The Beliefs of John Robert Stevens

John Stevens wrote that being anointed by the Holy Spirit means speaking, ministering, or functioning by the Holy Spirit. It is a revelation that goes back to the Old Testament. We read that God commanded Moses to anoint Aaron and his sons with a special anointing oil to consecrate them for the priesthood (Exodus 30:25-30). Later on God commanded Samuel to anoint David with oil to be king. In fact, David received three anointings before finally becoming king over all of Israel (I Samuel 16:13; II Samuel 2:4, 5:3). From these passages we learn that an anointing was something God commanded to set an individual apart for a priestly or a kingly office. That individual was anointed to perform that commission or office by the Spirit of God. When Samuel anointed David “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him from that day forward”. David was anointed by the Holy Spirit with the authority and the ability to be a king. In the same way, the Holy Spirit pours out an anointing on us to bring about certain abilities. Oil is still used to anoint the sick so that healing can flow to them (Mark 6:13, James 5:14), but the real ingredient of the anointing is the Holy Spirit.

When we use the name Jesus Christ we are saying that He is the Lord’s anointed (Acts 4:27). The word Christ is derived from the Greek word christos, meaning anointed. It is significant that the same anointing that was upon Christ was also seen upon the early believers (Acts 4:13). The word “anointed” refers not only to the Christ but to His believers as well. Psalm 133 speaks of the anointing oil that was poured on the head of Aaron the high priest (Exodus 29:5-7), and flowed down to the edges of his robes (Psalm 133:2). This is a mystical picture of the Body of Christ. The anointing comes first upon the Head, which is Jesus, and then flows down to us. Another Old Testament story illustrates this same principle. When Elijah was caught up, his mantle came floating down. Elisha picked it up, smote the Jordan River, and said, “Where is the God of Elijah?” (II Kings 2:14.) The mantle represented the anointing which rested upon Elijah. In the same way, the disciples picked up Christ’s mantle of anointing after He ascended (Acts 2:33). Believers were first called Christians at Antioch (Acts 11:26) because they were clothed in the same anointing that the Lord had worn (christos).

Elijah’s mantle signified a double portion (II Kings 2:9). Jesus told His disciples, after He had put His mantle of anointing on them, that they would do greater works than He had done (John 14:12). No one individual has the full ministry of Christ. He gives His attributes to all who are part of His many-membered Body. The anointing may begin with just one person, but when God gives the anointing it is eventually dispersed among all those who are raised up under that ministry. The Lord took the anointing that was on Moses and placed it on the seventy elders (Numbers 11:25). The Lord Jesus Christ took His anointing and dispersed it to the disciples on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2).

To maintain the effectiveness of our walk with God we must keep ourselves at a high level of anointing. If you are going to speak, speak as an oracle of God (I Peter 4:11). The minute you find yourself speaking without the flow of anointing, stop speaking. If you are anointed to do a work, follow the same rule. Stop as soon as you find the anointing leaving, because if you finish in the flesh you will do it at the expenditure of your own energy. Some people have lost out with God, not due to sin, but because they drove themselves beyond the anointing. They exhausted themselves spiritually, physically and mentally, with nothing to refuel them. When you become discouraged and depressed because you have worked too long and the anointing has lifted, do what John Stevens would do. Take a few hours and breathe in the blessing of the Lord. If you do this, the anointing will be fresher when you begin to minister again.

We need the anointing in order to effectively minister the Word of God to others. Merely quoting a Scripture is quite different than speaking that Scripture with the same anointing that was on the one who wrote it. When the anointing of the Holy Spirit takes the Word off of a cold printed page and places it in your heart like a burning fire, then you can speak a Word from God. In this day a preacher can preach a thousand sermons to get one convert, but the apostle Peter preached one sermon under the anointing of God and thousands were saved (Acts 2:41).

Today a remnant is contending once again for that divine anointing of utterance. This has been visualized in the past, but no one has yet reached the place where the Word of God is spoken in all boldness….We must contend for a new level of prophecy, a new level of services, a new level where everything is anointed by the Holy Spirit. The human element is to be removed as the pure flow of God comes through human channels who bring His Word. This is the vision and the objective before God’s remnant in the coming days.¹