The Anointing of the Holy Spirit

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 1 - The Anointing to Minister

Reading: Luke 3:21,22, 4:1,2,18,19; Acts 4:27, 10:38; 2 Cor. 1:21,22; 1 John 2:20,27; 1 Sam. 16:11-14; 2 Sam. 7:8.

I am quite sure that many of the Lord's people are none too clear upon the different aspects of the Holy Spirit's Presence and ministry in the life of the believer, and that there is a good deal of confusion; that terms become mixed and there is not clear discernment of the specific significance of each term used in the Word of God. I mean the fact that we hear of those in the New Testament who were baptised with the Spirit, and filled with the Spirit, and sealed by the Spirit, and anointed; and it is important that we should be able to discriminate on these matters. It is not my intention to lead you out in such a discrimination, that may come itself as we go on. What I am concerned and occupied with is the anointing as representing some particular aspect of the Holy Spirit's presence and work.

The anointing of the Holy Spirit need not be something apart from, or distinct from, our definitely receiving the Holy Spirit. That is not always so. It may depend very largely upon the measure in which we apprehend the truth of the Spirit. There is that instance in Acts 19: "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" making the receiving of the Holy Spirit something subsequent to believing. The context shows quite clearly that there was absolutely no light whatsoever upon the truth of the Holy Spirit, and those spoken to were in utter ignorance as to whether the Holy Spirit was. The question by the Apostle there was evidently asked because he had discerned the absence of what he knew to be an essential of a true and full life in Christ. That may be an exceptional case, for in most instances in the New Testament we find the Holy Spirit coming, possessing, and often filling at the time of believing and of the exercise of saving faith and of a consecration or surrender to our enthroning of the Lord Jesus. But I repeat, it is not necessarily a thing apart that we receive the anointing; it is a part of our understanding of the truth; it is something to be understood. In the understanding of it then, is particular value.

Anointing for all to Minister

Now to get directly to this matter, it will be perhaps simplest if we immediately state what is the specific characteristic of the anointing of the Spirit. I think undoubtedly it is the vocational side of the Spirit's presence in us. The active functional side. The anointing has to do with vocation and action. We may have the Spirit, the Spirit may be in us, the Spirit may be very largely quiescent in us, very largely in - shall I say - a passive state - or we in a passive state to the Spirit. The anointing is always intended to mean action and vocation, in relation to the purpose of God.

Were I not afraid of being misunderstood a little I should speak of it as the official side of things. When we use a word like that a large number of people who regard themselves as the rank and file, the ordinary folk, begin to visualise a class of people anointed who become the official class, and they regard themselves as being not in that specific class. They get back into the Old Testament and see certain ones anointed and set apart by anointing, and so they constitute mentally an Old Testament class - all anointed - on New Testament ground. I want to say immediately that you must not entertain that mentality. Anointing now is not for a class, it is for all the Lord's people. It never was, in the thought of God, for a class. Even in the Old Testament where you have certain ones anointed such as Aaron and his sons, they were only representative in the thought of God; they really did include all the rest of the Lord's people, and as the Lord looked upon them He looked upon all His people, and all His people were anointed in them, they were anointed for all, for all the people laid their hands upon them; which meant there was identification between all the people and those who stood representatively for them. The principle is carried over into the New Testament and all the Lord's people are called into the anointing. I think John makes that perfectly clear in his first letter, from which we have read. He is speaking to "my little children" and he speaks to them of the anointing which they had received and which was in them and which taught them things. So that when we use the word "official" we are not speaking of any specific class of people; we mean that the anointing is that which marks out in the matter of vocation, of active service, of purpose in Christ.

Now you can trace that truth right through if you like. You can trace it from before the present creation, for evidently anointing was known before Adam was created. Ezekiel 28 speaks of one who was termed "The anointed Cherub that covereth." Lucifer was probably anointed to a specific office in relation to God's universal thought and purpose. It was position that was involved in the anointing. And then all the way through the Old Testament you find that the anointing carried with it something of an active character in relation to the purpose of God. It brought in action; it brought in vocation. It carried with it position, dignity, and various other features.

In the New Testament, of course, the thing is quite patent. With the Lord Jesus - He was born of the Spirit; we have no right to say that the Spirit of the Lord was not with Him through the silent thirty years, but even then when He stepped across the line which divided between His private life and His public ministry there was that which betokened the anointing, and under the anointing through the opened heaven He stepped into His ministry, shall we say - His official work. It was a stepping out into His heavenly vocation under, and by reason of, the anointing. And so it ever was.

The Apostles were forbidden to move, with all the fullness of doctrine which they possessed as to the facts of Christ historically, they were forbidden to move even after the commission had been given to go into the world, until that day when with the gift, the advent of the Spirit, they not only received the Spirit but the Spirit came also to them as the anointing for the commission. There was that aspect of it. They received the Spirit, they were baptised by the Spirit, they were filled with the Spirit, but they were also anointed in the same hour, which put them into a place of active vocation and made the commission possible.

The Apostle Paul following later, used these words which we have read from 2 Corinthians 1:21: "Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God." I think he was referring to himself and Silvanus and Timothy, but he was also linking the Corinthians with himself and the others in this anointing. It would be very profitable if we could stay to see how the second letter to the Corinthians makes that possible. The first letter is corrective; the second letter is constructive. In the first letter there is a need for - shall we say - pulling down false structure; in the second letter there is putting up a right structure. The first letter is a seeking to get an adjustment to the Lord, but the second letter sees an adjusted people commissioned.

The second letter to the Corinthians is service, as you know. "Therefore seeing we have this ministry": "this ministry," that is the key to the second letter. "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not: but we have renounced the hidden things of shame": "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels." And our ministry is that shining forth of Christ in Whom the glory of God has been revealed in our hearts to destroy the darkening work of him who darkens the minds of them that believe not. It is ministry that comes in with the second letter. And so for that ministry the question of anointing comes in in the first chapter.

Now I have said enough to indicate that the anointing is specifically in relation to vocation and action, and having said that we can see what it is that the Lord is desirous of saying to us in these days.

The Many-sided Ministry

I want to say just one other general word, and it is this; that there may be well-nigh countless phases and aspects of the purpose of God, there may be as many aspects of the purpose of God or of its fulfilment, as there are believers. It may be that the purpose of God calls one into a factory, another into a workshop, another into teaching in a school, another into full-time ministry in the Word of the Lord at home or abroad. And so we might go over all the vocations here on earth of the children of God, and in every one of them if they are there in the will of God, some fragment, aspect, phase of the purpose of God must be bound up with it, and that being so it will be just as necessary and just as blessedly possible for them to be appointed to teach in a school, to work in a factory, to work in domestic duties, as it is to work in what we call "the ministry." Anointing, beloved, can go into the kitchen, into the school, into any place where God appoints, and anointing is just as necessary there as in any other place; and it is a very blessed thing to know that for all manner of work for the House of the Lord there is anointing. That is made very clear in the Word of God. And to have anointed school teachers and anointed factory workers and anointed domestic helps, and anointed everything, makes up the complete function of the House of God in all its ministries.

Now of course it is important that we should be in our work by the will of God, and I do feel there is a great necessity for more prayerful attention to the taking up of vocations under Divine guidance, in order that being in that in the will of God there may be anointing for it, because in that the whole purpose of God is bound up. I am not going to deal with what the purpose of God is for the moment. I am making merely general observations for the moment to move to something more specific from day to day. But anointing is not just for what we call a ministerial class, or for missionaries going abroad. Anointing is for every member of the House of God to fulfil a Divine appointment in the work to which God calls them while they are here on the earth. Anointing is both possible, and necessary, and it is for all. It is to fulfil the vocation; because whatever our earthly vocations, as we are led to them by the Lord, there is a heavenly vocation. There is that which is of God enshrined within that which we are led to by the Lord here on the earth, whatever it is.

Many have discovered in work which they would never have chosen for themselves, in vocations which they have oft-times sought to escape and get out of, that being held there or led there by the Lord and at last having come to the place where they recognise that that is the place where the Lord has put them, and they have accepted it with all their hearts and said: "Lord, I no longer chafe against this, I accept it and give myself to it for all Your will and purpose in it, and claim for this in Thy will all the enablement of the Holy Spirit," they have found there the fulfilment of some fragment of the great Divine purpose which they could never have fulfilled in anything else. The trouble is that so many people have got some false conception about the ministry and that the ministry is one thing and serving the Lord in this and that and something else is another thing. The ministry is that which the Holy Spirit enables you to do in any sphere and occupation to which the Lord leads you.

Now these are very general observations, but not without their importance when we begin to speak about the anointing, because I am afraid in speaking about the anointing of the Holy Spirit people will begin to get these water-tight compartment ideas and think that is for some exclusive spiritual work, being a "minister," a "missionary" going abroad, taking meetings - yes, a lot of people think that, but it is not so. The anointing is for anything and everything that the Lord may call to: we may have the anointing there.

David - a Great Example of Anointing

Having said that, I want to come to our subject more closely. I have read these portions from the books of Samuel, because very largely I think we are going to be occupied with David. David has within the compass of his life almost everything that we want to know about the meaning of the anointing. I am quite sure we shall never exhaust it in these messages, but I feel that the Lord will say some very precious things to us out from the experience and history of His servant David in connection with the anointing.

We read about the anointing of David. If you look at that chapter again, 1 Sam. 16, you will find that it comes in when God has finally rejected Saul, and Samuel is commanded concerning the anointing of God's own man, the man after His own heart. Samuel was evidently mourning very much for Saul, as the opening of the chapter shows, and the Lord reaffirms His rejection and commands him to fill his horn with oil: "...and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons." Samuel is a little fearful of taking this action. He is evidently afraid of Saul and wants to know how the thing can be done without his being involved in the perils of anointing a successor to a living king, or one to take his place. But the Lord leads him and leads him to Jesse, and as you know, all the sons of Jesse excepting David were called.

And the Lord gave Samuel these two things: "I have provided me a king among his sons": and then the Lord said definitely: "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." The Lord knows the peril of this thing. The Lord knows how His purposes can be just turned aside, how easy it will be for His intention to be hindered or thwarted. The Lord is taking everything into account. He knows what is going to follow. He knows what this movement involves, and so He takes precautions in His words to Samuel, and says to him in a precautionary word: "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." Now that is precautionary against a repetition of what has happened. Eliab, this fine, tall son of Jesse, has been brought and he in his stature and appearance compared favourably with Saul, who was head and shoulders above all the rest of Israel. That is what he was in himself, and Samuel was in danger of being impressed with what a man was in himself, and to find that which would obviously without any difficulty commend itself to the people as standing in a line with Saul. That was underlying this whole thing; that there should be the selecting of something upon a natural basis which would commend itself for what it was in itself. And the Lord was rejecting everything, however fine and great it might be, which was something in itself; He was rejecting that. "I have rejected him."

And so they go on, and even Samuel well nigh broke down on this thing: "Surely this is he," said Samuel, and upon his natural understanding, upon his own judgment, upon what appealed to him himself, he would have acted and anointed one who could stand well before men, who could take his place amongst men for what he was in himself; and right through the whole range all that sort of thing the Lord rejected. The Lord rejected right to the last all that was something in itself and that could commend itself to natural men, commend itself to religious people as such. No! The Lord was going to have no repetition of this thing. He has rejected, and there is no way for what is something in itself by nature.

Well, there was no thought of bringing David. Samuel evidently remembered what the Lord said: "I have provided me a king among his sons." "Are here all thy children?" "Well, there is one other, but I did not think it worth while bringing him; he is more used to the sheep than anything else and he is out there looking after those sheep." "He is the youngest, the most insignificant, it is not worth while bringing him; I did not think it mattered about him at all." I am afraid Samuel, in not a hopeful way, said: "Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he comes hither."

An exceedingly perplexing situation. And so they brought David, and when they brought him in the Lord said: "Arise, anoint him: for this is he." Something is said about David which seems to contradict what I have said. Something good is said about him, about his appearance. It says that he was ruddy and of a beautiful countenance. I wonder why that? And why it should be put in the place where it is put. This is not put in a place where it is a point of commendation for the anointing. It is not made the ground of the anointing, but it does represent something when the command to anoint is given, for it is that outward expression of a secret history with God. That is what I want to get at.

Secret History with God

You remember later when after the anointing and after seemingly David had gone back to the sheep, for he went back after the anointing and not until probably forty days after the battle had commenced was it that David was sent by his father with gifts to his brethren, and he heard the challenge of the giant, that some of the secret history came out. When Saul interrogated him he spoke about the lion and the bear and how the Lord delivered him. There was that one who amongst men had no place, who was rejected of men, accounted as not having any position or worthiness amongst men for recognition, but who had a secret history with God in the field, perhaps in the wilderness, and that secret history I think is bound up with what is said about his appearance. There is that which embodies something of God, that expression, that beauty, that ruddiness. It is put in that place, not as the ground of selection or choice, or approval, but as a testimony to something else in the background of his life. It is true that very often one whom the Lord chooses does seem to have something which commends itself to man; a countenance ruddy, a beauty that others take account of, and they say: "Well, it is quite clear the Lord has chosen that one, it is obvious the Lord has anointed that one," and they begin to think that that appearance, that presence, that beauty, that expression, is the ground upon which the Lord has anointed them: but never, never! The Lord never anointed anyone for what they were in themselves. The Lord only anoints on the ground of a secret history with Himself. David - there was a background with God which brought him into his place amongst men, but it was not what he was in nature, in himself.

Notice with Saul, he was anointed at the beginning, but the anointing meant that there was something given to him which was not of himself and immediately Saul began to act out from himself apart from God, the anointing was withdrawn. That was the background of his downfall. He did not wait for Samuel, he acted from himself and not under the anointing. And he forfeited the anointing. Note this. While we may have the Spirit, beloved, we may receive the Spirit and the Spirit may abide in us as an indwelling Presence, and failure may take place in our lives, the Spirit may not withdraw from us because of failure now in this dispensation, that is, we may not lose the Holy Spirit because we make mistakes, but we can forfeit the anointing. The anointing is one thing and having the Spirit is another. The anointing represents the equipment for our vocation and we may miss that. The anointing has brought to some the spiritual ability perhaps to teach, or for some purpose or other of a practical vocational character, the anointing has been with them for that, and by wrong doing they have forfeited that anointing and lost, not the power to talk, but the power to minister: not the power to preach, but the power in preaching to reach men's hearts. The danger is we might go on with the office and lose the unction; and while we may not lose the Spirit we may lose the anointing.

Anointing Implies the Setting Aside of Man by Nature

Now the very first thing which comes to us in David's life is this, that the anointing is that which sets nature aside and takes no account of nature. That is very important. The anointing says most clearly throughout the Word of God that all this which follows is of God and nothing of man. And it demands that as its basis. The basis of the anointing is always the setting aside of man by nature. "Look not upon his countenance, or on the height of his stature for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." The Lord's eye was upon the heart of David away there following those sheep. "He chose David and took him from the sheepfolds." The anointing comes not upon the ground that man is anything in himself, but that everything is of the Lord.

If you follow that through you will see that it applies. Take it up with the Lord Jesus. The anointing unto His ministry did not come until He had been down into the waters of Jordan. Representatively He was acting as man and was going down into the waters of Jordan. His baptism, typical of His Cross, declared most clearly that everything from that point onward was of God and nothing of Himself, nothing out from Himself. "I do nothing of myself." In those waters He has, in type, passed out of sight, and now the anointing takes things up on that ground.

Paul received the Spirit when he went into Damascus and Ananias laid his hands upon him. He received the Spirit then, being baptised, but the manifestation of the anointing did not come for some time after that. Probably he was anointed unto his work when he received the Spirit, but the expression of that anointing was not for some time after that. He tarried two years in Arabia. Yes, he testified. You can fulfil an occasional ministry without the full meaning of your anointing being manifested. The anointing is for the specific thing in the purpose of God. The thing for which you are chosen, the elect vessel. And it is not until all that is of ourselves has been put aside, all our judgments, thoughts, preferences, that we come into the fullness of the anointing, because it is not until then we come into the fullness of purpose.

If Paul was anointed when he received the Holy Spirit in Damascus there were two years in Arabia, although he testifies in Damascus; and then at least a year in the assembly at Antioch. Doubtless he had bits of ministry; doubtless others were seeing that he had the Spirit; doubtless features of an Apostle were developing in him; but then at the end of at least three years the Holy Ghost said: "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them," and they laid hands on them and sent them away. And now the anointing is going to be manifested along full and specific lines in ministry; He has waited for that. The anointing may have been there. The Spirit was undoubtedly there, but now he is coming out into the work for which he was a foreknown and foreordained vessel, and for that the full measure of the anointing is manifested.

What happened in those two years? I have no doubt that those two years in Arabia were years in which Saul of Tarsus was disappearing very much. Speaking to the Romans, he says that he serves God in his spirit and in newness of spirit. That represents a big change and you can see the difference between the old spirit in which Saul of Tarsus served God and the new spirit in which Paul the Apostle served God. He was disappearing as Saul. He was coming into a subjection in the House of God which was not natural in a man like Saul of Tarsus. If anything was foreign to a man's nature, subjection was foreign to Saul's nature. You cannot imagine Saul of Tarsus being subject to anybody. But now twelve months in an assembly at Antioch, having had to submit himself for guidance in the assembly at Damascus which he was going to destroy, represents a big disappearance of Saul of Tarsus. And when this is done, this setting aside, he becomes just one of an assembly amongst the rest, then the power of the anointing can be manifested and lead him out into the full work of his life. It is always on that basis. David was not counted amongst his brethren. The Lord Jesus disappearing in the waters of Jordan. Saul of Tarsus disappearing into Arabian desert, and, as Saul, disappearing from view even in the assembly of God; and then on that ground, the anointing, that is the vocation, the service.

Now that may take time, beloved. It may take time to get rid of us. There has got to be some deep, secret history with God before the full meaning of the anointing can be known, or manifested. It may take years to do that, to bring us to the place where it is not the work for the Lord, but where we can do nothing for the Lord, and unless the Lord does it all, nothing will be done. It is thus that we come into the thing for which God chose us. The anointing can be manifested in all its meaning just as soon as we disappear. And I am not saying merely that we disappear as sinners, but also as preachers, workers, religious organisers, as figures, something to be taken account of. Any kind, any form, any measure of the expression of that horrible self-life, self-consciousness, that wants to be taken account of, that wants to be noticed; there are thousands of ways in which this horrible flesh works to be taken notice of even in the most spiritual of the Lord's people; that spirituality itself very often is taken hold of as a means to be taken account of: to be holy in order that others may recognise how holy we are. To be so burnt up with zeal for God that others may say: "How that man pours himself out for God." The flesh can get into the most holy thing, can come along the most intensely spiritual lines; it can lie back there of all our most sincere aspirations; our spirituality and devotion to be taken account of.

The flesh works so subtly and God only knows when it is mastered, when it is sufficiently subject to allow of Him manifesting the anointing and bringing us into the fullness of our vocation. Some of us have been very devoted to the Lord, and very earnest in service for the Lord, but have had our own ideas about the work of the Lord, and we have come to see afterwards that they were our ideas, although we believed at the time that they were the Lord's ideas; that we were in something that we fully believed to be all of God, and the Lord has had to put us through a test that has shown us that with all our honesty and sincerity, the thing was not so much of God as we thought. He has had to do it by grinding to powder, until we were in a state really willing to have the Lord's best and fullest. We would have said with tremendous emphasis, with all our heart, we were willing for the Lord's will, and if the Lord had tested us out upon the letting go of some long-standing tradition, something with which we had sentimental associations, something which seemed to us was all right, and He had said: "Now put that on the altar, break with that, let that go" we would not have done it; we could not have done it. The Lord has had to do deep things in order to make those things sink away and lose their hold on us; even the things which we believed to be all according to God's full purpose have had to come to the place where we have let them go.

Our judgments about God's work, and our calling, and our ministry, and our work, those all have to go into the melting pot, and we have to get to the place where the Lord can really do anything with us. We cannot come to that place, to that position, by simply declaring we are there. You cannot stand up in a meeting and say: "I am willing for God to do anything with me." These things cannot be done under the emotion of an hour or an appeal. it sometimes takes God years to bring us to that place. And I sometimes wonder how many of the saints that have trodden this earth have ever got there: if there is not some point where, if He put His finger, He would meet with some question. The Lord only knows. This represents a deep work where man, even religiously, as such, disappears and the Lord Himself becomes everything. Then the Lord can move us out into the fullness of His purpose and when we get into the fullness of His purpose then the fullness of the anointing is there to meet us in that. The anointing is only manifested in the measure in which we are in the purpose of God. The more we are in the purpose of God, the more the anointing will be manifested.

The Anointing is God Committing Himself

Now we would not speak about the anointing as some thing. The anointing is God committing Himself and when you see that you see why all that I have said is so true. What is the anointing? Acts 10:38: "Jesus of Nazareth, how that God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." That anointing meant that God had committed Himself to Jesus of Nazareth. That is not setting aside His essential Deity, but in relation to His ministry that is said. God had committed Himself to Jesus of Nazareth. You remember it is said of the Lord Jesus Himself that He would not commit Himself unto them because He knew what was in man; therefore, He would not commit Himself. Do you think God, Who knows all, is going to commit Himself to man in his natural state? What would man do with God? What would our flesh do with God if only we could use God? Think of God putting Himself at our disposal and saying: "You can do with Me what you like." We would make God the very means of making ourselves God. We would seek to make ourselves Very God by using God to that end. We would bring ourselves into prominence. He demands the Cross as the basis of our anointing.

There is no anointing without the Cross. There is no anointing only as man in what he is in himself disappears from view, and as the Cross is wrought in us more and more deeply, putting us aside, so more and more we come into the eternal purpose of God and therefore, into the anointing. That is, God commits Himself. It is a great thing when God commits Himself. What is not possible when God commits Himself? That is the anointing. You see the anointing brings with it a dignity. It is God in evidence. But that dignity of God can never mark any life which has its own dignity, its own honour, to consider. God has ever been honoured most in those who are most empty of themselves. Dignity! Why, the humblest and weakest child of God and servant of God, anointed with the Holy Ghost, has compelled the great of the world to acknowledge something greater, something mightier, some factor they could not account for as being of nature. There is a dignity which comes with anointing.

The child of God is not a poor weak, cringing thing that is down on its face to everything else of this world. The anointing carries that which speaks of God; quiet confidence, dignity, assurance; not domination, not assertiveness, but dignity. That marked the presence of the Lord Jesus amongst men. The Rulers and the Authorities did not know what to do with Him, how to get the better of Him. It was quiet dignity. They were up against something more than man, it is moral and spiritual elevation. And meekness which is the meekness of Christ is a mighty quality, a tremendous thing, a powerful thing. Someone said at Keswick that people often interpret meekness as being weakness; but the meekness of Jesus Christ is never weakness, it is God. God has committed Himself. That is the anointing. You see, that is just the fringe of things, but it is where we begin. David, not allowed a look in by man, becomes the chosen of God because of a secret history with God.

Beloved, it is not what you and I are before man, of our own making; it is what we are before God. We have often said that it is personality; but what is personality? Personality is character formed in secret with God. That which comes out of the secret history with God. It is that that registers itself upon others. It is secret history with God. And all our own natural abilities simply have to recede to make way for the Lord, then a new set of faculties comes in, which are born in the secret place with the Lord. To have the anointing then we have got to have a secret history with God, and if others are to be moved by the Spirit of God through us it can only be as we come out of the secret place where we have been dwelling with the Lord and having everything dealt with there by the Lord; judged, corrected, influenced, adjusted; where we have been learning the Lord.

If we were to dwell upon David's lion and David's bear as a mighty conflict in the secret in which the Lord was bound up, we know what that may mean. Those terrible conflicts in secret where we learn the power of God in victory over the lion and the bear; those awful beasts of the Satanic realm and of our own natural lives. We have learned the mighty power of God in secret victory. It is that that brings the anointing into public; that, and nothing else.