Jentezen Franklin - Five Ingredients of an Anointed Life
Exodus 30:22. "Moreover the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 'Take for yourself quality spices" 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much of sweet-smelling cinnamon, 250 shekels of sweet-smelling cane'", or calamus, some translations say: "'500 shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin'", which is a container, that's basically five quartz: "'Of olive oil'".
In my Bible that I'm reading, it has a heading over these verses called "The Holy Anointing Oil". And that is exactly what it is, this is God's recipe for the anointing. And He says that it was to be made of five different ingredients, the precious anointing oil that they used to anoint kings and priests, and for so many other occasions. It had to have five ingredients, a specific recipe was given for the anointing oil. And I wanna speak to you for a few moments today on the subject of "The Five Ingredients of An Anointed Life".
Don't you wanna live an anointed life? Not just a life, but an anointed life. And the five ingredients are found in this text, and they must be present in your life to produce an anointed life. The recipe for the anointing. And He said the first thing that you are to put in the anointing oil is a spice called myrrh. Myrrh is a fragrance that comes from the trunk of a commiphora tree in Arabia. It's produced in the form of tears, alcohol is added to remove any impurities, and listen carefully, then it is steamed, and as the steam passes through the gum, its melted into a flowing oil, and that oil becomes a perfume.
Myrrh is a beautiful picture of meekness and submission, and I'll make that clear in just a moment. The number-one ingredient for an anointed life is meekness and submission to God's will. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is strength in harness for service. Meekness is the raging river no longer flowing wide and wild, but submitting to the dam so that from it might come hydro-electricity. It's submitting all that you have in obedience to God, and when you do that, the anointing is attracted to your life. Submission and meekness is the wild, untamed, powerful stallion, submitting to the bit, the bridal, the saddle, and the tug of the reins.
The Bible says in Numbers 12:3, that Moses was the meekest man who ever lived. How did it come to be? How did he become so meek? It was because it took one-third of his life to get to that place. 40 years was spent in the wilderness. Stripped of the marble columns of Egypt. Stripped of the silk and the satin and the prosperous place that he had grown up most of his life. And now, he finds himself in a desert, and from the high life that he was living, in Egypt, to 40 years of tending sheep in the desert. But during those 40 years...
See, all of you wanna be instantaneous, successful people. But 40 years of waiting and calling on God until rebellion was gone. It just was steamed out of him. Self-will was gone, and submission and meekness to God began to happen. Stubbornness was burned out of him. The steam of God's Spirit had passed through the gum of a man's very fiber, and now, the oil is flowing out of his life, and God sends a burning bush, and speaks to him. And God's watching him and his reaction, and the first thing he does is, in meekness, he takes his shoes off, as a sign of reverence and respect to the presence of God. And then, he listens to the voice of God, because he knows you'll hear many voices, but that voice is the one I must follow. And God says, "I'm going to teach you faith, Moses. I'm gonna teach you faith that confronts your greatest fear. Go to Pharaoh, and tell him, 'I Am sent you'".
And in submission to God, in great meekness, understanding that my job is just to obey God and let God deal with the consequences, I'm just going in submission, in total meekness, doing what God told me to do. And God, in that, said to him, "Moses, don't ever forget. There is a place by Me. And you can be in that place. You can settle for the multitudes at the foot of the mountain, or you can come half-way up with the 70 elders, or you can come up to a place of nearness to Me, for there is a place by Me".
And when you get to that place of meekness, and when you get to that place of total submission, where you say what Mary said to those servants, "Whatever He says unto you, do it". When you reach that point, when you can carry out Mary's orders, and whatever He tells you to do, you are submitted, you are meek enough to just do it, God says, "Now, you are discovering the first step to an anointed life". And you'll never be able to submit to your husband, to your wife, to elders, to leadership, you'll never be able to submit to them until you submit to God.
The second ingredient for an anointed life was something called cinnamon. The cinnamon came from a tree that grew 30 to 40 feet. And the remarkable thing about it was it grew straight up. They say that it grew so straight that it had no curves. And they would take the leaves, and the fruit of that upright tree, and squeeze them, and out of that would come a fragrant oil. They made candles for the king of Simon, that had a beautiful fragrance. The second ingredient of an anointed life is called uprightness, or how you stand.
And when I talk about standing upright, I'm not talking about you acting like you are so self-righteous that you're on spiritual stilts, looking down at all the unspiritual people who don't live as pure and as clean as you do. We don't tower down on people, looking down on people. But there's a truth that when we take an upright stand, when we stand up for what is right, the anointing is attracted to our life. Did you know the Old Testament said that if a man had a crooked back, he was disqualified from being a priest in the temple? It's because it affected the way that he stood, and God wanted to make a point. He wanted us to know that our stand, our upright stand, matters.
It matters to whether or not the anointing is attracted to your life. If he had a crooked back, he couldn't stand straight, and then God said, in his qualifications for priesthood, if his back is crooked, he can't stand straight, he doesn't qualify. God is saying to you and I, "I want you to stand for truth". Added light brings added blessing, and added blessing brings added responsibility, and this is an hour when we need to stand for truth. Stand in His righteousness, not your own. Billy Crabtree said, "On Christ, the solid rock I stand, and every other rock is a shamrock". And that's the truth.
I rise today to tell you that if you are standing in your own righteousness, you will not make it. But what is the basis of your stand? I point you to Jesus. I point you to His blood, shed on the cross, and without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me, that is how we stand. Thirdly, we stand on His promises. You need to understand, you either have a living faith or a dying faith. Whose report will you believe? Stand on the promise of divine healing. You may have gotten a bad report from the doctor. I respect and appreciate the doctors, but they do not have the last word. Stand on the promises of God, that by His stripes, we're healed. With long life, He'll satisfy us, and show us His salvation.
Martin Luther was asked, "Do you know the whole world seems to be against you"? He said, "Good, I'm against the whole world". There comes a moment where we have to get a divine back bone, and take a stand for what is right, and it doesn't matter what public opinion says about it. And it doesn't matter what people think. Just do what God tells you to do, and when you are upright in your stand, it draws the anointing. The Bible said in Hebrews 11 that Moses made a choice to say no to Egypt, and yes to God. There was a yes, and there was a no.
I wonder if there's any no's in your life, are there is everything yes, yes, bless me, yes, yes? But do you ever get a no in your life? Where the Holy Spirit says, "No, don't do that. Don't go there. Don't touch that. Don't listen to that. Don't look at that". We don't just need yes's in our life, we need a stand, an upright stand, that says no to sin, no to the world, no to the flesh, no to the devil. Get out of my house, get out of my mind. Get out of my heart. You've got to say them both, say yes and no to God. Because when you say no to the things God tells you to say no to, His favor and His anointing begins to flow in your direction.
1 John 2:14, "I have written to you, young men, that the Word of God abide in you, and you have overcome the evil one". The only way you're gonna overcome the evil one is to have the Word in you, and to take a stand. Beware of charismatic shortcuts to spirituality. There are none. Some things can't be improved on. You can't improve on the water. Try to take a shower in Pepsi. It doesn't work good. You can't improve on breathing air. Try any other thing for three minutes, and see how it works out. And there's certain, fundamental things like prayer and worship and reading the Word, and listening to the Word, and coming to church, and tithing, and giving, that cannot be improved on.
Just do it, and when you do it, God's blessing and His anointing will be attracted to your life. These things cause the anointing to be attracted to your life. Four times in the Book of Ephesians, God says, "Stand". "Stand". "Stand". When it looks like your prayers aren't working, when it looks like the fasting isn't working, when it looks like the Bible isn't working, when it feels like the dream is not working, what do you do? You don't quit, you don't get angry, you don't throw in the towel. You stand. Four times, and when you've done all to stand, stand there for, with an upright stand that says, "I will not back down from what God has told me to do".
The third ingredient of an anointed life is given when He said, "Sweet cane", or one translation says calamus. The cane, or calamus, was a fragrant reed that grew in swamps. And the head of that reed was filled with oil. This is interesting. They knew that it wasn't ready to be used until the head of that reed was bent over, and almost touched the ground. It speaks of bending low in humility. If you want the ingredient that will attract the anointing of God, you must have humility.
John 13:5, Jesus had a level of humility that most of us do not understand in this proud society. One by one, the big, smelly peasant fishermen walked in with grindy sand and filth and dirt on their feet, and Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, bent low, bent over, and began to wash their feet. In an ultimate act of humility, the hands that washed those feet were the hands that created the universe. From magnificence to the menial task of foot-washing, it was His answer to the question, "Who shall be greatest in your kingdom"? So if you have any ambitions, if you wanna be great, bring your basin, bring your towel, and bring your water, and wash feet, because if you're not willing to bend low in humility, and serve people, God says, "It's not about your name, it's not about your popularity, it's not about your fame, it's about serving people". Walk in humility.
And then, the fourth ingredient, for an anointed life is cassia. This is interesting. They said there were 400 types that grew in tropical climates, and one of the things that it produced is something called senna, and older people may know that phrase, but it has, and was used, for inner-cleansing. In other words, when someone was sick, they would take this particular oil, and they would pour it down - castor oil, they would pour it down. I wrote down depth charges. It was used for inner-cleansing.
In other words, if you want the anointing, every now and then, you need an inner-cleansing. You need everything inside of you to be brought to the cross, and be brought to the altar, and you need to go back to saying, "God, search me and try me and see if there be any wicked thing in me". Lord, I need an inner-cleansing. Am I letting things get into my life that are not pleasing and hindering the anointing? Before it's a deed, it's a thought. And before it's an action, it's an attitude. So cleanse me. Search me. Know my thoughts. Know my inward thoughts, oh, God, and let me be cleansed inwardly. And when you're cleansed inwardly, you have to clean up your temple. You have to clean up the areas of your temple, the study of your mind, what are you feeding? What are you putting in your mind?
Every now and then, we need to just clean it out, and fill it up with the Word of God again. We listen to all the negative, all the this, that, and the other. The noise, and we need to clean out the study of our mind. You need to clean out the dining room of your appetites. You need to clean up the workshop of your talents. You need to clean up the play room of your pleasures and pastimes and entertainments. Malachi said, "He will sit as a refiner of silver. He'll keep turning the heat up, until the scum comes up, and He'll scrape it off until nothing that is left but pure silver". And then, it says this, "He'll sit as a refiner's fire and fullers of soap".
Fire, on the inside, and soap for the outside. He says there are times when I want you to come to church, and I want you to get cleaned out, and cleaned up. I want you to come in one way with your study of your mind, and your appetites, and all these things that have gotten a grip on your life, I want you to be completely cleaned out. And when you do, when you submit to the Word of God, and come with a plea of God, forgive me. God, cleanse me. God, I'm straying so far from the cross. I haven't really, really, really been in Your presence in a long time. So, Lord, cleanse me.
When you cry like that, when you have nothing but a plea that says, "I'm not trying to defend what I've said or what I've done, and what I've got on the inside, but I am asking You to cleanse me". He'll never turn that kind of person away. "And He who began a good work in you will complete it". Clap your hands on that verse, that's a good one. Inner-cleansing attracts the anointing.
Inner-cleansing attracts the anointing. And then, one more. He said, "You are to take a container, five quartz", the biggest component of the anointing is something called olive oil. And olive oil represents and speaks of the Holy Spirit. In other words, He's saying, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit". Olive oil was used to cook food in ancient days. It fed them. The Holy Spirit feeds us. They would use it to bring rest and comfort. They would put it on them after a long journey. The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter, and He anoints our head with oil. The Good Samaritan used the olive oil and poured it with wine into the wounds of the man who had been robbed, and it healed his wounds and his hurts.
The anointing oil of the Holy Spirit can heal our bodies, our minds, our relationships, our broken hearts. It was used to anoint kings and priests and prophets. And if you haven't heard anything else, here's what I hear the Lord saying. In Psalms 92, David said, "I shall be anointed with fresh oil". There's nothing worse than stale oil. There's nothing worse than old oil. It attracts flies, according to the scripture. And when they get in the oil, and Satan is Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies.
So when we're living off yesterday's oil, fighting today's battles with yesterday's touches and oils and anointings, it attracts flies. It attracts the attack of the enemy, and there's a stench to yesterday's oil. That's why David said, "I'm crying out, and I shall be anointed with fresh oil". Fighting today's battles and depending on yesterday's oil is a futile thing, and it's a humiliating, defeating thing that happens. Yesterday's oil is miserable as a substitute for fresh oil today.
The five ingredients of an anointed life: Meekness, uprightness, humility, inner-cleansing, and a fresh in-filling of the Holy Spirit. And I wrote this last night, I am a candidate. Every day, we need a fresh anointing. There's nothing that can take the place of a fresh move of God in your life. Money can't. The house, the car, everything that you think is so important, and they are, and sometimes, we just get so obsessed with these material things that we forget what really makes us happy. I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
Is anybody here hungry for the qualities of an anointed life? Would anybody like to bend low in humility? Would anybody like an inner-cleansing? That everything unlike Jesus would be washed out? Anybody here would like to walk in meekness and submission, instead of arrogance and pride and stubbornness and rebellion? Anybody here say, "I wish I could get filled with the Holy Spirit all over again"? Lose myself in a river of worship. End up on the floor somewhere, praying in other tongues, as the Spirit gives me the utterance. That stuff scares you, just hang around. We'll get all that fear out of you. 'Cause that's where the life is, that's where the joy is. Hallelujah. I shall be anointed with fresh oil. I need it. I want it. I'm a candidate for fresh anoint.