The Price of Oil is Very High

As in the natural, so in the spirit. The price of the oil of God, the anointing, the Holy Spirit, is coming at a greater price than ever before in this end time we’re in.

Man’s black oil, is highly coveted and therefore perpetuates greed, materialism, consumerism, and many evils stemming from this love for money. These all are ways and values diabolically opposed to the ways of God and His Kingdom.

You might complain about the prices at the gas pumps, but still pay it. How much are you willing to ‘pay’ to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward?

I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. So let those [of us] who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also.

Philippians 3:12-15 [Amplified Bible]

Calling ourselves Christians won’t cut it. Tithing won’t, church attendance won’t, Bible reading won’t, money to charities won’t either. For this prize, more, much more is required. Not works, but faith, and not an idle faith. A faith that walks the talk. A faith that trusts the spirit of God more than the arm of flesh, the ways of man and this world.

For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.  (Philippians 3:18-19)

The Spirit has been whispering to me the scripture about where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where are your treasures? In your SUV? Vacation? Fine furnishings? Fashion? RRSP’s? Businesses? Career? Church volunteering? Calling earthly things ‘Christian’ doesn’t make them Godly.

If God asked you to give it up for more of Him, that you could feed and clothe the natural and spiritually starved and lacking, how much could you, and how much would you give up? This much, but no more? Or all? All that you have and all that you can acquire? Or would you always look to hold something back for yourself?

To the extent that we are still enmeshed in with the ways of the world, we are still in Egypt. To the extent that we have exceeding difficulty to let go of our attachments to things and the ways of the world system, Egypt is still in us.

We all know this is the end times. Think about what it is the end of. I think God is saying to many of us, it is the end of the flesh. It is the end of this time you have been in Babylon/Egypt. He is calling us onward and upward. This comes at a price. The path gets narrower here. Few there are that find it.

This oil is exceedingly great. If you’ll pay it at the pumps of the world, how much are you willing to pay for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness?

 

Trust God?

What does it mean to trust God? We (Christians) say it all the time, that we trust God. But what is it we trust God with?

Salvation. Yes. I think most Christians understand this to mean that God has promised them eternal life and they trust God to deliver on this promise.

Forgiveness for their sins. Yes. Again, most Christians understand that at the time of their ‘born again’ experience God has forgiven them the sins they have committed up until that point. They understand that God has promised them this and trust that He will deliver. Somehow though, most of us tend to forget His all encompassing forgiveness and condemn ourselves for the sins we commit that follow our initial consecration.

But what else? What else do we really trust God with or for? Most would say they trust God with their lives, but what do they mean by this? How do they live like they trust God with their lives? How are we to walk in that trust, that faith?

Do we trust God with our jobs? With our kids? With our health? Do we even trust God to keep us, teach us and lead us without our local church? Or pastor? Or fellowship group? Or Bible study?

This question has long been rolling around inside of me, for years. I believe the Holy Spirit asks me this same question every now and then because I need to re-examine it after having been through more testing and teachings of God, in order that these things be established.

I look at the path that brought me to this point, spiritually, in my life. I have to shake my head. There is no other way I would be here, and know what I have learned in the spirit, had God’s grace not brought me here by His own design and intention. I could have been so far gone in any other direction by now. But it was the Holy Spirit turning my heart, little by little, here and there, that brought me to this place and time. I didn’t do it. I didn’t ‘choose’ this or decide to be here.

So I look at what I personally know the Holy Spirit is capable of and have to ask myself “Do I trust God to keep doing that?”, “Do I trust God can do that with others too?”

God delivered me from a 20+ year cigarette smoking addiction. Do I trust He could do that for someone else? Do I trust that God knows what He is doing? Do I trust that God has a plan and purpose and isn’t just waiting for Christians to get their act together so He can start showing miracles and really healing people?

There are some sons of God who enter the dens of sinners and with the eyes, the heart and love of Jesus, they find those the Spirit leads them to and they put an arm around them, they hug them or just touch them, even those with disease and sores. These sons do not fear for their lives. Should they contract something and die, they do so in honor of Him whom they love and obey and seek to serve, because they trust Him. If they do not contract anything and live, they continue in serving Him in any capacity God requests, because they trust Him.

I read of a man who so pressed in to God that while he was alone and having a heart attack, he trusted God and did not seek men for help. For hours he stayed at the foot of Him (Jesus) for whom he chose to live and die, while having this heart attack. If it were God’s will to take him, so be it, he trusted God. If it were God’s will that he should live, so be it, he lives and continues to serve the one whom he loves and trusts.

So let me ask you again, do you trust God? When something happens in your life, big or small, do you trust God?

I think our life course is to be a progression into a full trust of God. Without this trust and full faith in Him to keep us, whether we live or die, suffer or not, have or have not, how is He glorified? Without it, how are we ONE with Him? Without it, how do we hope to attain to the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ?