BRINGING FORTH SPIRITUAL OIL

SPIRITUAL OIL

 

We all seek to fill our lamps with oil and even have oil in reserve. We also desire to be considered among the Anointed of the Lord.

But I think that often we lack the willingness to undergo the crushing and pressing which brings forth the sacred oil from the good fruit.

We don't SEEK for trials or the crushing pressures of trying experiences. They will come as part of the mortal experience. But it is at least important that we are willing to SUBMIT to whatever process the Lord sees fit for us to experience to bring forth that oil from within. It may require some initial plucking from our current place on the vine. There may be scrubbing and cleaning to even prepare before the final pressing process.

I think that is part of what having a broken heart and a contrite spirit is about. A heart that is not hardened like flint which shatters under pressure, but a heart which is soft, willing to ripen on the vine where it has been planted, and to undergo the process of change from a state of "potential" into a state of "being" useful and purified.

No one desires difficulty. Even the Master asked if there could be another way in His dark hour of strain. But He DID submit to what was required. And that made all the difference.

Premortally, we were like a viable seed. Full of potential for growth. Here in mortality we have been planted in the vineyard and will either produce good fruit or bad. But even as good fruit, we still fall short of our full potential until we become willing to submit to the pressing and refining process needed to allow the OIL to come forth.

The process requires change. And it is always uncomfortable. But the transformation is always for the better IF we allow ourselves to be softened, molded and purified under the Master of the Garden who has known our potential from the beginning.