Oil Part 22

Haggai 1:7-11 NKJV

Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified," says the LORD. "You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" says the LORD of hosts. "Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands."

God's people were told that sustenance was being withheld from them because of their neglect of God's house - the Old Testament temple. Their priorities were in the wrong place and they could not expect God to continue to meet their needs while they ignored His. They had a covenant relationship which meant reciprocal action. God said He was withholding rain, grain, wine and oil until they corrected their behavior.

Spiritual parallel: We need spiritual sustenance from God which includes oil - the anointing and the Holy Spirit. If we begin to neglect our Father and begin detaching ourselves from the Source of our total supply, we have no way of avoiding spiritual drought. If we go off on our own and cease waiting on the Lord - ministering to His needs and giving attention and priority to what He wants, we will find ourselves struggling, and failing to avoid dryness. We must regain and maintain our position as a waiter for God, paying attention at all times to His needs and desires. Jesus taught us to make the Kingdom business a priority and all our natural needs will be met. In the same way, when we make the needs of our Lord priority, our spiritual needs will be met.

Matthew 6:33 NKJV

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

James 4:8a NKJV

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Psalm 63:1-4 NKJV

O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.  So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.

Oil Part 21

Ezekiel 46:14 NKJV

And you shall prepare a grain offering with it every morning, a sixth of an ephah, and a third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour. This grain offering is a perpetual ordinance, to be made regularly to the LORD.

Whenever the grain offering was presented to the Lord, it included oil.

Spiritual parallel: God does not want dry praise and worship.

John 4:23-24 NKJV

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

We need to go to our spirits and lift up our praise and worship with the aid of the anointing that lives in us. We must focus on lifting up before the Lord our hearts (spirits), not our heads. When we lift up our voices, we should connect our mouths to our spirits and not our heads.

1 Corinthians 14:15 NKJV

What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.

As the oil prevented the grain offering from being dry, adding the spirit prevents our worship from being dry. We need to offer spiritual, not natural worship.

Oil, Part 20

Ezekiel 16:9 NKJV
"Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil."

The Lord used an example of a person that needed to be washed and ministered to as He described what He did for the Jews. After the woman in the story was washed with water, He anointed her with oil. Water can cleanse but it can leave the skin feeling dry.The anointing with oil after washing is like a finishing touch. It is soothing and refreshing.
Spiritual parallel: After we receive cleansing from whatever dirt or filth that was attached to us as a result of worldly contamination, we need to hang around for the Holy Spirit to anoint us. We need to receive God's love until we feel no dryness. After we are forgiven and cleansed, our enemy or our own minds can cause us to feel dry - undeserving of God's love. So we cannot stop with the washing. We must stay in God's presence for the finishing touch - the oil of the Holy Spirit's anointing.

Oil Part 19

Isaiah 61:1-3 NKJV

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; [2] To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, [3] To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."

This passage was prophetic concerning Jesus the Messiah. It says that the oil of joy was to be given to those who were mourning. The first verse says "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me."Jesus was anointed and so are we. We are members of a supernatural family, and we should not just look for natural solutions to our issues. Sometimes we have failed when we used natural means to deal with problems because they appeared to be natural.  The reason we were unsuccessful was because those natural problems had spiritual roots that needed to be dealt with first. Even when we are dealing with a problem that can be solved naturally, we can fix it faster and better if we tap into our spiritual resources. When it comes to dealing with grief, we must never use only natural means. If grief is not dealt with spiritually and quickly, it can become the root of other disorders. So the oil or anointing and the Holy Spirit should always be incorporated in our solution for mourning, sorrow, grief, etc. When we allow the Holy Spirit and the anointing to help us in our recovery from sorrow, powerful positive results that cannot be explained naturally will come.

Oil Part 18

Isaiah 10:27 NKJV

It shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.

Isaiah prophesied to Israel about what they would suffer from the hand of their adversaries. Then he tells them how they would finally be freed from their bondage. He said the yoke, representing bondage to their oppressors would be destroyed by the anointing oil. Regardless of what the enemy has done to us, what bondage he has placed us under, the answer is still the same. The oil of the Holy Spirit and the anointing will set us free. It would be a waste of time to go here and there trying this and that for deliverance and freedom. We must stick with the oil until our victory manifests.

Oil Part 17

Ecclesiastes 9:8 NKJV

Let your garments always be white,
And let your head lack no oil.

As Solomon encouraged men to enjoy and make the most of their lives with what God has blessed them with, he said “let your head lack no oil.” Oil was something added to make the hair look nice. It could improve your appearance. The Amplified Version suggests “oil [of gladness].” Generally speaking, when you look better, you feel better.

Spiritual parallel: When we add the Holy Spirit and the anointing to our heads, we will look better and feel better. Our heads represent the part of us that wants to control our lives but has no business doing so. We need to apply oil to allow the Holy Spirit to control our heads, thereby controlling our actions. We cannot afford to walk around with insufficient oil on our heads. We will not act or feel right. Consequently, if we do not feel right and are not acting right, one of the things we might need to check is the dryness of our heads. Better yet, let us avoid getting dry by keeping oil on our heads through praying with the spirit and fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit continually morning to evening.