Trim Your Lamps
Volume 8 The Miracle of Supply
by Ernest Angley
July 1993
The Lord made man for His honor and glory, and He wants to be glorified through mankind. If people will look to Him, trusting Him with all their hearts, God will supply. God is moving for His obedient children, giving them understanding of the miracle supply, how He wills to supply and how He is supplying. I will…open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing (Malachi 3:10). The windows of Heaven are now open all the time upon the obedient.
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 4:6). By His Spirit it is done. Realize that the miracle supply comes by His Spirit. Look to Him for the miracle supply for soul, mind and body.
When God made man and woman and placed them in the Garden of Eden, they were connected with Heaven; God’s big windows were open to them all the time. But when man disobeyed God, the windows closed. Sin broke the connection between man and God.
There is much to learn about God’s miraculous supply, much about the windows of Heaven, how they opened at different times in Old Testament days. God moved and blessed, but the windows did not stay open. Man was at fault.
Then the great hour of Calvary came, a new day dawned. The Lord made a great door back into Eden, a door in the form of a cross. No other door would be sufficient. Although Jesus gave us the door, Heaven’s windows still had to open. It took the resurrection to open them and the coming of the Holy Spirit Himself. The Holy Ghost descended from Heaven to take up His abode in the bodies and souls of mankind, to tabernacle with mankind.
Miracles of Healing by the Thousands
The prophets of old came on the scene with “Thus saith the Lord! Thus saith the Lord!” In the Early Church it was “Thus saith the Lord! Thus saith the Lord!” And the Word of God poured forth. What a mighty flow of the Word it was!
The windows of Heaven flew wide open for the Early Church and remained open for over thirty years.
In that time the Early Church evangelized the known world of their day. Miracles and healings took place in great numbers as people came into the Kingdom. The obedient were on the job, doing business with Heaven day and night. God was moving, shaking people with His power. He would not let the obedient be hindered. He even killed to keep the Church clean.
For lying to the Holy Ghost, Ananias and Sapphira paid with their lives. Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost…? And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost (Acts 5:3,5). Not long afterward, Sapphira was killed for telling the same lie. God wanted no sin, no ugly disobedience in the midst of His people, for He knew that was what had forced Him to close the windows of Heaven again and again on mankind in the past.
God killed King Herod because he would not give God the glory due Him, but wanted to be a god himself. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost (Acts 12:22,23).
Oh that the windows of Heaven could have stayed open! The Lord wanted them open for the whole Church Age, but man’s disobedience and indifference made it impossible for God to keep them open.
Obedience Opens Heaven’s Windows
Many, many years ago, Joel the prophet foresaw the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the latter rain that is falling in our day. In this final hour the windows of Heaven are open once again all the time; they have opened because of the Bride’s contact with and obedience to God. Through obedient man and woman, God has been able to do it. In this miraculous hour, God will do anything and all things for the purification of the Church, for the Bride of Christ. No power is going to destroy the greatness for her; no evil will be able to defeat her, saith the Lord. She will be a Jesus overcomer in this the last hour. With the windows of Heaven open upon her night and day just as they were in the Early Church, the Bride sees signs, wonders, miracles and healings. The blind cry, “I can see!” Deformed bodies come to normal. The Bride of Christ is victorious because all Heaven fights for her the way the angels battled for the Early Church, bringing victory, victory, victory.
Great joy, peace and contentment, great strength and health belong to the Bride of Christ. God will bless her and stand by her. Robed in the righteousness of God, the Bride wears the whole armor of God. Whenever people have clothed themselves with the whole armor of God, the windows of Heaven opened upon them. In Old Testament days, just one person, one great prophet of God at a time, experienced the open windows of Heaven—and then the windows closed. Down through the years, man again and again has caused God to close the windows of Heaven, and He could not move on man’s behalf. Mankind did it with their evil ways and disobedience. In arrogance they turned their backs to the God who had made them. Refusing to glorify His name, they forgot God—and He could not remember them. How sad that thieves try to rob God, and He has to close the windows of Heaven!
Five Were Foolish
The twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew holds a great lesson concerning the coming of the Lord. These are the words of Jesus Himself: Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish (Matthew 25:1,2). Although five were wise, five foolish, they all were virgins, all pure. It will take more than a pure heart to be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye at the Rapture no matter what anyone might tell you.
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps (Matthew 25:3,4). The ten virgins took their lamps (the human body) and the vessel (the soul). Notice, Jesus said the wise virgins took oil, representing the Holy Spirit, in their vessels—their souls. The foolish had no oil in the soul. They were saved, the Bible says they were virgins pure and clean, but they omitted the oil. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps (verses 5-7). In this last hour, you must trim your lamp.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not (Matthew 25:8-12). The Bridegroom does not recognize the foolish virgins as part of the bridal company.
Do you think the parable of the ten virgins has nothing to do with the coming of the Lord? The thirteenth verse plainly says, Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh (Matthew 25:13).
A few weeks ago the Holy Spirit started saying to me again and again, “Trim your lamps!” It’s time to trim your lamps, to check the oil of the Spirit in your soul.
Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth (Song of Solomon 1:3). The name of the Lord is as a fragrant ointment, or oil, poured out. The fullness of the Spirit is flowing; there is no scarcity of it. Now you can have all you need; but if you wait until Rapture time, you will not have the oil of the Spirit, and you will not be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. All who miss the Rapture will be left in the Tribulation Period.
Give Forth the Light of Jesus
A lamp is any device for producing light. We are lamps that are to give forth the light of Jesus in this last hour. A lamp is also a source of knowledge or wisdom.
The sun is God’s lamp in the day, the moon in night. Added to the sun and moon are the stars. All are God’s lamps. Think of the children of God as being lamps for the Lord, shining like the sun, moon, stars through the dark night of this life. The light of Heaven is meant to shine through the Bride to humanity just as the sun, moon and stars shine their light to the earth.
There is no darker place than far out in the country on nights when no moon or stars appear at all. Some nights begin very dark, and then suddenly a full moon comes up and all the beautiful lamps of God, the stars, light up God’s Heaven.
The Lord is going to light the earth with His lamps, His obedient, consecrated children; but those lamps must have the wick of the human spirit trimmed.
An Unexpected Explosion
The wick that burns with oil to produce light or heat is often enclosed in a glass tube or chimney to protect the flame.
As a child, I saw the care that had to be taken with lamps and their wicks. Living on a farm with no electricity, we were taught to be careful with the lamps. A little boy among seven children, I always seemed to be mixed up in some sort of prank. The results of my actions I had to face later—often to my regret. One night at our long country supper table, there just wasn’t enough excitement for me. I was quite young, prone to act on the spur of the moment, but still old enough to know better than to do what I did. My parents, busy talking, were not watching me. In the center of the table, a lamp burned brightly. I had just taken a large mouthful of milk when a wonderful thought came into my head. What would happen if I were to spit that mouthful of milk into the oil lamp? Giving the matter no serious consideration at all, I acted on impulse. Before anyone could stop me, I spit all that milk down the lamp’s chimney. What an explosion! It scared the daylights out of all of us. But that was just the thunder; lightning was about to strike. You would have thought by their reaction that I had tried to kill my whole family, that I was a criminal. It had never occurred to my parents to tell me not to spit milk into the lamp; they thought warning me not to touch it was enough. I didn’t accuse them of not telling me—I knew where milk was supposed to go—down the throat. Needless to say, never again did I try such an experiment.
Just as I destroyed all the light that night, many people are destroying the light of God in the lives of others by their words and actions. As I was destructive to the lamp, they are destructive to people. I spit out something I wasn’t supposed to; it came right out of my mouth. Much destruction is coming out of the mouths of people. Of course I should have known better than to spit a mouthful of milk into a lighted lamp, and many today should know better than to spit out harmful words.
In James 1:26 we are taught to bridle our tongues: If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
I’ve heard people today use words that were so destructive they caused explosions, ruined lives and hindered the work of God. But the Bride, living in the wisdom and knowledge of God, won’t have any part in that. Her tongue will be restrained by the bridle of love. She will not destroy people with words; her words will be seasoned with the perfumes of Jesus, the love, grace and knowledge of Him. Giving the gentle touch of Jesus to others, serving Jesus, the Bride will never gossip. Destructive, hurtful words do not come from her lips. To hurt people with words is cruel, cruel, a devilish thing. Inspiration for hurt is from the devil, not the Holy Spirit. Cruelty grieves the Holy Spirit, and He backs away from the cruel one.
Don’t be afraid to let your light burn all the time; don’t extinguish it like that Angley boy extinguished the table lamp. I was guilty, thoroughly scared—even stunned—but fear and regret didn’t take away the explosion. Fear is a terrible thing. It took just one experiment, and I learned my lesson.
Some people cause explosions again and again—ruin, hurt—and still never learn their lesson. They become frightened, run off a little, pray, find they are still alive—and then take the same disastrous path all over again.
Trim Your Spirit
The human spirit, represented by the lamp wick, is very important. Like the lamp wicks of old, it must be given great care. My mother carefully tended the wicks. She knew when it was time to trim them. The supper table would be aglow with light when the wicks were newly trimmed and the chimney cleaned, much brighter than the night before. On seeing the renewed brightness we knew what had happened. Mom had trimmed the wick, cleaned the chimney. That lamp had received attention. The human spirit, too, must be given attention, trimmed.
Trim your wick, the spirit in your life. There are things we can do, saith the Lord. We can do a lot of trimming. The Lord gives us His wisdom, knowledge, strength and power to trim the human spirit.
Trim means to set in order, to prepare, to clip or cut off the unnecessary, the hindrance. Cut off any block to the flow of oil in order to have all the benefits of bright light.
A person might trim dead branches off a tree. That which isn’t alive should be trimmed off. All deadness of spirit must go if the light is to shine forth from your vessel the way God intends it to shine.
Trim also means to balance a ship by shifting its cargo or contents. Our lives, many times, are out of balance because our perspective of God is off, and we have to do some shifting. No need for us to sit around waiting on God to rearrange our “cargo” for us; He expects us to do it. We can make adjustments to bring our lives into balance with the Word of God. Trim out the things we know we shouldn’t do; take hold of the things we should do. Arrange for prayer time each day, for fasting time, for studying the Bible, for many things the Lord has called for through His Holy Word. The Bible is a direction book, telling you how to put your life into perspective with God’s will.
When a ship’s cargo is shifted for balance, it isn’t thrown overboard. You may not have to throw something in your life overboard; just shift it into perspective. Make sure the most important things aren’t shoved into second or third place. Many put God last—or close to it—on their list of priorities. They get around to God eventually; but they don’t treat Him the way they should, and it hinders them. Like a ship out of trim, they lose headway. If they would just stop, shut themselves down for a little and reason with the Lord, He would help them know what needs to be done.
When God made the first man, He put everything into proper order. Adam in the beginning was well balanced; his mind worked with God’s mind; his thoughts were on the things of God. Before sin entered, there was no problem with the spirit of man. The wick was trimmed just right. Nothing in the spirit of Adam clogged the wick because he didn’t participate in anything unlike God—until he disobeyed God. Before that he didn’t even have knowledge of anything that would contaminate. Contamination entered the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve reached out for the forbidden fruit. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD (Isaiah 1:18). When your thinking is off balance, your life is out of kilter.
A Choking Experience
Growing up on a farm, I was accustomed to the many ways the farm supplied our food. When it was time for a chicken dinner, Mom would select a chicken, wring off its neck and prepare it for the table. One time my sister thought she would be the one to fix the chicken, but she hadn’t mastered the knack of neck-wringing. She caught a chicken, wrung its neck around and around, then got frightened and threw the chicken down, head still attached to the body. Now a partially strangled chicken lay on the ground, kicking. When it finally got up, it discovered its balance missing. That chicken looked like a drunkard as it staggered away from my sister—who was too upset to deal with it again. Before the ordeal, that chicken had no problem with its sense of balance; but after being choked, it couldn’t move the way it did before. Gradually, the chicken began to take in more and more air until the next day it acted normal. I never knew of my sister trying to kill another chicken. She had thought it would be easy, but it wasn’t.
Some people are like that chicken; the life of God becomes partially choked out of them by some upsetting experience. Not breathing freely, not taking in the proper amount of heavenly air, they’re off balance and they can’t function the way God wants them to. Heaven has the air of God we need. The strength and the breath of God must be ours, spiritually speaking. If we don’t have the strength of God operating in our lives, we’re in trouble.
Just as something happened to put that chicken off balance, something has happened to certain children of God, and they’re off balance with the Word of God. It’s the Word that sets your life in order so you can walk with, think about, talk to God in the same love and honor toward Him from your heart that the first Adam had before sin entered. In return you can be honored by God just like Adam was.
Spiritual Balance Is Well Worth the Effort
The second Adam, Jesus, came and made it possible for you to become a son or daughter of God through the Spirit of the living God, through Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty (II Corinthians 6:17,18).
God’s supply is divine, of course, from Heaven. Trim your lamp and be rid of anything that dims His light. Be well balanced in the Lord, a healthy child of God in this final hour.
No matter how much of God you have in your soul, if you don’t have your priorities straight, you are off balance. Like the ship, your mind must be loaded right if you expect smooth sailing. Some of you are off balance in your mind, and the Lord wants the correction made. You can say you don’t understand, you can’t help yourself, but God can help you. The Holy Spirit will direct you how to put everything into place so that your mind will be well-balanced in the Scripture, and will function through God’s love. The human mind was made to perform through the love and presence of God only, not by itself without the help of God. We must be connected to God, working hand in hand with Him like the first Adam.
The Lord looks upon us, tells us what our trouble is; but if we refuse to do anything about it, what more can He do? God deals with people, letting them know what needs to be put into place. Although His plan is laid out in His Word, many will not yield to God’s plan. They don’t feel the necessity of it, nor do they realize their performance is lacking; yet the Lord seeks to help them.
The improperly balanced load of an airplane means trouble. I have been on planes that flew partially empty. Passengers were asked to sit in certain places to balance the weight. You will fly better with the Lord when you balance your life in the Word. Are you going to leave your car lopsided, or will you do some shifting?
Of course it’s bothersome to shift things around; of course you need to make extra effort, but in this life you will have to exert yourself many times when you may not want to. Shifting can cause trouble, but God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1). Heaven is the place where there will be no trouble; but on Earth, we have God to be our help.
Being balanced right involves change. To trim means to change one’s opinions. Changing opinions is hard for bullheaded people. Are you bullheaded? To satisfy God, be willing to change your opinions.
Compromise Self into the Greatness of God
Trim means to keep a middle-of-the-road policy, to compromise. Some of you won’t compromise; in fact, you take pride in not compromising. The Lord says you must change, come His way, give up self. But you refuse. You are set in your ways; you were born like that and you are determined to die that way. God can’t work with such an attitude. Jesus said, I am the way (John 14:6).
Trimming will dispel wrong opinions of self. You must compromise self into the greatness of God; decide to cast aside your opinions and beliefs as you take Thus saith the Lord and believe what He tells you in His Word. Isn’t that a compromise with self? A just compromise. Trim means compromise.
Trim also means to arrange, to order, to condition. A person can arrange a condition of spiritual order in his or her life.
A wick that isn’t properly trimmed loses its power, its value, doesn’t function effectively. Some people don’t keep their spirit of self trimmed, don’t feel the necessity of it. They become satisfied with the dim light they carry. Jesus said, Ye are the light of the world…Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matthew 5:14,16). We are to be the light of the world; not careless, indifferent, thoughtless about being the light God wants us to be, thinking we shine brightly enough.
Many times we throw out our opinions, say whatever we want to say and justify hurtful words by insisting we only told the truth. It wasn’t the time to open the mouth; it was a time to pray. By not listening to God’s direction, we didn’t let our light shine.
If you are having difficulty with the mouth, you need to trim your lamp. The wick, your human spirit, must be trimmed. It’s the human spirit that causes you to stop drawing on the oil and to rely on self. Why blame the devil for mistakes of the human spirit? The human spirit can be a terror all by itself. If the human spirit isn’t right, isn’t well balanced, it causes chaos and trouble. Some people say the devil made them get into trouble when they got there with no help at all from him. The human spirit in them did it. The human spirit can rebel without any demon causing it.
Some Christians carry a dim, dim light because the wick, the human spirit, doesn’t have the care it needs; it is not trimmed. The wick, I say again, should be taken care of often.
You can become accustomed to a dim light. Perhaps your light once was bright and you loved it; but you were negligent in caring for the wick, the human spirit, and God’s light grew dimmer and dimmer. Now the wick is clogged and fails to draw on the oil in the right way. Do you have the oil of the Holy Spirit? If so, let it flow freely.
Trimming is done also by clipping or cutting. Sometimes a lot of things need to be cut out of your life. You can’t sit around waiting for the Lord to do all the trimming, for there are things you must do for yourself before He can work. Arguing with Him about what to cut out of your life certainly is not helpful. The Lord is telling you that He gives the wisdom, the knowledge and the things you are to do.
Film editors cut out of the picture all that would distract or slow down the action. You can, if you are willing, cut out things in your life that hinder your actions in working for God. You can edit your own life. It’s in your hands to edit your own life, saith the Lord. You’re to do that. Many of you have depended on God to edit you, but He gives you the wisdom, the knowledge from His Word, the directions, the know-how to cut out of your life that which is dimming your light. God will not take away your disobedience and bad habits; He lets you cut them out. You are an intelligent being, and God wants to work with you, wants you to take instructions.
Good parents teach children to do things for themselves. At first the children need total assistance, but as they grow, they learn to solve more and more problems. For instance, when their socks work down in their shoes, the parents say, “Honey, now you fix it like this”; and before long, they adjust their own socks. Then it’s “Honey, this is the way to tie your shoes.” The Lord has “honeyed” you a lot, letting you know how to walk His path. Now it’s time to “tie your own shoes”; there are things for you to do. He’s teaching you how to live; take instruction. Come, reason with the Lord.
Draw on the Oil of the Spirit
The human spirit, like the wick, needs much attention, care. It’s potentially dangerous, yet a workable, essential part of the lamp. You will not have lasting light from a lantern without a well-tended wick. The well-tended human spirit draws the oil of the Holy Spirit, and the wick draws oil from a lamp. The more the wick draws on the oil, the brighter the light. It’s the same with the human spirit; the more the human spirit allows the Holy Spirit to flow, the more the light of the Spirit shines.
The Holy Spirit gives a supply of oil that never runs out. When you are filled with and yielded to the Spirit, you have no scarcity of the oil of the Spirit. It gushes forth like a mighty oil well. Never will you be able to use it all.
This is the pouring out time, the shining time for God’s people, the time to let their light shine on planet Earth in a great way. But the human spirit must be given over to the Holy Spirit, given the care it needs or the light won’t shine.
Keep the human spirit trimmed right and you will have a bright shining light. The foolish virgins did not feel the need of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but when the human spirit is trimmed right, that need is felt.
The Holy Spirit Baptism Is a Necessity
The Rapture will be miraculous. You need the baptism in the Holy Spirit to make the Rapture. You need the bright, bright shining light of the oil of the Spirit to meet Jesus in the air, that power. Jesus is coming in midair, not all the way to the earth; and you who are ready will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (I Corinthians 15:52).
If your body, the lamp, is to be changed at the Rapture, the wick, the human spirit, will have to be trimmed just right, yielded completely to the Holy Spirit. The vessel, your soul, is the reservoir for the oil. The wise virgins, remember, took oil in their vessels, in their souls. The foolish virgins did not have oil in their vessels; the reservoir was not filled with oil.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own (I Corinthians 6:19)? If you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, He dwells on the inside; and your body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit. Many claim to have the baptism in the Holy Ghost, but they really don’t have Him because they have not given themselves one hundred percent to the Lord.
To have the real baptism and keep it, you must give yourself wholly to the Lord so He can dwell in your tabernacle of clay. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (I Corinthians 6:20). Glorify God in your body and with the human spirit; all of you belongs to Him. You are not your own because Jesus paid the price for you.
The Soul on the Auction Block
Two forces bid for the soul of man: God and the devil. Souls are on the auction block. People who were sold in the slave markets had no choice of owners, but the soul of man has a choice. It can choose to serve the Lord or the devil.
The devil bids a false peace. Jesus bids Heaven’s peace, everlasting peace. The devil bids a good time on Earth, happiness in sin. The world’s lights will shine for you, he promises; and you can do anything you want, satisfy every lust of the flesh.
Jesus steps up, saying, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Mark 8:34). He lets you know you will have to bring self under subjection to His will, His Word; and if you do, one day Heaven will be yours with its eternal happiness. As you are en route, the Lord will give you His peace, His joy.
The devil bids the material things of life no matter how they are obtained—by lies, theft, murder or whatever. But Jesus bids a heavenly mansion: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you (John 14:2). And so the bids go. The devil can’t cross over into the Lord’s realm to make a legitimate promise of well-being for eternity, and the Lord let us know why. Eternity the devil offers is hell, everlasting torment. You may enjoy sin for a season on Earth, but enjoyment is suddenly cut off when you enter the devil’s eternity.
Listening to the bids of Lucifer is dangerous. He displays much confidence in his bids, but his promises are false. He knows his destiny, his doom; and he tries to cover up eternity in his bids, to blot out death and God’s judgment. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Only by way of the Rapture can death be escaped. Live it up here on Earth, the devil says, but he remains silent on the sinners’ true fate after the grave. Drink, be happy today and act as though you will live on Earth forever. Many are deceived.
The bid of Jesus ensures eternal life, eternal glory, eternal peace, eternal everything wonderful. In Heaven you will never be sick, hungry, in need. Those who have taken Jesus’ bid have accepted Him as their Master. No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other (Luke 16:13). You serve either the devil or God; take your choice.
With honesty and straightforwardness, Jesus draws back the curtain separating life and death when He bids a Heaven to go to and warns of a hell to shun. The righteous will live in eternal bliss; the ungodly will be turned into hell along with all who forget God.
How many have accepted Jesus’ bid? How many are willing to deny self? All too few. Those in eternity who accepted the devil’s bid would be very persuasive missionaries if they could return. Jesus tells of the rich man who died and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments (Luke 16:23). He had enjoyed much wealth in this life, but was a penniless, tormented soul in the next. He wanted Lazarus, the poor beggar, to go to his brothers and bring them into the arms of the Lord. While he was yet alive he probably never mentioned God to them. Now he was concerned enough to try to warn them not to join him in hell.
If those in hell today could send out messages, warnings without number would fly out: Don’t come here whatever you do! But there is no message coming out of hell; God’s message is not to be preached by the damned; it isn’t His will. God has raised up His servants, vessels of clay whom He fills with His Word to share Thus saith the Lord with others. Those who won’t accept His Word have no Heaven awaiting them, only hell.
Trim your lamp, trim your lamp! Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. Remember, their lamps were trimmed—they were pure—but they didn’t have the oil. What is the oil? It’s the oil of the Holy Spirit. Why, why did they miss it? Why didn’t they have the supply? Because they didn’t believe God, didn’t accept the Word of God.
Receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit Is a Command of Jesus
If you don’t have a supply of the oil of the Spirit in your soul, it’s because you haven’t accepted what thus saith the Lord, the Word of the living God, but have taken instead man’s opinions. You have separated from God’s Word that which you want, and pushed aside what God wants. Even though the Lord commanded the disciples to receive the Holy Ghost, you don’t feel you need Him. Maybe one day…The baptism in the Holy Ghost is not an option, but a command of Jesus: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence (Acts 1:4,5).
The disciples were not to go forth thinking they could do the work of Jesus without the baptism in the Holy Ghost. Yet many today dare go forth without the baptism in the Holy Spirit, trying to carry on the work of Jesus; and it can’t be done. They didn’t receive the oil of the Holy Spirit and are unable to light the way for people into the righteousness and holiness of God. They’ve failed God. The human spirit cannot light the way; it takes the Spirit of God working through the human spirit to light the way.
Now in this last hour, the call of the Holy Spirit is Trim your lamps! Be sure you have plenty of oil in this pouring out time. Why should anyone come up lacking? The lack comes when the human spirit is not yielding to the Lord, not yielding to the Word or doing what God said to do. The human spirit is the only thing that can keep you from the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
A Promise to Everyone
The Holy Spirit is for everyone: For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call (Acts 2:39). The Lord your God calls you to salvation; then He calls you to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The promise of the Spirit is for you. Rejecting the promise of the Holy Ghost means you reject the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit as well as the fruits of the Spirit. To reject so much of what the Bride has in this final hour means you will never be a member of the bridal company unless you change and accept the Word of the living God. You will never have the biblical miracle supply, saith the Lord, without the Holy Ghost baptism.
The Holy Spirit is the miracle worker, the one who flows the miracle supply to each child of God. If you want the miracle supply, you must yield to the miraculous one, the Holy Spirit Himself. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 4:6). By the Lord’s Holy Spirit, the miraculous supply comes. His Spirit should electrify every child of God who is filled with Him, give each one courage, vision, vivid sight and the heart to accept the Holy Spirit in every way.
I’m sensitive to the touch of the Holy Spirit, of the angel that reaches out to touch me. His touch is like a human touch at times and at other times such a divine touch that I don’t really know how to explain it—almost like a feather touching the skin, or the presence of a touch. Be sensitive to the touch of the Holy Spirit. Become knowledgeable, concerned about the ways God works.
Trim your lamp daily. Don’t let the wick go unattended; don’t let concern for other things crowd out your care for the wick. In this hour we must trim our lamps daily; we must, saith the Lord. We must shine brightly for Him. If the wick is not kept trimmed, the Lord loses much through your life. Keep it trimmed so God’s glow can go forth.
They Gnawed Their tongues in Pain
It would be a sad, cold world without the moon, the stars, the sun, with great darkness everywhere. But one of these days, the light of God will be taken out, and this world will be thrown into chaos. When the Bride is raptured, her light will go with her; and there won’t be much light left, not enough light to keep people out of the pits of the enemy. Such awful darkness is coming!
John the Revelator wrote down his vision concerning events in the Tribulation Period: Lucifer’s kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain (Revelation 16:10). The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood: And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs (Revelation 6:12,13). What a terrible time it will be! No wonder John the Revelator said that people ran, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb (Revelation 6:15,16).
The world doesn’t know how to appreciate the children of God, how to love and respect them as the light of the world. They little realize the fearsome darkness that will overwhelm them when the true children of God are taken out. Those who are not true children of God display the dim, dim light of self: Me, me, what I’m doing, what I’ve accomplished in life. That doesn’t make God’s light. What makes His light is denying self and taking up the glorious Cross of Jesus in all its power, all its suffering that you may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death (Philippians 3:10).
By suffering, the Lord isn’t referring to sickness—He doesn’t need us to suffer sickness for His name’s sake—but He is saying we will suffer persecutions like He did. Go back to the Bible and see what He suffered at the hands of audacious men; then see the light of greatness, the light that was shining through Him. Jesus lit our paths, showing us a highway to Heaven.
When the light is shining brightly through you, the wick trimmed and kept trimmed, you will know the sufferings of Jesus. You suffer for His name’s sake knowing you will reign with Him.
Many Heathen Will Come to God
We needn’t fear the darkest night even though the worst kinds of sins are coming upon the earth, sins like those of Noah’s day, the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus is our light. With that light of Him going out through us, we become His lights to shine the Gospel on the paths of those who are in the night. Shining brightly for Him will be paramount in our spirits. His light will bring many, many heathen into the Kingdom in this final hour. Glory be to God, we’re going to shine for Jesus!
As we take His light to the world, crying, “The King is coming!” our message will become believable to multitudes of people. They’ll be swept into the Kingdom, filled with the Spirit in moments of time. Thank God for the light of the Gospel!
The Gospel was shining through Jesus when He was here, and when He left, it became a shining light in the Early Church. Many saw the way of the Lord after He ascended into Heaven. The Word, the Word—what a lamp, what a power, what a light!
The Scripture will take its place in this final hour as the great light of God. Through the true believers the Word will pour forth with signs, wonders, miracles, healings, love, strength, power in all the greatness of Heaven. The miraculous supply, all things supplied to evangelize the world will light up one last time for everyone to see. For those who refuse the light, it will grow dimmer and dimmer.
When the Rapture takes place, the light will go out, leaving people behind to grope in the darkness. Where will you be? The lukewarm Christian will be spewed out of the mouth of God into the great Tribulation, into the same darkness of the five foolish virgins. The lukewarm will not be part of the bridal company. The five foolish virgins, remember, were not cast into hell, but into the Tribulation Period.
Many Christians will be spewed into the Tribulation Period. Jesus said, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth (Revelation 3:15,16).
If you are hot in the Spirit of God today, you are saved and have the baptism in the Holy Spirit bubbling in your soul. If you are on fire for God, the Holy Spirit, the fire of the Holy Ghost is burning brightly upon the altar of your life.
Make Your Life Right
The human spirit is so valuable to God that Jesus went to Calvary to provide the means for it to be trimmed, used the way it was in the beginning in the first man and woman. Sinner, Backslider, lukewarm Christian, let’s get your life made right. Pray this prayer with me: Oh, God, I’m lost. I’m so sorry that I’ve sinned against you, but I have come home. I’m going to serve you God, the rest of my life. I will do it, Lord! I believe the blood of Jesus washes away all of my sins, all of my sins. Come on in, Jesus! Come into my heart.
If you meant it He has come; He is yours. Live for the Lord. Let your body—your lamp—be holy in His presence. Keep the wick—your spirit—trimmed so that the Holy Spirit can flow through it.
Healings from God’s Supernatural Gifts
You who are sick and afflicted, I am a believer, not a healer. The Healer is there where you are; His name is Jesus. Lord, I bring to you to be set free those who are dying with cancer. I bring those who are bound with all manner of sicknesses and diseases. I bring the deformed children; straighten their little twisted limbs. Put in eyes where there were no eyes. Give hearing where there were no ears. Re-create all that needs re-creation, every part. Re-create all. From your supernatural gift of miracles and your supernatural gifts of healing it comes in the name of your Son Jesus. Heal! in the holy name of the Lord. Heal! in the all-powerful name of Jesus. Heal! in the holy, holy name of Jesus!
The healing power is flowing. Take this power; let it work for you. It will work if your human spirit will allow it. Your human spirit is the only thing that can keep it from working. Ask God to help you yield to His anointing, to help you keep up with Him as He moves for you. The cloud is moving, saith the Lord; move with the cloud and receive from the hand of God. Receive from the hand of God for the whole person: soul, mind and body. The Lord wants you to have good health, He wants to bless you, to give you a sound mind, strength, strong hands, arms, legs and feet. The Lord wills it so.
Thus Saith the Lord
Yea, saith the Spirit of the Lord: I am here to teach you. I am carefully teaching you what you must have for the rest of the journey. Let your heart rejoice day and night as I feed you with the manna from above. I am giving you strength because you must have it. I am giving you my power—you must have it. I am giving you my compassion and love and faith in abundance, and you must have it; you must never let go of it. Keep it in your soul.
I will visit with you night and day. I will reveal myself in great and wonderful manifestations in this your last hour. My power will be the bombs that you will use to drop on the kingdom of Satan. My power is yours for you to use, and I will pour myself through you in all of my greatness.
I will reveal to the inhabitants of the earth my love in every way that I can because my judgment will soon come. I am listening to the faintest cry because soon I will turn a deaf ear to all cries, saith the Lord.
I give you vision. My call is upon you. You do not need fear that you will fail; you cannot fail as long as you yield to my Spirit. You will be obedient as long as you yield to my Spirit. Do not live in fear of failing me. Know through my faith that you will not fail. Know through my love that you will carry out my plans for you. I will breathe upon you again and again with my greatness, and you will do my work in this your last hour. You will do my work in such perfection that you will be amazed the way that I work through you, saith the Lord.
Trim your lamp and let the Holy Spirit flow for you today.
Trim your lamp and receive the miracle of supply daily is the great cry from Heaven today.
TRIM YOUR LAMPS, All rights reserved. Copyright © 1993 Ernest Angley.
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