“...And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him to sanctify him.” (Leviticus 8:12)

A couple of nights ago, I decided to clean off my beloved vanity, one of my favorite furniture pieces in my home. As I was clearing it off, I stumbled upon a shiny slimy looking spot on my black desk. I took a wet cloth and after applying some serious pressure (or shall I say elbow grease) I realized it was hair oil from a bottle not far from the spot of oil I was trying to clean. The bottle, needless to say, needed to go into the trash as it was old, sticky, and its contents were no longer of value (as I had not taken care of it). With this knowledge and my eye being a witness to the neglect, I happily threw the bottle of oil in the trash!

Oh, that the people of God would let go of the old with the same ease! It is with grace and power that the Lord allows us the opportunity to be “anointed” and “sanctified” with the oil of His Spirit. It is in this time that He chooses to work through us for the period that He has already ordained for us to be an integral part of His great collective work. Yet when we choose not to obey, move outside of God’s timing, or we refuse to move at all we tend to allow the oil to get stale and become sticky…. rendering it useless. Then we wonder why we are not as effective and why the evidence of the Lord’s Spirit cannot be traced.

Simply put...the oil is stale because we refused to be completely cleansed by it and use it for the season and time in which it was dispensed. Don’t misunderstand, it is not the Spirit of God that get’s old, but our lack of commitment to His timing or whatever we allow to hinder us from doing His work causes us to stall, get stagnant, and sticky (get stuck)  just like the hair oil on my vanity.

So the next time you’re wondering why things in life for you aren’t panning out, why it seems as if you are not effective, or why it seems as if the work you are doing is as if you are simply treading water; I challenge you to check your oil...you may have just stumbled upon its expiration date.