“The responsibility of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest is the oil for the light and the fragrant incense and the continual grain offering and the anointing oil– the responsibility of all the tabernacle and of all that is in it, with the sanctuary and its furnishings” (Numbers 4:16).
As we established earlier, the Old Covenant served as a shadow of things to come, with the reality of those shadows found in Christ (Colossians 4:16). A proper understanding of what the shadows pointed to enriches our understanding of what is available to us in Christ. Another indispensable duty the Levitical priests had was the responsibility of the anointing oil. The anointing oil also symbolizes the Holy Spirit (e.g. Mark 6:13; Acts 10:38; Isaiah 61:1-3). As royal priesthood under the New Covenant, we do not have charge over the Holy Spirit; rather we are to submit to Him and follow His leading. This is the only way we will be found faithful in our calling. He is the Helper, and without His help all we do will amount to nothing. Even so, if we do not pay a closer attention to why God gave us His Holy Spirit, we may find ourselves working against what the Holy Spirit is trying to accomplish in us.
God did not give us His Holy Spirit as a replacement for the ministry of Jesus Christ or the Word of God. Neither did the Holy Spirit come to establish another ministry beside what Jesus gave us. But as Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:8 – “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth”. To receive the Holy Spirit is to receive power to be a witness/ambassador of Jesus Christ. Therefore, if we say we are following the Holy Spirit but Jesus is not evident in our words and in our deeds then we may have missed it somehow. Witnesses/ambassadors are equipped for the purpose of accurately pointing to the one they represent. So are we endued with power by the Holy Spirit to make Jesus evident in our lives and known to our world. Jesus told us to go make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all (not some) that He commanded us (Matthew 28:18-20). The Holy Spirit helps us to accomplish this. If we are properly connected to the Holy Spirit as we ought, the words and teachings of Jesus Christ, which is the foundation for the Christian life (see Matthew 7:24-25), the character of Jesus Christ i.e. the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and the power of Jesus i.e. the gifts of the Spirit ( 1 Corinthians 12:4-11) will be evident in our lives, so that the Father and Jesus will be glorified in our lives (see John 16:14-15).
To neglect the balance Jesus gave us between His Word and His power (ministry of the Holy Spirit) is to walk on dangerous grounds. Jesus addressed this when he told the Sadducees “…You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God (Matthew 22:29)”. It is not just knowing either the Scriptures or the power of God (ministry of the Holy Spirit) that keeps us from error but rather knowing and walking in both. As royal priesthood of the Most High God, it is our calling to walk in the whole counsel of God: to live by the Word of God and follow the Holy Spirit. It is not one or the other but both.
To be continued…
Kwadwo Omari
24th April, 2016.