Beaten Oil
What is up everybody?! I want to take just a few words here and welcome you to the Ascend blog! I am so excited to share with you and be apart of what God is doing in your life. These blog posts may vary in length and will focus on how we can live effective, victorious, Christian lives. So, without any further hoopla lets get into this!
I want to look at a short verse of scripture found in Leviticus 24:2 (ESV). The Lord is speaking to Moses, and it says: “Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly.”
The lamp of God, or the Menorah, was kept in the Holy place of the tabernacle. It was the only light that was present in this separated room that only the priesthood was allowed to minister in. It was here that incense was offered before the veil, it was here that the table of shewbread was laid as a food offering before the Lord. Without this lamp the full ministry of the tabernacle would have been hindered because the sight of the priests would have been limited. If the oil would not have been given, the work necessary for the people to be clean and covered before God would have been incomplete. This beaten oil was not only a necessary offering, it was a vital offering.
First I want to go back and look at the point that without the lamp having oil, there is not light, without light there is limited sight to minister. Can ministry take place without the oil? Yes. Can The priests do their jobs and serve the Lord as commanded? Yes. However, it slows the process and possibly sets up for mistakes to be made. Without the people taking the time to produce the oil and bring it to the house of God, the priesthood is limited and slowed in what they are able to accomplish for the Lord.
If we are not, as members of the body of Christ, brining our oil (our worship, praise, gifts, talents, the anointing God has placed on our lives) to the house of the Lord we cannot expect the Pastor or the church to be all that it can be. You are more vital to the ministry of the church than you think! Without your indispensable oil, ministry is limited. If we desire to see this world changed, impacted with the power of God, we must be purposeful in not only bringing our tithes and offerings to God’s house but bringing the oil that is being produced in our lives through the work of God in our daily walk.
So, you might be asking: “Ok, great I see that, but how is this oil you are talking about produced, how do I know I have it? How do I bring it?” Let’s look at the scripture. “pure oil from beaten olives.” Oil is a type and shadow of the anointing of God. It is a symbol of the Holy Spirit that was given to the followers of Jesus after His resurrection and ascension. Most all the oil used for ministry and anointing came from olives and was extracted using oil presses. This is one of the few times that God specifically states he wants the oil produced in a different way; beaten. As I looked at this I really began to ask God why? Why beaten oil? What follows in the next few points is what I believe the Spirit of God revealed to me.
Beaten oil. I believe that the reason we are not seeing a full release of the Apostolic five fold ministry occurring in the modern day church is because we have resisted the production of beaten oil in our lives. We understand that the pressure of life and the pressure of the weight of God’s glory produces an anointing that can be used in our lives. However, we seem to not fully embrace the other area of producing oil. There will be times in our lives when we see these circumstances that don’t make sense. Times where it feels like the whole world has turned against us, times when it feels like we are in the situation of David; sitting in the field watching sheep minding our own business.We are doing what we are supposed to do and out of nowhere a lion and a bear show up and here we are being attacked and fighting for our lives and for what has been put in our care. Why? Why am I fighting these wild animals, these things that I didn’t even provoke? Why did my parents divorce? why did my family member touch me in that way? why did the boyfriend force himself on me? why did those people purposefully run my name through the mud? We have all been there! We experience these moments where it feels like we are being beaten. I believe its these moments that can produce some of the greatest anointing in us. As we bring these moments, these circumstances to God he can take what looks broken and ugly and extract the oil from them.
Perhaps what we think breaks us, is what God wants to use to make us. It may seem pointless, as if God can never use it. I came to let you know, that if you will bring it to the house of God; there is a light, a power produced that can bring release and freedom to the house of God that will let others experience something that otherwise would not have been available to them. Just go back and look at David. It was the Lion and the Bear that uniquely qualified David to take down a giant and set a nation free. In the same way, God wants to use the situations, circumstances and places in our lives that seem as though they came to break us to bring freedom to others. God is not trying to beat you down, He wants the opportunity to extract the oil from your life. The greatest anointing you possess may not be in the good things of your life. Your most powerful anointing may lie in your ability to trust God with the hard times and allow Him to bring out the anointing in the middle of your mess.
Your brokenness doesn’t disqualify you, it makes you a dangerous threat to the kingdom of darkness, because your beaten oil will produce light.
I hope this word has blessed and encouraged you today. Keep producing oil, keep creating light, keep ascending!
TJ Oakley.