As prudent virgins who are being prepared for the Lord’s return, we need to pay the price to buy the oil, the Spirit, in our vessel; we should not grieve the Holy Spirit but speak words of grace, we should not quench the Spirit but always rejoicing, by living and doing everything in spirit, and by being filled with the bountiful supply of the Spirit.
Every day we need to be watchful unto prayer, paying the price to buy the Spirit as the “golden oil” not only in our lamp (our spirit) but also in our vessel (our soul), so that we may supply the churches with the Spirit.
When we gain an adequate quantity of the Spirit in our soul by allowing the Spirit to saturate and fill our mind, emotion, and will, we will have oil to supply the churches for the testimony of Jesus, and we will be rewarded by the Lord to participate in the marriage dinner of the Lamb.
How can we pay the price to buy the oil today? There are at least twelve ways which the Bible shows us.
First, we need to love the Lord with our first love, love Him above all things, having our eyes opened to see His supreme preciousness.
Second, we need to count all other things – whether good or bad, attainments or gains, abilities or other natural things – as loss on account of Christ so that we may gain Christ, be found in Christ, and know Christ in a subjective way.
Third, we need to enjoy the Lord Jesus in His Word every day in the morning, so that we may have a new start each day; even before waking up we need to anticipate our time with Him, looking forward to spending time with our Beloved Lord.
Fourth, we need to deal with our sins thoroughly; we cannot neglect sin but rather, as the Lord shines on us, we need to confess our sins and believe that He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
Fifth, we need to abide in the fellowship with the Lord every day and every hour, even every minute; we need to remain in the sweet flow of the divine life within us.
Sixth, we need to redeem our time and spend our energy to be saturated with God’s holy word so that this word would soak us and constitute us; we need to breathe in the Lord by praying over His word.
Seventh, we need to be watchful and on the alert for our prayer life, redeeming our time to pray; we need to pray and watch unto prayer with all perseverance.
Eighth, we have to redeem the time in these evil days to be filled in spirit by speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; also, by giving thanks to the Lord at all times and for all things, and by being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
Today we want to see four more ways of paying the price to buy the oil in our vessel.
Not Grieving or Quenching the Spirit but Speaking Words of Grace, Always Rejoicing, and Praying Unceasingly
The Spirit of God has come into our spirit and has mingled Himself with our spirit; to pay the price to buy the oil is to not grieve the Holy Spirit of God but speak words of grace.
When we speak corrupt, rotten (noxious, offensive, or worthless) words to others, we grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom we were sealed unto the day of our redemption (Eph. 4:29-30).
Instead of speaking such words, we need to exercise our spirit, enjoy the Lord, and speak words of grace to give grace to those who hear. Don’t make the Holy Spirit of God unhappy.
For example, we may know that there’s a home meeting or a prayer meeting, but we may not go; thus, we grieve the Holy Spirit. Or we may go to the meeting but not exercise our spirit and not function, and thus grieve the Spirit.
When we are unhappy – and we do become unhappy whenever we displease the Lord, for our spirit is unhappy – the Holy Spirit is also unhappy. The main reason the Spirit is unhappy is that we don’t pay the price to buy the oil, to gain more of the Spirit in our soul.
We want the Lord’s smile, not His fallen countenance; so we need to exercise our spirit, follow the leading of the Spirit within, and speak words of grace to others.
Also, we should not quench the Spirit; instead, we should always rejoice, unceasingly pray, and in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us (1 Thes. 5:16-19).
The will of God for us in a practical way is that we would always rejoice – not only when we feel like it or we have reasons to rejoice, but always rejoice.
Also, we need to unceasingly pray, unceasingly open to the Lord and converse with Him about everything. And we need to give thanks to the Lord in everything.
What does it mean to quench the Spirit? It is to ignore the Spirit, even to tell the Lord to tolerate us for a certain time and not to inspire us.
We may know and sense the Spirit moving within us but we ignore it, not like it, and not follow the Spirit. Oh Lord Jesus!
We all have to admit that so many times we have quenched the Spirit…may we follow the Spirit and buy the oil to accumulate more and more of the Spirit in our being.
We need to keep our spirit burning, fanning into flame the gift of God which is within us. Satan, however, wants to quench our spirit.
This is why in Lev. 6:12-13 we are told both that the fire on the altar must not go out, and that it should not go out.
The fire of the Lord’s burning in us must not go out; we must put wood on the altar every day, and take Christ as our burnt offering and our peace offering.
We need to take Christ as our absoluteness and as our peace for our fellowship with God. In this way we will have a fresh consecration to the Lord, and He becomes our absoluteness and peace.
May we not grieve the Spirit but speak words of grace, and may we not quench the Spirit but always rejoice and pray unceasingly!
Lord Jesus, save us from grieving the Spirit of God, with whom we have been sealed unto the day of our redemption. May we not speak any corrupt, rotten, worthless, or offensive words, but speak words of grace to give grace to those who hear. Amen, Lord, save us from quenching the Spirit; may we instead always rejoice, unceasingly pray, and in everything give thanks! Lord Jesus, we take You as our absoluteness before God, and we take You as peace for our fellowship with God. May we be burning in spirit, serving the Lord, and may we never grieve the Spirit or quench the Spirit.
Living and Doing Everything according to the mingled spirit, and being Filled with the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit
A way for us to buy the oil so that we may gain the Spirit in our vessel is by walking according to the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4).
Our human spirit is mingled with the divine Spirit, and when we walk according to the spirit, we redeem the time, we buy the oil, and we gain more of the Spirit in our vessel.
To walk here means “to live, to act, to behave, to do things, to have our being”. We need to do everything in the mingled spirit; our thinking and our speaking, our expression and our attitude, and our very being has to be according to the mingled spirit.
This requires that we pay a great price; we may have to stop checking our phone every five minutes, we may have to give up talking on the phone or Facebook messenger for a while, and we may have to stop mindlessly scrolling Instagram or Facebook.
We need to realise that many times things take our time and waste it, causing us not to set our mind on the spirit.
When we set our mind on the flesh, what we get is death; but when we set our mind on the spirit, we have life and peace. When we set our mind on the spirit we have an inner sense of satisfaction, strengthening, refreshing, watering, enlightening, and anointing.
Also, the inner sense of peace means that we have an inner feeling of comfort, harmony, joy, rest, and liberty. May we heed our spirit (Mal. 2:15-16), and may we live, walk, behave, do everything, and have our being according to the mingled spirit.
Finally, to buy the oil is to be filled with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, as the supply of the Body of Christ, to live Christ for His magnification (Phil. 1:19-21a; Psa. 133; 1 Thes. 5:25).
We all need the bountiful supply of the Spirit; this supply is in the Body and for the Body, and when we receive this supply, Christ is magnified in us.
No matter where we are, we need to realise that we are not apart from the Body; we are members in the Body, and we need to receive the bountiful supply of the Spirit in the Body.
May we all rise up to live a life of always buying an extra portion of the oil by not wasting our time in doing anything.
Many times we know that we waste our time if we do this, watch that, or go to a certain place; if we feel that what we do is a waste of time, we should use that time to contact the Lord and pray.
To be watchful unto prayer is to not let your time go, not to waste your time, but to take every time and every chance to buy the oil. To buy the oil is the best way to redeem our time, for the days our short.
Even in the way we dress, shop, talk, and live, we need to be serious and buy the oil, seeking to gain an extra portion of the Spirit in our being.
In all the matters of our daily life and all the time the Lord needs us to rise up and pay the price to buy the oil by living and doing everything according to the mingled spirit, and by being filled with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
We need to ask the Lord to fill us, saturate us, and soak us with the Spirit; this is to breathe Him in and open our whole being for His saturation.
Lord Jesus, we are here before You as an open vessel: fill us, saturate us, and soak us in and with the Spirit! We want to pay the price to buy the oil so that we may gain an extra portion of the Spirit in our soul. Amen, Lord, we do not want to waste our time any longer – may our time be redeemed as we contact the Lord in prayer to gain more of the Spirit! Amen! Lord, we want to live, act, behave, and have our being according to the mingled spirit so that we may gain more of the Spirit. Fill us with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Body so that all things may turn out to salvation!
Read this article in the Romanian language also – puteți citi această împărtășire / acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Să nu întristăm sau să stingem Duhul ci să ne rugăm neîncetat ca să trăim și să umblăm în duhul.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” ch. 9 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Church Life and the Christian Life (2019 spring ITERO), week 7, Being Watchful in Life and Faithful in Service.
- Hymns on this topic:
# How can I ever stay away / And grieve Thy Spirit all the day / While Thou dost wait for me? / I now am willing to return, / And wait no longer, for I yearn / Henceforth to follow Thee. (Hymns #471)
# The day approaches; Jesus soon is coming. / Redeem the time; it must not slip away. / Lord, make us ready for the cry: “Behold Him!” / By using every moment of each day. (Hymns #1307)
# Oh, let us now redeem each moment, / More the precious oil to buy, / And have our vessels filled with ointment / Ere we hear the midnight cry. (Hymns #1315)
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