After seeing the type and experience of the holy anointing oil in Exodus 30 and the compound Spirit throughout the Bible, this week we come to the anointing of the compound Spirit – experiencing the anointing compound Spirit! Our entire Christian life is altogether a matter of the Spirit.
If we don’t know God as the Spirit with our spirit, we are through with God, and we are through with our Christian life. If we neglect and misunderstand the Spirit, our Christian life is lacking.
Throughout the ages the pure revelation of the word of God concerning the Spirit has been lost, misunderstood, and misinterpreted. With the rise of the Pentecostal movement we may have some theology concerning the functions of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit, but who knows WHO the Spirit is?
In 1 John 2 we see the teaching of the anointing – not the doctrine of the anointing – that is, that the anointing teaches us one thing: it teaches us to abide in the Lord. In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we stand on the shoulders of many believers who sought the Lord and diligently studied the word of God, and we realize that today the revelation concerning the Spirit is the highest it has ever been.
This is not a philosophy or a doctrine but the revelation in the word of God and its application to our Christian experience. Unfortunately, not one of today’s theologies – including the Nicene Creed which is largely accepted by most Christians today – stresses the following five critical points concerning the Spirit of God in the move of God’s eternal economy:
- The Spirit that gives life was not yet before the glorification (resurrection) of Christ — John 7:39.
- The last Adam (Christ in the flesh) became a life-giving Spirit (fulfilling John 7:39)—1 Cor. 15:45b. Hence, 2 Corinthians 3:17 says that “the Lord is the Spirit,” and the following verse uses “the Lord Spirit” as a compound divine title.
- The compound Spirit typified by the anointing ointment (a compound of one hin of olive oil with four kinds of spices and their effectiveness) in Exodus 30:23-25.
- The Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself, and the indwelling Spirit in Romans 8:2, 9-11, all referring to the compound Spirit that gives life.
- The seven Spirits (the sevenfold intensified Spirit, cf. the sevenfold sunlight—Isa. 30:26) of God — Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6.
The Catholic Church, the Protestant denominations, the Brethren assemblies, the Pentecostal churches, and all the free groups are held back by their imperfect and unscriptural theology from the central revelation of God and come short of the completion of God’s eternal economy because of their missing, negligence of, and opposition to the above five critical points concerning the Spirit of God. God must have a people who are the God-men to be His overcomers for Him to accomplish His eternal economy concerning the church issuing in the Body of Christ and consummating the New Jerusalem. (Witness Lee, the Divine and Mystical Realm, ch. 1, outline)
The anointing of the Spirit can be likened to the electricity: you can see its effects, functions, and applications, but if you really want to know how to use it properly, you need to know what it is; the electricity is simply the flow of electrons, the flow of electricity. God today is in Christ flowing as the Spirit to be the anointing compound Spirit in us, and He is anointing us and teaching us concerning all things.
The Anointing is the Moving and Working of the Compound Spirit to Apply God to us
What is the anointing spoken of by John in 1 John 2:18-27? The Triune God, after passing through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, has become the Spirit; this Spirit is not merely the Spirit of God but the all-inclusive, life-giving compound Spirit (John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Phil. 1:19).
We don’t know how this happened, but what we know from the Bible is that God first became man – the infinite God became a finite man in the flesh; then, this Man in the flesh became a life-giving Spirit, which Spirit is a “compound Spirit”, the Spirit of Jesus Christ with a bountiful supply.
The compound Spirit today lives in us, indwelling us, and the anointing is simply the moving and working of the indwelling compound Spirit to apply all the ingredients of the processed Triune God and His activities into our inner being so that we may be fully mingled with God for His corporate expression (see 1 John 2:18-27; Exo. 30:22-25; cf. Eph. 4:4-6).
Just as electricity is the flowing of electricity causing all the devices and things connected to it to be supplied and function properly, so the Triune God today is the flowing Spirit, the anointing Spirit, who indwells us to apply all that God has, is, has attained, and has obtained in Christ through the Spirit to our being.
The picture of the compound Spirit in Exo. 30 best describes this matter: the olive oil (the Spirit of God) has been compounded with four kinds of spices (Christ’s humanity, death, resurrection, and their effectiveness) for the anointing of God’s people for God’s building.
We get to know God through His flowing: He is not a static God but a flowing God, and by this moving and flowing God is defined. The result is that the elements of God are added to our being!
The all-inclusive life-giving Spirit from God entered into us at the time of our regeneration, and He abides with us forever; through this Spirit we can know God as our Father and we can know the truth, and through the anointing of this Spirit we can subjectively know the Triune God and we abide in the Lord.
Hallelujah, the Triune God passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to become the all-inclusive Spirit who is now in our spirit as the anointing Spirit! Lord, anoint us more today! We want to know You in a subjective way and have Your elements added to our being through Your constant speaking, anointing, and painting! Cause us to be fully mingled with You by keeping us under the anointing of the indwelling compound Spirit day by day, so that we may become Your corporate expression!
Being Painted by the Anointing Compound Spirit to have the Triune God Added to us
Two verses in the entire Bible speak of the anointing Spirit, but these two verses are the key to our Christian experience today: our Christian life is altogether a life of being anointed by the compound Spirit.
How can we know and experience God? God today is in Christ. How can we know and experience Christ? Christ today is the life-giving compound Spirit with our spirit. How can we experience the Spirit? By the anointing of the indwelling compound Spirit.
God in Christ as the compound Spirit is within our spirit to anoint us, to “paint” us, with all the elements of the Triune God. The more this “painting”, this anointing, goes on, the more the Triune God with His person and processes is transfused into our being.
The Christian life is altogether a life of being anointed by the compound Spirit. Everything related to the Christian life is wrapped up with this anointing. Here in the anointing of the compound Spirit we have holiness, victory, life, light, power, and real spirituality. The Christian life is a life in the anointing of the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. Oh, may the Lord open our eyes to see that the Christian life is not a matter of teaching, improvement, adjustment, or correction! The Christian life is absolutely a matter of the compound anointing! (Life-study of Exodus, p. 1766)
The Spirit is within our spirit today not merely to empower us and to enlighten us but to anoint us. Right now the Spirit is anointing us: He paints us with the elements of the Triune God.
We may argue with God and blame God for things happening in our life, but as we argue with Him, He paints us! We may say, Lord, this is not fair! I want to get out of here: I don’t like this situation! – He paints us! The Lord doesn’t argue with us; He doesn’t “engage” with us in an argument or conversation – He simply paints us.
Peter had much to say to the Lord, advising Him not to go and be crucified or telling Him that it’s good to be with Moses and Elijah on the mountain… – but the Lord simply “painted” him, and Peter shut up and was anointed.
In our Christian life we may be very much concerned with our failures, feeling sorry we fail the Lord…but in God’s eyes He’s not concerned with our success or our failure: He simply wants to paint more God into us!
May we be those who, even though passing through failures and defeats, we get painted with God and we appreciate the Lord more! God cares for painting us with God: He wants to anoint us with all His elements, and He paints us again and again, coat after coat, until we are saturated and soaked with Him.
The more the divine paint is on us, the more His human living, death, resurrection, and ascension become our experience daily. We need to be painted persons: we need to be saturated with the divine anointing. We need to be those on whom the paint is wet by always having a fresh application of the all-inclusive Spirit as the divine paint so that we may also paint others with the all-inclusive Spirit (see Psa. 92:10; Zech. 4:14; 2 Cor. 3:3, 6, 8).
The Lord sealed us with the Spirit at the time of our regeneration – but this sealing is not merely once-for-all but it is continual, day by day, as we are soaked with the divine anointing! We received the Spirit at the time of our regeneration, but today we need to allow Him to continually paint us with the Spirit, always having a fresh application of the Spirit, so that we may also be able to paint others with the Triune God.
This is the real “spiritual paintball” – the Triune God paints us and we paint others with the Spirit! When we preach the gospel, we need to learn not to argue with them or convince them of our beliefs but to simply paint them with the Spirit!
No matter what they say or what’s the expression on their face, we should simply paint them with the compound Spirit until they believe! In the meetings we should do the same: we should simply flow out with the Spirit in God’s living word, testifying to others of the Christ we have enjoyed, so that the saints would receive a fresh application of the compound Spirit.
Lord Jesus, thank You for being the compound Spirit within our spirit to continually paint us with all the elements and processes of the Triune God. Lord, keep us in this process of being painted by the anointing compound Spirit. Oh Lord, even when we argue with You, just keep painting us with all Your elements! We want to be those who are saturated with the anointing, always having a fresh application of the all-inclusive Spirit as the divine paint! Amen, Lord, freshly paint us so that we may also paint others with the compound Spirit!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 164-166 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 11 (week 35), The Anointing of the Compound Spirit.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Divine anointing in me dwelleth, / And it teaches me all things; / It ever leads me in the Lord to live / And to me His presence brings. (Hymns #266)
# Th’ anointing’s here! ’Tis God Himself that blends with us, / And now the two are mingled into one. / And hour by hour we live, and move, and have our life / In God Himself — the Spirit through the Son. (Hymns #1118)
# And as for you, / The anointing which you have received / From Him abides in you, and you have no need / That anyone teach you; / But as His anointing teaches you / Concerning all things and is true / And is not a lie, / And even as it has taught you, / Abide in Him, / Abide in Him. (Scripture song)
About aGodMan
God’s intention is to work Himself into us as our life and our everything to make us His counterpart for the expression of Himself. In order to accomplish this, it was necessary for God to pass through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. When He entered into resurrection, He became the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is actually Christos, the anointed One, becoming the life-giving One. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received Him into us. The One we received is the anointed One, who through death and resurrection has become the anointing One. Furthermore, this anointing One is the all-inclusive indwelling Spirit. As soon as we believed in Him, He as the Spirit entered our spirit. Now He is within our spirit to anoint us, to “paint” us, with the element of the Triune God. The more this “painting” goes on, the more the element of the Triune God is transfused into our being.
I expect that in the years to come the saints will go forth to preach and teach the wonderful, divine mysteries that are unknown to so many believers today. Many of us will be able to anoint others with the compound Spirit, applying this divine “paint” to them. If we would do this, we need to be “painted” persons, those who are saturated with the anointing. We should be those on whom the paint is “wet,” always having a fresh application of the divine paint. Because this painting is taking place all the time, the paint on us should never dry. Then as such painted persons, we should go forth to paint others with the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. (Witness Lee, Life-study of 1 John, pp. 206-207, 209)