Heidi Baker’s Testimony: The Transforming Power of the Anointing
Heidi Baker was in burnout mode.
At the time, she considered working at K-mart and leaving her call to ministry. I witnessed her life being radically transformed. I remember when she came from Mozambique to our church in Toronto; she was so exhausted. “I was burned out. Even though I had a doctorate in systematic theology, I did not want to teach theology,” she said in a CBN news interview. “I literally wanted to work at K-mart. I was so tired.”
Now, Heidi and her husband Roland lead IRIS Global, a ministry that began several thousand churches: “Jesus took the ‘no’ from me—the eyes, the burning eyes of Jesus. Now, I have been to 109 nations, preaching this glorious Gospel,” Heidi says.
When she first came to our church, she was spiritually drained and physically ill with double pneumonia. The first thing that happened was that she was completely healed; right after the healing she had a vision. Then, “I saw Jesus—burning eyes of a burning love. God came to me.”
Heidi ran to the altar, raised her hands, and started shouting, “Yes!” And the fire of God hit her. There was no altar call.
Randy Clark, who did not know her, said, “God wants to know if you want the nation of Mozambique.”
Heidi shouted, “Yes!” Then the fire hit her, the power hit her. She started vibrating with power and shouted, “God, I am going to die!”
God said, “Well, I want you to die. You see, you have to die to yourself to live indeed, so you can really take the glory of God.”
What happened to her? What can the anointing do? As we mentioned, it has a wonderful debilitating effect. He caused Heidi to literally fall apart like a fabric doll for a whole week. And yet it wasn’t the craziest thing He did to her. Right after that, for seven days and seven nights God left her disabled. She had to be carried around by her husband. People had to bring her in and out of her hotel in Toronto on a suitcase cart. She says, “Then, they had to take me to the restroom. That was the most humiliating time of all my life.”
Why would God do such a thing? Heidi said she needed to learn to love and to depend not only on Jesus but also on His people. God told her, “You can do nothing without the Body of Christ.” And He caused her to be so handicapped that for seven days and seven nights she had to learn that she did not need Jesus only, she also needed His Body.
Since then, Heidi Baker’s ministry has been expanding extraordinarily. Today, her organization includes well-drilling, free-of-charge health clinics for the poor, feeding programs, primary and secondary schools, and home industries. Now, more than 10,000 churches have been planted in Mozambique, and thousands of churches in more than twenty nations.
How is it that such a great and extraordinary work could be built by the ministry of this little woman and her husband? How can such an impacting and successful work be built among the people of Mozambique after innumerable attempts with no success in the mission field? No doubt the driving force of this great work is the power of the Holy Spirit and His transforming anointing.
Why Should You Desire the Double Portion of the Spirit?
The testimony of Heidi Baker illustrates how the anointing can radically transform the call on a person’s life. The anointing can deeply affect the purpose, the mission, and the destiny of a person’s life!
The prophet Elisha desired the anointing with all his heart and never flinched. He had what I call a “thinking big” will! He never gave up. He experienced a huge transformation in every area of his life, expanding extraordinarily his area of influence. Before he was empowered by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Elisha was simply a farmer who lived unknown to history. At the time, there is no mention of any miracles whatsoever being done by him. He had an absolutely ordinary life. After experiencing the double portion of the Spirit, everything changed. He jumped from just a servant lifestyle to a life marked by the supernatural.
After he was anointed, Elisha started having words of knowledge and started to see creative miracles in his life. He became a powerful prophet in his time. He was used by God to supernaturally change the course of nature, topography, weather dispositions, and see life spring forth from the dead. He prophesied the fall of the kingdoms and he ended famine and hunger. He also affected the course of economics by the power of prophecy. He directed governments, war courses/paths, and the destiny of kings. His word of command healed Naaman’s leprosy, the Syrian general, besides keeping the Shunammite’s family from the crisis that devastated Samaria for seven years. Elisha, who lived in the field, started being heard as a prophetic voice in palaces.
Steve Long, who has been my good friend for years, says, “There is only one Holy Spirit.” The same Spirit who was upon Elisha, Peter, and Paul is the same Holy Spirit who dwells in you. And if the same Spirit who performed all these works by the prophet Elisha is dwelling in you, then you can also do what Elisha did. Desire the double portion of the Spirit with all your heart!
The Power of the Anointing
The anointing is the overflow of Christ in your life! It comes to us when we spend time in God’s Word, seek Him with all our hearts, and worship Him. Jesus said:
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you (John 15:7).
We increase our anointing by spending time in His presence. And in time, you will begin to know when the presence of the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
Revelation of the Anointing
I was invited to Israel to speak to a group of pastors. This was directly after the Lord asked me to learn everything possible about the anointing. From my room, I saw Bedouin shepherds roaming with their sheep. In my hand, I had a vacation Bible school lesson that my wife gave me to review and study for the following Sunday service, as she was one of the children’s pastors. As I was reading the Sunday school lesson and watching the shepherds, I heard the Lord speak to me: “The anointing means to rub.” It was like I was getting a visual, a written, and an audible message hitting me all at once. It was all revelation based.
The VBS lesson was about the practice of a shepherd anointing his sheep. As the shepherd would roam the hills and land with the sheep he loves and watches over, he would pour oil on the sheep and rub it into their wool. Stickers and other insects often got in the sheep’s wool and could harm the sheep. In fact, if certain bugs entered the sheep’s ears, they could get into the brain. The pain from the bugs would be so severe that the sheep would bang its skull on rocks and against trees to ease its suffering. The sheep could break its own skull seeking relief from the brain-eating parasites.
Therefore, shepherds poured oil on the head of the sheep. The oil acted as a bug repellant against the insects. They could not come near the ears because of the oily substance on the sheep’s wool.
The Word of God tells us that God anoints His people with oil just as the shepherds anoint the heads of their sheep with oil. Because of this, the anointing is a symbol of blessing, protection, and strength. The anointing is our greatest weapon against the enemy’s attacks.
The Meaning of the Anointing
The Greek words for “anointing” are chrio—which means “blotch or rub with oil” and, by implication, “to be consecrated to the religious office or service”—and aleipho, which means “to anoint.” In biblical times, people were anointed with oil to represent God’s blessing, calling, or even comfort upon their life (see Exod. 29:7; 40:9; 2 Kings 9:6; Eccles. 9:8; James 5:14). A person was anointed for a special purpose—to be a king, to be a prophet, to be a builder, etc.
Nowadays, there is nothing wrong with anointing someone with oil. Our only concern should be that the purpose of the anointing is according to Scripture. The anointing shouldn’t be seen as a magic potion. The oil has no special value in itself, unless the supernatural Presence comes on the oil. Only God can anoint a person for a specific purpose. If we use the oil, it is just a symbol of what God is doing. We have seen all kinds of supernatural activity—oil being released from Bibles, through people’s hands, etc.
The other meaning of the word anointed is “chosen.” The Bible says Jesus was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit to spread the good news and set free those who were being held captives under sin (see Luke 4:18-19; Acts 10:38). After Jesus, the Christ—literally, “the anointed one”—left the earth, He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit (see John 14:16). Now every Christian is anointed, chosen for a specific purpose, which is to promote the Kingdom of God (see 1 John 2:20).
Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).
The Multiplication of the Anointing
In 1 Kings 17, we read about Elisha and the widow of Zarephath. The widow desperately needed a miracle. All she had left for her and her son was a bit of flour and a small quantity of oil to make some food. God performed a miracle that changed her life completely by multiplying her offering much beyond anything she could have dreamed. The oil and flour in the different jars did not run out until the rain came.
Today, when God starts moving in your life, the oil begins to flow, taking care of every need in your life. You will not lack anything. That’s what God wants for you today. He is moving powerfully on the face of the earth. When you seek Him with all your heart, the oil will flow over you, and all your desires will be met. When He is the Shepherd of your life, you lack nothing!
Multiplication Scriptures and Examples
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn…blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies” (Genesis 22:15-17).
I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small (Jeremiah 30:19).
Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied (Acts 9:31).
Seven Examples of Multiplication
1. The multiplication of the flour and oil (see 1 Kings 17:16)
2. The multiplication of wealth (see Genesis 30:35-43)
3. The multiplication of seeds (see Mark 4:26-28)
4. The multiplication of the fish and bread (see John 6:1-14)
5. The multiplication of harvest (see Genesis 26:12)
6. The multiplication of the disciples (Acts 6:7)
7. The multiplication of the oil (see 2 Kings 4:1-7)
Revival Multiplication
We read in the book Acts: “But the word of God grew and multiplied” (Acts 12:24). When the Holy Spirit comes with power, a great multiplication of the Church takes place. When the church is in a revival, as Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “When God acts, he can do more in a minute than man with his organising can do in fifty years.”(1)
Note
1. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1987), 122
