The Spirit-Filled Life · Week 3 · Sunday

Anointed

The word is “anointed,” and almost all of us assume it belongs to somebody else.

Kings get anointed. Prophets get anointed. The person on the stage with the microphone and the spotlight gets anointed. Not the regular guy loading the dishwasher at ten at night, not the tired mom in the carpool line, not you. Anointing sounds like a word for the spiritual professionals, the people a few levels above us.

Then you read what the Bible actually says about ordinary believers.

You have been anointed.

What the Word Means

The Greek word behind “anointed” is chrio, and the noun is chrisma. It meant to rub or smear someone or something with oil, and the point of the oil was to set that person or thing apart for God. To say, this one belongs to him now. This one is dedicated to his purposes.

In the Old Testament they did it to all kinds of ordinary things. Jacob took the stone he had used for a pillow and poured oil on top of it to mark the place where he met God (Genesis 28:18). They anointed the tent of worship and even the furniture inside it. Plain objects, set apart by oil for a holy purpose. And the title we say a thousand times without thinking, Christ, is not Jesus’s last name. Messiah in Hebrew and Christ in Greek both mean the Anointed One.

The Oil Is On You

Here is the part that should change how you walk into Monday. The same God who anointed prophets and kings and tents has anointed you.

Anointed us. Sealed us. Put his Spirit in our hearts. Not the pastors. Not the spiritual elite. Us. If you belong to Jesus, the oil has already been poured, and it was poured on an ordinary life, for an ordinary life.

And notice the little word Jesus used for it.

Upon you. Not hovering above you, not standing near you waiting to see if you qualify. Upon you, resting on the actual life you already have, the one with the dishes and the carpool and the hard conversation you are dreading.

The Rooms Ahead

This week we walk through the ordinary rooms that the anointing actually touches. The hard decision you cannot think your way through. The fight you keep losing on willpower. The prayer you do not have any words for. The gift you have been sitting on because you figured it was not impressive enough to matter. And the song that wants to spill out of a full life.

You do not need a stage. You do not need a title or a spotlight or a more spiritual version of yourself. You need to believe the oil is already on you, and start living like it. You’re anointed for the room you’re in.

Tomorrow · Led, Not Driven