FRESH ANOINTING

By Jemima Rayan

God does not want us to operate in our past experiences or even with the past anointing. Every time the children of Israel were hungry, God did not want them to eat the left-overs. He gave them fresh manna each and everyday. God gave them fresh manna from heaven. In the same way, when it comes to the Holy Spirit, He does not want us to have the past anointing or the infilling that we had ten years before. God wants to anoint us afresh each day. His grace is new every morning.

The Psalmist says in Psalm 92:10, "But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil". Note the word 'fresh oil'. God wants to anoint us with fresh oil. He wants us to have the fresh oil of the Holy Spirit and He wants us to be full of the Holy Spirit.

The first New Testament martyr Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. Acts 6:5 says, "…And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit",

Full reservoirs or Empty reservoirs:

The word of God says in Jeremiah 2:13 that the children of God committed two evils. "For My people have committed tow evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns- broken cisterns that can hold no water."

The word of God says in the above passage that the children of God have committed the two evils. They have forsaken God in all that they do. They have their religion and rituals but they have forsaken God in all that they do. God is grieved with this kind of situation. The other evil is that they have made for themselves cisterns (artificial reservoirs) that are broken. In effect, God says that the pressures and trials of life has caused the water to leak from the reservoirs and they no longer hold any water. This is a pathetic condition of the Body of Christ today.

Some people are thinking about the day when they were filled with the Holy Spirit and are happy with just that. The Bible admonishes us to have a fresh filling each day.

Initial infilling and Numerous refilling:

God's word talks to us about an initial filling that you receive on the day you are baptized in the Holy Spirit. But a believer should not stop at that. He needs numerous refilling. Let us see couple of examples here:

In the life of the apostles: Look at the life of the apostles. In Acts 2: 4 they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 3: 1-10 we read about how the power that they received helped them to cause the lame man walk. In Acts 4:31 they were again filled with the Holy Spirit. What this verse means is that the apostles needed a refill for them to function effectively. In Acts 5:15 we read that the shadow of Peter had the power to heal the sick bodies. We learn from these passages that the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit as often as they needed.

In the life of the Ephesians: Acts 19:1-6, we read about how God used Paul to get the people of Ephesus filled with the Holy Spirit. Later we see in Ephesians 1: 1 that Paul is writing to the faithful in Christ Jesus that they need to stay filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 says, "Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit".

In the above two examples, we see that the believers needed continual refilling of the Holy Spirit. God wants us to be full reservoirs all the time. You never know when you will need it. When we talk about being full, we need to know what the Bible talks about. We need to be 'full of the Word of God' and 'full of the Spirit of God'.

Full of the Word of God:

Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord".

God wants us to be full of His word. Note the word "richly" which means abounding in word. Also the way you divide the word is important. It says "in all wisdom". Every Christian should know how to rightly divide the word and apply the word in his life.

Full of the Spirit of God:

Ephesians 5: 18 says, "And do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit."

This word talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit on a continual basis. We need to not only be filled with the Holy Spirit, but we need to stay filled with the Holy Spirit. That is very important to do an effective ministry.

May the Lord help you to stay full of God's word and His Spirit in Jesus name. Amen.

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