Tag: anointing

Jars of Oil

The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”

Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”

“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”

Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 

2 Kings 4:1-5

Hundreds of years before Jesus turned jars of water into wine, before His head was anointed with oil, before blood and water flowed from His side while He was on the cross, Elisha performed signs, wonders, and miracles that foreshadowed the ones done by Jesus.

The widow was in danger of the creditors taking everything, including her sons. Yet, through Elisha, God had an abundance for her. She kept pouring oil, and the oil kept pouring out. Jar after jar of olive oil was filled. By the end, she had enough to pay the debts and enough to live on. God was her provider.

The prosperity gospel has ruined large sections of the American church. It is a false gospel that is materialistic and empty. Yet, we can become so cautious about not falling into the trap of the prosperity gospel that we can forget that God does care about our financial situation. He does want to be our provider. It matters to Him whether the creditors come and take everything away. He wants to provide for us in our time of need.

The other truth the emerges from this story comes from the oil. In the Bible, oil was used for a few different reasons. First, there were the practical reasons. Oil was used in cooking, as fuel for lamps, and as a medicinal balm on skin that’s been injured.

Secondly, however, oil was used to consecrate people and items that were to be set apart. Oil was used to anoint kings and priests, to set them apart for a unique purpose. It was also used to consecrate items in the tabernacle as holy and set apart. In this same way, in the New Testament, people were anointed with oil before they received prayer for physical healing (Mark 6:12-13 & James 5:14-15). It was a way to mark them and set them apart for healing.

This same language of “anointing” is used when talking about the Holy Spirit in the New Testament (Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38; 2 Cor 1:21-22). Jesus was not only anointed as priest and king with oil but also with the anointing of the Holy Spirit and power.

So oil has this multi-faceted connotation in the New Testament of consecration and healing through the power of the Holy Spirit. This gives new meaning to the 2 Kings passage above. The oil of the Lord, the filling of the Holy Spirit, gets poured out in increasing measure. There is always more oil. Each empty jar gets filled to the brim. God always has more oil for us, more of the Spirit, more healing, more consecration. There’s always enough…more than enough.

If you need financial provision, God wants to provide. But most of us need more than just money. We need more of God’s Presence in this time. We need more of God’s peace and comfort. We need more of His power and healing. We need more of the tangible reality of the Holy Spirit flowing in us and through us. We need our empty jar to be filled with oil.

Jesus said this:

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.“

Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Luke 11:9-13

The Power of the Spirit

Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done.

Judges 14:5-6

Samson was set apart from birth. The angel of the Lord came to his mother and father and directed them regarding how to consecrate themselves and the baby to the Lord. Samson was set apart with a Nazarite vow from the time of his conception. God had a calling on his life as one who would begin to deliver the people of Israel from the oppressive rule of the Philistines.

This kind of exceptional consecration and calling resulted in an unusual level of anointing on Samson’s life. When the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, he was able to operate with an extreme level of power and authority. Samson didn’t always use this power wisely, but it was always available to him.

Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle.

Judges 14:19

Samson’s early life is a foreshadowing of Jesus’s birth and anointing. Jesus was similarly set apart from birth and operated in a similarly powerful anointing. And Jesus was the fulfillment of all that Samson wasn’t.

Samson is also a picture of what is available to us in the Holy Spirit. Samson had the Spirit come upon him in power. We have this same opportunity. As people who have surrendered our lives to Jesus, not only do we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, but we have access to the Holy Spirit coming upon us in power. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us for our sake but often comes upon us for the sake of others. When the Holy Spirit comes upon us in power, the enemy gets torn to shreds.

I’ve witnessed what happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon a person who is preaching. What is released in the room is more powerful than the words that are being spoken. People are cut to the heart by the word of God. People give their lives to Jesus for the first time. People respond with their whole hearts and their whole lives.

I’ve witnessed what happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon a person in prayer. Power is released on the person receiving prayer in such a way that dramatic things happen. Demons flee. They can’t seem to get out of there fast enough. Instant physical healings take place. The person’s body conforms to the Kingdom of God breaking into the kingdom of this world. Things are set right. Wounded hearts are repaired as the love of the Father is tangibly experienced.

Without the tangible demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit, Christianity devolves into just one religion among many. But when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon us in power, and the reality of the Kingdom of God is on display, Jesus is revealed for who He really is–King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

This is how the apostle Paul describes his own ministry:

I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. 

Romans 15:18:19

For Paul, to “fully proclaim” the gospel of Christ meant that signs and wonders through the power of the Spirit had to be on display. Anything less than that was not the full proclamation of the gospel of Christ. We are called to daily walk in the power of the Holy Spirit!