Over the next couple of weeks or so I’ll be on vacation. While I’m gone I’ve felt that I should repost some of my most read articles that I feel are important. Some of you have been following me long enough to have read them already. If so, my prayer is that they will again be a blessing to you.
Most people don’t fully understand the teacher’s anointing. What’s the purpose of a teacher in the body of Christ? I think the answer will surprise a lot of people.
There are many who think the reason we need teachers is so that we can learn what’s in the Bible. Actually, it seems to me that this is what most teachers are trying to do. They believe that it’s all about getting my knowledge of the Scripture into your brain.
I’m here to tell you that this is NOT what God is calling teachers to do in His kingdom. Yes, we are to use the Scripture, but the purpose has to be according to God’s agenda.
For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life…
Proverbs 6:23
The calling of a teacher is to bring light. Specifically, godly teaching shines a light on the way of life. It shows how to get from where you are now, to where God wants you to be.
Scriptural teaching is never about knowledge and always about life. You know that you’ve sat under an anointed teacher because you leave with an understanding of how to walk on a higher level with Christ.
As a matter of fact, if you look up the word “taught” in the New Testament, you’ll find out that it’s always about how to live. They were taught how to walk as a new creature in Christ. They were taught the walk of faith and how to love one another.
We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
Colossians 1:28
This is the goal. It’s the perfecting of the saints. A teacher’s anointing brings with it a passion for the building up of the body of Christ.
As I look around the church of this generation, I see very few who operate in the teacher’s anointing. That doesn’t mean that there are few called and anointed teachers. The problem is that if the only examples you’ve seen are those who simply pass on Bible knowledge, then that’s the course you’ll follow. We need teachers who are willing to spend time listening to the Holy Spirit.
This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
1 Corinthians 2:13
I think that we should listen to the Apostle Paul. After all, he did write most of the New Testament. Where do you think he got his teaching from?
As for me, I know that I’m called as a teacher. I also know that I’ll be judged more strictly. I want to make sure that the message of my teaching is not simply Bible knowledge, but the true light of the Word of God for the hearers.
This should be the heart of every teacher of the Word.
Question: How do you recognize a teacher walking in his or her anointing?
© 2021 Nick Zaccardi
The Spirit and the Word 