The Anointing You’ve Received

“And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children” (Isa. 54:13). “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts… And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord” (Jer. 31:33,34). These two great prophecies from the old testament were clearly speaking of a glorious promise and capacity that would be available to those who would be in covenant with God by faith in his Son Jesus Christ, even as Jeremiah alluded to. So let’s catch this up with Jesus, and see how he was in agreement with these things; and then we will move on to the apostles, and let them confirm the same things to us: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (Jn. 14:26). “Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come, [it] will guide you into all truth” (Jn. 16:13). The reason Jeremiah said “they will ALL know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,” is because under the old covenant God was only personally in touch with certain people like prophets, judges, priests, etc. Under the new covenant however, the Spirit of God which Jesus died and rose to make available, puts EVERYONE who has it in the position of being able to access God personally, and to be accessed BY God personally. The apostle Paul laid it down plain and simple: “For through him we both [Jew and Gentile] have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18). He tells us in another place more specifically how this access comes about: “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (I Cor. 12:13). The baptism of the holy Ghost, which is indeed the reason Jesus came to this world, is what joins us personally to the Father AND the Son, and thereby puts each of us in touch with God, and vice versa (Mk. 1:7,8; I Cor. 6:17; Jn. 17:22). If we keep our connection clear, which is to say if we keep our hearts pure from sin; we WILL “hear what the Spirit saith unto the [congregations]” (Rev. 2:7; etc.).

“[We] are washed, [We] are sanctified, [We] are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus BY the Spirit of our God” (I Cor. 6:17). As long as we STAY washed, sanctified, and justified; which again is to remain pure from sin in our hearts, we will continue to hear and be guided by the “Spirit of truth,” as Jesus said we would. “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. 2:11-14). The reason that the “natural man” cannot know the things that are of God is because he is carnally minded, which is to say he is in sin (Rom. 8:6,7). Sin blocks out the Spirit of God, and must be removed by the power of God’s Spirit so that one can be “joined to the Lord [and] be one spirit” with the Lord. Being ‘one’ with Jesus and his Father is the only way to access the word of God, and this can only take place by means of the Spirit baptism that puts us “in Christ” (Gal. 3:26-28). Knowing and discerning the Spirit of God, and what it is trying to show us, is the ONLY way to stay on the “narrow way” and make it through the “strait gate” in the end (Mat. 7:14). David said in Psalms 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” The apostle Paul said the exact same thing in slightly different words: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). It is the Spirit of God that will lead us down that narrow way and into the strait gate, because the Spirit is our guide and it is what Jesus said would “teach us all things.” Indeed the holy Ghost is the very word of God that lights our path, as the scriptures also attest to (Eph. 6:17; Rev. 2:29; Jn. 16:13). John sealed up this truth nice and neat, admonishing us on how to be kept from false teachings about the Gospel of Jesus Christ: “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (I Jn. 2:26-28). What could I possibly add to that, other than AMEN!