ANOINTED WITH POWER

“How GOD ANOINTED Jesus of Nazareth with the HOLY SPIRIT and WITH POWER, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” – Acts 10:38

We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but also to be ANOINTED with His POWER: “How GOD ANOINTED Jesus of Nazareth with the HOLY SPIRIT and WITH POWER…” (Acts 10:38a). The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Triune God, and receiving Him is prerequisite to receiving the Power of God. But we must avoid equating the Power of God with the Person of the Holy Spirit. In John 20:22, we see that Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Scriptures affirm that all Christians have the Holy Spirit indwelling them: “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Rom.8:9b). Added to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit however, the disciples also needed to be baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit in order to possess and manifest Supernatural Power.

For believers to do the work of God we must be ANOINTED with His miracle-working Power: “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be BAPTIZED with the Holy Spirit not many days from now…But you shall receive POWER when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:5-6,8). They received POWER only when the Holy Spirit had come upon them. It takes the Holy Spirit baptism or cloaking to trigger the Power! His Power is distinct from His Person. Paul said: “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the SPIRIT and of POWER” (1Cor.2:4). Again, he told the Christians in Thessalonica that the gospel came to them both “in POWER and in the HOLY SPIRIT” (1The.1:5).

We are to be indwelled with the Holy Spirit, but must also be ANOINTED or clothed with His POWER. We are to then deploy this Power in Love, in the name of Christ and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. John described the Lord Jesus Christ as “the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit” (Jh.1:33b). And right before He ascended into heaven, He did (Acts 1:5,8). Acts 8:14-16 describes how certain disciples in Samaria who had received Jesus Christ and had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, needed Peter and John to be sent to minister to them to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, with supernatural confirmation. We certainly receive the Holy Spirit when we receive Christ. He comes to indwell us and to seal us (2Cor.1:22; Eph.1:13-14). Subsequent to this, we should thirst for and be baptized with the Holy Spirit to overflowing, which is the gateway to receiving God’s Supernatural Power.

All who are baptized in the Holy Spirit have Supernatural Power and the accompanying gifts (1Cor.12:11). They may not use them, but they have them. If they will allow the Holy Spirit to do so, He will demonstrate it through some gift or other supernatural means. There is no biblical record of Jesus performing miracles until the turning of water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee (Jh.2:1-10). But His baptism with the Holy Spirit changed that story (Mk.1:9-13). As God’s Supernatural Power came upon Him, He began to go “about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil,” perform miracles and work wonders. He was so clothed with Power that when people touched Him in faith, they were healed (Mk.3:10; 6:56; Lk.8:43-46). In the same way, we received the same POWER that He received when we are baptized with the Holy Spirit. The Question is: What are we doing with it?