The Anointing of the Spirit and the Filling

Question 4127

The difference between the anointing of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit is the difference between something the believer permanently has and something the believer must keep on receiving. The anointing is the Spirit himself, given to every believer at conversion as a settled endowment that abides, while the filling is the ongoing, renewable yieldedness to that same Spirit which can rise and fall with the believers obedience. Both are real, both are the work of one Spirit, but they answer to different aspects of the Christian life, and confusing them leads to a good deal of muddled teaching.

Behind the language of the anointing of the Spirit lies the Greek word chrisma, the same root that gives us the title Christ, the Anointed One. To understand what John means when he tells believers they have an anointing from the Holy One, we have to start with what anointing meant in the Old Testament and how it came to rest supremely on the Lord Jesus.

What anointing meant before the New Testament

In the Old Testament, oil was poured on the heads of prophets, priests and kings to set them apart for their office, and the outward oil pointed to an inward reality, the coming of the Spirit of the LORD upon the one anointed. When Samuel anointed David, the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him from that day forward (1 Samuel 16:13). The oil was the sign, the Spirit was the substance. To be anointed was to be marked out by God and equipped by his Spirit for the task he had given.

All of this came to its fullness in Jesus. He is the Christos, the Anointed One, on whom the Spirit descended at his baptism and remained. Peter sums up his ministry by saying that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and that he went about doing good (Acts 10:38). Jesus opened his public ministry by reading from Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news (Luke 4:18). The anointing that rested on prophets and kings in shadow rested on him in substance, without measure. You can read more about that in our study of whether the Holy Spirit is fully God.

The anointing of the Spirit that every believer has

When we come to the believer, the anointing of the Spirit is the Spirit himself given at conversion, the same indwelling that Scripture also describes as being sealed and as receiving the Spirit as a guarantee. John writes to ordinary Christians that they have been anointed by the Holy One and they all have knowledge, and that the anointing they received abides in them, so that they have no need that anyone should teach them, for the anointing teaches them about everything and is true (1 John 2:20 and 2:27). The point is striking. Every believer, not a special class of them, has this anointing, and it is permanent. It abides. It is not topped up or lost but rests on the believer as a fixed possession from the moment of new birth.

This places the anointing alongside the indwelling and the sealing as part of what is given once and for all at conversion. It is bound up with belonging to Christ and with being kept in the truth, which is why John appeals to it to reassure believers against the false teachers who had gone out from them. The anointing is one of the planks of the believers security, for it is God own mark of ownership resting on his people. The closely related teaching of the seal is taken up in our answer on the born, baptised, filled and sealed distinctions.

How filling is different from the anointing of the Spirit

The filling of the Spirit moves in a different register altogether. The key command is in Ephesians 5:18, be filled with the Spirit, where the Greek is a present continuous imperative, be being filled, an ongoing state rather than a single crisis. Where the anointing is permanent and given once, the filling is renewable and must be sought again and again. A believer in unconfessed sin is still anointed, still indwelt, still sealed, but he is not filled, because filling has to do with the degree of yieldedness and control, with how far the Spirit is being allowed to direct the life. The filling can be grieved and quenched and then restored through honest confession and fresh surrender.

So the two words answer two different questions. The anointing answers the question, do I belong to God and have his Spirit, and the answer for every believer is a settled yes. The filling answers the question, am I walking in the Spirit today, yielded to him and controlled by him, and the answer rises and falls. We have set out the conditions for that ongoing fullness in our study of the difference between Spirit baptism and Spirit filling, which runs along the same lines as this distinction.

Avoiding a popular confusion

Much contemporary teaching blurs these categories, speaking of the anointing as a power that can be caught, increased, transferred or lost, something that flows from one gifted person to another and can be lost through carelessness. This is a serious misreading of the New Testament use of the word. The anointing in John letter is not a transferable charge of spiritual energy but the indwelling Spirit himself, given to every believer and abiding permanently. The phrase touch not my anointed has likewise been pressed into service to shield leaders from criticism, a misuse we address in our answer on what touch not my anointed actually means.

Keeping the categories clear protects the believer in two directions. It guards the humble Christian who fears he lacks some special anointing, by assuring him that he already has the Spirit in full. And it restrains the proud claim that one believer carries a greater anointing than another, by reminding us that the anointing is the gift of God to all his children alike. The closely linked term unction, which the older translations use for this same word, is taken up in our answer on the unction of the Holy One.

What changes and what stays the same

A simple way to feel the difference is to ask what changes and what does not. The anointing does not fluctuate with the mood or the obedience of the believer, because it rests on the finished work of God in giving his Spirit to dwell within. The filling fluctuates a great deal, rising when the believer walks in step with the Spirit and falling when he grieves him through sin or neglect. A discouraged Christian on his worst day is just as anointed as on his best, for the Spirit still abides, yet on that worst day he may be far from filled. Understanding this spares the believer the despair of thinking he has lost the Spirit every time he stumbles, while keeping him honest about his daily need to be filled afresh.

The Old Testament saints knew the anointing in shadow but not in the settled fullness believers now enjoy. The Spirit came upon a David or an Elijah for their calling and could be withdrawn, which is why David prayed that God would not take his Holy Spirit from him. Under the new covenant the anointing abides, given to all and taken from none, which is one of the quiet glories of the age in which we live. What the prophets and kings received in measure and for a season, the humblest believer now receives to keep, and that change belongs to the new era that opened when the risen Lord poured out his Spirit on his people.

So, now what?

If you are a believer, take hold of the assurance that the anointing is already yours. You do not need to chase after some higher endowment or sit under a particular ministry to receive what God has already given you in Christ. The Spirit who teaches and keeps you in the truth abides in you, and that abiding will not be undone by your failures.

At the same time, do not mistake having the Spirit for walking in his fullness. The anointing is settled, but the filling must be sought daily, and a believer can possess the Spirit while grieving him through unconfessed sin. The path back to fullness is the same as it has always been, honest confession and fresh surrender, asking the Lord to fill again the vessel that belongs to him.

Rest in the permanence of the anointing, and pursue the renewal of the filling, and you will avoid both the anxiety of the one who thinks he lacks the Spirit and the complacency of the one who thinks having him is enough.

“But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you.” 1 John 2:27