The Bible shows us that God's anointing is only for the One who has totally satisfied God's heart—His Son, Christ. If this is so, why does the Body receive the anointing? Psalm 133 shows us that the fine oil was poured on Aaron's head and ran down upon his beard to the hem of his garments. When a man is anointed, the oil is poured on the head of the anointed, not on the whole body. Yet after the oil is poured, it runs downward and eventually flows to the whole body. Because the Head is Christ, the Anointed One, the Body is also Christ. Christ is God's Anointed. The church is His Body. When Christ was anointed, the whole Body was anointed with Him. Christ is the great Anointed One, while the members are the little anointed ones. Yet we are not anointed separately; we were anointed in His Body, that is, in Christ, when He was anointed. It is impossible for us to be anointed in ourselves, because the Bible says, "Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured" (Exo. 30:32). We are anointed in Christ.
Luke 3:22 tells us what happened after the Lord was baptized in the river Jordan. "The Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove upon Him. And a voice came out of heaven: You are My Son, the Beloved; in You I have found My delight." Luke 4:18 says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to announce the gospel to the poor." From these verses we see that the Lord was anointed with the Holy Spirit when He came out of the water of baptism at the Jordan River. Genesis 8 records that after the flood, Noah opened the window of the ark and sent out a dove. However, the dove could not find any place to rest because the whole earth was filled with water, and it returned back to the ark. (The passage of Noah's ark through the deluge is a type of baptism.) At the time of Christ's baptism, the Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove. This signifies that at the time of Christ's baptism, He received the anointing of the Holy Spirit. In the same way, when we were baptized, we also received the anointing of the Spirit.
Baptism signifies that everything of the old, natural man is buried. For the anointing to come after baptism means that in order for us to receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit, our flesh must first be buried. Only that which is of the Lord can rise up after baptism because anything that belongs to the believers themselves is only qualified for burial. Anything that can rise up after burial has to be something in resurrection. It can rise up because Christ is in it. When we are baptized in Christ, we pass through death, burial, and resurrection with Him. Hence, when He was anointed, we were anointed also. We are crucified, buried, resurrected, and anointed together with Him.