What is the anointing of the spirit? - 2 Corinthians 1: 21, 22

Paul says to the Corinthians, “But he who guarantees that you and we belong to Christ and he who has anointed us is God. He has also put his seal upon us and has given us the token of what is to come, that is, the spirit, in our hearts.” (2 Corinthians 1: 21, 22)

The Bible talks about God’s spirit being “poured out” or “coming upon” individuals, like Samson, David, Zechariah and so on. (Judges 14:6; 15:14; 1 Samuel 16:13; 2 Chronicles 24:20) However, what is the difference between this ‘pouring out of spirit’ and the “anointing” of spirit that was available after Jesus?

Whereas the spirit poured out upon the early prophets was an outpouring to accomplish specific tasks, the anointing available after Jesus is the indwelling spirit, the spirit living permanently inside us, and it is available to every single person who puts faith in Jesus Christ. While there might be an outward manifestation of this anointing in some believers, as was the case with the 120 disciples at Pentecost, this anointing is available to anyone identifying themselves with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. (See article: “What is the meaning of your baptism?”)

Paul says to Timothy: “This fine trust guard through the holy spirit which is dwelling in us.” (2 Timothy 1:14) This spirit dwells, or lives inside a Christian. In other words, when a person puts faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and that he also died, was buried and raised with Christ, then God’s spirit begins to operate in him from within.

What is needed on our part is to believe that Christ’s spirit is living within us, working in us, operating from within because we have died with Christ and been raised up with him. Paul says: “I am impaled with Christ. It is no longer I but Christ living in me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Anointing is our living connection with Christ, our union with Christ, the life of Christ operating within us, available to all because of our faith in our death, burial and resurrection with Christ. It was only made available to Christians after Christ was resurrected.

“Now on the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus was standing up and he cried out, saying: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He that puts faith in me, just as the Scripture has said, 'Out from his inmost part streams of living water will flow.'" However, he said this concerning the spirit which those who put faith in him were about to receive; for as yet there was no spirit, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” (John 7:37-39)

That this spirit was an internal force, bubbling up from within the person, implanted there by God as a result of hearing the Good News and putting faith in it was further confirmed by Jesus’ own words at John 4:14 “Whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty at all, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water bubbling up to impart everlasting life."

This spirit is poured out into us – inside us. It lives in us, and it is grafting us to Christ, as we keep growing in faith. “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Becoming “one spirit” with Christ would mean a person has no consciousness of self, but of another life within him, that of Christ. (1 Corinthians 6:17) The spirit in us makes our bodies the temple of the living God. (1 Corinthians 6:19)

The spirit would also teach people from within, requiring no outside assistance, as Jesus explained in John 14:26 “But the helper, the holy spirit, which the Father will send in my name, that one will teach you all things and bring back to your minds all the things I told you.”

And John also said at 1 John 2:27 “And as for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to be teaching you; but, as the anointing from him is teaching you about all things, and is true and is no lie, and just as it has taught you, remain in union with him.”

Paul says to the Corinthians, “But he who guarantees that you and we belong to Christ and he who has anointed us is God. He has also put his seal upon us and has given us the token of what is to come, that is, the spirit, in our hearts.” (2 Corinthians 1: 21, 22)

He said further: “For you are shown to be a letter of Christ written by us as ministers, inscribed not with ink but with spirit of a living God, not on stone tablets, but on fleshly tablets, on hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:3)

Anointing of the spirit is the grafting of us into Christ, making us one with him. The book of Zechariah explains this union. “And the angel who was speaking with me proceeded to come back and wake me up, like a man that is awakened from his sleep. Then he said to me: "What are you seeing?" So I said: "I have seen, and, look! there is a lampstand, all of it of gold, with a bowl on top of it. And its seven lamps are upon it, even seven; and the lamps that are at the top of it have seven pipes. And there are two olive trees alongside it, one on the right side of the bowl and one on its left side." (Zechariah 4:1-3)

Zechariah did not understand the meaning. So he questioned the angel. “And I proceeded to answer and say to him: "What do these two olive trees on the right side of the lampstand and on its left side mean?" Then I answered the second time and said to him: "What are the two bunches of twigs of the olive trees that, by means of the two golden tubes, are pouring forth from within themselves the golden liquid?" So he said to me: "Do you not really know what these things mean?" In turn I said: "No, my lord." Accordingly he said: "These are the two anointed ones who are standing alongside the Lord of the whole earth." (Zechariah 4:11-14)

In the vision that Zechariah sees, the seven bowls have a never-ending supply of oil. Why? Because they are connected to the very source of oil, the two olive trees.

So anointing has to do with being connected to the source of the spirit, Christ himself. A person could have an outward manifestation of the spirit, but if he does not by faith get strengthened in his inner connection with Christ, he would be like those foolish virgins who ran out of oil. However, the discreet virgins were those who had oil in their receptacles. (Matthew 25:1-12)

So the question arises, what then is the manifestation of the spirit that some have received? The Scriptures clearly show that at Pentecost, there was an outward manifestation of the anointing. However this anointing is not necessarily always accompanied by some external manifestation, either tongues, healing or prophesying such as at Pentecost 33 CE. Today some claim that only those who have had such an “experience” with God, or an outer manifestation are truly anointed. That would be strange, since in the first century, that didn’t happen to many who put faith in Christ. Outward manifestations of spirit were usually in those on whom the apostles laid their hands. Luke reported in Acts 8:12: “But when they believed Philip, who was declaring the good news of the kingdom of God and of the name of Jesus Christ, they proceeded to be baptized, both men and women.” So then in Acts 8:14, “when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they dispatched Peter and John to them; and these went down and prayed for them to get holy spirit. For it had not yet fallen upon any one of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

These people had had no external baptism of spirit when Philip preached the Good News to them! They had no “experience” with God, such as is claimed by some today, nor had they received manifestations of the spirit – it was simply within them. That was enough. “Then they went laying their hands upon them, and they began to receive holy spirit.” (Acts 8:17) Only when one of the apostles “laid hands upon them” did people “receive” a visible, or outer manifestation for a specific purpose.

Paul encountered a similar incident with believers when he went to Ephesus. Luke wanted to show that Paul had equal authority with the 12 apostles. So he reported on an event that took place in Acts 19:1-6: “In the course of events, while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul went through the inland parts and came down to Ephesus, and found some disciples; and he said to them: "Did you receive holy spirit when you became believers?" They said to him: "Why, we have never heard whether there is a holy spirit." “And he said: "In what, then, were you baptized?" They said: "In John's baptism." Paul said: "John baptized with the baptism in symbol of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." On hearing this, they got baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands upon them, the holy spirit came upon them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.”

So only when the 12 apostles or Paul laid hands upon a person would they receive some external manifestation of spirit. Why was this done? Paul himself explained in 1 Corinthians 12:7: “But the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for a beneficial purpose.” Many such as the Ethiopian eunuch did not receive any external manifestations of the spirit in the first century.

Some were given an external manifestation, others were not. Yet all were sons of God, “anointed.” How? Paul again says in Galatians 3:26, 27: “You are all, in fact, sons of God through your faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” And again in Romans 8:14: “For all who are led by God's spirit, these are God's sons.”

The whole reason that Paul had to write to the Corinthians was precisely because they were doing what some are doing today – they were focused on “gifts of the spirit,” external signs, an “experience” that proved that they were God’s sons. But the reality was that all had an anointing which is received by faith, because it is the internal spirit that flows out of a person. And every single person can have that through faith in Christ. As Paul had to point out, just because some had gifts, they were being fleshly, putting a great emphasis on outward manifestations rather than being concerned about their inner union with Christ. Here was a congregation full of people who spoke in tongues and prophesied and yet had all kinds of problems. They did not discern their inner union with Christ. Which is why Paul asked them, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 6:15) Apparently they didn't know. He had to tell them that “he who is joined to the Lord in one spirit.” He asked them, “Do you not know that you people are God’s temple, and that the spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16) And again, “What! Do you not know that the body of you people is the temple of the holy spirit within you, which you have from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19) So a person could have an external manifestation of the holy spirit, be able to speak in tongues and prophesy and yet not know that his body is a member of Christ, that he is joined to the Lord, that his body is the temple of the holy spirit within him.

So anointing is a fact based upon our faith and not on our emotions or feelings. It is an objective fact that we should believe in. When people are focused on having some external event or experience to say they are “anointed,” then they are repeating the mistake of the Corinthians, and they have forgotten what Paul said in Hebrews 6:1: “For this reason, now that we have left the primary doctrine about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying a foundation again, namely, repentance from dead works, and faith toward God, the teaching on baptisms and the laying on of the hands, the resurrection of the dead and everlasting judgment.”

All Christians need to take to heart and exercise faith in Jesus’ own words at John 15:1 – 6: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the cultivator. Every branch in me not bearing fruit he takes away, and every one bearing fruit he cleans, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in union with me, and I in union with you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains in the vine, in the same way neither can you, unless you remain in union with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that remains in union with me, and I in union with him, this one bears much fruit; because apart from me you can do nothing at all. If anyone does not remain in union with me, he is cast out as a branch and is dried up; and men gather those branches up and pitch them into the fire and they are burned. ”

All then who exercise faith can have the spirit bubbling within them to impart everlasting life. It is not the privilege of a few 144,000. (See the article “Who are the 144,000?)