In many churches, “the anointing” is a word reserved for the platform. People talk about anointed preaching, anointed worship, or a healing anointing in a service. All of that has its place. But Scripture uses the word far more broadly, and it is not only for ministers.
John writes to ordinary believers, “the anointing that you received from him abides in you” (1 John 2:27). If you belong to Jesus, you are anointed. The question is not whether the anointing is for you. The question is what it does in your everyday life, and how it flows.
One of the clearest pictures in the Bible comes from the story of a soldier named Jehu.
A Flask of Oil in a Back Room
In 2 Kings 9, the prophet Elisha sends a young prophet to find Jehu, a commander in Israel’s army. The instructions are simple and urgent: take him into an inner room, pour oil on his head, declare, “Thus says the LORD, I anoint you king over Israel,” then open the door and run (2 Kings 9:3).
The young man ran for good reason. Israel already had a king, Joram, the son of Ahab and Jezebel. This anointing meant a change of government. God was about to bring judgment on the house of Ahab, just as He had told the prophet Elijah years before (1 Kings 21:21-23).
The Anointing Flows When You Are Aligned with God’s Purposes
Jehu did not invent his calling. He stepped into something God had already set in motion. That is the first principle of the anointing: it flows when a life is aligned with God’s purposes.
One practical way to align with God’s purposes is to invest in the local church. Solomon observed that “money answers everything” (Ecclesiastes 10:19), and it is easy to see why. Most people spend a large part of their waking life earning money to fund the rest of it, so money touches nearly every area of life. When money is connected to God’s purposes, those purposes reach into every corner of life too.
Solomon modeled the order himself: “Now Solomon purposed to build a temple for the name of the LORD, and a royal palace for himself” (2 Chronicles 2:1). God’s house came first. His own plans followed.
1. The Anointing Causes People to Act Quickly in Your Favor
When Jehu walked out of that back room, he did not want to talk about what had happened. He was still processing it, and he was sitting with officers of the king he was about to replace. But when they pressed him and he told them, their response was immediate: “Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, ‘Jehu is king’” (2 Kings 9:13).
Waiting on the Lord matters. Yet there are seasons when something needs to happen now, and God’s favor can move people faster than expected: a buyer appears the day the sign goes up, an answer comes before the deadline.
Favor does not always look like a quick yes, though. Sometimes a quick no is God’s protection. A door that slams shut can spare you from a situation you could not see clearly at the time. Looking back, many believers can say it plainly: rejection was protection.
2. The Anointing Causes Things to Change in Your Favor
As Jehu rode toward the city, King Joram sent a horseman to ask, “Is it peace?” Jehu told him to fall in behind, and the watchman reported, “The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back” (2 Kings 9:18). It happened again with the next rider. Men sent to oppose Jehu switched sides on the spot.
When God’s favor rests on a life, situations that seemed fixed can change. A denial becomes an approval. A long-delayed permit comes through. An employer who passed on a résumé calls back. These shifts do not come from forcing a square peg into a round hole. They come from God. As the old gospel song puts it, it is not over until God says it is over.
3. The Anointing Protects You from Bad Decisions
When Jehu reached Jezreel, Jezebel was waiting. “She painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window” (2 Kings 9:30). She had controlled Israel for years by manipulating the men around her, and she tried it again, mixing allure with a threat. She called Jehu “Zimri,” the name of an earlier usurper who lasted only seven days (1 Kings 16:15-18).
Jehu felt the pull. So he looked up and called, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out, men who were unmoved by what Jezebel offered, and at Jehu’s word they threw her down (2 Kings 9:32-33).
Most bad decisions grow from the same root: allure, fascination, enticement. It might be a car far beyond the budget, or a model home whose upgrades turn a $300,000 house into a $1.2 million one. The anointing produces a steady resolve, so things that would normally sway a person lose their grip. God also surrounds His people with others who see clearly when they cannot.
The Source of the Anointing Is Jesus
The anointing requires one more connection. In Zechariah 4, the prophet sees a lampstand fed by two olive trees through golden pipes, and he asks what they mean. The answer: “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth” (Zechariah 4:14).
Those two anointed ones were a priest and a king, and together they point forward to Jesus, the true King and Priest, “a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 7:17).
Notice the three elements in the vision. The golden pipes are the means: preaching, spiritual gifts, the visible things that draw attention. The golden oil is the substance, and it is easy to chase. But the olive tree is the source. Oil used in a worship service is a symbol of consecration. It is not the source of anything. The source is Jesus Christ.
That is why Citylight Church is not content simply to be a Spirit-filled church. An incredible life is built on the finished work of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit flows from staying connected to Him.
Life on the Next Level
A great deal can be accomplished without the anointing. People build careers, keep the peace at home and get through hard years by their own strength. But real restoration, the kind that turns the impossible into the possible, comes from God.
When God’s favor arrives, it does not have to feel foreign. A believer can receive healing, provision or a long-awaited answer and recognize it as consistent with who they are in Christ, because “all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
The anointing is not about oil. It is about Jesus, the One who died, rose again and is coming again. Stay aligned with His purposes and connected to Him, and expect His favor to flow.