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The Army and The Anointing
(circa 1990s)
Status Report. Historically The
Salvation Army has been strong on holiness. We preached it
unceasingly, taught it effectively, and experienced it
gloriously. We praise God for our holiness birthright. In more
recent times, things have changed. We have shied away from the
preaching and teaching it, largely, I suggest, because many of
us weren’t experiencing it. As a body we grew almost
embarrassed of such testimonies as that of 10 years of
unbroken holiness, from our holiness prophet, Commissioner
Brengle (p122 in HELPS TO HOLINESS, 1996).
This state of affairs has increased our
suspicion of anything outside of our relatively conservative
experience. Crudely put, in our earliest days, the Army
enjoyed both purity and power. We lost power but enjoyed
purity later. More recently, we have enjoyed neither purity
nor power.
Thank God the situation has grown so
obvious that we are opening up to what God is doing. We are
recognizing our precarious position and desperation is
overcoming suspicion. Hallelujah! We were initially God’s new
wineskin, created to hold the new wine God desired to pour out
on the body. In a “period of spiritual bankruptcy, God moved
in through William Booth and The Salvation Army. They began
churches around the world because God blew on them” (Terry
Virgo, FROM RENEWAL TO REVIVAL, Kingsway Pub. p12). By the
early 1900s God had another new vintage ready for pouring, but
the Army wineskin was toughening, so God had to raise up a new
wineskin. The Welsh and Korean revivals, and the Pentecostal
movement were the results. Later, God had still newer wineskin
but the new wineskin had again grown old, so the charismatic
movement was fitted as the new wineskin. During these phases,
it seems that the Army fooled itself that it was still the new
wineskin! In the 1990s God has decided to pour out a powerful
vintage, that we have called the ‘Toronto Blessing’, on the
family of God. Most of the wineskins couldn’t handle it, so
God poured it out in Argentina, and it has spread through
Toronto to Pensacola and to all parts of the world. Thank God
that today the Army is realizing that we are no longer new
wineskin, that somehow we need ointment rubbed in to the skin
to soften it to allow us to handle the new wine. This is
happening.
THEOLOGICALLY
Holiness brings purity. The anointing
brings power. As a Movement we have lacked both recently. We
still have great living examples of holiness, but few models
of anointing.
Holiness cleanses the soul as the Holy
Spirit fills a person. The result is the character of God
shining through the individual. As the story goes, one young
lieutenant said to Commissioner Brengle, “Often when I think
of Christ, I think of you. Always when I think of you, I think
of Christ.” That’s the fruit of holiness, Godly character. The
anointing doesn’t fill as much as it ‘comes upon’. It is not
as much internal as it is external. That is the biblical term,
‘come upon’, and the Old Testament is littered with references
to people being anointed as the Holy Spirit came upon them.
Prophets and kings and judges were anointed and invariably
there was an effect - armies were defeated, tongues were
spoken, prophecies were made, people were led. In the New
Testament the effects broadened to mass evangelism, physical
healing, and demon exorcism. The other kind of New Testament
fruit, souls saved, as in Jesus’ parable of the sower, is also
fruit of the anointing - people are affected in powerful ways.
That the anointing was very important
is clear by the penalty of excommunication for abuse, by the
authority and the power that it invested, and by the effect,
which we discussed. “Fundamentally, the anointing was an act
of God (e.g. I Samuel 10:1) and the word ‘anointed’ was used
metaphorically to mean the bestowal of divine favour (Psalm
23:5;92:10) or appointment to a special place or function in
the purpose of God (Psalm 105:15; Isaiah 45:1). Further, the
anointing symbolized equipping for service and is associated
with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God (1 Samuel
10:1,9;16:13; Isaiah 61:1; Zechariah 4:1-14; Acts 1:8; 10:38;
1 John 2:20,27)” (NEW BIBLE DICTIONARY, Tyndale. 1991). The
classic text is Acts 1:8, noting, “When the Holy Spirit comes
upon you, you shall receive power, and you will be My
witnesses...” And of course, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and with power” (Acts 10:38). In
worst-case scenario, we lack both purity, a manifestation of
holiness, and power, evidence of anointing. However, some of
us can testify to the purity, the character fruit of the
Spirit, but still lack the power, the fruit in souls,
healings, exorcisms, effect.
ANOINTING IN THE ARMY
This is not foreign to the Army. “The
Salvation Army is no stranger to the touch of God” (Dave
Roberts, THE TORONTO BLESSING, Kingsway Pub. p36). Many of our
early Salvationists were heavily anointed, and taught it. The
second Chief of the Staff, Commissioner T. Henry Howard,
instructed, “Sincerely ask the Lord to cleanse and sanctify
and anoint you with the Holy Spirit. Let God take full
possession of you; let the Divine Power be exerted upon your
particular difficulty; and seek to be wholly anointed with
that Holy Spirit” (in STANDARDS OF LIFE AND SERVICE, p94). Not
indeed by human might or power but by the use of all men’s
power under the mighty influence of the Holy Spirit are signs
and wonders continually possible” (Commissioner Railton, in
COLONEL JUNKER, p107). Colonel Pearson leads us to sing,
“Anoint me with the Holy Ghost” (SASB 432, v3). General
Orsborn has us seek “His anointing and seal” (SASB 527, v2).
They didn’t always use the same terms,
but the truth remained. “The Holy Spirit will come down on all
the Lord’s people if they seek Him” (General W. Booth, in
Major Rhemick, A NEW PEOPLE OF GOD, p121, underline Booth’s).
Commissioner Brengle describes an experience with which a
growing number of Salvationists can relate: “There are others
who wait on God in secret places, who seek His face with their
whole hearts; who groan in prayer with unutterable longing to
know God in all His fullness and see His Kingdom come with
power; who plead the promises, who search the Word of God and
meditate on it day and night... Then the Holy Spirit comes
pressing down on them with an eternal weight of glory that
compels praise” (in HELPS TO HOLINESS, p131, p72). That we
were anointed in the early days seems evident. “Christians
have not, in times past, been altogether sure of us, and
regard us as a very dangerous people; which we are” (H. Booth,
cited in C. Scott, THE HEAVENLY WITCH, p45,46). Or from one of
Commissioner Dowdle’s converts, “People were literally afraid
to go near them. I remember seeing a shop lad once, who was to
deliver at the hall some cake which had been ordered for a tea
meeting. He stood pale as death, and trembling outside,
because his shop mates told him, ‘Alf, you’ll get converted,
as sure as you ever go there!” (in Commissioner Railton,
COMMISSIONER DOWDLE, p25).
“The Holy Spirit does come, and
sometimes He prostrates our bodies” (C. Booth, AGGRESSIVE
CHRISTIANITY, p157). “People have fallen on their faces under
the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our meetings” (C. Booth,
p55). “I never did shout in my life, but... I couldn’t help
it,” admitted one attendee (C. Booth, p98). “People drop down
with joy. People shriek with grief... The manifestation will
be according to your nature. One will fall down and weep in
quietness, and the other will get up and shout and jump. You
cannot help it” (C. Booth, p99).
“Many more of God’s people might have
this experience... but they are not willing to be wrapped in
His arms; they are not willing to be pressed to His bosom;
they are not willing to know Him in a Scriptural sense; they
are not willing to be given up and consumed by God” (C. Booth,
p158).
She concluded, “Hot saints set on fire
the hearts of other saints. They singe the consciences of
sinners, they burn the fingers of Pharisees, melt the hearts
of backsliders, and warm up those who have left their first
love.”
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
I have seen evidences of God’s
anointing in Army meetings. I have seen besetting sins
conquered; people crying on the floor for a half-hour; some
from remorse as God revealed sin, and others from release, as
old hurts were healed; people shaking violently under the
power of the Holy Spirit, good old time glory fits; other who
couldn’t move at all, feeling the pressed down weight Brengle
described above; people on the floor experiencing intimacy
with Jesus. Results have included conversions, sanctification
testimonies, exorcisms, and physical healings.
We are not the new wineskin. But if we
allow God to rub the ointment of the Holy Spirit into us, we
will be able to handle this wonderful new wine God has for us.
It’s Biblical... It’s Army. And it’s a beautiful thing.
General Rader directed us to pray for a tsunami of the Spirit.
May it come crashing down on all of us.
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