What is the core essence of “eternal life?” It is an intimate knowledge of the heavenly Father through an experience of Jesus Christ. The Lord Himself testified to this reality when He prayed to the Father, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3, NIV).

“You were dead in your sins and transgressions,” Paul writes in Ephesians 2:1. This word “dead” means completely devoid of God’s presence and life. Sin had caused this “death”- perceived separation from God’s presence.

From these passages, we can glean the symbolic purpose of the anointing. This was God’s way of commissioning individuals for the role of king, priest, or prophet. An anointing indicated God’s approval of individuals for these roles. The men in these offices were considered to have no earthly superior and answered directly to God.

The anointing propels us into the spiritual roles of prophets, priests, and kings in God’s advancing kingdom. These roles allow us to live spirituallyempowered lifestyles that radiate the light and love of Christ into a dark and unbelieving world. Understanding the roles and responsibilities of the kingdom prophet, priest, and king is essential for

“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not with words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words...we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:12-16

Eternal life is Jesus Himself, who has healed the separation between God and man. Through the cross, the Lord has restored humanity’s ability to access and experience God’s presence. For the Jewish people (i.e. the Bible writers), life is God’s presence. To be absent from God’s presence is to be living in death. Absence from God’s presence prevents

directly through the mind. We are living signs and symbols of what God is saying and doing in the heavenly realm. 2. We are a priestly people. We host, reflect, and manifest the very presence of God. The new humanity is the location of God’s revelatory presence on earth. As we abide in holiness and purity and offer our bodies as living sacrifices,

of heaven meeting earth. In other words, it was the place of union between the divine and human. It was a kind of interdimensional rift (think sci-fi movies here) where spiritual acts of worship would cause God’s realm (“heaven”) to break into the human realm (“earth”). The temple was an extremely special place that lay at the heart of Israel’s

A prophet is an anointed individual who carries, identifies with, and releases the presence of Jesus Christ. The prophetic life is truly multi-layered and multi-faceted. At its core we find these three essential responsibilities: carry, identify with, release.