Four Faces of Anointing: The Eagle
Throughout history, leaders have been anointed and appointed. Take, for example, the recent coronation of King Charles III on May 6, 2023. Millions of people watched as the former Prince of Wales became the King of the United Kingdom. One portion of the ceremony, however, was kept from the peering eye of the public. It was the anointing of the king. Beyond being a private and intimate part of the coronation, it was a ritual that in bygone days was believed to confer divine office, help, authority, and power upon the monarch. Hidden under a canopy, the Archbishop of Canterbury anointed the sovereign’s hands, chest, and head with holy oil. Interestingly, the Ampulla that held the sacred oil the Archbishop used was in the shape of an eagle.
In Christianity, there is shape or form to the anointing. It is seen most beautifully and perfectly in Jesus the Anointed One. His very Person manifests the grace and power of the Spirit of God. The anointing upon the Christian leader is the same multifaceted anointing Jesus has. It is the manifested enablement of God’s Spirit for ministry or service.
The Multifaceted Anointing
Revelation 4 describes the throne in heaven. And among the many hosts, happenings, and things around the throne, there are “four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind” (Revelation 4:6 ESV). Out of all the created beings that God ever made, these four cherubim dwell the closest to the glory of God’s throne. And each is described in Revelation 4:7 as having a face: one cherub has a face like an eagle, another like a lion, another like an ox, and the last like a man.
Ezekiel 1:10 also mentions four living creatures appearing in the manifestation of the glory of God. These creatures possess the same likeness or appearance as those in Revelation 4.
What we can gather from looking at Scripture is the proximity of these four living beings to the glory of God’s throne causes them to reflect four facets or aspects of Jesus, the Anointed One, who is sitting upon the throne.
It is interesting to note that, as Charles H. Spurgeon read through the Gospels, he saw something other Church Fathers, like Jerome for example, had noticed: Each Gospel painted a distinct picture of Jesus.
Matthew reflected Jesus as a man, focusing on His genealogy.
Mark painted Jesus as the lion, stressing His Kingship as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
Luke highlighted Jesus’ sacrifice and labor, picturing Him as an ox or beast of burden.
John, on the other hand, gave a different view of Jesus from a heavenly perspective as an eagle, emphasizing His deity.
In the portraiture of the Gospels, these four faces of the cherubim can be seen.
Now, what we need to know is that, just as these four unique creatures and four distinct Gospels illustrate the personality of the Anointed One, they also describe the same four facets of the very same anointing that God puts on every single leader. He gives a measure of grace or anointing upon each of us (see Romans 12:3; Ephesians 4:7 ESV).
So, the calling we have upon our lives is a result of the grace of God upon our lives. The calling is irrevocable, but the qualification to walk in fullness of our calling requires obedience. And part of our obedience as leaders is managing or stewarding the anointing. We put much work and effort into managing and stewarding time, money, and people. But what about the anointing upon our lives?
The anointing on our lives is the single most important thing that we must steward. Over the next few articles here at Built for War, we will look at each face of the anointing and what we can do to steward each well.
The Face of the Eagle: Vision
The face of the eagle represents vision. Vision is the treasure of heaven entrusted to leaders. Proverbs 29:18 is best translated as, “Where there is no prophetic vision—vision from heaven—the people cast off restraint.” It’s not enough to have vision. We must have vision from heaven.
Here are some important things to know about vision:
Vision is the number-one most treasured asset or commodity a leader can possess. The apostle Paul told Timothy, his spiritual son, “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you” (1 Timothy 6:20 ESV). The deposit or anointing entrusted to us is precious. It’s so invaluable to us that it needs guarding and protecting.
Vision is the difference maker in leadership. When we have it, it makes us stronger, better, and more confident. When we don’t have it, nothing makes us more vulnerable. Consider David. When Goliath the Philistine taunted the Israelite army, David had vision of taking out the giant. And David did so with a sling and five smooth stones. There was a time after he became king, however, when he didn’t go out to war with his troops. In the absence of heavenly vision, he went out on a rooftop. And in his boredom, he saw Bathsheba and made a series of decisions that resulted in grave sin. Having no heavenly vision made him vulnerable to the enemy’s attack.
Calling is permanent, but vision is conditional. “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29 ESV). But vision is dependent upon our obedience. The apostle Paul gave his defense before the king and said, “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19 ESV). On the road to Damascus, Paul had seen Jesus. He had heavenly vision that gave him purpose. Jesus told Paul what He wanted him to do. For years, Paul gave himself to that vision. And in chains before King Agrippa, he could honestly say he had obeyed the vision from heaven.
Vision from heaven is not the same as human imaginations and planning. Vision always originates in heaven and not in our imaginations or planning. We can come up with all kinds of ideas, but they are not equivalent to vision from heaven. We must receive our daily bread from God, and He will give us seasonal direction that is part of a long-term vision from Him.
Momentum is not vision. We are living in a unique era where we can lead without vision because we have enough tools, platform, and influence to generate momentum in what we’re doing. But momentum does not equal the anointing of God, the favor and blessing of God, or vision from God.
Vision comes from waiting on God. Our number-one ministry is to God first. When we wait on Him, we catch the thermal draft of the Holy Spirit to restore this ability to minister to Him. And that’s when we properly see and hear what it is He wants to say to us.
How to Steward Vision
We must be intentional in stewarding vision. We have the primary responsibility before God to care for and keep what He has committed to us. So, here are some ways to do that:
Guard the vision. Remember what the apostle Paul told Timothy. Timothy had to guard the deposit entrusted to him and so do we. Part of this means always keeping the vision in front of us. We cannot lose sight of it. We should write it down and refer to it often. We even need to make it a part of our daily prayer requests and petitions to God. Guarding sometimes means fighting, so we want to fight with faith, believing that the vision will come to pass. We want to battle through doubt and fear each day, knowing if God has given us the vision, He will bring it to pass. Guarding the vision will mean our keeping the main thing the main thing, helping us to prioritize what we do each day with our lives.
Ensure personal plans and desires don’t overtake heavenly vision. We may have personal plans or desires that compete with God’s vision. We need to ask ourselves some serious questions like: “Is what I’m wanting to do my own dream, or is it God’s dream? Do I want to do what I want to do more than I want to do what God is asking me to do?” This may lead to our laying aside and even surrendering personal plans and desires to do what’s required to fulfill the vision from heaven.
Obey God and adjust daily living accordingly. We love five-year plans, don’t we? Give us a marker board, and we’re ready to flowchart and plan everything out. But we’re talking about heavenly vision. Obedience should be our five-year plan. If we show up daily in the place of prayer, and if we obey what God tells us to do along the way, we will find some things we thought needed to happen or things we needed to do aren’t part of the vision like we assumed they were. We will discover this truth: The more we give ourselves to radical obedience to the part we know today of the vision, the more clarity will come for tomorrow’s part of the vision. We accomplish vision one obedient step at a time and one day at a time.
Keep your eyes clean. We must keep our eyes clean from the visions that others want to paint on our lenses. Others will tell us what they think we should do or pursue. They will tell us to build our own platforms and pursue personal gain. If we’re not careful, we will be enamored by the visions they are putting before us. In Revelation 3:18, Jesus told the church at Laodicea to buy “salve to anoint” their eyes because they were blind to their spiritual condition. We need clean and pure eyes—eyes anointed by the Anointed One—to see the vision of heaven in all clarity.
Wait on God and trust in Him. The greatest threat to vision is not outward resistance but inner reliance. When we trust in ourselves and get comfortable with our ability to interpret where we’re at in the vision or what we “know” we should do, we stop waiting on God. We stop looking to Him for perspective and direction. We need to know His heart and His vision for us and not rely on ourselves. Proverbs 3:5–7 instructs us: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil” (ESV).
Do not compromise. The enemy of our vision is hired by hell and sponsored by fear. Remember we are in a spiritual war. Hell will do everything in its power to raise up adversaries and obstacles against us. Think David again with Bathsheba. Or think Joseph in the Old Testament, whose brothers sold him into slavery and whose boss’s wife falsely accused him later of sleeping with her. Hell will do anything it can to put us in a position of compromise so that the vision won’t be realized. We must guard our hearts and “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might,” putting on God’s armor so we can stand against the enemy’s schemes (Ephesians 6:10–11 ESV).
Leaders, we must have the anointing with its face like an eagle with vision from heaven. We must also have the anointing of courage with its face like a lion. We will take a good look at courage in the next post.
