Student Study Guide
Lesson 33
The Anointing vs. the Spirit of Anti-Christ - Pt. 1
Section 1 - The Crisis with This Generation
Something Is Profoundly Wrong - and Something Is About to Change
For over forty years ministering to millions around the world, particularly among young people, I have wept at the carnal, weak, feeble means employed by so many ministries under the guise of reaching youth. We have done reasonably well getting youth into a church building. We have done a horrible job of keeping them or equipping them.
1. Research has shown that roughly % of young people who regularly attend church during junior high and high school will stop attending within a couple of years after graduation. The church has largely failed to and the next generation.
The Survey: An informal survey of over 100,000 young people around the world asked how many of them, or someone they know, got saved at a Christian rock or rap concert and is radically serving God today. Only one hand went up. If concerts are a primary form of evangelism, something is exposed about our methods and is profoundly wrong.
2. When the teen pregnancy and drug rates among those in the church are nearly the same, and sometimes even than those outside the church, something is wrong. When families who served God for generations can no longer onto their children, something is wrong.
The Prophetic Word: "God has not given up on this generation. The devil thought he had them, but God is raising up an army of young people who will go into their spheres of influence preaching the gospel with a demonstration of signs and wonders following. They will be led by a prophetic prayer and worship movement characterized by humility, holiness, and a deep hunger for the things of God."
3. An must invade this generation with a power that no can produce - a great awakening that turns the hearts of young people not just back to attending church, but to a face-to-face encounter with the God who is .
Your Reflection
Section 2 - Talent vs. the Anointing
Most People Cannot Tell the Difference
✍ The Worship Leader's Proof
A worship leader told his team that most people in the church today cannot tell the difference between the anointing and talent. They argued. So he sat down at the piano and began to play a beautiful, flowing song. People in the congregation began to respond - "Oh, Jesus. Oh, hallelujah." Some were shaking as though under the power of God.
What he was playing was the theme song from a commercial. Background music from a television advertisement, flowered up on the piano. There was no more anointing on what he was playing than there is on the Pope break dancing. It was pure talent. And most people in that room could not tell the difference.
4. We use the word "anointed" to describe anything that moves us or that is performed with . But the anointing is something altogether different from talent, from a dynamic personality, from a charismatic stage presence, from well-produced music, or from a polished .
Definition
The anointing is the supernatural divine empowerment of God to fulfill a specific task or purpose.
5. The anointing does not come from man. It cannot be . It cannot be produced by rehearsal, by creativity, by cultural relevance, or by strategic thinking. It comes from God alone, and its evidence is unmistakable: the of bondage are destroyed.
Talent / Methods
Moves people emotionally • Performs with excellence • Can be manufactured • Comes from man • Rooted in personality, creativity, strategy • Produces a response without transformation
The Anointing
Supernatural • Cannot be manufactured • Comes from God alone • Rooted in the supernatural • Evidence: yokes of bondage are destroyed • Produces actual transformation
Your Reflection
Section 3 - Everything Jesus Did, He Did Under the Anointing
The Commission Is the Same: As the Father Sent Me, I Also Send You
6. At the very beginning of His public ministry, Jesus made an announcement: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has Me." Jesus did not rely on His natural . He was not particularly attractive. He was not young and hip and stylishly dressed. Yet followed Him.
Jesus built the church through supernatural signs, wonders, and miracles. He manifested the anointing. He destroyed the yokes of bondage of sickness, disease, and demonic oppression. That is how He built what He built. And then He said:
7. "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also you" (John 20:21). As the Father sent Me - the same way. With the same supernatural divine empowerment. Not with your own , not with your own strategy, not with your own cultural relevance. With the .
8. The Lord working with them. the Word through signs. Not the Lord blessing their programs. Not the Lord endorsing their creativity. That is the pattern of New Testament ministry. That is what the produces.
Your Reflection
Section 4 - Relying on "Things" Instead of the Anointing
You Are Compensating. You Are Lacking the Anointing.
✍ The England Creative Evangelism School
Teaching to leaders who had just completed a year-long school on creative evangelism, I asked them: "If your shadow falling on people caused them to be healed, if cloths that had touched your body were carried to the sick and they recovered, if every time you opened your mouth multitudes got saved - how much time would you spend coming up with creative methods of evangelism?"
A room of about one hundred and fifty leaders went completely silent. Heads dropped. After about a minute, one by one they began lifting their faces, with tears running down their cheeks. And one after another they said, "None. None. None."
I said: "Your own hearts have condemned you. The reason you spend so much energy on creative methods is that you are lacking the anointing that destroys the yokes of bondage. You are compensating. You are relying on things instead of the anointing."
9. A leader pushed back: "Some people don't have what you have. They're not gifted the way you are, so they have to rely on these other things." The response: "I understand why they are relying on those things - it is because they don't have the anointing. But that does not give them an for not having it."
10. Jesus said: "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:21). He did not say, "Those of you who happen to be gifted should go under the anointing." The anointing is not for the elite. It is the of every believer who is sent by God.
Your Reflection
Section 5 - The Distinctiveness of the Anointing
A Ship Lives in the Water - But If the Water Gets In, She Sinks
There is no problem with creativity in the presentation of the gospel. Drama, video, music, compelling communication - all have their place as tools. But when we adopt the image of the world so completely that there is no discernible difference between the church and the culture, something is deeply wrong.
11. When we take on the spirit of the age under the guise of cultural , we have not become more effective at reaching the world. We have simply the world. In my experience, most of those who dress like the world and act like the world to "reach" the lost end up back in the very they were claiming to reach.
"Christians should live in the world, but not be filled with it. A ship lives in the water, but if the water gets into the ship, she goes to the bottom. So Christians may live in the world; but if the world gets into them, they sink."
- D.L. Moody"Conformity to the world is such a manifest contradiction of the principles of the gospel, that sinners, when they see it, do not and cannot understand from it the true nature and object of the gospel itself."
- Charles Finney, Lectures to Professing Christians (1837)Your Reflection
Section 6 - The Spirit of Anti-Christ: Instead of the Anointing
The Prefix "Anti" Does Not Primarily Mean "Against"
The Critical Word Study
The word "Christ" means the Anointed One and His anointing. The prefix "anti" in the original Greek does not primarily mean "against" or "opposed to." It means "instead of." The spirit of anti-Christ is therefore the spirit of instead of the Anointed One and His anointing.
12. The spirit of anti-Christ is the spirit that causes people, even in the church, even in leadership, to rely on instead of the anointing. It is the spirit that will cause people to try to fulfill the purposes of God, to do the work of God, to accomplish the mission of God, without a reliance and dependence upon the .
13. The spirit of anti-Christ does not come primarily from the world. It comes from the church. It rises among those who began in the right place but gradually shifted their dependence from the anointing to the methods, the strategies, the tools of the age.
The Sobering Assessment: Those who are leading God's people away from a reliance and dependence upon the anointing are operating under the influence and control of the spirit of anti-Christ. That is not a personal assessment. That is what the Word of God says. I am not saying these people are not born again. I am saying those who lead God's people away from a reliance upon the anointing are operating under the influence and control of the spirit of anti-Christ.
14. Let the Word expose the degree to which you have relied upon the of men in place of the anointing of God. Let the conviction come. That conviction is the of God reaching toward you.
Anti = instead of. The spirit of anti-Christ is the spirit that causes people to try to do the work of God without reliance on the anointing. And it comes from within the church.
Final Reflection
Lesson 33 - Practice Test
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Part A: Multiple Choice (5 questions · 2 pts each)
1. What does the worship leader's commercial theme song account reveal about the contemporary church?
2. According to the lesson, what is the anointing - and what is its unmistakable evidence?
3. What was the response of the 150 leaders in England after the creative evangelism question was posed - and what did it reveal?
4. What does the lesson say the Greek prefix "anti" in anti-Christ actually means - and why does this matter?
5. According to 1 John 2:19, where does the spirit of anti-Christ primarily come from?
Part B: True or False (6 statements · 1 pt each)
1. The lesson teaches that creativity, drama, music, and compelling communication have no place in the presentation of the gospel and should be abandoned in favor of the anointing alone.
2. According to this lesson, the anointing is reserved for the spiritually elite - those with exceptional gifting and a long track record of consecration.
3. Jesus built His following through supernatural signs and wonders performed under the anointing - not through cultural relevance, natural attractiveness, or strategic ministry planning.
4. The lesson says those operating under the spirit of anti-Christ are necessarily not born-again and have never had genuine experiences with God.
5. The lesson teaches that a lack of anointing is an acceptable excuse for relying on methods, because God recognizes that not everyone is as gifted as those with a strong supernatural ministry.
6. The coming generation revival prophesied in this lesson will be characterized by humility, holiness, and a deep hunger for God - not by the coolest bands or most creative presentations.
Part C: Fill in the Blank (5 items · 1 pt each)
1. The anointing is the divine empowerment of God to fulfill a specific task or purpose.
2. The anointing comes from God alone, and its evidence is unmistakable: the of bondage are destroyed.
3. The word "Christ" means the Anointed One and His anointing. The prefix "anti" in Greek means of.
4. The spirit of anti-Christ does not come primarily from the secular world. It comes from the church.
5. Those who are leading God's people away from a reliance and dependence upon the anointing are operating under the influence and control of the spirit of .
Part D: Short Answer (completion credit)
1. Explain what the worship leader's commercial theme song account proves, and what it reveals about the state of the contemporary church's ability to discern the anointing.
2. Explain the distinction the lesson draws between the spirit of anti-Christ and being "against" Christ. Who does 1 John 2:19 say these antichrists came from - and why is that the most sobering part of the teaching?
3. What is the lesson's assessment of the leaders who rely on methods and creative strategies because they lack the anointing? What does Jesus' commission in John 20:21 say about who the anointing is available to?
Part E - Before You Leave
If you are involved in any form of ministry or Christian witness, honestly identify the "things" you are relying on that may be substituting for genuine anointing. What would it mean to stop compensating and begin genuinely pursuing the empowerment of God?
The lesson says the conviction you feel reading this is the mercy of God reaching toward you. Do not close the book. Sit with this question: in what ways have you been trying to do the work of God without reliance on the anointing? Write your response below.