"The Corporate Anointing!"
Alan Mc Savage
All truth, by precept and practice, must be founded upon the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ, the everlastingly preeminent One.
The anointing is not a feeling, an idea, or an atmosphere. We have previously taught that the anointing is not a feeling - it is a knowing, the assurance that God is with us. That's true, but there is more. The anointing is a Person! The anointing is the Spirit of the Son! The Lord Jesus Christ, the Root of David, earth's one true Messiah, the fountainhead of all anointing.
Jesus is the "anointed one", the Messiah, the Christ: He is Prophet (Acts 3:22-23), Priest (Heb. 7:26), and King (Rev. 19:16). But the New Testament reveals "Christ" to be both Head and Body! Jesus is our glorious Head and we are His Church, the Body of Christ - the CORPORATE MESSIAH! This anointed, sanctified "royal priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:9) is a prophetic people who have been made kings and priests unto God (Rev. 1:6; 5:10). The anointing that abides upon and within us all is the CORPORATE ANOINTING.
The anointing flows like a river from the anointed One. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son. The Holy Spirit of the anointed One is a Person, the Spirit of the Father and the Son who have come to make the saints their "mansion" or "abode" (Jn. 14:2, 23). We are the "temple" of the Holy Ghost (see I Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:19-22). The anointing is a Person. In Him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28).
"Christ" is more than an individual. The apostle Paul unfolded this Messianic mystery in his epistle to the Colossians. The word "you" in Colossians 1:27 is a PLURAL pronoun. This foundational phrase reads, "Christ in and among all of you". His Church, His Body, collectively comprises the fullness of Him, the purpose of whose present reign is to fill all things (Eph. 1:22-23).
To accomplish this, the Father has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. The spirit of Moses was multiplied and placed upon the 70 elders (Num. 11:24-25); even so, the New Testament Mediator has become a many-membered Man in His corporate Body (1 Tim. 2:5)! This "mystery of godliness" (I Tim. 3:16) began with a Seed being planted in a habitation of purity, Mary's womb. Paul's apostolic, intercessory burden was that Christ, the anointed One, the Spirit of the Son, be fully formed in a virgin Church (Gal. 4:19)! This glorious Body of Christ is the Church of the firstborn, Mount Zion, the city of the living God (Heb. 12:22-)
The Corporate anointing is three-dimensional, revealed in the different words for "anointed" or "anointing."
The first is the Hebrew word suk, which means to "pour out."
The second is the Hebrew word masah or mashach, which means to "smear on"
The third is the Greek word chrio, which means to "rub in."
The first and beginning of God's anointing.
Each dimension of the anointing reveals ever-increasing levels of divine power according to God's Word. Yet each dimension has a specific purpose in the plan of God, and at each level we encounter not a "thing" but a Person, the Spirit of the Son of God.
Isa 10:27 It shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing.
The first dimension of the corporate anointing is revealed in the Hebrew word cuwk or suk, which means "to smear over (with oil) anoint. According to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, suk primarily means "pour, in anointing."
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. The anointing - the Spirit of the Son - is the very embodiment of divine energy, the Spirit of the Son sent with purpose and responsibility. We have responded to the presence of God with joy, but too often we don't allow the anointing to permeate our being.
It is all right to have a good time in the house of the Lord, but how often do we find that when the next day's testings come, we do not have enough of the Spirit's enrichment left to face our tests and trials in victory.
The second level of corporate anointing is seen in the Hebrew word mashach, which means "to rub with oil, to consecrate, also to paint," In other words, it means to smear on.
The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament adds that mashach can also mean "to spread a liquid" Mashach is especially used in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers concerning the Aaronic priesthood.
The first level of corporate anointing won't keep you. You must stand still long enough for Him to smear it on. When the anointing oil was smeared on, it lasted longer than when it was just poured out. We rejoiced because the anointings of the Spirit worked through us, and certain victories were obtained, yet these experiences were still "in part." Like the priests of old we have been anointed for service, but there are still limitations in this second realm.
These two Old Testament words only take us through two of the three dimensions of the corporate anointing. The New Testament gives us two additional words for "anointing" aleipho and chrio.
Aleipho seems to pick up the meanings of suk and masach- to pour out and smear on- carrying them over into the New Testament. It means "to oil perfume)" However, it is the final Greek word, chrio, that takes us further into our destiny as the Body of Christ.
The Third Dimension, when God is Rubbed into our very being.
Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;
The Greek word chrio, translated as "anointed" in this verse, gives us the scope of the third dimension of corporate anointing- to rub in. According to Strong's, it means "through the idea of contact, to smear on or rub with oil, (by implication) to consecrate to an office or religious service."
Chrio is more limited in its use than aleipho because it is nearly always reserved for the sacred anointings of the Lord Jesus Christ as the "anointed"
of God. Only once does chrio allude to believers. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew and Aramaic). chrio was used by translators with regard to priests, kings and prophets.
While chrio is the Greek verb or "action word" for anointing, the Greek noun is chrisma. It means "an unguent or smearing, (figuratively) the special endowment of the Holy Spirit"
This third dimension of the corporate anointing is the one that abides and proves to be our complete sufficiency. The anointing that rested upon the Lord Jesus was the Chrisma, the Spirit without measure. This is the fulness we desire: an unlimited supply that abides, permeating every fiber of our being. This third anointing pertains to the Most Holy Place, where all compound anointing springs forth from the finished work of Jesus Christ.
The third anointing, the one without measure, is described in the Book of Revelation as the "seven Spirits of God" (Rev. 3:1) The number seven denotes completeness and fulness. The prophet Isaiah names these seven aspects of the full Messianic anointing that would rest upon Jesus and the true church, (His Church), the extension of His Life and Ministry.
Isa 11:1-2 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
This final anointing is rubbed in by the pressure of God's hand. The "hand" ministry, the fivefold ascension gift ministries mentioned in Ephesians 4:11, is the means by which the Lord has determined to mature his Church. The thumb represents the Apostle, covering and touching all four fingers in intimate co-labor. The index finger is the prophet, the pointer. The middle finger extends or reaches out the farthest to grasp the lost, a picture of the evangelist. The pastor married to the local church, is depicted by the ring finger of the marriage covenant. And the teacher is the little finger, the only one that can get in your ear.
Just before Jesus surrendered Himself as the sacrificial Lamb for the Passover slaughter, He took His disciples to the garden of Gethsemane and said, "What, could you not watch with Me one hour?"
"Gethsemane" means "olive-press," Only those who have been pressed and pressured by the "hand" of God - (His government and divine order) - will participate in the third anointing. A genuine apostle or prophet will not tell God's children what they want to hear, but rather, like a good parent, what they need to hear. A real man or woman of God will rub you the right way - toward God. The Word of the Kingdom will put pressure on you. But stay with it. Stay with the vision. You will become a vital part of a glorious church that will be anointed three times - you will see God's presence and glory poured out, smeared on and rubbed in.
Little Children delight in the first dimension of the anointing. As the refreshing of the Spirit is poured out, it flows over them exciting their senses and they feel good.
Spiritual Adolescents seek for more - and find that the anointing will empower them for limited service - yet they cling to this second realm.
But there are those mature ones who earnestly desire the full in-working of the Spirit found only in the third dimension of the corporate anointing. They are determined to pursue him, regardless of how severe the process of death to self is, in order that Christ alone be seen in them.
Addendum
Lest there be any confusion, no man can claim to be Christ.
Christ as we understand it is a many membered body of which we may be a part.
By May Be, I am saying that it all depends upon our relationship with Christ the head and Christ the Body, "For as the body is many members so is Chrit." "For He is the head of the body, the church."
As such we are yoked together with our brothers and sisters and share the same relational
anointing.
Christ being the head and we being the body. All anointing flows from the head to every part of
the body.
We all share His spiritual DNA that comes from the Father.
Like the life force that permeates the very cells of the human body.
Remember from the outset we said that the anointing was a person.
That person is Jesus Christ in conjunction with His Body.
May you continue to grow In Him.
Alan
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