To Those Who Desire to Be Anointed

I wrote a song called “Beauty for Ashes” back in the seventies during my missionary days. The tune was original, and I adapted the lyrics from Isaiah 61:1-4. It has been 48 years since then. There’s such beautiful imagery in that passage written down for us by the poet and prophet.

I thought again of those lyrics and marveled at their meaning: “The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me.” Why is the Father’s Spirit on Isaiah? “Because the LORD (Yahweh) has anointed me.” What is the scriptural definition of the “anointing?” The anointing is truth (I John 2:27).

We have all wondered and even asked God for His Spirit. Here it is. God gives His Spirit to those whom He has given the truth. But having the truth means having the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That means there must not be any false concepts concerning Christ, who is the truth (John 14:6). This is why the scriptures of truth incessantly warn us to purge out of our minds false doctrines, teachings, concepts and traditions. We must get rid of them in order to have Him—the Truth. Christ is the Anointed One; He is the truth.

Many sincere Christians desire that God anoint them. And He wants to. But they have to understand just what the anointing is. It is the truth about who Christ, the Anointed One, the Truth, is, and what He is about according to the holy scriptures of truth. That would include His purpose, plan, and will.

The Spirit of Christ in Isaiah says that the Spirit is upon the prophet because God has anointed him. God has given him the anointing, which is the truth.

Now for what reason? What is His purpose in anointing us? “To preach good tidings unto the meek.” “Meek” means the humble and downtrodden in spirit. We shall bear the good news of His kingdom coming to the “poor in spirit.” He has sent us to heal the brokenhearted; to free those still slaves to sin, freeing them from their prison of self; to proclaim the correct year leading to His “day of vengeance [Great Tribulation Period];” and to comfort those who mourn, both now and during that time of “Jacob’s trouble.”

But we shall be there for them, and we shall “give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations” (Isa. 61:3-4).

Sounds like His anointed ones will have a lot of work here on earth after great tribulation shatters the land. “Thy kingdom come, Father. Thy will be done…