Anointing: 101
Anointing: 101 — A Series of Three Articles
This is a testimony, teaching post originally from 2012 and useful for those still seeking and learning.
Please forgive any ‘Christianese’ — please ask me if you don’t understand!
Anointing 1
Anointing
One weekend in 2012, we had what was probably the best Sunday teaching service I have EVER had the privilege of attending.
The Praise and Worship was anointed, prayer time was anointed, but most of all, Pastors sermon was amazing!
Come ministry time, he called anyone who wanted it to come forward for anointing — not prayer, just anointing.
Then there was an explosion of praise to conclude the meeting culminating with Pastor singing the blessing and dismissal.
An absolutely amazing, and Spirit filled, time with God.
It was all part of an on-going series on ‘Anointed Hearts’.
On this occasion we looked at physical anointing and what it meant in The Bible. The Pastor threatened to pull one of the leaders, who has a beard, out to the front.
He wanted to dress him as a priest in the style of the Old Testament, and anoint him in that same style.
That would have meant that somewhere between a pint and a litre of oil poured over the priests head, flowing down his beard, over his robes and onto his feet.
Deciding this was perhaps a bit messy, he described what happened instead. He also described how people were anointed in a slightly different and definitely less messy way, on the lobe of their right ear, their right thumb, and their right big toe.
“What’s all that about?” Pastor asked, before explaining — and this is where it gets really interesting.
Ear
The lobe of the right ear is anointed, so that our hearing and listening to God is anointed, so that we may hear Father God clearly as He guides and teaches us in His ways.
The ear is for listening, for hearing.
Thumb
The right thumb is anointed so that whatever we turn our hand to, as per the words we hear from God, we will succeed.
The thumb is for action, for doing.
Big Toe
The right big toe is anointed so that everywhere we go in response to God’s Words, we will go safely and succeed, and ‘take the ground’ to which He points us.
The toe is for going.
After this, we were all anointed — ear, thumb, and toe.
Finally Pastor sang the blessing and dismissal. It was a beautiful service and extremely powerful.
The Anointing of The LORD, The Holy Spirit, was on every moment of our time together.
It was an amazing and very humbling moment and it shows how serious and important anointing really is.
We can all receive The Holy Spirit’s Anointing — but it is just as important for us to receive physical Anointing too — and I mean using real oil.
There is a great peace and joy in receiving the Anointing, so that we can carry it wherever we go and give it to whoever we meet.
As a Church, we rededicated ourselves to The LORD’s service today and it was a beautiful “God-kissed” moment.
The whole Church, not just some, but everyone, reached out to The LORD corporately.
We want to make a difference to our community.
May I suggest that you consider doing the same sort of thing too?
Anointing 2
Prayers That Have Real Meaning
In the first part, I spoke of the Corporate Prayer offered up in Church last weekend.
They came towards the end of the sermon from our Pastor — a renowned worship leader and soloist in his own right.
The impact these prayers have had may be immeasurable — many folk were in tears as they prayed these words.
I offer them here with very little explanation or interpretation. They stand as prayers in their own right.
On the day, we heard about “The Anointing”; its origins and meaning both then and now.
We heard about the value and meaning of Anointing the lobe of the ear, the thumb, and the big toe.
Then Pastor challenged us to speak out together and pray two simple but wonderful prayers.
First we were reminded of the words of Isaiah in chapter 61 — any emphasis is mine alone.
These are words of confirmation of our responsibilities — should we choose to accept them.
It is spoken as a prayer from us, confirming to The LORD that we understand His calling upon our lives — again — should we choose to accept the calling.
“God’s Spirit is on Me; He’s chosen Me to preach the Message of Good News to the poor; sent Me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind; to set the burdened and battered free. Amen” Isaiah 61:1.
The second prayer is far more a personal commitment to the work of The LORD in all our lives.
Pastor emphasised very clearly the seriousness of a prayer such as this, prayed with all our hearts.
“LORD, I pray for a personal encounter with you and your anointing.
I embrace the precious blood of Jesus.
I want to draw close to you and receive your empowering anointing to effectively serve your purposes. Amen.”
This was the moment when our leadership team anointed, with oil, our ear, our thumb, and our big toe (not literally the toe, but the foot/ shoe)
This was the moment when so many people felt, some for the first time, the call of God upon their lives.
I got the feeling that life in our Church was about to get a whole heap more exciting.
Anointing 3
Holy Spirit Anointing
I feel led to conclude this “mini-series” by talking about the Anointing of The Holy Spirit.
What is The Anointing?
What does it do for us?
How do we use it?
We already know and understand the physical anointing with oil.
The Anointing of The Holy Spirit is somewhat different.
It is the power of God at work through us.
It is the manifestation of Holy Spirit in our lives.
It is the presence of God with us at all times — wherever we are, whatever we are doing.
The Power of The Anointing
The Word of God describes it like this –
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8.
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with The Holy Spirit and Power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” Acts 10:38.
This power is the same power that God used when He created the world!
Isn’t that amazing, that God should allow us to use His almighty power to do His work for His Kingdom?
Actually no — it is perfectly logical to me as He only allows us to use His power to do the things He has told us or shown us to do.
It empowers us for holy living (Acts 1:8) The Anointing of The Holy Spirit is for us to live holy lives through His empowerment.
It puts the seal of God’s Ownership upon us:
“You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” Ephesians 1:13.
So the presence of The Holy Spirit in our lives is the seal of God upon us.
It manifests God’s powerful Presence in our lives (Acts 10:38) in the same way that Jesus manifested Holy Spirit’s presence in His life and work, so we will do the same.
It breaks yokes, bondages and limitations.
In Isaiah 61:1 it says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because The LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.“
So, the anointing will break all our yokes, and bondages, and our limitations. With God, we can do anything.
Practical Application
Apply The Blood of Christ – to our thinking; our hearing; our doing and our going.
We apply The Blood to cover us spiritually, for protection.
“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12.
Applying the anointing — to break every yoke, to bring joy, for divine power, and for a great sense of His Presence.
Everything you do, do it in the anointing and presence of God.
Carrying His presence
Whenever we go anywhere — to Church, to work, to the shops, to school, to family — anywhere at all, we can carry the presence of God with us because that is our manifestation of His anointing.
People notice it too!
I know stories of workmates who stopped swearing, just because it would offend one of their work-mates who happened to be a Christian.
That is the presence of God manifest on our lives.
I hope all this has helped someone — it certainly helped me when I heard it all for the first time.
~ Chris G. Bennett
Chris Bennett came to salvation in 1962 but didn’t begin ministry until 2007 — a late-comer! Now mandated by The LORD to prophesy and open old wells of revival in the U.K., but especially in Wales. He has also operated Healing Rooms, and worked with deliverance teams, all with his wife, Linda. Happily now doing whatever The LORD asks of them! Founder, with wife Linda, of their ministry The Upper Room Encounter.
when I was anointed with the ear, thumb, toe method at first I thought “this seems like something I know and should remember” . Then later it came to me that this was the Levitical priestly anointing. Later it was prophesied I also had an ox anointing – which I ended up having to research to grasp what it meant. I like this post by Chris and other ones that Richard Barker has forwarded to me from time to time.