TURNING OUR LIABILITIES INTO ASSETS Pt 3: DISCOVERING YOUR JAR OF OIL”
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INTRODUCTION: You can fear the Lord with your whole life but may still end up as a debtor if you don’t understand the basic fundamentals of life. Opportunities don’t just happen; you have to create them. As a mantra, whenever you desire something, go into your imagination mode. Begin to imagine the possibilities while playing around with the idea in your mind until you receive divine inspiration and your desire takes on a life of its own to became a reality. Your reality.
You are to fear the Lord, work hard to deploy your giftings to the world in order to achieve financial independence.
Text: 2 Kings 4:1-7
1 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”
2 So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house BUT a jar of oil.”
3 Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few.”
GOD’S DIVINE TURNAROUND PROCESS: THREE (3) BASIC INGREDIENTS
1. GOD’S CREATIVE WORD – GOD’S PART
God’s creative words is what He brings to the equation to turn a man’s liabilities into assets. God gave a word to the widow through the mouth of His prophet. – 2 Kings 1.1-2 “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere. The creative word did not tell the outcome but the outcome depends upon her obedience to the word she had received. The spoken word is God’s part in the widow’s liabilities to assets process.
2. THE JAR OF OIL – THE WIDOW’S PART (YOUR OWN PART)
The second part is “the jar of oil” and it represents your own input. God is not a magician and neither is He prodigal with His powers. Metaphorically, your jar of oil is what you bring to the table or what you have that is useful to your situation – your own equity. So, firstly God brings something to the table, and you also need to bring something to the table to experience the supernatural hand of God in the turning of your liabilities to assets. Even Jesus needed the lunch of the little boy (five loaves and two fishes) in order to perform a miracle. God creates out of what you have.
3. BORROWED VESSELS
The third ingredient is ‘borrowed vessels”. This represents what others will bring to the table to help magnify or multiply your oil. Your idea is not enough to cause you to fly, you need the vessels of others with a touch of your originality, innovation and creativity. Use the tested systems and proven methods of others that have yielded great results in the past to give your ideas wings to soar. You need the inputs of others for God’s process in your life to be complete as you cannot travel the journey of life as an island. You need people to succeed in the journey of life.
Thus, for God to turn around a situation there is a God part, there is your own part, and there is the other people’s part. The key lies in learning to mix all these ingredients in the right and proper proportion. Don’t abdicate your own responsibilities for God because He will not do for you what you can do for yourself.
God’s part is not your job, your part is not other people’s job. You must know that other people cannot play God in your life. Discover your jar of oil and it will complete the equation of your life and balance the formula. It is when these three things come together that God starts the process of transformation in our lives.
HOW TO DISCOVER YOUR JAR OF OIL
1. FOCUS ON WHAT YOU HAVE
The first step towards discovering your own jar of oil is to focus on what you have rather than on what you don’t have. The easiest answer to give to the life question of what do you have in the house is – “I have nothing”. The surest way to blind you to your giftings is to be on the quest to looking for an easy way out of any situation. If you are accustomed to the poverty and lack mentality your mind will get programmed accordingly to what you feed it with. Don’t begin to list the things you are not good at, and the things that are a challenge to you otherwise your eyes will become programmed to see inadequacy in yourself which will eventually result into low self-esteem. Everyone is good at something, and everyone has something to offer.
1 Cor 12:4-6
God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit.
God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit.
God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.
There is something God has given you to do that will show forth and express his power through you to your world and make you a blessing to your generation. Your task is to discover it and focus on turning it to yield abundant wealth. There are diverse activities and giftings that has been deposited into your life, that gift, ministry or activity is your unique selling point that will make your world buy in to you. It is your expression of God to your generation and it will make you a blessing to humanity.
Ordinarily, it is difficult for the eyes to see the nose, but with focus, it becomes a pastime.
2. ACKNOWLEDGE THE POSSIBILITIES
Divine turnaround of a man’s liabilities in the scriptures: Acts 3:1-10 (A lame man healed)
6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
All the lame man wanted was monetary gift and not the restoration of his feet because walking would be too much work for him. The real gist in this story is that the moment Peter shifted his focus from what the lame man was expecting which he did not have (i.e. silver or gold) to what he had with that three (3) letter word “but”, the story and the situation changed.
When you focus on what you have, you:
- Inject a dose of possibility into your situation
- You provide an entry point and create access for the God of possibility to manifest himself.
In this case of the lame man and that of the widow under consideration, there are two parallels:
- Miracles are not received by dwelling on what is lacking.
- God works with what you have in order to perform the miracles that you desire. The widow had a jar of oil and Peter had the power in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Lesson to learn from the widow and apostle Peter:
When you are faced with life’s complex problems, you only have few options:
- Complain about what you lack, or
- Focus on what you have and acknowledging the possibilities.
3. LOOK WITHIN YOU
Focusing on what you have and that includes considering those gifts that are on the surface, readily visible and easily spotted. But beyond the surface, there are those affinities, abilities and interests that are buried within you in your jar.
Difference between the jar and the oil
Metaphorically, the difference between the jar and the oil is the difference between the containers and the content. Just like you are a spirit, who has a soul, and living in a container called body. The real “you” is not the physical body being seen that people can relate or associate with. Your physical body is just the container that gives expression to the content God has deposited on your inside.
- Our oil represents our inborn talents, natural and supernatural skills and ideas.
Other Characteristics of our oil
- Our oil is God’s investment in us: God imparts talents and gifts into our lives and expects a return on his investment by being a source of blessing to the world. You will account to the Master when the time for reckoning comes. In Matt 25: 14-19 —The Master divided the treasures in proportion to the abilities of his servants before he left on his trip. When the time for reckoning came, he demanded for a return on his investment.
- Your oil is a clue to your calling: Your oil is the gift God has given you and is linked to the purpose he has placed on your life e.g. Bezaleel in Exo 35:30-35; 36:1-2 NIV. For the power of your oil to be maximized, you must be willing to release it.
- It is your strength and advantage in life
- Your oil is your divine separator, your unique selling point (USP) that gives you a leading edge.
- Your oil will bring more than enough into your pocket. The freewill deployment of your oil into the purposes of God is the magnet for attracting abundance of resources into your life.
To be continued…