Joel 2:28–32 NKJV

AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS AFTERWARD THAT I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT IN THOSE DAYS … And it shall come to pass, that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.

Luke 4:14–21 NKJV

THEN JESUS RETURNED IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT TO GALILEE, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all… He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah … He found the place where it was written: “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE IS FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING.”

John 7:37–39 NKJV

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “IF ANYONE THIRSTS, LET HIM COME TO ME AND DRINK. HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME, AS THE SCRIPTURE HAS SAID, OUT OF HIS HEART WILL FLOW RIVERS OF LIVING WATER.”But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

1 John 2:20 ESV

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

Acts 10:38 ESV

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

1 John 2:27 ESV

But the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in Him.

2 Corinthians 1:21–22 ESV

And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

1 Samuel 16:13 ESV

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.

Exhortation: Kingdom Anointing—Operating Under the Anointing of the Holy Spirit

There is a realm of kingdom life that cannot be accessed through education, effort, or eloquence alone. It is the realm of the anointing—where the Spirit of God rests upon believers and enables them to do what is humanly impossible. Many Christians have knowledge, commitment, and spiritual discipline, yet they lack the power of the Holy Spirit to break through. What is missing is not information or effort—it is the anointing.

The anointing is God’s supernatural empowerment that equips His chosen vessels for His purposes. When Samuel anointed David, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. That anointing equipped him for a kingdom assignment. Before we look at the anointing, we must first learn and get to know the following.

• Who the Holy Spirit is.
• The Holy Spirit’s primacy in Christ’s Life.
• The Holy Spirit’s preeminence and primacy in the Church.
• Realigning our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
• Living in the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit—God Eternal and Almighty

The Holy Spirit is coequal and coeternal with God the Father and God the Son. He is not a representative or agent of God; He is God Almighty and the third person in the Holy Trinity. Therefore, He is sovereign, supreme, and limitless. Of His authority, presence, power, anointing, and virtues, there is no end, for He is eternally omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent.

The Holy Spirit cannot be overruled or contained. He is equally to be loved, revered, worshipped, trusted, and obeyed as God the Father and God the Son. He is the one true God; there is none like Him. His name, throne, power, and kingdom are the highest, sovereign, supreme, and everlasting.

The Church must thirst for and seek the Holy Spirit wholeheartedly, unceasingly, and passionately. We must prioritize pursuing His Person, far above His presence, power, or blessings. We should not seek to just have experiences with Him, but seek to hear and know Him in intimacy, and be completely yielded to Him. We must learn to yearn for Him more than yearning for what He can do for us and through us. The Holy Spirit must be the all-consuming object of our love, passion, focus, and pursuit. Do we hear Him? Do we see Him? Do we know Him? Do we love Him? Do we honor Him? Do we trust Him? Do we always prioritize Him in our lives? All disciples of Jesus Christ are temples of the Holy Spirit, for He indwells us. How then should any temple of the Holy Spirit easily forget the Holy One who lives in us?

Daily, we should awake and live in awe of Him and be overwhelmed by the incomparable blessing and joy that God Almighty not only has saved us, but also dwells in us by His Holy Spirit. We are God’s children and also His abode. We are tabernacles of the holy and living God, the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit’s Primacy in Christ’s Life

The Bible clearly speaks of the Holy Spirit’s primacy in Christ’s life. As the Son of Man, His entire life, mission, and ministry were centered on the Holy Spirit, who was the eternal power in His incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. It was in total dependence on the Holy Spirit that Christ finished His Father’s work and fulfilled His will on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus Himself declared in Luke 4:18 NKJV, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me.” Acts 10:38 NKJV confirms: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.” If Jesus required the Holy Spirit’s anointing to fulfill His mission, how much more do we? Nevertheless, many believers live as if the anointing is optional—a bonus rather than a necessity.This reduces Christianity to moralism and self-effort, draining the power from the gospel. The Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ were inseparable.

• Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
  “And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.’” Luke 1:35 NKJV
• Jesus was filled and led by the Holy Spirit.
  “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” Luke 4:1 NKJV
• Jesus was fully empowered by the Holy Spirit.
  “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about Him went out through all the surrounding country.” Luke 4:14 ESV
• Jesus was anointed for ministry by the Holy Spirit.
  “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 NKJV
• Jesus cast out demons by the Holy Spirit.
  “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Matthew 12:28 ESV
• Jesus taught and commanded by the Holy Spirit.
  “After He had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen.” Acts 1:2 ESV
• Jesus was given the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of God.
  “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” Isaiah 11:2 ESV
• Jesus was crucified as a Lamb through the Holy Spirit.
  “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:14 NKJV
• Jesus was raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit.
  “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11 ESV

The Holy Spirit’s Preeminence and Primacy in the Church

The kingdom of God is not merely a place or future event, but is founded in the person, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior and King. Christ had accomplished these through His absolute dependence on the primacy of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, every aspect of being a born-again child of Christ originates, continues, and consummates in the same Holy Spirit, including living in the anointing. Without the Holy Spirit, the kingdom life in Christ is impossible to live and the kingdom call to ministry is impossible to fulfill.

Many believers want the results of the anointing without the relationship with the Holy Spirit who sustains it. They want authority without submission, power without surrender, impact without intimacy. The anointing cannot be manufactured through hype or talent—it is obtained through intimacy with the Holy Spirit. The Christian life in the kingdom is impossible without the Holy Spirit. The call to ministry is impossible to obey and fulfill without the Holy Spirit. We are saved and called to the humanly unattainable without the Spirit of God, like the following:

• To fulfill impossible assignments and accomplish impossible tasks.
• To obey impossible commandments in absolute trust with commitment unto death.
• To bear intolerable suffering, shoulder the unbearable cross, and die the unthinkable death in following our King Jesus Christ.
• To trust, endure, and forge forward in the midst of adversities, trials, and storms.

With man it is not possible, but with the Holy Spirit all things are possible, just as God spoke to Mary, a virgin, concerning her being chosen to conceive by the Holy Spirit the Savior of all the world. In Luke 1:34 Mary, in bewilderment, wondered, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” The angel replied to Mary in Luke 1:35–37 NKJV,

THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL COME UPON YOU, AND THE POWER OF THE HIGHEST WILL OVERSHADOW YOU; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. FOR WITH GOD NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE.

All that God has assigned His Church to do is possible through the Holy Spirit, regardless of time, season, or situation. Nothing is impossible! These things are done through the power of the kingdom of God as expressed through His people. For this, God continuously speaks to His people through His Holy Bible and in various ways: “Fear not for I am with you; do not be dismayed…” (Isaiah 41:10 ESV), “Do not be ashamed…” (I Peter 4:16 NIV), “I am with you…” (Matthew 28:20 ESV), “I will never leave you nor forsake you…” (Hebrews 13:5 ESV), “Be of good courage…” (Psalm 31:24 NKJV), “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours…” (Deuteronomy 11:24 ESV).

Living and walking in the Holy Spirit is a lifelong relationship of intimacy. It is a personal union of seeking, knowing, loving, and relating to the Comforter, Advocate, Miracle-Worker, Anointer, Teacher, Revelator, Strengthener, Edifier, and Giver of Life, who is the eternally omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God. It is not just having an encounter with Him, or a sensing of His presence; He is the Person we must perpetually love and live with in unbreachable unity. It is our responsibility to let Him have preeminence and primacy in our lives, giving Him all our affection, attention, and strength. We must learn to let Him have predominance and supremacy.

Intimacy and anointing are cultivated through prayer, worship, obedience, and dependence on God. Operating in the anointing requires yielding to the Holy Spirit. 1 John 2:27 ESV tells us, “The anointing that you received from Him abides in you…abide in Him.” The anointing flows from intimacy. When you remain connected to Jesus and His Spirit, His power flows through you naturally.

In John 3:5–6 NKJV, Jesus told Nicodemus concerning being born again into His kingdom, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. THAT WHICH IS BORN OF THE FLESH IS FLESH, AND THAT WHICH IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT IS SPIRIT.”The entirety of being children of Christ’s kingdom is encapsulated in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said to His disciples in John 14:15–18 NLT that He would be going away, but He would ask His Father to send His disciples the Holy Spirit who would abide with them forever. As Jesus was everything to His disciples while He was with them, the Holy Spirit would be the same to these disciples after His ascension to heaven. Jesus would never leave them nor forsake them as orphans.

If you love Me, obey My commandments. AND I WILL ASK THE FATHER, AND HE WILL GIVE YOU ANOTHER ADVOCATE, WHO WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it isn’t looking for Him and doesn’t recognize Him. But you know Him, because He lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.

Jesus gives us this promise in Acts 1:8 ESV, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses.” The anointing is not for personal glory—it is for a witness. When you operate in the anointing, people will encounter you not in your words only but in the presence and the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon you.

The truth is this: anointing is an appointment. When God anoints you, He assigns you to a specific task and equips you with the power to accomplish it. Under the anointing, your presence carries weight because God’s presence rests on you. 2 Corinthians 1:21–22 ESV says, “It is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” Every believer has been anointed. The question is whether you are walking in it.

Realigning Our Relationship with the Holy Spirit in Prayer, Fasting, and Repentance.

When we live in the Holy Spirit in intimacy, knowledge, and submission, He gives us grace and power to live in holiness and obedience. We can live and walk in Him, pleasing Him and not grieving Him; trusting and not doubting; obedient and not rebellious; loving and not ignorant of Him. The Church must prayerfully examine our relationship with God: is it Holy Spirit-led or self-driven? It is time to pray, fast, and repent of areas that are out of alignment with the Holy Spirit.

It is a presumptuous and prideful mistake to try to fathom the Holy Spirit according to our own understanding, worldview, and judgment, and to totally miss the mark of who He is according to the Bible and His revelation. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13), Teacher and Reminder of believers of all things taught by Jesus (John 14:26), Revelator of things from God (1 Corinthians 2:12–13), and Internal Witness to our spirits that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). Therefore, do not assume to know Him according to your own understanding.

When we are erroneously led by our natural understanding and presumptuous judgment, we will formulate for ourselves a “Holy Spirit” who is far from who He truly is. We attribute to Him traits, ways, and functions that are absolutely contradictory to Him, because they all originate from the flesh or the mind of man. We are self-led and self-deceived by being wise in our own eyes. As we know Jesus by seeking, praying, studying His Word, and being in intimacy with Him, so it is with knowing the Holy Spirit. The Church must purpose, by faith, to know, trust, and completely yield to the Holy Spirit. He is the Eternal Spirit of God; Seal of our Salvation; Spirit of Adoption; Teacher of truth; and Spirit of understanding, counsel, wisdom, and the fear of God.

Are we guilty of attributing to Him a “grace” that tolerates sin by wrongfully thinking that because He understands our human frailty, He sees sins as only struggles, and He will not judge or condemn them? We must not assign to Him a permissiveness that gives great laxity to the lack of sanctification, holiness, and the fear of Him, not beholding Him with great awe and reverence. As we are called to tremble at God’s Word, may we also tremble in the presence of the Holy Spirit. There must be a personal knowledge of the Holy Spirit producing in us a keen awareness of His Person who is undividedly and unfathomably almighty, holy, fearful in wonders (power and glory) as only belonging to the Sovereign and One True God. He is the Alpha (beginning) and Omega (end), and nothing exists without His permission. As God the Father and Son are, so is the Holy Spirit—They are coequal and coeternal.

David, in his repentance from sin, cried out to God to cleanse him and also implored God not to take His Holy Spirit from him. Are we truly respectful of the Holy Spirit and wholly yielded to Him? He will not always strive with us. Do not presume upon His grace, patience, and mercy. As He convicts us of our trespasses, in character or ways, quickly and humbly acknowledge them, submitting to His correction, judgment, and ways. David in Psalm 51:4 NLT repented and prayed, “You will be proved right in what You say, and Your judgment against me is just.” When He examines and corrects us, we must have the same sorrowful, humble, truthful, repentant, and contrite spirit as David, who also prayed in Psalm 51:1–4 NLT,

Have mercy on me, O God, because of Your unfailing love. Because of Your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against You, and You alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what You say, and Your judgment against me is just.

We are to Live and Walk in the Holy Spirit, not in the Flesh

We must not live in the error of wanting the anointing but not the consecration and His holiness. When we are not in the Spirit, we are in the flesh. There is nothing of the flesh that can please the Holy Spirit because it always opposes the Spirit of God. The flesh will always produce the sinful works of the flesh. Nothing good or productive will ever come out of the flesh except that which is defiled, sinful, and rotting—spiritual decay leading to death. We must not try to negotiate with, placate, or contain the flesh; it has to be crucified unto death. We must consider ourselves dead to the flesh and sin but alive to God. We are to be pure gold as refined by the fire of the Holy Spirit, not an alloy of unrefined gold mixed with other metals. We cannot mix the Spirit and the flesh, and the holy and the profane.

The flesh cannot convict the flesh of sin. It will always lead to sin. Only the Holy Spirit convicts of sin. If one keeps on walking in the flesh, they are living dangerously by ignoring and disrespecting the Holy Spirit, who reveals, counsels, and convicts our conscience of sin. Our conscience is a God-given gift that helps us discern between good and evil when we heed the Holy Spirit. If one lives in the flesh, the conscience is progressively suffocated by it and hardened by sin. Just as the physical flesh dies when seared by a hot iron, eventually, our conscience will die because of being seared by sin repeatedly.

We must nurture a sanctified, pure, Holy Spirit-led conscience. The Church must have an easily convicted heart—soft, pliable, sensitive to the Holy Spirit—and never ignore, compromise, or sell out the Holy Spirit’s convictions. It is to our peril if we grieve and quench the Holy Spirit and ultimately rebel against Him. A heart and conscience that are desensitized to the Holy Spirit’s conviction are dysfunctional, like seared and scarred tissues. It is a spiritual scarring that leads to a callousness that makes it very easy and natural to ignore and dishonor the Holy Spirit, thereby disregarding sinful actions. It becomes natural to sin, and we treat both the Holy Spirit and sin with great indifference.

THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT ONLY CONVICTS US OF SIN, WHEN WE SUBMIT TO HIM, HE ALSO EMPOWERS US TO OBEY. He does not convict without providing the grace to obey as we yield to Him. In fact, conviction is a work of grace. We are to live and walk completely in the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus did, in absolute humility, trust, reverence, and submission. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in every way, yet He did not sin. He confidently declared that He saw the prince of this world (devil) coming, but the devil had no power over Him. Living a Spirit-filled, Spirit-led, and Spirit-empowered life is an uncompromising, consecrated, and holy life. WHEN WE LIVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT IN INTIMACY, KNOWLEDGE AND OBEDIENCE, HE GIVES US POWER TO LIVE HOLY and the anointing to do what is not possible in the natural.

The Blessings of Living and Walking in the Holy Spirit

There are innumerable blessings of living and walking in the Holy Spirit as Jesus did. These are worthy of mention for us to live victoriously in Christ Jesus.

• The Holy Spirit gives us strength.

Our hearts must be supernaturally strengthened by the Holy Spirit because human strength is sorely insufficient to live in, move in, and obey God in these dangerous times just before the second coming of Jesus Christ. Paul said the last days are dangerous and difficult. The Bible also says that the hearts of people will faint from fear, but this must not be spoken of concerning the Church. Our own hearts will fail us; that is why we need the strength that comes from the Holy Spirit, which is unshakable and undefeatable. These are hearts that, because of the Holy Spirit, stay steadfast, fearless, and undaunted by any trial, testing, or spiritual warfare. It is a strength that produces an unshakable commitment to God when facing the fiercest hardship and persecution. It is an inward strength to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Jesus, to love God above all, and to die to all that Christ can live fully and freely in us at all costs.

Stephen, a man filled with the Holy Spirit, was so full of the Holy Spirit’s strength that he faced down his persecutors and murderers with peace, calmness, and faith. He accepted the torturous agony of being stoned to death for faith in Christ and yet prayed to God to forgive his murderers. He held nothing against them—no charges. All these things he endured victoriously because he was strengthened in his inner man by the power of the Holy Spirit. He triumphed over fear, threat, and martyrdom in loving obedience to Jesus. He saw Jesus standing up for him. Can we too face all that he faced with such holy resolve, purity of heart, and strength of faith? Yes, we can through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

• The Holy Spirit produces faith and courage in us.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God and impossible to overcome. It is by faith in God that He moves on our behalf according to His will. Our confidence is not in ourselves or any human entity, organization, strategy, or power. All powers will fail except that of the Holy Spirit. Faith comes through living in union with the Holy Spirit. In that unity, as we know Him more, He works faith into our hearts. As we grow in our intimacy with Him, our faith grows supernaturally, enabling us to believe and obey at all times and at any cost. The Church can believe and trust that nothing is impossible with God.

It is a faith that is accompanied by fearless courage, as we see in the Book of Acts—the acts of the Holy Spirit. Our hearts cannot fail in fear like the world’s during these last days. We need a supernatural boldness, strengthened by testing, that will make us unafraid and unshaken in any situation. We will live in unwavering obedience and courage, through faith, knowing that the Church can stand and withstand in all battles and struggles of faith, accomplishing the work of God and fulfilling His will.

• The Holy Spirit empowers us for the impossible.

When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, He empowers us to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, which is impossible in the natural. As the Church is His witness in all nations for the advancement of His kingdom, the impossible is not just in the face of incurable diseases; it is also in the face of impossible situations, difficulties, dangers, and persecutions that carry the potential to lose everything, including our lives. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to stand, withstand, and experience breakthroughs. He also emboldens us to forge forward in obedience to Him.

• The Holy Spirit endows us with His gifts for ministry.

We are to covet the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Church must pray and seek these gifts, and not be lackadaisical about it. We must be concerned about the lack of gifts operating through the people of God. If we seek Him with all of our hearts to love and serve Him, He will not fail in blessing us with His gifts to be used for the work of His kingdom.

These gifts are made available to all who believe in Him. There are no spiritual elites in God’s kingdom that He favors and bestows more of His gifts on because they deserve them. He gives His gifts out of grace and love for us so that we can participate in advancing His kingdom in power. If we want to move in the supernatural for the sake of His kingdom and ministry, we must hunger for His gifts and in faith ask. He will answer.

Too many Christians have been informed about the Holy Spirit but have yet to live in the fullness of His presence, anointing, and power. The anointing is for all believers wherever God has scattered us in this world in different vocations and whatever fields or industries—medical, education, construction, service, or science—as doctors, teachers, artists, scientists, builders, or waiters/waitresses. Perhaps you have felt the frustration of laboring without a breakthrough. Today, God is inviting you to step into the anointing that is already yours in Christ. Stop striving in your own strength and start abiding in His presence. Pursue intimacy with God above all else, knowing that the anointing flows from that relationship. You were not created to live in your own strength. You were anointed to operate in God’s power, to see the impossible become reality, and to carry His presence into every place you go. Walk in that truth, and watch what God will do through you.