I saw a grove full of olive trees and baskets being filled with the fruit of their branches. Then a large stone began to crush the baskets and the sound was painful to endure. For a moment, it seemed as though the harvest was ruined, but from the silence came the slowly, steady rhythm of oil being poured out. In my spirit, I heard, “The tongue is the oil press and it will be sanctified again.”
In Biblical days, ripe olives were pressed three times. The first press produced the best quality oil and it was given to God as an offering in the temple. The olives were pressed a second time and this oil was eaten, used for medicine, perfume, and cosmetics. The same basket of olives was then squeezed again a third time and out came an oil that was only good for fueling lamps and making soap.
As I was praying about this vision the meaning came alive in my heart. Every word we speak is an olive and when our mouths are surrendered the sacred words become a firstfruits offering to God. These precious olives are our prayers, exhortations, thanksgiving, and the divine utterances of the Holy Spirit as He dances upon our tongues. This oil saturates sons and daughters in holiness and glory. When we speak to others our tongue is pressed again, but this time for the purpose of releasing the oil of His healing and sustenance for the soul. We find ourselves glistening and reflecting the pure image of God when we declare the beautiful love language of edification that draws out Jesus from the inside of every receiver. And as we tread lightly around our homes, we fill the lamps of our family’s hearts as we cleanse them with olives of the Truth, the Life, and the Way.
The Holy Spirit is pressing on the most untamed part of us and the oil He desires to lavish upon us will be worth the crushing of denying ourselves. A new flow of thick, rich oil is coming and it will pour out first from lips that are sealed in the secret place and opened in the light of righteousness from a deeply rooted heart of purity.
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