The word anointing carries a lot of emotional and spiritual weight, especially in the charismatic-evangelical circles I find myself in. For many, it brings to mind moments of intense worship, visible power, spiritual gifts, or a tangible sense of God’s presence. Over time, however, the term has become so overloaded that it has lost its clarity. It has become a theological suitcase into which almost everything gets packed: God’s power, his nearness, human charisma, even spiritual authority.
Scripture uses “anointing” in a much more precise way. In the Bible, anointing is not a mystical substance for personal empowerment. It is God’s way of commissioning people to participate in his covenant purposes — to heal, reconcile, proclaim, and restore. Anointing always flows from relationship. It is not a tool for self-promotion. It comes with the responsibility of being entrusted by God to participate in his restoring work.
In the Old Testament, kings were anointed, priests were anointed, and prophets were anointed. The oil was not magic. It was a visible sign that God himself was backing their calling and assignment. To be anointed meant to be set apart and appointed into God’s unfolding story.
That is why phrases like “do not touch my anointed” were never meant to protect powerful “anointed” leaders from accountability. In Scripture, they refer to God’s commitment to protect those he had chosen to carry forward his covenant purposes — the patriarchs, Israel as a people, and the prophets through whom he spoke.
Anointing and Prayer
This also helps us understand the relationship between prayer and anointing. Anointing is not something we earn because we pray more than others. It is not a reward for praying harder. The Spirit of God is given freely by grace. Yet Scripture also teaches that our lives can drift out of alignment with what the Spirit is doing.
Paul puts it this way:
“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”
(Galatians 5:25)
Prayer is how we keep in step. A prayerful life does not manufacture more Spirit, more anointing. It keeps us attentive, responsive, and obedient to the Spirit we have already received. In that sense, prayer does not produce anointing. It keeps us available to it. A prayerless life, on the other hand, may still have the Spirit, but it slowly loses sensitivity, alignment, and clarity. The gift remains, but the flow becomes restricted.
Anointing is a gift. Prayer is how we stay aligned with the gift.
The Anointing in Messiah
Under the New Covenant, the meaning of anointing becomes even deeper. John writes:
“You have been anointed by the Holy One.”
(1 John 2:20)
This is revolutionary. No longer is anointing limited to a small group of leaders. In Messiah, the entire people of God share in his anointing because Jesus is the Anointed One. That’s what the Hebrew word mashiach — transliterated to Messiah — means! The Spirit who rests on him now rests on his Body, the ekklesia.
Pentecost was not about receiving a new mystical experience. It was about God restoring Israel’s calling and extending it to the nations, forming a priestly people of all nations through whom his kingdom would be made visible in the world.
That is why older worship songs that cry out, “Anointing, fall on me,” often carry a sincere hunger. People were longing for more of God’s presence, more of his power, more of his nearness. The desire was real, even if the biblical word was sometimes being used loosely.
The solution is not to abandon the word anointing, but to restore its biblical meaning. Anointing is not something we level up in. It is God marking a people to participate in his restoring reign through Messiah.
We do not earn anointing through prayer. Prayer keeps us aligned with the Spirit and calling we have already received. And when a people live in that alignment, God’s kingdom becomes visible through them — not through hype or hierarchy, but through faithful, Spirit-led obedience that remains in step with the anointing already given.
Featured image by Luis Alberto Sánchez Terrones on Unsplash
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