Covenant – Seed of Abraham – Part 7

There is an uncompromising need of the anointing in our lives.

Luke 4:18-19 – The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

If you are being true to the Word of God, you cannot do a study of what it means to be the seed of Abraham and not enter into a deep study of the anointing, what it is, how it works, and how we are to flow with it.  While I’ve already talked about it to some degree, today I want us to enter into it much more deeply.  To accomplish that, let’s begin by examining our Text for Today.  This is likely one of the best known passages of Scripture speaking directly to the power, work, and method of the anointing in the life of a son of God.  It is of course, speaking primarily about Jesus, but it is yet deeper. 

First of all, pay close attention to the tenses of the first two verbs used in this passage.  “The Spirit of the Lord IS upon Me, because He HATH ANOINTED Me to preach the Gospel.” 

• IS – passive verb indicating a state of being; present tense
• HATH ANOINTED – active verb indicating action; past perfect tense

Understanding this is very important to establish the position of anointing in the work of Holy Spirit in the believer.  The simple truth is this.  For the anointing to be upon someone in an active sense, that person must be anointed.  In other words, the anointing ALWAYS precedes the manifestation of Holy Spirit.  Jesus declares in these two verses that He was anointed before the manifestation of Holy Ghost came upon Him and His ministry.  He was anointed to do all the things He did before Holy Ghost empowered Him to do them.  He was called the “Christ child.”  That means the anointing to do the works He did starting at age thirty had been on Him for thirty years.  .

Then when we read 1 John 2:20-27, a clear image of the divine connection between the anointing and the manifestation of Holy Ghost begins to be seen.  The anointing teaches us how we are to walk in the power of the Spirit.  I am convinced that the Father used the first thirty years of Jesus’s life to teach him how to walk in the power of the Spirit.  It was not something that just happened.  There was a divine preparation.  If it was needed for Jesus, the seed of Abraham, shall it not likewise be required of you and me, the seed of Abraham belonging to Christ?  Do you desire to walk in the power of Holy Ghost as the seed of Abraham should?  Then expect to be trained, to be taught, to learn, and to grow before that happens.  Selah!

Manna for Today – Genesis 17; Galatians 3:13-29; Hebrews 1:3; Joshua 1:6-9; 3 John 2