How to Increase the Anointing of the Holy Spirit (5 Keys)

Understand why we have the anointing

The anointing of the Holy Spirit is the power of God resting upon a person. It is the divine enablement to accomplish a task that God desires to do through an individual.

The anointing is not meant for our amusement or for us to look “spiritual” or special. It is simply meant to win the lost, train the saved, and to destroy the works of the devil. There is no other scriptural basis for why we have the anointing of the Spirit of God resting upon us as believers.

Jesus told His disciples, “…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.” (Acts 1:8)

Jesus said that the reason we will receive power is so that we can be His witnesses. This means that the power of the Holy Spirit is here to give us the ability to bear witness to His resurrection.

The apostle Paul was saying something similar when He said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)

The power of God is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Holy Spirit is in the business of glorifying Jesus and saving people.

All throughout scripture, we see men of God obeying God and operating in the power of God, but we never see the power of God flowing through their life until they start obeying Him and fulfilling what He commanded them to do.

This is true today as well. Jesus has given us a commandment. He has commanded us to preach the Gospel to all of creation (Matthew 28:18-20 & Mark 16:15-16). He has commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20). And He has promised that if we do this then His power will follow us everywhere that we go just like it did in the early church (Matthew 28:20 & Mark 16:17-20).

Grow in the knowledge of God

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:2-3).

There are so many truths that these two little verses reveal to us.

First, God’s divine power has granted to us everything that falls into the categories of life and godliness. Second, this power can only be accessed through the knowledge of Him.

So first Peter tells us what the Holy Spirit resting upon us applies to, and then he tells us how we can have it available in our lives.

The apostle Paul said something very similar when he was praying for the Ephesian church in Epehesians 1:17-19.

“…That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in this passage is that their eyes would be open to what they have received in Christ. Namely three things; (1) “the hope of His calling”, (2) “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints”, and (3) “the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”

And he says that all of this is only found in knowing Him.

So Peter and Paul testify that the only way to see greater works of the Spirit happen in our lives is through knowing God more.

Notice Peter and Paul never said that in order to increase the anointing of God we need to receive more of God’s power.

There is no more of God’s power to be given. The Bible tells us that the power of God is not a force but a Person. Namely, the Person called Holy Spirit. And we saw through Jesus’ own words that when we receive Him we receive all of the power that we need (Acts 1:8).

So it is not about receiving more of God, but about knowing God more.

The more that we obey Him and the more we spend time with Him in prayer, His word, and in fasting, the more we will know Him personally, which will result in God’s power being manifested to us in a greater degree.

Grow in Faith

We all know that faith plays a major role in seeing the power of God manifested in our lives, but I don’t think we realize how important it actually is.

Faith is the release of God’s power. This is true whether we are praying for the sick (Matthew 17:19-21) or if we are prophesying (Romans 12:6). All of the Holy Spirit’s manifestations are done so out of faith. If there is no faith, then no manifestation of His power will be released.

This is true in the natural as well. You can have all the power in the world sitting at your outlet but if you don’t plug in your cord and flip the switch, no electricity will flow. At the same time, if you don’t have the right size cord with the right amperage rating you can cause a fire because the power is too much for the size cord that is at use.

This is a great picture of what happens when we go to release the power of God. Without faith being plugged into the promises of God and without the right amount of faith, no power will flow.

So how do we grow in faith?

The answer is found by combining a couple of scriptures.

First, Paul tells us that faith can only come to us once we hear the word of God (Romans 10:17). Second, Jesus tells us that the word of God is like a seed (Mark 4:14). Third, Jesus tells us that if we want great faith then we need our faith to become like a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). And finally, Jesus tells us the process of how the seed of faith grows in our lives in Matthew 13 and Mark 4.

So once we combine all these truths from these scriptures we come up with a a few steps to take to grow great faith in our lives.

Step one – Receive the word of God about any subject you want to grow your faith in.

Step two – Study these passages until you understand them.

Step three – Establish commitment toward the word of God through prayer and then act on it.

Step four – Keep your mind on the things of God so that the cares of this world do not choke your faith.

I have written an entire article on this topic and I have broken down every step in extreme detail. If you want to read the article click on the title. The article is called What a Mustard Seed of Faith Means (And How to Have it). Enjoy!

Grow in the gifts

The gifts of the Spirit are manifestations of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 12:7).

This means that whenever the Spirit of God is moving within a church setting we should see these manifestations mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 taking place.

But one of the keys to seeing the gifts take place is to practice them and to learn how to release them.

This is why the apostle Paul said that we should judge each prophecy that is given and that we should take turns prophesying, “for you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged” (1 Corinthians 14:31).

We have to learn how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. We have to learn how to release His manifestations. The majority of this learning process is found in growing in faith in these areas, but a lot of it has to do with learning how to hear God’s voice. It takes time and practice to learn how to hear what God is saying and learn how to discern whether what you are hearing is God or your own thoughts.

This takes quality time in God’s word, renewing our mind through the scriptures so that when God does speak to us it sounds familiar to what He has already spoken.

Avoid the love for other things

Finally, if we want to increase the anointing in our lives we need to remove sin and we need to remove the love of the world.

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” (1 John 2:15-16)

As mentioned previously, the anointing and power of God is upon us for one reason – to obey God. His anointing empowers us to accomplish all of what He has commanded us to do.

And He has commanded us to love Him with all that is in us, to love others as Christ did, and to make disciples of all the nations.

So if we are not pursuing these commands in order to fulfill them then God will not empower us with His Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is here on this earth to bear witness of Chirst. He is resting upon us in order to empower us to be witnesses of His resurrection. We have received power so that we can destroy the works of the devil, save as many people as we can, and so that we can make disciples of our Lord.

The more we pursue these things and work in His field the more of His power will be available to us. However, if we decide to fall in love with the world and begin to mix Christianity with the things of the world then the power of God will cease to rest on us.

So what do we do to ensure that this does not happen?

Devote yourselves to prayer. Meditate on the word of God day and night. Walk in love. Look for opportunities to share the Gospel.

If we truly do these things we will keep ourselves from the love of the world and we will abide in the love of God.

I hope you enjoyed this article and that it assisted you in your walk with God. Below are a couple more articles I wrote about the power of God, I think you’ll enjoy them.

How to Release the Power of God/Holy Spirit (Step-by-Step) and What Does it Mean to Walk in the Power of God/Holy Spirit?

God bless you all!