Anchor of Hope

Art Heinz, Senior Pastor, Hope Harbor Church

“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor’” (Luke 4:16-19, NIV).

Jesus boldly declared that he was the Messiah, the anointed one. It is impossible to talk about Jesus being anointed without discussing what he was anointed with. The word “anoint” simply means to rub into or to smear upon. Jesus was smeared with the anointing, specifically the person, presence, and power of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 10:27 defines the anointing as the burden-removing, yoke-destroying power of God. The anointing is what delivers God’s people and sets the captives free. The anointing is literally God on flesh doing what flesh can’t do. It is God’s super added to our natural. Acts 10:38 described the impact of the anointing on the life and ministry of Jesus: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went around doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him” (KJV). This powerful verse reminds us that Jesus is a doer of good, that the affliction and sickness comes from the enemy, not God, and that the anointing is what removes the oppression.

According to Luke 4, the purpose of the anointing is two-fold: (1) to preach so that personal understanding and faith comes to the hearer, and (2) to bring to manifestation what has been proclaimed. There is no faith without the preaching of the word, and there is no manifestation of what has been preached without faith. The anointing is the key to both our faith and the results of our faith.

The good news for believers today is that the anointing continues to function as is did during the time Jesus walked on the earth—every miracle, every healing, every life change was the result of the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus. This same anointing works today to provide a supernatural remedy to longstanding issues, practical issues, and impossible issues in our lives.