In Christ, Chapter Four

 

 

In the past 76 years of my lifetime the religious world as a whole has put us in bondage to man's understanding of the things of God. As a result each group of believers separated themselves from each other over differences of understanding what God's will for mankind is. Even within each group there were differences of understand what the Word was saying.

 

To understand what the Bible is saying you must understand that it is not just a common work of literature. The Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God and is written in spiritual language. The man without the Holy Spirit guidance cannot ever understand the deeper things of God. Paul said in 1 Cor. 2:6-7,

 

"Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: 
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:"

 

Also in 1 Cor. 2:13-14,

 

"Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 

 

Over the brief span of my lifetime I have observed the Holy Spirit working to reveal to mankind the things of God and I am convinced that in the next few generations the knowledge of God will expand at an exponential rate as He prepares His Church for the return of Jesus.

 

Paul made a very profound statement which the Church seems to have little understanding of in Col. 1:26-27,

 

"The mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest (revealed) to his saints:   to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:" 

 

Christ in you, the hope of glory! I went into great length in Part 2 of this series to explain to you what the word 'Christ' means. It is not the name of Jesus but is a description of the spiritual body of the anointed of God of which Jesus is the head. Christ means anointed. In Luke 4:17-18 Jesus said,

 

"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 preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." 

 

Paul said that the mystery that had been hidden to all the previous generations had now been revealed to the Gentiles. This mystery is Christ in you! Do you mean that Christ dwells in us literally? Yes, that is exactly what Paul was saying. You may say, "Well, how can that be?"  That is a good question. Paul said in Gal. 3:26-29,

 

"For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.    For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.    There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.    And if you be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise."

 

Having shown you this, I can now say to you that you have been baptized into the same anointing that Jesus had. God anointed Jesus with His Spirit and it is His Spirit that we have been baptized into because we are all children of God. As such, we are all in Christ and Jesus is the head of this body of Christ. The same anointing that Jesus was anointed with is the same anointing that we have been given. The only difference between us and Jesus is that He had the Spirit without measure and we have been given a measure of the anointing of God to guarantee what is to come.

 

This is a fulfillment of what Jesus prayed for in John 17:20-23,

 

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

 

Christ, or the anointing of God, dwells in us today by the faith that He has given us to believe in Him. Paul prayed in Eph. 3:17-19,

 

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,(God)    may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;(of that Love)    and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

 

These mysteries of God cannot be understood by the carnal mind. But you are spirit and if you will allow the Lord to reveal these things to your spirit you will be able to understand that the same anointing that Jesus had dwells in you. That is your spirit. Paul prayed here that we might be filled with all the fullness of His Father. Jesus said in John 3:6-8,

 

"Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 
You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

 

You may say to me, "Well, if I have the same anointing that Jesus had then why can't I work miracles like He did?"  That's another good question.

 

I have shared with you before that Jesus said in John 5:19,

 

"I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."

 

You can do the works that Jesus did and He said in John 14:12-13,

 

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father."

 

You may say, "Well, I have faith in Jesus, then why can't I perform miracles? The main reason that you can't is because you have been taught that these things passed away when the last Apostle died! As a result you don't believe that you can do these things. Remember what Jesus said in Mark 11:23-25,

 

 That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he says. Therefore I say unto you, What things so ever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. 

 

When you pray, do you pray in faith that God will answer your prayers? If you don't, then you are just saying idol words and it will only be by God's love and grace that your prayers will be answered. Notice in this passage that Jesus said, "Whosoever shall say to this mountain!"  Jesus is talking about authority here. If you don't have the authority to command that your will be done, you can't expect it to be done. This whosoever person Jesus is talking about here is prophesying to this mountain and commanding it to respond to his wishes.

 

Have you ever prophesied? Not if you believe that you don't have the authority to prophesy and if you don't believe, then your words are just idol words. They have no power and the object of your prayers will not recognize your authority. Remember in the book of Acts in chapter 19:13-16,

 

"Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon themselves to speak over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.    And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so     and the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?    And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded."

 

Evil spirits do recognize authority and this evil spirit recognized that these men had no authority. If you ever decide to prophesy in the area of commanding something or someone to obey you there are two things you must bear in mind. One, is that God told you to command it and Two, that you speak as one having authority. Now, if you have bought into the doctrine of man that says, God no longer speaks to man, then you will never prophesy.

 

Paul said in 1 Cor. 14:1-3,

 

"Follow after charity (love), and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. For he that speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not unto men, but unto God: for no man understands him; howbeit in the spirit he speaks mysteries. But he that prophesies speaks unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort."

 

Did you know that when your preacher declares the word of God to you every Sunday, he is prophesying? This form of prophesying is the lower form of the office of a prophet. The higher form of the office of a prophet is that of giving forth a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom. A word of knowledge is about something that is happening or has happened. A word of wisdom is always future giving information about what is about to happen or giving you the wisdom of what to do or what the Lord's will is in any given situation. The highest form of prophesy is that of authority.

 

In John 11:23, Jesus was talking about someone prophesying a command and believing that what he said would come to pass. This kind of prophesying can only be done by someone that knows that they have the authority to do so. In the book of  Matthew, when the centurion came to Jesus, he told Him,

 

"The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it."

 

This man had been trained in the discipline of authority and understood the authority that Jesus had. Jesus was shocked by his understand authority and said to him,

 

"I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith."

 

The Church, as a whole today, has very little understanding of authority, and even less understanding of anointing. This centurion understood the authority that Jesus had and humbled himself before Him.

 

God is still in the business of anointing those He wants in leadership in the Church. Paul said in 1 Cor. 14:27-28,

 

"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 
And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues."

 

Man did not set up these offices in the Church, God did. God still calls people into these ministries and anoints them for the position. God is a God of government and order and appoints those He chooses to do the work of an apostle, a prophet , evangelist, pastors and teachers. Paul said in Eph. 4:11-16,

 

"And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;    For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:    Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:    That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;    But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:    From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

 

Ministry requires the leadership of the Holy Spirit. It is only by the anointing of the Holy Spirit that men will be drawn to God. We need more men and women that are led by the Spirit of the Lord to lead and guide us into the full measure of Christ. We cannot continue to bind the hands of our God given ministers to share with us what the Lord is saying to them. We need to respect the authority and anointing that our Father has given to them. We should not idolize them but respect the anointing that our Father has given to them.

 

David is the complete example of someone who understood authority and anointing of God. He refused to touch the anointed of God in Saul even when Saul was disobedient to the Lord. When the young man that was Saul's servant helped Saul end his life and David heard about it, he had the young man put to death because he dared to touch the anointed one of God.

 

How we need to have this same fear of the Lord today so that we will not touch those that have been selected by our Father to positions of ministry in the Body of Christ.  God said in 1 Chron. 16:22, (NIV)

 

"Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm."

 

You should be very careful about what you say about those that God has called into these special offices or you will find yourself condemning the Lord.