The Purpose of the Anointing

Good morning. Today is our anointing service—once a year, we gather to pray and anoint our entire church with oil, believing for God's marking, God's hand, and God's miracle over your life for the next year.

Let's turn to Acts 10:38. The scripture says:

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. And how he went around doing good, healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him.

The anointing is referred to around 165 times throughout the Bible. As we read scripture, we see this anointing of oil as a consistent theme—setting people aside, marking people for task or responsibility ahead of them. Kings were anointed, priests were anointed, prophets were anointed, the sick were anointed, and even Jesus was anointed.

The anointing is the key to the power of God. It is not merely oil placed on someone's forehead. Rather, the oil is symbolic of the power of his anointing. When we say "Come, Holy Spirit," we're asking for more of his anointing on our lives.

The anointing releases his gifts. The anointing releases his power. The anointing releases visions and dreams from the Holy Spirit. It is the anointing that breaks fear, that breaks bondage, that breaks sickness, addiction, and the power of the demonic over a person's life. It is the anointing that sets people free. You and I need his anointing daily on our lives.

A Testimony of Healing

When we were living in Australia, KDY and I had neighbors we became really good friends with. One time we invited them to church, and at the end of the service, I prayed for people who were sick. People were getting healed, and God was moving.

About six months later, we were at Mark and his wife's home, and Mark said to me: "Do you remember when you invited us to church six months ago? Do you remember when you prayed for people to be healed? Did you know that in that service, I got healed?"

I said, "What are you talking about?"

He explained: "For three or four years, I've been suffering with migraine headaches. I would get them every single week without fail—headaches that would last two or three days. But since that service, I haven't had a migraine headache."

I said, "Mark, you're only telling me this now?"

He replied, "Well, for two reasons. Number one, I was waiting to see if the headaches would come back—and they didn't. And number two, I just wanted to see if this God stuff that you're preaching about is really real."

I told him that day: "Mark, I can tell you the anointing of God is real, and the presence of Jesus is real for your life."

Four Dimensions of the Anointing

Today I want to share about the anointing breaking into four areas: the purpose of the anointing, the partnership of the anointing, the power of the anointing, and the price of the anointing.

The purpose of the anointing is for you and I to carry out the precious work of God here on earth. The anointing is 100% the power of Jesus working through us. The anointing is Jesus himself—not some special superpower outside of Jesus that someone gets. When we see an anointed person ministering in the power of God, we should not give glory to them but rather give glory to Jesus. It is Jesus that is magnified. It is Jesus that is glorified.

Psalm 133:2 describes it beautifully:

It's like the precious oil upon the head, running down the beard of Aaron, running down on the edges of his garments.

This is Moses anointing Aaron the priest. The oil went down the head and then right down all of the garments throughout the entire body. The anointing is not just for the head, but the anointing is for the entire body. The anointing is not just for me to minister in the spirit of God, but the anointing is for you, the body of Christ, to have the Holy Spirit ministering through your life as well.

The anointing is for your entire life. It is for your work, your family, your health, your marriage, your relationships, your career, your social life, your well-being. The anointing is for every area of your life.

1 John 2:20 says:

But you have an anointing from the Holy One.

There is a difference between the Holy Spirit and the anointing. Throughout the Bible, the anointing is referred to as an "it." But throughout the Bible, the Holy Spirit is referred to as "he." The Holy Spirit is a person—the third person of the Godhead. He has the same lordship and supremacy as Jesus and the Father. The anointing is his enabling power in our lives.

The Anointing in the Darkest Seasons

KDY and I have five children. Three of our children are here with us on earth—Ja, Taj, and Arya. But we also have two boys, Noah and Zach, who died before their time. Noah was born after Ja and died at birth. Then we had Taj, and after Taj, Zach was born and lived for three months before he died.

You wouldn't wish that trauma on anyone because for us as a family, that was a dark season, a challenging season. When you go through trauma and hardship and heartaches, well, I'm sure many of you have a story where you've gone through dark seasons too.

I remember being in the middle of that time. For those three months that Zach was alive, KDY was living in the hospital with Zach. I was living at home with Ja and Taj. Every day we'd visit Mom in the hospital with Zach. We did that for three months. I'd get the kids ready, send them to school, do all the activities that kids do, and then we'd go to the hospital in the evenings.

About halfway through that journey, I was just so drained. I was so empty. I felt like the enemy was throwing everything he could against us as a family, and nothing seemed to be working. I was spiritually drained, emotionally drained, and physically drained.

I remember driving home one night from the hospital around 10:30. I looked in the back seat and Ja and Taj were asleep. I sat out the front of our house and I couldn't even get the energy to get out of the car. I couldn't even find the energy to pick them up and take them inside. I just sat in the car and I said, "God, I'm done. I can't keep going."

Have you ever felt like that? Where you're in a season where you feel like you're done and you can't keep going? You don't know where to go, and you don't know what else to do. You've exhausted everything you can do. I felt like that. I felt physically just spent.

In that time, our church had just put out a brand new album—a Hillsong album. I put the CD in the car player and listened to it. There was this song that said:

I will see this season through. I will fix my eyes on you.

I remember just listening to that song. I had it on repeat in the car, and in that moment, the Holy Spirit filled that car. The anointing started to come on my life. In that moment, I felt strength coming back. I felt joy coming back. I felt faith coming back. The Holy Spirit was ministering to me.

Can I say this to you? The anointing is not just for a special service. The anointing is not just for something that happens in church, but the anointing is for every single day of your life. When you're in those seasons and in those moments, you can be refreshed. You can be renewed. You can be refilled. You can be replenished. You can be restored by the anointing that comes on our lives. That's the purpose of the anointing in our lives—that he would anoint us.

Psalm 23:5 says:

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.

Look at the picture David is painting here. You prepare a table—what? In the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head. Can I say you can be in a season of darkness but still carry his anointing. You will go through dark seasons, dark challenges. You will go through obstacles. You will face problems in this life. But can I remind you, you still carry the anointing. You still have the anointed one, Christ inside of you.

The Partnership of the Anointing

Matthew 4:1 says:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Many of us know this chapter and say, "Yeah, Jesus was alone in the desert to be tempted by the devil." But can I look at a different perspective here? Because in Luke 4, he said:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me.

This was right after the dove came down on the Jordan River and the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus. He says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me." In the very next few verses, it says, "Then the spirit led him into the desert." Then it goes on to say, "He returned from the desert in the power of the Spirit."

Can I present this thought: maybe Jesus wasn't alone, but the anointed Holy Spirit was upon him in that desert season. In fact, the Bible says in John 3:34 that Jesus had the Spirit without limit. So he was not alone. He had the Spirit of Lord upon him. And you need to know in your seasons, you're not alone either. But there is a partnership that we have with the Holy Spirit here on earth.

Sometimes desert seasons last longer than expected. Isaiah 40:31 says:

Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.

Those who wait on the Lord—sometimes a desert season will test your waiting. But I wonder if you know what that word "wait" means in the Hebrew. It's a Hebrew word called cavar. This word literally means to bind together with twisting. It gives the image of rope strands being intertwined, rope being held together, intertwining around each other. It is the word to collect, to expect, to gather together, to look for and wait with anticipation.

Waiting is not just being bored with nothing to do. Waiting on the Lord carries an expectation. It carries a binding. It is being entwined with us and the Lord as one. That's what it literally means to be waiting—to be wrapped in the power of the Spirit is to wait on the Lord.

It's not a matter of him doing the work and us doing nothing. And it's not a matter of us doing everything and him doing nothing. It is a partnership with the anointing with the Holy Spirit.

You see, the anointing has a location. And guess what? You and I are that location for the anointing. The Holy Spirit needs vessels. And you and I are the vessels. We are the carriers of the anointing of God. It's a partnership with us and the Holy Spirit.

The Power of the Anointing

Isaiah 10:27 says:

And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.

The yoke means to be like a stronghold. It is like a burden, a stronghold on something. The devil is very real. We talk a lot about Jesus, about God, about his angels, but there are fallen angels and there is a devil, and he is just as real. The demonic is very real. Our Bible says our battle is not against flesh and blood. It's against principalities and powers of darkness. There is a real spiritual warfare that happens.

The devil loves to put yokes on people—yokes on families, strongholds over your health, strongholds over your kids, strongholds over your marriage. But here's the thing: when demons see your anointing, they also see your authority. Too many Christians don't realize they carry an anointing that has authority.

KDY and I very much at home many times have rebuked the enemy's power. We've rebuked what the devil is doing over our kids, over our family, over our marriage, over our finances, over our investments, over our property, over every area of our lives. We realize the devil is very real. But we also realize we have a greater authority and a greater anointing. And that devil is under our feet. The Bible says he's under your feet. That's the power of the anointing.

Why? Because the anointing destroys yokes. It doesn't just break them. It destroys them. The more anointing on your life, the more authority on your life. The more anointing, the more the demonic strongholds are destroyed over our lives.

A Miracle of Deliverance

We had a young girl come into church a couple of months ago. She came in with her mom and dad. This poor girl was all bound up. She was hunchbacked, and all of her fingers, hands, and bones were twisted and curled up. She could barely walk. She was walking with difficulty and could barely talk.

The family—the mom and dad—came in and said, "We don't come to your church, but we heard the Holy Spirit's here." I said, "The Holy Spirit is here. He's in our church. He's in every single one of you."

They said, "Well, we've come for prayer."

I said, "Well, how long has she been like this?"

They said, "Twelve months. We've been to doctors, we've been to specialists, we've tried medication. But nothing's worked. She's just in excruciating pain every day."

I said, "Well, look, let's pray. The anointing can break yokes."

I remember I just grabbed her hand and I did what the Bible tells us to do. I said, "Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit." Because that's what Jesus told us to do. He said, "How much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?"

I just asked him. I said, "Come." Then I felt the anointing going into her. I could see her start to move, and I felt like I had the gift of discernment right then. I thought, "This girl's full of demons."

I started to rebuke them. I started to call every single one of them to come out. I said, "Come on, you demons. All of you up and out. Every single one of you, come on. You're not staying here today. All of you are coming out."

I did exactly what I'm telling you now because I know my authority. I know I have authority over every devil. They do not have authority over me and they don't have authority over you. And I'm not scared of them. I'm not fearful of them. I just tell them to come up and out.

She started to moan. She started to groan. She started to twitch and move. Then she fell to the floor. We kept rebuking and kept telling every one of them out. I just prayed for the Holy Spirit to come. After about three minutes, she stopped moving. I could see peace had come over her body.

I left her there with KDY and some of our pastoral team. I went over and was talking to someone else for ten minutes, and I came back. I thought, "Oh, where's that girl?" I couldn't find her. Then I saw this young girl standing up straight, smile on her face, talking with her hands to her friends, completely delivered, completely healed. That's the power of the anointing.

Her parents came back two weeks later with a medical report telling us they had been completely healed and she is completely fine, pain-free. It was an absolute miracle.

Can I tell you, you have the anointing. You have the power of the anointing to destroy yokes over your family, over your marriage, over your health, over your children. You have an anointing as well. Don't think that the enemy isn't going to attack you when you start taking territory for God. Don't think he's not going to come against you. No.

Stand in the power of your anointing on the word of God and rebuke him in Jesus's name. The Bible says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." You have an anointing.

1 Thessalonians 1:5 says:

Because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but with power with the Holy Spirit.

The Price of the Anointing

I've talked about the purpose of the anointing, the partnership of the anointing, and the power of the anointing. Now I want to talk about the price of the anointing.

Exodus 27:20 says:

Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil of pressed olives to keep the lamps burning continually.

Listen to this carefully. Oil is only released through the pressing and the crushing of olives. If the olives aren't pressed, the oil doesn't flow. If the olives aren't crushed, the oil doesn't flow. There is a price to the oil. There is a cost to the oil, to the anointing.

Jesus paid it on the cross. He was the anointed one. And here's the thing: there's a price when it comes for you and I to have his oil on our lives. You might say, "But what price? What's the cost?"

Well, everyone sees the anointing on you, but no one knows the price that it cost you. They see the fruit, but not the fire.

The Hidden Cost of Anointing

What if the blessing in public is why you carry the breaking in silence? We don't talk about this part—the part where the platform grows but so does the pressure on your life. Where spiritual authority at the same time can be under spiritual assault in your life. Where the best season of your life is wrapped in the battle of your life.

There is a collision between the anointing and affliction. Have you ever felt like you're fighting hell in the very same place that you're building heaven?

Moses met God face to face yet still battled and struggled with his own insecurities and his own battles within. In Numbers 11:15, Moses is crying out to God. Now Moses had just gone through the Red Sea. They'd seen this miraculous miracle. He'd seen plague after plague of deliverance from the hand of the Lord. He'd seen manna from heaven. He'd seen God move. And yet, he's still facing inward battles. He says:

If this is how you're going to treat me, Lord, please go ahead and kill me.

He'd seen incredible miracles, but yet felt like his life was still a mess. One day revival, the next day retreat. You and I will have days like Moses, where you'll face real opposition. You'll face real challenges. You'll be building heaven in one place, but fighting principalities of darkness in the very same place at the same time.

Let me say this: the anointing multiplies your influence, but it magnifies your attacks. Success in public doesn't silence warfare in private. It often stirs it. When your life is seeing blessing in your work and blessing in your family and blessing in your health and good things start happening, guess what? It's stirring up more of the enemy who's getting angry. He's going to throw everything he can at you.

But don't be fazed by him. Don't give in to him. Don't lay down to him. You have an anointing. Keep pouring out. Keep showing up.

Oil doesn't come from being seen. Oil comes from being crushed. Sometimes you're going to be crushed by hurts. You're going to be crushed by offenses. You're going to be crushed by betrayal. You're going to be crushed by disappointments and brokenness when you're thinking, "God, how can I go on? Why should I go on?"

You see, olives don't release oil until they're crushed. But know this: the crushing season is not a lasting season. Because out of the crushing, the oil flows. Out of the crushing, the oil is fresh. The oil is new. The oil is supernatural. Out of the crushing, when the oil flows, it carries power. When the oil flows, it carries purpose. When the oil flows, it carries an aroma on your life. When the oil flows, it carries breakthrough over your life in Jesus's name.

But the truth is, it'll cost you. It'll cost you your comfort, your clarity. It'll cost you control. Loneliness and misunderstanding will happen. And it feels like God's appointed me, but at the same time, he's stripping me. Why?

Because God is not building a brand. No, God is building a disciple that knows how to stand under the weight of the world. Public authority can only rest on private surrender. Let me say that again: Public authority can only rest on private surrender.

Those who know how to live for Jesus behind closed doors. Those who say, "You know what? Yeah, I carry the glory, but I'm also carrying grief in my same breath. You're not crazy, you're called. You're not weak. You're weighty."

You see, the cost is high, but so is the oil's value. And the desert didn't kill you. No, the desert qualified you. This pain that you have is not proof that you missed. No, it's proof that you're marked, that God's hand is on your life, that the anointing's on your life, that he's with you, that he goes before you, that he comes behind you. You're not alone as a Christian, but you have the Holy Spirit as a partnership.

He's brought purpose into your life. He has power for you to walk in. And you know the prize because all of us have got the crushing stories. But let me encourage you: out of those crushing stories, that's where the best oil comes from. That's where we rely on him like we never have before. And he strengthens you. He refreshes you. He replenishes you every day.

The anointing is not just for a church service. The anointing is for every day in your home, in your car, in your living room, in your lounge room, in your friend's home, in your workplace, in your business, on the streets, in the sporting fields. The anointing is for you every day in Jesus's mighty name.