Allocating the Anointing

Today I heard something incredibly disturbing. As a worship leader recovering from deep spiritual abuse, it hurt me to the core of my being. My heart breaks for what the members of the worship team in this story had to go through.

A minister was speaking a congregation about the worship team of that particular church. She called the worshippers up and began to speak over them. She opened with this: “come into agreement with me, I’m gonna prophesy…”

Right off the top, yikes. What happened to judging or weighing prophecy?

She began to prophesy the standard stuff, good stuff like a “new sound” coming, and that there would be a prophetic well of worship, prophetic worship that would shatter walls.

It was all good, very encouraging, until she called the pastor of the church up to join this team of worshippers and said this:

“You need his (the pastor’s) anointing to do it. You need the anointing that he has to accelerate and move in that, right? Because you guys are good, I really enjoyed the worship today. I enjoyed the purity and the sweetness of it, but you need what he has and don’t ever, ever forget that. Don’t ever forget that it is the anointing from this house that is going to accelerate you”

Wait, what!?

I had to stop and replay her statement. You need your pastor’s anointing to worship prophetically, to play the new song that all worshippers are exhorted to play? This is blatantly untrue and unbiblical.

1 John 2:20-21 MSG

But you belong. The Holy One anointed you, and you all know it. I haven’t been writing this to tell you something you don’t know, but to confirm the truth you do know, and to remind you that the truth doesn’t breed lies.

Jesus was not anointed in the Old Testament way of smearing or rubbing oil. In other words, he didn’t need a man or ministry to verify, affirm or “cover” the work he was doing. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit alone.

Anointing is the empowerment of God through the Holy Spirit to accomplish his will in our lives. Jesus was walking in the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and we are called to do the same.

1 John 2:24-27 MSG

Stay with what you heard from the beginning, the original message. Let it sink into your life. If what you heard from the beginning lives deeply in you, you will live deeply in both Son and Father. This is exactly what Christ promised: eternal life, real life! I’ve written to warn you about those who are trying to deceive you. But they’re no match for what is embedded deeply within you—Christ’s anointing, no less! You don’t need any of their so-called teaching. Christ’s anointing teaches you the truth on everything you need to know about yourself and him, uncontaminated by a single lie. Live deeply in what you were taught.

In Luke 4:18, we read about Jesus declaring that he is the fulfillment of a prophecy in Isaiah. He quoted the scripture, saying “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.”

In John 14, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to us, to help us and be with us forever. He said that the Holy Spirit will live with us and in us. Later in John 20, Jesus commissions his disciples, saying “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” After saying this, he breathed on them and said, “receive the Holy Spirit.”

We receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit when we choose to follow Jesus. We can thus make the same declarations that he did, that the Spirit of the Lord has anointed us for ministry, and that we are sent into the world in the same way he was sent his Father.

2 Corinthians 1:21,22

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

We are anointed by the Holy Spirit. That’s all we need. If Jesus didn’t need any further anointing, than neither do we. We don’t need to confuse things by taking it a step further and adding our own seal of approval, our own covering or commission. Though it feels good to be affirmed by people, we are not called to seek the approval of man.

No man controls the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who is following the way of Jesus has been promised the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and they are anointed to accomplish his will on the earth, to live by the principles of the kingdom of heaven here on earth. There will only be more loss, more hurt, more churches in conflict if we continue to impose our will on the will of God.

We’ve been called, commissioned and covered by the blood of Jesus, and we carry the anointing of the Holy Spirit. May our lives reflect the Love of God to the world, and may we not allow religion to complicate the simple message of the Gospel and life in the kingdom of heaven.

Peace.