The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me…Isa. 61:1
The word anointed or some form of it appears nearly 700 times in the Old Testament. Anointing oil was used extensively in the temple services. In Exodus 29, God gave Moses specific instructions for consecrating the priests who would serve in the Lord’s presence.
This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests…Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breast piece…Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head…And take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated.
Anointing oil was poured on priests, prophets, and kings in order to consecrate them for service to the Lord. It was also used to consecrate the altar and furnishings in the temple. To consecrate something is to dedicate it and set it aside for sacred service unto God. Anointing oil represents the Holy Spirit. In Isaiah 61, Jesus revealed that he had been anointed for his ministry because the Holy Spirit had come upon him. When Jesus was baptized by John, the Spirit descended from heaven and rested upon him in the form of a dove. From that moment on, Jesus was led by the Spirit and empowered by the Spirit. In the same way, when we committed our lives to Jesus, the Holy Spirit took up residence within us and marked us as those who belong to God. The Spirit is our anointing. The anointing marks us as those who belong to Jesus and empowers us for ministry.
The anointing oil used in the temple was made up of specific ingredients and was to be used for no other purpose. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much (that is, 250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant calamus, 500 shekels of cassia—all according to the sanctuary shekel—and a hin of olive oil. Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil” (Ex.30:22-25).
According to David Diga Hernandez in his book Encountering the Holy Spirit, each of these ingredients symbolize a quality that is important for us to recognize regarding our own anointing. He says that myrrh represents purity; cinnamon represents sweetness; calamus represents the fragrance of worship; cassia represents roots and growth; and olive oil is an essential substance produced by pressure. Purity, sweetness, worship, deep growth, and pressure are all elements of our anointing that we must willingly engage.
The greater the purity in our lives, the greater the anointing. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (MT.5:8). Anointing is all about the presence of God. Purity invites the presence while impurity discourages the presence. If we desire a greater anointing, we should be more concerned about purity…not with the world as our standard but with God as our standard.
Sweetness is the opposite of bitterness. Bitterness in our hearts places a ceiling on the anointing that can be released. Grace, forgiveness, generosity, etc. allow increase in our anointing. We should do a spiritual CT scan of ourselves on a regular basis to root out any bitterness that may be infecting our soul through envy, jealousy, unforgiveness, a judgmental spirit etc.
Worship is essential to anointing. The face of Moses glowed after being in the presence of God on Sinai. Worship brings us into his presence. It includes thanksgiving as well as praise. An increase in genuine thankfulness and praise should bring an increase in anointing.
Rootedness also is a key to our anointing. Jesus said we should build on solid rock rather than sand. We should provide good soil for the word to grow and put down deep roots. We should plant ourselves by the river of God (the Holy Spirit) so that we grow like well-watered trees bearing good fruit. We should never be satisfied with our current level of relationship with Jesus, but should always want to go deeper.
Finally, we should not despise pressure or difficulties, since it is pressure that squeezes the olive until the olive oil runs out. In a sense, olive oil is the medium that ties all the other elements together. When trials come, we tend to “press the Spirit for more.” If pressure causes us to press into the Spirit for more, then our anointing will increase. If we take offense at God because hard times have come our way, then our anointing will decrease. Perhaps, that is one reason that James counseled us, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (Ja.1:2-4).
So then, as we ask for a greater anointing from the Spirit, we should cooperate with the Spirit by being mindful of those things that defile our hearts and minds and beware of any root of bitterness that is starting to plant itself in our soul. We should increase our worship and set our roots deeper in the Word of God. We should also experience pressure and difficulties without complaint as we press the Spirit for more.
That is how we partake of the anointing oil of the temple now that we ourselves are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are not to pour it on sparingly but abundantly as we consecrate our hearts and lives to the one who sent his anointing to us. The anointing oil produced a sweet, almost heavenly fragrance that should be evident in our lives. Paul declared, “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2 Cor.2:15). The anointing produces fragrance. The more of it that rests on us, the more attractive we are both to the saved and to the lost as we present Jesus.
