DEAD FLIES IN THE OINTMENT

Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly in him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour (Eccl. 10:1).

In his play Hamlet, Shakespeare has the character Marcellus say: “Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark”. And the same can be said of much of Christendom today. Accordingly, this article sets out to tackle the “elephant in the room”, that is, the cause of deception in so many churches.

You see, there is a stink in much organised religion. It is the reek of a so-called “anointing” and the rituals used to perform it which, while temporarily producing an emotional “buzz”, actually bring about no sudden healings or miracles nor open the door to saving Bible truth.

It is the sad aroma of unmet expectations preached up by ministers convinced their “anointing” is the answer to people’s needs. When it clearly proves otherwise, the unhealed, unrelieved prayer recipient is often told: “The failure is because of your lack of faith”.

It is estimated that billions of people are caught up in procedures that supposedly release this anointing on those seeking prayer for ailments or difficulties. Indeed, churches I know purport to minister little else. From the huge mainline denominations down to small, informal gatherings of Christians, the “anointing” is seen, falsely in my view, to be where the power is.

Thus the unwelcome truth is that there are dead flies in this “ointment”. Those with a spiritually discerning nose detect unmet expectations, unanswered prayers.  Fact is the “anointing” is an extremely brief emotional feeling that rapidly evaporates on leaving the church car park on Sunday. Certainly, it’s long gone by Monday.

This is not to say there is not a genuine anointing from God such as that experienced in Spirit-led revivals. There is the real anointing the Spirit of Christ bestows on believers seeking understanding from Scripture and the wonderful reality of the Spirit of Christ dwelling within and guiding throughout our lives.  

I’m writing this as a believer who for much of my Christian life was addicted to seeking the “anointing”. For years I believed the professing, organised church’s decline and nosedive into apostasy would be halted by a manifest experience of this spiritual power. As a former Pentecostal pastor I knew that any tangible phenomenon that could be attributed to the Spirit of God would attract people like bees to a honey pot.

However, despite learning long ago that real spiritual power is found only in the word of God preserved accurately in the King James Bible and that to experience it one should pray, study and learn to “rightly divide” the scriptures (2 Tim. 2:15) comparing “spiritual with spiritual” (1 Cor. 2:13) - that is scripture with scripture - I succumbed to seeking healing from the “anointing” when my wife suffered a stroke.

In the upshot she remained unhealed. Nevertheless I still hankered after the power of the anointing; I wanted to see it win people to the Lord. But that too proved to be a delusion. Nor did any such emanation seem to produce a righteous change for the better in those experiencing it.

Finally, at a friend’s suggestion, I sought an “impartation” of the anointing from a pastor considered the best practitioner of the art in the land. In a special meeting hailed as “Holy Ghost Night” I was knocked to the floor not once but several times by a gentle but invisible force.

Yes. I had the anointing. This was proved when as leaving the auditorium I paused to help a woman bowed over with un-healed back trouble as she struggled to get up from the floor. As fast as I tried to pull her up the “anointing” power flowed through me to push her down again. But, as I wrote earlier, by the time I got home it was long gone.

So, is there a real anointing from God? Yes, but it’s not brought about by long singing of choruses, praying in tongues, or exercising spiritual gifts supposedly tucked away in a minister’s back pocket. The fact that quoting of scripture is rarely involved in such supposed “power encounters” is a dead give-away. The real anointing comes when God’s truth (from the King James Bible in my view) is proclaimed and blesses those who hear it. Psalm 138:2 explains “…I will praise thy name for thy loving-kindness and for thy TRUTH, for thou hast magnified thy WORD above all thy name”.

As the Apostle Paul told both Jews and God-fearing Gentiles in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia “Unto you is the WORD of this salvation sent” (Acts 13:26). Note that it was the WORD that was sent not some mystical anointing without scriptural meaning.

And in Psalm 138:2 David writes:

I will worship toward thy holy temple (which is in heaven, of course) and praise thy name for thy loving kindness (i.e. grace) and for thy TRUTH, for Thou hast magnified thy WORD above all thy NAME.

Notably it is “in the name of Jesus” that those who claim to have or be able to produce the “anointing” minister their “power”. It is not usually in the “word”, unless by that is meant a prophetic utterance that, contrary to “sound doctrine” (1 Tim.  1:10), is not according to or based on scripture but a feeling produced by “the anointing”. Thus Isaiah 8:19-20 insists:

To the law (i.e. the written WORD) and the testimony (again a written record); if they speak not according to this WORD, it is because there is no light in them.

In the previous verse (19), the prophet unveils what he sees as the source of the false “anointing” and its unbiblical prophetic utterances:

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the dead?

Recently, I stopped attending a certain church’s Sunday service for two reasons. 1. I am now so deaf (even with hearing aids) I cannot hear what is being said or sung. And no amount of praying or application of the supposed “anointing” has alleviated it.  2. Because I was advised it didn’t matter if I couldn’t hear what the pastor was preaching, I could just experience “the presence of the Lord in the anointing”.

But at the end of the day it is the WORD that matters most. Warm fuzzies may give a temporary buzz but it’s faith in the rock-solid word of God that actually saves, cleanses and preserves believers unto their heavenly destiny. And “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).

John Dudley Aldworth

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com

For more challenging truth visit the website “Day of Christ Ministries”.