“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” 1 John 2:20
We may liken the teaching of the anointing to our being taught in the physical realm. For example, if we walk into a room in which the temperature is one hundred degrees, the presence of heat teaches us to take off our jacket. There is no need to read a sign that says, “Take off your jacket.” The presence of heat automatically teaches us to take it off. It is the presence of something that teaches, not a teaching by audible words or outward letters of instruction.
We can say that the temperature itself teaches us with the voice of a “felt presence.” The anointing works in the same way within us. The anointing is the presence of a Person moving within us. Thus, whenever we are taking a certain course of action that is not compatible with the Lord, we sense a bothering or troubling within. We lose our normal inward poise of peace. For instance, you are about to complain to someone because you are right and they are wrong about something they did or did not do. But as you actually launch into your argument, the more you speak, the more there is the presence of “heat.” You feel uncomfortable, you feel awkward, you lose your peace, and you yourself sense that what you are saying is not compatible with your insides.
Just as heat teaches you to take off your jacket, so the presence of the anointing teaches you to stop talking in a complaining way. The reason you are unable to keep talking is not because someone is telling you not to talk that way. You cannot talk because you have an inward forbidding. You are just not free and at liberty to speak that way anymore. This kind of experience is the anointing teaching you. The anointing’s voice made it clear that your words were not compatible with the Lord. This kind of experience is not an occasion for taking condemning thoughts and accusations about yourself. Rather, it is an occasion for learning to be compatible with the Lord’s life in your speaking and attitude.