THE ANOINTING SPIRIT OF GOD

1 Samuel 16:12&13 “[David] was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, ‘Rise and anoint him; he is the one.’ So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.”

Such an anointing of a king or a priest with oil at his coronation or consecration is a feature of the Old Testament. It was the ritualization of a common practice, like a meal is transformed into the Lord’s Supper, and a bath into baptism. People in the baking heat of the Middle East regularly anointed their skin with perfumed oil. Even David Livingstone, one hundred and fifty years ago, while mapping the African continent protected himself each day with skin oils. That practice is something we are very familiar with today. In Jesus’ time, throughout the countries of the Mediterranean basin, when a guest visited your home one of your servants would wash his feet and anoint his face with fragrant oil. We are familiar with the phrase in Psalm 23, “Thou anointest my head with oil.” When the good Samaritan discovered the half dead man he bandaged his wounds and poured on oil and wine. So oil had these cosmetic and medicinal purposes. Yet it is not those functions that we are interested in because God took the anointing with oil and gave it an important symbolic function

1. THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF THE SACRED ANOINTING IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

There were a number of levels to this activity;

i] The anointing set apart the anointed one. The first example of anointing in the Bible is quite unusual, and nicely illustrates this practice. The patriarch Jacob was asleep in the Bethel countryside, with a stone as a pillow; “He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, and he said: ‘I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying’” (Gen. 28:12&13). It was an unforgettably vivid dream, and we are told that “When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.’ Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel” (Gen. 28:16-19).

There were many stones in that place, and this one stone in its composition was no different from any of the others. Even its shape would have been similar to many others, and yet Jacob had slept with his head on that particular stone. There he had had that dream of the stairway to heaven. There he had been given the mighty promise of God. So Jacob set that stone apart from others, by lifting it up and standing it on end, and anointing the stone with oil. Henceforth it was to be a special stone. It marked for ever the place where God had had personal dealings with Jacob.

That was one of the functions of the sacred anointing. You will remember how the prophet Samuel had been told that one of the sons of Jesse was going to be set apart by God to be the king of Israel. The Lord had said to Samuel, “I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king” (I Sam. 16:1). But which one was the anointed king of the Lord? Jesse had many sons, and the first one Samuel met was Eliab and the prophet initially judged as he looked at this tall, mature, well educated, battle-ready man, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD” (I Sam. 16:6). But God intimated to Samuel immediately that Eliab was not the Lord’s anointed, saying; “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (I Sam. 16:7). Then Shammah the next son came up to Samuel, but the prophet shook his head at him at this choice also. Then all the other sons we asked to be inspected by Samuel but the future king was none of those seven sons of Jesse. “Samuel said to him, ‘The LORD has not chosen these.’ So he asked Jesse, ‘Are these all the sons you have?’ ‘There is still the youngest,’ Jesse answered, ‘but he is tending the sheep.’ Samuel said, ‘Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.’ So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, ‘Rise and anoint him; he is the one.’ So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power” (I Sam. 16:10-13). This plain teenage shepherd was officially set apart from all his seven brothers by that sacred anointing. None of the others was to be the king of Israel but David alone. He was the anointed one. He did not appoint himself, nor did he anoint himself. He had no authority for that. God chose David and set him apart, and he did so through his chosen instrument, the prophet Samuel, and the symbol which God instituted, the oil poured onto his head. David was henceforth set apart for his life’s work. The anointing of being born of the Spirit sets each one of us apart so that we must say, “For me to live is Christ.”

ii] The anointing with oil was a symbol of the Holy Spirit. No one is going to cry, “The oil! That’s the secret! It’s all in the oil! You’ve got to have the anointing with oil if you are going to be used by God.” No one is going to claim that it was the trickle of oil running down a man’s hair and forehead that made the difference. The oil was a symbol, and that was understood in the Old Testament, but a sign of what? It was a symbol of the spiritual gift of rule and wisdom and kingly authority that had come upon David then. As really as the oil had come upon his body so at that moment the Holy Spirit transformed David’s inner man. This reality is commented upon in verse thirteen; “from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.” As Walt Chantry comments, “At that hour, the youngest son of Jesse’s family entered a new phase of development for his inner life. For the most part, David would keep in step with the Spirit. At every single moment of his life he wouldn’t be conscious of the Spirit stirring within him, but there would be times when he would be profoundly self-conscious that he was unlike any other man, because he was full of the Spirit. He would grow to cherish the inward operations of the Spirit. After his fall into adultery and murder, he would give this anguished cry, ‘Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me (Psa. 51:11).”

iii] The anointing with oil was the sign that a king needed spiritual gifts of leadership. Because his father might have been a good king with gifts of leadership it didn’t mean, merely by being his son, he too had the spiritual gift of godly rule. When God determined that his people would now become a kingdom and not an alliance of tribes, then God’s love would provide the necessary gifts for this leadership. The Spirit would come to give the gift of rule to the anointed king. When David ruled the nation believers in the land spoke to one another and thanked God that they had the privilege of serving ‘an anointed king.’ They wouldn’t have been referring to the prescribed oil and the right amount having been used at his enthronement, or that the proper official had used the correct formula when officiating at the coronation. Their thankfulness that they lived under the leadership of an ‘anointed king’ referred to the kind of God-honouring life that characterized David early decades. They weren’t talking about David’s status and privileges. They were referring to the tasks that David faithfully performed. No one could doubt that he had been chosen and anointed by God to do the righteous work the Lord wanted him to do, and how king David tirelessly laboured at his calling! He was the best king there’d ever been! He was being constantly enabled to serve God and the people by the inward energizing of God’s Spirit. “Bless God for an anointed king!” they cried.

They could sing Psalm 72 about him in their worship and these are the words they employed, “He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice . . . He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy” (vv. 2-4) Then they’d sing, “For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no-one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight. Long may he live! May gold from Sheba be given to him. May people ever pray for him and bless him all day long” (vv. 12-15). That doxology came from a joyful congregation, and their rejoicing came from being governed by anointed king David, one who cared for his subjects.

How different it was in Jeremiah’s day. He served a king who had been anointed with oil but had not had the Spirit of God come upon him, because he showed no fruit or gifts of the Spirit in leading the people. Jeremiah could boldly addresses the king and remind him to do the duties of a king, “Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, you who sit on David's throne - you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place” (Jer. 22:2&3). Those are the marks of a king who’s been anointed with more than mere oil. A genuine spiritual anointing produces genuine spiritual fruit.

Then there was the curious case of king Cyrus the king of Persia who conquered Babylon and reversed the policy of seventy years allowing the captive peoples to return to their native lands. He was anointed with the Spirit by God to become a conqueror and wise leader, but he was not regenerated. He had the gift of the Spirit but not the regenerating Spirit – like the people Jesus will say “Depart from me” on the day of judgment who clearly had the gifts of miracles and prophesying. Isaiah speaks of God saying these words about Cyrus, the king of Persia, “He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.’ This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of . . .” (Isa. 44:28-45:1). Cyrus, the king of Persia wasn’t even aware that he had been anointed by Jehovah to shepherd God’s people and send them home. Cyrus didn’t know that the Lord was taking hold of his right hand and leading him to do his will, and yet Cyrus accomplished God’s purpose in history. He was an anointed ruler, not because of any high experience of God he had had but because he did what God required. He had the anointing of Spiritual leadership - though he was not a real believer. Spiritual gifts are not a mark of regeneration. I can speak with the tongues of men and angels but without love I am a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal.

Then you have king Josiah who clearly had the anointing of the Spirit upon him, and had had been anointed with oil, but there is no actual mention of the Spirit of God upon him. Yet when you see his life there is no explanation of what he did other than the Spirit of God was working through him. You remember how king Josiah heard the words of the Book of the Law being read out. It had been rediscovered in the temple. The words made him tear his robes. He sent his servants to inquire of the Lord – “What should we do Lord?” - and then he instituted a pervasive reformation in the land. Idols were destroyed and Jehovah was uniquely honoured once again. Where did such courage and determination originate in this young king? It was that Josiah had been anointed by the Lord to be the reforming King and to call the people of God back to the Lord. He was 28 years of age when he began that mighty work. Only by the Spirit of God could he have done so much, and yet the anointing by the Spirit isn’t mentioned. The Spirit was there in Josiah’s life, though the event is not recorded in Scripture. The fruit of the anointing Spirit was seen in the actions of the king. That is what we look for.

Then we know that Saul was anointed. You can read about it in I Samuel chapter ten: “Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul's head and kissed him, saying, ‘Has not the LORD anointed you leader over his inheritance?’” (v.1) “. . . The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person . . .” (v.6) “When they arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in their prophesying . . .”

There was the anointing in sign; the flask of oil was unscrewed and poured over Saul’s head. Then there was the anointing in reality; the Spirit of the Lord come upon him with power and this affected Saul deeply; it authorized him for his ministry. However, the spiritual gift that he received at his anointing did not guarantee his success as a leader; it didn’t keep Saul faithful; it didn’t sanctify him morally in some special way; it didn’t result in his long-term effectiveness. Saul became foolish, depressed, jealous and finally self-destructive – even though he had been anointed with the Spirit. We are told in I Samuel 16:14, “The Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul.” An experience of the Spirit is no guarantee of our perseverance in a spiritual life.

So something better than these temporary anointings with the Spirit are needed. What we read in the Old Testament is a sad story. Most of the kings of Israel in those shadowy times were total failures, many were like Saul rather than David. They didn’t do what God told them to do. They lacked the anointing of the Spirit sustaining them through their reigns, even David grieved the Spirit he had. They’d all had an anointing with oil. They’d all had the right formula installing them in the kingly office by the correct officials, but most of them did evil in the eyes of the Lord. That is the great refrain in the Old Testament. So what would lie in the future for the people of God? If it were like Israel’s past it would be disastrous.

2. A PROMISED RULER WAS COMING WHO WOULD ONE DAY RECEIVE THE SACRED ANOINTING IN AN UNUSAL MEASURE.

The coming of the anointed one becomes the vital hope of the people of God and it was formulated in particular by the prophet Isaiah. The nation was taught, “Our kings have almost always let us down, but God in the last days will send us a glorious ruler who will never let us down. The Messiah, that is, the anointed one, is coming.” So at the heart of the Old Testament there are three great prophecies about the coming ruler who will be uniquely and definitively anointed with the Spirit.

i] Isaiah 11:1-5 “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD - and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash round his waist.”

He’s coming! And he is from the stump of Jesse, David’s father! He’ll be great David’s greater son. He’ll be the Branch from the roots of David, and the Spirit of the Lord won’t simply give him a great boost at the beginning of his life. He will permanently rest on Christ for ever and ever. He’ll be absolutely straight always, and he will deal with all his subjects righteously. Again, there is the second great prophecy of the anointed one;

ii] Isaiah 42:1-7 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope. This is what God the LORD says - he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

When you read the first book in the New Testament, the gospel written by Matthew, he quotes these very words of Isaiah and he tells us that they have been fulfilled in the appearance and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:17-21). Then there is a third reference to the Spirit of God coming upon God’s anointed Servant. It is given to us in the first person, in other words, the Messiah is himself speaking.

iii] Isaiah 61:1-3 “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

Do you remember where Jesus quoted these very words? It was in the town where he had lived for thirty years, and in the Nazareth synagogue where every Sabbath he and his family had worshipped Jehovah. Jesus stood up to read this passage, then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. Everyone gazed at him and then he said to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk. 4:21). He couldn’t have made a clearer claim to be the promised Messiah – you know that the word ‘Messiah’ is the Hebrew word for ‘anointed one’ and that the word ‘Christ’ is the Greek word for ‘anointed one.’ Jesus was saying, “I am that Spirit-anointed one of whom Isaiah wrote.”

But Nazareth synagogue was not the only place Jesus quoted from those words. When John the Baptist was incarcerated, he sent messengers to Jesus asking if he were the one who should come or were they to start looking for another. Jesus again quoted these words of Isaiah to the disciples of John, “the good news is preached to the poor,” telling them, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see” (Matt. 11:4). The word had been fulfilled. “Don’t you see that what has been prophesied about the anointed one coming is now being fulfilled? The poor are having the gospel preached to them by me? There is no need to look for another Jesus.” So we are saying to you that all those acts of anointing kings with oil in the Old Testament were symbols and shadows, and they are saying to the people who took part and observed them, “Wait until you see the glorious reality represented by these types, when the Messiah, the Anointed One himself, appears. He will be truly anointed when the Holy Spirit will come on him without measure.” As we read those prophecies of Isaiah about the Spirit coming upon Christ and Christ bestowing the Spirit then we understand more of the Lord Jesus and love him more warmly.

3. IT WAS AT HIS BAPTISM THAT CHRIST RECEIVED THE ANOINTING.

Christ’s own anointing by the Spirit took place at his baptism. The scene is described in the first three gospels; Matthew tells us, “As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:16&17). Now we know that the Lord Jesus was begotten by the Holy Ghost. He was overshadowed by the Spirit. His birth was from above, and he was filled with the Spirit from that time. There was no area of his life which was a no-go area to the Spirit. You say, “But if he were full of the Spirit then what is the significance of the coming of the Spirit upon him now?” That can be answered in a number of ways:

The Spirit’s coming in the form of a dove signifies the certainty of the new creation that Jesus is to bring in. After God had immersed the earth with the flood of his judgment at the time of Noah, those alone who had entered in the ark were saved. When would the judgment on the earth end? Many months went by, eight, nine, ten, until finally Noah opened the window of the ark and sent out a dove twice, and the second time the dove returned it was with a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak. Noah knew that the waters had abated, and the full judgment of the Lord on that generation had been exhausted. Jehovah’s anger had been wholly propitiated by the flood. So when Jesus emerged from the waters of the Jordan the Spirit, in the form of a dove, appeared and settled on him. It affirmed that God’s new creation was going to be inaugurated and that it was going to be through the work of Christ. “This cosmic work will be completed that I have begun,” God was saying. Christ will bring forth justice to the nations, but he will not use his omnipotence to break a bruised reed or to quench a smouldering wick. He will be tender with the weak and limping. He will be dove-like not hawk-like. The anointing Holy Spirit came to bear witness to the significance of Jesus. This is his whole mission. “He shall testify of me,” Jesus was to say, and here the Spirit did it by coming down on Jesus and remaining on Jesus. The Spirit found no sin there to grieve him or drive him away. Throughout Jesus’ ministry as prophet, priest and king the Spirit was there.

Again, the Holy Spirit came to anoint Jesus at the beginning of his ministry. Immediately Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Then the Lord sets to and works day and night for three years. The demands on him for teaching and healing and saving are enormous. He can become so weary that he’ll fall asleep on a cushion in a little boat in a storm. He will be exhausted, and yet he has to get up in the night to pray. In the Jordan, in all the frailty of his human flesh, he is baptized and the man Christ Jesus needs a fresh and greater endowment of the Spirit. He comes without measure upon Jesus. He is one day to pour out the Spirit upon all the church so he must receive unmeasured possession of the Spirit. Isn’t the need of the church today that the Spirit of God be outpoured upon God’s servants for their ministries? What a dismal future would lie before us if I said to you, “Well, we have the Spirit in all his fulness, and there is no theological or biblical reason to ask for him to be outpoured upon us again. Let us simply plod on and be faithful.” What disheartening counsels!

I believe that Christ outpours the Spirit in abundance on the church and that there are times when he transforms lukewarm preachers and congregations making them burning and shining lights, and so he revives his work. I believe it is possible for a man to go to bed like a lamb and get up like a lion, and for extraordinary things to be achieved in the name of Christ in a single day, with many coming under great conviction of sin and thousands being converted. I was speaking this week to an old friend in County Tipperary in Ireland. This pastor has laboured for twenty years to a small town congregation usually numbering in their twenties, but this year they have had unusual and inexplicable growth. Every seat is now taken; there are ninety people in the congregation. I asked him if he had done anything different. Nothing at all. He cannot put his finger on any experience or new truths he has been preaching, No. “I just close my eyes in the pulpit as I sit and pray at the beginning, and when I open them the church is full.” Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon us and upon God’s servants, upon me, in this same way, as the Spirit came upon Christ at the beginning of the most extraordinary three years this world has ever seen.

4. IT IS THE EXALTED CHRIST WHO NOW GIVES THE SACRED ANOINTING.

What was the day of Pentecost? It was the day on which the exalted Messiah anointed the whole Church with his Spirit. They were all filled with the Spirit, and when Peter gave to the wondering crowds the explanation of all they were seeing and hearing he pointed to the Lord Jesus. They would never understand the birth and extraordinary growth of the church and the conversion of thousands of lost and guilty men and women without considering the Messiah. Where is he now, Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified in shame and weakness? “Exalted to the right hand of God” (Acts 2:33). He is not there with Jacob and the patriarchs; he is higher up. He is not there with Samuel and the prophets; he is higher up. He is not there with the martyrs; he is higher up. He is not there among the four and twenty elders; he is higher up. He is not there with the four living beings that surround the throne; he is higher up. He is not there with Michael and Gabriel the arch-angels; he is higher up. He is at the right hand of God; he is in the very midst of the throne of God, a throne never to be called ‘the throne of God and the prophets’, or ‘the throne of God and the martyrs,’ or ‘the throne of God and the angels.’ It will evermore be called the throne of God and the Lamb, and there you will find the anointing one sitting.

Peter further says“he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). It is no longer old frail Samuel, unscrewing his horn of oil and pouring it on the head of one young man. It is no longer appropriate for us to continue living in those shadowlands but for the reality that those shadows anticipated. The reality is this, that the Father so loves his Son that he has given him all authority in heaven and earth. He will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Furthermore, God has given into the hands of the Lord Christ the privilege of anointing his people with the Spirit himself. Pentecost was the first definitive time that the Spirit was poured out by the man Christ Jesus from the midst of the throne of God, and from that time onwards he has not ceased to do this. In giving them the birth from above by the Spirit, and in the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit Christ is anointing men with his Spirit, and not now on kings and prophets does the anointing take place but on every single Christian, both young and old, man-servants and maid-servants, all those who are saved and washed, sanctified and justified. Paul Addresses the entire congregation in Corinth and stand in solidarity with them all and says of Christ, “He anointed us” (2 Cors. 1:21). John writes to all his hearers, not to an elite group of super-Christians in different congregations, but to them all and he says, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One . . .” (I Jn. 2:20) “the anointing you received from him remains in you” (I Jn. 2:27). Unlike Saul’s which did not remain. ‘his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit – just as it has taught you, remain in him” (I Jn. 2:27). There were those anointing the people on the day of judgment were putting all their confidence in – the anointing to work miracles and prophesy, but Jesus will say they were counterfeit. That was not the case for these ordinary believers reading John’s letter.

Thank the Lord that under the new covenant in Jesus blood all his people have been anointed with the Spirit. Paul stands in solidarity with the whole church as he tells Titus of the anointing Lord; “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Tit. 3:5&6). All the signs and symbols of the pouring out of oil in the Old Testament were pointing to Christ anointing all the people of with his Spirit in the last days.

This is always our greatest comfort, that Jesus Christ is so high up, he is in the midst of the throne of God, and because he has been lifted so high he will draw by his Spirit all men unto himself. The church is often very low, and the saddest part is that she doesn’t recognize how low she is, but the highest place in heaven is Christ’s by sovereign right, and from there he is pouring out the Spirit upon his people with no power in earth or hell able to resist him. O blessed irresistible grace! That should be all our comfort today, and as I have sought to exalt Christ, that should be all our comfort from this sermon, even though I haven’t mentioned your problem.

You know the story of a Christian farmer who kept a few pigs on his small farm; that was all he had; he was very poor. One Sunday morning before he came to church he discovered all his pigs had picked up some disease and were dead. He was destitute; they were all his livelihood. He went off to church and that Sunday morning the minister preached an excellent sermon and the people truly appreciated it. They said to one another, “Wasn’t that helpful?” Someone said to him, “Wasn’t that good?” Do you know what he said? “I wish he’d said a few words about my pigs.” You know what he meant. I don’t know what your problem is today, my message is directly relevant to you. Remember that Jesus Christ your Saviour is in the midst of the throne of God, and he knows all about us, and he anoints us daily with his Spirit so that through him we can do all things. We can handle any problem; we can carry any burden; we can overcome any trial; we can climb any mountain. We can do all things through Christ who anoints us with his Spirit, and that is our only comfort in life and death.        

8th June 2008  GEOFF THOMAS