The oil of the spirit

The children of Israel longed to be like all the other nations.  They were not happy with God's prophets nor were they happy having God as their leader.  They longed for a king, someone they could physically look upon as their leader.  When they cried out to God for a king, their cries were heard.  God spoke to his prophet Samuel and told him he would send a man that would be anointed king over Israel. 

 1 Samuel 9:15-17
¹⁵ Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came, saying,
¹⁶ To morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel, that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines: for I have looked upon my people, because their cry is come unto me.
¹⁷ And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said unto him, Behold the man whom I spake to thee of! this same shall reign over my people.

Samuel anointed Saul with oil and made him king.  When Saul disobeyed God and fell away, God sent his prophet to anoint David to replace him.  David too was anointed with oil. 

1 Samuel 16:1 

 ¹And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.

As the story goes, Jessie had many strong sons, but God does not look upon the outward appearance.  He chose this king based upon the his spirit and David had the spirit of God.  He loved the Lord with all his heart.  This time God chose a man after his own heart and he was anointed with oil.

1 Samuel 16:12-13

¹² And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.
¹³ Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

This tradition of anointing with oil was not new.  It began all the way back to when Aaron was anointed to be priest over Israel. 

Exodus 30:30
³⁰ And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office.

The oil represented the spirit of God, the Holy Ghost.  Each time someone was anointed with oil, they were filled with God's spirit and their ministry began with God leading them.  This tradition of pouring oil upon the man of God stopped long ago, but each ministry must begin with the spirit of God or the ministry is not of God.  When Jesus was baptized by John, the spirit descended like a dove and his ministry began.  The twelve disciples walked with Jesus, but their true ministry didn't begin until the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost came and filled them with the spirit!  The Holy Ghost is the OIL!!  Are you doing a work for God today?  Have you allowed his spirit to guide you?  Without the spirit of God to guide the man of God, then there is only a speaker.  The bible teaches us that without the spirit, we are none of his.  We have many inspirational speakers leading the people today, but they are not of God!  Paul taught us that we must have the spirit, the HOLY GHOST!! 

Romans 8:8-10
⁸ So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
⁹ But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
¹⁰ And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

The bible teaches that God is the same, yesterday, today and forever.  The spirit of God never changes and he still wants to lead his people toward the truth.  I want to encourage you today to do a work for God, but in doing so you must allow his spirit to guide you.  Every ministry or work must first begin with the filling of God's spirit, the oil must be applied!!  If the oil of the spirit is not applied, then the works is not of God!!  Man cannot lead you toward the truth of God, only the Holy Ghost can do that.  Finally, let me warn you, just as Jesus did, to beware of false prophets.  There are many among us today.  They come as wolves dressed in sheep clothing.  They tell you all the wonderful things you want to hear but they will lead you down a path of destruction.  If they are not led by the spirit then they are FALSE PROPHETS. 

Mathew 7:15-16
¹⁵ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
¹⁶ Ye shall know them by their fruits.

May God bless you and may his spirit lead you in all that you do. 

God thinks about you!

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 KJV
What a wonderful thought to know that God is thinking about me.  I am as nothing among all his creations yet he has thoughts of me and he has thoughts of you.  He wants peace in our lives and if we live according to his word, seek him with all our hearts, we will have peace.  In this world, we may never know peace among our fellowman, but in God we can find the peace we seek to get us through this world. 
The bible teaches us that we can have anything we ask, but it also teaches why we don't have those things we ask for.  True peace only comes from God.  Man is always at war with one another, brother against brother and nation against nation.  We say we seek peace but don't follow after God.  We live only for today and what pleasures the day can bring us.  If we are to ever know peace in this world, we must put God first and seek him.  James 4:2-3
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Our goal in life should be to have a closer walk with God, to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  I believe that only when we do that will we have peace in our own lives.  James taught us that if we will seek God that he will come to us.  We must turn our backs on sin and seek a relationship with God or we will never have peace in our lives.   James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
God knows our end and he thinks about us, his thoughts are of peace and he wants us to have peace.  He will give us peace.  The choice is our own.  Choose this day whom you will serve.  I stand with Joshua, a mighty man of God when I say, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 

Nothing to fear

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:18 KJV
As a child of God, fear should have no place in our lives. As a blood bought child of God, his spirit now dwells in us and where the spirit of God is, there is Liberty and not fear. I do not believe this scripture speaks of the fear of natural things like spiders or snakes, that is a common human fear, but I believe John is te...aching us not to fear the spiritual things that come up against us. The world has built Satan up into this big monster with the power to make us do things against our will. Something that we should fear above all things because his power is so strong. The world, like Satan is a liar. Satan was God's angel of light and most beautiful and he will come to you in all forms and look any way he chooses. He wants to keep you in fear of the unknown because he knows when you open your eyes and see the truth that you will no longer fear him. The Holy Ghost dwelling inside a child of God has power over Satan and he will flee if you stand up and rebuke him. James 4:7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
As a child of God, you have power over the devil. There is nothing to fear. I don't deny that Satan is a powerful being. He is an angel cast down out of heaven, but the fact is, he was cast aside. He did not have the power to overthrow heaven and he does not have the power to rule this world. The only power he has it the power given to him by mankind. When man stands up and realizes that our true power lies in God Almighty. That when we trust in him and live according to his word he is our weapon against Satan. He is our shield and our high tower. He is our weapon against all of our enemies. Psalms 27:1-2
1The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
There is only one thing that a child of God is to fear and that is God Almighty. We are to know and understand that God is the only one that is capable of destroying our very souls. Luke 12:5
But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
Life is but a vapor that quickly vanishes away. Our flesh will go back to the dust from where it came, but our soul is eternal. It's our eternal souls that we need to put in God's hands and know that he is our refuge and our strength. That with his spirit dwelling in us, we have nothing to fear. Blessed be his Holy name!

Love purifies

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
1 John 3:11 KJV
I was talking with my husband about the importance of loving others and what love can do for us.  You know that Peter taught that love covers a multitude of sin.  You know we all sin ever day and fall short of God's glory, but if we continue in love for one another then God is just to forgive us of those sins.  I am sure there are things in our lives that we may not even realize is a sin but when we love one another those things will be covered up, never to be remembered.  If we are truly Christ's, then we are to keep his commandments.  Jesus gave us a new commandment, that we love one another.
John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
LOVE is very powerful, it will purify the soul like fire purifies gold.   Gold when put through the fire comes out PURE.   When we love one another our soul becomes PURE.  Peter taught us the power of LOVE.  Love will purify the soul! 
1 Peter 1:22
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
Love is the key to so many things in life and the greatest thing is that by loving others we are showing Christ that we love him.  Because the bible teaches us, how can we love God whom we have not seen if we can't love our brother whom we have seen. 
1 John 4:20-21
20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

LOVE

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
⁴ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
⁵ Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
⁶ Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
⁷ Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
⁸ Charity never faileth:

Have you ever truly read these beautiful words and realized just how important they are in our daily walk with God?  Five little verse tells us everything we need to know about living as God would have us to live.  God is LOVE and if we could only love as he would have us to do, then all else would be ok.  Many people only think of giving to the poor when the word Charity is spoken but in these scriptures Paul is teaching the early Christians about LOVE.

Love suffereth long, Love is kind, Love envies not, Love vaunteth not itself, Love is not puffed up, Love does not behave unseemly, Love does not put herself first, Love is not easily provoked, Love thinks no evil, Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the TRUTH, Love bears all things, Love believes all things, Love hopes all things, Love endures all things and most of all LOVE NEVER FAILS. 

The bible teaches us that God is LOVE.  Isn't it a wonderful feeling to know that God is pure LOVE and God NEVER FAILS!  He will never fail you if you trust in him.  We are to LOVE ONE ANOTHER in order to experience the true LOVE that God has for us.  I encourage you today to seek after LOVE.  Love is not always something that comes easily.  Yes, it's easy to love family and friends but we must pray that God will instill his LOVE within us and make us capable of loving those that are not family and friends.  That he will teach us to LOVE at all times and let others see more of Christ in us and less of ourselves. 

Looking for a city

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1 Corinthians 2:9 KJV
What an awesome thought to know that God has prepared a place for someone so unworthy as myself. I am looking forward to seeing that city not made by human hands.
My son preached about Abraham looking for a city whose builder and maker was God. He lived his entire life moving from place to place... always building an alter to worship God but never a home. Abraham knew about that wonderful place that God had prepared for him.
Material things mean nothing in this life. It's good to be able to live comfortable and have things you enjoy as long as those things don't become more important than the one making a way for you to have them. When we forget about our alter and let other things get in the way of worshiping God then it's time to start moving out those things. There are times a person has to miss a church service or can't make it to a prayer meeting, but there should never be a time that a true child of God fails to worship him. Fellowship with Jesus Christ is the most important aspect of our Christian walk. We need to be like Father Abraham and keep looking for that city. We need to make time for God's word, for worship, for fellowship. In the end, we will find that nothing else mattered because you can't take anything with you when you go.