God’s anointing

1. God’s anointing 1 John 2:27 says, “But as for you, the anointing (the sacred appointment, the unction) which you received from Him abides [permanently] in you;” (AMP)

2. The greatest qualification to be anointed is to feel unqualified. • To be anointed by God means to be supernaturally endowed with divine assistance to do the appointed task. • As a part of God’s anointing, the Lord has blessed the body of Christ with diverse gifts of the Holy Spirit that empower the Church to do His will on earth. • There’s one common fact about every anointed leader in the Bible, they were anointed by God to fill the need around them. • Man was not anointed for himself but anointed for the purposes of God. • When the disciples tarried in the upper room praying, the anointing pursued them to empower them for the commandment of Jesus to go into the world to make disciples of men. • Your anointing is activated from the call you have received and multiplies according to your levels of faith. • Your faith increases by hearing the Word of God, the more you immerse yourself in prayer and faith, the more you are tuned to Him. And the anointing in your life is further activated(to do what you were purposed for) with that faith that is birthed out of the intimacy with God.

3. Extraction of Olive oil. • Olive oil was used as a cooking oil, food, lighting fuel, soap making, religious ceremonies and medicinal use • The olive oil production process was based on two major steps: • The first step a donkey pushed on a horizontal beam, which in turn rolled a millstone that crushed ripe olives (placed in a large, round basin) into a pulp. • An olive crusher was often placed in a cave, where the moderate temperature improved the efficiency of the oil production. • The second step is done on another installation: During Jesus' time, heavy stone slabs were lowered onto olives that had already been crushed in an olive crusher. Gradually, the slabs weight squeezed the olive oil out of the pulp, and the oil ran into a pit. There the oil was collected in clay jars.

4. Rolling stone crusher and presser STEP 1 STEP 2

5. Well preserved oil press – west of Samaria. With crusher, presser and store rooms

6. GETHSEMANE – A PLACE OF PRESSING OIL • The word gethsemane is derived from two Hebrew words: gat, which means "a place for pressing oil (or wine)" and shemanim, which means "oils.“ • So it's the place of the olive press, it's where olives were grown and it's were olives were crushed to make olive oil. • The image of the Gethsemane on the slope of the Mount of Olives where Jesus went the night before his crucifixion provides a vivid picture of Jesus' suffering. • The weight of the sins of the world pressed down upon him like a heavy slab of rock pressed down on olives in their baskets. • His sweat, "like drops of blood falling from to the ground" (Luke 22:44), flowed from him like olive oil as it was squeezed out and flowed into the pit of an olive press.

7. Garden of gethsemane on mount olives

8. Garden of Eden, garden of gethsemane and the garden city of new Jerusalem • Between the Garden of Eden and the Garden City of Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem is the Garden of Gethsemane. • In the Garden of Eden sin entered, Adam was there, life begun there, sin begun there. • In the Garden of Gethsemane, the second Adam or the last Adam, not only won the battle but dealt with sin head on. • In the Garden of Eden, the first Adam, after he sinned he hid, he ran, he fled, and he tried to cover up himself. • In the Garden of Gethsemane the second Adam, the last Adam, Jesus Christ didn't hide, he presented himself openly, not only before the crowd but before his father to do his father's will. It's an interesting comparison.

9. Two events in two gardens First Adam Hiding Second Adam was bold and did not Hide

10. There has to be a Gethsemane before there can be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit • The most valuable product of the olive was the oil. It became most valuable after it was crushed in "Gethsēmani", Gethsemane, the olive press • Oil is often emblematic of the Holy Spirit. • But before you get oil, there has to be a crushing. • 2 Corinthians 5 Verse 21, "God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.“ • Jesus was crushedand as a result, Holy Spirit was dispatched to empower His people.

11. Messiah – to be anointed with olive oil •  The word ‘mashach’ - from the same root word for ‘messiah’ in Hebrew-means ‘to be anointed with olive oil.’  •  Priests, kings and prophets were anointed with olive oil, indicating that they were gifted and called by God.  •  So it was understood that the anticipated Messiah would be specially anointed with olive oil.  • The tree also represented the purpose of the promised Messiah - to renew Israel.  When an olive tree gets old, it is cut down because there’s too much trunk for the leaves to nourish.  The following year, a new shoot comes out of the old tree, eventually producing new fruit and lots of healthy branches. • InIsaiah 5, God says to the unbelieving nation of Israel (paraphrased), “You didn’t produce any fruit.  But I was patient.  I dug around you.  I fertilized you.  I kept you growing.  And after a while, I looked. There was still no fruit, so I cut you down.”  And then He says in chapter 11, “Behold, a new shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse and will become a new tree with new fruit.”

12. Isaiah 5:11, “Behold, a new shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse and will become a new tree with new fruit.”

13. We are grafted to the new shoot (Jesus) • The key is the olives we produce.  Paul says in Romans 11:21 (paraphrased), “If God cut down the natural tree, what do you think He would do to you who have been grafted in if you don’t bear fruit?” • Jesus came to be the new shoot for what reason? • So we would have life to bear fruit. • The word for shoot or branch in Hebrew is of the same root as the word ‘Nazareth’: ‘netser’.  • TheBible says Jesus’ parents went back to Nazareth in order that prophecy might be fulfilled: “He will be called a Nazarene.”  Therefore, a Nazarene is someone from ‘shoot town’ or ‘branch town.’  •  Jesus came from Nazareth to indicate to us that He (Jesus) is the branch.  And while on Earth, Jesus gave lessons and examples of how to be grafted into His Tree of Life.

14. History of the olive tree •  The olive was one of the most valuable trees to the ancient Hebrews.  It is first mentioned in Scripture when the dove returned to Noah’s ark carrying an olive branch in its beak (Gen.8:11).  Since that time, the olive branch has been a symbol of “peace” to the world, and we often hear the expression, “extending an olive branch” to another person as a desire for peace. • When Israel conquered Canaan, the olive tree was a prominent feature among the flora of the land.  It was described as a “land of olive oil” (Deut.8:8).  The olive was a very important source of revenue to the early Israelites.  It was tithed upon along with all the produce of the land (Deut.12:17)

15. However, it is most instructive to note that the fruit of the olive tree, in its wild state, is both small and worthless.  It must be properly tended and cultivated to produce optimum fruit.  To become truly prolific, the olive tree must be grafted, a process by which good stock is made to grow upon a wild shrub. • Oil was regarded as a symbol of honor, joy, and favor.  Therefore, oil was not to accompany purification rights associated with dishonor, shame, sorrow, and disfavor, just as it was withheld from the body in times of mourning (II Sam.12:20; Dan.10:3

16. Olive oil was often used to anoint the head and body after a bath.  Ruth was advised by Naomi to wash and anoint herself and put on her best garment, before seeking out Boaz (Ruth 3:3).   • Olive oil also symbolized gladness and joy.  David wrote of the Messiah, “You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God,, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions” (Psalm 45:7) • Olive oil served as fuel for lamps.  In the parable of the ten virgins, five wise and five foolish, the foolish ones allowed the oil in their lamps to run out (Matt.25:3).  The “lamp” is a symbol of the Word of God. David wrote, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).  Solomon wrote, “For the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light” (Prov.6:23).  The oil of the lamp is the indwelling Spirit of God.  God’s Spirit sheds illumination on the laws and commandments of God, giving us understanding and wisdom and knowledge.  

17. When a lamp was filled with olive oil, the wick maintained a steady flame until the fuel ran out.  So it is with God’s people.  When we are filled with His Spirit, our spiritual light shines brightly and gives a steady, radiant light!  (Matt.5:14-16) • Olive oil was also used as a medicine to anoint wounds.  It was used both internally and externally.  Its soothing and protective qualities made it a valuable remedy for gastric disorders, and its qualities as a mild laxative were widely recognized in ancient times.  Externally, it was used for bruises and wounds.  

18. Grafted into the cultivated olive tree • 17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. • 22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

19. Grafted into the cultivated olive tree • Romans 11:11-21 • Abraham was as the root of the church. The Jews continued branches of this tree till, as a nation, they rejected the Messiah; after that, their relation to Abraham and to God was, as it were, cut off. • The Gentiles were grafted into this tree in their room; being admitted into the church of God. Multitudes were made heirs of Abraham's faith, holiness and blessedness. It is the natural state of every one of us, to be wild by nature. • Conversion is as the grafting in of wild branches into the good olive. The wild olive was often engrafted into the fruitful one when it began to decay, and this not only brought forth fruit, but caused the decaying olive to revive and flourish. • The Gentiles, of free grace, had been grafted in to share advantages. They ought therefore to beware of self-confidence, and every kind of pride or ambition; lest, having only a dead faith, and an empty profession, they should turn from God, and forfeit their privileges. If we stand at all, it is by faith; we are guilty and helpless in ourselves, and are to be humble, watchful, afraid of self-deception, or of being overcome by temptation. • Not only are we at first justified by faith, but kept to the end in that justified state by faith only; yet, by a faith which is not alone, but which worketh by love to God and man.

20. Paul thus preached the gospel of the Kingdom to the Jews and was repeatedly rejected (Acts 13—28); in consequence, Paul brought the good news to the Gentiles, who in turn became Abraham’s spiritual seed by faith and heirs of the promises to Abraham and his seed (Galatians 3—4). This is what Paul meant in Romans 11 by the Gentiles being “grafted” into the “olive tree” and nourished by the “root” (the promises to Abraham). The tree thus signifies the collective people of God; the “wild branches” grafted in are Gentile believers; the “natural branches” that are cut off are the Jews in unbelief. Jewish believers remain in the tree but are joined with Gentiles and “made” into a “new body,” the Church (Ephesians 2:11–22).

21. Olive tree grafting

22. GRAFT • The word occurs 6 times in Romans 11. Paul assumed that those living about Rome were familiar with the process of grafting olive trees, for olive culture had been adopted by the Greeks and Romans in Paul's time. The wild olive trees (Arabic colloquial, zeitunberri) are cut back, slits made on the freshly sawed branch ends, and two or three grafts from a cultivated olive (Arabic colloquial, zeitunjouwi) are inserted in such a way that the bark of the scion and of the branch coincide. The exposed ends are smeared with mud made from clay, and then bound with cloth or date straw, which is held by thongs made from the bark of young mulberry branches. The fruit thus obtained is good. Wild olives cannot be made cultivated olives by engrafting, as Paul implies (Romans 11:24), but a wild olive branch thus grafted would thrive. So Gentiles would flourish spiritually when grafted into the fullness of God's mercy, first revealed to the world through Israel.