Sermon Central
-
Keep The Oil Flowing
Contributed by James May on Apr 19, 2016 (message contributor)
Summary: The widows cruse of oil was all she had, but oh how much it became the full provision for her life. That's the type of the Holy Spirit anointing, or unction, within the heart of the Believer.
Keep the Oil Flowing
Sunday, April 3, 2016
By Rev James May
Our God is an awesome God! Jesus is a Risen Savior and he is alive! Before he left this world to go into Heaven and sit down at the Father’s right hand as King of Kings forever, he promised to send us a Comforter.
That Comforter is the Holy Spirit who has come to
• dwell in the hearts of men
• fill us with the power of faith to do a work for the Lord,
• lead us into all truth
• gives us the “unction”, which is that divine anointing and sanctifying grace so that we may be empowered to call into action the supernatural power of God to accomplish kingdom work as we live as obedient and profitable servants!
There’s only one thing needed in the church today to make it a force to be reckoned with in this sinful world, and that’s more of the presence and unction of the Holy Ghost and fire!
A church that’s led by the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit and walks in the presence of the Spirit, is a church that can chase devils, cast out demons, overcome principalities and powers, tear down the strongholds of the devil and expose and destroy wickedness in high places, and call into being those things which are not as though they were! It’s all done by faith in the power of God and in his faithfulness in fulfilling his promises in his word.
A church, and a Christian who is filled with the Holy Ghost and living for God will cause hell to tremble, make Satan run and hide in fear and by speaking the truth in love, will bring conviction for sin upon the heart of man.
If the preaching and teaching of the Word of God is being sanctioned by the Holy Ghost, that word will have the power to penetrate the coldest heart, the most doubting spirit and the most calloused mind!
There’s no barrier He can’t break through and no power He can’t overcome because Jesus has put all things under his feet and through the blood of Jesus we are made overcomers in Christ!
We must have the Oil of Gladness in our hearts! We must allow the oil of God’s anointing to flow through us so that we may make a difference in the lives of people in the earth! Without that supernatural oil of anointing that comes through the Holy Ghost in us, we are no match for the power of the enemy of our souls.
All of the words we speak and the things we do will have little value, and no power, to change the hearts of sinners and bring them to Christ, if we are not carrying that oil of anointing with us.
I’m not talking about a bottle of oil, even though anointing oil is a great thing to have. I’m talking about a spiritual oil that brings supernatural, Holy Ghost given power and a fire that creates a fervency to see people come to Christ and believe upon him for the salvation of their souls.
There’s a story in the Old Testament book of 2 Kings, chapter 4 that I want us to look at this morning. I believe that the Holy Spirit has something that he wants to reveal to us. So let us turn there and ask for the revelation power of the Spirit to open our hearts and minds to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church in this hour.
Before we begin reading the scriptures, let me set up the background for the story,
In the days of one of, if not THE most evil king to ever reign in Israel, a man named King Ahab, whose wife was Jezebel, there was a sort of war declared upon the true prophets of God that brought great persecution upon the true men of God who would not bow to the gods of Jezebel.
The battle began when Elijah called down fire out of Heaven upon an altar of sacrifice and exposed the fact that Israel had fallen into sin by worshipping a dead idol made with hands. He faced down the 400 prophets of Baal on the top of Mt. Carmel and after Baal failed to answer, he obeyed the Lord and killed every false prophet under God’s direction.
Elijah had fought on the Lord’s side and won the battle against sin and evil in Israel, but by showing the true nature of Baal worship, he exposed the sin of Ahab and Jezebel and stirred up a hornet’s nest in the palace of Ahab.
Jezebel wanted Elijah dead, and she was determined to find him. Wherever her armed guards went, they brought death and destruction with them. They were under orders and dared not disobey lest they lose their own heads. So if they ran across a prophet, even a prophet in training, who would one day speak out against the present rulers of Israel, they would kill them.
