Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe shares part two of her message, The Oil of Gladness, about how the Holy Spirit equips you to do amazing things for God's kingdom. But first...

Stuart Briscoe: So many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God.

Guest (Male): Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series titled Finding God. In this inspiring series, you'll discover how you can stop spending so much energy on finding God and let him find you. By slowing down and putting yourself deliberately in his presence, you'll recognize that he's already there waiting for you.

You'll be uplifted as Jill explains how God worked in the lives of men and women in the Old Testament and how he works in your life too, even when you don't see him and feel his presence. The Finding God series is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill with today's encouraging message on Telling the Truth.

Jill Briscoe: How did God tell Moses to use this holy anointing oil that was to be made up of these spices and this olive oil and all had deep significance? How was it to be used? Who and what was to be anointed? This was a fascinating study, but I have taken some specific important things and people that were anointed to look at.

First of all, anointing oil was used equipping for service. Ceremonially, at the consecration of the priests, the anointing oil would be used. And this was qualifying them for service of the Lord in the tabernacle and then later in the temple. Now, this can be lifted right out of the scriptures and applied to you and I.

For Revelation 1:4-6 tells us that we are now a priesthood. There is a doctrine in the New Testament of the priesthood of all believers. In the Old Testament, Aaron and the Levites, Aaron's sons, were the priests. They were designated, set aside by God.

But after Pentecost, God directs some of the writers of the New Testament to talk about this doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. And John in Revelation 1 talks about it. He says we are a kingdom of priests. Now, when he says "we," who is he talking about? Is he talking about himself, the apostles, the disciples?

No, he is writing, he says, to all the churches in Asia. All the people that belong to all the churches in Asia. He doesn't even address his remarks in his letter to what we would say now, the priests or the leaders. He says to all of you little nobodies, who are somebody because God dwells in you, all of you are a kingdom of priests.

Now, this concept has to get into our Christianity or we will never do anything except sit in a church pew and wonder when we will be old enough and great enough and gifted enough and clever enough to do something for Christ. As soon as you are born of God's Spirit, as soon as you become a believer, a true believer, then you are part of the kingdom of priests.

And everything a priest does, you're supposed to do. Well, you say, do you mean marry and bury and hatching, matching, and dispatching? Is that what priests do? That's what leaders do. That's what pastors do. That's one thing some pastors do.

No. Basically, the priest stood between God and man. He spoke to God about man and he spoke to man about God. And those are the two things basically a priest did as well as all the other things that some of the priests did. And those are the two things you and I do.

Hopefully, we learn to pray and we learn to preach. And when I use the word preach, I'm using it as the Bible uses it, to tell forth plainly the gospel. To tell forth plainly the good news. Every single person here is called of God to be a priest in that sense. So we learn to pray and we learn to preach, even if we are women.

For wasn't it Joel that said your men and your women will prophesy? And so, in this sense, whatever the gifting that God has given us, we share Christ. Every single person, one of us. For we are a kingdom of priest. Now, how and who is sufficient for these things?

Well, of course, without the equipping for service, none of us are. But faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it. And that's why the Holy Spirit came, that he might equip us to pray and that he might equip us to preach. Now, we'll talk about prayer and the Holy Spirit in another study.

But let me remind you that it is the Spirit who helps us to know what to pray when we don't know what to pray for. And he will equip us to pray. Prayers that will get answered. Prayers that will be effective. Prayers that will hold the devil and his workers back.

God will equip us through the work of the Holy Spirit. And God will equip us to witness and to preach in the sense of telling forth plainly. Another definition of preaching is telling the truth through personality, through different personalities. Truth through personality. That's preaching.

What a wonderful thing it is, because every single one of us has a different personality. And shining, our faces shining, our eyes shining, equipped by the Spirit in all sorts of ways. Remember he's our teacher? We talked about that the very first lesson. He has come inside to teach us. He's the one that brings things to our remembrance.

He has equipped us. There is no tool that any of us need that we do not have within our grasp because we have the Holy Spirit. We are equipped for service. And if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be running around the world doing what I'm doing. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't pick up a pen every day of my life to write a page for a book.

If I didn't believe that, I don't know what I'd be doing, but I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. The Holy Spirit equips me because I am part of this kingdom of priests that the Bible talks about. Secondly, healing of wounds. Do you remember when the Good Samaritan came along, saw the man in the ditch? He had these awful wounds.

And what did he do? He got down off his donkey, got in the ditch, and he poured in oil and wine. Wine was used in those days for cleansing agent. It stung. It wasn't very pleasant, but it cleaned up the mess. It was the anesthetic in a sense after it had stung for a little bit, but it also acted as the antibody part of the medication that they didn't have like we have in these days.

And then oil, he poured in oil. What was oil for? To soothe. To bring the soothing. To bring and help the healing, actually. So oil was used for medicinal purposes in the East. For victims it was used. And I read something I don't think I've ever remembered reading before in 2 Chronicles 28. There's a little story of Ahaz, who was king of Judah.

And he was a bad lot. So he was doing all sorts of things he shouldn't have been doing. He did not walk in the ways his father David walked in. Therefore, the Lord his God handed him over to the king of Aram. And they defeated him and took many of his people. He was also given into the hands of the king of Israel, who was sort of in touch with God at that time, not too much.

Who inflicted heavy casualties on him. In one day he killed 120,000 men. And then they took 200,000 women and children. Think of that. It's a big number for those days in those groups of people. 200,000 women and children of Judah, of their brethren. Not of the Amalekites and the Enalakites and all the Alecites around.

But their own people. 200,000 women and children. and they killed all these men. In fact, the Bible says God speaking, "You have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches to heaven. What you have done to them is unbelievable." And so he sends a prophet to them and the prophet tells them off for doing this.

And he says, "Send back your fellow countrymen you've taken as prisoners, for the Lord's fierce anger rests on you." And some of the leaders said, "Yes, we better do this." Verse 14: "So the soldiers gave up the prisoners and plunder in the presence of the officials and all the assembly. The men designated by name took the prisoners from the plunder, they clothed all who were naked."

They'd been having a ball. Took their clothes off them and they made fun of them and worse. They provided them with clothes and sandals. Remember only sons wore sandals. Slaves didn't. Prisoners certainly didn't. Food and drink, and anointing oil. They anointed them. Healing balm, it says in the NIV.

Here is a good example of how to treat your enemy if you like according to the scriptures. But the anointing of the prisoners would be both symbolic, setting them apart, reminding the prisoner and themselves that they were indeed God's people. And also medical, because it would be a healing for their wounds.

Do you know that Palestinian shepherds I discovered when I was studying this, even rub on oil on a bruised face of a sheep? And I love that. Even little sheep that get their faces mashed for one reason or another. They, kind shepherd, the Good shepherd takes oil and rubs it on their little face.

What a picture when you and I are wounded. When you and I like little sheep following our shepherd get our faces bruised or our lives bruised. Then the Holy Spirit's work is to bring comfort and healing to those wounds. Talk to a woman just two weeks ago who needs a lot of healing in her life.

And I just said to her, "Get away regularly every day and allow the Holy Spirit to pour in oil because that's his job." I can't do it for you. The church can't do it for you. Even your group can't do it for you. They can give you support. They can give you advice. They can pray with you.

But I cannot do the work of the Spirit for you, nor can anyone else. So you need to get away and pray, "Holy Spirit, heal me. Pour in the oil," using it as a picture. So for equipping for service, for healing of the wounds, for cleansing for our sin. In Leviticus 14:10-14, we see that some lepers got well.

And sometimes the word leprosy in the Bible is not always used for leprosy. It is used for skin diseases of different sorts and kinds. But if somebody with an infectious skin disease was cleansed, the priest had to go outside the camp where they had to be, they had to live until it was better. That was part of the priest's duty.

And if it was, proclaimed them clean, they would have to come to the temple, bring a lamb, the blood had to be shed, and then they would be anointed with oil. With the holy anointing oil. And this was symbolic that God had cleansed them. God had healed them. The oil had done its healing work. God had in his grace and mercy, without medicine then for the leper, cleansed the leper.

And I did find in a very old book an interesting little thing that the priests would say as they cleansed the lepers. They would put the oil on their ear first and they would say, "Lord, I will hear for thee. Say it after me." And the leper would say, "Lord, I will hear for thee. My ear is anointed to hear."

And then they'd hold out their hands and he would put the oil on the hands and they would say, "Lord, I will act for thee." Hands set apart, anointed to help. Then the feet. "Lord, I will walk up and down for thee." And then he would pour it all over their head and it would fall all over their body. The priest would say, "Thou art his that saves thee."

I think that is just beautiful. Lord, I will hear for thee. Lord, I will act for thee. Lord, I will walk up and down for thee. And Lord, thou art mine that saves me. So here is a picture of a leper, yes. But a leper with a life lived for God. A leper indeed.

And you know, however far away we are from our conversion, we must never forget where we came from. And we must never forget that really all we are is a cleansed leper. Cleansed, but remember this: equipped, healed, cleansed, and set aside for what? To hear for him, to act for him, to walk up and down for him, and to be by our very presence a testimony to the one who saves us.

And then the next thing, for light for our worship. In Exodus 27:20, pure beaten oil had to be used. Only pure, only beaten. There were other ways of getting the oil out of the olives, but the crushed oil, there's the significance again. God wanted them to know that the thing that gave us light for worship, understanding, enlightenment in spiritual things, was the work of the Holy Spirit.

In the Holy of Holies before the table of testimony where the Ten Commandments were put, there was light for worship. How was the light? There were two lampstands. And on the lampstands were two lamps. And they had to be fed continually with pure beaten oil. That lamp must never ever go out.

And that's a beautiful significant picture. That if we are going to have light in our worship, understanding, then the continual light of the Holy Spirit is going to be necessary. We cannot worship without his help. We cannot understand without his help. We've talked about this.

The daily sacrifice also was an anointed occupation. The daily sacrifice simply meant the lamb had to be slaughtered in the evening and at sunset. Two lambs every day. The daily sacrifice offered by the priest. And remember we are a kingdom of priest. We must offer a daily sacrifice.

What does that involve? Remembering the Lamb of God who gave his life for us. And it involves service. Hands, feet, ears, etc. And then another thing. If you were going out to fight, then the priests would anoint the army. But they wouldn't anoint the men. Can you imagine trying to anoint all those men?

They would anoint the shields. The shields of the men. The shields that would face the army were anointed with the same holy anointing oil that had been used on Aaron and his sons. This was significant and it meant something to the soldiers holding it. They knew that their priests had in the name of God anointed their shields.

Somehow the protection of God would be theirs as they went out to fight the battles of the Lord. And as we go out to fight the battles of the Lord, so our shield of faith has been anointed. Anointed by the Holy Spirit so that we can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

But it is in Matthew's Gospel 25 that the most significant use of the Holy Spirit, the importance of the oil is seen. The virgins went in front and danced their dance and there was supposed to be an element of surprise. The bridegroom was supposed to keep it a secret what time of the day and night he should come.

And five of them had been so careful in case the bridegroom came and caught them napping, caught them unexpectedly needing oil in their lamps. And of course you know what happened. The five that had been careless and didn't have oil in their lamps went to buy some more. And while they were gone to buy it, he came.

He shut the door and they couldn't get in. And they even heard his voice saying, "Who are you? I don't even know you." Now the importance of this parable is obvious. The immediate significance was to the Jews of Jesus' day, but the universal warning was to the foolish virgins. You cannot wait till the last minute to become a Christian.

So the conclusion of all that is: make sure you've got oil in your lamp. And if you have, make sure you keep your wick trimmed. The oil clean. Because at any time of the day and night he, whom our soul loves, might come.

Guest (Male): Now, let's chat with Jill about today's message. Jill, how can believers reflect the glory of God?

Jill Briscoe: You know, you never know when you're full of the Holy Spirit. You never know when you're reflecting his presence, his aura. If you do know, you're not. I mean, if you think to yourself, "I'm full of the Holy Spirit and I'm reflecting the glory of God," let me assure you, you're not.

I think the most holy and wonderful, full of the Holy Spirit people I know are never aware of it. They're never aware of it because they always sense, "I am an unprofitable servant." There is a humility about someone who's full of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is humble. He is humble.

He never speaks of himself. He is there to speak of Christ. He's like a torch shining on Jesus, taking attention away from himself. And so I don't think we can ever figure it out. "Am I reflecting?" We shouldn't be even thinking, "Am I glowing?" I do remember when I first became a Christian, I would look in the mirror and wonder, "Am I glowing?"

But I soon got over that. And so it's this wonderful unawareness when he is all and he is more than we are. And that's what we should be aiming for.

Guest (Male): What does it mean to be, quote, "possessed by the Spirit"?

Jill Briscoe: I don't know if you're coming off a phrase or something that I said that you've just been listening to. It really means to be mentally conscious that God is with you, in you, around you, about you, above you, below you. And that's a sort of decision that you set off into the day saying, "Lord, I want to with one little part of my brain remember you are living in my life."

Not a bit of you. I didn't receive a bit of you. I received all of you. You can't receive a bit of a person. The Holy Spirit's a person. And so being possessed by him, I think I was meaning, if that's the word I used that you've just heard, directed, prompted. I like the word prompted because I do a lot of acting and drama and there's always a prompter.

And if I go wrong on stage, the prompter says, "No, no, no," and gives me the right word or the right action. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He's the prompter. I like that picture best.

Guest (Male): Thanks for being with us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today's message encouraged you and helped you experience life in Christ. We love to share notes from other listeners like you, like this one from David and Donna who wrote in to say, "Blessings to the entire Telling the Truth staff for sharing the gospel across the globe. Thank you for being the vessel to share his thoughts. Your willingness and faith to follow him allows all of us to grow, transform, and gives us strength to be bold in sharing the word."

Stuart Briscoe: So many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God.

Guest (Male): Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series titled Finding God. In this inspiring series, you'll discover how you can stop spending so much energy on finding God and let him find you.

The Finding God series is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Tune in tomorrow as Jill shares how Jesus can supply your every need and strengthen you for the life he's called you to lead. Experience Life Friday on Telling the Truth.