christ. Without getting too technical about it in this article, when the New Testament uses the term, anointing/anointed, it refers to a one-time event, not a repeatable occurrence. Every believer is already anointed. The anointing is not a future event waiting to happen in a meeting after our praise and worship service or at the altar. It’s a past event whose effects are a present reality. For a believer, the anointing abides or resides. As such, a believer can function in what some call the “general believer’s anointing” at any given moment (at the direction of our Father, led by the Spirit). For example, everyone can pray for the sick, but not all have the gifts of healings. Every one can prophesy, but not all have the gift of prophecy or the office of a prophet, and so forth.

An individual’s unique gift package from the Spirit is like a heightened level of proficiency in one or more of the general qualities of Christ. Since the anointing abides, I don’t need to wait for special moments, special places, special feelings, or special times to release my gift. All these typify the Old order that Jesus said was going to pass away (John 4 - special place: the mountain, special times: feasts, special class of people: professional priest/clergy, etc.). I merely live, abide, and function in Him, and they happen.

When anointed individuals gather in a corporate setting, we should expect a “manifestation” of His presence--as diverse as those assembled and as diverse as the mind and intentions of God Himself. In this sense the gathering of the “little anointed ones” is a special event. However, it is only special because of what has already been done in us, not because our energy and spiritual enthusiasms make it special. Christ in us, plus our faith make it special.

The manifest anointing is also not dependent on any singular gift. The anointing rests on us ALL, not a specialist. (Colossians 1:27: you is second person plural–Christ in you all, together, is the hope of glory). When we all contribute our faith instead of relying on the exercise of a specialist’s gift while we remain passive, we can indeed expect Christ-centered manifestations and events to occur. This is simply the release of the life of Christ in and through His Body in all gifts and graces. This is kingdom normal, not “revival.”

The gifts of the Spirit don’t operate through anointing but by faith, love, obedience and bona fide, active concern for others, not my personal ecstasies (Gal.5:6, Rom. 5:5). Faith and love are the railroad tracks, that when laid, make possible the arrival of the train of power. Supernatural manifestations and power that occur because of “anointing” rather than within the framework of faith and love, are as profitable as a train without track: someone’s going to get hurt.

God’s manifestations flow from the essence of His being. So it is for the believer. The outflow of the life of Christ doesn’t happen as a result of me being stimulated. In the New Covenant, anointing flows from my identity in Christ not a mystic reservoir in heaven somewhere. The reservoir is in Him, in me. Any time I think or act from the Spirit of Christ in me, by definition, it’s anointed.

The Holy Spirit came out of heaven on the day of Pentecost and He never went back. We don’t have to sing or “shout” Him down out of heaven. He’s not a skittish dove hiding from us until we sing the “magic chorus” that somehow releases Him to release the anointing in our midst. The dove landed on Messiah, fire landed on the Church. We shouldn’t switch metaphors. We’re not empty vessels trying to be filled. We’re supposed to be filled vessels looking for release. The anointing is “releasable” by obedient faith, not sensory stimuli.

The tendency within P/C universes to equate sensory stimuli with the Holy Spirit “moving” is counter productive to faith. It sets up psychic systems of codependency. The absence of things sensory is not necessarily the absence of the anointing and the presence of things sensory is not necessarily the presence of the anointing.

The anointing is the realm of my “in-Christness.” I abide continually in Him, and this reality occasionally overflows into the realm of my five senses, especially in a time of corporate assembly. I do not come in and out of the anointing. The anointing flows in and out of me, as I, by faith, acknowledge and appropriate, every good thing that is in me, in Christ Jesus (Phm. 6).

www.SteveCrosby.com