The Oil of Joy

One morning I woke up and the Gospels were playing on my phone. Sometimes when this happens, the Word of God is very pure at this moment, it is like I am there in Israel with Yeshua. I can see that the people back then are just like us today, busy with work and life and religion. Yeshua came to them with power, but you really must listen and pay attention to what He did, He was completely spiritual. This is where spending time with God helps us to see this, to know about the spiritual realm, it must be opened up to us and the only way for this to happen is by spending time with God for Him to reveal it to you.

“And they went into Capernaum. Right away, on Shabbat, He entered the synagogue and began to teach. And they were astounded at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as the Torah scholars. Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have we to do with You, Yeshua of Natzeret? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are! You’re the Holy One of God!”Yeshua rebuked him, saying, “Quiet! Come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, after throwing the man into convulsions and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.” – Mark 1:23-27 TLV

I could see now how when Yeshua faced the man in the Temple who had an impure spirit, how He was actually seeing the demon that was inhabiting the man’s body, you can’t see it with your natural eyes but He could see it, He gives us the same ability to see this way and the power to cast them out. He has given me this grace to see and hear demons and angels but we can all do this as children of God as we spend time with Him, pursuing the deeper things of God. 

Later in the story, Yeshua was having dinner at the house of a Pharisee and a woman named Miriam heard this and came to meet Him. She was a woman who lived a sinful life, she came to Him with an alabaster jar of perfume/oil. She poured out the expensive oil on His feet, crying and wiping His feet with her hair. Everyone there knew she was not a righteous woman and she was judged by the community. I thought about this, and how before I didn’t know what sin was, I was not taught about sin at all, I was raised in the world mostly, with some stories about God and our history but no real discipline. My family was always busy with work and there was no one around who could teach me the right way to go. I was left alone much of the time and so I spent time with friends who were also the same, we did drugs and were promiscuous and this in reality is all sin, hurting our soul and spirit and separating us from our true identities as children of God.  Though I had many friends, I dealt with rejection and promiscuity, and addiction.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, a generational curse of poverty was at the root of it all. I didn’t understand why I was Jewish and not wealthy like most of the people in my town, this caused a lot of anger and resentment in me as well as insecurity. You could not see this with natural eyes, but this was all the work of the enemy and evil spirits, promulgating generational curses. I had dreams and plans and hopes of success and I went to college, believing I would make it in the world this way. Though I had boyfriends, I continually became hard-hearted and more promiscuous, and as I got older, after a while, I embodied that identity including addiction. I never thought about God or my choices in life and how they were affecting me spiritually, I didn’t know they were. I become a business owner, traveling and producing high-end photo shoots with well-known corporate clients but I was still dealing spiritually with a poverty demon that was stealing my money and I never got ahead. As I heard the story of Miriam and how they called her a sinful woman, I thought about someone I know who grew up religious and how he was accused of sin, how much the word hurts him and he shies away from it. I want to heal from the effects of sin and I want him to heal, so I took myself into that timeline of the Bible in my heart and imagined it was me who was going to see Yeshua. I had all of these issues, and when I went to Him, I sat and poured out everything on His feet. I can do this with Him now because I know Him, I know He loves me. I know He gave His life for me and paid the price for my sins. She must have known this as well, that He is the Messiah who came to save her. Maybe there is more to her story but right now I can say that I saw myself in her place. I knew Yeshua would forgive me, heal me, and set me free from the pain and heartbreak of my life.

As I poured out the oil, I cried, and I saw all the problems that I had in this current timeline, plaguing me back then too. Spiritual problems are generational, they can only be solved God’s way and that is through the Messiah whom He sent to pay the price for our sins. I am a Jew, but had generational curses that created too many problems in my life and no one was able to help me; no doctors, psychiatrists, or medicine. As I cried at His feet, I saw how I had suffered as the demons kept me from blessings and kept me in sin. Miriam cried at His feet and rubbed the anointing oil upon Him with her hair, releasing all her sin and shame. I saw myself there in her place, crying about the pain of being stuck in my position and all its limitations and all it caused in my heart. The Word of God says that because of her great love, she was forgiven of her sin; I saw myself standing up, joy filling my heart, I had been set free! I knew I could now have a new life without those things plaguing me, I was free from it. I could go in freedom, peace, and joy. Even though He hadn’t died yet, she must have known that He was the Messiah who came to pay the price for her sins and heal her, and she poured out everything to Him.

The Pharisees had accused her, which is something I didn’t deal with in this generation because of the denomination of religion I was raised in called reformed Judaism. I was not a part of the Orthodox community that would have tried to help me by teaching me what they know, making me more religious. They follow many religious rules which I would not have ever wanted to do, it seemed like a prison to me. As children of God, they need to be set free as well! God doesn’t want us to live bound up in rules, but free in Him in righteousness. Religious traditions like lighting candles on Shabbat or even keeping Kosher won’t make us right with God, only a new heart that only God can give us by His Spirit and His Word, it is a condition of the heart set free from sin that only Yeshua can do for us. Miriam probably felt the same way about the Pharisees, if she wanted to change and had gone to them for help, they might have caused her shame and made her follow their very strict religious rules, which are not freedom but only more spiritual bondage. God wants a relationship with us, He doesn’t want us to be preoccupied with rules that He never gave us, nor does He want to see us trapped in sin, like addiction, with our time passing us by. He wants to be with us and wants us to fulfill our destinies that He sent us here for.   He wants us to be free from bondage to sin which plagues the whole world.

“For God made Messiah, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Messiah.” -2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

All the problems we have in the world are because of sin, and the solution God gave to us for healing and freedom from sin is in the Messiah Yeshua and His sacrifice for us. He came to Israel and preached the Good News that the Kingdom of God had come to mankind. He performed miraculous healings and deliverances proving Himself the Messiah according to the prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures. He died on Passover, offering Himself willingly for our sins and He defeated death by resurrecting three days later on First Fruits (Yom HaBikurim). This is why He is called, the Lamb of God and also the Firstborn among many brothers, because He is the First to resurrect from the dead! A Firstfruit of those of us who will be resurrected to righteousness. Whoever believes in Him has eternal life, all sins are paid for once and for all!

Yeshua is also called Immanuel, meaning God With Us. When we believe in Him, we receive the Spirit of God to come and live in our hearts. He then walks with us every day, giving us new life in Him as we follow Him. He gives us eternal life in the Kingdom of God, we are redeemed from the curse of death and given a new spirit and a new heart! The Bible tells us how God not only watches over us but He knew us before we were born, even from the foundations of the earth. You were sent here in this generation from God with a plan and purpose that only He can reveal to you. He loves you and wants to be with you now and into eternity, will you receive Yeshua and give your heart to Him? He will take your pain and give you His joy that is not of this world. You are fully known and deeply loved from the beginning of time!

“For if you confess with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart it is believed for righteousness, and with the mouth it is confessed for salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever trusts in Him will not be put to shame.”.” – Romans 10:9-11 TLV