The Anointing of the Holy Spirit - The Greatest Power in the World

I want to write what I have learned about the anointing of the Holy Spirit. You might say, well I know about the Holy Spirit but what exactly is the “anointing”. The anointing is the power of the Holy Spirit that comes after His presence. From the moment you are baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, the presence of the Holy Spirit comes into you and stays with you.
Now, the power, or the anointing, of the Holy Spirit is different than the presence. God’s presence is known; God’s power is felt. The presence of God is deep in the spirit, but the power of God is on the body. The power may be on you for a moment and gone the next. The presence cannot be transferred, but the power can. We cannot lay hands on someone and say, “Be saved.” But we can lay hands on someone and say, “Be healed.” The presence of God saturates your being in such a way that Jesus becomes so real to you that you will be cancelled while His presence becomes real. The presence of Jesus does not give life to the flesh. The presence of Jesus crucifies the flesh. When Moses’ face shown in Exodus 24:29, he said that he wished not that his face shown. In other words, when the presence of Jesus became so real to him it cancelled Moses. That is why the whole time that the presence of Jesus was with Adam, he did not recognize his nakedness. He had no conscience of self. The presence of God will cancel you, and your presence will cancel God. When the presence of God is in you, the flesh is cancelled, but when the flesh reigns, God departs. Now, once the presence of God has become real to you through worship, in prayer, or in reading the Bible, you have to release yourself into it. You have to surrender yourself to it. Once you learn how to surrender, something happens that I can’t explain, but I can talk about it. Deuteronomy 32:13 says, “He made him suck oil out of the rock.” The anointing is siphoned out of the rock. Who is the rock but Christ Jesus? When you surrender, you step into a realm of faith and boldness. When you do, the anointing is siphoned out of the presence of God. It is siphoned out of the rock. The anointing is siphoned because of your faith as you worship Him, as you touch His heart.
Let me warn you beforehand, when you have the anointing on your life, you MUST be careful. Watch what you do with the power that He has given you. Don’t play games. And don’t misuse it. He has given it to you for a reason and one reason alone, and that is be witnesses to the world for the furthering of His Kingdom. In Acts 1:8, Jesus told His disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." He is talking about the power of God that comes upon us for service. The power of the Holy Spirit is not for us but for His service. It is not something to bring us into a so-called spiritual “high” like many preachers teach; it is not something to make us feel good. If it is truly God’s power, it will break us and bring us to repentence and draw people to the Lord! That is what it is for. That is what the anointing does.
This anointing that I’m talking about is priceless. And it’s not free. We cannot expect God to give us the anointing if we sit and watch five hours of TV and spend 30 minutes with Him in prayer every day. God is not that cheap! We must crucify our earthly will and desires. We must die to self. Only when you die to self will you know your true self. You have to make yourself available to the Spirit’s leading and make it a decision that you will not shy away from doing God’s will when He leads you to do something. We must take up our crosses daily and follow Him. Don’t think that because you died five years ago that you can have the anointing today. You must die every single day. It is a daily thing God’s Word says.
How do you meet the Holy Spirit? On your knees, lying on your back, walking around the room, praying. You don’t meet Him by just singing a song. There’s only one way to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that’s through prayer. Moses asked the Lord-now nobody can ask this until he’s in the Holy of Holies, the place in your heart when any guilt has been stripped from you and your eyes are on Jesus and not yourself. It was a time, forty days later, before he could ask-remember, God had touched him, fellowship had erupted, worship, beauty, ecstasy, the presence of the Almighty, boldness had set in. Then he could say, “Let me see Your glory.” He had paid the price. He was saying, “Lord, I’ve been up here with you for the last forty days. There’s nothing left of my flesh. Let me see Your glory.” And God passed before him. And although he saw only His back, he saw the glory, the wonder of God. Do you want God’s presence? Then lose your own. You lose sight of yourself, and you’ll gain sight of God. If you want the anointing, the power of the Master on your life, surrender yourself. And when you receive the anointing, satan’s hold on your life will be broken. There is no power in all of hell that can stand against you when that wonderful power of God is upon you. Isaiah 10:27 says, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.”
Now let me make one last thing clear. “Religious” activity, loud tongues, moans, and groans are not necessary prerequisites for the power of God to be revealed. More often than not, they are a hindrance because they can come from the flesh, and God wants to demonstrate real power. Our greatest desire should not be for spiritual gifts, but for the presence and power of God, because it is the presence and power that will change your life. I like what Kathryn Kuhlman once said, “If you find the power, you will find heaven’s treasure.” Once we are emptied of self, we will know His presence. Only then, can we experience His power-the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But we must be faithful with what God so richly supplies.