Redefinition Series: Mantles and Anointings
One of the keys to being prophetic is understanding the times. When we place in this understanding in the context of scripture we begin to recognize the signs that we are in the last days. One of the primary signs of the last days is the rise of religious and spiritual deception. This increase of deception is rooted in the work of the antichrist.
Many of us read the Bible regarding the end-times and gloss over important revelation like 1 John 2:17-19:
”18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this, we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update
Not only did John, the Elder warn of that it was the last hour, but that the antichrist wasn’t coming but already working. He added a very important point: THEY [antichrists] WENT OUT FROM US [the Church].
It should be readily concluded that the spiritual deception that contaminates many minds within our pews and pulpits didn’t originate from outside the sanctuaries of our cities, but from within it.
One of the teachings I would like to examine for redefinition is the teaching regarding mantles and anointings.
Many charismatic/prophetic and apostolic teachers declare that there is a multiplicity of mantles and anointings that can be possessed by the Believer. They believe that these mantles and anointings once belonged to many of the Old Testament saints and can be transferred to those who are willing to have them imparted by those who have already attained these articles based on their assignments and mandates (i.e., Deborah anointing, Davidic anointing, Joshua anointing, etc.). They believe that the mantles can be left by one leader and claimed by another believer.
MANTLES
The teaching of mantles originates from the story of Elijah and Elisha, in which Elijah covered Elisha in his mantles as an appointment and then dropped the mantle for Elisha to pick up.
The issue with this attempted teaching is that when we come to the New Testament, we do not find this passing of the mantle as a part of the appointment of any of the saints. In fact, a thorough study of the New Testament will reveal that in all of the versions and translations of the Bible the word “mantle” isn’t used in many of the translations [ESV, AV 1873, KJV 1900, NKJV, NRSV]. The word is used once in the ASV 1901 and NASB 1995 (Heb. 1:12 metaphorically). And in the RSV translation it is used 5 times, and in 4 of those instances, it is instructing us to lose the mantle.
All of this informs us that the spiritualization of the mantle to equate to power, status, and authority as a transferrable article of faith isn’t a teaching of Christ or any of the 1st century Church.
If we were to equate a covering with a mantle for the New Testament Church, try the WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD or the BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST. Let that cover you and provide access to the power and authority promised to us by our source of power and status.
ANOINTINGS
In peeling back the layers of the babel of charismatic witchcraft that is rampant in many of the prophetic and apostolic ministries, we find anointings under every name we can find in scripture and some even made-up names. The Bible tells us that there is no name above the name of Jesus Christ.
The term Christ is the English word for the Greek term ANOINTED ONE.
Remember 1 John 2:18-19? well, go another verse down and we are told that we have the ANOINTING of the Holy One. What are we lacking of HIS ANOINTING that we would need the anointing under the name of an Old or New Testament figure? When we give our lives to Christ, we are provided HIS ANOINTING (being continually conformed to HIS IMAGE). Christ told his disciples that ALL AUTHORITY in the heavens and earth was given to Him. Any anointing under any other name is INFERIOR.
We have to be careful that our zeal to walk in dominion doesn’t contradict scripture or our sound mind. To claim the anointing of Deborah, Joshua, Moses, David, Solomon, etc. is to imply that the anointing of Christ is lacking something, and this is antichrist teaching deployed to minimize the power and authority of Christ.
So when I see many of these commissioning and ordination “services” in which leaders are giving their mantles and anointing to someone, I tell you that I have NO MANTLE to give you, put on the whole armor of God. I have NO ANOINTING to give you, mine belongs to Christ-You must get that from Him!
Selah….
