Anointing is the unction of the Holy Spirit directing you into God’s will for your life in that moment, hour, or season. Anointing was there at one time does not mean it is there forever. There are special anointing that are there for certain things or specific seasons. Anointing are different from spiritual gifts and callings; anointing can come and go, but the gift and calling never leave you.The anointing can lift. The anointing can change. People can shift from an evangelistic anointing to pastoral anointing or from prophetic to apostolic anointing. It can move from one office to the next. It is like majoring in a specified degree in college with a minor in a different subject, yet both degrees work together for a specialized position or job, i.e. a tax-attorney is required to have a Law degree as well as their CPA. The same concept works in ministry. You can be called into one or more of the five-fold ascension gift ministries listed in Ephesians 4:11 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.”
You can be anointed to be a prophet and certain gifts and callings will remain with you. Even Paul prophesied, but he was an apostle. Not all apostles prophesy yet the gift can be there. The gifts and callings are irrevocable, but the anointing can change. We often fail to recognize this or mistake the anointing for the gift or calling. The anointing is the unction or leading of the Holy Spirit. If you hear what you think to be an anointed message it is probably because you are being called into that type of calling or spiritual gift. People may still move in the same way they were moving yesterday, but there is no anointing in it. They realize that something is missing. They are not getting what they got before, because God has changed directions. They need to get under that anointed cloud, back under that pillar of fire and power so that they can find out what God wants to do through them. As anointing change, we must change, because that is where He, the Anointed One, is. The anointing comes from God. To be in the anointed place is to recognize that we need to be under the covering of His Spirit. If we are under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit then we will be in the perfect will of the Father.
Jesus is “The Anointed One.” As Christians it is our life-long challenge to find out what we are anointed to do. The anointing we receive from the Holy Spirit is different than the calling of God. You see many men and women of God are called to preach or teach, but few receive the anointing to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that establishes your ministry. Jesus said: “if the people do not see signs and wonders they will not believe” (John 4:48). “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established” (Romans 1:11). When our Lord and Savior was appointed to read from the scriptures it was on this special Holy day He read what He had been called to do for all mankind. He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. Then He read the way it is recorded in the New Testament: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:16-19). Jesus knew what He was anointed to do and He fulfilled what His Father sent Him to accomplish.
When a prophetic word comes by a spoken word or through the written word or even on a billboard down the road it is anointed of God, impossible to miss. Jesus was called and anointed to put an end to the curse of the law of sin and death. This is the way it happens for most of us and when it does you’ll know without a doubt, for you will know that you know in your knower that God has an anointing for you. The anointing is the unction of the Holy Spirit directing you into God’s will for your life in that moment, hour, or season. There are times we need a new and fresh anointing to work in our lives, for the old no longer works. Unfortunately, too many people keep holding on to the old anointing and lose the fragrance that once brought God’s presence into their lives. If this ever happens to you, you will need to find His new anointing for you. You will be forced to find your anointing in order to move under the protection, the power and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Only then will you be able to accomplish the things God wants to accomplish through you.As long as you are doing what God has called you to do, there will be peace and harmony. You will be satisfied. Nobody will be able to touch you, and your emotions will all be intact.
2 Corinthians 2:14″…Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” When God starts to move us in a certain way, we want to look at it and size it up. Is it comfortable? Is this something I want to do? Is this something that lines up with my dreams? Our dreams can become nightmares when we try to forge them into our lives when God has not called us to walk in them. There are a lot of people trying to live out their dreams, but what they are doing is living out their own humanistic carnal nature, absent of His anointing. They struggle through life, trusting their own reasoning and rejecting God’s revelation all the while claiming Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” The problem is they are not in His purpose; if they had the anointing from the Anointed One they would not be banging their head up against the wall, confused, broken and not understanding why God isn’t helping them. Believe me when I say His Kingdom is not like Burger King. You are not going to get it whatever way you want. You must pray to ask, Hear His voice and Obey exactly His pathway!
We need to seek God’s revelation for our lives. It does not matter if it doesn’t manifest the way we think it ought to or that the fruit doesn’t seem to be there. What is important is that we are doing God’s will, and that can only be accomplished by His anointing. Not everything that is drawing a crowd is anointed of God. For example, most people think that if they are rich God has blessed them and anointed them to prosper, but we know this is not true. You cannot measure your spirituality by how much money you have in the bank or even how poor you are. Wealth and popularity are not the measuring stick for God’s anointing. These are things of this world; his anointing will manifest in the supernatural. This is the way you know the anointing is present. People build lots of things that are not of God. We see this all over the place. People may like the character of an individual or their personality or looks. They may like the way they sing or speak or even the way they wear their hair. People are attracted to them because of the lust of the flesh and the pride of this life, but those born-again should not follow these worldly temptations. We cannot allow ourselves to be led by our flesh’s emotions; we must be led by the anointing that comes from the Holy Spirit.
1 John 2:16 states this truth: “For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world.” Instead, we need to look at the anointing that rests upon the person. We have to ask ourselves if it is just entertainment or the anointing. It is sometimes hard to see the difference between being entertained and being taught something of value by the anointing of Christ. We need to know if it is our emotions that we are being moved by or if it is the Holy Spirit teaching us the ways and thoughts of God. The anointing teaches us all things, and it comes to us through the anointing that is given to men and women by the Holy Spirit. 1 John 2:27 “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him”.
It is in the anointing we will find our calling and gift in life not in the emotions of the “flash in the pan” hype of the worldly. Don’t be a copycats to copy what TV evangelists or prophets anointing but be yourself in great humility as Holy Spirit empowered and infused you with the holy unction anointing led by His Spirit! Hence let the Holy Spirit do His works in drawing the lost to salvation that these thirsty souls with great expectations be mightily touched! People who try to copy someone else’s anointing doesn’t fly as the work are preordained by the Holy Spirit to work. We need to find our own anointed message that God has put in our heart to share. There may be a likeness in the spirit of the same message others are preaching, but you still must have your own personal anointing that will touch those whom God has chosen.
In the charismatic circles, anointing are recognized in powerful healing ministries, in powerful preaching sermons and in the working of miracles, but there are also anointing in jobs. There are anointing in business. There are various anointing that help identify a person’s calling and gifting. The anointing is what equips us and empowers us to build God’s kingdom on earth. He is using this world as part of His manufacturing process; it is used as a symbol, a shadow of things to come. The most important thing is to find out what you are anointed to do, for when “you have anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things” (1 John 2:20).