Stewarding King's Gold

For this is the will of God, your sanctification… I Thessalonians 4:3

No matter where we are in our lives—young, old, married, divorced, widowed, single—there is one area that all of us must steward with care. The area of sexual/romantic passion.

For some of us this resource, a gift from God, exists in its potential, hidden underground like untouched reservoirs of petrol. Others of us who have participated in an intimate relationship have discovered the gushing, almost overwhelming power of sexual desire, like the force of a petrol spring. Like an unexpected strike while we are cultivating friendships, suddenly the oil gushes out with abandon, heedless of everything and everyone around.  For others among us, the oil has ceased to surge out with relentless force, yet the reserve still exists, deep under the surface.

For generations, men and women have built oil rigs—the institution called marriage—over these forceful springs. They recognized that the thick, murky substance, called black gold, was a bountiful resource upon their land, and they respected the truth that both petrol and sexual/romantic passion must be handled with care in order to benefit the owners. If handled carelessly, God's gift of passion, King's gold, creates great harm rather than great good, acting just like crude oil, coating land, animals, and people with its toxic, gooey texture, ruining the crops growing in the area, and forming a mirey bog.

Instead of respecting the reasons behind tradition, recent generations have been exhorted to exude a laissez-faire attitude toward sex and romance. They’ve been told by the leading gurus in human wisdom, “Go ahead! Frolic in it! Have fun! It’s natural—enjoy it!” Then they’re even handed matches to light a fire and dance in the flames. After all, passionate love is explosive. It’s amazing. It’s the black gold everybody says will make us rich and famous and above all—make us feel loved. It’s also black and ugly and deadly for those coated in the oil when the fire ignites.

Just like petrol, sexual passion requires special equipment to reap the benefits we all know it has. The Bible says clearly that the special equipment needed is marriage. Worldly gurus wave aside the significance of a legal ceremony, blithely declaring that a wedding certificate doesn’t make a difference. But God says with incredible clarity that marriage matters. When we enter into a marriage covenant, we bring God into the union—along with His oil rigging.

The oil rigging plunges into the oil well and brings up the natural resource for the benefit of all. The owners of that field can then use the oil to fuel their ovens, their cars, their lamps, and their homes. Petrol converts into many forms for many uses, all of which produce dividends for the couple who submit to God’s covering of marriage. The oil rigging also enables the couple to drill deeper and bring up the petrol sitting in reserve even when the first rushes of passion have subsided.

God’s oil rigging makes sure the passion doesn’t destroy the good seed He’s placed in our souls, the strong character He’s developing within us. However, those who refuse to enter into a marriage agreement are like farmers who refusesto invest in drilling equipment. They let the oil keep pumping out until the whole land is coated with black tar, unfit for man or beast to walk on. In the same way, sexual activity outside of marriage dumps toxic petrol all over the insides of our hearts, clogging our receptivity of Living Water.  When oil covers a land, water just runs right off. It can’t penetrate the earth or enable plants to grow.

Some of you may be like me, knowing that the force of a petrol spring exists and wondering how to contain it since the oil rigging is not in place. In these cases, the Lord has said to me, “The powerful force of this desire must be covered by a huge, heavy stone so that the oil does not contaminate the land.” I cried out to Him, “What stone is strong enough to withstand the force of desire when it hits?”

The Lord said, “I am the Rock. I am the One who covers you.”

Ah, Lord, how amazing and wonderful You are! Jesus is the Rock who covers our desires, reserving us for the union that will bring honor to Him. Until that day, He requires obedience and faithful trust. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God…For God did not call us to uncleanness but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit” (I Thessalonians 4:3-8).

Jesus doesn’t ask what can’t be done. He wouldn’t say to abstain and wait for marriage if we were unable to obey.

Nor can He protect our land if we keep edging the Rock off in order to please ourselves. The oil will seep up and contaminate our hearts, building into a toxic wasteland within our souls if we do not take a firm stand against all sexual activity while single. Once married, only sex for the sake of the marriage partner will please the Lord. Removing the Rock to gaze at pornography, masturbate, contemplate love-making scenes within the mind or on TV, or any other activity that pleases the flesh rather than the Lord, will all pump that black oil into the deepest crevices of our souls.

And eventually toxic exposure will destroy us. (Romans 6:15-23)

Praise God, though, that when we come to the point of repentance, the place where we’re sick of all the pretenses and self-gratifications, Jesus is there to wash us clean. Ephesians 5:26 says Jesus cleanses and sanctifies us by the washing of water by the word. What word? The word of truth. The word of righteousness.

Father, Spirit, and Son will never contradict the Scriptures that testify of them.  No one can say that God has authorized their unmarried or extra-marital sexual activity. If they seek to claim a special privilege, they have deceived themselves. Nor can we claim that since God is so forgiving, we’re allowed to wallow in the mire of unrestrained sexual passion anytime we want to then be washed clean. The toxicity of the land will testify to the Law of God: “What a man sows, that he will also reap. He who sows to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. He who sows to the Spirit, will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” (Galatians 6:8)

That life is for today. Now. Abundant life.

Praise God for redemption! Praise God for repentance! Praise God for second and third and fourth chances! But let us also choose—choose—to walk in joyful obedience, knowing the great price He paid for our cleansing.

Lord Jesus, today cleanse us, wash us, sanctify us, and place the strong Rock of Your very Person—our relationship with You—over the desire for intimacy that exists within us. We choose this day to submit to You.

Make us a people ready and useful for the outpouring of Your splendor!

(For further Spirit-filled studies and counseling on the stewardship of Biblical sexuality, visit http://www.masteringlife.org.)

The Holy Spirit's Oil

In the previous post, I mentioned that I was unsure of what the black oil in my vision represented. After all, petroleum isn't in Scripture. However, lamp oil is found throughout the Old and New Testaments, and I sense that for the Lord's purposes, they are the same.

In the natural world, oil is turned into kerosene and gasoline for fuel for both private and corporate use. If this black oil is the same as lamp oil referred to many times in Scripture, then the Word says, “There is desirable treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders it” (Proverbs 21:20). Each of us has oil, but not every one is saved nor do all use it wisely.

So what is oil? I believe oil represents passion. It can be passion for Christ or the squandered passion of recent generations. Desire needs to fuel our walk with the Lord, or we soon burn out and begin to stray in our hearts, no longer passionate for the things of God. Zechariah 4:1-14 talks about two oil trees which supply continual oil to the lampstand in the temple. We are the temple of God (I Corinthians 3:19), and throughout the Old Testament oil represents the anointing and presence of the Holy Spirit (I Samuel 16:12-13, Isaiah 61:1).

Jesus also speaks of the wise having oil in their vessels and lamps while the foolish took no oil with them. Those who did not bring an extra supply of oil  went to buy more, but when they returned, they were not allowed into the bridegroom’s chambers (Matthew 25:3-13). We know that those who are not born again do not receive the Holy Spirit, and therefore do not have eternal life in them (Romans 8:9-11). They pursue fleshly passions, which do not qualify them to enter the kingdom of heaven, but are in fact in opposition to it (Galatians 5:24, Ephesians 4:22).

The Holy Spirit longs to fuel our passion for the Lord just like the sun is fueled by an interior energy source. Daniel 12:3 says the righteous will shine forth like the stars. I deeply believe that this word applies today. Jesus said we are the light of the world, because He is in us and He is Light (Matthew 5:14-16, John 1:4,9, 12:46). Natural light always comes from either fire made from natural resources such as oil or wood or from nuclear energy, such as the fire of the sun and stars.

Today the Holy Spirit yearns to burn within us, fusing our natural desire to His so that we will radiate so much heat that we become nuclear power plants of holy fire!

Let's seek His passion so we can live our lives on fire for Him!!!

Lavishly Loved by Jesus

We’re pampered by Jesus. We don’t hear that very often, but we are. Oh, not in the way the world views pampering: few of us drive around in fancy sportscars or wear diamond watches on our wrists. But we’re pampered nonetheless.

Just listen to John’s exaltation: “How great is the Father’s love that He has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God!” (I John 3:1) And Paul exclaims in the same fashion, “How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him…. He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.” (Ephesians 1:3&6 The Message)

The Sons of Korah proclaim in joy, “The Lord will give grace and glory! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly!” (Psalm 84:11)

Are we righteous on our own? Not at all! Jesus took our sin debt and placed us in right-standing with God. Our Heavenly Father sees us through the lens of His Son’s deep love and sacrifice for us. What is good? Not the riches or fame or beauty that the world chases after; not the lusts of the flesh or of the mind; not the pride of life. Everything became confused at the Fall in the Garden of Eden: our perception became distorted. But oh, how much our heavenly Father loves us! He longs to restore us to His vision for our lives, His way of looking at things.

Just look at the picture God Himself paints in Ezekiel 16: “’I anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil…. Your beauty…was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,’ says the Lord God.”

This chapter is a pleading of Father God for us to come before Him with hearts full of praise and adoration for the lavish gifts He’s given. He knows how temptation steals into our hearts, beckoning us to squander the oil and pastry, the silk and the gold on false loves and fleshly idols. “’She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry and went after her lovers, but Me she forget,’ says the Lord.” (Hosea 2:13)

Proverbs 21:20 declares, “There is desirable treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders it.” In Scripture, oil often represents the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Oil is useful for a fragrance, an antibiotic, and a cleansing potion. Oils were used to purify the system of contaminations, to soften the skin, and to saturate individuals with such a beautiful scent that they were intoxicating wherever they went.  Tommy Tenney devotes an entire chapter in his book Finding Favor with the King on understanding the use of oils in the purification process that Esther went through before she was allowed to approach the king. How much more should we, God’s favored children, long to immerse ourselves in the presence of the Holy Spirit so that we are well-pleasing to the King of Kings, our Beloved Husband?

So what are the pastry, the silk,  and the adornments that Ezekiel speaks of? They were literal for historical Israel at the peak of her glory, but they also represent an ongoing truth about our souls. Stormie Omartian writes in Just Enough Light for the Step I’m On: “Hunger for God’s Word like food. Thirst for it like water. Soak in it like a Jacuzzi. Put it on like a garment. Weave it into your soul so that it becomes part of the fabric of your life. When you do, you won’t just be trudging up the trail. You will be dancing in the footlights.”

Jesus longs for us to spend time with Him; He loves to pour over us His fragrant perfume and to beautify us with the radiance of His love. Most surely, yes, most surely, He loves to pamper us!!!

Jesus, I’ll adorn myself with Your truth! I will bask in the glory of Your grace and let You weave faith into a beautiful garment for my soul. Yes, I’ll sit at my Father’s table and partake of the Bread of Life and the Wine of Your love! I’ll rejoice in Who You are and remember that all these gifts come from Your hand—not for me to look at my own reflection in a mirror, but for me to stand in amazement and gaze and gaze and gaze in breath-taking wonder at the love in Your eyes.