Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe shares how the Holy Spirit can fill your life with such joy that it attracts people to the gospel. That's coming up in just a moment. But first, so many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God.

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. Call 1-800-889-5388, that's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill with her message, "The Oil of Gladness."

Jill Briscoe: Now then, today we're going to be talking about oil. Oil. And I don't know if any of you have had time to do a little concordance study. If you don't know how to study with a concordance, just buy one from the bookstore. You can get them quite cheap. Find the word oil, and it'll give you every single time oil is mentioned in the Bible. Look it all up, and you'll discover a whole lot of things that I haven't had time to discover because I haven't looked up all those references myself, but I have looked up a few of them.

Now, in the ancient Near East, people or objects were anointed with oil. It was quite widespread practice, and it was for different reasons: for medicinal reasons, for preservative reasons, for cosmetic reasons. All these reasons. And also for religious reasons, giving the object a religious significance.

But even the presence of oil symbolized to the Eastern people, not just the Jewish people, joy. Oil was a symbol of joy and gladness. In Isaiah 61:3, we talk about God giving the oil of joy for our spirit of heaviness. And there you have symbolism. God will pour out when we are mourning the oil of joy. And so oil symbolizes gladness and joy, and the absence of it symbolizes sorrow and humiliation, as in Joel 1:10.

So it has an image of comfort, of spiritual nourishment, of prosperity. If you can find Job in a hurry, Job 29—again, I have the advantage over you because I can mark all these little places that I'm going to turn to and race you there—but if you can find Job 29 verse six, actually we can read just a few verses because it's an interesting passage and tempting to get off into, although I won't.

Job is longing for the good old days before all these troubles and traumas hit him and laid him flat. And he starts off, verse two, "How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me, when His lamp shone upon my head, by His light I walked through darkness. Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God's intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me, my children were around me, when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil."

Very, very wonderful poetic language. The Book of Job is such a wonderful book to memorize particularly. But there's a passage—somebody really longing for the good old days and using as a symbol and a picture the presence of oil signifying great gladness and great joy. And you can look up other verses like Deuteronomy 33:24, Psalm 45:7 to find the same symbol.

So there was a common symbolism that had nothing to do with religious significance. It's invested with significance when God uses it so. And I think never more than in the story in 1 Kings 17:12-16. The little story that's hidden there has to do with a prophet of God, Elijah. And Elijah had a little school of the prophets. They were very poor. They were like most Bible school students that I know. They don't have too much money, and they come out of school with debt so over their head it takes a lifetime on their salary ever to pay them off if they ever do. Well, it was apparently just the same in Old Testament times. Things haven't changed much.

And so this poor little lady who was in the school because she was married to a prophet, a young prophet, had a terrible tragedy come into her life. Her husband died. We're not told how, we're not told why, but he died. She had two small children. And so she began to try to survive. And for a woman, and especially a prophet's wife in those days, that was tough going. And apparently, there was not too much money around. I'm sure everybody shared what they could, and she began selling off all the things that she had just to put bread on the table until she had sold the last stick of furniture.

There was nothing in the house. So she went to the prophet and she said, "I'm in such trouble. The creditors are coming, and I've no more furniture to sell, nothing more to give them. I've nothing." And so they're going to take my sons, which was a common practice in those days, to be slaves and they'll give me some money for them. And at least the children will be alright, even if they're slaves, because they'll be fed.

And Elijah said, "What have you got in the house?" And she said, "I've nothing. Nothing. I'm bankrupt in the house. Oh," she said, "save a little pot of oil." There's your little symbol. The Holy Spirit buried within our lives. Trouble comes. And oh, how we forget the little pot of oil when trouble comes, don't we? And it takes perhaps a prophet, a friend, a sermon, something on the radio, a verse of Scripture to alert us to the fact that deep within us, if we are believers, we have the little pot of oil. We have the resources to somehow cope when coping seems to be impossible.

And so, of course, you remember what happened. Elijah said, "Well, just go and collect all the basins and bowls and everything that'll hold oil from your neighbors and start and pour it out. And according to your faith, be it unto you." It's a wonderful picture. And you can spiritualize it quite legitimately, for oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, so the Scriptures say. And as she collected the vessels and poured out the oil, remember, it just didn't stop. According to our faith, so it will be.

As we pour out of our poverty, then we will find the vessels even of all our neighbors filled. And I like that little touch. And so we can collect the empty vessels from our neighbors and be the means of filling them up as well. So even in its common use in cooking, in food, then it is a symbol or invested with significance because of the symbol that's used in the Bible for oil.

And the other common use that we're going to touch on before we get onto the significant religious use was for skin care. For skin care. Oil makes man's face to shine, the Psalms tell us. Oil makes man's face to shine. And of course, in the Near East, the drying out of the atmosphere and the huge heat of the sun without any air conditioning, any fans, anything like that at all—electric fans, anyway, they had the other sort, of course—meant that their skin just shriveled up.

Do you remember when Esther was chosen to be queen? She spent a whole year with beauty potions getting ready. What they would be doing would be soaking her in oil. They literally took baths of oil. Herod was put in a bath of oil to try and help a skin disease he had at one point. And you can imagine olive oil is very, very good. And they would anoint the hair with oil too. And of course, we have our modern compositions rather similar to that, don't we?

And so the common use of skin care is there. Let's invest it with the significance the Bible gives us where oil is concerned and think about the Holy Spirit making man's face to shine. Isn't that so? Moses, coming down from being with God with the Ten Commandments in his hands. Something about his presence. In fact, the New Testament tells us that when he had been speaking with God, he had to put a veil on his face. Why? Because his face shone so much, reflecting the glory that he had been observing. They couldn't look on him. They couldn't even look at his face. What an incredible thing. Remember when Jesus was transfigured before them? His face shone as the sun. And of course, the Bible tells us that we, beholding God's face, reflect His glory.

Guest (Male): More powerful teaching from the Briscoes is headed your way, so don't go anywhere. We've made a wide array of resources and content available to you online for free at tellingthetruth.org and on the Telling the Truth app. There you can listen, read, and watch powerful teaching from Stuart and Jill on relevant topics like the sovereignty of God, the importance of the church, and how to grow closer with Jesus Christ.

You can also request this month's featured resource as thanks for your gift of support to help share the abundant life Jesus offers with more people around the world. Visit us online or download the app today and experience life with Telling the Truth. Now, here's more from Jill.

Jill Briscoe: Now then, let's look at the nature of the oil that was to be the anointing oil, the holy oil. That was the common use, but what about the spiritual, religious use of oil? God gave a recipe to Moses. It was a very special recipe. It was a recipe that had to be taken by the perfumers or the apothecary and made up into a substance which alone was to be used in the temple—first, of course, in the tabernacle and later in the temple.

And the constituency of the holy anointing oil is interesting. It had four specific spices that had to be used: myrrh, cinnamon, cassia, and calamus. Myrrh had a significance too. Remember when the wise men came to Jesus? They brought myrrh. One of the things they brought was a spice called myrrh. It was a gift of kings to kings. It was very, very costly, and that was significant.

If God was going to anoint people and things for specific use for His own use, to set them apart, to make them other like Himself, to sanctify them, using this ritual of the holy anointing oil, then the oil itself was loaded, was laded with significance. Myrrh, a costly, costly thing, rare to find, very hard to find this spice.

Cinnamon, fragrant. Whenever you said cinnamon, the people of the East knew that there was fragrance involved. Again, that's a significant symbol. When we give Jesus the uncalculated gift of our love, the aroma of that gift, of that service, fills the house. And people are aware there is a fragrance about our lives. And it puts them on—hopefully—alert and they might say, like the young man said on the streets of Europe, "What is it about your face?" or "What is it about your life? I sense something coming from you." Well, it is the fragrance of the Holy Spirit.

So cinnamon speaks of fragrance. They would put this ointment on the head, this cinnamon ointment for an honored guest, and the heat of the body and the heat of the atmosphere would melt it and it would run down onto the clothes giving a nice aroma, especially when they didn't have much water and they couldn't bathe more than once a month sometimes. So you can imagine, you got a bottle of cinnamon whenever you could.

Myrrh, cinnamon, cassia. This was taken from the bark of a tree. And the tree that it was taken from, the cassia tree, was known to be good for everything. They wouldn't leave one little bit of the tree. Now, some trees they couldn't use. Some trees they couldn't use, for example, for fire; it wouldn't burn. So that would have to be cast away. But the leaf was used, the branches were used, even the bark of the cassia tree was used.

And therefore, the cassia tree was known to be good. It was a good tree. Some trees were talked about as bad trees, and some trees talked about as nothing trees, and some trees were talked about as good trees. Good. And there again was the symbol that God wanted to use. Myrrh for the cost, cinnamon for the fragrance, cassia, the transparency, the goodness, everything was good. Good, good, good, good, good about cassia.

And calamus was taken from the reeds by the river. In fact, there was a reed called the calamus reed. And the only way you could get this spice or this stuff out of it was to crush it. To absolutely mash it to pieces. Crushed. And maybe the significance of that could be that Pentecost only comes after Passover. And even as God was anointing His Son to do His work, the idea of being crushed that the Spirit might be given is there.

These four spices were mixed with a hin of olive oil. That's a measure, a hin. And of course, the olive oil itself was obtained by crushing. Did you know that the Garden of Gethsemane, the name Gethsemane means oil press? Oil press. It drew its name from the oil presses that were in the garden. It was a garden where the oil, olive oil, was pressed. How significant that Jesus knelt there the night before He began His journey to the cross and to our redemption and to our hearts. Crushed.

So even the spices of the anointing oil, which also had significance, are meaningful for us. Now, there was something about this oil. Once God had given the recipe to Moses—and it was very intricate. Do you ever wonder why God did these intricate things and said you've got to use cassia and you've got to use myrrh and you've got to use calamus and you've got to use cinnamon? Because there is significance in them. That's why Bible study is so exciting, really.

And He also gave them some rules. He said, first of all, this is to be unique. It's to be a unique blend. You can't imitate it. You mustn't try. And He had some pretty harsh words for those that would try. Why did God say that? Because He wanted people to smell that specific smell that was like no other and know it had to do with His things. And of course, we cannot imitate the work of the Holy Spirit. We might try, but you can't do it.

For example, if you're giving a talk. Now, you might be a good teacher in the classroom. You might technically have the gifts you're using. Or you might have a very strong personality or a very exciting conversion story. But you cannot imitate the power and the work of the Holy Spirit with the power of your personality, with your teaching ability.

It has to be a unique blend, this anointing, this setting apart, this investing with the power of His Spirit. We are to be distinctive. We are to be other. There has to be something about that man's talk or that woman's talk that is other, that is not duplicated anywhere else. And in a land that duplicates everything, aren't you glad that the work of the Holy Spirit is distinctive?

And a Christian woman can be distinctive. She can be herself in a true way. Not selfishly, but because the Spirit will help her be the person that God wants her to be and will fill her life so she is something else. That's what the word other means. Something else.

What's more, says God, you cannot buy it. You mustn't make it on the side. You mustn't have a still, He said to the priests, where you do the bit for God upstairs and you go downstairs and do the bit for you, put it in little bottles and sell it: Holy Spirit Perfume. That is not allowed.

And of course, maybe He was thinking of all of us that have a little bit of commercialism in us because it's very tempting to turn the thing to our own use. God forbade that. He said to the priests, you are not to make a little bit of extra perfume on the side and take it home for your wife or sell it under the counter in the marketplace on the black market. It is not to be sold.

And incidentally, it is to be for Aaron and the priests. It's for the family. Family only, He said. And that's I suppose why Christianity is unique. The distinctive of Christianity is that we are indwelt by our Lord, by the one we worship. We are possessed by Him. Now, that's unique. That's other. That's something else. So the nature of oil—all of that in the nature of oil.

Guest (Male): Now let's chat with Jill about today's message. Jill, how should the practice of anointing with oil work in the church today?

Jill Briscoe: Well, the church of today is the church of yesterday. And so maybe the practice of when and where changes, but the principles of anointing with oil for healing should remain the same and be worked out in your own context. The Scripture for this, of course, is the epistle of James. And this is where the prayer of faith for healing is mentioned.

Let me read it to you, verse 12 of chapter 5: "Is anyone of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven."

That is the direct instruction that if anyone is sick, the sick one should call for the elders of the church. He should invite that prayer of faith. So we don't go rushing around inviting ourselves into people's sickness and trouble. We can certainly say, "We would love to pray for you," but where healing is concerned, as it is talking about physical healing, what I would say is if you are sick and you want prayer for healing, then you call for the elders of your church, whoever they are. And they should come and, as per this, anoint you with oil and pray over you for healing.

Guest (Male): Jill, how do you prepare yourself so that the light of the Holy Spirit shines through?

Jill Briscoe: Well, you don't prepare yourself so the light of the Holy Spirit shines through. You receive the Spirit when you confess your sin and invite the Holy Spirit to come into your life. So then He's there. You don't then prepare yourself for every action or help that the Holy Spirit's going to give you for the rest of your life. It's just a moment-by-moment walk with God, and that takes a lifetime conversation on the steps of yourself. And these things should be natural. They should just happen as you get to know Him better.

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

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. Call 1-800-889-5388, that's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thank you for being with us today. We hope you'll join us again as the Briscoes share more powerful truth from God's Word. Experience life next time on Telling the Truth.