Growing in the Anointing

What is the anointing?
Perhaps a more pertinent question is this, "Who is the Anointing?"
436 The word “Christ” comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which means “anointed.” It became the name proper to Jesus only because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission that “Christ” signifies. In effect, in Israel those consecrated to God for a mission that He gave, were anointed in His name. This was the case for kings, for priests and, in rare instances, for prophets. This had to be the case all the more so for the Messiah whom God would send to inaugurate his kingdom definitively. It was necessary that the Messiah be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord at once as king and priest, and also as prophet. Jesus fulfilled the messianic hope of Israel in his threefold office of priest, prophet, and king.
(Catechism of the Catholic Church 690, 695, 711-716, 783)
At your baptism you were marked with oil as a sign that you are consecrated to God and anointed by the Holy Spirit. Your anointing also was a sign that you are joined to Christ and share in his threefold mission as prophet, priest, and king.
As baptized, we are priests. We are prophets. We are royalty.
According to Luke, at the outset of his public ministry, Jesus read from Isaiah and stated that the words referred to him:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
Luke 4:18
A prophet is a messenger sent by God, a person who speaks for God. He or she witnesses to God, calls people to conversion, and may also glimpse the future. Prophets are often not appreciated for their message. Lumen Gentium explains that as prophets we are to announce Jesus Christ by life and word and also by being witnesses to “life springing forth from faith (LG 35) .
A priest is a mediator, or bridge, between God and human beings. Lumen Gentium explains that by our priestly duty we are called to “consecrate the world itself to God” (LG 34) through our works, prayers, activities, and daily responsibilities.
A king is a person who has supreme authority over a territory. Lumen Gentium explains that as His disciples we are named as His kings so that we too “might be constituted in royal freedom and that by true penance and a holy life [we] might conquer the reign of sin in [ourselves].” Click here to read the full Lumen Gentium document.
Perhaps a more pertinent question is this, "Who is the Anointing?"
436 The word “Christ” comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which means “anointed.” It became the name proper to Jesus only because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission that “Christ” signifies. In effect, in Israel those consecrated to God for a mission that He gave, were anointed in His name. This was the case for kings, for priests and, in rare instances, for prophets. This had to be the case all the more so for the Messiah whom God would send to inaugurate his kingdom definitively. It was necessary that the Messiah be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord at once as king and priest, and also as prophet. Jesus fulfilled the messianic hope of Israel in his threefold office of priest, prophet, and king.
(Catechism of the Catholic Church 690, 695, 711-716, 783)
At your baptism you were marked with oil as a sign that you are consecrated to God and anointed by the Holy Spirit. Your anointing also was a sign that you are joined to Christ and share in his threefold mission as prophet, priest, and king.
As baptized, we are priests. We are prophets. We are royalty.
According to Luke, at the outset of his public ministry, Jesus read from Isaiah and stated that the words referred to him:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
Luke 4:18
A prophet is a messenger sent by God, a person who speaks for God. He or she witnesses to God, calls people to conversion, and may also glimpse the future. Prophets are often not appreciated for their message. Lumen Gentium explains that as prophets we are to announce Jesus Christ by life and word and also by being witnesses to “life springing forth from faith (LG 35) .
A priest is a mediator, or bridge, between God and human beings. Lumen Gentium explains that by our priestly duty we are called to “consecrate the world itself to God” (LG 34) through our works, prayers, activities, and daily responsibilities.
A king is a person who has supreme authority over a territory. Lumen Gentium explains that as His disciples we are named as His kings so that we too “might be constituted in royal freedom and that by true penance and a holy life [we] might conquer the reign of sin in [ourselves].” Click here to read the full Lumen Gentium document.
O.K., I get it. I'm anointed Priest, Prophet, and King - but for what?

At Baptism, you were consecrated and anointed for a mission that God engraved on your heart. We are all called to advance the Kingdom of God, some as missionaries, some as pastors, some as spouses, some as consecrated single individuals and some in the single life. There are many calls God makes upon hearts.
The greatest call upon our hearts is to seek relationship with God. Jesus pointed that out in the Beatitudes.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst to be in right standing (righteousness) with God, for they shall be filled."
That is the key to growing in the anointing!
Hunger for God
God is a generous God. He always has more for us. He wants us to seek Him. He wants us to ask Him.
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8
And in Revelations 3:20-21
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, [then] I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne."
Who wouldn't want to sit with Jesus on His throne?
Who wouldn't want to be the victor over the reign of sin?
The greatest call upon our hearts is to seek relationship with God. Jesus pointed that out in the Beatitudes.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst to be in right standing (righteousness) with God, for they shall be filled."
That is the key to growing in the anointing!
Hunger for God
God is a generous God. He always has more for us. He wants us to seek Him. He wants us to ask Him.
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8
And in Revelations 3:20-21
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, [then] I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne."
Who wouldn't want to sit with Jesus on His throne?
Who wouldn't want to be the victor over the reign of sin?
To hear the song of a soul that hungers for God, click here.
God Shaped Hole

Saint Augustine is often quoted from his Confessions as saying, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you."
Our hearts are hungry for God. The philosopher Pascal explained it this way, "What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there, the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself." And, "What place is there in me to which my God can come, what place that can receive the God who made heaven and earth? Does this mean, O Lord my God, that there is in me something fit to contain you? ... Or, since nothing that exists could exist without you, does this mean that whatever exists does, in this sense, contain you? If this is so, since I too exist, why do I ask you to come into me? For I should not be there at all unless, in this way, you were already present within me."
That's a pretty heady way of saying, we have a God-shaped hole in our hearts and nothing but the Anointed Savior can fill it. Filling it with anything other than Jesus will not satisfy our hungry hearts. The Anointing, He satisfies. To seek without for what lies within us is like seeking a treasure you are sitting on. You have the Anointing. You are Anointed. Growing in that anointing means growing in relationship, sitting on the throne with the Father, becoming Jesus to a hurting world.
Prayer, study of Scripture, fellowship with others seeking to know God, worshipping regularly and often, not just in church, and being the Heart of God to others will move you into realms of the Holy Spirit you can only imagine.
Our hearts are hungry for God. The philosopher Pascal explained it this way, "What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there, the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself." And, "What place is there in me to which my God can come, what place that can receive the God who made heaven and earth? Does this mean, O Lord my God, that there is in me something fit to contain you? ... Or, since nothing that exists could exist without you, does this mean that whatever exists does, in this sense, contain you? If this is so, since I too exist, why do I ask you to come into me? For I should not be there at all unless, in this way, you were already present within me."
That's a pretty heady way of saying, we have a God-shaped hole in our hearts and nothing but the Anointed Savior can fill it. Filling it with anything other than Jesus will not satisfy our hungry hearts. The Anointing, He satisfies. To seek without for what lies within us is like seeking a treasure you are sitting on. You have the Anointing. You are Anointed. Growing in that anointing means growing in relationship, sitting on the throne with the Father, becoming Jesus to a hurting world.
Prayer, study of Scripture, fellowship with others seeking to know God, worshipping regularly and often, not just in church, and being the Heart of God to others will move you into realms of the Holy Spirit you can only imagine.
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39 ESV

Growing in the Anointing is growing in relationship with Jesus.
The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come!"