Re-greasing the Axles of the Church

God is leading His people to a new place. This will require a fresh anointing of God’s Spirit in those places where we have allowed our experience with God to become dry. Without that fresh anointing we will remain immobilized and unable to move forward to complete the next leg of the journey set before us.

The covered wagons used by the early pioneers who settled the untamed American West were filled with all the items they would need to carve out a new life in the wilderness. If the wagon and its contents did not complete the journey with the pioneers they would not have the tools needed to create a new settlement. Hanging from beneath each of these wagons was a grease bucket. The bucket was filled with a mixture of animal fat and tar. The grease was used to keep the axles of the wheels lubricated so the wagon would continue to roll.  An axle that was not lubricated would eventually dry out causing the wheel to seize up. Every day before the wagons broke camp each wagon driver would make sure the wheels of their wagon were greased. To forget that one thing would put their family and the entire wagon train in a place of jeopardy.

On the Day of Pentecost the axle of the Church was supernaturally greased. The events of that day were never intended to be a onetime experience. The Church began to roll forward at Pentecost in the power and demonstration of God’s Spirit. God has not changed His methodology. We were not empowered by the event itself, but by the Person of Jesus Christ.  He was the one who initially greased the first wheels of the Church and He stands ready to anoint us again in this day. 

Each time in last 2,000 years, whenever the Church turned away from the empowering presence of the Spirit thinking we could complete the journey under our own power and ability we became dry, seized up and stopped rolling forward. Instead of calling on Heaven to freshly grease the wheels of our lives and ministries, we built encampments in dry destinations God never intended to become our final encampment.

It is into these dry encampments where the Lord is coming to re-grease His Church. There is too much at stake and too much taking place on the world stage for a powerless demonstration of the Gospel. It is about to get sloppy. Grease cannot be applied in a dainty fashion. It wasn’t a tidy process on the Day of Pentecost and neither will it be in our day. The circled wagons are about to get greased and the Wagon Master is putting out the call to, “Move out!”  To obey this call will require a well-greased axle.