Now, by way of disclaimer, let me say that there are situations where the sayings may apply. The purpose of this exhortation, however, is to address the times in which people often apply these sayings in places where they should not.

“He’s not anointed” – This saying may also take the form of the following expression, ‘He doesn’t have the anointing.’ The idea being – the person who is speaking or singing or preaching doesn’t have, according to the person making the statement, the power of the Holy Spirit working through them. This saying is incredibly problematic because it is almost always slung from one Christian at another, and, according to the New Testament every Christian is anointed.

When the apostle John was writing to Christians in general he said, “you have been anointed by the Holy One” (1 Jn 2:20); and then, shortly after that he wrote, “the anointing you have received from Him abides in you” (1 Jn 2:27). Granted, there may be different measures of effectiveness (Mt. 13:8; cf. Eph 5:18), just as there are different abilities (Rom 12:4-8), but nonetheless, every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:9; 1 Cor 3:16) and every Christian is anointed and empowered for ministry by the Holy Spirit (Rom 12:6).

Therefore, when someone looks at another Christ-exalting Christian and says, “he is not anointed”, they are in essence saying, “the Holy Spirit is not working through that person”. The person with the ‘Holy Spirit measuring stick’ props themselves up to be ‘someone who really knows when the Spirit is working based upon what they can sense and everyone else is to take their word for it and/or agree in, what essentially amounts to, slanderous arrogance’.

If a person is a Christian, God has given them His Spirit; thus, what the anointing of oil symbolized (i.e. the Holy Spirit coming upon a person and empowering them for a particular task) is the reality of all Christians (1 Jn 2:20,27). Biblically-speaking, if he or she is Christian, he or she is anointed.