[EDITOR’S NOTE: In our day, the importance of experiencing the true Spirit Baptism is paramount. Because of satanic counterfeits, the true body of Christ has been alarmed and made hesitant to call out to the Lord for a fresh infusion of God’s Spirit in a public meeting or private prayer time. We believe that as believers gather it is essential to pray for endowments of the Holy Spirit. If the presence of God is not with the Church, She will never further the purpose of God in the earth. The Gospels and the Book of Acts teaches the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.977 If we say we believe the Bible then we must also believe in this Baptism. The Book of 1 Corinthians teaches us that the Holy Spirit gives diverse gifts and that not all receive the gift of speaking in tongues.978 May God protect, shield and keep saints from the counterfeit. This article emphasizes faith in receiving the Holy Spirit. This must also be balanced with asking the Lord verbally for the Spirit (see Luke 11:5-13). Below is the text transcription of the message]:
I don’t know, maybe this week is like what Ezekiel was talking about there back in the Old Testament. Remember when he talked about this river flowing out from under the throne of heaven? And he went so far and he was in to his ankles, and then he went so far and he was in up to knees, and then he went so far and he was in up to his waist, and then he was swimming! Do it, Lord, do it.
Let’s stand for a word of prayer. Can we do that?
Lord we love You this morning. We come to You in Jesus’ Name. We thank You for loving us. We don’t really understand it, but we thank You that You do, You love us. Father, we come to You this morning because we have no where else to go. We come to You this morning because we don’t have anything to say. If You don’t give us something to say, Lord, we know. We come to You this morning because without You we can do nothing, and so we pray that You will again this morning, and throughout the day, anoint this day with Your presence. Anoint this preacher with Your anointing, Lord, with Your message for the day. Anoint the ears of our heart, Lord, the eyes of our understanding this day. We pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
This morning I want to speak on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and New Testament reality. What is the effect of the anointing of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life? The prophet Samuel was speaking prophetically to Saul during the time he was to be anointed king. He said these words to Saul. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.”979 That’s powerful. The Spirit of the Lord is going to come upon you, Saul, and you will prophesy, and you shall be turned into another man. That puts the whole thing in a nutshell, doesn’t it? The one hundred and twenty in the upper room, and the Apostles, I’m sure that they could say those very words. “When the day of Pentecost came, the Spirit of the Lord came upon us, and we prophesied and we were turned into another man.”980
Before that, they had dull apprehensions of the truth that Jesus was speaking to them. Before that, they had a weak vision, seeing very dimly the things that Christ was trying to describe to them that would happen in the future. Before that, they were a feeble bunch, with a feeble faith. Before that, they were weak in their brotherly love one for another, and their resolutions were short lived. They were fearful, they were doubters, they were running scared, and I think we could probably say just to describe just an overall description of them—I mean, they were very sincere. These were the men that had enough insight to see way beyond those Pharisees who knew their Bibles inside and out. They had enough insight to say, “We have found the Messiah.”981 They were full of religious zeal. They were seeking the highest that they knew.
They were not evil, wicked men, but they were moving in the natural rather than in the spiritual. I think that’s a good description. They had open hearts, they had found the Messiah, they had forsaken all, they treasured His Word, but yet they moved in the realm of the natural so much of the time. That’s a good description of them.
Maybe it’s a good description of us also. We are here, we love to be here, we love the Word, we’re excited about what’s happening here, but if we give an overall evaluation of our day-to-day life, we move in the natural, rather than the spiritual, most of the time. I mean, Peter was so bold when Christ began to prophesy to them, and tell them that He was going to go to the cross, and shed His blood, which would be the redemption of all mankind. Peter was so much in the natural and so out of tune in the spiritual that Christ had to say to him, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”982
They moved in the realm of the natural so much of the time, but after Pentecost, they were changed into another man. Peter was changed into another man after Pentecost. They began to move in the realm of the Spirit. Their character was transformed. They were different men. Their words became quick and powerful, life changing words. Their words cut to the heart.
Imagine just a little bit with me this morning the day after Pentecost. Yesterday was a busy day, Peter was busy all day long. There was a lot going on during the day of the Pentecost. I’m not sure how many people he baptized himself, but I’m sure when he laid his head down to go to sleep, at the end of that day, the day of Pentecost, he was very weary in body. He woke up the next morning, he heard the Lord speaking in him, Good morning, Peter. With the ears of his heart he heard the voice of His Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who told him, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you,983 Peter. I will come to you.” That was the day after Pentecost. Imagine when they all got together, and began to share,
“I’m just so different, I’m just so different!”
“I am, too! I mean the Lord is just speaking inside of my heart!”
“It’s that same way with me!”
“Oh, praise God, this is wonderful!”
“Yes, it is! I wonder what it all means?”
“I do too!”
You know those conversations went on the day after Pentecost. Maybe they dropped down on their knees together and started praying, Oh, Lord, now we understand what You were talking about, Lord! We don’t know what we’re doing. Lead us, oh God. Oh, please help us to know that to do. Give us Your guidance Lord. Thank You that You didn’t leave us comfortless; You didn’t leave us as an orphan, but You did come to us.
You know Him, He is with you, but He shall be in you. Now do you think that the Lord Jesus was giving those Apostles a doctrinal teaching when He said those words to them, or do you think he was trying to help them to understand that they would have a totally different experience after that day? How many of you think he was giving him a doctrinal statement?
Now it is a doctrinal statement, don’t misunderstand me. It is a doctrinal statement, but that is not all it is. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”984 Just picture that. He’s been with them for three and a half years. Every problem they had, they just went and said, “Lord what should we do?” It was all cared for. Every question they had, they just went to Him and said, “Well Lord, we don’t understand this, could you explain it?” and He gave them the answer. Every situation that they faced: “We have all of these people who need to eat, we don’t know what to do with them,” He took care of it. But now they were standing on the Mount of Olives and He just disappeared out of their sight. But now it’s the day after Pentecost and they understand. He didn’t leave us comfortless.
What is the effect of the anointing of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believers? That He, God, would raise up, by that anointing, holy people, with holy hearts, living holy lives, filled with holy character, who walk with a Holy God, and speak holy words, that are anointed by the Holy Spirit.
Brethren, that is what the anointing of the Holy Spirit is all about. That is what it’s all about. That is what is in the longing heart of God for His people. God is an awesome, Holy God. One-half a second glimpse of this Holy God that we’ve been talking about all week long—one-half of a second glimpse of Him would bring every one of us down on our face in utter abandonment, and it’s the longing of the heart of God that His great Name would be sanctified among the heathen by the way that His people move and live and act and speak in this world around us.
That’s the longing of his heart, and it was the joy that was set before the Lord Jesus as He despised the shame and endured the cross. Don’t you think for a minute, brethren, that Jesus went through all of that so that He could buy a one-way ticket to heaven for you and me. He didn’t go through all of that so that we could live our own selfish lives all of our days, and end up in glory for all of eternity after that. Brethren, that’s not what Jesus went to the cross for. He went to the cross that He might raise up, through the anointing that was poured out because of that cross, a holy people anointed with the Holy Spirit, speaking holy Words!
We all know that, that’s nothing new to us. That’s not a new revelation, but it’s good for us to consider again and again. To explain the whole plan of God in a very simple nutshell: that Anointing was given to make us like Jesus, and you can spend the rest of your life figuring out what all of that means—Amen? To make us a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”985 That is what the anointing of the Holy Spirit is all about, brethren, to cause us to glorify God; to cause us to love God with all of our heart and mind and soul and strength; to turn our hearts away from selfishness, to love your neighbors as yourself. This is what the anointing of the Holy Spirit is all about; that we henceforth no longer live unto ourselves but unto Him.
As I see the Baptism of the Holy Spirit I see a twofold purpose of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Number one, to empower us to be New Testament Christians, emphasizing the be, and number two, to empower us to do exploits in building God’s kingdom while we are here upon this earth. That combination, brothers, is pretty powerful when you put the two together. To be New Testament Christians, doing exploits of kingdom building while we are here upon this earth, that is what the anointing is all about.
Brethren, New Covenant reality comes through, and by, the overwhelming presence of the living God coming upon us and abiding. Think about that. New Covenant reality comes through, and by, our being overwhelmed by the presence of the living God and abiding in that Presence. That’s the only way it comes.
Consider this morning Christ the Anointed One. I told you earlier this week that we would come back to that word. I want to consider Christ the Anointed One this morning. He is the mediator of the New Testament. He is the mediator of the New Covenant. He through the anointing, mediates, dispenses, and gives forth the reality of the New Covenant in our hearts and our lives. That’s where it comes from. He is the mediator. Just like this natural world we live in, there is a mediator of the will. When someone dies, there is an executor that has been appointed, that executor is the one who mediates the will to those who are written in the will. He dispenses to those the things that are written in the will, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the anointed One, He as mediator, gives that which was written in the will. He mediates the reality of the New Covenant. Consider these words.
The Bible speaks of spiritual warfare. In Ephesians chapter 6 it speaks of spiritual mindedness. In Romans chapter 8 it speaks of a spiritual walk. The Bible speaks about spiritual weapons in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. The Bible speaks of spiritual fruit in Galatians chapter 5, and spiritual armor in Ephesians chapter 6, and it speaks of a glorious spiritual ministry in 2 Corinthians chapter 3.
Now all of these things are only reality in a believer’s life if they are overwhelmed with the presence of the Living God. Those spiritual realities, they don’t mean very much at all if we are not going to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. None of these can happen without the anointing, brethren, it makes no sense at all. They’re far away somewhere—these are only far away concepts if we are not filled with the Spirit of God.
I guess the burden that I have this morning is simply this: Here we have this New Testament, and all of the beautiful things that are written in it. But what does it do for us if we’re not going to walk in the anointing of the Spirit of God?
God began to lay all of these things on my heart. I don’t know if I can tell you when, but I began to give them to the people, week after week, not in condemnation, but to lay them out and say to the brothers and the sisters, “Brothers, this is it! Look at it! Look what the Bible says! Look what the New Testament says! Let’s go for this! Let’s go for this kind of life! Come on, let’s go!” But all the while doing that and saying those words, as the weeks and months go by and turn into years, it takes a while to get through, realizing that so many of the people do not live anywhere near this. They don’t live anywhere near this, and if you’re a minister in this room, you know that’s the way it is. You know it.
Slowly it dawned upon me as I prayed. You know, when you minister to your people, and you know you’re giving them solid meat, good stuff, things that could change their life, and you don’t see them changing, you have to then say, “What’s wrong, here? Is there something wrong with me?” And I’m sure that there’s something wrong with me. But slowly it dawned upon me as I prayed about it (I pray about it much), that these people can’t do this stuff. They’ve never been empowered by the Holy Spirit. They can’t do this stuff.
I’m getting up on Sunday morning, preaching out of Ephesians, chapter 3, “Strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being.”986 I would finish my sermon, and go sit down and everybody just sat there, and they didn’t even say anything. At first I thought, “Hey, maybe I didn’t do that right.” No, one’s saying anything. I try to figure it out, but I think I figured it out. They’re just sitting there thinking, “Oh! I am no where near that! I have nothing to say! I’m just going to sit here.” It began to dawn upon me: These people can’t do this. They’ve never been empowered with the Holy Spirit! They’ve never been overwhelmed with the Spirit of the living God. They’ve never been strengthened with might by His spirit in the inner man. They don’t know the reality of Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith. They are not comprehending the breadth and the depth and the lengths and the height. They do not know the experiential knowledge of the love of Christ which passes knowledge and can’t be explained! They need the Holy Spirit to make it a reality, and, brothers, so do you. To make it a reality, you need the Holy Spirit.
What a miserable way to be a New Testament Christian! Without reality. But that’s reality in many, many people’s lives. They’re just kind of gazing in there, Oh, that’s beautiful. My, yes. Look at all of it! Wow, that’s glorious, but we can’t get it. Dear brothers, these things are made real in the life of the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit and there’s no other way—no other way!
Here are the Words of the New Testament, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”987 Isn’t that a beautiful verse? Wouldn’t that be a beautiful life, to walk through life in the reality of that? “I am crucified through Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I but Christ liveth in me, the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” Do you know what that verse means, brethren? That’s talking about the spiritual revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ! It’s talking about a spiritual revealing of Christ and His glory, and His majesty, and His character, and His beauty being imparted to my heart and my life, but it won’t be imparted if I don’t see it, and I won’t see it if I don’t live in the unction of the Holy Spirit. It’s just some nice story, otherwise. Just some nice story about a nice man.
Listen to the Words of the New Testament, “Transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory.”988 Oh, you want to be changed this morning, brethren? You want to be changed? “Changed from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” See these verses? They’re the New Testament! We read them all of the time! God wants them to be a reality to us. That verse, if I understand that verse at all, what that verse is saying to me is this: That I should be living in the unction of the Holy Spirit, and under that unction, I should open up this Bible with an open face beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord in the pages of this Book. And as I gaze by the Spirit on the glory of the Lord in the pages in this Book, I am changed into this very image. Isn’t that a right interpretation of those verses?
You might say, “Well, brother Denny, you’re going way over our heads today.” I may be going over our heads, but this is normal New Testament Christianity, and if it’s going over our head we need to come to grips with he fact that we’re anemic. I mean, we sing the song, “Oh, to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer, Oh, to be like Thee.” That song doesn’t become a reality in our life. We aren’t changed into the image of Christ if we aren’t going to live in the power of the Spirit of the Living God. And that’s why men can go for twenty years, and still there’s not much about them. Twenty years? Why? Well, they read their Bible, they go to church, you know, all of that stuff. But there’s not abiding anointing in their life, and because there isn’t, they don’t have much imparted as the weeks go by and the years go by, they stay relatively the same.
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”989 That is the power to do God’s will. Beautiful verse, that verse speaks victory. That verse speaks of being more than conquerors. Amen? Where the Spirit of the Lord is, we are more than conquerors. Christ in you, the hope of glory. See these verses. Oh listen, I could do this for a long time, I mean my heart is full of all of these verses. I’ve been reveling in the revelation of the New Covenant. But, how about it—theological statement or living reality? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul says, “The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.”990 A mystery. Christ can live in you, and that is the hope of glory. You want your one-way ticket to heaven in your back pocket? That’s how you keep that one way ticket in your back pocket. Christ living in me, in reality, the hope of glory.
“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you.”991 That word living means to make a home. It doesn’t mean to visit every now and then. Living in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies. How is the resurrection going to take place? By His Spirit that lives in you. Christ in you, in reality, is the hope of glory. That’s the reality of the hope of the resurrection. “It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.”992 What a beautiful way to live! With God living inside of me, motivating me, inspiring me, empowering me, leading me to be motivated to want to do, and empower me to do His good pleasure. That’s beautiful! I can handle that kind of Christian life, how about you? Amen! Lord, I’ll vote for that one! “Dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus”993—and I could just go on, and on, and on. There are so many of them. It’s the reading of the will, brethren! It’s what Jesus bought and paid for by His death, and through the resurrection. It’s the will and Testament of Jesus Christ.
This is the in-Christ experience in the life of a believer that we are talking about here. The in-Christ experience in the life of a believer. You know all of those verses in the Bible, In Him. In whom? In Christ. This is the in-Christ experience in the life of a believer. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is the in-Christ experience in the life of a believer. That’s it. To be in Christ is to be in the anointing. To be in the anointing is to be in Christ. Why? He is the anointed. That’s what His Name means. He is the Anointed. He is anointed now, brethren. To be in the anointing is to be in Christ. We are the body of the Anointed One. Can I say it that way? That’s right, isn’t it? “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”994 Paul says, “You are the body of the Anointed One.” You can stay on that verse for about two weeks. “You are the body of the Anointed One.”
Or, let me say, Are you the body of the Anointed One? He has no hands but our hands. He has no body to live out His glorious holiness through, but our bodies. Are you the body of the Anointed One? These are good questions to consider this morning. These are good questions. I mean, it changes things quite a bit. We can’t sit in here this morning and say, “Yeah, the worldly church out there—it’s apostate. And they’re this, and they’re that, and they’re worldly, and they’re departing.” We can’t sit here this morning and throw any stones, brethren.
Are you part of the body of the Anointed One? These are probing questions this morning. Probing questions. These are deep realities we’re speaking about, brethren. Realities. You begin to see them rising up out of the Book of Hebrews if you read it about thirty times. You know the Book of Hebrews? You know, our High Priests are more excellent priests with the mediator of the New Covenant, a spiritual priesthood? The minister of the heavenly sanctuary? That’s our Christ. The ministry of the heavenly sanctuary. Have you been into the throne room lately? Don’t you know you have a Minister of the heavenly sanctuary? We have our Aaron, bless God! We have Him! Paul said to the Hebrews, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.”995
Dear brothers, what I’m speaking about here is not a New Testament option. This is a New Testament imperative. It is not an option. Sometimes, somehow, I think that we have gotten that in our mind. “Oh well, the preachers must have this—they need to be anointed. Yes, they need to be men of God, they’re our preachers.” No, this is a New Testament imperative for every child of God. I think we skipped the Book of Acts and moved—ran into the Epistles, and we’re miserably stumbling around in there, trying to figure out what this Christian life is all about. We skipped the Book of Acts, brethren, and the New Testament is just kind of a phase to us. We bounce around in there, and try over here. “That’s not the way,” so you try over this way. We’re just bouncing around in there, and we’ve skipped the Book of Acts. We cannot simply go our way living a carnal, subnormal Christian life anymore. We can’t do it. It’s time to have Judgment Day early.
Have you been immersed in the overwhelming presence of the Living God since ye believed? Remember I told you the other day that interesting little bit of information about the word Christ—sixty times in the Gospels. Five-hundred times from Pentecost, onward. Christ, the Anointed, all through the New Testament, five-hundred times. That phrase is used in the New Testament from Pentecost onward five-hundred times: The Anointed!
Yet the people of God are not anointed! How can this be? Christ was anointed with the Holy Spirit for His earthly ministry.996 But Christ is also anointed with the Holy Spirit for His heavenly ministry. Turn to Acts 2. Hold your place there, and turn to Psalm 133 for a moment. Psalm 133 says, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”997 And may I put it into the New Testament context, for brethren to dwell together in the unity of the Spirit. The word behold means, Stop, and gaze upon that. Now verse 2, “It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, that went down to the skirt of his garment.”998
You get that picture? Aaron was anointed with the precious ointment. They poured it on his head, and I think it’s very clear just from looking at that Scripture that they didn’t do it like this. What do you think? They dumped it on him, and it went down onto his head, and went down over his beard, and started dripping down off of his beard, and started landing on his shoulders, and flowed and ran down all the way to the hem of his garment. Get the picture?
Now let’s look at the heavenly Aaron for a moment. Acts chapter 2, verse 33. Peter must have got this in the spirit of revelation, because I know he did didn’t study for that sermon that he preached on the day of Pentecost. He didn’t meditate on that one ahead of time, but in his explanation to all of these people that are trying to figure out what is going on and why these men, these women, these one-hundred and twenty that came out of the upper room seem like they’re drunk in the middle of the day, speaking all kinds of languages and all these people from all different countries from all over the known world are hearing these words in their own language.
Peter stands up to try to explain to them what’s going on, and of course he begins by telling them “No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel,”999 and he quotes the verses there out of the Book of Joel. Then he goes on to preach about Christ, the Christ. And he says in verse 32, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit.”1000 Received? Same word. Same thing. Received, baptized, filled, fallen upon—all of those are the same word. “Jesus received the promise of the Holy Spirit, and has poured out what you now see and hear.”1001
Now just picture our heavenly Aaron. He’s been to the cross, He despised the shame, He shed His blood for the sins of humanity, He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, He died for you and I, they laid Him in the grave, three days later he came up from the grave, He was raised from the dead according to the Spirit of Holiness, He walked with them for forty days, then He ascended back up to the Father, and only told them, “Wait for the promise of the Father—it’s coming.” So, the Head of the body is in heaven, and the Father pours the oil upon the head of the Son in heaven. And the oil runs down over His head, down upon His beard, and it begins to drip down upon the rest of His body. “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting,”1002 and the body of Christ was baptized with the Holy Spirit. That is the Christ which is mentioned five-hundred times from Pentecost to the end of the Bible.
Yesterday, we finished our meeting encouraging you in a waiting, believing, faith-filled expectancy. Remember, I warned you that you can get off and go into extremes and all of that, and I encouraged you yesterday that this whole matter is a matter of faith. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the promise of the Father. And may I say today, it’s already given; believe it! The Christ is anointed. Believe it, receive it! By grace through faith, it’s done! And I say that, having said everything that I said yesterday, having agreed with everything that Brother Manny said last night that, yes, we need to be clean, yes, our heart needs to be yielded if we’re going to move in the flow of the anointing of the Christ. It’s absurd to think that we could if we’re full of selfishness. But if our heart as we sit here today is clear—I’m not saying you have to be a perfect person. You just have to have your heart clear, and your will yielded, saying, God—anything.
Brother, it’s yours. It’s there. It’s here. It’s a reality. But like everything else in the Christian life, if you don’t believe it, you won’t enter in—a waiting, believing, faith-filled expectancy. Do you believe it? We’re really accountable now, aren’t we?
Let’s kneel together for prayer. Can we do that?
“He is here, Hallelujah, He is here, Amen,
He is here, Holy, Holy, I will bless His Name again,
He is here, listen closely, hear Him calling out your name,
He is here, you can touch Him, you will never be the same.”
Ah, brethren, do you believe that little song this morning? He is here, you can touch Him. By faith, by grace through faith, you can touch Him. I want you to pray this little prayer this morning if your heart is clear. If it is not, I plead with you, let it go. But if you heart is clear, I want you to pray this prayer with me:
My dear Heavenly Father, I am Your son. I know that You love me. My heart is clear, washed in the precious blood of Your Son. My will is yielded. I’ll do anythin