The Divine Anointing - Part 1 — T. Austin-Sparks

Continuing the way of our earlier meditation this evening from the Gospel by Luke, chapter 3, verses 21 and 22. Now it came to pass when all the people were baptized, Jesus also having been baptized and praying, the heaven was opened, the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him, the voice came out of heaven, thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well pleased.

Chapter 4,. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness during forty days being tempted of the devil. And he did eat nothing in those days, when they were completed he hungered.

The devil said unto him, if thou art the son of God, command this stone that it become a loaf. The devil answered unto him, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. He led him up, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

The devil said unto him, to thee will I give all this authority and the glory of them, for it hath been delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I give it. If thou therefore will worship before me, it shall all be thine.

Jesus answered and said unto him, it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. He led him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said unto him, if thou art the son of God, cast thyself down from hence.

For it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee to God thee, and on their hands they shall bear thee up, lest happily thou dash thy foot against the stone. Jesus answering said unto him, it is said, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

When the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him for a season. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and the fame went out concerning him through all the region around the city.

The Consciousness of Divine Destiny

The Spirit of the Lord, because he anointed me, continue as we trust with the Lord's help this matter of the divine anointing. We might spend a little while in trying to get inside of that tradition. Tremendously significant event in time.

Amazing perhaps, deducing, but I think we shall not be far from the truth to which we may come. We begin recognizing that there was a background consciousness of being here in this world, one with whom tremendous issues were bound up in the purpose and counsels of God.

A peculiar sense in him as his father, that had been with him it seems from at least boyhood, in him of a mission, just as I have said of a destiny. A tremendous, had been at work in his, through his life, a mighty thing, being with his, being in this world.

That was the background of this particular. Then there arised the day when he knew in his spirit, by the same urge and constraint, that a Christic step had to be taken. The movement of the spirit sent him to the joy.

He was being guided by the spirit in his, for one reason, because so exactly corresponded many scriptures of the Old Testament which had to be fulfilled. His movements had in them many prophecies, how Matthew was able to discern them, how frequently Matthew said that the scripture might be fulfilled, that the scripture might be fulfilled.

It was written in the scriptures, and here he is, so to speak, marking off, ticking off the scriptures that were being fulfilled in these various movements and activities and utterances of the Lord Jesus.

Safe ground when we say who had given those scriptures was guiding him into those scriptures for their fulfillment and that his movements were all according to plan, all according to the program, all according to the word.

Clearly that it is the word that is in accordance with the word, the fulfillment of the scripture. In that consciousness of this, to take the great precipice sent to Jordan, brushed aside John's demurrer and insisted upon being baptized.

Had context the cross. There is no doubt about it. Baptism, the great context of the cross. Undoubtedly with that larger context of the background consciousness, the fulfillment of the word of God, obedience to it in every step and movement, and in this capitulation to what his baptism implied and involved, all its significance.

Undoubtedly with that full, comprehensive, deep meaning context, the Holy Spirit came upon him. It was a testing, like we have expected immediately. Well, whatever we, not according to our expectation at all, it's the wilderness.

Sonship Tested Through the Way of the Cross

All that as a background, mighty consciousness of destiny and mission, an absolute and meticulous obedience to the word, complete, undeniable capitulation to the way of God. With all that, that's not what you expect.

You've gone as far as that. You've got all that. The foundation. Don't expect the next thing to be the wilderness. Whether you expect it or not, very often it is. Well now, he's in the wilderness. And what we note here, the focal point of Satan's, Satan focused his attack upon the question of sonship.

No mistaking that. Varying his methods and his means of attack, coming along different lines, the one, the one thing that is present every time is, if thou be the son, if what was said there of Jordan, be the son.

Every kind of satanic attack, make no mistake about that. What is after, that's the thing that matters. When we have said that, it is not just the fact that Satan is, it is the significance of sonship.

Sonship implies, signifies and involves sonship, involves and implies personal family inheritance. That consciousness of the Lord Jesus was a consciousness, consciousness which was not just a feeling, just a sense.

It was a mighty knowledge, a mighty intelligence. Read later, and you'll have a phrase like this, Jesus knowing that his hour had come and that the Father had delivered all things into his hand. Will I give this?

All things. Paul with that amazing revelation and insight tells us the full story of the counsels of God from eternity to sum up all things in Christ. Unto him were all things. What it implies for himself personally as the heir of all things, whom he appointed heir of all things.

But for this family we were speaking this afternoon, this family which God was reconstituting, this divine family of which the word quite definitely says we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus.

We, which is signified by that word sonship, the position or the office or the title is what this is going to lead to. If in some way it is meant, that is why that was made the focal point. It carried with it no less an issue than world dominion and universal authority.

Notice that Satan used that word. All this authority has been given to me in heaven. Now that's the involvement, yes, dominion over this world. God invested in sonship. That then meant an immediate and direct challenge to the prince of this world.

Sonship meant that and always means that. Therefore the son must be tricked up somehow for a moment. Go back to Jordan. That destiny, that destiny for himself and for his fellow heir and all divinely intended purpose was only to be reached by way of the cross.

That's what Jordan meant. He knew it, accepted it and was committed. That was no small committal. That way, that way knew quite well. That way in its spiritual significance would be the most devastating way to his humanity.

It would mean that he is even untrue. It would mean that he would be in a great, as it were, great trouble. It would lead to being forsaken of God for one terrible, unmanning, eternal moment. A moment like an awful eternity and outer darkness.

He could shrink. Is there no way out? Is there no other way? It would not be necessary. Not going back upon his commitment, but the awfulness and all that it involved now in full force breaking upon him.

The baptism meant that would only be reached along that line. The way what he was fighting out in the wilderness, was it? The great battle brought him to physical and mental exhaustion over those many, many long drawn out hours of day and night.

Was that it? Was he facing it all? In our surmise, that it was that. Then, then we can understand the diabolical and cruel attack of the enemy. There is another way. You need not go that way. You can have it all without the cross.

Are we right? He covers the whole thing. That was the meaning of the wilderness. Satan was saying in other ways and words, it need not be. There are other ways for you to reach your end and realize your destiny.

Lose your divine power to save yourself. That was a serpent, wasn't it? When he was actually on the cross. Save thyself. Beginning to end of this way. The way out, the way through is save thyself. You need not.

Do something to make an impression. By some trick. Powered us out from heaven. A tremendous impression. You'll capture them. You'll not have to argue that you came from heaven. They're dead. Failing that.

Seed to me some right of world dominion. Acknowledge me as the prince of this world. Come alongside of me in my government of this world and get it all. And all that in the hour of physical exhaustion and weakness.

You only got to know something at a tremendously exhausting time. Oversense things of God. And be point of fainting with weariness and know how cruel the devil can be. You can have it all without the cross.

That's the point. You need not go that way. What a value he gave to the cross. If that is what he meant. So I think the meaning of it all is devil. He won. He won that fundamental battle. Though the time will come when its reality will break upon him again.

The foundation of his victory is laid in the wilderness. He'll be able to say in the day of the most terrible ordeal. The prince of this world cometh to me but hath nothing in me. In the wilderness. I got through all that.

Then accepted the principle and meaning. Then he won the fundamental battle and came from the wilderness strengthened by the spirit and by angels. What do we come to? No wonder that there was in his step.

Divine Authority and Undivided Consecration

The whole issue dear friends is that of authority. The way of divine power. The way of the anointing which is only another way of saying the same thing. The anointing operating in power and authority.

He's a man. He has everything in his hands. The authority was not with the heart. The authority was not with private. They are. He's able to say concerning his life. No man taketh it from me. I have authority to lay it down.

Take it again and this authority I receive from my father. Beginning this kind of authority springs settling of major issues fundamentally. Leaving no place for a divided mind or heart. The man or the woman who has a question has no authority.

Never and always pull the divided heart. No power in that life. No authority in that life. There's no impact. Here is one who knows where he's going. What he's after. Some things. We have got to settle some as far as possible once and for all.

In principle some things. We have got to settle some as far as possible once and for all. In principle if there's going to be power there's going to be authority. When I use that word authority I do want you to recognize that in his life here on this earth it was not official authority at all.

It was moral and spiritual. It's like that with us. We have no office. No place. No position. No recognition amongst men. No official authority. Fundamental issues delivered them from a divided mind and a divided heart.

Tremendous moral strength and moral authority. Not the fierceness and forcefulness. Behind this he came from the wilderness and the power of the spirit. Just because dear friends we have already said of what was true of the Lord Jesus involved.

The Anointing Shared by Christ’s Body

A very few things in his case in which we have no place. We have no place in deity. We have no place in atonement. Very few things though in which he is unique. Most of the things which were true of him we have a place.

At this present we are occupied with this one thing. Paul had been anointed in him. The anointing which was his was his as head for and of the body. And we inherit that anointing when we are baptized in one spirit into one body.

Come into the anointing. But you see how the anointing works. You see what the anointing has as its goal. The anointing has as its goal no less a thing than this. Joint heirs with Christ to the all things of God.

And dominion with him. What we call to. While it may be true that the atoning aspect of his cross is his and his alone and not ours. There is such a thing filling up that which is behind the sufferings of Christ for his body's sake which is the church.

It is only another way of saying that there are aspects of the cross in which we have fellowship with him in his suffering. The way to this great destiny is this way and there is no getting out of it except there is an exception.

Satan's way of compromise. Come down. Come down. Save thyself. What was Satan trying to do in that wilderness? First of all then seeking persistently to bring the spirit of sonship into question. That is patent.

But don't do that. That is one of the things in which we are involved with Christ. I don't know whether you have any exercise about that matter. But I make this confession to you. Consciousness of the intensifying conflict, stress and pressure, have feared how I might finish up.

I have found myself praying that my faith might hold out to the end and that I should not at the end come under a cloud of doubting my sonship. An issue that is a very living one. To want to frighten you.

To make things difficult. But dear friends, that is what the Lord's people had to face so often right at the end. The dark cloud, physical exhaustion, mental exhaustion creeps over the mind so often the light of God seems to fade out.

It's a great quest. Too terrible. And for young people especially it makes things look very difficult. Let me remind you of this. You have got the Holy Spirit. That's the point. Brings me right back to why we are speaking about this at all.

The Holy Spirit and the Believer’s Anointing

The tremendous importance but the unspeakable value of having the Holy Spirit. We have read John to Christians. When all the questions, the anointing which you have received, abide it in you. Abide it in you of the importance of the Holy Spirit.

Rather than be frightened by what I have said, remember that the Spirit himself has placed you upon him. Stay you upon him. Count you upon him. Let me say this is not a matter of being a very clever person or a very intelligent person or a very gifted and able person.

This is something for the nothings and the nobodies. And I say that with a tremendous background of the word of God that the anointing will never, never function while your self-importance is on the throne.

The very functioning of the anointing spirit requires a lot of discipline. Remember when they went over to the land with their majority report. We were in their grasshopper in our own eyes. Not such a terrible thing.

It's really not a bad thing at all. If Joshua is really a type of the energies of the Holy Spirit, then he made the grasshoppers drive out seven nations mightier than themselves. Grasshopper. Do you like that?

Grasshopper. Club in America. Some wonderful victories and they have named themselves the grasshopper. All right. You'll be a grasshopper if you're winning the victory. You see, it's the Holy Spirit, not ourselves at all, in us and through us who is the mighty energy.

Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. A tremendous thing. First thing then that Satan was trying to do was to bring the spirit of sonship into question. Oh, be guarded on that matter.

The second thing that he was trying to do was to sabotage the supreme issue of sonship. That is spiritual authority. Lastly, nullify inherent potentiality of sonship. That's what he was trying to do. He's always trying to do that.

Always trying to do that. But again, I come back. If Jesus had not been anointed at the Jordan, it would have gone ill with him in the wilderness. But ye have an anointing. Ye have an unction. Really have come into the meaning, the true meaning of being a child of God.

I know the various theories and interpretations of this whole matter, the doctrine of the spirit. Whether everybody who is born again really has the spirit. I'm not careful to try and argue that out tonight.

I simply say this. No new birth can take place without the Holy Spirit. And if the new birth is an inward thing, the spirit does it inside. And with the new birth, the consciousness of a new inward government is established.

And that is no other than the presence of the Holy Spirit. Some of us, years after we were saved, came into a new experience. But we knew in those days before, when we were doing many, many things that today we are horrified of ever having done.

We knew even in those days, working within, that we never had before we were the Lord's. That throne of judgment, that adjudicating on matter, troubling of us, before ever we came into a greater understanding by the very fact of the spirit.

You can go away if you like and become involved in all these contentions about the doctrine. But let us rest back on this, that if we are children of God, spirit, hymns begin. We learn much. And oh dear friends, I say this to you, that on which so much of the trouble and confusion and misunderstanding is just this.

It's a matter of the measure of the spirit's liberty more than anything else. And if any of us have at any time had a crisis, come into some fuller knowledge of the anointing, the very big crisis it has been, it wasn't because of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

It was because the cross was allowed to do some more drastic work in us to make way. The cross always does that. The measure then of the spirit's functioning of the anointing, the measure therefore of our victory over the enemy, of our coming to that end to which we have been born.

The anointing, the measure, will be the measure in which, like our Master, we have faced the meaning of the cross and accepted, capitulated to it, thought out its issues if necessary, where this world is concerned and our own interests are concerned and every other, and have no divided mind about these things.

The Lord help us.