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Scripture Reading: 1 John 2:27
In the previous chapters we saw the dealing with certain negative things. In this chapter we will consider the inner anointing, which is even more practical on the positive side. First John 2:27 says, “As for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him.” The Christian life is a life under the anointing, the Christian walk is a walk guided by this anointing, and Christian service must be a service guided by this anointing. Moreover, in order to preach the gospel, we must preach not only in power but also by the anointing. Verse 27 is all-inclusive, saying that the anointing teaches us all things so that there is no need for any man to teach us. This anointing takes care of all the matters of the Christian life, walk, work, and service.
This verse uses the word anointing as a gerund, a verbal noun. In some versions this word is translated as unction, which also implies a motion or action. It is not merely a substance but a substance in motion. That we have received this anointing and it abides in us means that a certain kind of motion or action abides within us. We cannot say that this is the Holy Spirit alone, because the Holy Spirit is not an action. Rather, the anointing is the working of the Holy Spirit. If we have the action, the motion, of the Holy Spirit, then to be sure we have the Holy Spirit Himself. Likewise, if we do not have the Holy Spirit, we cannot have the motion or action of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who dwells in our spirit is moving and acting all the time. This working, moving, acting, or motion of the Holy Spirit is the anointing.
If we rub an ointment on our hand or face, we sense the moving, the motion, of the ointment on our skin. Similarly, in our spirit there is such an anointing, a constant moving and action. This is why verse 27 says that this anointing not only is in us but abides in us. To abide in us means not only that it remains in us but also that it works, moves, and takes action in us. The Holy Spirit constantly works in us by moving, acting, and living within us, that is, by anointing us. We have received such an anointing, and such an anointing now abides in us, anointing, working, living, moving, and acting all the time.
Even if we learn all the foregoing lessons in these messages, we must still realize that the most practical lesson for us as Christians is to be taught and guided by the inner anointing. We may even say that the unique lesson to learn as Christians is the lesson of the inner anointing.
We can learn and realize the anointing only through our fellowship with the Lord. As we know, the book of 1 John is a book of fellowship. In the first chapter of this Epistle there is the fellowship of life. The apostles proclaim the divine life, that is, the eternal life, to us, and when we receive the life, we have the fellowship of life. The fellowship is the current of the divine life.
We fellowship with the Lord not only when we close ourselves in a room to spend time with Him. This is a good time to fellowship with the Lord, but we must always keep ourselves in fellowship with Him. Even when we are working at our job, cooking in the kitchen, walking on the street, or driving in our car, we need to keep ourselves in fellowship with the Lord and contact Him. To keep ourselves in fellowship with the Lord is simply to exercise our spirit, because it is in our spirit that the Holy Spirit dwells and communicates with us. Therefore, we must contact the Lord by exercising our spirit.
We should not care too much for our emotions or our mind. We need to take care of our spirit. If we are happy emotionally, we should forget about that. If we are disturbed in our mind due to many different thoughts, we should forget about that also. We should learn always to forget the things of the emotions and the mind. To not live by our self, our emotions, or our mind is a big lesson.
The Lord is the Spirit who is dwelling in our spirit today, so we seek to live by the Lord in our spirit. However, some bad news may come to us. As a rule, when people receive bad news, they are troubled, sometimes in the emotions and sometimes in the mind. Sometimes they are troubled to such an extent that they cannot sleep at night. As Christians, we need to learn how to forget about the troubling matters; we must learn always to give them up and forget about them. Otherwise, the entire world will be utilized by the enemy to bring many things our way. Because the enemy Satan sends us many troubling matters day by day, we need to learn how to give them up.
Giving these things up may be compared to washing our hands, which we do a number of times every day. We have to wash our hands time after time because many dirty things come our way. To be a Christian we must learn always to give up our emotions, our mind, our thoughts, and all the bad news. When bad news comes to us, we do not care about it. When certain thoughts come to us, we do not care about them. When things make us sorrowful or happy in our emotions, we also forget about them. We only care for the inner anointing. We must always try to keep ourselves in contact with the Lord by giving up all the things of our emotions and mind.
This is very practical, but it is not easy. Let us consider today, for example. How much have we been disturbed in our mind or perplexed in our emotions today? Perhaps for the entire day we have spent only a little time in the spirit. Most of our time has been wasted in the mind with its thoughts and in the emotions. If this is so, we have not been victorious today. We have been defeated simply because we forgot the lesson to not care for the things in the mind and the emotions and to care only for the inner anointing.
If a brother comes to say something to us, it is easy to deal with him in our mind and in our emotions. If the brother comes to tell us something nice, we may be very happy, but this is wrong. When a brother comes to tell us something, there is no doubt that we should listen to him, but after we listen, we need to give up our mind and emotions and come back to the inner anointing. Even when teaching and doctrine come to our thoughts, we may need to listen to them, but eventually we must take care of the inner anointing.
We need to check whether or not we have the inner anointing. We do not care about what we hear, about what people tell us, or about our thoughts, opinions, and emotions. We care only for the inner anointing, and we simply go along with the inner anointing. This is a simple and brief word, yet it is very difficult to practice.
To be in the spirit and not in the soul is simply to go along with the inner anointing. To be sure, if we go along with the inner anointing, we are in the spirit, and to not go along with the inner anointing means that we are out of the spirit and in the soul. This is simple and practical.
When we speak, we should check whether or not we are speaking in the anointing. Many times when I minister, I thoroughly check with myself in this way. To taste, or sense, the inner anointing is the only way for me to decide what to minister. We need to sense all things by the inner anointing. With the inner anointing there is a certain inner sense, inner feeling, and inner consciousness, which we must follow. There is something within us as a living consciousness, registration, or feeling. We need to take care of that feeling and go along with it.
The anointing is the working of the Triune God. The more we have this anointing, the more we enjoy our portion of the Triune God. The more we have this anointing, the more the Triune God is applied to us, and the more the very essence of the Triune God becomes ours.
We have often illustrated the anointing with painting. The more we apply paint to a wall, the more the element of the paint is on it. In the same way, the more anointing we have, the more of God we have. While the anointing of the Holy Spirit is working within us all the time, the very essence and element of God is applied and added to us. In this way we have more of God. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is not merely to let us know what is God’s will and what is not. The main purpose of the anointing of the Holy Spirit is to apply the very element of God into us. The more constantly the Holy Spirit works within us as the anointing, the more the Spirit brings God’s essence into us. By the anointing of the Holy Spirit, more of the essence and element of God are added and increased within us all the time.
If we paint the same wall every day for a year, there will be much of the element of the paint on the wall. There will be a thick layer of paint. In the same way, the more anointing of the Holy Spirit that we have, the more God is applied and added to us, and more of the element and essence of God is within us. God is increased in us by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes we may meet a brother who apparently loves the Lord and seeks Him very much, yet we can sense very little of God within him. He is light and not weighty. Sometimes, however, we may meet a brother who apparently is not very active, yet we can sense something weighty of God within him. We sense that this person is full of God; the essence and the element of God are fully within him. This is simply because the anointing of the Holy Spirit has worked within him for many years. The more we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the more the element of God is increased within us, and we become spiritually weighty; we become weighty with God.
The primary purpose of the anointing of the Holy Spirit is to bring more of the essence and element of God into us, and the secondary purpose of the anointing is to let us know the will of God. Knowing the will of God by the anointing is like knowing the color of a wall by its paint. The more we paint a wall, the more clearly the color can be seen. We can see whether it is green, red, brown, or something else. It is by the painting that the color is made known. In the same way, it is by the anointing of the Holy Spirit within us that God’s will is revealed to us. If we have much of God within us, we automatically know what the Lord’s will is, what we must do or must not do. The “paint” is so thick that the “color” becomes very clear and prominent.
If we add only a little paint to a wall, we may still not know whether its color is red or brown. The color is not clear, simply because there is not enough paint. The more we paint, the more the color becomes clear. That is, the more we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the more we have the essence and element of God, and the more we are clear what the Lord’s mind is. Why are we often not clear about the Lord’s mind and will? It is simply because we have too little anointing, too little “paint.” If we add more “paint,” the “color” will be clear. We will see what is red and what is brown.
In order to experience the Lord, we need to go along with the inner anointing and care for it. The anointing always gives us a certain inner feeling, sense, consciousness, or registration. To go along with that sense is good enough; we do not need to analyze, think, and consider. We should not even study too much. Some believers are overloaded with study, like a person who has eaten too much food but digested little of it. We should not care for our mind, thoughts, opinions, ideas, concepts, or other matters. We need to forget about these and simply take care of the inner feeling, the inner sense, the inner consciousness, and the inner registration of the anointing.
I would challenge the brothers in this way: Can you give a message without thinking too much? Simply speak from the inner sense. Then when you speak to a certain extent and have no further inner sense, just say, “I do not have the inner sense, so I will stop.” This kind of speaking is wonderful. We must not speak from our memory, thoughts, or concepts. We simply must speak from our inner sense and inner consciousness.
Many times people ask me why I do not speak with printed materials in my hand. I tell them that if I speak in that way, I simply kill my speaking. However, it is not easy to speak only by the anointing. When we speak, we often take care of our thoughts, considerations, and other matters. This kills our speaking. If we exercise and practice to speak something in the spirit according to the inner registration of the anointing, then we will see the result. We must learn the lesson to go along with the inner feeling, registration, and sense that is from the inner anointing. If we do not have the sense from the inner anointing, we should just be quiet. We should not move, speak, or act any further.
There are three major items we must realize related to the anointing. The first is the fellowship, of which we have already spoken. The second is the application of the cross. In order to always go along with the inner anointing, we need to apply the cross to ourselves. The inner anointing is always against our flesh and our self. In order to take care of the inner anointing, we need to definitely and specifically apply the cross in particular matters to an adequate extent. If we do not apply the cross to ourselves, we simply will not be able to go along with the inner anointing. To be sure, we will only go along with ourselves, and we will give up the inner anointing.
The more we apply the cross to ourselves, the more sense of the anointing we have. Here is the need of the application of the cross. We can realize the anointing only in fellowship with the Lord, and we can go along with and take care of the anointing only by the application of the cross. Day by day we need to apply the cross.
This is the point at which we learn the lesson of the application of the cross. We may already know that we have been crucified with Christ, but we apply the cross only when we are in fellowship with the Lord and we sense the anointing. Therefore, the more we learn the lesson of the anointing, the more we experience the cross in a very practical, real, and living way. Then the cross is something not merely in teaching, doctrine, thought, or concept. It is very real in our experience. We apply the cross to ourselves for the sake of the inner anointing.
The third major item concerning the anointing is the Lord’s blood. The more we intend to learn the lesson of the inner anointing, the more we will appreciate how much we need the blood. Likewise, the more we experience the cleansing of the blood, the more anointing we have. The types in the Old Testament show us that the anointing is always applied based on the sprinkling of the blood. In the Old Testament times, when the priests came to be anointed, they first needed to be sprinkled by the blood. Where the blood is sprinkled, there the anointing is.
If we do not have the cleansing of the blood, we do not have the ground for the Holy Spirit to anoint us. The anointing is available only on the ground of redemption by the Lord’s blood. The redeeming blood of the Lord is for cleansing, and the Spirit of the Lord is for anointing. We first must be cleansed by the blood of the Lord, and then we can be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord.
Many times when we sense the anointing, we also sense how rebellious, unsubmissive, sinful, and dirty we are. At that very time we spontaneously say, “Lord, cleanse me with Your blood.” Then we may point out specific matters to the Lord and say, “Lord, cleanse me in this matter. I have a wrong attitude toward a brother. I have a wrong motive. In my ministry I have a motive that has never been purified. Lord, cleanse me.”
It is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that brings light and revelation to us and even brings us into the presence of the Lord to be exposed. If we simply take care of the inner anointing, we will be absolutely and thoroughly exposed by the Holy Spirit. All the hidden matters, hidden thoughts, secret motives, and secret intentions we have or had in the past will be exposed and revealed to us. Then we will see how crooked, how subtle, and how sinful we are, and we will need the cleansing of the blood. It is when we are exposed that the blood is so prevailing, dear, and precious to us. We sense and realize how precious the blood of the Lord is to us, because without the blood we can never be cleansed, and we can never be at peace in our conscience under the enlightenment of the anointing.
Perhaps in our actions we are not crooked, but in our motives and intentions we are crooked. Even we ourselves do not know ourselves. As Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things / And it is incurable; / Who can know it?” We cannot perceive by ourselves how deceitful our heart is. We may consider that we are sincere, faithful, and straight persons, but when the anointing of the Holy Spirit brings us into the presence of the Lord and absolutely and thoroughly exposes us under His enlightenment, we see how crooked, subtle, sinful, and deceitful we are in our motives, intentions, desires, and will. At this point we spontaneously need the cleansing of the blood. We prostrate ourselves before the Lord and say, “Lord, cleanse me” many times. Praise the Lord, the more we say, “Cleanse me,” the more we are anointed! The more we say, “Lord, cleanse me with Your precious blood,” the more we sense the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Then we have comfort, peace, inner satisfaction, inner rest, and refreshment. On the one hand, we are sorrowful for our subtlety and crookedness, but on the other hand, we are refreshed and satisfied with the anointing.
The fellowship, the cross, and the blood are all related to the anointing. In all things we need to care for the inner anointing and always go along with the inner anointing. To go along with the inner anointing is simply to follow the Lord, obey the Lord, submit to the Lord, and always keep ourselves in the presence of the Lord. It also means that we are walking according to the spirit and in the spirit. This is the Christian walk and the Christian life, and it is a requirement for Christian service and work. We have no freedom, no liberty, to act by what we feel. We have only the liberty, the freedom, in full to act by what we sense of the inner anointing.
This lesson of the anointing goes along with all the dealings that we have seen: dealing with the flesh, dealing with the self, dealing with the conscience, dealing with the world, and dealing with the spirit. It would be wonderful if we would learn the lessons of these dealings and take care of the inner anointing! There is no need of great numbers. If only a small number of brothers and sisters would learn the lessons of the dealings and care for the inner anointing, the whole world will be turned upside down. The almighty, omnipotent God will have a free way to get through. Those who learn the lessons of the dealings and learn how to care for the inner anointing will be the fire that burns in our current situation. The power, the impact, and even the authority depend upon these dealings and the inner anointing.
May the Lord be merciful to us. Let us have a real consecration, telling the Lord, “Lord, in these days I consecrate myself to You to learn all the lessons of the dealings with the flesh, the self, the conscience, the world, and the spirit. Moreover, I wish to pay any price to go along with the inner anointing.” If we do this, we cannot tell how far the Lord will go through us, and we do not know what wondrous things will come out through us in these last days.
