The Communion of the Holy Spirit (11 page)

After we truly experience the anointing, we begin to know what the ministry of the word of God is. We come to know how to serve Him with His word. For when we have the anointing, we have His word. Therefore, we serve God according to the anointing. It is God who causes us to notice what He notices. It is God who gives us word by which to serve Him and to serve His children.

Finally, I would exhort all you brothers and sisters here to consecrate yourselves thoroughly to God. All ministries are based on consecration. The anointing which God gives you proves you are His. With that anointing, you have the consciousness that you are His. You are the Lord’s. With the anointing, you are aware of what the Lord wants you to do. And when you carry it out, there will be power upon other people. That power is not like the power we imagine in our mind which enables us to speak loudly in the pulpit or to perform wonders and miracles. No, this power enables people to touch life when you serve. This power is the result of none other than the divine anointing. May God bless us that we may abide in the Lord in accordance with the teaching of His anointing.

The Bible shows us that God’s anointing oil is for the one who fully satisfies His heart, even His Son Christ Jesus. Why, then, is the body of Christ, the Church, also anointed? Psalm 133 tells us that the precious oil which was poured upon Aaron’s head ran down his beard and came down upon the skirt of his garments. When a person is anointed, the oil is poured upon the head, not upon the body of the anointed. But after the oil is poured upon his head, it flows down till it covers the entire body. This is a picture of Christ and the Church. The head is Christ, and the body is
the
Christ. Christ is the Anointed of God, and the Church is His body. So that when Christ is anointed, His entire body is also anointed. Christ is the great Anointed One, we the members are little anointed ones. Yet we are not anointed individually, but are anointed together in Christ at His anointing. We can never be anointed in ourselves. For the Scripture says, “Upon the flesh of man shall it [the holy anointing oil] not be poured” (Ex. 30.32a). We are therefore anointed in Christ.

Luke 3.22 speaks of what happened to the Lord after He was baptized in the river Jordan: “the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” Again, in Luke 4.18, we read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. . .” Hence after His baptism in the river Jordan, the Lord received the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Genesis 8 narrates how after the flood Noah opened the window of the ark and sent forth a dove. Inasmuch as the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, she returned to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the earth. (Noah’s ark passing through the flood is a type of baptism.) At Christ’s baptism, the Spirit of God descended upon Him as a dove. This indicates that He received the anointing of the Holy Spirit at the time of baptism. We too receive the anointing of the Spirit at our baptism.

Baptism signifies the burial of all the old and the natural. Anointing after baptism suggests that the flesh must be buried before we can receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit. If it were not because of the Lord we would not be able to come up out of the water because all which belongs to us ourselves is destined to be buried. That which can rise up after burial is on resurrection ground for it is in Christ. We are baptized in Christ; that is to say, in Him and with Him we pass through death and burial and we experience resurrection. So when He received the anointing, we too were anointed. In Him we died, were buried, resurrected, and anointed.

What is the value of the anointing? Through the anointing, grace flows to the whole body of Christ. The usefulness of the anointing is in maintaining the relationship between the Body and the Head. It is also useful in affirming the relationship among the members of the Body. The anointing is the function of the Holy Spirit in men.

The relationship of the Holy Spirit with Christ and the Church can be likened to the nerve system found in the human body. This system connects and directs all the various parts of the body. Through the nerve system the head controls the action of all its members. It is also through the nerve system that all the members are joined with one another. All the members of the body function in obedience to the direction of the nerve system. In following the nerve system, they follow the head. In like manner, in the spiritual body it is the Holy Spirit who communicates the thought of the Head to all its members. As members of the body of Christ we must submit ourselves to the authority of the Holy Spirit. Our submission is submission to the Head. When we grieve the Holy Spirit, we thwart the relationship between ourselves and the Head. How do we hold fast the Head? Through obeying the Holy Spirit.

In the Bible the Holy Spirit is symbolized by many different things, such as wind, living water, fire, and so forth. All these show forth the various aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit. But what is presented in 1 John 2.27 is especially precious. Here it speaks of the anointing of the Holy Spirit which is the teaching of the Holy Spirit. How does the Spirit teach? He teaches by the anointing. How do we come to know the will of God? Not by research, nor by balancing pro and con, but by the teaching of the anointing. It is the Holy Spirit who communicates the mind of Christ to us. We have no need to ask all the time, “Is this the will of God?” For “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2.16b). When the Head wants a certain member of the Body to move, He makes him know this by the Holy Spirit. As we obey the anointing, life will freely flow in us. But if we resist the anointing our relationship with the Head is disrupted and the flow of life also ceases.

Why is it that many believers do not know the Lord’s guidance? It is because they are not in subjection to the Head. For the anointing does not come up from the Body; rather, it comes down from the Head. Only when believers are directly under the Head can they receive the anointing that runs from the Head to the whole Body.

The anointing may also be referred to as “the anointing of the Lord.” We know that oil is a substance which is soft and soothing in its application. The Holy Spirit does not teach us in any rough or wild way. For here He is not likened, as elsewhere in the Bible, to the blowing of strong wind or to the burning of fire. On the contrary, here He is likened to a soothing ointment that is applied within us. Such is the way the Holy Spirit instructs us. Where the anointing is, there is God’s work. For God’s work depends not on words, Bible interpretation, reasons or judgments. God works within us. His inner guidance comes as a kind of inner life-consciousness. This kind of life-consciousness is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Lord does not employ external forces to control the body. Rather, we are told that “the life was the light of men” (John 1.4).

The way to know God’s will is not by inquiring if this or that matter is right or wrong, but by sensing whether you have life or not. If you sense death in yourself in a matter, it discloses the fact that there is no positive anointing. And if you proceed to do it without such anointing, then you are not moving under the authority of the Lord. Sometimes as you go visiting those in need, for example, you sense a freezing within you. Yet according to the Biblical principle as well as human concern and compassion, you should go. But the further you go, the colder your heart becomes. This indicates that the Holy Spirit is instructing you not to proceed. On the other hand, at other times when you go visiting, you are as one anointed with precious ointment, you feeling quite natural and comfortable in proceeding. This too is the anointing of the Holy Spirit in you, which in this case produces the teaching for you to go. If at that time you follow
this
anointing, your strength increases and amens will be multiplied in you.

The essence of the teaching of the anointing of the Holy Spirit is not a matter of right or wrong, good or evil, yea or nay. It is essentially an inner consciousness of
life
. The works of many people are done according to the way of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, its fruit having originally been eaten by the very first man. This is the so-called principle of right and wrong that had its beginning in Adam. But in Christ, God’s working is an issue of life, a matter of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Where the anointing is, there is life. The presence of the anointing and life justifies the matter and confirms it as being of God.

As a consequence, people who are intelligent and knowledgeable in Bible truth may not necessarily understand God’s will and work better. Sometimes brothers and sisters in the rural areas know far more of the will and workings of God, for what they depend on is not knowledge but life. If the ability to know the divine will and work were solely a matter of reason and intelligence, then God would be guilty of partiality and unfairness, and woe to the illiterate country folk who have not the intelligence to know God’s will! But God is not partial to anyone. Whether you are intelligent or not, clever or foolish, the teaching of the anointing of the Holy Spirit is in you. If you follow the Spirit’s anointing within you, you will know God’s will and do His work.

In the Old Testament period, when people brought out God’s word, it became the law to them. In the New Testament era, if people bring out God’s word without at the same time having the anointing of the Holy Spirit, God’s word too becomes law. Let us notice, however, that whenever the Lord Jesus brought forth God’s word, that word became life and spirit (see John 6.63b). The apostles also brought forth God’s word as life and spirit. On the other hand, the Pharisees, although they too brought forth God’s word, did not have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. So their words became dead law to be rigorously kept.

Many believers receive baptism and the laying on of hands according to the word in the Bible, yet to them these words are nothing but laws to be kept. Whoever follows only the
letter
of the word, that one is a disciple of Moses and not a disciple of Christ. Christians who walk rightly are those who have the anointing of the Lord. In the body of Christ there is no law save “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8.2): that is, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Hence we who live in the body of Christ must live by the Spirit’s anointing and not by the letter of the law. We must do everything according to the anointing of the Holy Spirit-which is to say, according to the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

How can we be anointed? Psalm 133 is a principal passage in the Old Testament on anointing. We know that Psalms 120 to 134 are together referred to as “the songs of degrees or ascents.” These were the songs sung by the children of Israel as they gathered together three times a year to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem and ascend Mount Zion-God’s habitation. These fifteen songs-whose subject matter, though varied, are all interrelated-served as the singing repertoire of the Israelites as they, in keeping with the progressive degree of meaning of the songs themselves, ascended step by step and higher and higher towards their goal.
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Needless to say, moreover, during their pilgrimage, they left off speaking about economics, education, war, politics or any other mundane topic. Instead, as they traveled along, their hearts were turned more and more towards Zion, towards God himself; and so from all over the land they ascended towards Jerusalem degree by degree in keeping with the content and character as it were of each song of ascent. And when these pilgrims arrived at the place and moment for singing the next to the last of these songs, they broke forth with the opening words of Psalm 133: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard; that came down upon the skirt of his garments” (vv.1-2).

Now this dwelling together by these Israelites, which was the near-culmination of their pilgrimage begun weeks and months before, resulted in a corporate unity that was devoid of division and independence. There on Mount Zion in the presence of God they put aside all former disagreement, jealousy, hatred and so forth. And just as is described in the verses of this psalm, these gathered united Israelites were able to receive God’s anointing: even God’s blessing of life forevermore (see v.3). They experienced the spiritual reality of what is pictured for us in physical terms by the psalmist: for as the oil is poured upon the head of Aaron the high priest, it flows down upon and beyond the beard and even reaches to the very skirt of his garments, thus making it possible for everything that is beneath Aaron’s head to be touched by the anointing oil too.

Psalm 133 in the Old Testament is comparable to much of Ephesians 4 in the New Testament, especially with respect to the twin matters of unity and fellowship. When we who are in the body of Christ diligently keep the unity of the Holy Spirit (see Eph. 4.3), we have His anointing. We need to stand under the Head-even Christ our Great High Priest-and live in His body in order to have the anointing. Many fail to receive guidance because they have not stood in the proper place. They have not stood under the Head; they have not obeyed the anointing of the Head; they have not even lived as it were in the Body. For us to be anointed and to enjoy true Christian fellowship, we must submit ourselves under the headship of Christ on the one side and live in the Body on the other.

The
basis
of the believer’s fellowship is grounded in Christ. We can fellowship with one another because Christ is the life of the Body and Christ is the Head. On the other hand, the
enjoyment
of fellowship is grounded in the Holy Spirit. The more we enjoy the anointing of the Spirit the more we are in the fellowship of the Body. Whether or not we believers enjoy fellowship, however, is something conditional; it depends on whether our natural life is being dealt with; that is to say, we must let the cross deal deeply with the flesh and natural life. Our natural flesh is worthy of death, worthy of being crucified on the cross and laid in dust and ashes. We cannot rely on our own mind: we are not fit to follow our own will: we must give Christ absolute sovereignty and let Him be Lord. By accepting the dealing of the cross over our natural life, obeying the headship of Christ, and living out the Body life, we shall have the anointing of the Holy Spirit and shall enjoy the fellowship of the Body.