OIL OF JOY

Heb.1:8,9 – But regarding the Son He says,
“YOUR THRONE, GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER,
AND THE SCEPTER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.
“YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS;
THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU
WITH THE OIL OF JOY ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS.”

I never used to associate the anointing with joy and gladness until I did. You know what they say, the anointing is equipping for ministry. But is there more to it than that. The Bible associates joy with the anointing. It’s right there in today’s scripture. When Jesus sat down with His Father on the throne (as a man) the Father poured the oil of gladness upon Jesus. This was equipping for His heavenly ministry but there was more to it than that. This was also for you and me. The anointing of the Spirit that the Father poured on to Jesus is now being poured out on all mankind. That’s what the heavenly ministry of Jesus is ultimately all about, immersion into the person of the Holy Spirit for everyone who is thirsty. Here is how Andrew Murray describes it.

“When He ascended to heaven, and sat down on the right hand of the throne, He received from the Father anew and in fullest measure, as the Son of Man, the gift of the Holy Ghost to bestow on His people. That Spirit was to Him the oil of joy, the joy that had been set before him, the joy of His crowning day when He saw of the travail of His soul. An anointing above His fellows, for there was none like Him; God gave Him the Spirit without measure. And yet for His fellows, His redeemed, whom, as Head, He had made members of His body, they become partakers of His anointing and His joy. As He said, “The Lord hath anointed Me to give the oil of joy.” Christ, our King, our God, is anointed with the oil of joy, anointed, too, to give the oil of joy: His kingdom is one of everlasting gladness, of joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

So what is the joy got to do with anything? It is the experience of someone in the immediate presence of God. In His presence is total joy. This is what Jesus received when He took His place by the Father, this is the life of God that is being poured on to us. This is why Jesus was anointed in heaven, so that we too can have fullness of joy.