If you are in Christ, you are to have abundant life, increasing and overflowing.
Why is it then that sometimes we don’t feel the flow of life and joy? A lot of times it is because we simply disconnected from the flow that is in our relationship with Christ.
In the book of Zechariah, we read about the vision of two olive branches that feed oil to the lamp (Zechariah 4). This represents a constant, never ending anointing. What makes the anointing increase and remain is this constant connection to the olive branches.
We should always be expecting more. If you are in Christ you are a new creature (II Corinthians 5:17). We should expect that compared to whatever level we moved in yesterday, we will move in more today. When we try to function outside of the connection to the Lord, we stop the flow of Christ’s life, love, and power (John 15:4-5). We stop believing and trusting as we did when we were newly born again in Christ.
God has placed us in the body as it pleases Him, and in that we have relationships that God has given us. It is out of these connections that the Body grows and matures by the help of every part (Ephesians 4:16). Many things in life create walls between us and our brothers and sisters, but these walls stop the flow of life and love in the Body of Christ. Lord, help us open our hearts and spirits to really become God’s family in an unconditional love and commitment to each other—in the same way Christ had unconditional love and commitment to us! We can’t break our oneness in the Body of Christ. If we do, we become separate from Him. That’s what stops the flow.
We must open up to a deeper level of the love of God for ourselves. It is in this opening up to be loved that we will be able to love one another. We only love Him because He first loved us (I John 4:19). The love that He is requiring of us is not our own love; to truly function as the Body of Christ, we will love each other with His love. And the only way to do that is to stay connected to His anointing, just like those olive branches in Zechariah.