Recipe for an Anointing

Read Exodus 30:22-30

I do not like to cook. I am not very good at cooking (unless macaroni and cheese out of a box counts). However, I do like to eat. In fact, I LOVE to eat. I eat just about any kind of food with the exception of spicy food. I have found out in all of my years that food that is not cooked according to a certain recipe (unless it was mom’s) was not consistently good. Certainly, if you leave out the sugar, and the right amount at that, the sugar cookie does not taste quite right.
Well, there is a recipe for an anointing, and it is found in the oil that was used to anoint the things of the tabernacle in the Old Testament. If we are willing to “cook” our lives with this recipe we can be saturated with God’s anointing.
The first ingredient was Liquid Myrrh. Myrrh was used to prepare bodies for burial. In order to get its beautiful sweetness it had to be crushed. Myrrh speaks of death. There is no anointing without death. If we want to know God’s anointing, we have to die to ourselves. Die to the old person that we once were. Die to our own agenda - our own desires and dreams, anything not born of God. If we are going to depend on God, we have to die to our own abilities and resources. If we do not come to this place of dying to ourselves on our own, then God may have to bring "crushing" circumstances into our lives to bring us to the place where we will die. Do not despise the crushing that God allows into your life.
The second ingredient was Sweet Cinnamon. Cinnamon was used for flavor, and it gave off a very pleasant smell. Its fragrance was beautiful in the Tabernacle because it counteracted the stench of the animal sacrifices. Cinnamon speaks of sweetness. If you want God to pick you up and anoint you to use you, there has to be sweetness about your life.
The third ingredient was Sweet-smelling Cane (or calamus). The Calamus plant grows in miry soil. To get this plant to smell you had to beat it. The more you beat it the better the aroma. Again, God’s anointing is able to increase in your life the more you pass through the school of hard knocks, and God is able to fashion your character.
The fourth ingredient was Cassia. This spice grows only at elevations above 8000 feet. You have got to get up on the mountain to get it. If you desire God’s anointing you have have to reach up to the heights. Get on the mountain with God. There is no shortcut to the anointing - we have got to pray, seek God, study, love and work. Jesus lived in the anointing of the Spirit - and for that He maintained a close walk with the Father in prayer at all times.
Finally, all the ingredients were mixed with olive oil. Now look at the picture we have here. All these ingredients mingled together with a bottle of oil produced the anointing compound that was called “holy”. Watch now … the Lord will combine all the good and difficult things in your life with the oil of His Holy Spirit. A sweet anointing will form in you, and He will be able to use you in incredible ways. Are you ready for an anointing?

“The human body experiences a powerful gravitational pull in the direction of hope. That is why the patient's hopes are the physician's secret weapon. They are the hidden ingredients in any prescription.”
- Norman Cousins