Oil

Reading in 2 Kings chapter 4 has revealed something to me. I knew it in my head already. You probably do, too. If you believe in Jesus as your savior, you have received the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is represented many times in the scripture by oil. In this particular story, the prophet Elisha has recently received a double portion of his predecessor's spirit. A widow approaches him with a bit of a problem. Her husband, a son of the prophets, is dead. Because of his absence, debt has crept up on the family and the widow is in danger of losing her two children as slaves to the creditor. Elisha asks what she has in her home and she replies that she has but one vessel of oil. He instructs her to borrow many empty vessels from her neighbors and pour the oil she has into the empty vessels. Notice how she doesn't use her own empty vessels. She gets them from her neighbors. She is the one with the problem. One measly jar of oil. This is all she has and the prophet instructs her to pour it out. Yet she does it. This is the perfect image of how we are to live our lives. When we are at the end of our rope, our last jar of oil, we are to continue giving anyway. We are the vessel, pouring our portion of the Spirit into others' lives. They will then be filled, yet we still are full ourselves. We are full of blessings, full of the Spirit, full of life. Only as we continue to give in our own lacking can we truly understand the complete meaning of giving. Only in this way is Christ's potential in us even breached. Consider Christ in His last days. He was targeted for murder. He was insulted, whipped, and falsely accused. Even in the midst of this, Jesus continued to give. He didn't walk away or even defend himself. Jesus walked to the cross and with his last breaths forgave those who were killing him. Giving even with nothing left to offer. Or so it seemed. Those streams of living water were still flowing from within him in the end. They do not end. And so it is with us. When we give despite ourselves, we can continue to give of our Spiritual gift. The only time the vessel of the widow's stopped pouring was when there were no more vessels to fill. The job was finished.
In our lives, we are to pour out into empty vessels, giving using our gifts and talents. One's talent may be music and he may bless others even unknowingly. Another's gift may be in electrical work and he may bless others by helping them. Though in our worldly view of things we see different values on these gifts, they are of equal importance to the kingdom. We live off of each other so to speak, as the first church did. No one was lacking and they had every thing in common. Our job is not finished. We are to give and give and give. We give of our particular gifts and others are blessed just as we are when we let others use their gifts to bless us. So pass the oil on to others. Just give.