A Tiny Spark
by Grace Bull
At the coronation of King Charles, the Archbishop anointed him with oil. This follows a pattern found in the Bible, where the kings of Israel were anointed with holy oil at the same time as being crowned. That’s why many psalms (for example in Psalm 84:9) ask God to be good to His anointed one - which means the king.
Jesus was anointed at the beginning of His ministry too, not by an archbishop, nor by a prophet, but by God the Father. He wasn’t anointed with holy oil, but with something even more special - the Holy Spirit.
That is why Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18).
The Holy Spirit came on Jesus at His baptism to set Him apart and commission Him to begin His ministry and fulfil His purpose, just as kings, priests and prophets before Him were anointed with oil at the start of their new role.
In Acts 10, Peter says, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power”. Jesus didn’t have power in Himself, as a human man, to do miracles. That power came from the Holy Spirit.
We can also receive this same anointing of the Holy Spirit from God. He will give us power to do things for God that we could never dream of doing in ourselves.
However, the ingredient we do need to contribute is faith. Faith means believing what God says and putting our complete trust in God. Jesus said we don’t need a lot of faith - even a tiny bit like a mustard seed is enough.
Faith is like a tiny spark. By itself it doesn’t do much, but combined with the oil of the Holy Spirit, even a tiny spark of faith can set oil on fire and create a powerful blaze.
It’s encouraging to know that God’s Holy Spirit does all the power work. We just need to find that tiny spark of faith.
Grace Bull is a member of the Ellel Ministries team, working in course development and the support of Ellel centres worldwide, having previously been a full-time GP (family doctor) for 15 years. Her passion is relationship with God and doing anything that will help other people to find that close relationship too.
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