“Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
(Eph. 3:19, NLT)
We are currently examining the symbolic meaning of oil and what it teaches us about anointing. The previous teaching touched upon the typological implications of this for the Bride.
The word anointing is only specifically found three times in the New Testament, in 1 John 2:20 & 27.
- “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.”
- “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
The sections between the two verses are concerned with what John calls “the antichrists”, in other words believers that oppose Christ, and worship religion instead of Christ. In verse 22 the author makes it clear: “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist …” The antichrist is not a specific person; 1 John 2:18-19 makes it very clear: “… even now many antichrists have come … They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us …” 2 John 1:7 spells out who the antichrists are, in no uncertain terms: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is … an antichrist.”
Take note: they often confess that God came in the flesh, as for instance 1 Tim. 3:16 does: “God was manifested in the flesh”, in the form of Jesus, the son of God. They thus also acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh, as John 1:14 for instance states: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us …” But they do not acknowledge that Christ ALSO came in the flesh. They are thus not anti-Jesus, but anti-Christ.
The spirit of the antichrist thus does not acknowledge that the anointing of the Anointed has been carried over onto those who have been anointed by him. According to Matt. 28:18 they acknowledge that “all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth”, but does not accept that God chose to exercise that power through his anointed ones! See how Paul argues this matter in Eph. 3:16-20: “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us …”
The anointing is the commodity which gives the Bride access to everything: “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). “… upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3)!
- Selah: What are the implications of this for the Bride?
- Read: 1-4.
- Memorise: 1:20.
