Fresh Oil: Maintaining Our Lamp to Radiate His Glory- Lesson 3b: Keep Your Wick Trimmed

Today we will continue talking about keeping our wick trimmed.

I will begin with a quick recap of our last lesson. In Luke 10, we saw that Martha was so distracted in serving the Savior that she missed the importance of being with the Savior. We learned that service is not a substitute for intimacy!

Additionally, consistency in the life of a believer is built on daily, small, and faithful steps, rather than infrequent intense efforts. We learned that Christ is working in us to maintain a life of consistency, and he will continue this work until the day it is completed when he comes back for His Bride!!!

Today we will look at keeping our wick trimmed to improve fuel efficiency.

An untrimmed or excessively long wick burns hotter and faster, wasting oil and reducing the overall burn time.

As I was seeking the Lord about this section on fuel efficiency I felt drawn to the topic of our prayer life. I want to lay the foundation for this section by giving the definitions to three words that Holy Spirit dropped into my spirit (authority, power, and prayer).

Authority: Walking in obedience and agreement with Christ as Holy Spirit power flows from our life.

Wielding what is ours by birthright and position in Christ, through our words coupled with our faith.

Power: The ability of Christ worked through us by Holy Spirit.

Prayer: Partnering with God to call His Kingdom to earth.

I want to take these terms and look more closely at each one.

Our first foundational word is Authority

When I think of our authority in Christ, two words come to mind: birthright and position.

Webster’s 1828 dictionary definitions birthright as: Any right or privilege, to which a person is entitled by birth, such as an estate descendible by law to an heir. In the case of the Christian, our birthright is conferred (granted or bestowed) upon us through adoption into God’s family.

Ephesians 1:5, For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]— (AMPC)

Romans 8:17, And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory. (AMPC)

Charles Spurgeon said, “…if Christ as God’s heir has a perfect right to what his Father has bestowed upon him, even so have we, for our rights are co-existent.” He went on to say, “Jesus must lose the reward of his agonies before we can lose the fruits of them.”  Meaning only if Jesus lost his birthright could we lose ours.  As co-heirs our inheritance and birthright are intertwined with that of Christ. 

The musical play Annie contains a wonderful illustration of becoming an heir of God. When Annie moves from the orphanage to the Warbucks Mansion, it is an incredible change for her. She leaves behind a spiteful, alcoholic caretaker and enters a relationship with a caring father. She goes from having no possessions to having a fortune at her disposal. The hard-knock life is overcome by the brightness of a sunny tomorrow. Seen from a Christian perspective, Annie pictures what being a co-heir with Christ means. “We share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17).[i]

Position is defined by Webster as: a state of being placed.

Colossians 1:13-14, [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means] the forgiveness of our sins. (AMPC)

The term "translated/transferred” (Greek: methistēmi) refers to moving from one place or realm to another, as in moving from darkness to light, or slavery to freedom.

Just as Annie moved from the orphanage to the mansion, so we are moved from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Light (God). In Acts 26:18 Jesus tells Paul he is sending him to, “open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may thus receive forgiveness and release from their sins and a place and portion among those who are consecrated and purified by faith in Me.” (AMPC)

Based on what we have just read, all authority that was given to Jesus has also, by birthright and position, been given to us. It is our responsibility to wield it as we are led by Holy Spirit.  Note: I said, “our responsibility.”  If we, as children of God, don’t wield our authority in this earth then we will never see the Kingdom of God advance. God has given us the authority and dominion over the earth.  Jesus already won the victory; it is our job to use our authority to enforce it!!!

 

Our second foundational word is Power.

Ephesians 3:20, Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]— (AMPC)

Ephesians 3:20, Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us… (ESV)

The means by which God answers prayer is given in the expression according to the power that works in us. This refers to the Holy Spirit, who is constantly at work in our lives, seeking to produce the fruit of a Christlike character, rebuking us because of sin, guiding us in prayer, inspiring us in worship, directing us in service. The more we are yielded to Him, the greater will be His effectiveness in conforming us to Christ.[ii]

In his commentary Matthew Henry writes, “The power that still worketh for the saints is according to that power that hath wrought in them. Wherever God gives of his fulness he gives to experience his power.”

As we yield to and obey the voice of Holy Spirit, praying in agreement with the Word, the power of God will bring into the physical what already belongs to us in the spiritual.

For example, 1 Peter 2:24 says, He personally bore our sins in His [own] body on the tree [as on an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. (AMPC)

We never have to wonder if it is God’s will to heal us. He already has through the blood of Jesus. It is our job to pray in agreement with the Word – “by His stripes (wounds) I AM HEALED!!” and to keep declaring it even in the face of symptoms that would try to convince us that we are still sick. Symptoms might be real; however, they are not true! The truth is we are healed!!! 

When we maintain our confession of the Word, unwavering in the face of opposition, symptoms, and external and internal voices to the contrary, we WILL see the power of God manifest to fulfill His Word in our life! All the promises in the Word belong to us. They are ours now. We do not have to wait until we get to Heaven to have healthy bodies, abundance in every area of life, peace, joy, hope, freedom, or anything else that Christ died to pay for! We must hold fast to the Word, in steadfast faith, guarding our words to prevent doubt, fear, or unbelief from coming out of our mouth.

My mother always told us that if we could not say anything nice not to say anything at all. With this sentiment in mind, I believe that if we cannot speak words of faith and life, we should not say anything at all!! Praying doubt filled prayers will stop the flow of Holy Spirit power!

Our third foundational word is Prayer.

As I stated earlier, prayer is partnering with God to call His Kingdom to earth. In Matthew 6:10 we read Jesus’ words as he models how to pray for his disciples, he said pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (AMPC) I do not believe Jesus meant to pray these exact words every time we pray, however, there is nothing wrong with praying them.  I believe he meant rather, that we must pray God’s will into the earth.

How do we know how to pray His will? We pray the Word. The Word is God’s will!!  When we pray the Word, we are praying the Words of God. The Word has the answers for every problem, need, and situation we can face. Let Google be your friend. LOL! If you have a need and do not know what scripture to stand on Google it. Once you have chapter and verse look them up and mark them in your Bible. You will need to keep standing on them until the answer manifests.

Armed with your scripture, head into your prayer closet and begin declaring the Word over your situation. Tell you mountain how big your God is, rather than telling God how big your mountain is. When we know who our Father is we do not have to grovel or whine to get our needs met. We simply declare the answer as ours (declaring the Word we are standing on) and then receive it by faith.

I heard the wonderful definition of faith a few weeks ago and have been ruminating on it since. Faith is living by what we do not understand through our choice to believe and declare the Word.

If it is this easy, Melissa, why don’t we see more of our prayers answered? Where most Christians mess up is with our words. Once we declare the Word and take what is ours by faith, we must not allow anything contrary to the Word to come out of our mouth or to dwell in our thought life. If we do, we stop the ability of God to move on our behalf.

For example, if we are having an issue with someone on our job we might stand on Proverbs 16:7, When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. (ESV)

We declare the Word, “Father, Your Word says that if my ways please You, You will make my enemies be at peace with me. I ask You for wisdom to walk in a manner pleasing to you. Help me to be a peacemaker with _________, not returning in kind but demonstrating your love. According to your Word I am declaring that _____________ will turn from his/her ways to walk at peace with me.”

If we stand on this and receive it by faith we will see the answer. Maybe not right away, but it will come in time. However, if after a few days, or weeks we begin to grow tired of standing and in frustration say something like, “Things will never change with _________”, we have just removed our faith from the Word and have transferred it to the problem again. We have stopped the answer from coming to fruition by speaking doubt and agreeing with the enemy rather than God.

Keeping our wick trimmed to improve fuel efficiency (being effective in prayer) requires that we know our authority in Christ by understanding our birthright and position, that we are dependent upon the power of God working through us, and that we pray in agreement with God by praying the Word and then not speaking words unbelief or allowing thoughts of doubt or unbelief to dwell in our minds. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[i] https://www.gotquestions.org/co-heirs-with-Christ.html

[ii] Believer's Bible Commentary Copyright © 1989, 1990, 1992, 1995, 2016 by William MacDonald.