oil and anointing
As a worship leader, our goal might be to nail the Sunday morning service, make sure the congregation engages, and has their moment with the Father. Sure, that's important, but of late i've been being lead to think and ponder about the oil and anointing. It is the oil of gladness that equips you to worship in your pain and sorrow. It's the anointing that breaks the yokes and chains.
None of these can be produced by just nailing the scales of a song, or a chord pattern or having exceptional band chemistry. It's much deeper, way more, than just the superficial and physical. The place where we are soaked in His presence and carry the anointing, doesn't come by just spending hours with your instrument. It's during our daily routines, our day-to-day lives that we are always at the intersection of a crossroad. One road is super clear - you know what you get once you take that path. Everything seems sorted, you have everything under control and you know how to tread every step.
Then, there's also another path which says, leave everything and just come as you are. Leave everything behind, all your comfort, everything you have built with your life and every single thing you've dearly held on to. Step into the unknown and let the Father take the steering wheel. This path, is painful, soul-crushing and scary. But, once you take that step into this path, you're eyes are opened to hidden, veiled thorns in your life. Sooner or later the process of pruning and cultivating begins. Little do we know that in and through the crushing, the refining and moulding does the Father prepares us to carry the anointing and equip us with the oil of gladness. But, it's that single choice that we make at the crossroad, that decides if our worship is true and acceptable by the Father.
Carrying the anointing is expensive and doesn't seem to make sense, but when we live lives in the lens of eternity, we slowly tend to realize, this is real abundant life. There is nothing better than walking and journeying with the Father Himself - and as worship leader's that our main goal - abiding with the Father, for all produce that stems from a place of abiding with Him, is sure to produce fruit or oil.