BY KENNETH E. HAGIN
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be IN you. – John 14:17
The Spirit of the Lord is UPON me, because he hath ANOINTED ME to preach the gospel….Luke 4:18
There’s an anointing that comes upon a believer so he can function in the place or office to which God has called him. That’s a ministry-gift anointing. But there is an anointing within every believer – the Holy Spirit – who teaches us and guides us into all truth. As believers, we have already received that anointing, and that anointing abides within us continually!
1 JOHN 2:20,27
20 But ye have an UNCTION from the Holy One, and ye know all things…. 27 But the ANOINTING which ye have received of him abideth IN you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same ANOINTING teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye
shall abide in him.
John wrote these verses to believers, not to sinners, because First John 2:28 says, “And now LITTLE CHILDREN….” Now notice verse 27, which says the anointing “abideth in you.” Well, of course, that anointing is the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is a divine Person who provides the anointing that abides within every single believer.
Notice also that in one of these verses John calls the anointing an “unction,” and in the other verse he simply calls it “the anointing.” An unction and the anointing are the same thing.
John also said, “The ANOINTING which you have received of Him abideth IN you, and you need not that any man TEACH you, but as the same ANOINTING TEACHETH you of all things, and is truth and is no lie; even as He has TAUGHT you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27).
The Bible says the anointing will teach us all things (1 John 2:27). However, that does not mean we don’t need teachers. That simply means that the anointing is going to teach us concerning the things of God by bearing witness to the truth.
A number of years ago, we were holding a crusade in a certain city in one of the western states. After one meeting, an older man – a Bible teacher – took my wife and me out to lunch. He asked me, “Do you know So-and-so?” and he mentioned a certain minister’s name.
I said, “I met him and shook hands with him, but I wouldn’t say that I know him.”
“Well,” the Bible teacher continued, “this minister came to this city to hold a seminar, and I went to listen to him a couple of times. He sounded really good. Then at our own regular weekly meeting, I told my Bible class of 400 to 600 adults about the seminar, and they went too. Everything went along fine for a while. There were some things this minister said that I didn’t completely agree with, but they were minor things. They didn’t amount to very much.
“But one night he got off on something that I really disagreed with. So I went up to him after the service and said, ‘I’ve been going along with you on some of the things you’ve been saying, but you’re going to have to give me chapter and verse for what you preached tonight.’
“When I said that, this preacher said, ‘Aw, you won’t find what I’m preaching in that thing,’ and he pointed to my Bible!”
You see, this minister had a so-called “special revelation” – something that no one else had. But you know, friends, anything that’s not in line with the Bible – no matter how “special” it is – is not of God. It’s a lie and a deception of the devil.
So then, of course, this Bible teacher encouraged his Bible class not to go to this minister’s meetings anymore. But he lost half of them who continued to attend the meetings anyway. He lost them to a so-called “new revelation.”
Now here’s the point I want to make to you. There was a little Chinese lady who had only been saved for six weeks and who had gone to the same meeting that those in the Bible class had attended. She told my wife and me, “I went to just one of this man’s meetings, and do you know what? Something right on the inside of me told me, ‘Don’t go back there anymore.”‘
This lady heard the voice of the Holy Spirit – the unction or the anointing. That anointing bore witness with her to the fact that this preacher was not teaching the truth of the Word of God.
Think about that! That Chinese lady was just a baby Christian! She hadn’t even been baptized in the Holy Spirit yet, and she heard from God. (If you’re born again, you have that witness or anointing on the inside.) On the other hand, the Bible teacher was baptized in the Holy Ghost and had been teaching the Bible for thirty-six years. Yet he missed it.
You may ask, “Why didn’t the Holy Ghost tell the Bible teacher?” The Holy Ghost was trying to teach that Bible teacher. The anointing is trying to teach us all the time. But if we’re not tuned in to the Spirit of God, we won’t hear Him.
That Chinese lady was just listening to the Teacher – the Holy Spirit. What happened to the older man is what happens to many people. They get their head educated at the expense of their spirit, and they stop listening to their spirit – to the Holy Spirit or the anointing within their spirit. They stop listening for God’s still, small voice speaking on the inside of them.
You see, the anointing abideth in you – in your spirit – not in your head! The anointing doesn’t bear witness with you through your body or through your physical senses. He doesn’t bear witness with you through your mind. He bears witness with you on the inside – in your spirit – where He lives. He abideth in you!
I’m well satisfied that the anointing abiding within that Bible teacher was trying to tell him all the while that something was wrong with what that traveling minister was preaching. But the Bible teacher’s head took over; his intellect got in the way.
In other words, some people know so much mentally or intellectually that it gets in their way when it comes to the things of God. They begin to depend upon their mind or their own understanding instead of upon God and His understanding.
One reason people have difficulty in this area is their minds are all cluttered up with a lot of worldly things, and they’re not listening to the Spirit of God. Many times they don’t even know that they are a spirit (1
Thess. 5:23) and that the Holy Spirit, the anointing, is abiding in them – in their spirit!
The Holy Spirit or the anointing on the inside of you will teach you if you’ll let Him! I started out in the ministry as a young Baptist boy preacher.
Pentecostals used to come to our town, put up tents, and have revivals. They got a number of people saved, so they built a church.
I found out that those Pentecostals believed in healing, so every opportunity I had, I’d visit that church. The Pentecostals preached some things I’d never heard before, such as being filled with the Holy Ghost
with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.
Well, because of the teaching I’d received all my life, my head got in the way, and I rebelled against some of those new things I heard them teach. But before long, the Holy Spirit on the inside of me – the anointing –
began to get through to me. He began to teach me. As he taught me, I was able to go right on into the full blessings of God!
The anointing that abides in us is in there all the time. So get acquainted with the Holy Ghost on the inside of you! Practice the Presence of God.
You ask, “What do you mean, ‘Practice the Presence of God?”‘
Well, acknowledge that He’s in there on the inside of you. Be conscious of the Holy Spirit in you, and you’ll find that He’ll manifest Himself.
You start practicing the Presence of God by confessing, “I will become more conscious of His indwelling Presence. I’ll listen to what He has to say to me, for He is the Guide, and He is the Teacher. And He is guiding and teaching me.”
Well, thank God for the individual anointing. But now notice a different kind of anointing in Luke chapter 4.
LUKE 4:18
18 The Spirit of the Lord is UPON me, because he hath ANOINTED me….
This kind of anointing comes upon you. In other words, there is an anointing that can come upon a person to do that which God has called him to do. It’s a ministry-gift anointing. While Jesus was on the earth, He was anointed to stand in all five ministry offices (Eph. 4:11). First of all, He stood in the office of an apostle.
HEBREWS3:1
1 … consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession [confession], Christ Jesus.
The Greek word for apostle “apostolos” – means a sent one; a messenger. Well, Jesus stands at the head of the list of sent ones. Jesus is in a class by Himself as an apostle.
Jesus also stood in the office of a prophet. He calls Himself a prophet in the same chapter in which He said He was anointed (Luke 4:18). Referring to Himself, Jesus said, “…No prophet is accepted in his own country” (Luke 4:24).
And then Jesus stood in the office of an evangelist. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me TO PREACH the gospel… ” (Luke 14:18). Evangelists primarily preach the gospel – the good news.
Jesus also stood in the office of the pastor. The same Greek word translated “pastor” in Ephesians 4:11 is also translated “shepherd” in other verses of Scripture. It is the exact same word. Jesus said, “I am the good Shepherd… ” (John 10:11).
We know Jesus stood in the office of a teacher. Luke 4:14 says, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about. And he TAUGHT in their synagogues……
After being anointed with the Holy Ghost, the first thing Jesus did was to teach. And if you’ll go through the four Gospels carefully and underline every word “teach” or “taught,” you’ll find that He did more teaching than anything else.
MATTHEW 9:35
35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, TEACHING in their synagogues, and PREACHING the gospel of the kingdom, and HEALING every sickness and every disease among the people.
So you see, Jesus had the anointing that goes with all the ministry offices. According to John 3:34, He had the Spirit without measure.
JOHN 3:34
34 … for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
Just as Jesus had the anointing for each ministry office, you will have the anointing to stand in whatever office God calls you to. You will have the anointing to do whatever God calls you to do! The anointing to function in that particular place or office will come upon you.
As I already mentioned, this kind of anointing comes upon us. The anointing that abides in us is with us all the time. But the anointing that comes upon us will not be in manifestation all the time. Yet the potential for that anointing to manifest is there because there is an anointing that goes with every office or calling.
LUKE 4:14-18
14 And Jesus returned IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT into Galilee: and THERE WENT OUT A FAME OF HIM through all the region round about. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias [Isaiah]. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord is UPON me, BECAUSE HE HATH ANOINTED ME….
So it is the Spirit of the Lord who anoints. And when God anoints someone to do whatever He has called him to do, that anointing will be noticeable. We see that in the Gospels with the ministry of Jesus.
But have you ever noticed how dry some preachers are? You sit there listening to them for thirty minutes, but it seems like three hours! And they actually say that God called them and anointed them!
But someone who’s preaching under the anointing is not dry. An hour will go by and it’ll feel like it was only ten minutes. The anointing makes the difference!
To teach and to preach without the anointing is nothing in the world but a disaster. But by the same token, some people endeavor to live their daily lives without the anointing, and they mess up – they make mistakes. Some people even try to deal with demons and evil spirits without the anointing. For example, the seven sons of Sceva in Acts 19:13-17 were going to cast the devil out of someone. They said, “We command you, in the Name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, to come out of him.’ The devil in the man spoke up and said, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?”
And the Bible says, ‘And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded” (Acts 19:16).
The Name of Jesus is powerful. Because the Name of Jesus is powerful, we shouldn’t speak that Name glibly but in faith and anointing.
In other words, the anointing makes the difference! And believers need the anointing upon them to accomplish what God has called them to do.
But we all need the anointing that’s already within us as believers. That anointing abides with us continually. We should practice the Presence of God every day, so that no matter what the test or task, the anointing within will teach us, guide us, and put us over in life!
THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS PUBLISHED IN THE WORD OF FAITH IN NOVEMBER 1994, AND
WRITTEN BE KENNETH E. HAGIN. THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR STUDY AND RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.
