— Review of anointing
The anointing means different things to different people.

chriō (khree’-o) means to consecrate for service. It also means to assign a person to a special task, implying the giving of power or gifts of God to accomplish this task.

It is equivalent to māšaḥ (maw-shakh’) in the old testament which means to smear, or anoint, or consecrate with a liquid.

I did a message on anointing back in April 2024. So I will record that for YouTube retention. In that I focused on old testament anointings, that of Christ, and some on our anointings. Besides anointing animal sacrifices people got anointed: priests, kings, and prophets. Here I want to focus on our anointings from a different perspective.

Heb. 1:9 says ‘You loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions’.

This is from Ps. 45:6-7. In Heb. 1:8 it speaks of God’s throne and his sceptor of righteousness as his kingdom. A sceptor is from the root word (shebet) meaning to branch off, even a righteous branch and that of one of the throne of King David. The Christ of scriputes is not a king in the new testament but yet was born to rein so his true nature remains hidden. It is somewhat of a mystery. Kings got anointed. King David got anointed by Samuel yet we see no such anointing for King Yeshua.

The idea of hating lawlessness (anomia) is the idea of detesting it also. King David hid his word in his heart (Ps. 119:11) so that he would not sin against God.

Here is an idea. The anointing is what fuels our ministries. In engineering terms it is actually a catalyst. Fuel is actually what God has gifted inso each one of us- our hopes, our goodly desires, our natural talents and abilities.

Paul reminds Timothy ‘to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands’. (2 Tim. 1:6)

anazōpyreō (an-ad-zo-poor-eh’-o) is to kindle or reflame as through a bellow or blowing upon.

Our ministries can be ‘great’ or ‘small’. It can include quite ‘ordinary’ things we do each day, even when we are in training.

Nehemiah reminded the people after reading from the book of the Law that the joy of the LORD is our strength (Neh. 8:10). People rejoiced exceedingly after hearing the words of the Lord. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3).

We are overcomes, those that overcome the world! Do you have the oil of bliss today?

Do not be a Sampson who followed the flesh and so the spirit lifted from him. Do not even be a David who pleaded for the LORD to not take away his spirit (after the Bathsheba incident) – Ps. 51:10-12

— Anointing and the four characteristics of Christ’s mission

Let me try to cover some verses related to anointing which shows a bit of inconsistency in scripture.

Paul said ‘it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us (2 Cor. 1:21). Christ himself quoted from Is. 61:1-2 in Luke 4:18-19. Isaiah 61 goes on to speak of ‘the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;that they may be called oaks of righteousness…’. We also need to the anointing of Christ was ‘to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, open the prison to those who are bound’. This is the anointing of Isaiah and Luke.

Isaiah in the Masoretic texts and Tanakh says 1) he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, 2) to proclaim liberty to the captives, and 3) to open up the prison to them that are bound’

Isaiah in the Septuigint says ‘he has sent me 1) to heal (bind up) the brokenhearted, 2) to proclaim liberty to the captives, and 3) recovery of sight for the blind’. Actually the Jews just ignore these verses in their weekly recitation which is not uncommon for messianic related verses.

Notice that the Masoretic texts (and the Tanakh) include ‘open the prison to those who are bound’ for the third item. The Septuigint includes the first two items but then ‘recovery of sight for the blind’.

Note also that Luke includes all four things in traditional texts (KJV, e.g.). I saw a note that the NU-Text omits ‘to heal the brokenhearted’ so many new testament translations exclude that phrase. I think it obvious that a broken heart does not refer to a physical heart condition but rather those feeling sickly because of grief or strife or turmoil. The word for healing here is ‘iaomi’ which is to cure, heal, or make whole. Many say this is just to bring instant miraculous healing to one sickly. In this verse it is more used like to bring comfort and peace to those mouring.

My question is what text was Yeshua actually reading from? Or did Yeshua and Dr. Luke just add them all together because it was implied by different resources? Or did the text of Luke get added to by well meaning new testament scribes? I don’t want to belabor this point but it is interesting.

It is also interesting to note that some can be physically blind but others just spiritually blind. The pharisees and Sadducees were spiritually blind. There was a blind-from-birth man healed in John 9, one near Jericho (Bartimaeus), and one in Bethsaida. Apostle Paul was also physically blind for 3 days. But he was also a spiritually blind pharisee until after the Damascus Road experience. Yeshua even called the religious leaders blind guides. Just saying, it is possible that the anointing was not primarily sent to heal the physically blind, but mainly the spiritually blind.

Then we have to ask what is the difference between proclaiming liberty to the captives vs. opening the prison to them bound. In Luke it does not even mention prison or prisoners. It speaks of setting free those oppressed which means downtrodden, bruised, or crushed by tragedy according to the AMP version. Captives can be those put into prison as prisoners. It can also be those captive in their minds to sin, strife, fear, or anything else which enslaves us. So the two concepts can be nearly synonyms.

In Acts 16:25-34 we see prison doors physically opening while Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Philippi. There it was the keeper of the prison and his family who were set free by accepting Christ in their hearts. He was probably a Roman official but many in Israel in those days were bound by religious restrictions. Yeshua spoke this way of the scribes and Pharisees ‘they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers’ (Matt. 23:4). Religion can make one captive in our minds justs as oppression can do likewise.

So we have those of broken hearts and those captive in their minds and those a prisoner of their own thoughts and beliefs. Do you not see where I am going with this? The anointing breaks yolks, some physical, some soulish (emotional), and some spiritual (demons).

We need to go over various words describing healing and deliverance to get a much wider scope of kingdom attributes (therepeuo, iaomai, and sozo).

There are those that teach healing in terms of our physical bodies, our emotions, and our spirits. I cannot say for sure if these types of healing are directly related to the three greek words because words in greek and hebrew can have different meanings and then there are different layers of meaning and nuance. If you are now thinking this is really complicated, it probably is. God is much higher than our thoughts and his ways so much higher than our ways (Is. 55:8-9). When we think we have figured out everything there is to know about God then we are deceiving ourselves.

We also know that healing is related to deliverance but not much of the time synonymous.

So let us all walk in the anointing God wants to give each and every one of us today. For you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation (1 Pet. 2:9).

Remember 1 John 2:27:: the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

It is my belief that I have been anointed to teach. Some might disagree. Learning is a life-long process. When we think we have arrived we become stagnant. Our understanding and beliefs have to become fluid and can easily change over time and in different circumstances. Situational awareness is important.