“For all things are yours …” (1 Cor. 3:21a, NKJV)
We are currently looking at the meaning of spiritual mantles, using the mantle of Elijah as prototype. In tracing his unfolding calling we examined various facets of the formation of his mantle, and in the process thus also started looking at the concept of anointing. From the previous teaching it became clear that the anointing is never individual, but always corporate. Just as I, as part of the Bride, do not have the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16, ASV) on my own, as it is a collective gift (“WE have the mind of Christ”), I can also not have the anointing on my own: “But YOU (plural) have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” (1 John 2:20).
It is thus not accurate to speak of this or that person as having such a great anointing. He/she can have a unique mantle (which is an indication of his high calling – Phil. 3:14), but the anointing is always the anointing of Jesus the Christ, or then: the corporate Bride. Anointing is always a blend consisting of different people in the Body. Therefore Paul makes it unambiguously clear in 1 Cor. 3:21-23: “Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”
Paul constantly reiterates this important matter in the first letter to the Corinthians. In 1 Cor. 1:12-13 he states it as follows: “Now I say this, that each of you says, ‘I am of Paul,’ or ‘I am of Apollos,’ or ‘I am of Cephas,’ or ‘I am of Christ.’ Is Christ divided?” This is obviously a rhetorical question, as Christ is, by definition, a unity.
The beautiful Old Testament typological complement to this is Ps. 133, which highlights this aspect of anointing: “Blessed Unity of the People of God. A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing— life forevermore.”
First note that this song is one of fifteen Song of Ascents, found in Psalms 120-134, which are referred to as Shirei ha Ma’a lot in Hebrew: Ma’a lot is the plural of the Hebrew word Ma’alah, which means “step, degree or ascent”. It literally means “a going up”, or “goings up”. There is quite a bit of consensus that these songs had been sung in antique Israel especially during the traditional pilgrim festivals, but also at the start of the feast of tabernacles (typologically the third-dimension feast of “God with us”), and that each of these songs represent one of the fifteen steps between the second and third dimensions, the Holy and the Holy of Holies (Sigmund Mowinckel: The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, vol. 1, pp. 2-3). Therefore it is also aptly translated as “Song of Steps” in Easton’s Bible Dictionary. Traditionally it is symbolic of the step-by-step ascension to the “heavenly Jerusalem”, which we know from Heb. 12:22 and Rev. 21:2 & 10 is typologically the Bride of Christ. It is in other words a systematic ascension towards your higher calling.
(The International Standard Bible Encylopedia argues that it also points to “a semi-circular flight of stairs with 15 steps which led from the court of the men of Israel down to the court of the women”, which then renders it, in typological terms, courting songs between the Bride and the Bridegroom! Others argue that the pilgrim’s psalms are a reference to the Jews who moved from Babylon to Jerusalem. This obviously also carried typological worth, especially in the symbolic position of Babylon vs the New Jerusalem, in for instance Rev. 18 and 21.)
It is important to know that the group of psalms “is a connected narrative rather than a miscellaneous collection of songs from ancient Israel” (Nancy de Claissi-Walford: Introduction to the Psalms: A Song from Ancient Israel), and should thus be read as a summary of the unfolding narrative of a calling.
Ps. 133 is the penultimate stop on this pilgrimage. Before we look at this psalm, it might be worth looking at the last stop, Ps. 134, which reads as follows: “Praising the Lord in His House at Night. A Song of Ascents. Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord. The Lord who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion!” Ps. 133 is the end point of high calling in which the Bride currently STANDS. The hand (typological of the five-fold ministry), is stretched out towards the sanctuary, Zion, the Christ! From this uniting of Bride and Bridegroom flows the executive blessing of the corporate anointing.
[The words arise and stand are used throughout Scripture as indicative of someone who has started functioning in his calling. Thus, for instance, we find the queen of Sheba who looked at how the wisdom (= Christ: 1 Cor. 1:24) of Solomon manifested in “the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters” (1 Kings 10:5). Isa. 60:1 presents a typological call for standing up within your calling, and the gospel of glory (third dimension): “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.” Paul also does a similar call in Eph. 5:14: “Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’”]
Whilst we are thus discussing ascension and spiritual heights that need to be reached in the fulfilling of a high calling, it is of great importance to spend a moment looking at the concept of “high calling”. Phil. 3:14 makes it clear: “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” This makes us “partakers of the heavenly calling” (Heb. 3:1). This aspect should, strictly speaking, be in the third dimension, the Holy of Holies, the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2), and in these teachings we are at the moment still only discussing the first dimension, the outer court, but the transition of position already starts progressing from the first dimension. We are busy with the unfolding revelation as we move on this “highway of holiness” (Isa. 35:8-9, NKJV). It is thus not strange that “the way of life” (which must be likened to Christ Jesus – John 10:0 and 14:6) moves upwards. (Read the teaching of Day 574 again to understand this better.)
Although 1 Cor. 1:26 speaks of “your calling” it is actually rather “His calling”, in other words, the calling of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:17-18) of which parts is distributed amongst the Bride. Eventually there is only really one calling – Eph. 4:4 – “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling …” This one calling of Jesus Christ can symbolically be likened to Jesus’ tunic which was “without seam”, which could not be torn or divided into parts (John 19:23-24). This corresponds with the mantle of the High Priest: “And there was an opening in the middle of the robe, like the opening in a coat of mail, with a woven binding all around the opening, so that it would not tear.” (Ex. 39:23).
According to Rom. 8:28 (ASV) calling is directed toward “them that are called according to his purpose”.
Jesus’ purpose is spelled out in strikingly simple terms in Eph. 1:10 (NLT) – “And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.” The JB Phillips-translation also makes it very clear: “For God had allowed us to know the secret of his plan, and it is this: he purposes in his sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its perfection and fulfilment in him.” (I would like to just change the last word, so that the phrase reads, “that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its perfection and fulfilment in Christ”.) The Message translates it as follows: “a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him”. We’ll stick with the WMSNT-translation: “so that, at the coming of the climax of the ages, everything in heaven and on earth should be unified through Christ”.
Arising in your calling is about the fulfilment of God’s blueprint.
Back to Ps. 133. This short but powerful poem has a very specific parallelism at its core: The subject and condition for anointing is offered in the first line, and the concluding insight in the last line, and in-between two parallel images are offered:
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
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It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.
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It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion …
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For there the Lord commanded the blessing— life forevermore.
Take note of where the there is that is blessed – “upon the head”, and on the highest peak of Zion, Hermon. The anointing lies in the Anointed Head, Jesus the Messiah. In Hebrew Hermon means “a sanctuary” (Brown-Drivers-Briggs’Hewbrew Definitions), in other words: Holy of Holies. What is offered, is blessing, in Hebrew, berâkâh, of which the root word is, “to kneel”. Anointing occurs when the Head bows his knee to the Bride, and pours out of the fulness of his Being (his God had, after all, “anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions” – Ps. 45:7). Because God anoints his head with oil, his cup runs over, like Ps. 23:5, and we find a “running down” and a “descending” of the anointing upon the Bride! This only descends upon the high priests (= Aarons of the new covenant = the priesthood of Melchizedek), those who STAND in the third dimension; those who display spiritual maturity (= beard); who are fully clothed with Christ (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 13:14) and who are anointed. Therefore 2 Cor. 1:21-22 states: “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” (From this it is clear that “baptism with the Holy Spirit” and “anointing” is in no way the same happening.)
Also note that the anointing oil is metaphorically likened to dew. Rain and dew are often associated with one another in the Scripture (Deut. 32:2; 2 Sam. 1:21; Job 38:28). Metonymically part of the five primordial manifestation forms of living water the Bride is not only blessed, but also becomes a blessing to the entire earth: “Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power, in holy array: Out of the womb of the morning Thou hast the dew of thy youth.” (Ps. 110:3, ASV). Indeed: “all things are yours” (1 Cor. 3:21a). The corporate Bride who live together as brothers, in shalom, become the womb of the anointing of the new day where everything will be reconciled to God. “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’” (Matt. 25:34).
- Selah: Explain the concept anointing to someone.
- Read: 16-21.
- Memorise: 16:6 & 9 (note the synchronicity!)
