THE CORPORATE ANOINTING
THE CORPORATE ANOINTING
SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Last week we were blessed with a powerful message by Apostle Vincent Valentyne. On Tuesday, I addressed and taught on the term he used, The Corporate Son of God. Today I want to address the Corporate Anointing of “many sons” and what that looks like:
Individually, we are all called to be Sons of God with a unique position in Christ’s Body. We are fitted together as lively stones building up a spiritual house in the local assembly.
Many have been abused and misused by man-made moves under the guise of Fathering, Covering, abuse in the name of submission, even abuse of the Apostolic which is yet to be fully revealed and defined in the church of the 21st Century. However, I do not believe the definition of the Apostle has changed since the Book of Acts:
The Apostle is one who is sent forth as a messenger and is fully authorized to represent the name he bears. The apostle is commonly referred to as God’s authority. There are three categories:
- The chief Apostle, the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 3:1).
- The Twelve Apostles of the Lamb (Matt. 10: 2-6; Rev. 21:14).
- The Many Apostles of the Spirit Nowhere is it taught that the apostolic ministry would cease; rather, it is needed until the Church is perfect and presented to Jesus her Husband. We need every gift to the church given by Jesus.
Characteristics of the Apostolic Ministry:
- He/She (with the Prophet ministry) is a foundational ministry to the Church. He/she lays foundational truths. He/she establishes new works and new assemblies.
- He/She raised up some Timothy’s.
- He/She has a specific commission from the Lord Jesus with a specific authority and spiritual endowments to accomplish that ministry. There are definite “areas” of responsibility.
- He/She has the signs of an apostle: alk patience, signs, wonders, mighty deeds. The ministry and works that follow are the proof of an apostle.
- There are false apostles. Their end shall be according to their works.
As you can see, very few have fulfilled all the characteristics of the Apostolic Ministry; but many are called to be apostles; and are being prepared.
The local churches of the New Testament were and are “independent” and autonomous. This is the quality or state of self-governing; the right of self-government, capable of existing independently without outside control. A New Testament local assembly is self-supporting and self-propagating. That does not mean that we do not need the fellowship of other churches and the counsel of other Elders. Ministries should flow freely between churches.
As we know, American Christians are often spoiled coming to church seeking entertainment. Many are need-based and man-centered. Many ministries are platform-based or camera based.
Tuesday I used the example of the assembling the tribes of Israel, the LORD brought together a Holy Nation, WHO He called His Son.
Ex. 4:22: You shall say unto Pharaoh, thus says the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn.
His chosen leader/servant over this Holy Nation was one of the most anointed individuals in the Bible. Three times the LORD identified Moses as “My Servant, Moses." His individual faith got him in the Hebrew Hall of Faith-Fame:
By faith “he” refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
By faith “he” forsook Egypt.
By faith “he” endured.
By faith “he” kept the Passover.
Yet even in this account of a great individual leader, we discover the corporate dynamic in Hebrews 11:29: By faith “they” passed through the Red Sea!
First it was “by faith he”…then it was “by faith they”…
In our day, we have left the enemy’s territory, having been brought out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). Satan and his demons, typified by Pharaoh and his army, pursued us through the Red Sea. Some of us have passed through our wilderness experience, through the dark night of the soul. Our soul has soared beyond the pain of the world system into the realm of the Spirit. Many have crossed the Jordan to take down the Kings thirty and one. (Jos. 12:24). We can say a corporate group with a corporate faith is fighting the demonic kings of the earth. We are doing all that is before us; but we know we are pressing in and passing through to a greater destiny for the end-time church.
As the end-time Church moves forward, we continue to face many obstacles. I am seeing “our children” be attacked physically and emotionally. They, too, must pass through their own spiritual warfare to apprehend their spiritual destiny. We must pray them through, encourage them, and teach them how to fight the kings thirty and one.
None of us can do this alone. We need each other and our corporate faith. Our mind-sets must be transformed from a primarily individual viewpoint to a corporate way of life and thought. Both Testaments reveal the highest anointing to be corporate---it is the plural, compounded, collective anointing upon a people. God wants to anoint His whole family, His Church, the Body of Christ.
I am not speaking of a compound of people who follow some charismatic leader. Many great men and women have emerged and will emerge who carry the presence of God, and that is good. But the Father still longs for a “holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9). The six chapters of the Book of Ephesians reveal this many-membered Man respectively to be His church, His temple, His Family, His Body, His Bride, and His Army---each exemplifying the corporate anointing. The anointing upon all of us is far greater than the anointing upon any one of us.
So what is the anointing? The anointing is a Person---Immanuel, God with us; the Messiah, the Christ. The anointing is not a feeling, an idea, or an atmosphere. It is a knowing. It is the assurance that God is with us.
The Old Testament prophesied the coming of the “Messiah,” and the New Testament faithfully records the fulfillment of those prophecies with the birth and ministry of the “Christ.”
The dispensation of the fullness of times has dawned! Like Anna and Simeon, we stand at the end of one age and the beginning of the other waiting for the glorious appearing of Christ in the Sons of God. It is a day of over-turning, rooting out, pulling down, destroying and rebuilding. The day of rebuilding, restoration and world wide revival has come. Now is the time in which the Father pre-determined that He would bring all things in Heaven and on earth together under one Head, even Christ.
The only way that will happen is through the anointing of Almighty God because our best efforts over the past years since Pentecost have produced a weak and tasteless mixture of fleshly compromise, bickering, competition, jealousy, selfish ambition, and only a little holiness.
The fountainhead of all anointing is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Root of David, Earth’s one true Messiah. All truth, by precept and practice, must be founded upon the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ, the everlastingly preeminent One.
The anointing is not a thing. The anointing is a Person.
In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed or consecrated with oil to set them apart unto their offices of authority and leadership.
Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the very Anointing of God. He is the Prophet, Priest and King. Yet the New Testament also reveals that “Christ” is even more: He is both Head and body!
Jesus is our glorious Head and we are His earthly Body, the Church of Jesus Christ---the corporate Messiah! This anointed, sanctified “royal priesthood” is a prophetic people who are being made kings and priests unto God. The threefold anointing of prophet, priest, and king that abides upon and within us all is the corporate anointing.
Christ produces the Kingdom
(Col. 1;17) (Rom. 14:17)
The prophet produces righteousness
The priest produces peace
The king produces joy.
Jesus Christ’s anointing flows like a river to his earthly Body through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit (Pneuma) of the Son (Gal. 4:6). The Holy Spirit is a Person sent from the Father and represents the Son.
God in the Person of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Son…
- Teaches (Jn. 14:26)
- Testifies (Jn. 15:26).
- Reproves (Jn. 16: 8-11)
- Guides into truth (Jn. 16:13).
- Speaks (Acts. 13:2).
- Calls men into service (Acts. 13:2).
- Directs men into service (Acts 16: 6-7).
- Prays and intercedes for us (Rom. 8: 26-27).
- Searches all things, even the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:10).
- Works through us (1 Cor. 12:11).
The Person of the Holy Spirit can be…
- Blasphemed
- Lied to
- Tempted or tested
- Resisted
- Grieved
- Insulted.
The apostle Paul unfolded this Messianic mystery in his epistle to the Colossians.
Col. 1:25-27: of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory.
The highest anointing is the corporate anointing, and the mystery of godliness is best summed up on the properly translated phrase, “Christ in and among all of you.” The word used for "you" in this verse is a plural pronoun.
The anointed One of the New Testament is revealed in both Jesus the Head and His Body, the church.
I am not “Christ.” You are not “Christ.” The Body of Christ collectively comprises the fullness of Christ in the earth.
Eph. 1:22-23: God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. (NIV).
Paul defined “Christ” as “the image of God” to the Corinthians. The image of God, is our future and destiny is held within the Messianic seed! The ultimate goal of Jesus’ present reign is to see the Father’s ultimate intention and expectation birthed in the earth; to raise up a vast family of sons and daughters conformed to the image of the Pattern Son, Jesus Christ.
To accomplish this, the Father sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Just as the spirit of Moses the Old Testament mediator was multiplied and placed upon the 70 elders, so the New Testament Mediator has become a many-membered Man in His corporate Body!
We can say every 2000 years, God has brought forth a Son:
- Israel –a corporate son of twelve tribes – a Holy Nation.
- Jesus Christ – a corporate son of “Many sons” (Jn. 1:12; Ro. 8:14)– a Holy Nation.
- The Man Child – Christ fully formed in a people - the Sons of God – a Holy Nation.
The LORD GOD consumes His ultimate intention in and through a people or nation, to raise up a vast family.
Jehovah’s first son was Israel, and through his chosen servant, Moses, he brought forth the intermediary of the Law. His second son was the Pattern Son, Jesus, the arbiter of grace and truth, which is written upon the hearts of men and women by the Holy Spirit. The Father’s third Son (Sons of God) is a corporate entity, the glorious Church, His many-membered Body and ongoing Messianic incarnation, called forth to administrate the law out of Zion, and to execute His word throughout the nations.
The Corporate Anointing will not come under the headship of any one man/woman in any region, city, state or nation. There are many today who are trying to control the apostolic movement in their region for power, prestige, and money. Each one of us has been chosen by the LORD for our individual and corporate assignments. The Administrations of the Spirit are given by the Lord Jesus to men/women until we all come to the Unity of the Faith, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Eph. 4:7-11: Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he said, when He ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) He (Jesus Christ gave some, apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V.
I entered into the labors of The Corporate Anointing by Kelly Varner. Comments and conclusions are my own.