Anointing and Impartation - Part 1
March 24, 2010
Anointing and Impartation: Ministering His Substance
By Bobby Conner
March 19, 2010
Part 1
“For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established.” Romans 1:11
The apostle Paul’s deepest longing was not just to see his fellow believers, but to see them in order to give them a gift. As an apostle, his heart’s motivation was not merely to teach, plant churches, work miracles or establish apostolic order—but to give all that he had to give, to impart what God has bestowed upon him, to lavish spiritual gifts generously upon others, that they “may be established.”
Imparting to the saints must be the heart’s passion of all believers. The longing to impart is God’s heart: He longs to pour Himself into His family, to equip believers to prepare them for relationship with Him as well as the work of service (Ephesians 4:11-12). All grace and enabling comes only from Christ and for Christ, so we should delight in being an instrument to help others advance in their call, not ours. The Lord calls us to aide others first—not our own ministries first—to go higher in relationship with the Lord. We must never, never forget this fundamental tenet of the faith: freely we have received, freely we must give (Matthew 10:8). Our goal is the establishing of the King in His kingdom, helping others discover their God given destiny and prepare them to better function in their high and heavenly calling (Ephesians 1:18).
This Greek word translated impart, metadid?mi, is comprised of two smaller Greek words, meta and did?mi. Meta means with as to walk with someone, an ally. Did?mi is an extravagant word that means more than simply giving. The Greek suggests profusion and abundance—a complete “giving over” to another’s care and trust. Did?mi suggests, “to give forth fully from oneself.” To impart, then, or metadid?mi, means to give with profusion from the depths of oneself. This “giving over” is the same word used to describe how the sea “gives over” that which is hidden beneath. From the depths of God Spirit, through our spirit, impartation comes forth.
As marvelous as this impartation sounds, there is a catch: we cannot give what we do not have! If we are to impart, we first must have something to release. To be able to impart, one first has to be anointed with the substance to impart. These two spiritual realities of impartation and anointing are different, but they relate and work together as the Spirit leads. How does this happen?
Here is a marvelous truth of the Kingdom of God: when we preach, teach or minister in Love, in the Spirit of God, we impart the substance of Christ, not simply information about Him.
Jesus affirmed the prophetic promise of Isaiah 61:1-5:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor….” Luke 4:18
For us to be anointed means that a divine enabling rests upon us. What is this enabling? This anointing is no less than Christ Himself: the Greek word translated anoint is the same word from which we derive the name Christ, chri?! What does it mean to have chri? or to be anointed? It means to carry the Christ, the Anointed One! This same anointing consecrated our King for His Messianic office and gave Him the power to administer His Kingdom. This is the anointing we host—the Lord Jesus Christ resting upon us and in us, the Person of the Holy Spirit Himself. To be anointed is to be smeared and filled with Christ. In the Hebrew, anoint or mashach means to smear a liquid or to consecrate. In other words, as believers in Christ Jesus, we are consecrated as holy priests to minister in His name, anointed by Him and with Him. He is the anointing!
Where does true anointing and power come from? The Spirit of God! We do not minister out of fine-tuned, educated human ability—but Holy Spirit anointing, that we then impart.
Here is the Lord’s essential, urgent message to the Church: we must learn to live and work in and through Him, the Anointed One—not by our own will and strength.
We must learn to impart Christ, the anointing—not our own ideas and agendas.
Many of us have had this experience of hearing someone preach or teach: their words were true and accurate, even witty and insightful, but we couldn’t encounter the words spoken within the depths of our heart. Their message might have been exciting to hear and ponder, even study and debate—but our heart was unmoved. The experience was similar to reading a textbook, attending a lecture or following driving directions. We may have arrived at a destination in terms of a logical argument or colorful story…but in reality we remained seated on our chair, unchanged, encouraged at best; at worst, puffed up by religious knowledge about God.
Why does this happen? The speaker’s words were not being carried by the breath of God’s Spirit, but by their own soul and good intentions—or their pride and ambition. Their words were not anointed with the very substance of Christ. They might have been speaking “with the tongue of men and angels,” but the Spirit of Love was not present. They were merely “clanging brass and tinkling cymbals” (I Corinthians 13:1). This type of ministry profits nothing. Jesus reminds us that without Him we accomplish nothing (John 15:5).
Many of us may have had a different experience of hearing someone preach or teach: perhaps their words were not polished; perhaps they lost track of their notes; perhaps they stuttered and even contradicted themselves! Maybe they only read one Scripture or gave one illustration or prayed one simple prayer. They may have been unlearned, awkward or inexperienced—but we were stirred to the very core of our being. Our heart burned as if Christ Himself were sharing, standing in front of us. And indeed—He was! Love spoke…and new worlds within us were created. The Lord chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27)!
This is the difference between ministering through Christ’s anointing and speaking out of one’s own abilities and natural training.
Having understood and learned to receive His anointing, we can now understand what true impartation is. The ability to impart includes—but goes beyond—our being anointed. If we have this God given gift of impartation, whatever we say or do under an anointing will deeply affect those who are hearing. The very substance of Christ will be imparted into the spirit of those who are responsive.
“I love them that love Me; and those that seek Me early shall find Me. That I may cause those that love Me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.” Proverbs 8:17, 21
God longs to give us spiritual treasure. This treasure He gives us is priceless, worth everything we are and possess. We will have nothing worth sharing with those who hear us if we do not receive this treasure first and learn to abide in the treasure—Christ Himself—received as fresh bread on a daily basis. What does the Lord mean in this proverb, when He promises to “fill their treasures”? Our “treasures being filled” can be understood as a branch receiving an impartation through the life of the vine. We must be saturated with the very presence of Christ, so that out of our life flows this river of life.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in Me, …and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5
