We abide in Christ so that He may abide in us by caring of the teaching of the anointing; we first experience the cleansing of the Lord’s blood, and then we have the moving and working of the Spirit within us, the inner anointing, to teach us all things.
This is a very practical way for us to know God, know His will for us, follow His leading, know His heart’s desire, and it results in our abiding in the Lord.
Christ as the Head has been anointed, and we as the Body have been anointed also; the anointing that was poured on Christ is flowing upon us, and we all have the anointing.
Now we simply need to heed the teaching of the anointing, caring for the inward teaching of the all-inclusive anointing (1 John 2:27). Christ is the anointed One; the meaning of the word, Christ, is the anointed One.
He came as the anointed One to fulfill God’s purpose and carry out His plan, and through death and resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit, the very anointing itself.
On one hand He is the anointed One, and on the other, He is the anointing One; furthermore, He Himself is the anointing, and as we heed the teaching of the anointing, we know all things, and we abide in the Lord.
Christ is not just an ointment in our spirit; He is the anoint-ing, a gerund, a verbal noun, a noun in action, for He is moving and working and saturating our being with Himself all the time.
Many believers think that the teaching of the anointing is to show us where to go, what to do, which is the right decision and which is the wrong decision.
But according to 1 John 2:27, the anointing teaches us all things, and even as it has taught us, we abide in the Lord.
Hallelujah, the teaching of the anointing is for us to abide in the Lord, for when we abide in Him, we have everything that He is as our enjoyment to be our experience!
The moving, working, and saturating of the compound Spirit in our inner being to saturate our inward parts teaches us to abide in Christ; it has nothing to do with right or wrong, good or evil but rather, it inwardly and subjectively teaches us to abide in the Lord.
Abiding in the Fellowship with Christ by Experiencing the Blood and the Anointing
We abide in the divine fellowship with Christ by first experiencing the cleansing of the Lord’s blood and then the application of the anointing Spirit to our inner being (see John 15:4-5; 1 John 1:5, 7; 2:20, 27).
First the blood, and then the ointment; whenever we sin or we sense that there is a problem or insulation between us and God, we confess our sins and shortcomings to the Lord, and is blood cleanses us from every sin.
Then, we can come forward to the Lord and receive the inner anointing, the anointing of the Spirit to teach us all things, and thus we abide in the Lord.
This is seen in picture in Lev. 14:14-17 where we see the cleansing of the leper; in our natural man we all are lepers, and lepers are a type of the sinners.
For a leper to be cleansed, the blood of the sacrifice had to be applied to the lobe of his right ear, to the thumb of his right hand, and to the big toe of his right foot.
Then, after the blood was applied, the ointment was also applied on that blood to the ear, the hand, and the foot of the leper.
How does this apply to our experience? First we need the cleansing of the blood, and then the ointment can be applied to us; this will cleanse us and restore us to the fellowship with God and with His people.
We need to have the Lord’s cleansing blood and the anointing Spirit to listen to the words of God (the right ear), in doing the things of God (the hand), and in taking the ways of God (the right foot).
We need to be qualified experientially to listen to the word of God, to do the things of God, and to take the ways of God.
In this way, by the application of the blood and the anointing, we abide in the Lord. For us to abide in the Lord all the time so that we may enjoy His life we need to constantly experience the cleansing of the blood of Christ and enjoy the anointing moment by moment.
If we have an inward feeling that something is wrong or we sense that we are living in the flesh, in the old creation, or in the self, we should immediately confess our sin and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness.
When we listen to the inner sense and confess our sins, we will walk in the light and be in the light; then, the blood cleanses us, and the anointing follows to anoint us, thus increasing the element of God within us.
We abide in the fellowship with Christ by experiencing the cleansing of the blood of Christ and the application of the inner anointing.
Lord Jesus, we want to abide in fellowship with You by the cleansing of the blood and the application of the anointing. May the blood and the anointing be applied to our hearing the word of God, our doing the things of God, and our walking the ways of God. Amen, Lord, may we be qualified experientially to listen to Your word, do the things of God, and take the ways of God by the application of the blood and the ointment. Cleanse us, Lord, and add more of Yourself to us so that the element of God may increase in us.
Obeying the Teaching of the Anointing to Abide in Christ and be Saturated with God
The anointing is upon Christ; only He is qualified to be anointed by God. How can we receive and enjoy the anointing?
Christ as the Head is the anointed One and the anointing One, and we as His members enjoy Him as the inner anointing for the fulfillment of His purpose (see Heb. 1:9; 3:14; 2 Cor. 1:21-22).
The anointing is upon the Head, and it goes down upon the rest of the Body (see Psa. 133); Christ is the Head, and we are His Body, so the anointing is upon Christ and also upon us, for when Christ was anointed, the whole Body was anointed with Him.
The function of this anointing is to maintain the link between the Head and the Body and also the link between the members of the Body; the anointing is the operation of the Holy Spirit within us.
We need to follow the teaching of the anointing so that we may be saturated and filled with God’s element, and thus we will abide in Christ.
For example, the Head may want a certain member of the Body to move, so He intimates it through the anointing; as we yield to the anointing, life will flow freely from the Head.
But if resist the anointing, if we argue with the teaching of the anointing, our relationship with Christ the Head is interfered with, and the flow of life stops. This is why many believers miss the leading of the Lord, because they are not under the Head, and they resist the teaching of the anointing.
The teaching of the anointing has nothing to do with right or wrong, good and evil, what to do and what not to do, or what is true or false; is is an inner feeling of life, and it teaching us all things, with the result that we abide in the Lord.
When we heed the inner anointing, we receive more life; more of God is added to us, and the element of God is increased in us.
The anointing is the moving and the working of the compound Spirit within us; it anoints God into us so that we may be saturated with God, possess God, and understand the mind of God.
The anointing communicates the mind of Christ – the Head of the Body – to all His members by the inner sense, the inner consciousness of life (see Psa. 133; Rom. 8:6, 27).
When we heed the inner anointing, we are spiritual men, those who discern all things (1 Cor. 2:15); we need to aspire to be spiritual men, those dominated, led, governed, controlled, and directed by our spirit.
The spiritual man discerns all things; for who has known the mind of the Lord, and who will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ; we want this mind to be in us, the same mind that was in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 2:2).
The teaching of the anointing of the Spirit has nothing to do with right or wrong; rather, it is an inner sense of life.
As seen in Acts 16:6-7, Paul and his co-workers were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go somewhere else.
The Holy Spirit’s forbidding sanctifies us and separates us; many times in our work in, with, and for the Lord, the Spirit will forbid us, causing us only to go this far, for we have a NO in our being. Many times when the Lord speaks to us He says, NO, don’t do that, don’t go there, don’t say this, don’t speak to this person…
On the other hand, the Spirit of Jesus allows us or not allows us, so that we may accomplish the will of God under the cross.
If our natural life is dealt with by the cross and if we submit to the headship of Christ and live the Body life, we will have the Spirit’s anointing and we will enjoy the fellowship of the Body (Eph. 4:3-6, 15-16). The more we live in the fellowship of the Body, the more we enjoy the anointing of the Spirit.
The condition, however, is that we allow the cross to deal with our flesh and our natural life thoroughly.
Whether or not we can enjoy the fellowship of the Body and have the anointing of the Spirit depends on whether or not we have dealt with our natural life. If we still think by ourselves, propose things to the Lord and to the saints, and live in our natural man, we cannot enjoy the anointing of the Spirit.
We must allow Christ to be the Lord and the Head in an absolute way; we must allow Him to deal with our natural life by the cross so that we may submit to His headship and live the Body life.
Thank You Lord for giving us the inner anointing, the anointing that is on the Head and flows down to all the members of the Body. Hallelujah, the compound Spirit is moving and working within us to saturate us with God so that we may possess God, understand the mind of God, and thus abide in Christ. Lord, we want to obey the teaching of the anointing so that we may gain more of God and be in the flow of life in the Body. We want to heed the inner sense of life. Lord, we allow the cross to deal with our natural life, we submit to the headship of Christ, and we live the Body life to have the Spirit’s anointing and enjoy the fellowship of the Body!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Ascultăm de învățătura ungerii pentru a rămâne în Cristos și pentru a fi saturați cu Dumnezeu.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 44, “The Mystery of Christ,” pp. 815-818, 820, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Experience of Christ (2019 Memorial Day Conference), week 4, Abiding in Christ as the Empowering One—the Secret of Experiencing Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# 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. / It is the moving of the Spirit / Gracious as the ointment pure; / ‘Tis based upon the sprinkling of the blood, / And it ever shall endure. (Hymns #266)
# First the blood, and then the ointment, / Cleansing, then anointing comes; / If we pass not thru Golgotha, / Ne’er to Pentecost we’ll come. / If the blood has never cleansed us, / Ne’er the Spirit’s pow’r we’ll know, / If for Christ we’d truly witness, / Self-life to the Cross must go. (Hymns #279)
# Th’ anointing’s here! It teaches us in everything; / The sense of life we always have within. / Obey this sense, and you will know what you must do, / And live by Life—Yes, clear in everything. (Hymns #1118)
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