The Anointing and The Divine Exchanges - David Mitts

To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.(Isaiah 61:3 NASB)

We are the planting of the Lord.  Yeshua called us the branches of the Vine that He is.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5 NKJV)

Listen to The Anointing and the Divine Exchanges

Our lives are designed for fruit. We have been pressing in for the heart knowing that releases the fruit.  These are the heart thought environments that allow for the seed of His Word, His thoughts to produce in and through our lives.  These thoughts are what the heart condition aligns with to release the anointing of God in and through our lives.  The anointing is NOT just given to a King like David or a prophet like Samuel.  The anointing is for everyone who believes.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. [5] I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
(1 John 2:20-21 NKJV)

We are going to continue our pressing in for the anointing as expressed through the Mind of Christ.  All of creation begins with the Spirit of God and the Mind of God expressed through His Word.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-3 NIV).

What we see here is how the anointing works. God thinks and He speaks and it manifests.  The anointing is the description of the how God’s Mind becomes our reality.  Now notice in Genesis 1 several realities. First there is a non-light emptiness and formlessness.  Then God speaks and an exchange is made of light for darkness, order for chaos and disorder.  Also transparent to most readers is the role the waters play.  The waters record the transaction, they are the witness.

I wrote about this in my Acupastor.com blog this week because we are in the season of water.  Science has shown that water responds to identity and communication.  On my blog I show a video of a science project where a beaker of common water drawn from the Rhine River in Germany, is divided out among a group of students.  Each student then takes their part and drops an eye dropper fulls on a slide which is observed under a microscope.  What is amazing is that the water drops change in appearance to match each student, uniquely!  AND all the drops are the same for each student.

The water is a living testimony or record of the student’s identity!  Another scientist Masuro Emoto in Japan took water and placed various words in front of beakers and then froze the water into crystals.  He then looked at and photographed the crystal and the crystals changed dramatically based on the words, such as love and kill.

The point of this is that water bears testimony. Minimally it responds to identity and message and maybe more.  Maybe water is conscious in some way that we don’t understand. Look briefly at 1 John 5

This is He who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. (1 John 5:6-8 NKJV).

Today we have little thin silicon based chips that store our data and run our computers.  But what if the true living supercomputer that God placed here is water?? Just a thought. But since over 60% of our body is water and for sure we know now that water stores identity and thoughts maybe the Mind of Christ is a dynamic reality that exists in our make-up of water, blood and Spirit.

OK. So today we are looking at exchange.  This is one of the most powerful realities of the anointing, the power that is released in our lives with the heart reality called the Mind of Christ.  Let’s look at Isaiah 61:3 from the Amplified Bible:

To grant [consolation and joy] to those who mourn in Zion--to give them an ornament (a garland or diadem) of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment [expressive] of praise instead of a heavy, burdened, and failing spirit--that they may be called oaks of righteousness [lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice, and right standing with God], the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.(Isaiah 61:3 AMPC+).

First the exchange begins with an action verb that is translated here as “to grant”.  In other translations it is “to appoint”, “to provide”, “to console”.  The Hebrew verb is LaSim which means literally to put in place.  BUT it is also used in the context of getting your heart into something or for bringing your attention and intention to bear. “Samti lev”.

So the anointing brings or puts things back to where they are supposed to be with an intentionality and focus.  This is not a passive, do it to me verb.  This is a take action with your heart. To me this means active choosing.

OK, so the first exchange is joy and comfort for mourning and it is specifically tied to Zion.  Now we know Zion is literal Israel and specifically the Mountain where Jerusalem sits.  BUT Zion is also the place of God’s authority focus.  It is the place where the heavenly shofar is sounded!

Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, For it is at hand: (Joel 2:1 NKJV)

So Zion represents the Kingdom!  The anointing includes the Lord making things right.  How do you turn mourning into joy?  By trusting Him to make things right! We actively release the kingdom back to Him.  We take our losses and see gain in them.  Our seed dies but it rises imperishable, perfected and full of fruit.

How can mourning become comfort? We trade it through the cross.  The anointing of the cross, takes loss into gain. Paul said it this way:

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, (Philippians 3:7-10 NKJV)

This is the divine exchange in Christ, in the anointing!

Ashes for beauty:

In scripture, ashes are used to denote vileness, meanness, frailty, or humiliation.
Ashes are by-product of being all burned out and used up, of no real value.  In the anointing He revives us and rekindles a new destiny.  The Hebrew word for beauty here is the word Pa-ar.  It means to bring Glory to someone.  The anointing is that power of God that brings fullness to our purpose.  This brings out the glory and then in turn brings God the Glory!

Oil of joy! Shemen Sasson:  

Oil is the carrier of fragrance and touches deep in our being.  The oil of joy is an exchange for mourning.  It is a release of joy into the heart of a Believer.  The heart is healed by joy.  Joy is power. Mourning is depicted like a garment that is worn that comes with a flow of tears.  Joy counters this with an anointing of oil.

Garment of Praise for the spirit of heaviness:

Praise exchanges heaviness for thankfulness.  When we feel oppressed and victimized in life, we can turn to God in Praise and His anointing lifts the heaviness.

All of this brings us to a place where we are called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.  This whole thing has been about bringing for fruit, 30-60-100 fold.  The key is to have the mind of Christ, The heart thoughts of the anointing.  These divine exchanges access the planting of the Lord that will bear the fruit.