Chris Anderson
Merrimack, New Hampshire
First Love Ministry
- a
ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org
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updated December 3, 2010
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CHAPTER 9
RECONCILING THE MINISTRIES OF
TRANSFORMATION AND ANOINTING
"But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power
of God, and the wisdom of God." I Cor. 1:24
The book of Revelation reveals that the generation which receives the
Lord's coming will be marked by the complete works of
transformation and the anointing.
This combining of the Inner Word and the Spirit will yield their harvesting to
the Lord through glorification. In the preceding three chapters we have followed
the restoring of transformation and anointing after 1730 only to discover that since
the period of 1870-1915, a wall has been built preventing anyone who receives of
one work from embracing the other.
To this day, two mutually exclusive camps exist in the worldwide body of
Christ, each having been immunized against the other. At the heart of division
is a stronghold rooted in opposing natures of jewish and greek unbelief. In one group, the anointing has fed the
unbelief and idolatry of a sign-seeking mindset. In the other, the work of
transformation has been mortified through natural self-controlling wisdom.
In order for a fully mature generation of saints to come forth and
receive the Son of Man, this wall must be scaled and abolished. A very limited number of saints have already
begun overcoming the wall. They are daring to reach out beyond the unbelieving
confines of their original heritage to complete their salvation. Yet the wall
itself remains as a looming giant preventing the Church from entrance into
glory.
At this hour a hungry, readied body of saints is waiting to learn how and
why they need the opposite work to finish their redemption. Those who have
partaken of transformation reality
want to believe and function
in pentecostal realities. But, in light of what they have seen, they need
decisive proof that they can have
the anointing without abandoning transformation truth. Those raised in the Pentecostal-Charismatic church know they need something more lasting
than the anointing on which to build their experience. Yet they don't want the
name-only brand of transformation marked by criticism, bitterness, and cultural
reclusiveness that mocks their anointing.
This chapter is both an expose and a prophetic challenge to those with ears to hear.
It is an expose of both sides of the incomplete Church, examining the price of
failure to receive either the work of anointing or transformation. It is a
prophetic challenge to all with hearts ready to hear what they need to fill in
the gaps of their salvation. More than just a summons to the waiting flocks of
these camps, this chapter is also a
last call to leadership who yet have hope of
repenting and crossing the divide.
It is a call to leaders who have excused their own deficiencies while
dissuading their flocks from exploring the "other side," yet their own
consciences remain restless.
We cannot be reconciled with truth we feel we have no need of. Before we
will seek out what we need, we must
be convinced of our own deficiency and respond to it in honesty. This chapter begins the road to reconciliation by
exposing the lack that transformation and anointing ministries each have without
the other.
If you are an "anointing-based" saint who flows in all the spiritual gifts,
but are tired of filling your
spiritual hunger with the husks of the anointing and you loathe the hype and superficiality of most
Charismatic fellowship, the first section of this chapter is for you. If you are
a "Transformationist" steeped in the realities of the cross, but your
anointingless knowledge of the Father's love has long since shriveled into a
lifeless doctrine, the second half
of this study speaks to you.
This first section addresses
the overwhelming majority of saints who relate to the Lord primarily
through the power of the anointing. It includes all who trace their roots to the
Holiness-Pentecostal Movement of the 1890's, the Pentecostal Movement of 1906, the Latter Rain Movement of the
1950's, or any one of the mushrooming corporate Charismatic waves since 1960
found across all denominations. In short, this is written to all whose reference
point for spirituality begins with a baptism of the Holy Spirit defined by
tongues or any other anointed sign.
For 100 years, this House of Anointing has been severed from the
foundation of transformation, giving birth to several generations of saints who
are largely ignorant of any internal transformation reality past conversion.
There are some who know about the truths of the cross. Yet they write it out of
the script of their lives, paying mere lip service to inward holiness and
self-denial as doctrines. The remainder fear to submit themselves to the cross,
and shun all transformation-centered concepts such as suffering and self-denial.
- The Root Deception
These attitudes reflect a root mutual deception which lies at the heart of both the
houses of anointing and transformation. This deception is the belief that
because transformation and anointing both originate with the Lord, they
automatically embrace each other's results and purposes.
We remember that both the transformation and anointing are spiritual
works which minister to separate realities. The transformation ministers to the
eternal matters of the heart. The anointing brings the creationary powers of the
next world to bear on present earthly reality. When either work becomes divorced
from the other to become esteemed in its own right, we confuse their elements
and believe that one embodies the other. This deception nourishes the mindset to
which we are already captive. Which
work we ultimately champion is the work to which our hidden stronghold is most
naturally attuned.
The House of Anointing is ruled by the sign-seeking mindset. This
stronghold is naturally attuned to the anointing. As champions of the anointing,
Pentecostal-Charismatic believers are subject to
the root deception which
automatically attributes all the elements of the transformation to the
anointing. Today's advocates of anointing-centered ministry
believe they either have all they need of the transformation, or else the
transformation is rendered unnecessary by the anointing which is superior.
From this deception proceed two powerful lies which cause
anointing-centered ministries to bear sickly and poisonous fruit. First, we
assume that our capacity to function under the anointing proves that we are a
spiritually righteous people. Second, we think that because the anointing's
origin is spiritual, the focus of our ministry must necessarily be
spiritual.
The end of these lies is a polluted spiritual identity and idolatry
conducted in the name of the Lord. Because the anointing's ministry is
creation-centered, devotion to the anointing leads to the worship of the creation.
Today, the preponderant majority of anointing-based ministries, churches, and
movements are corrupted by these deceptions. This section will review key elements about the
anointing that we learned at the beginning. From this we will forcefully expose
the nature of the lies and fruit associated with the sign-seeking mentality
of this house.
A. Sovereign Unmerited Favor of the Anointing
All who believe that the anointing assumes operation of the
transformation believe that possessing the anointing is proof of personal
righteousness and of God's pleasure with a man, ministry, or movement. But our
review of the properties governing the anointing shows this to be false. We find
that the anointing is given by God without merit to accomplish certain ends. The
anointing falls upon all flesh
without distinction. As rain, it falls on the just and the unjust. In the Old
Testament, the anointing fell on
spiritual men like David, carnal and disobedient men like Saul, heathen men like
Hazael and Balaam, and even on animals like Balaam's donkey.
All this means that the
anointing's presence says nothing about the true state of righteousness of the
vessel bearing it. At the judgment
seat, Christ makes very clear that many will come to Him offering anointed works as proof of
their spiritual state. Yet He will deny them entrance to the kingdom as workers of iniquity. Though performed on the
wings of angels, these works will be seen as the works of
Cain.
Nevertheless, those raised
under the anointing-based moves of God have perpetually mistaken anointed
ministry as proof of spiritual standing with God. As this deception has
proceeded, ministries have used the anointing to excuse known sin of the
grossest order simply because the anointing remained with them while they were
sinning. For decades, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches have watched the rise
and fall of ministers whose lives prove that anointing does not equal
transformation. Yet this persistent deception continues leading to the mistaken
first exaltations of unproven ministries followed by their eventual
collapse.
Under this lie, anointing-based believers have never learned to search
beneath the surface of anointing to
verify spiritual fruit in the lives of those they follow. They have only been
taught to equate the gift to heal, prophesy, or produce some earth-shaking
manifestation with proof of righteousness.
Additionally, they have been instructed to never question the fruit of
anointed ministry according to the misapplied Scripture, "touch not mine anointed" (Ps.
105:15).
Not only are Pentecostal believers unable to prove the fruit of the
ministry they follow, but they never learn to overcome their own carnal nature.
Instead, they learn to use the
anointing to cover it over. When sin arises in the heart, the solution is to "pray more in the Spirit," "get another word from the Lord," or "claim by faith" victory over sin because
we are the "righteousness of God in
Christ." Yet no anointed work
or confession of a spiritual reality
can substitute for the cross' work upon natural life force. Believers remain
defeated in lifelong struggle with the same sins.
So it is the perpetual legacy of the anointing restoration is one of
multitudes who never gain victory over inward sin, never gain entrance into the
genuine maturity of the Father's love, and forever remain under a blanket of
guilt. No amount of confessing or preaching on "there is therefore now no
condemnation" is able to assuage this guilt. Churches remain dogged by high
rates of adultery, divorce, and other sins which have been so long excused they
are accepted as the norm of
Christian experience. All is sealed with the cliche, "Jesus just accepts me for who I
am."
In most streams of the House of Anointing, the work of the cross is
simply ignored. But in more popular streams like the Faith-Prosperity Movement, the equating of anointing with true righteousness is
so strong that there is active teaching against the work of the cross. Concepts of conviction for sin, suffering for
Christ, and self-denial are freely belittled. The possibility of martyrdom is
unthinkable. Any kind of conviction for sin or prophetic preaching against sin
is equated with "condemnation."
Instead of confronting the real power of sin, many faith teachers treat
it as a figment of the imagination. At the same time, they teach that our new
identity in Christ means we are "little gods" composed of His essence, hence
equal with Him. Ignoring that we are sons by adoption, and bypassing the developing
of sonship through suffering obedience, they proclaim that confession of one's
godhood is all that is necessary to walk in victory over the "lying symptoms of
sin which are not real."
B. The External Temporality of the Anointing
The second lie which envelops the House of Anointing assumes that,
because the anointing is spiritual in origin, the focus of its ministry impacts
eternal reality. Yet we remember that, not only is the anointing sovereignly
bestowed, but its focus is centered on and its results are conditioned by the
temporal creation. The anointing
heals bodies that will yet perish. It prophesies of things to happen which will
yet be forgotten in a later age. It brings the miraculous to bear upon earthly
situations all of which will pass away. The effects of the anointing only point to an age to come while aiding the present
ministry of transformation.
Nevertheless, those subject to the sign-seeking mindset mistake the
anointing's effects for the eternal
reality wrought by the cross. Yet because its effects are temporal, devotion to
the anointing actually creates a needs-based focus rooted in the fleeting
inadequacies of mortal life. Those who follow the anointing become entrenched,
entangled, and ensnared by the things of present reality. They lose sight of the
true eternal issues in their efforts to affect the here-and-now through the
Lord's power.
As anointing-based believers, we show very little awareness or
anticipation of eternity. Our ministry thrives on a tunnel-vision set on the
latest issue of momentary crisis-- the latest need for healing, for finances,
for relational repair, for circumstantial change, or for political change. We spin our efforts praying to change
things that have no lasting purpose past the moment of need. We magnify the ephemeral realities of
this life to a place that totally consumes our attention and cripples our
ability to grow in the Knowledge of God. Thus we remain unprepared for life in
the eternal realm.
This preoccupation with the earthly appears on two levels. In the healing
and faith wing of the anointing, it occurs on the level of personal or church
need. Believers and churches draw upon the anointing to take them from financial
crisis to financial crisis. They are unable to rest in the eternal security
of God's provision through
knowing Him who owns all. On a
different level, believers in the later corporate Charismatic moves of
Kingdom-Now, Warfare Intercession, and the Prophetic Movement are consumed with
changing the moral climate and governmental structure of temporal cities and
nations. Yet without root in the eternal work of transformation, their vision
serves only to preserve present carnal life.
The motives of the untransformed who call on God to receive financial
miracles or to turn the moral climate of cities are traced to the temporal
desire to lead a self-satisfied life in
this world. Those who commit themselves to such temporal vision become
slaves to it. Anointed churches are marked by feverish involvement
("activation") that results in burnout and the dissolution of family
relationships. The faithful are continually spurred on with emotionally charged
hype to "take over the land for God."
But the wind, earthquake and fire pass away without the true wick of
transformation on which to burn. Inside, the hearts of faithful ministers, activists, and
protesters remain hollow, unsatisfied without the waters of eternal life and
rest in the Lord.
C. Identity Confusion and Pollution
One of the outstanding spiritual calamities of building the anointing on
its own sand has been its application in reinforcing natural identity. By mistaking the temporal effects of the
anointing for transformation, the vision for personal and corporate identity in
anointing-based churches has been deeply confused and polluted. Because the work
of anointing generally has positive effects, because its presence is assumed to
prove one's righteousness, and because it falls upon all men, those who live by
it have no reason to believe they must separate from the intrinsic identity they
share with the descendants of Adam. Instead, they see the anointing as the means
of baptizing nations and false churches into the same righteousness they believe
themselves to already have.
The work of transformation begins by calling us out as a people marked by
no other name than that of the Lord Jesus Christ. That call to new identity and
the process of its purification requires inward - and to a certain extent
outward- separation from the world.
Such separation is carried out at the expense of fraternity with earthly
society. This means giving up the world's inherited family, national, and racial
identities, and its acquired social, political, and occupational identities.
Separation is also carried out at the expense of relationship to false brethren
and churches who flagrantly pollute the simplicity of the gospel of Christ
through worship of laws, sacraments,
days, traditions, and additional gods. All separation incurs persecution and rejection from
the world at large for its peculiarity.
But the effect of those who have the anointing without this foundation is
to use it for reaffirming earthly identities. This results in dilution of true Christian
identity and the immunizing of the world against the hard gospel of
transformation. The anointing has become a substitute for separation that
amplifies the trap of trying to
become all things to all men without first becoming unlike them through
purification. With each new
unfolding manifestation of the
anointing, this confusion increases.
- False National Destinies
Identity confusion is an
especially common element
undergirding all the late Charismatic movements, especially Kingdom Now,
Warfare-Intercession, and the Prophetic Movement. Most major proponents of these
movements are rooted in a vision that misappropriates the anointing to
"Christianize" fleshly bodies of nations and people groups. Transformation teaches us that the
adamic identity is put to death in Christ such that in Him is "neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor
Scythian." But many in the
current corporate moves now
preach on various "national
destinies," envisioning the
preserving of mankind's racial and
national identities in Adam as an
offering to the Lord.
Instead of calling men to
"save themselves from a perverse generation" and warning of coming judgment, many in the
Intercession Movement teach that God has a "special plan" for the nations, one
that says nothing to them about losing their identity to enter the true
kingdom. Other Christian political
movements related to Kingdom Now
seek to "christianize"
In similar vein, the current
Prophetic Movement's emphasis on rulership and "taking the land for God" is focused on the externals of temporal
society and government, not on
conquering the human soul through
transformed identity. In some
extreme Latter Rain quarters, this
anointing of adamic identity is used to define an eternal transformation that
believes all men will eventually
be saved and there is no final
difference between sheep and goats. Some have gone so far to teach that even the
archdeceiver satan will eventually be redeemed.
- False Spiritual Unity
Another fruit of identity pollution occurs where the anointing is used to
promote a unity among churches and
movements that has no base in
genuine transformation. When the anointing falls on those who worship saints,
statues, and other false gods, as well as others who have no seed of eternal
life, those deceived by the anointing believe they have a basis for unity with
these. In reality, the actual basis of this unity is the commonality of the
sign-seeking mindset these groups share.
Even where all ministries involved have the genuine seed of new identity
through the true gospel, the anointing only gives a veneer of unity to
ministries whose hearts are not
marked by the transparent
brokenness upon which lasting unity can alone be built. The veneer looks good,
but has no depth. When the anointing dissipates, so does the unity.
Without the work of the cross to sever us from adamic identity, all
preaching on unity and national destiny is deceived. Genuine transformation first calls us to
lose all sense of identity in this
life, including our artificial religious identities with their sectarian names
and Nicolaitan titles. All sense of
identity in race, sex, nationality,
including "spiritual tribalism,"
must go. This must happen before we can reach out in true unity to the
body of Christ or reach out to the world with the promise of true destiny in Christ. We are to be a
singularly peculiar people unlike any in the earth, bearing a unique image in
Jesus Christ. Only from this platform can we minister the temporary anointing
that leads to man's permanent
healing through obtaining the
Lord's new name (Rev. 3:12).
**********
D. Anointing-Sponsored Idolatry
When we boil it all down, the above fruits of anointing-centered
ministry are summed in one word: idolatry. This is hard to swallow, but it is the
absolute truth. Idolatry is the replacing of the Creator by the creation.
Spiritual idolatry occurs when spiritual tools given to lead us back to the
Creator keep us bound in devotion to the creation. The anointing is a creation-centered
ministry. When it is severed from the ministry of inward transformation and
esteemed in its own right, the objects of its ministry become the objects of our
devotion. Thus the anointing
becomes the sponsor of idolatry.
It was Jesus who said "an evil
generation seeks for a sign" (Lk. 11:29). For 100 years, the identifying and
seeking of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an anointing-centered event rooted
in a sign has provided the platform for strengthening the evil of the jewish sign-seeking mindset in
believers. By establishing a sign as the evidence and proof of the baptism of
the Spirit, the true evidence of a transformed life has been bypassed, and the
mindset of idolatry permanently established in its place.
To this day, we have been perpetually divorced from entering the Lord's
true heart through the relentless idolizing of His acts. We follow signs,
wonders, and miracles. We exalt the anointing and everything and everyone it
touches or is ministered through. Severed from transformation salvation, the
moves of the anointing represent the largest idolatrous enterprise known in
Church history.
E. Inability to Permanently Change the Earth
Under the anointing's sponsorship, the overall 20th century church has
reinforced worship of temporal reality, trying to make present life into something it cannot
nor ever will be. When the
anointing becomes subverted from its purpose of ministering to the eternal, the
changes it makes on the earth remain superficial and hence do not last. The irony here is that the professed
goal of all anointing-based movements has been to bring lasting change to the
earth for the good of the
Psalms 11:3 says, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can
the righteous do?" The story of
the anointing restoration has largely been that of a house built on sand without
foundation. Therefore the righteous have been able to do little to bring lasting
transformation to their societies.
Consider the record. Never has the Church seen more display of miraculous
power and less ability to convert the world. With each passing generation, the
power of anointing intensifies-- so much so that anointed believers now serve on
the very forefront of society, prophesying to kings and rulers about the
destinies of their countries. Yet the actual lasting change made in the hearts
of men is less than ever.
Instead, the work of anointing is inoculating men against transformation.
As the apostle says, "On account of you,
the gospel is blasphemed." The
Church of the Anointing is more a cause of mocking, scorn, and derision than of
fear and respect. Churches are filled with multitudes of anointed believers and
pastors who speak in tongues, prophesy, and heal, yet have little victory over the sins
that plague lost mankind. Their hearts are consumed with the affairs of this
life, ensnared in the same circumstances that arrest all men.
The airwaves are filled with media evangelists who have reduced the
anointing to the level of a market commodity. Many of these have been downed by
hidden lusts and sexual perversions for which their anointed teachings offered
no cure. Churches glued together by the anointing suffer from the fickleness of
uncommitted members motivated by what the anointing can do for them and what they can achieve with its use. Yet
these same members leave once offended over any situation that forces them to
take up the cross in true relationship. Such a testimony has contributed to
society's lawlessness, not challenged it!
F. The Anointing Is Still Authentic
It is indeed ironic that the house of the Lord with its ability to touch
the earth through the anointing has effected so little permanent change. Yet the
failure of the anointing ministry to be grounded in transformation does not mean
the ministry has not been authentic. When Jesus spoke about the house built on
sand, He did not question the authenticity of the house itself. When he labeled
as workers of iniquity those who used the anointing as evidence of their
righteousness, he did not challenge the validity of their works.
The House of Anointing's failure to build upon the transformation does
not deny the validity of the house.
Most of the actual anointed ministry has been genuine. People have been healed, have prophesied
and wrought great feats by the thousands and hundreds of thousands. Despite the
flawed contexts of carnality, immorality, doctrinal imbalances, and other
dishonorable features attributable to the vessels of the anointing, God's Spirit
has worked through them.
Those who stand outside the house and see its missing foundation tend to dismiss
the entire house as "not of God."
This is a great stumblingblock to many, but especially to those who have
tasted the genuine wine of transformation. The lack of transformation behind the
anointing movements makes it easy to dismiss the entire move as false in origin.
But no. We must hurtle this stumblingblock, boldly affirming that God's Spirit
has indeed rained upon His people in these last days.
G. The Coming Collapse
Though the House of Anointing is authentic, without foundation in the cross, it is destined
to fall. Both Jesus and Paul refer to the testing and fall of the house of the
Lord (Mt. 7:24-27; I Cor. 3:10-15.)
The house Jesus speaks of falls because it is not built on the foundation
of transformation. The house spoken of by Paul collapses because it is built
with combustible materials that cannot stand the test of fire. The "gold" and
"precious metal" that passes the test refers to the work of transformation. The
"wood, hay, and stubble" pictures
carnally activated anointing ministry.
These illustrations tell us that the increasing wind and fire of God's
Spirit is to become so great that eventually, only those whose lives and churches are built according
to the work of transformation will be able to stand it. There is indeed a
remnant minority in the House of Anointing who will stand at that day. But all
the untransformed believers, ministries and churches in this house will
eventually find themselves destroyed by its intensity: "Who may abide in the day of His appearing,
for He is like a refiner's fire.... Without holiness no man shall [be able to
stand to] see the Lord" (Mal. 3:2; Heb. 12:14).
- The Inflated House of Cards
A tragic irony is soon to appear in which the House of Anointing will be
disqualified from participating in the final outpouring of which it has
prophesied. With each restoration of anointing, the ministry has grown further
from its true foundation. Like a house of cards it has been built impressively
higher and higher until finally, one card will expose its utter flimsiness and
the entire deck will collapse. There will yet come one final restoration of
anointing that will bring down the entire house.
Using another analogy, the 20th century anointing has become as an
inflated currency no longer backed by the precious metal it once represented. A prophetic parallel
actually exists between the inflationary economy of the
Gold speaks of transformation. At the same time that gold was being
questioned as the standard of
- The Necessity of Submitting to Transformation
Discipline
Entrance into transformation is an absolute requisite if those of us from
the House of Anointing hope to withstand the nearing tidal wave of Spirit that
will try the substance of our salvation. We must awake from our stuporous
deception-- our "Spirit-sponsored" commitment to identity with this world, and
our blindness to true righteousness. A call is now going forth to all who can
hear-- a preparatory trumpet to give the descendants of this house the
opportunity to open their souls to the work of the cross and bring eternal value to the ministry with which they have been
entrusted.
II. "And Also
to the Greek:" A Foundation With No House
This section speaks to all believers who trace their spiritual lineage to the
restoration of transformation reality laid between the time of the Pietists and
the sprouts of Latter Rain "sonship." From the entirety of this heritage, there
are three main streams. First are the remnants of the Holiness and Keswick
ministries formed from the great 19th century Revivals. This includes all
Holiness, Wesleyan, and Methodist bodies that still affirm entire sanctification
and all bodies of Keswick descent who teach the Deeper Life experience.
Second are the many isolated churches and individuals of mystic persuasion whom the Lord has taken "from scratch" to discover the depths of
the cross without anyone else to help them. Some of these have been reached by
the writings of past authors such
as Madame Guyon, A.W Tozer, Watchman Nee, and Andrew Murray. Hearing the call of
the prophet, these "unparented" transformation disciples have left whatever churches they may have known to that
time, and set out to minister in the "wilderness" to whoever might
listen.
Finally are those saints who
by upbringing or happenstance
partook of the "sonship"
emphasis from the 1950's
Latter Rain Movement. Scattered throughout
The numbers who relate to
the Lord primarily through the work of the cross are much smaller than those who
relate to Him through the anointing.
The inward journey of transformation is far more difficult to endure and
its costs are far higher. As well, the work is more highly opposed by the enemy
and the obstacles raised against it are formidable. Moreover, what emphasis the
cross has received passed its peak over a century ago. For all these reasons,
fewer believers today have their first encounter with the Lord through the work
of transformation or ever even hear of it.
Among all transformation disciples,
a wide array of attitudes exists toward the anointing . These range from
simple ignorance, to fear, to secret disdain, to open hostility. In some
quarters, the anointing is acknowledged in theory only, or else practiced on a
very restricted basis. Whichever
the attitude, its effect is the same: the saints are prohibited or discouraged
from building a house upon their foundation. Remaining devoted to the work of
the cross, transformation saints continue to build, rebuild, and then repeatedly
polish their foundation. Yet because they reject the current front-line
anointing, their foundation stagnates, failing to fulfil the Lord's purpose for
them in the earth.
A. The Deceptions
Where the House of Anointing has been mired in devotion to the anointing
through its sign-seeking mindset, the House of Transformation has rejected the
anointing through its stronghold of greek-minded self-control. This has led it
to the opposite premise in which
Transformationists measure the anointing by the transformation. They
assume that all the anointing one needs is already covered in the experience of
the cross and the love of the Father. From this premise, their stronghold has
been fed through its own set of lies. In this section, we will prosecute with
equal vigor the nature and results
of these deceptions in the lives of
the transformation champions who
oppose the anointing.
The Premise:
Possession of transformation experience
assumes
possession of all anointing.
Today, most transformation disciples trace their origin to the 19th
century Holiness and Keswick movements. On first glance, the disdain these
believers show toward the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements would lead us to
believe they are entirely against the work of anointing. Yet in the next breath,
these believers glory in the stories of the past Revivals by which their
movements were born, Revivals conducted by the power of the anointing!
Such doublemindedness is the firstfruit of the false assumption that
possession of the transformation equals possession of all the anointing there is
to have. Believers descended from historic transformation movements accept the
manifestations of common or even supernatural anointing available at the birth
of their movement because they believe those manifestations were inherent in that movement. But they
reject whatever contemporary
manifestations are occurring today outside their circle of influence.
This inconsistent unbelief has produced a bizarre historic spectrum
along which varying degrees of anointing are accepted and rejected. Any group,
for example, of 1875 Keswick descent will only acknowledge the common anointing
for the power to preach or the hearing of God's voice as an "inner
impression." Some 1905-vintage "third blessing" groups will acknowledge the supernatural
anointing for gifts of tongues, healing, and perhaps an isolated prophecy. Still
further, 1950 "sonship" proponents will
even accept the prophetic and apostolic offices. Yet the earlier of these
reject the latter and none will
accept today's great corporate expressions of these
anointings.
That the anointing is not inherent in the transformation is exposed
however by the record and the fruit
of today's groups. Those who glory in the past anointing fail to realize that
the success of the original
movements to which they look back depended on the current anointing of that day. Without the
current anointing of 1880, the Holiness Movement would have gone nowhere.
Likewise, the 1949 sonship message depended on the anointing of 1949 for its
spread.
The anointing was not inherent in any of these transformation movements
but was God's sovereign gift at that time to prosper each transformation
restoration. As the 20th century outpourings moved on past the work of 19th century transformation, the
Holiness and Keswick fathers made the same fatal assumption their descendants
still promote. Believing their transformation experience to embrace all valid
anointing, they rejected the
further outpouring of the anointing. Thus it left them, and their movements
died.
Because they still look back, transformation descendants have even lost
what anointings their fathers had. Today's meetings are a wilted resemblance of
movements once burning with the fire of common anointing. They are marked by
atmospheres ranging from inert to oppressed, featuring dry teaching on a
theoretical experience into which few have entered. In some groups exists weighty oppression based on legalized
principles of holiness. Among them is little emotional joy or expression of any
sort. A spirit of control and
inhibition forbids free expression of "Christ in us, the hope of
glory."
Correspondingly, the effect of today's Transformationists on their
surroundings is negligible. In
sonship groups, anointed revelation abounds on the implications of unique
identity in Christ and the goal of
glorification-- yet it spreads nowhere nor even makes the changes it
calls for in its own people. Tending
toward a strict inward, isolated preoccupation with their own importance,
transformation descendants have little evangelistic impact on their
surroundings.
All this shows us that the anointing is a separate, necessary work to
transformation which we cannot assume we have just because we have experienced
the cross. Oil runs out! It must be replenished if transformation is to go
forward. The oil of 1880 is gone. The oil of 1906 is gone. The oil of 1949 is gone. We must have today's oil if we are to
see in the night.
This is the warning to the foolish virgins. It is also the warning of Lk. 8:18, "Take heed how you hear... to him that has
not shall be taken that which he seems to have." If we want our love for
Christ to burn once more, we must come out from our deceptive assumption about
"possessing all anointing," and embrace today's anointing. We must recognize the
separateness of these works and their need for each other with all their
respective fruits and manifestations.
Devotion to the premise we have just studied is fed by the following
lies:
Deception #1: The anointing
is unnecessary to those undergoing transformation. At best, it is a crutch for
those who have yet to discover the deeper truths of the cross and the Father's
love.
This deception often belongs to those who have entered the work of
the cross independently of the
historic transformation churches and have otherwise never had any exposure to
the work of anointing. It further includes many who began their journey strictly
in the House of Anointing, but upon discovering transformation, proceeded to
throw out that house as a totally
false work because of its failure to teach on the cross.
Those who think of the anointing as a crutch tend to have a perfectionist
nature. Recognizing the strictly temporal nature of the anointing and knowing the eternal substance of the
internal call, these seek to head straight for perfection without having to pass
through any of the operations of the Holy Spirit's giftings or callings. Their idea is that
the gifts and callings may be "o.k." for those who still fall short of pursuing
only the Lord, but they are a mark
of immaturity.
Having seen the utter abuse of these gifts and functions in the House of Anointing, perfectionist
followers of the Lord deny the means appointed for reaching the goal. They
proceed to exclude not only all gifts and offices, but all body-life and
earth-related involvement as well. This usually leads to a course of personal
spiritual oblivion, or to joining with others to form a cult. Such groups often
dwell in a mode of revelational interchange that is so "deep" and "spiritual" it
has no relevance.
Attempting to live out their relationship with the Lord without the
anointing or any relationship to the creation, perfectionists develop an
opposite inward idolatry to that of the House of Anointing. They come to esteem
the death process itself as the focus of worship. The concepts of death and of the cross replace Jesus
Himself as the center of devotion. From here, their worship degenerates into an
internal mysticism that constantly analyzes thoughts, feelings, and the inner
workings of the soul. It precludes a true gazing on the Lord, producing a
depressive self-gazing masquerading as spirituality.
Denying the work of the anointing is to actually deny part of the process
that leads to genuine transformation. God intended man to tend a garden as a
means of knowing Him. After man fell, He intended man to interact with the
earthly for working out relationship with Himself. The anointing is a further
dimension of that outworking which
the process of transformation must
encounter. True transformation cannot continue where the anointing is not engaged for
grappling with the realities of present earthly life.
Perfectionist believers are so far ahead of the cloud that they can bring
no redemption to others. For these,
perfectionism and/or the hope of
glorification becomes its own end. This occurs for example in sonship
streams where many have made
erroneous claims to having already become
the "manifest sons of
God." Perfectionists mistakenly
believe they can enter the promised
land themselves... so they end up frying in the foredesert, isolated from the
protection of the cloud and the pillar-- the marks of the anointing.
Deception
#2: Whatever true anointing remains to be given
to the Church will only be given to
believers who have received the work of transformation in their lives. Anyone
else claiming to have the anointing is a false minister with a false
anointing.
This deception is largely owned by transformation disciples who secretly
long to taste of the anointing, but are offended by those who can lay claim to
supernatural ministry while obviously lacking the work of the cross. Multitudes
of sincere believers who have known the depths of cross-bearing discipleship
have waited at the sidelines to see some glimpse of transformation in the lives
of the anointed that might justify their own plunge into that
realm.
Despite the offense, however, a deception remains upon these waiting
saints. In our expansive study, we have seen that the anointing is a gift
without merit. The rain of the Spirit
falls on the just and unjust. On some it brings up fruit, on others
thorns whose end is destruction (Heb. 6:7-8). The Lord heals, prospers, prophesies,
and ministers to and through the unworthy as well as the worthy.
Because the anointing is available to all without merit, our waiting to
see it first properly displayed in others is exposed as a smoke screen. By saying we want to see the
anointing operate in a "transformed" people before we will receive it, we are
really saying that we will not receive a gift of God unless it comes in a
certain package acceptable to us. That "package" is our own greek mindset with
its appraisal of how the
transformed life should acceptably manifest. This deception allows us to
excuse ourselves from encountering anything that does not fit with our limited
definition of transformation.
What ultimately keeps us from plunging into foreign realms of the
anointing is our fear of the unknown,
our inability to trust the Spirit to
keep us from deception, our pride
against being the focus of certain "ridiculous" manifestations of the anointing,
and our envy of those who display the
anointing without having paid our prices.
If this were not so, we
would not hesitate to accept any gift of God no matter who else in the world
pretended to manifest it-- whether tongues, or prophecy, or healing, or
whatever. But like Naaman who was at first too proud to wash in the dirty
B. Greek-Mindedness and Its Fruits
Ultimately, all the deceptions by which we reject some form of the
anointing stem from our own mind's attempt to comprehend, catalog, document, and
define the work of the cross as it occurs in our own lives. Everything we
experience in that painful process passes through the filter of our own
knowledge of good and evil to become held by our understanding of it. As the
cross continues ministering to the many avenues of our souls, our "greek
mind" uses its tracking of the
process to remain in some sort of
control of the work.
But our mind cannot track the anointing. Because of this, the
anointing is God's means to kill
this hidden stronghold. Only the
anointing can apply the cross to
inner areas of our mind that are past our mind's grasp of the transformation process itself! Through its foolishness and incomprehensibility
the anointing takes us out of control, putting us to death in an area nothing
else can.
So long as our minds can grasp the process of transformation, we are in
control. When we are in control, we are not dead! To stay alive, our stronghold
convinces us to reject the anointing ministry in the name of "protecting the
truth of the cross" over which it has made itself guardian. But in rejecting the anointing, we are actually saying no to the cross
in the deepest area we need it.
Once the process of
transformation becomes confined by our knowledge of it, bitter fruit begins to
sprout. These fruits poison our relationships and stunt any continued progress
in real transformation. They are
also the stumblingblocks
that keep anointing-based saints from surrendering to the
cross:
1.
Personal and Corporate Legalism
Uncrucified knowledge of the work of the cross leads us quickly to
develop codes of expected conduct based on our own transformational experiences.
These codes may be personal and unspoken. For example, once we are led to
forsake a certain pleasure, we may naturally conclude it to be "unlawful" or
"unspiritual" for any Christian to ever again enjoy that pleasure. From that
time on we will judge ourselves or
others as guilty of sinning or lacking holiness if ever "caught" partaking of
it.
Such personal codes develop into clearly outlined codes of corporate
conduct by which a church judges its members, other churches and other
movements. Because the law only
works death, churches and
fellowships built upon legalized
principles of holiness engender bondage in their people and die. Such legalism
poisoned the entire Holiness Movement, anchoring within it the stronghold of
unbelief that disabled it from receiving the outpouring of tongues. Dead,
joyless bondage is the legacy of these churches today.
2.
Self-Preoccupational Analysis
The work of the cross is a very personal work dedicated to re-creating
our identity in Christ's image. But when tracked by our understanding, the attention of our identity is removed from
Christ onto the inner workings of the process. This self-preoccupation degenerates into
morbid, critical analysis of every thought and motive to determine if we
are "in the flesh" or "in the
Spirit." It leads to heavy
oppression under constant self-examination whereby we try to bear our own sins
and "earn" our way out of guilt through meditation.
On the negative side, our analysis spreads to evaluating the inner spirituality of
those around us. We secretly judge whether others are "in the flesh" or "in the Spirit."
(In most cases, no one we ever judge is found to be "in the Spirit.") This
judgment erects a silent wall that brings death to all our relationships in the
body. On the positive side, our knowledge of good converts our experience of the
Father's love into a self-centered event and then a legalized experience. Every
restoration of transformation from Monasticism to the Keswick Movement was dogged by this focus on inner
experience and its explanations.
3.
Identity Worship and Pride
When tracked by our own knowledge, the process of transformation causes
us to focus on the developing uniqueness of our new identity. We grow
to esteem our uniqueness above the
Lord in whom we are named. Accented by persecution, we come into a sense of
elitism for our specialness, entertaining the "we are the chosen ones" syndrome with
which Elijah also struggled (I Ki. 19:14).
Elitism leads us to secretly commend ourselves for the sufferings of
obedience we have experienced which others have not. This pride exudes from us
as a natural condescension toward anyone we perceive has not paid the same
prices of faithfulness that we
have. Entire churches and movements are built on such spiritual elitism.
4.
Negative Critical Fellowship
("Anti-fellowship")
The work of transformation not only causes inner pain but is almost
always accompanied by rejection and persecution from family, friends, and less
obedient or mature churches. The knowledge of our sufferings at the hands of
such people often becomes the catalyst for fellowship between those of like
rejections who find each other in the Lord. The immediate joy and comfort of
such fellowship quickly turns into a negative "anti-fellowship" where unity is based on who and what
transformation saints oppose.
For these saints, the evils
of their persecutors together with their own sufferings become the reference
point for a critical commiseration which is called "fellowship." The atmosphere
of these meetings is marked by a cloud of bitterness. Here, the faithful
perpetually rehearse their pains for Christ before one another, rehashing the
issues for which they were rejected and disfellowshipped from other
churches.
Commiserating saints reject the healing anointings of joy and gladness
given for binding up inner wounds. Toward
believers who are
experiencing an anointing of life and joy, they maintain an attitude of sour
grapes, denying that such are experiencing anything real in the Lord. Joyful
saints are dismissed because to the sour, joy and gladness are proofs that one
obviously has not born the marks of the cross.
5.
Isolation and Cultural Irrelevance
Separation from families, friends, and churches is a natural part of
transformation. But the uncrucified knowledge of that separation leads
transformation saints into a straight path of isolation that remains untempered
by any balancing or corrective fellowship. Separation moves from a consequence of to a focus for practice. Groups that preach isolation-style
transformation insulate themselves through a spirit of suspicion and mistrust of
all on the outside who do not "bear the sufferings of Christ" with them.
This isolation becomes wedded to the spirit of elitism leading to the
belief that "we alone are the faithful remnant of our region." In such groups, doctrines are often
developed that redefine salvation in terms of specific sanctification
experiences and/or practices associated with sanctification. The deception is so
strong that an individual or a group may come to believe they alone are the true
church of their generation or even of the entire Church
Age.
Even for those who do not succumb to this extreme, the intense isolation
prohibits any genuine ministry to the surrounding world. Caged in a fortress of
defensive mentality, transformation disciples become confined to the original
cultural context in which they first received the work of the Lord. Without the updated anointing to relate
them to the ever-changing world, discipleship-based groups and churches become
culturally irrelevant.
Today the land is scattered with the remnants of transformation movements
who remain bound to the dress, customs, and technology of various yesteryears,--
some 30 or 40 years old, some 100, 200 or more years out of date. Other groups actually seek to insure
isolation through altering their culture to imitate other peoples and eras they
feel are more righteous. This is especially seen in fellowships that try to
recreate Jewish culture and keep
Old Testament rituals and customs.
6.
Rational Asceticism and Stoicism
Uncrucified knowledge of self-denial logically carried out leads to
ascetic practices and stoic attitudes that promote the negative consequences of transformation as ends
to be emulated. In the extreme this
leads to various forms of physical self-punishment. Those who practice this go
beyond rejecting the creation-centered anointing to rejecting all creation as an evil from which no
pleasure is to be afforded.
Ascetic saints seek to live out a mystical union with the Father without
reference to any awareness of the surrounding material world or population.
This focus on losing consciousness
of the surrounding world mirrors buddhism. Those who mimic these acts of
self-denial believe they are growing into the image of Christ. In reality, they
come to mirror only the hard image of John the Baptist, Jeremiah, and other
prophets whose lives did not reflect the graces of soul-healing brought by the
anointing.
C. The Desperate Need For the Anointing
Not every individual or church that champions the work of transformation
is characterized by these fruits in their extremes. Nevertheless the seeds of
the mindset that produces them are planted in the soil of every true work of transformation from the
start. Those seeds then bear the above
fruits in some measure. All disciples which have not allowed themselves
to enter into the "irrational" work of the anointing with its seeming
inconsistencies remain at the mercy of their knowledge of good and evil. Only
through surrender to the work of
the anointing can we see the Lord crucify our control of the transformation
process.
We also need the anointing for its soothing curative qualities to the
soul. The anointing is the healing oil and wine by which God restores us from
the effects of the cross. The anointing lifts our countenance through joy when
we have no strength to be happy. The anointing eases our digestion of the bread
of life which first works death. The anointing restores us to unity with others,
enabling us to lose awareness of our negative experiences to focus upon their
needs.
As transformation saints we need the anointing to build a house on our
foundation which the Lord may inhabit. This house is the ministry of the saints,
the body of Christ. It is all the saints, not just those who have
grown to the same place we have in transformation maturity. By participating in this house we engage
life's affairs in preparation for earthly rule with Christ. If now we fail to
exercise the rule of inward transformation through anointed encounter with the
earth, how shall we reign with Him over the earth then?
The error of the House of Anointing may be that it has built a house on no
foundation. But the House of
Transformation has built no house at all. It has only polished the
foundation and continued to dig a whole in the earth beneath it-- down, ever
downward. This is the meaning of the buried talent from the parable of the
talents (Mt.25:24-30). A prophetic warning
goes forth to all saints who have settled into their mystical/holiness/deeper life experience
and theology:
"You have not reached the promised
land nor will you except you enter into all the work of anointing God has
restored to this day. It is for your life and health, and for that of the whole
Church. Will you settle to die in the desert ahead of the cloud?"
III.
Effecting the Reconciliation
God desires to remove the wall between the transformed church and the
anointed church. He intends to remove the barrier between the foundational
"hidden" church and the structural "visible" church, that he might make of two
"one new body" (Eph. 2:14-18 paraphrased).
A healthy tree has both a strong root system that taps into an
underground water source and a strong branch system visible to all men. To this
day, there have been two churches: a "root system" church with no outward trunk
or branch life; and a "visible tree" church with no root system. The one bears
no fruit. The other bears sickly fruit that poisons the earth's inhabitants.
This chapter appeals for the reconciliation of the these two churches. It
is an appeal to churches and an appeal to individual saints. We must examine our
personal life. As leaders, we must examine our oversight and directional vision
of the local body of saints for which we are responsible. We have to look at
ourselves honestly, ask tough questions, accept hard answers, and take clear
action.
As individuals we must first ask, "Is my life characterized only by the
anointing or by the work of transformation? Am I a slave to a jewish
'sign-seeking' mentality or to a greek mindset of self-controlled wisdom?"
Depending on where we lie, we must ask ourselves questions from the appropriate
end.
If my life is marked exclusively by transformation
truth, and I look at myself as a faithful cross-bearing disciple of the Lord, I
must ask myself,
-Where have I failed to acknowledge and receive the work of the anointing
in my life? - Have I rejected tongues, prophecy, healings, miracles, and
energized front-line ministry through a large visible body of saints?
-Where is my life stifled by my deceptive attitudes concerning the
anointing? -Where have I scoffed at
the anointing because it doesn't conform to my image of God's attitude toward
sin and sinners?
- Is my life characterized by bitterness and criticism of those who have rejected me? - How have I belittled immature brethren who know only of the
anointing? - Do I compare myself
with those who have not paid the prices I have to follow the Lord? - Do I share
what fellowship I have only with those who understand the deeper life truths God
has worked in me?
- Where am I bound by asceticism, mysticism, stoicism, and even
gnosticism? - Where have I replaced Christ with my self-preoccupational analysis
of my own inner experience of Him? - Where have I rejected the anointing because
I don't see how it can contribute to the process of transformation? - Where have
I isolated myself and given into the secret pride that believes "I alone am
left" to serve the Lord?
If my life is characterized primarily by the anointing and I count myself
as one who is on the "cutting edge" of God's latest move, the questions are just
as probing:
- Where have I failed to give up
everything from this life for Christ? - To what secret idols do I cling? - What
do I most fear the Lord will take
from me if I truly consecrate myself to Him? - Where have I used my belief in
His anointing to feed my devotion
to self-gratification and idolatry of this world? - How have I used the anointing to hide from the
Lord's deeper dealings with me?
- How have I polluted my Christian identity by
using the anointing to reinforce my natural family, cultural, and religious
identities? - Where have I been unwilling to part with cultural preferences and
comforts? - Where have I yielded to the fear of men and peer pressure to conform
to the traditional religious agenda? - How have I glorified the outward works of
buildings, technology, and ministries of flesh that have come under the
anointing?
- Where have I been a persecutor and maligner of those who dared to pay
the prices and cut the ties I was afraid or unwilling to cut? - Where have I
railed against cross-bearing prophets who offended my good senses, convicted me
by their lifestyle, and dared to point out sin which I dismissed as
"condemnation?" - Where have I rationalized the anointing as proof of God's
approval of my life despite known sin?
- Where have I used the anointing to preserve my life in this world and
make a name for myself? - How have I merchandised the anointing, using my gifts
to obtain personal gain, influence, and profit? - Where have I scoffed at the teachings of suffering
and self-denial because they don't fit my image of God's goodness?
These are the questions we must face as individuals. Those in leadership
who serve as voices for the Church must answer the same questions on the
corporate level and give a much more severe account. Leaders in both the houses
of transformation and anointing will be held accountable for wherever they have
served to maintain the wall between these two works of
God.
IV. A Repentant Overcoming
Remnant and a Fully Restored Baptism of the Spirit
In the final analysis, the ability to face the above questions and make the changes necessary depends on
one thing: returning to our first
love. Only by the power of love
will we ultimately overcome the wall of our personal and corporate stronghold to
partake of the other side and complete our salvation. This love is our love for
the Lord manifested through overcoming love toward those who live under the
bondage of the opposite stronghold.
For transformationists, it means the love that can go back to the place
where we consciously chose to reject the Charismatics for their foolishness. It
means saying "no" to the fear of losing the control over our own purging process
that comes by submitting to all the anointing. For those devoted to the
anointing, it means the love that will go back to that first unconditional
surrender never made to the absolute Lordship of Christ and to His inward
purging. It means saying "no" to following after any more signs, wonders and
personalities.
For some the journey back to first love will be further than for others.
For many, the journey is too far back, beyond recovery in this lifetime. Yet in
the end, it is not a question of whether the wall will come down and the body be
reconciled. It is not a question of whether there will be an overcoming remnant.
It is only a question of who
will leap the wall and join with
others to break it down. Who will
enter into reconciled relationship with those on the other side by first letting
God complete the missing half of their spiritual walk? Who will humble themselves to recognize
their need and actually "stoop" to
receive ministry from those of the opposing side? Will you? Will
I?
To date, no generation has developed the necessary love to overcome the
stronghold of opposing mindsets yet blocking the Church's access to Christ's
fullness and to glorification. But let us make no mistake. God will bring forth such a generation. The
stars which converged, collided, and parted ways 100 years ago have completed
another cycle. What was lost by the generation of 1870-1915 is about to be
found. A new overcoming love in
Christ is about to be entered that has never been pressed. Already the seeds planted by pioneering
saints making this crossover are sprouting, soon to bring forth one new full harvest of the
Father.
This dawning House of Love will not be without its sign. To this
completed body will be released the baptism of "Spirit and fire" (Mt. 3:11). A
single transforming anointed
baptism bringing men into the full
experiences of Jn. 7:37 and Acts 2 is ready to appear. It will deliver from the
root of carnal nature and fully release into energized ministry of unhindered spiritual powers leading to
final glory. As Noah's flood was
produced by both rain and subterranean fountains, so this fully sanctifying, anointed
baptism of Spirit will produce the complete earth-covering knowledge of
the Lord prophesied by Habakkuk.
The separated houses of transformation and anointing as we have known
them are about to disintegrate. Of
these two a new
generation fashioning one new body
marked by one Spirit baptism is
appearing. This is the household that
will inherit all the kingdom promises. To this house the Lord Jesus will return
to take up His glorified abode.
Where then will we appear at
the erecting of this House? How shall we be found at the Lord's arrival? A voice
and a call to repentance is going out to the Church never heard before. Can we
hear it? Will we respond to it? To every reader the sound of the trumpet goes
forth:
"Will you be part of the complete House of Anointed
Transformation?
Are you able to be baptized with the full baptism of the Anointed
Savior? "
