THE FRAGRANCE OF PENTECOST (Part 2)
THE FUNCTION OF THE UNCTION IS THE CHURCH, THE BODY OF JESUS CHRIST. The New Testament is a common priesthood of all believers. While there is a common fellowship, the Holy Ghost called it a “royal priesthood.” (I Peter 2:9) The art of the apothecary is not relegated to a small group of Levites, but is the joy of the entire Spirit-filled church. Every one of us should feel a responsibility for the function of God’s Holy Ghost’s unction in the business of His kingdom. No wonder the church is so powerless and decrepit. The majority of the “born again” family has no sense of a Divine presence and power that is supernatural in accomplishing God’s Divine business. In fact, most of today’s church is afraid of the “unction” of the Holy Ghost.
I can understand this fear having been a Pentecostal for over sixty years and witnessing firsthand the many excesses. But, is that really an excuse seeing we have the Bible as a clear pattern to judge the false from the real? I have never tolerated the excesses in my pastorate of over fifty five years. I have met wild-eyed folks in the aisle, gone back to their pew, and even cast devils out of the wild religionist, who went into jerking or screaming episodes in the altar. There is no place for emotional foolishness in God’s House. Remember, these excesses are Satan’s business to discredit the genuine. Apostle Paul faced this when he cast the demons out of the young lady who was making unwelcome remarks about his ministry. The people of God who lead today’s church must accept the “function of the unction.” We cannot accomplish supernatural results of soul salvation and transformed lives without the unction of the Holy Ghost.
The Church Anointed With His Anointing
The First Testament church (tabernacle) was then to be anointed with the holy anointing oil. Note in the text that every part of the ministering facility was to be anointed; the tabernacle itself, the ark of the covenant, golden vessels, the altar, and even the foot laver. This House of God was to be a holy place. It was to be so holy that the Father made this incredible statement. “And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.” (Exodus 30:29)
Do not miss this incredible truth. “Whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.” This is the reason why our church generation is not producing saints. The church world of our generation is so worldly and crazed that the church has become a joke to the devil and the world. If the church will go back to this place of anointing, we will automatically produce godliness in our midst. Any sinner that walks into a Holy Ghost filled church will be convicted and, unless they run, converted to the beauty of Biblical holiness. The Holy Ghost anointing will give wings to the Word of God and it will begin to produce what God intended in the first place.
Ministers That Minister unto God
Now, the text begins to deal with the priests and their ministry. Let us not forget that in the Second Testament we do not have a class of priests, but we are a generation of priests. Every “born again” believer becomes a part of the priesthood under the High Priest Himself. What we will now see is applicable to all of us and reveals our duty before the Lord of the church and the Heavenly Father. The Scripture states, “And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office.” (Exodus 30:30)
Once the priests were anointed with this “holy anointing oil”, they were to minister “unto God”. The Father stated, “Minister unto me.” This principle has been almost totally lost in today’s church. Our churches are not places where we go to minister and worship. The Pentecostal world has led the way in producing a television and entertainment mentality in the church. Modern churches are built to enhance the stage and produce an entertainment type church service. People come and sit to be blessed with whatever the leaders produce. In the new Charismatic circles the ministers go around imparting some emotional touch and people are satisfied when the leading individual has touched their heads. In more refined churches it is pure entertainment with a little mixture of humanism and theology. It is all more pagan than Biblical.
The true anointing of the Holy Ghost will produce a ministry that is God-centered, not man-centered. The music, the preaching, the worship and the gifts of the Holy Ghost will not be centered on man and His Santa Claus approach to God, but on the Father Himself and the Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ. A Biblical reformation will occur when we begin to minister to the Father and the Son. Will we no longer be blessed? My dear readers, do not fool yourself or allow the devil to fool you. When we minister, truly minister to the Father and the Son with a Holy anointing of the Holy Ghost, we will enter into a spiritual Canaan land where the milk and honey flows.
Do Not Put On Man’s Flesh!
Our generation has the mistaken idea that God’s grace precedes and bypasses His holiness. Nothing has wrought greater havoc on the church. His grace and mercy are expressions of His holiness and operate in perfect harmony. For the preserving of His holiness and the perfection of His mercy, He has ordained that His anointing never rest upon human flesh. The olive oil in the “holy anointing oil” was not mixed with impure spices and neither can the finished formula be placed on flesh, much less impure flesh. What is the point?
It is the spirit of man redeemed and set apart unto God that God anoints in His service. The redeemed man in whom the spices of Christ’s grace has wrought Divine redemption is the vessel where the Holy Ghost comes to guide and minister back to God. Apostle Paul confirmed this to the Romans. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14-16)
No wonder the false anointing is doing so much damage. All that these prophets of the flesh can do is impart their false spirit onto the flesh of the sign-seekers and the results are contortions, insane jerking, apparitions, human imaginations, and bizarre emotions of many descriptions. When man is redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ comes by the Holy Ghost to indwell that believer. “…Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price.” (I Corinthians 6:19-20) Jesus Christ becomes the Lord of our life and masters us from the human spirit. In that realm of our spirit where Jesus Christ is “all in all”, the holy anointing of God is manifest. He does not fall on flesh, but on spirit. If we will develop our sensitivity to His Spirit, He will freely manifest Himself in us and we will grow in His grace and power.
Not To Be Compounded By Flesh or Put It On A Stranger
His final warning in this great typo-logical message about Pentecost was very simple. “Do not make any like it and do not put it on a stranger.” It is awesome to realize how the modern church has contrived and duplicated a false anointing. Many present day ministers can contrive a Pentecostal worship service without missing a beat. Music has been developed using soulical sounds and emotionally driven words and the people are on their feet in what is called worship. The preachers have developed fleshly and soulical methods to preach and demand an altar service.
I began to see this more than ten years ago and have repented over and over, pleading with the Lord to totally cleanse me of soulical and fleshly actions that are really devoid of Holy Ghost anointing. After being a part of the Pentecostal scene for forty-six years, I believe the Lord has helped me understand what has occurred. Some of the greatest Christians in the world are Pentecostal believers. The devil certainly set out years ago to dilute the absolute dependency of ministers and leaders on the Word and the anointing. Slowly, they (we) allowed themselves to develop their own powers in the soul and flesh and forgot to stay prostrate before the Lord of the church in complete trust and surrender to Him alone. In the process, church became man-centered instead of God-centered. Thank God, He is bringing us back.
Please study this article and join me in repenting for our man-centered approach to God. Let’s wait before the Lord of the church for His Divine wisdom and understanding. As He reveals Himself in His Word, allow your life to be cleansed of self and renewed in His sanctifying graces. Shortly, His anointing will return to you and power that is not of yourself will begin to reflect in your life. The harvest will follow.
Ed Wood
In my opinion, the one single thing a believer can do for him or herself is to arm themselves with a knowledge of the Bible. Bible study is very much a “seek and ye shall find” experience, just as Jesus indicated. The more one reads it, the greater a depth one will discover within its pages. New discoveries will come even from familiar old passages one may have read a hundred times as the Holy Spirit gives a person greater and greater spiritual maturity.
Accompanying a study of the Word is also the development of a spiritual discernment that allows a person to recognize the difference between the truth and a lie – something that can often be amazingly subtle. Such discernment has just about completely evaporated in what passes for the church today.
During the Tribulation, the Antichrist will exploit the biblical ignorance and the gullibility of those who are looking for easy answers, just as his precessors have done from the beginning of Time after the Fall of the human race.
It’s pretty easy to see how effective this tactic is already by looking at all the false doctrines and practices most of the modern neo-Laodicean church has embraced with such eagerness today.
Keith Black
TRUE CHURCHES AND FALSE CHURCHES
Dear Joe Chambers,
In the real true Biblical churches where true doctrine is preached, the Holy Spirit is dominant. The preaching is CONSERVATIVE REPENTANCE BASED PREACHING. The pastors in these churches DO NOT BOW TO THE FALSE GODS OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. HOMOSEXUALS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THESE CHURCHES. The preachers at these churches PREACH FROM THE BOOK OF REVELATION, DANIEL, AND OTHER PROPHECY BOOKS OF THE BIBLE. They talk about the RAPTURE (evacuation) for real Christians. They talk about the END TIMES. The Liberals accuse the preachers of being PROPHETS OF DOOM FRO WARNING ABOUT JUDGMENTS for sinners (mostly leftists including Gays). The Liberals hate these preachers. The conservatives love these preachers that read from REVELATION. {PAW CREEK fits in that category). Most of these churches that preach CONSERVATIVE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE FROM THE KING JAMES BIBLE, are not very large churches, but are quite small such as country churches.
But the LIBERAL PORK-BARREL SANTA-CLAUS PROSPERITY PREACHING CHURCHES ARE VERY LARGE, because UNSAVED SINNERS LOVE THESE CHURCHES WITH ALL THE ENTERTAINMENT, COUNTRY CLUBS (Called family life centers), ROCK MUSIC, COFFEE BARS, and other fun things. THESE ARE BASICALLY RELIGIOUS AMUSEMENT PARKS. These are CARNIVALS. Carnal and Carnival or sensual come from the same Greek word. in the near future these chuches which even now allow HOMOSEXUALS in the ministry will soon have NUDE DANCING IN THE SUNDAY MORNING “SERVICES”. These churches do not have the HOLY SPIRIT. Just as God has been kicked out of the schools, he also has been KICKED OUT OF THESE CHURCHES. Their Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible, but THEIR JESUS IS KARL MARX WITH A ROBE ON. The chuches do not have the SPIRIT OF GOD, BECAUSE THEY KICKED HIM OUT, LIKE IT WAS WITH PUBLIC SCHOOLS originally dominated by Christians until Supreme Court kicked out God. Same with these SECULAR HUMANIST CHURCHES. These churches DO NOT HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. THEY HAVE THE DEVIL AND HIS DEMONS INSTEAD, POWERING UP THESE “CHARISMATIC” ACTIVITIES INCLUDING HEALINGS BY SATAN on behalf of the PORK-BARREL PREACHERS.
What do you think Joe.
Sincerely,
Keith