The Anointing: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Another benefit of this slower summer season is the opportunity to reflect upon how this past year has gone and upon the direction of this next year. I find that a timely book is often an important part of this evaluation process.

Yesterday as I was looking at my loaded bookshelves and asking God for direction about what to read, I was struck by R.T. Kendall's The Anointing: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1999). My dad gave me this book and I first read it in 2001.

The Rev./Dr. Kendall is an American who became senior pastor at Westminster Chapel in London, where G. Campbell Morgan and Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones preceded him.

One thing about Dr. Kendall that I appreciate is his trying to be a person of the Word and of the Spirit. Because of his trying to be a balance of both, he has taken criticism from extremists on both sides.

In the book's introduction, Kendall writes:

As we consider the anointing and ultimately the coming together of the Word and the Spirit, we will focus on three biblical characters: King Saul, whom I see as a type of yesterday's man (or anointing); the prophet Samuel, a symbol representing today's man; and David, an example of tomorrow's man. The book consequently is in three parts: Yesterday's Anointing, Today's Anointing, and Tomorrow's Anointing. It is my belief that tomorrow's anointing will result in the long-awaited combination, prophesied by Smith-Wigglesworth in 1947, of the Word and the Spirit. I long for that day. (p. xix)