It is not unusual to hear pastors, good ones and the bad ones, the young and the old, the liberal and the conservative claim to have a special anointing from God. This anointing allows them to hold a God-ordained authority amidst a group of believers and to give a greater blessing to their opinion.
Pastors have equal standing as other members
The truth is that those serving as pastors or teachers are on the same spiritual standing with God as every other member of the church.
A pastor cannot forgive sins. He does not have a unique communication with God. He does not have a secret source of knowledge not accessible to every other member. He is not your mediator to God in any way.
He does not have a gift for holiness, nor does he have more resistance to the flesh. He can be wrong. He needs support. He can fail.
God’s calling
Many pastors will reference their special anointing to God’s “call” on their life to minister. Leaving alone the Calvinistic undertones to this idea, has not God called all men to do his will? (1 Tim 2:4; 1 Thess 4:3)
If a pastor resigns, has he denied the call of God on his life?
Paul says that the bishops are those who are blameless and desire the office. (1 Tim 3:1) Yet, there are pastors who teach that it is not enough to desire you must be supernaturally anointed. This is job security. The honest ones will admit that they do not hear God’s voice or feel the anointing as in 1 John 2:20 and 27.
“But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” – 1 John 2:20
The rest may claim on some level that they have a higher gift of knowledge, wisdom, or leadership based on the anointing.
Suppressed church potential
Pastors who claim an anointing are fraudulently keeping their congregations from their capability to minister by creating a priest class. It was only in the Old Testament covenant with Israel that God appointed a mediating priest class. Pastors today are not the priests of the Old Testament or the New Testament. (1 Tim 2:5)
The anointing of the Holy Ghost described by John was part of the supernatural knowledge provided for Israel under the New Testament. (John 14:6, Mark 13:11, Acts 2:4)
Today, every member of the body has access to God’s words in the Bible and is the temple of the Holy Ghost. (1 Cor 3:16) Instead of waiting for an anointing we must all “study to show ourselves approved”. (2 Tim 2:15)
It is dangerous to sound doctrine and the ministry of the church for pastors to claim a special anointing. They should either step down or tell you that they have no blessing or calling apart from God’s call to all men.
They may fear if this is known then their words would not hold as much weight with their congregations. This cannot happen. There must be control, right? It starts from the top-down. A special anointing gives higher authority. Instead of claiming divine right pastors should be qualified on the desire and character of 1 Tim 3.
Article Index Published: September 19, 2009
Last Modified: October 22, 2016