When Jesus was on earth, He was not the passive, colorless, spineless person He is sometimes made out to be in paintings and literature.
He was a strong man, a man of iron will. He was able to love with an intensity of love that burned Him up. He was able to hate with the strongest degree of hatred against everything that was wrong and evil and selfish and sinful. Invariably someone will object when I make a statement like that. "I cannot believe such things about Jesus.
I always thought it was a sin to hate!"
Study long and well the record and the teachings of Jesus while He was on earth.
In them lies the answer. It is a sin for the children of God not to hate what ought to be hated.
Our Lord Jesus loved righteousness, but He hated iniquity.
I think we can say He hated sin and wrong and evil perfectly!
If we are committed, consecrated Christians, truly disciples of the crucified and risen Christ, there are some things we must face.
We cannot love honesty without hating dishonesty.
We cannot love purity without hating impurity.
We cannot love truth without hating lying and deceitfulness.
verse
Hate evil, love good . . .
— Amos 5:15a
thought
It is often difficult to hate evil without hating the perpetrator of it, especially if the evil is directed to us personally. Sincere love—agape love—can maintain the distinction.
prayer
Lord, may I so cling to the good that I can clearly discern evil and hate it without hating people.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
A Christian brother once confided in me how he had tried to keep the fullness of the Spirit a secret within his own life. He had made a commitment of his life to God in faith. In answer to prayer, God had filled him with the Spirit. Within himself he said, I cannot tell anyone about this!" Three days passed. On the third day his wife touched him on the arm and asked, "Everett, what has happened to you? Something has happened to you!" And like a pent-up stream his testimony flowed out. He had received an anointing of the Holy Spirit.
The fragrance could not be hidden. His wife knew it in the home. His life was changed.
The spiritual graces and fruits of the consecrated life cannot be hidden. It is an anointing with the oil of gladness and joy. I am happy to tell everyone that the power of the Spirit is glad power! Our Savior, Jesus Christ, lived His beautiful, holy life on earth and did His healing, saving deeds of power in the strength of this oil of gladness. We must admit that there was more of the holy oil of God on to the head of Jesus than on your head or mine—or on the head of anyone else who has ever lived.
That is not to say that God will withhold His best from anyone.
But the Spirit of God can only anoint in proportion to the willingness He finds in our lives.
In the case of Jesus, we are told that He had a special anointing because He loved righteousness and hated iniquity.
That surely gives us the clue we need concerning the kind of persons we must be in order to receive the full anointing and blessing from Almighty God.
verse
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.
— Hebrews 1:9
Transformed living is a far more powerful witness of the Spirit's filling than personal declaration. Rate of maturity growth reflects to a large degree our willingness to be Spirit-filled.
prayer
Lord, make me willing to be willing to be wholly Yours.
thoughthttps://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
In the New Testament, when the Holy Spirit came, His presence fulfilled that whole list of fragrances found in the holy anointing oil.
When New Testament believers were anointed, that anointing was evident.
Read it in the book of Acts. "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4). And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly(4:31).
"Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven" (7:55).
"While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message" (10:44). The list goes on.
The Holy Spirit has not changed. His power and authority have not changed. He is still the third Person of the eternal Godhead.
He is among us to teach us all we need to know about Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. I am suggesting—indeed, I am stating—that no one among us, man or woman, can be genuinely anointed with the Holy Spirit and hope to keep it a secret.
His or her anointing will be evident.
verse
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
— First John 2:20
thought
A variety of terms in the book of Acts are used to refer to the coming of the Holy Spirit in past, present and future tenses: baptize (1:5); comes on and came on (1:8; 10:44; 11:15–17); filled (2:4; 4:8, 31; 9:17; 13:9); will pour out and poured out (2:17o;18; 2:38); will receive and received (8:15–17; 10:47).
What matters most is not the terminology but the reality of the Spirit's coming into the believer's heart and life.
prayer
Holy Spirit of God, I would open to You all of me.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The letter to the Hebrews says the anointing God placed upon Jesus was an anointing above His fellows.
It is my feeling that the "anointing above His fellows" was not given because God chose to so anoint Him, but because He was willing. He could be anointed to that extent!
Going back into the Levitical priesthood, we discover a ritual of an anointing with a specially prepared holy oil. Certain pungent herbs were beaten into the oil, making it fragrant and aromatic. It was unique; Israel might not use that formula for any other oil. When a priest was set apart and anointed, the oil was a vivid type of the New Testament anointing of the Holy Spirit. The holy anointing oil could only be used for the anointing of men with special ministries—priests, as I have indicated, and kings and prophets. It was not intended for the carnal, sinful person.
In Leviticus we read of the consecration of Aaron as the first high priest. The anointing oil and the blood from the altar are mentioned together: "Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood from the altar and sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments. . . . So he consecrated Aaron and his garments" (8:30). The fragrance of the anointing oil was unique.
If someone went near an Old Testament priest, he could say immediately, "I smell an anointed man. I smell the holy oil!"
The aroma, the pungency, the fragrance were there. Such an anointing could not be kept a secret.
verse
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
— Second Corinthians 1:21–22
thought
It is God who anoints us, sets His seal on us and puts His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit. No church hierarchy or committee can do that. Only God. Our life and ministry reflect God's anointing or lack of it.
prayer
Lord, only as Your Spirit fills me will the fragrance of Your anointing be evident in my life and ministry.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Please do not close this book and turn away when I tell you of my persuasion. I am persuaded that our Lord Jesus, while He was on earth, did not accomplish His powerful deeds in the strength of His deity. I believe He did them in the strength and authority of His Spirit-anointed humanity.
My reasoning is this: If Jesus had come to earth and performed His ministry in the power of His deity, what He did would have been accepted as a matter of course. Cannot God do anything He wants to do? No one would have questioned His works as the works of deity. But Jesus veiled His deity and ministered as a man. It is noteworthy, however, that He did not begin His ministry—His deeds of authority and power—until He had been anointed with the Holy Spirit.
I know there are erudite scholars and theological experts who will dispute my conclusion. Nevertheless, I hold it true. Jesus Christ, in the power and authority of His Spirit-anointed humanity, stilled the waves, quieted the winds, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, exercised complete authority over demons and raised the dead. He did all the miraculous things He was moved to do among men not as God, which would not have been miraculous at all, but as a Spirit-anointed man. Remarkable!
This is why I say that Jesus Christ has taken away our human excuses forever. He limited Himself to the same power available to any one of us, the power of the Holy Spirit. Review with me the message of the apostle Peter to Cornelius and his Gentile household:
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, . . . he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him (Acts 10:38).
verse
'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,' . . . and he began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfillled in your hearing.'
— Luke 4:18, 21
thought
The incident in Luke 4:16–30 marks the commencement of Jesus' ministry according to Luke's account. The Spirit was upon Him and in the Spirit's power, Jesus ministers. If Christ needed the Spirit's anointing, how much more do we!
prayer
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The message to First Century Hebrew Christians was precise and direct: Let Jesus Christ be your motivation to love righteousness and to hate iniquity.
In our present century our spiritual obligations and responsibilities are no different.
The character and attributes of Jesus, the eternal Son, have not changed and will not change. But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy" (Hebrews 1:8–9).
There is a tendency for people to relegate everything in the realm of righteousness or iniquity to deity, whatever their concept of deity may be.
For the true Christian, however, our risen Lord made a promise to us before His death and resurrection. That promise effectively removes our excuses and makes us responsible: When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you (John 16:13–15).
I will readily admit that we are not God.
We cannot do in ourselves what God can do.
But God created us as human beings, and if we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit and His presence in our lives, we should be able to do what Jesus, the Son of Man, was able to do in His earthly ministry.
verse
I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
— John 13:15
thought
Christ did not set an example for us without providing enablement for us to follow that example.The indwelling Holy Spirit is that enablement. Let's appropriate that empowerment today!
prayer
Lord, You have given me the Holy Spirit to live in me and to empower me. In increasing measure may I exercise the power He gives.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/