Zeal For Truth

The Anointing
Jesus Christ is uniquely totally God and totally man. He is not a mutant, but is the totality of divinity and humanity in one person. He demonstrated the love of God for humanity by reconciling man back to God. This reconciliation culminated with Christ redeeming mankind by offering his own body as a ransom.

However, prior to his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension - he manifested the Spirit of reconciliation by healing the sick and forgiving sin. It would behoove us to examine how Jesus was able to heal the sick. Many have assumed that Jesus was able to heal simply because he was the Son of God. However, the Bible does not support this position. In fact, Jesus made quite clear what enabled him to heal when he quoted Isaiah 61 in the fourth chapter of Luke.

14And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. 15And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. 16And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 17And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. 22And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?

Jesus said he was able to heal the brokenhearted and open the eyes of the blind because he was anointed with the Spirit of God. Even the power of Jesus’ preaching should be attributed to the Holy Spirit. Up until this moment Jesus had been the Son of God. Yet he had not been anointed to work the works of God until after the Holy Spirit descended on him following his baptism by John. Peter also made clear the fact that Jesus healed by the power of the Spirit.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him (Acts 10:38).

Notice the emphasis on Jesus’ humanity in this verse. Peter referred to him as “Jesus of Nazareth”. If Jesus had been working miracles as God in the flesh, then he would not have needed to be anointed. Who would be qualified to anoint God?

Jesus himself even attributed his ability to cast out evil spirits by the Spirit of God.

But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. (Matthew 12:28)

The Anointing to Heal in Demonstration
There are various passages that we could look at that show Jesus’ ministry to the sick. Some of them are more specific in terms of revealing to us how Jesus healed with the aid of the Holy Spirit. One such passage is found in Luke 6. For clarity we will examine this passage from the New International Version.

17He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, 18who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, 19and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

Notice that verse 19 says that power was coming from him. What was that power? It was the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus was anointed with. When people touched Jesus that power was released and caused healing to take place in those that touched him.

The most overlooked part of what transpired here is found in verse 17. Why did people come to Jesus in the first place? They came first to hear him, and secondly to be healed. Faith comes by hearing, and that is directly linked to whether a person receives healing or not. Even though the Spirit of God was in manifestation, it took faith to receive as we see in Mark 5. Once again we will go to the New International Version.

The Woman with the Issue of Blood

25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. 30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31″You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

Again, pay special attention to verse 27 which says, “When she heard about Jesus…” This is where faith is initiated. When she touched Jesus, Jesus felt the power of the Spirit go out from him. So we know that the anointing of the Spirit played a major role in the healing of this woman, yet Jesus attributed this woman’s healing to her faith. It is faith that gives action to the power.