The Anointing of the Holy Spirit
Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord. Isaiah 52.11
The anointing of the Holy Spirit is a gift that is given to us by God. It prepares us to work for Him in His Kingdom. In order to receive this anointing, however, we need to be set apart from the ways of the world: Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do (Galatians 5.16–17).
Our fleshly drives—our bodily desires, our emotional urges, our psychological tendencies, our intellectual beliefs—oppose the Spirit. The Spirit has no emotions. He is radically free. We, however, live by our emotions. Although we know, intellectually, that our feelings are not our friends, we, for the most part, are enslaved by them. It is as a result of this, that we suffer in the way that we do, in our spiritual lives.
The Holy Spirit, the divine third Person of the Trinity, desires to lift us above the swamp of the flesh, in order that we can, like Him, be free. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is the means through which this liberating process of elevation takes place and this anointing is an anointing of fire: Divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.3–4a).
The primordial fire of the Holy Spirit, which is a power that is pure, passionless and perfect, is the means through which all the impossible things that Christ commands us to do, are made possible: With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19.26).
This anointing, however, needs to be continuously renewed. The Spirit is dynamic. Our lives in Him must also, therefore, be dynamic. As such, the anointing needs to be continually refreshed, in order that there is a sufficiency of spiritual power filling us as we progress forward and upward: I have been anointed with fresh oil (Psalm 92.10b).
As we grow and the measure of grace that we receive grows, our temptations also grow. It is God’s pleasure, therefore, to anoint us with the Holy Spirit, because in doing so, He both energizes us to complete the work that He has appointed for us, and protects us from the battles that doing such work generates: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies (Psalm 23.5a).
Acquiring such an anointing is not difficult. God gives the Holy Spirit freely: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (Luke 11.13). This anointing cannot, however, find a place in the old man. As soon as the anointing comes into contact with the old man, it becomes inactive.
It is for this reason that we are commanded to be radically set apart from the world. The division of our hearts (our desire for both the Kingdom of God as well as the kingdom of this world), is the thing that inhibits the anointing from extending.
Through crucifying the old man through a life of consecrated worship, therefore, the grace of the anointing will be allowed to extend without hindrance and our vessels will overflow with the rich oil of the Living Spirit: You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows (Psalm 23.5b).
Lord, please inspire us to use these mystical days for the benefit of our spirits—and thus Your Kingdom—rather than the delight of our flesh. As a result of receiving Your Holy Spirit in baptism, the pleasures of this world will never satisfy us in the way that they did, before we knew You. Please remind us of this fact, so that we don’t waste what we have received across this feast and across the feast of our Christian lives, but rather grow from it and change, for the benefit of Your Kingdom and the salvation of the world.
Amen +
Author of You Are Mine and Apocalypse, Sister Anastasia writes on the role of the ancient, ascetic Church in a rapidly changing, modern world.
Photo by sebnem saltan on Unsplash
Indeed! The anointing is not a gentle balm, it is fire. It does not soothe the old self, it burns it away. The Spirit’s descent at Pentecost was not a whisper but a rupture, dividing soul from flesh as cleanly as flame separates gold from dross.
God gives freely, but we must make space. The old wineskins, our clinging to emotion, our compromise with the world, cannot contain this fire. Depart! cries Isaiah, not as rejection but as liberation. To bear the vessels of the Lord is to become a vessel oneself, hollowed out by obedience, filled only with what consumes without destroying.
We ask for the Spirit, yet He comes only when we cease asking for anything else. The oil overflows when the cup is first emptied. Our part is not achievement but surrender… to stand in the refiner’s fire until all that remains is what cannot burn.
Can you explain more about; "the old man"? Thank you very much
Oliver