The Anointing — Teresa Conlon

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. You're welcome to make additional cassettes of this message for free distribution to friends.

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The Anointing and Dependence on God

My message this afternoon is entitled, The Anointing. The Anointing. Would you pray with me? Father, I do thank you in Jesus' name that I am so dependent upon you right now. I do thank you, Lord, that everyone you've brought into this sanctuary that will hear this message, Lord, you want to say something to us.

Lord, I thank you every time you speak. It is life-changing if we can hear you. Lord, I thank you for everyone you've brought here. Lord, you've brought the hungry. You've brought those that want you.

You've brought those, Lord, that are confused and puzzled. But, Lord, your word when spoken does everything that it's supposed to do. Lord, it will meet our need. It will fill us with joy and power. It will release us.

Lord, I pray that we would grant us an anointing, O God, to receive from your hand and to receive this word. Lord, I'm dependent upon you to bring it forth, and I thank you. That's why the Holy Spirit is here, to reveal Jesus and make this a living word.

In your precious name, I pray. Amen and amen. I think when many of us think about the anointing, we have an idea of a preacher and someone who can powerfully speak truths that change the hearers. Many times, and that's true, and I think when we think of the anointing, we can think of men or women especially called of God, and they may have a healing ministry.

They have a word from God, and they can hear him, what he wants to do, and he wants to heal this one or go to this place or speak this word, and all that is true. That is what the anointing is. But the scripture is very clear when it says that all of us who are in Christ, God grants an anointing to.

And I'm encouraged today that God wants to give us an anointing in which no matter what he has called us to do, we may know God's mind, we may know God's word, and we may have the ability to speak it and to live it.

The anointing is like a veil, a bridal veil for his body, his bride, and the scripture tells us very clearly that we are partakers of that anointing that he has. And if you would just turn with me to 1 John chapter 2, two verses.

We're going to look at those today. 1 John, that's almost just the book before the book of Revelation, 2 and 3 John, which is just before Jude and Revelation, right at the end of your New Testament, 1 John chapter 2.

William Duma and the Experience of Anointing

There was a Zulu preacher, his name was William Duma, and he ministered in South Africa when South Africa was still under apartheid. God granted this man an ability to heal. God sovereignly chose him to have a healing ministry.

And in addition to that, and many, many wonderful miracles were recorded in this man's life. He passed away in the 70s. But one of the things he also did was, when God would speak to him, and he knew it was God, God granted him the ability to obey him.

Of course, if you're anointed and we're going to see that, God gives us that ability. And one time a couple came to him for marriage, to be married, and he was very uneasy about this marriage. And he tried to speak to the couple, but she would hear nothing about waiting or about postponing that marriage.

And he went ahead and he started the wedding, the day was set, and he was the minister to officiate their wedding. And as he was standing with this couple before him, he felt the Spirit of the Lord tell him, preach.

Now, I have been to a Zulu wedding in South Africa, and they do preach. And they don't preach to the bridal couple, they preach a sermon. So this was not really out of character except that usually you shorten it up for a wedding.

And William Duma began to preach and preach, and 15 minutes went by, and he kept preaching, and 30 minutes went by, and he was preaching, and 45 minutes went by, and he was still preaching. And finally, almost to the hour, the groom sank to his knees, put his hands in the air, and said, stop, stop, I'm a married man.

This man, William Duma, had an anointing. But beloved, when we look at 1st John 2, verse 20, it says, But ye have an anointing, that's an anointing, but ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

Verse 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 teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.

Beloved, this is telling us here that the anointing is going to be our teacher. The anointing that God grants is going to search us, and it is going to reveal things of God that God is going to tell us directly about himself.

It is by his Spirit, and when we have an anointing, we are going to be in touch with God, and we're going to hear things that other men can't teach us. We are going to hear things especially designed for us to hear, that we need to know.

We are going to hear things so that we may be faithful in proclaiming it, and faithful in living it. And everyone that is born of Christ, everyone that has the Spirit of God in him, the scripture says, But ye have an unction, that word means anointing, but you have an anointing from the Anointed One, and it says, and ye know all things.

You see, beloved, when it says that we have an anointing from God, it means something very special. You know, in the Old Testament, a person who had an anointing meant that they were a person chosen by God, separated to God's service, and it was a serious responsibility because the Spirit of God always accompanied that person.

That Spirit of God, the Living God, was upon that person. And so when God asked them to do something, or to speak something, it meant that they had a direct pipeline to God. It actually signified a very special responsibility, a unique relationship between that person and God.

Messiah, Christ, and the Anointed One

And the Hebrew word for the word anointing means is Messiach, and that underlines the word Messiah, which means, which is the Hebrew for Anointed One. In Greek, the word Anointed One is Christos, and both these words, Messiah and the Anointed One, of course, are talking about there is ultimately an Anointed One from God, that every word he speaks, everything he does, he will hear it from heaven, and he will be doing the absolute will of God, and all that he does, he will go about doing good, and he will break the power of the enemy, he breaks all spiritual darkness, he reigns supreme as the Anointed One.

There is nothing of hell, the flesh, or devil can come against an Anointed One, the Anointed One, Jesus Christ. But now the scripture says the Anointed One from God, who has that anointing, who can hear and does the will and work of the Father, now comes and gives us an anointing to New Testament believers.

It says, you have an anointing from the Holy One, and it says, and you know all things. Now that means that when we know all things, it means that we have access to the one who knows all things. When it says that we know all things, it means that all truth as we need it, because we are in Christ, through the Spirit, we are joined to God Almighty, the God who knows everything.

And everything we need to walk this life with an anointing to know God's mind, will be ours for the asking. When we by faith say, God, you've not left me alone to face this world without your word to me.

Without an anointing to perform what you are asking me to do. And all that we need, it says, you will know all things. You see, those with the Spirit of Christ, instinctively begin to know what are the holy things.

You see, you can be very young in Christ, or you can be far advanced in Christ, but the scripture is letting us know that when the Holy Spirit comes and takes up residence, He's going to begin to communicate to us, this is good, this is acceptable, or stay away from that.

You'll feel churning about something, you'll feel uneasy about something. We're going to be drawn to light. We are going to be attracted by truth. And at the same time, we are going to have a sense, even when we are young, that we don't understand it all, but we will understand, for some reason, we don't feel good about this, we don't feel we should go there.

We don't feel we should partake in that, and we don't understand it all, but it is the deposit of the Holy Spirit in us. And the Holy One in us recognizes what is good is an acceptable will of God, and He will teach us, if we ask Him.

He will reveal it to him, as we go through our day, He promises that He will anoint us. That He will give us a living word from God, for every situation that we face. But the Spirit, but in verse 27, it goes on, it says, But the anointing which you received of Him abideth in you.

And that word, the anointing which you have received, is the word charisma, and it means, it is an anointing that we experience. Beloved, we, nobody can teach this to you. You have to experience it. There is something that God wants us to experience in a daily way with Him.

There is an anointing where we can truly know His mind in a moment when we need it. God says, I will be faithful to you, but have we experienced it lately? It is something that we experience. And then the Holy Ghost gives us power to communicate the things of the Spirit.

So that word anointing there means experience, and it means communicating. And God says, I am going to give you a unique experience to hear My voice. That is your privilege. When you need it, when you need Me, when you need a direct word, you lift your heart up on faith and wait on Me, and I will be faithful to you.

He says, there is an anointing for you. Because the cross, I have gone to the cross, and because you have been cleansed by My blood, and now a Holy Spirit lives in you by faith. And He says, you have a direct line of communication, and I can send the Spirit to anoint you.

Have we had that experience? He says, then you are going to be able to communicate the things of the Spirit. Beloved, so many times we back up because we don't feel we know what to say. Many times we say, God, I don't know how to confront this situation.

God says, I want you to come to Me by faith, because He says, you are going to experience something, and I am going to give you the power to communicate, because you are going to hear Me clearly. What you experience will be My voice clearly.

And what an incredible thing it is when we begin to speak forth, lifting our heart up to Him and trusting Him, that when we begin to speak not our words and not our thoughts, not our heart, but not our will.

Beloved, we are going to be given the ability to speak things we have never fully thought out, we don't fully understand, we have never even considered. Under the anointing, we are going to know all things.

It's all of a sudden we have a direct line into eternal wisdom, and we have a direct line to how God's perspective on things. And beloved, that's a precious thing that God has given us. And it says, but the anointing which you've received of Him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you.

And the Scripture is telling us here that this anointing will abide with us in Christ as we walk with a sincere and upright heart as we heard this morning. The Scripture clearly tells us, I'm going to abide in you.

My anointing will remain in you, it's not a transient thing. It is dwelling in you, and we are to stir it up by faith. There is a resident anointing for you today. There is an anointing waiting for you and I to tap into by faith.

It says it abides with us. It's not going to be something if we've had a good day or a bad day. God says, if you are mine and you will lift your heart up to me, I will be faithful to you. And when we lift up our heart and say, God, I need a word.

When the anointing comes, God searches out our heart. He gives us an understanding of our own situation, but He will be faithful. And it will be something that can be stirred up. It abides in us. And sometimes, you know, because we don't have a white suit and we don't have a healing ministry, we think the anointing is not for us.

Where we can have a direct line to knowing God's mind and heart for a situation and the ability to perform it. God says, no, there is an anointing and it abides in you. And that's why you need not that any man teach you.

Because, beloved, under the anointing, we are divinely informed. You see, God divinely informs us. You see, that's what an anointing is. That's why nobody can teach it to you. It's because God chooses you and He's going to speak to you in that choosing.

Divine Guidance Through Moses, Cornelius, and Noah

Is our hearts open? We have to learn, God, I have to learn to be trained and know your voice because you are going to divinely inform me about things. And in the scripture, we see many men, many women who have been divinely informed because they are under the anointing.

No one taught them. No one told them this word. No one gave them. No one sat down and gave them the four principles of what they were about to hear. But when they heard something, they knew it was God.

The scripture tells us Moses was admonished of God. God says when he was about to make the tabernacle, God, it tells us in Hebrews, it says, see that you make all things according to the pattern shown thee.

Beloved, he was divinely informed. God came and admonished him, says, you have been called to build a tabernacle. And he said, make sure you do it according to the pattern I've given you. This is a man who God can speak to at every stage and concerning everything in his life.

He says, you're called to build something, and I've given you a pattern. Beloved, have we heard the pattern for our lives? He's building his life into us. He has a plan for our life. He has a direction for us.

Do we have the pattern of it? It is our privilege to have it. There is an anointing that dwells, abides in us, and we can have his mind and be divinely informed about our lives. Scripture tells us that Cornelius in Acts was warned from God to send for apostle Peter and to hear from him.

And here is Cornelius, a man who was outside the religious system that God seemed to approve. Yet here was a man that in his seeking for God, God began to speak to him. You know, there are people who have not been born again, as we would say, and God will still speak to them.

God is God. There are some people God can't talk to them because they don't go to church. Because they don't read the Bible. Beloved, God is God, and he can speak. And when he wants to, and for his own good purpose, he will speak.

And Peter was aghast. How can this man know to call for me? And yet when he came and the man heard him in his old household, the Holy Spirit was poured out. The Holy Spirit, because he was saying that I've called this man, and in the calling, I've given him an anointing, and he's going to become a divinely informed man.

And that's our privilege too. Scripture says in Genesis that Noah warned of God of things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house. Noah, being warned of God, became a divinely informed man.

And of things not yet seen, God could speak to him. That's an anointing. That, you know, they say that where he built an ark, a huge boat in the middle of a desert. He had never seen a deluge of rain.

He had never seen a flood. And yet God begins to speak to him things that he can barely understand. He can't fully comprehend. And yet being a divinely informed man, he knew it was God. And he did not debate with him and argue with him and give me more information.

There was anointing on him to recognize it was God's voice. And in that recognizing, he bent his knee to who was speaking. And he says he was moved upon with fear, with a deep awe and a deep respect, and he prepared an ark.

And his obedience in hearing the voice of God, his whole household was saved. And beloved, that's our privilege to be that divinely informed. Sometimes we want to know the whole story. God says no. There are things I can't even begin to explain to you about.

But he says because the Holy Spirit dwells in you, you have an abiding anointing. And I can speak to you things that you can't fully, fully understand with your mind. But he says I am God. And I will lead you through my scripture.

I will let the Holy Spirit confirm through this word what I'm asking you to do. And he says if you will obey me, he says I will anoint you. And you can do something you thought you could never do in the midst of ridicule, in the midst of misunderstanding, in the midst of yourself, of your own doubts and fear and insecurity.

He says there is an anointing for you to believe me and to move and prepare an ark to the saving of your house. There is that kind of anointing available to you and I. But sometimes we get so blinded to it.

We don't understand the scripture and we're saying God I need more. He says I will be your teacher in this anointing. I will divinely inform you and you're not going to hear it on a tape. You've got to get along with me.

But he says I will speak to you things you know not all. He says I will because who am I will ask. I'm no great one in the kingdom. I don't seem to have a lot of talent. I don't know what you want me to do.

God says if you are mine you have an unction from the holy one, the anointed one. There is an anointing for you from the anointed one and he will lead us on a path. But beloved we need to come in faith and say God I thank you.

You're going to make me a divinely informed person. Where you will speak to me things that I will know it is you. And then God I'm trusting you. You will give me the grace and the power to obey you in it.

The Anointing as the Doctrine of Christ

Now the scripture says in verse John 2 27 again it says but 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 teaches you of all things and is truth and no lie.

And beloved when we look at that word anointing here it also means the doctrine of Christ. It means that the anointing which you have received of him is an anointing of the doctrine of Christ. That means God is promising that he will teach us things of Christ.

Everything that pertains to Jesus Christ he will teach us. The scripture says in John 16 14 that the Holy Spirit will come and he shall receive of mine and he shall show it to you. The Holy Spirit has promised to teach us the doctrine of Christ the right teaching of Christ.

He will show us all things that pertain to Jesus Christ. Beloved there is a protection in here now because we know and we're going to talk about it in a minute but the but the enemy's offense against the anointing is to mimic or counterfeit the voice of God.

Because the anointing is so when you know word it changes your life and I'll tell you something it'll go with you to the grave. Whether we follow it obey it I'll tell you there'll be a time when the heavens open and an understanding and a power and a word will grip us and no one can convince us otherwise.

God spoke to me and when that comes in that conviction becomes a guiding light it becomes a rock it becomes something to stand on it becomes something to build our life on because it can't be taken out of our hearts.

God spoke it and this is what I will do or this is how I shall build if we're wise. And so the enemy is so fearing a divinely informed man or woman that he's going to counterfeit the voice but scripture says that he will teach you of all things that word anointing the same but the anointing which you have received is an anointing to know the doctrine of Christ.

He says I promise you I'll teach you of myself he says I'm going to break it down I'm going to crumble the bread so that no matter where you are in your walk of faith young or old he says I'm going to speak at your level.

I'm going to speak your language. I'm going to use words you understand I'm going to give you experiences that make it real. I'm going to teach you he says that's what the anointing is for that you may know me that you may understand me that I may become real to you that you will long to obey me because life is such an adventure as a divinely informed person says I'm going to teach you all things that pertain to me.

You don't have to worry if your heart is seeking me. If you say Holy Spirit come and give me that anointing to understand your will and what step do I make and what decision I make. Jesus says I'll be faithful to you.

There's an abiding anointing in you to know and that's our safety and that's our safeguard. He says I will teach you all things of the doctrine of Christ. And he says and is truth. Everything that the Holy Spirit says will be truth.

This anointing will magnify truth in our hearts. This anointing will bear witness only to the truth. A true anointing from God will only deal in truth only speaks truth only bears witness to the truth.

And that's our safety. The Holy Ghost will never anoint a lie it says. But this anointing which he received of him and that lives in you. This anointing that we've received from God will always bear witness of the truth and stir us up to truth and teach us truth and cause us to love truth and want us to move and live and have our being in truth.

And when we stray from truth the scripture says we can do nothing against the truth. In other words it will be there. It will not leave our mind. It will not leave our spirit. And there'll be those that have known truth and turned away from it and ended up going mad such as the power of truth.

But the anointing that we have received it says even as it has taught you it has taught us the doctrine of Christ. The scripture says if any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.

It says in teaching us what the doctrine of Christ is beloved it's going to have to teach us the power to obey. Because scripture says if any man will do his will he shall know the doctrine. If any man will not do his will he shall know the doctrine.

And if the anointing has come to teach us the doctrine of Christ to teach us all things about Christ it has to teach us how to obey him. Because those that obey him who do his will know the doctrine. And so he is going to give us the power the will and the heart to obey him.

That's part of the anointing because the knowing and the doing are inseparably linked. And we will join that line of divinely informed men and women from Moses and Cornelius and Noah who could be directed by the word of God and who could be found performing the will of God because they knew who was speaking to him.

The Anointing Produces Gentleness and Christlike Character

But another definition that I found of the anointing which we have received of him that lives in us means that means also the Christian temper or disposition arising from a sound Christian faith. In other words the anointing when it comes upon us is a tenderizing influence in our lives it is it begins to influence our Christian temper or disposition.

In other words when we begin to believe right and think right it becomes a truth and a powerhouse in our life. That begins to change our disposition our temper. In other words as we begin to move in Christ and we begin to see who we are apart from him and what our heart is really like.

And yet we find that he is so willing to forgive and he is so willing to cover us and give us that anointing to give us hope for the future that says I am with you so you will change I am with you. So there is hope.

And when we begin not to fear to be able to confess and come to him truly with what is in our heart and what are our failures. God says that I begin to tenderize your spirit. He begins the Christian temper or disposition arising from living under anointing becomes evident.

In other words we cannot be anointed men and women and continue in a harsh or or brash or arrogant manner the anointing begins to tenderize us. And it says even as it has taught you the last line even as the anointing.

This kind of anointing that gives us faith and begins to change our temper and teaches us of Christ it says even as it has taught you you shall abide or dwell in him means that this brings us to a place that we can walk with Christ because we're becoming like him.

There is no separating. We don't go off in our own way at our own tangents our own anger in our own pride. We get arrested by that Holy Ghost by that anointing that says stop. Where are you going. You're not dwelling you're not remaining.

You're moving away. And it's faithful to draw back and say that you as it has taught you you shall abide in him. It is teaching us how to abide in Christ. It is teaching us how to live in harmony with Christ.

The scripture says to live with Christ we must become as he is. It says if two cannot walk together except they be agreed how much more live together. If two can't walk together unless they're agreed if after a while that walk becomes tedious there's nothing to say or there's an argument breaks out and everybody wants to separate.

How much more living together. How much more agreement. How much more does one have to become like the other. And the praise be to God. The good news is Christ says if you dwell with me you'll become like me.

Rising influence who I am will begin to pervade every part of your being. You're anointed to receive that we are anointed as we walk with God. If he the anointed one lives in us we have an anointing to dwell with him.

We won't go off in our sin. We won't run off in this way without being stopped and checked by the Holy Ghost. He says there is anointing upon you that you may dwell with me. Sin cannot live with him. But I'll put an anointing upon you where you won't want that sin where you will.

You want to lay it down. He says there's an anointing there to change your heart that you will want to dwell with me and remain in me. Hallelujah hallelujah. And so a true believer will have in his life being produced a kindness and a gentleness that will eventually pervade our whole nature.

And so someone who is truly anointed has been divinely chosen divinely appointed and divinely informed to lead a life of hearing him and obeying him and growing in his nature. But what I want to say right now is that of course the enemy wants to counterfeit the voice of God.

Counterfeit Anointing and the Danger of Pride

The enemy wants to counterfeit a true anointing. Because the anointing is such a powerful thing in our life you have to I'll repeat again you have to experience it to know what I'm talking about. You can be a little on the outside of this message right now because you yourself have not experienced it.

But if you've come into Christ you can you can know what it is to know his mind and ask for the ability to speak it. You can know what it is all of a sudden you know what to do. You know what to say. No one has shown you this pattern before.

But you know like you know God is speaking to you. And you begin to obey him and move. And you see results happen that couldn't happen otherwise. And you begin to know that the kingdom of God has come to you.

And you've been just moving in his power. You've been moving in his grace. But because it's so powerful the very power of it wants to now come because it changes us. The enemy will want to come in now and he will want to corrupt him.

He will want to counterfeit it. And he is going to come against a true anointing in our lives. And a counterfeit anointing beloved something that is not sent of God something that where we begin to think we have the mind of God we're speaking the mind of God.

We're acting God told me and we move forward and we can't be told otherwise. Beloved is an anti-christ spirit it anti-christ everything against Christ everything opposite to Christ is what is now operating.

Because if we're not under that anointing that we can access by faith that God will let if we will wait on him God will speak. God will speak to us. If we're his children he will speak to us he will show us what to do.

But if there's something else operating in us and we begin to hunger for that anointing you see because under the anointing we are powerfully used under the anointing we do have the mind of Christ and we speak his word and things happen.

And the enemy wants to counterfeit that he's afraid of a true anointing. And so this this false anointing which will never produce truth will never produce right doctrine which will never produce gentleness or meekness will try to come attach itself and influence us and deceive us.

And we have to know that in the last times there is a stronger and stronger anti-christ spirit. You know at the end of the age the ultimate anti-christ will come and he will be the opposite of everything Christ is but he will be judged good for a season.

This is the power of the deception. In this when the antichrist appears on the scene the world men are going to hail him as the savior of the world as a man with the answers as a man finally who has a plan as a man who can be looked up to and admired because he's a leader beloved all that a true anointing is to us in our lives where we truly when we have the mind of God we have the plan we have the answers.

We know things when we're divinely informed that others around us don't know. But this other spirit is going to come and it's going to be animated by something evil. And basically the bottom line to an anti-christ spirit is pride.

And pride is the anointing killer. And pride will target the anointing in a believer's life. And we're going to be vulnerable after being used by God because we the enemy will try to come and think it was something of us in it.

You see we were gifted with that word. We were gifted with that action to perform. We were gifted. That's what an anointing is. But then the enemy or pride or flesh will want to come in and think we had a part in it.

And pride will begin to in the bottom of our hearts many times begin to find a place when God uses us. We may know in our heads that it was God's word and it was God's power. But beloved we're talking about a heart that can be so easily wanting its own praise wanting to be puffed up wanting power wanting to be well-spoken wanting a spiritual leadership role in the lives of others.

And when we speak under the anointing and we're divinely informed and we know what to do and there are results we can begin to think that we know better and we understand better or we see better than others.

And people will agree with us because under anointing we're seeing what they're not seeing. Do you understand what I'm saying. There's a true source there's a true power. But then our own heart and aided by the evil one will want to come in and feel and tell us that we have a part in this that we because of who we are have been specially chosen in.

You don't need to turn there. But in dan 520 it's talking about nebuchadnezzar and this was a king who God spoke to who in his own testimony said the Lord he is God. But there came a day when he was lifted up and here's what happened to him it says.

But when his heart was lifted up and his mind was hardened in pride. You see when the heart gets lifted up the holy ghost will be faithful. He will come he will convict. He will show us in private. He'll show us in devotions.

He will show us through the work. He will begin to expose the underbelly of our actions and motive. But if we when our heart lifted up and we will not deal with it and call it what it is you see because pride won't want to call its own cards.

It won't want to say this is pride. And yes I'm being prideful we have to we are no when we are are dealing in pride but we need the grace now to say that is me God. I don't think of myself as a prideful person.