The Oil - Overfilled

It has been quite some time since I have shared words and life here. I truly miss it. Of course life has continued and there has been so much that I need to share and since I have been led to re-ignite this forum of expression, I will do just that. I want to share a very profound and deeply spiritual moment for me. In reading my blogs, surely you have figured out that I am in love with and loved by God. Nothing in me is a part from Him. What I want to share today is very personal and yet, I know that it will enlighten and challenge you; as it has done for me.

About four weeks ago, my little Mitsubishi (which was already falling apart and would become a river whenever it rained) was basically totalled in an accident. Three weeks later, God had a friend give me $1000 to buy another set of wheels or put a down payment on a vehicle. I opted to find something used but reliable because I need to be positioned to grow my business and a car payment was not in that equation. I found a car for $700 and I was on the road again! YAY! Four days into the car, there is a problem. I discovered, haphazardly, that the oil gauge does not work. This discovery was only made after I had poured WAY TOO MUCH oil into the car, trying to make that oil gauge rise. I was slightly bummed out about it; yet did not believe that it was anything major.

On the night I realized there was a problem, I'd dropped one niece off to the movies and the little niece and I headed home. We did not make it; because so much smoke was coming from the rear and hood of the car that we pulled into a parking lot and called for someone to come get us. I was distressed. It was dark and she and I were sitting in a parking lot. She asked what was wrong with the car and I explained it. I also told her that God did not bless me with this car to take it away with a silly mechanical problem. She understood it as best she could for a five year old. Then, in that moment, God had her share with me the Easter story that she'd learned in children's church and she ended with, "Auntie we have to remember to tell God thank you every day." So we told God thank you at that moment for the car, for the smoke and for the person coming to get us.

Today is April 6, 2010. During the wee hours of the morning I woke up and after allowing my mind to run through every personal and business matter, I finally said, "Ok God, clearly you want to talk to me, so I am listening." He asked "Is your gauge working?" My mind immediately went to the car - "No, it isn't." He inquired again, "Is your gauge working? Do you know that your oil is overflowing?"

I knew at that moment He was not talking about the car, He was talking about me. In Biblical terms, the oil represents anointing, the thing that you are spiritually called out or ordained to do/be/abide in. God very clearly said to me in that night conversation, that I keep reading my oil gauge as empty or too low, when in fact it is overflowing. My gauge, my mindsets, my confidence - keep registering low oil - it was a false reading.

Clearly, at this point, I am blown away; yet He wasn't finished. Here is what I learned. The mechanic said to me that when you put too much oil in a car, it has to come out. A car will find a way to get rid of it: it burns it off, it forces it to leak out, it pushes through filters and at some point before the damage happens, you have to change the oil and clean up the leaks and spills. What I learned as God brought this all back to me; is that there is so much anointing (oil) in me that it is looking for a way to get out. It is burning off the things that keep my gauge broken and my perception and acceptance of my anointing low. It is pushing to come out because it is too abundant to sit in my life (engine) and it wants to operate.

Finally, the mechanic kept saying to me, and I kept hearing his words as God spoke to me, "It's okay, the car is fine, it is not damaged, it's a good car." I kept hearing his words in the midst of God's words, because I needed to know that although my gauge was broken; my vision/my dream is still intact and the oil is still flowing and active. Is your gauge broken? Does your hopes, dreams, calling gauge always read empty or low? Now ask yourself, the question I did - WHY?

Today's writing assignment is to draw a gauge that is indicative of your life and mark the point on that gauge that represents where your calling is. Then write your mechanics notes to repair the damage and get to the place of your calling. My gauge was broken, but wonderfully there is another way to test the measure of oil in your life and that is to seek God and hear Him when He speaks. Is your gauge broken?