5) The oil of anointing (Ex. 30:22-33) is in the eyes of God something extremely sacred, solemn and untouchable and everything which this oil touches is also sacred and untouch­able. Wherever this oil is located, it makes everything sacred for God and it speaks about the Presence of God at that location, or on that thing, or on that person. Whosoever does not respect or honour, deals with it carelessly, sloppily or disrespectfully calls upon him­self God’s Judgment even curse. God rebuked kings and warned them saying: “Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm” (Ps. 105:14,15). In the Old Testa­ment, this oil was real physical oil. In the New Testament, it represents the Holy Spirit and also the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22,23). The Lord said clearly: “Wherefore by their fruit ye shall know them” (Mt. 7:20). In other words: “By their anointing you shall know them”.

In general, the Christians today cannot distinguish, who has the anointing of God and who has it not, nor for what purpose or ministry the particular person has it. If a believer has no sense in himself that his life after his spiritual birth has “acquired a new signifi­can­ce”, that his life has now a “new purpose and goal”, then there can be something very quest­ion­able in his new spiritual birth, because that birth is in unity with Christ. there is Without anoint­ing no calling, and without calling there is no ministry! Our anointing will thus bring us into the Purpose-Predestination of God (Rom. 8:28), it will give us the goal into our future life where, in the first place, we will start changing ourselves in our character. And then the Lord will start changing of others – through us! If, therefore, after our mini­stry, nobody changed in his personality, even this brings questions into the spiritual birth of those believers present. I personally met many Christians with whom I would question whether they were born-again or not, since I couldn’t touch the Spirit of Christ in them.

Our relationships, fellowships, social contacts and friendships suffer precisely due to the fact that we do not discern and thus do not value the anointing of God, which means, the Presence of the Holy Spirit in the SOUL of other believers and maybe not even in our own soul. The anointing separated not only our spirit, but also our soul for the service to God. The fruit of the Spirit is yielded from our spirit, but it shows itself in our soul and through our soul. Many believers may have their life bound, even under curse, not free, not bless­ed. It will not be liberated into the Life of the Holy Spirit until their relationship and fellow­ship with other children of God are not cleansed and corrected according to the righteous­ness and Will of God. While we have in our heart bitterness, anger, grudge, hostility, arro­gance toward the anointed servants of God, or we ignore them, separate ourselves from them, etc., we will remain under curse and will not be able to move with our life even one step. This also applies to our attitude and relationship with the Word of God, which is just as Holy, Sanctified and Untouchable in the eyes of God. Believers are not supposed to “play” with the Word of God, misuse it for their own purposes or dishonor it in whatever manner. Believers often “play” with the Bible and are discrediting the Word of God with their sinful mind, speculations, twisting the Word so it may serve their intentions, etc. They choose from it only what suits them personally and the rest they ignore. This is sin!

Furthermore, any gathering of believers, who gather with honest and open hearts in order to worship God, give thanks to God for His Grace, Goodness and Salvation, to further know God and His Word, is also holy and sanctified and precious in the eyes of God. We should not participate in such gatherings without reverence, seriousness, dignity, without the fear before the Holy God. In other words, many Christians must yet learn how to behave in the House of God because the Holy Spirit is Present there! That is to say, that gathering is also, as it were, “anointed” by the Presence of the Holy Spirit. The ministry, which is done in the Holy Spirit, that is, under anointing, is similarly sanctified, holy and venerable.

Let us not forget that the oil of anointing had also the “aroma” of a holy oil, “sweet smell” and wherever this anointing rested upon, there was the “aroma of Christ”. The Presence of the Holy Spirit always made al things beautiful, lovely and cause also the change of the environment from heavy to light and peaceful and pleasant. His Presence always brings un­selfishness, self-sacrifice and a true compassion with sufferings, soft and merciful heart, sensitive toward sorrows and worries of others, which may try and it “doesn’t go” as they expect or desire according to their imaginations, beliefs or convictions. After all, the most im­­portant herb used for the oil of anointing was myrrh (Ex. 30:23). It was also one of the gifts to Jesus at His Birth representing and pointing to His future sufferings (Mt. 2:11). We know that Christ suffered for others, therefore, when God gives us anointing, it is also manifest in that we “suffer” for others even though we may not do it physically on a cross, but we have compassion in our soul and try to help in whatever way the Holy Spirit and His anointing upon us may lead us. I also suffer when I see my inability to help, which stems either from the lack of the needed gift of the Spirit (1Cor. 12:1-11), or from the lack of faith, or from the lack of knowledge of God’s Will concerning the other person and his situation. That is to say, the Holy Spirit is not leading me to the step, which at times I would desire in my soul, because I am not called for that. On the other hand, because I always try to assess the spiritual state of the other person, I am not so much grieved in myself whenever I know that this “works together for good” to that person and the only factor here may be time and patience. Our brother Peter is a good example here. Peter lives under the Grace of God though he may not agree with it, or he may not be conscious of it. The Lord’s intention is to bring him to His Kingdom through a wheelchair. How long he might yet have to sit in it, none of us knows it, though according to me, it does not depend on the Lord, but on Peter. Maybe that without that wheelchair, Peter might never get into the Kingdom, which is not my logic, but a spiritual perception, vision from the Lord. Because, according to the Lord, it is his spirit, which cannot stand and walk on his own feet. The Lord always looks at the spirit since the Lord’s problem is always our spirit and never our body (Mt. 9:2-8). The problems of our spirit enlarge and increase the problems of our soul! Instead of our clean spirit helping to clean our filthy soul (2Cor. 7:1) from its flesh and sinfulness, the spirit, being filthy himself, keeps increasing the filthiness of our soul… and our body suffers. And when our body suffers, then our soul suffers also.

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To be continued next week

brother Hanola

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