Filling Your Lamp

Mike Connell

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One of the most strong characteristics, if you've got a lamp that's full of oil, is your light will shine brightly; and how will it shine? One of the ways it shines brightly is on your face. I look at a lot of people, and it would seem to me that they're incredibly depressed. I look at a lot of believers, and it would seem to me they don't look much like what they're supposed to look like. The Bible says of Jesus, in Hebrews Chapter 1: He was anointed with the oil of gladness, above everyone else. What does that mean? I'll put it very simply. He smiled the biggest smile you could ever see. There was joy in his life. He lived a joyful life in the midst of adversity, and it showed on His face. It showed on His face! There was a joy, vibrancy and a light; and He got it from a source, the Holy Ghost.

Now this is not a different Holy Ghost, to the Holy Ghost who God wants to give you, and has given you. The spirit of God, that you got in you when you received Christ, is the same one Jesus had. The anointing that came upon Him, is the same anointing that comes on you. What the difference is, what you do day by day; and so the five foolish virgins said: we want you to give us some of what you have.

Oh my, I've been in lots of places and people say: I want what you have; and usually what I end up having to say to them is: pay the price, and you can have it. Pay the price, and you can have it. There is a price to pay, to carry the life of God. There's a price. It's an internal price. It's something to do with the kind of life you live secretly before God. Jesus said: you pray in secret, God will to reward you openly. Fast in secret, god will reward you openly. Give in secret, God will reward you openly; and so there's a lifestyle to live in the sight of God, that enables you to carry joy and vitality before men.

My conclusion, after years of ministry, is that we don't really need great new things for God to do in our life. All we need to do is use what we've been given. For most people, the reality of the spirit world is not very strong for them, and part of the reason is because very simply, they don't just do the basics to get full of the Holy Ghost, to get full of the Holy Ghost. Don't you think God wants you to be full of the Holy Ghost? If you're not full of the Holy Ghost, you'll be full of depression, full of religion. [Laughs] Holy Ghost came! That's what Jesus came to fight against was religion; people that have got a form of godliness, but there's no life inside them! No joy! No vibrancy! Just depressed and living under oppressions of spirits.

Listen: the spirit world is a reality. Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant. There is a real spirit world. There is a real activity of demonic spirit; and let me just make it really personal - there's at least a half a dozen that have you in their sights. Now that's a stirring thought isn't it? Why would you think, that out of all the people in the world, the demons wouldn't pick on you, and try and steal your destiny, and steal what God has for you?

This is just part of the world we live in. We live in a fallen world. Jesus came to expose the works of the devil, and to get us filled with the Holy Ghost, and then He said: listen to me. He said: I will give you authority, and you will tread on serpents and scorpions, over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you. You'll have a different kind of life. It's a life full of the Holy Ghost. He wants you to have that, so what stops you? Does God stop you? Not at all. Only two things that stop us; one is the activity of demons, who fill your mind with rubbish; and the other is the activity of yourself, choosing to believe the wrong things, and not doing the right things. They're really quite simple.