Is There Oil in Your Lamp?
Well, praise Jesus today everyone. The message that the Holy Spirit continues to put on my heart is the message of having oil in our lamps.
Not everyone has oil in their lamps. Certainly, people that are not Christian don't have any oil, because the oil represents the Holy Spirit. When we repent of our sins, we are baptized in water, and then we wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit baptizes us, He fills us with His purpose, with His joy, and the things of our old life, the old man, goes into the grave. We put to death the old, and then He restores our mind. He makes our conscience soft to the truth. We hate what is evil, we hate sin, and we learn to practice righteousness. And as we walk in the right direction, the Lord gives us provision. He gives us that oil.
Now, there's no way to achieve oil in your lamp by any other means than having a prayer life and living on the Word of God—that is Jesus Christ, His words. A lot of Christians are deceived into thinking that they have the bread of life because they read the Bible. But remember, the Pharisees read the Bible, and they didn't care about the Word of Life. They didn't care about the Word of God at all. And a lot of Christians, they feast on the Bible, they have prayer meetings, but none of it is legitimate because they're not eating and drinking Jesus. They're not in communion with Him. They haven't even repented of their sins, let alone come into communion with God, where they have oil coming into their lamp.
What would it matter if you went camping in the wilderness and you didn't have a light? You didn't bring matches, you didn't bring what you needed for warmth. You wouldn't really be able to sustain yourself for long. And how much more in this world will we not be able to sustain or make it if we don't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?
You can't be guided along through this life by churches, by Bible study, by mentors of the world, because what Jesus promised is that indwelling—that oil that comes from the Holy Spirit. Now, when Jesus gives His parables, He talks about this, about the five wise and the five foolish. And why this continues to come back to my mind, guys, is because so many Christians don't realize that they are Christians without a light. They're spiritually dead. They have no joy. They're not extending the love of Jesus to others. They're all about themselves.
Most people have sold out to the marketplace. They've sold out to the pleasures of life. The things of this life choke them out. They're choked out by riches and by pleasure, but they are not living for the Kingdom of God and the purpose of obeying Jesus.
So, when the midnight hour strikes, they will realize, when they hear the trumpet call, that they had lamps, but their lamps were not trimmed. They had no oil in their lamp. And that will be a big problem, because you can think everything is good and fine, and you could decorate your lamp on the outside, and you could get away for a long time making the pastor believe or your family believe that you know a lot because you have Bible verses memorized and because you have the speech of a Christian. But as soon as the midnight hour strikes and the Master calls people to the wedding, you'll be stumbling. You won't be able to find your way, because then you will realize that you have a lamp, but it's useless because you have no oil.
Such are Christians that have a sort of faith. They have the appearance of godliness, but they have no oil in their lamp. This is a scary thing, because too many people will have a horrible wake-up when they realize they have nothing guiding them. Their pastor can no longer guide them, their family can't guide them, and they've never learned to be guided along by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus promises the Holy Spirit as the one who will lead us into all truth and guide us. He doesn't promise us a brother or a sister to lead us or guide us into all truth. He doesn't even promise the Scriptures to lead us. But if you look at John 14–16, the gift is the Holy Spirit—that we would be baptized in the Holy Spirit and then have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us. And then, as the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us, teaching us His thoughts—the thoughts of God—we would grow in Him and be guided along and have life, because Jesus is in us.
But what I see is a lot of Christians that can point fingers, guys. They can point fingers at all these people that are rioting. They can point fingers at lesbians and homosexuals and the transgender. And all those things are evil and corrupt and part of the antichrist. But these same Christians that are against the riots, they're against all these things—they're going the same place as where all the evildoers are going, because they don't have oil in their lamp.
Not only do the atheists end in hell, and those that are in blatant rebellion end in hell, but those that have no oil in their lamp. Remember that those Christians that had no oil in their lamp were turned around, and the door was shut in their face, and they were told, "Go away, I don't know you." God tells them, "You who commit iniquity, I don't know you."
We need to make sure that we're not just playing religion, keeping up church attendance. We need to leave all that with the old life of death. We need to put that in the ground, along with baptism. So when you get baptized, all the sins of your past life, it's as if you're leaving that in the grave. You need to leave dead religion there as well, and then put on true faith, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and David, and all the prophets and all the apostles had to put on true faith. They didn't put on religion, they didn't put on church attendance. They had to put on righteousness by actually walking with Jesus in obedience.
And so the question is: Do we have oil, or are we going to the same place the rest of the world is? I don't want to be in that boat—the boat of religion going to hell. I was, and Jesus woke me up to the truth. Be separate, and then preach the gospel free of charge, which is now what I'm doing. I live for Jesus with all my heart. I don't have a pastor as my boss or a church as my leadership, but I follow Jesus as my Lord and my Master, and I live to please Him. And because I want to please Him, I warn others who will listen of the dangers of being lukewarm—about what it means to really follow Jesus—and also the reward, that if we put our faith in the Lord, He will bless us. And we will never feel that we did the wrong thing in the end. If we put our faith in the Lord, we won't be disappointed.
So, let's make sure we have oil in our lamp by having a prayer life, by asking Jesus to give us His heart and His mind—to weep where He weeps, to mourn where He mourns, but also to rejoice where He rejoices.
So I want to pray for those of you that want the baptism of the Holy Spirit and that want the Holy Spirit to guide you. He loves you and cares about you, but you need to dedicate yourself to Him—to be led by Jesus. Put yourself at the feet of Jesus so that He Himself may guide you and lead you. And don't be led along by other people’s opinions or what they're saying.
“Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters who want to know the truth, that want oil in their lamp. I pray that more children may be added to the number of true faith, that they would be part of Your body, that You would lead them and guide them, that they would come out of the world of darkness and sin and dead religion, and they would come into Your truth—to love You and obey You and to be separate from everything that's ungodly.
Help us to see Your plan for our life, and that we could walk the straight and narrow road and not be sucked into all of the things of this world—drugs and alcohol and marijuana and lust, greed.
I know a lot of men are just destroyed by the devil, by their own lusts, by pornography and all these wicked things. I pray that You would call more people into Your body, that they would be part of the children of faith, that You would collect them and keep them from the wolves and from danger, and that they would also be able to stand up and preach the gospel and live the gospel, and that more people would see the light of the truth in this dark generation that we live in.”
