Soaked in oil all year round...

As much as I didn't want to leave my beautiful exotic island, Victoria Island, I finally let go of paradise and entered the plane, athough reluctantly. I'm finally back and I missed my blog a little too much. At first sight, America seemed as though in the moments I wasn't in it, it was being peeled off its old bark and replaced with a brand new one. I literally smelled the fresh leaves of the trees as the car sped out of the airport and down the familiar highway. But even before the plane landed I knew that somehow the message for myself and many of you out there was that we can be soaked in the type of oil that can replenish our bodies even for the entire length of this year of 2008. This is my personal confidence.

There was a prophet in Israel, Elijah, who according to the instruction from God was drinking his water from a brook in a place called Cherith which flows into the river Jordan (1 Kings 17). So the story was that after a while this brook got dried up and its water stopped flowing. Of course you can guess that Elijah no longer had any source of water supply. Again God called Elijah and told him to go to another place called Zarephath, and that in this place he would meet a widow who would supply him with food and water. Little did Elijah know that the woman who God was sending him to was busy looking for sticks so that she could cook her and her son's "last meal." When he got there and asked for a meal and water, he was probably surprised when the woman told him that she was about to cook their last meal because she only had a "handful" of flour and only very little oil left in a jar. In that moment God spoke to the widow through Elijah, and Elijah found himself speaking these exact words: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.’

For reasons I do not understand yet, I just feel God is speaking these same words again today. This year, I'm going to remember these same words, that my jar of oil will not run dry. No, it can't run dry. See, it doesn't matter what comes my way. Imagine a jar of oil sitting pretty on a shelf in a house, tightly sealed too. If a storm comes upon that house and the jar falls down, the oil will still not run dry because of the seal. If a thief comes in the middle of the night, he may try to steal my jar of oil but because of the tight seal, he must return it to the shelf where the oil belongs. I will be the only one to drink or utilize the oil in the preparation of my meals because God gave it specifically to me as a gift. Various trials may come, but my oil will not run dry in this year. This is how I am going to start my year. Like Elijah spoke those words to that woman, I am also speaking these words to you (and it will also be unto you if you believe...if you have only a mustard seed size of faith then the oil of God that you are keeping in your jar will also not run dry this year).

To me, this oil represents everything that will sustain my life: the powerful word of God (that can cut through the soul and the spirit) ~ knowledge of the word, understanding of the word, and daily application of the word. It may seem very sweet to say, but hard to practice, but by God's grace we can do this. Every single thing for living a good life is inside the word: equipments for rising up when we fall, keys for opening the doors of success, hammers for building the foundations of righteousness, chisels for building our homes on the solid foundation, proverbs for living well with family and friends, water for drinking when we are dry and thirsty, and food to eat when we are hungry, not even forgetting the jokes to crack when we are bored (e.g. Songs of Solomon). Everything is in the word. The word of God is way more than just a novel or an interesting book. It is the power of a son and daughter of God. With the word of God, you will find yourself sliding through mountain slopes that were hard to climb before (the oil will obviously provide the ease).

I AM completely immersed and soaked in oil that will not run dry in 2008...and I pray that this same confidence will be radiated to anyone reading this who can just trust God for it. It doesn't matter who you think you have been in the past, what the color of your skin is, or what your profession may or may not be. You just have to receive God's oil, like the widow of Zarephath who trusted what the prophet told her, and lo and behold her little oil in a jar just did not run dry!

Are you READY?