Gospel of John [Joh 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 27. 2Co 1:21-22; 5:1-10; 1Jo 2:20, 27; Eph 1:14.Title: Gospel of John [Joh 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 27. 2Co 1:21-22; 5:1-10; 1Jo 2:20, 27; Eph 1:14.
Misapplied passages: G. The problem with the word "anointing."
Another problem has been introduced into the Church with the word anointing. There are seven references in the NT to the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
In each instance the anointing of the Holy Spirit is identical to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at salvation. Anointing is application being for a certain purpose, and to meet a certain condition.
Our Lord was anointed with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit indwelling Him empowered Him to do good and to heal the captives of the devil. The indwelling Spirit led Him and taught Him as He displayed the greatest feat of humility in laying aside His own deity and submitting His will to the Father's plan.
The Holy Spirit anoints every Church age believer at salvation by indwelling each body and heart so that He may cause a certain condition of life for a purpose of producing fruit.
2Co 1:21Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God,
2Co 1:22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.
1Joh 2:20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.
1Joh 2:27 And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
In the case of the believer during this Age of Grace, the Holy Spirit is placed within him. His ministry in the believer today is not only for service as was the case in Old Testament times, but also for practical sanctification.
His indwelling is only potential so far as His ministry of teaching, leading, and empowering are concerned.
His indwelling does not at all mean that His ministry is performed in its fullest manifestation and in an automatic way. The believer must avail himself of that ministry through the avenue of trust, just as he availed himself of the ministry of the Savior through trusting Him. Two of the Spirit's ministries are given here, His work of teaching the believer the Word, and His work of giving the believer an innate ability to know in an intuitive way, things spiritual.
Thus the anointing with the Spirit in the case of the believer refers to the act of God the Father sending the Spirit to take up His abode in his heart, and this in answer to the prayer of God the Son.
Joh 14:16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
Joh 14:17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.
In each instance the anointing of the Holy Spirit is identical to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at salvation.
With all five ministries of GHS to the believer at salvation their various distinctions must be maintained so as to avoid any false doctrines. Though they all happen simultaneously, they are distinct as ministries for a reason. For instance, indwelling is continuous while baptism is occurs in that moment with results that are continuous.
All five ministries must remain distinct from the filling of the Spirit. They are closely related but not by any means the same ministry. The filling is a matter of volition as it is a command, while the indwelling is not. While we find the filling of the Spirit in the OT, it was temporary and given for a particular purpose and when that purpose was complete it seems that the Spirit no longer filled them. However, no one was indwelt by the Spirit in the OT. No one in the NT age can be filled with the Spirit without being indwelt by the Spirit. And so in our age the filling of the Spirit is for a different purpose and the Spirit will never be taken from us as it was from Saul in the OT. The filling of the Spirit produces activity such as learning, planning, deciding, producing fruit, and applying truth. The indwelling of the HS is not active.
The presence of the Spirit within us is our guarantee of blessings ahead.
2Co 5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2Co 5:2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven;
2Co 5:3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked.
2Co 5:4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
2Co 5:5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
Notice that the Spirit is given to every believer for a purpose.
2Co 5:6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord-
2Co 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight —
2Co 5:8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
2Co 5:9 Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
The presence of the Spirit makes the body of the believer a temple of God.
1Co 6:18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
1Co 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
1Co 6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. [rebuttal to Gnosticism]
To walk by means of the Holy Spirit is a wholly new technique; since every child of God is charged with a life which is superhuman, however, each one without exception has received the Spirit and each one is therefore confronted with the necessity, if he would fulfill the divine ideal, of living his life in the enabling power of the Spirit, new technique though it is. We all confront the problem of adjustment of our thinking to God's but we never confront the problem of acquiring the Holy Spirit, for all believers are indwelt by Him.
Simultaneously accomplished by the HS at salvation: efficacious grace, regeneration, baptism of the Spirit, indwelling of the Spirit, and the sealing of the Spirit. Gospel of John [Joh 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 27. 2Co 1:21-22; 5:1-10; 1Jo 2:20, 27; Eph 1:14. |