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Olive oil was an important commodity of Bible times and olive trees were found all over the land of Israel. Olive Oil was, and still is, created by taking olives and pressing them with great pressure until the essence of the fruit was removed from the pulp. Ripe olives are a dark purple or black color and when pressed produce a mild tasting olive oil that is and was better suited for cooking than anything else. The very best olive oil was created by taking green olives (fruit that had not had enough time to mature fully) and crushing them. We refer to this olive oil today as "extra virgin" olive oil. It was this type of oil that was used in Biblical times for burning in lamps, dressing wounds so that they would heal faster, and to make the holy anointing oil that we read about in our text. "Extra virgin" olive oil is more expensive to produce because it takes more work to harvest the fruit and is slightly harder to thoroughly crush.

In scripture, olive oil is always a type or representative of the Holy Ghost. One only has to look at two thoughts to realize how expensive it was for Jesus Christ to provide the Holy Ghost to humanity. John told us that the Holy Ghost could not be poured out until after Jesus had died:

It took Jesus dying on a cross and shedding His precious blood and being buried, and then resurrecting for the Holy Ghost to become available to receive! With that in mind, think also about the fact that it was in the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus wrestled with His flesh and made the decision to go through with Calvary. He prayed "if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt!" His sweat was as great drops of blood from the stress. His flesh did not want to face Calvary any more than you and I would choose to die. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus decided to allow his youthful life to be crushed. He would never mature into an old man at a ripe old age, but instead would be savagely killed at the age of 33 or 34! The fruit of His ministry had just began to form. He had spent only 3 1/2 years performing His mighty miracles and He would die without ever marrying or raising a family! Yet, when the soldiers came to arrest Him, He did not resist their efforts, because His flesh had already been conquered through prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. "Gethsemane" literally means "oil press!" And so it was as the young fruit of the precious Son of God was crushed upon Calvary, that He produced the precious oil of the Holy Ghost! And to think that He gives it away freely to whosoever will! It may be free, but always remember that the oil of the Holy Ghost is the most costly gift that anyone can ever give you, because it was very expensive to produce!

We mentioned that this type olive oil was used to light lamps and provide light in the darkness, and so it is with the oil of the Holy Ghost! Nothing lights the darkness like someone filled with the Holy Ghost and on fire for God! Of the ten virgins that Jesus told about, it was the five wise who kept their lamps full of oil and burning bright that were saved, and the five foolish who allowed their lamps to run out who were eternally lost!

The other scriptural use of the expensive olive oil was that it was used for medicinal purposes. The olive oil caused open wounds to close and to heal faster. And so the oil of the Holy Ghost has the same effect: it will cause open wounds in your life to close and cause hurts that you never thought could heal, to go away! Not only is the Holy Ghost expensive because of it's purchase price, but it is precious because of it's healing qualities! Sin has caused enough damage in our homes and lives: what our world needs is the healing power of the Holy Spirit flowing through it! God can heal even the most painful wounds through the power of the Holy Ghost! I'm glad that Jesus still gives the Holy Ghost today, and I refuse to take it for granted!

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What I would like to focus upon in this sermon is the other use of this precious olive oil. It was used to make the holy anointing oil. We read the formula for the holy anointing oil given by God to Moses in our text:

I want you to notice that there were four things added to the olive oil to make it the holy anointing oil. That is, the olive oil was a primary ingredient but even having the best olive oil did not make the anointing oil. God ordained that man mix four other ingredients with the oil to produce the anointing! Once these spices and other elements were mixed with the olive oil, their qualities would be preserved by the oil and would become the Holy Anointing Oil. This anointing oil was to be used to set apart a person or item for a particular purpose. King, priests, prophets, and anything that was to be used by God had to be anointed with this oil!

Can I tell you that just because you receive the Holy Ghost does not make you anointed of God!?! Oh, it gives you the primary ingredients for an anointing, but for the Holy Ghost to become the anointing of God in your life some other things has to be mixed with the oil! We need the Holy Ghost, but we really need the anointing of God! It is the anointing that breaks the yoke of sin. It is the anointing that produces the miraculous. It is the anointing that enables us to be victorious and speak with authority to our situation! Jesus said that it was the anointing that caused the blinded eyes to open and that set the captive free! It is time that Christians realize that God gave the Holy Ghost so that we could add the ingredients for the anointing! Simply having the Holy Ghost is not going to produce the victories and the changes in our lives and world that we know God wants us to have. With this in mind let's look at God's formula for changing oil into anointing.

The following things had to be added to the oil to make it an anointing oil:

1. Pure Myrrh. Myrrh represents love and it was the first thing mentioned that had to be added to the oil. It was used in perfumes because it gave a sweet scent. It was given as a gift to the Baby Jesus and was placed upon His dead body by Nicodemus as acts of love. When Esther wanted to impress the king, she spend six months bathing with myrrh. Myrrh represents love. The greatest love is unselfish love that withholds nothing back. That is why Myrrh is used in incense in the temple, because when it burns there is no residue left which symbolizes offering God everything! True, Godly love is a complete commitment with nothing in reserve. Many people say that they love God, but only those who commit everything to Him really love Him. In the scriptures, love is closely tied to obedience. For example Jesus said:

We are also to love one another:

15 times in the New Testament we are commanded to "love one another." People should be able to tell that we are disciples of Christ simply by our love one for another! Some people say that they love God but are always at odds with others. But John taught:

Paul taught in I Corinthians chapter 13 that the greatest quality in the world was true, Godly, unselfish love. It is the first thing that a Christian must learn to have in His walk, and it is the first necessary ingredient to being truly anointed by God! God anoints those who love Him enough to keep His commandments whether anyone knows or not! Those who are truly obedient to God's Word will always show forth a mighty anointing of God because they are placing true love into the oil of the Holy Ghost!

2. Sweet Cinnamon. This was the second ingredient that had to be added to make the Holy Anointing Oil. The Hebrew word for cinnamon here literally means "to stand up straight." It is so named because the cinnamon tree grows to more than 30 feet tall! While other herbs bend over, the Cinnamon tree stands up straight.

As a Christian the second thing that we must place in our lives after the Holy Ghost comes is the ability to stand for truth against all pressure to bow. The devil wants us to bow and be like everyone else in our lifestyle, and mode of dress and speech:

We must realize that it is a matter of life or death whether or not we are willing to stand for truth and holiness:

In a world that is trying to get you to give in to their false doctrines and where compromise is the key trait of the day, we must STAND! When the King of Babylon made his golden image and commanded everyone to bow in worship to it, it took true faith in God for the three Hebrew boys to stand tall and not bow to a graven image! When they were cast into the fiery furnace, God went with them! If you refuse to bow to other Gods, then God will not bow out during the persecution! But if you are willing to sell out to other things, you cannot expect God to bail you out! If you will make it up in your mind to stand, then God will stand with you!

3. Sweet Calamus. The third element that had to be added to the oil to make the holy anointing oil was Calamus. The Calamus plant is a reed that does not look like anything special until you bruise it. It emits a sweet fragrance when bruised. It is a fragrance that you can get from no other plant and from no other method.

This is symbolic of two aspects that we must add to the Holy Ghost within us! We must be able to take correction without getting a foul spirit or attitude!

The other way we place Calamus in our lives spiritually is that we must also be able to take the pains and disappointments of life and trials without getting bitter at others or at God. In the midst of his trial, Job said:

Remember the words of Isaiah about the Lord's mercy:

Remember that the Calamus is of no use unless it is bruised! The trials must come, and you cannot control life's circumstances, but you can control your response and your attitude! God is more often interested in our response to our trials and not in whether we win or we lose. He is more interested in the aroma that comes forth when you are bruised! Remember that the scriptures say that He was "bruised for our iniquities!" Jesus Christ was bruised and yet the aroma that came from Him was one of humility and purity and forgiveness! He was "reviled" and "reviled not again!" If you want the type of anointing that Jesus Christ had, then you have got to put the same ingredients in your life!! What aroma comes from you when you are bruised?

4. Cassia. The last element that had to be placed within the oil to bring the anointing was Cassia. The Hebrew word for Cassia literally means "split." It is so named because it is a bark that is split from the tree. Only upon separation is Cassia useful for the Godly directions! There is also a two-fold meaning in this ingredient.

First we must be willing to repent and separate ourselves from our sins. I'm not talking about before we come to God, but after the Holy Ghost comes! The Holy Ghost comes to "reprove" us of sin. That means that as we grow deeper in this experience, the Holy Ghost will gradually reveal to us flaws and sins that we may have not even been aware were there. We must have a repentant spirit and not be afraid to be like Paul and "die daily." This is one of the reasons that I have noticed that people's spiritual growth is usually linked to whether or not they continually manifest a repentant attitude! John was writing to the church when he said that "if a man say he have no sin, then he is a liar." That is not to say that we should allow sin to stay in our lives and continue in sin, but that rather we should never get to the place where we do not think that we need to repent! We will never get good enough on our own where we do not need the precious gift of repentance!

There must also be a willingness to be a separated people and to change the areas of our life that do not line up with God's Word. We must be willing to make a "split" from our old lifestyle and old friends and old priorities. Notice the following scriptures:

All of these scriptures are written to people filled with the Holy Ghost! God demands that we be like Him and He is holy and pure! It is not an automatic event in our life when we receive the Holy Ghost, but holiness and separation is a choice that we must make. We must be willing to add it to the Spirit.

We must determine our standard of separation from God and not from the world. The world is constantly growing worse and getting farther and farther away from God. I know people that they judge their righteousness by saying, "well, I'm not as bad as some in the world." But if you measure your holiness by being just slightly better than the world then you will steadily get farther and farther away from God! We've got to measure our holiness against God! Because the world has gotten so far away from the things of this world, sometimes people may be surprised by what the Word of God says or the way that their pastor recommends that they live, but if you think that the Word of God is too strict, then you are measuring your holiness by the world. We must measure it against God because God never changes and even though the world may change, God will never change!

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Why did God make it so that a true anointing requires us to put something in it? To answer that question, I would like to relate a point that recently heard a minister make in the story of the rich young ruler:

Young men were not rich in those days unless they inherited their fortune. The reason that God told the rich, young ruler to give everything that he had and give it to the poor was because the riches had not cost him anything! God responds to people who respect the worth of what He is doing in their life! That's why the anointing does not come automatically with the Holy Ghost, because if it does not cost you anything, then it means nothing to you! But the Holy Ghost means more to you when you have placed some things within it! When it has cost you something! When you have loved the unlovable and been bruised and yet issued a sweet fragrance! When you have felt the winds of adversity but have stood strong and straight for truth! That's when this thing becomes precious to you! That's why God said that the oil is free but the anointing is costly! It must cost you something!

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I also want you to notice that what God gives, He can also take away. When Satan came before the Lord accusing Job, this is what he said:

I want you to realize that God had freely given the blessings to Job and had even built a hedge of protection around him to protect him and his family! But God was willing to remove it if doing so would bring Him glory. Job never questioned God but gave great revelation that we need to grasp:

The people that the devil cannot shake are those who have the attitude of Job: "If God takes away everything from me, then I will still bless Him and serve Him!" The reason that I personally have made it in living for God this far is that I have put some things in my relationship that neither God nor the devil can take away! God can remove His blessing from my life, but He cannot take away my love for Him! God can drop the hedge in a great trial, but He cannot take away my resolve to stand strong for Him in appreciation for what He has done! God may allow people to bruise me and circumstances of life, but He cannot take away my sweet essence of trust in Him! And there is something about someone with such an attitude that moves God to bless even further! There is something about someone with the attitude of Job that causes God to open the windows of heaven and pour out of His blessings in even greater measure! I may lose everything I have possession wise, but nobody can remove my love from Him, because somebody else did not give it to me: I put it into my Holy Ghost-filled life! He provided the Holy Ghost but the anointing came when I was willing to put some things into it! The devil hates the mention of a man named Job, because those are the kind of people that he can't touch! Those that have added some things in their life that nothing can take away!

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In scripture there were many things and people anointed of God for mighty acts! But I cannot find one scripture where anointing was transferred! We talk about Elijah and Elisha and how Elisha wanted a double portion of what Elijah had, but go read it, God gave Elisha a double portion of Elijah's spirit, but not anointing! God can transfer spirits and attitudes and resolve, but He cannot transfer anointing because for you to have the same anointing as me, then you must put in the same ingredients that I have put in!

As a pastor, I would like to shield you from some things that I have endured. I would like to protect you from the harsh realities that not all ministers are sold out completely to the things of God and sometimes people who say that they are Christians can be the most harsh and unforgiving. Some of my experiences, I do not wish upon anyone. I would like to shield you from family and marriage troubles and the cold winds of life that blow through sickness and heartache.

But there is a reason that God allows such things to happen in your life and a reason that as much as I might, I cannot protect you from everything. You must have an opportunity to build your anointing! You never really have an opportunity to truly love someone until you have someone truly hate you. Jesus said:

You have never had an opportunity to really be able to stand until the pressure to compromise becomes great in your life! You have never really had the ability to add Calamus to your life until you have been bruised. You have never really had the ability to split from what the world calls normal until you are faced with a decision of whether or not to be separated unto God! God allows these things to come in your life in response to your prayer for His anointing! The miraculous comes from adding these things into my Holy Ghost experience! Don't get despondent when adversity arises, but rejoice because God has given you an opportunity to build a great anointing within your life!