Part Two - Perfumed Oil

The odor of your ointments is fragrant; your name is like perfume poured out. Therefore do the maidens love you. Draw me! We will run after you! Song of Solomon 1:3.

The anointing oil, as opposed to the oil for the lamps, was perfumed and fragrant. The perfume and fragrance of the anointing oil is specifically symbolic of Christ, He was anointed with perfume for burial. There are two instances in the New Testament where Jesus Christ was perfumed, A woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment perfume of pure nard, very costly and precious; and she broke the jar and poured the perfume over His head. Mark 14:3. A similar incident is in Luke 7:37 where His feet were anointed with perfumed ointment. This ointment is a different Greek word than that used for anointing oil, this was an embalming, burial ointment and so was heavily perfumed for obvious reasons!

The Hebrew word for anoint is 'mashach' and means 'to smear with oil' and the Hebrew word for Messiah is 'Mashiach' and means Anointed One! Christ (Christos) is the Greek word for Anointed. HE is our Anointing and only HE can impart His fragrance to us through our close relationship with Him. When you hug someone who has perfume on, it rubs off on you and you too become fragrant with that perfume. Christ is the Head of His Body, we are simply members of His Body and anointed by our association and contact with Him who is our Head and Anointing. It was the HEAD that was anointed, not the flesh or body which is simply under submission to the Head.

When we are close and intimate with Him, His fragrance, the anointing which is upon Him, will permeate our lives and will rub onto us (which is how the anointing oil was put on, it was rubbed or smeared on). We then are also ‘perfumed’ and anointed by our association and relationship with Him (Christ’s ones).

The fragrance and anointing of Jesus on our lives will be easier to sense the more time that we have spent with Him, intimately with Him. A perfume will not be rubbed onto you if you just sit chatting with someone across the room, you need to be in close, intimate contact such as a hug! This fragrance of anointing on our lives will point those attracted by the perfume to its Source, THE Anointed One and the Father. When you smell someone with perfume on, you know that they have been perfumED (anointED), but they are NOT the perfume (Anointing) themselves and they cannot give you the perfume because they aren't IT, they have to refer you to the Source - the Perfume: Jesus the Anointed.

But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere, for WE are the sweet fragrance of Christ (the Anointed One) which exhales unto God, discernible alike among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the latter it is an aroma from death to death, a fatal odor, the smell of doom; to the former it is an aroma from life to life, a vital fragrance, living and fresh. 2 Corinthians 2:14-16. Many who have been anointed by God have noticed the effect described here - some don’t like the fragrance of Christ - it brings either Life or death.

There is always a counterfeit or false replica of the true, the fact that this is so proves all the more clearly that there is also the true and that we must discern between the two. Christ dwells in us through His Holy Spirit. It is interesting that the Hebrew word Ruach which means Spirit, originates from the Hebrew word ‘ruwach’ which means to smell a scent, or perceive an odour of delight!

Consecration

The whole act of anointing with the holy anointing oil was primarily one of cleansing, consecration, dedication and being set apart for a purpose for God. But it is God Who confirms and makes us steadfast and establishes us with you in Christ, and has consecrated and anointed us; putting His seal upon us and giving us His Holy Spirit in our hearts as the guarantee. 2 Corinthians 1:21,22. We are now anointed as kings and priests to serve God, we are consecrated and dedicated to Him. We have to be clothed by Him, and hidden IN Him through death before we can be anointed and consecrated by Him. The holy garments of Aaron (High Priest) shall pass to his descendants who succeed him, to be anointed in them and to be consecrated in them. Ex 29:29. The Hebrew word for "holy" is the same word (kadesh) as for sanctify, it means to set apart, separate out as holy. What is the ultimate in separation? Death. We must die to self in order to have His resurrection life flowing through us.

The anointing of a king and priest was a one time event, and so also Jesus (our High Priest) has anointed us as His priests once and for all. Some churches and "ministries" encourage people to come up and ‘receive the anointing’ week after week. But what kind of anointing is it that they have to keep going back to man as the source of it? The things that were anointed in the Bible were priests, prophets and kings (one time events), lepers (for cleansing - one time event once again), furniture and things in the temple (that’s everything in us as His temple), clothes (our robes of righteousness), and food. Our food is the Bread of Life (Jesus - John 6:48-51) the Living Water (Jesus - John 4:13-15) and the Meat (1) - The Lamb of God (Jesus - Hebrews 13:9,10) - Christ the Anointed again!

When we claim that we are anointing someone, do we claim to be making them a priest, prophet or king? Or are we cleansing them? Or dedicating all of their ‘temple’ to God? Or feeding them with ourselves? NO! These are personal things that only an individual can ask CHRIST to do for them and ONLY He can do as The Anointing! He is the only Mediator between God and man. We can point people to The Way, but we cannot walk out their journey for them. We cannot and must not presume to be Christ, we are simply Christ’s ones in submission to Him. HE is the One to point people to and they can then personally receive these things from HIM. Anything else is anti-christ (in place of Christ) and therefore idolatrous.

Anti-christ simply means anyone who sets themselves up in place of Christ or instead of the Anointed!!! 'Anti' in Greek means:
1) opposite to, before
2) for, instead of, in place of (something)

The spirit of antichrist is that which opposes or places itself instead of The Anointing (The Christ), usurping the role and function that is His alone. There have always been those around who will put themselves in place of Christ, which is why John wrote that there were many antichrists and said that the spirit of antichrist was already in the world.

1 We have an altar from which those who serve and worship in the tabernacle have no right to eat. Hebrews 13:10 was referring to the sin or trespass offering. The priests had to eat the offering (meat) in a sacred place, it was considered most holy (Lev 7:6,7). We now have an altar to eat from which they in their rituals and religion did not; our altar has Jesus as the sin offering upon it, HE is our meat! This makes the Last Supper even richer and fuller in it’s meaning.

Go to Part 3 - Anointing Ourselves