Low Oil Warning: Intro: When Your Spiritual Engine Runs Low

0:10 Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast. I'm your host, Connie Morris, and this is Faith on the Go, where you take the word with you on your drive to work, while you're getting ready in the morning, or even in those quiet moments before prayer. Real life, real word, and real growth, all while you are on the go. Before we get into today's word, let's take a moment to center ourselves with a familiar prayer. The prayer of Jabez. Oh, that you will bless me indeed and enlarge my territory. Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.

0:55 Father God, we come before you this day asking that you will indeed bless us, not just with what we have, but in who we are becoming. Enlarge our territory, Lord. Lord, expand our capacity, our mindset, and our ability to receive what you have for us. Let your hand be upon us, guiding us, covering us, and leading us in every decision we make. And Father, keep us from harm, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, that we may walk in peace and not in pain. And Lord, just as you heard Jabez when he cried out to you, hear us now.

1:35 Your word says that you granted his request, and we believe that you are the same God today. So we come boldly before you, knowing that you hear us, knowing that you see us, and knowing that you respond to the prayers of your people. Have your way in this moment as we sit, listen, and receive your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Hello and welcome back to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

2:17 I'm your host Connie Morris and we're starting a new series but before we go to what the new series is about I want to just kind of give you a little background of what we just experienced with the algorithm is not your altar and how it exposed a generation. We spoke about Mary and how she chose the better part, how she sat at the feet of Jesus, and how she had enough oil to pour out and worship. Because when Mary broke the alabaster box, that wasn't just perfume. That was sacrifice. That was intimacy, and that was overflow. She had oil to give. But here's the question we must ask today.

2:59 What happened when you don't have enough oil to pour and barely enough oil to function? because now we're living in a time where people don't have oil to worship. They're trying to find oil or just to get up in the morning. And the condition of the world reflects it. People are tired, irritated, emotionally drained, depressed, angry, and easily triggered. Not because life is new, but because the oil is low. And scripture already warned us in Ephesians 5.18, says being filled with the spirit, which means it is possible to be saved, but not be filled. Connected, but not flowing. Functioning, but not full.

3:41 And when the oil run low, come on now, life starts to feel heavier than it should. Just like what we're going to see in Matthew 25 verses 1 through 13 regarding the wise and the foolish versions. So I want to read this to you. Many maybe have not heard of this story, but it's a powerful story. On what happens when you run out of oil. Let's go. Matthew 25, verse 1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto Jesus. Ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them.

4:24 But the wise took oil in their vessel with their lamps. So they took extra 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. Yet then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lambs. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us your oil, for our lambs are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there not be 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 marriage, and the door was shut.

5:09 Afterwards, also the other virgins saying, Lord, Lord, open us, open the door for us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I do not know you, I know not you. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour where is the Son of Man cometh. So we see here that in Matthew 1. Some was wise, some was foolish, and some just showed up with just enough oil, and the other one brought extra oil. But yet the ones that were not prepared, ask the ones that were prepared, give us some of your oil. And they say, no, unless we run out. We're both to be out of oil.

5:50 And so we see you have to have your own oil. They had lamps. They both had oil at one point. when the moment came, they said, our lamps are gone out. They didn't lose connection. They lost supply. And many people today are living right there, still showing up, still going to work, still taking care of responsibilities, but internally running on empty. And the truth is, low oil, low oil doesn't always come from one big failure. It comes from leaks. Ephesians 4 30 says, grieve not the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians says quench not the Spirit. So we can be full of the Spirit, but if we grieve the Holy Spirit, that's a leak.

6:32 If we quench the Spirit, that's a leak. And that means the flow can be restricted, not because God left, but because something is draining it. Distractions, overload, unforgiveness, disobedience, carrying what God never assigned for you to carry. So you keep pouring out while something is leaking at the same time. And over time, you go from Mary who had oil to pour at his feet to someone just trying to survive the day. But God never designed us to run our life like that. Romans 12.1 says, present your body as a living sacrifice, because oil flows where sacrifice is present.

7:14 And if there is no sacrifice, there will be no sustained oil. So today's episode is not here to judge. Never am I ever to judge, because it comes through the vessel first. But because of the warning, because of the warning is not the end. It's an invitation. An invitation to identify the leak, restore the flow, and get your oil back. So let's get into it. Now let's talk about this new series. It's titled Low Oil Warning, Fixing the Leaks in Your Spiritual Life While You Feel Drained, Disconnected, and Spiritually Dry, and How to Restore the Flow. Wow, that title is a mouthful, but that's what we're going to cover in the next 10 episodes.

7:57 We're going to fix those leaks. We're going to find out why you feel drained, why you feel disconnected, why do you feel spiritually dry, And then once we identify those areas, we're going to restore the flow. Why? Because Jesus is restoration. I never bring this to you without offering you restoration. Because this is not just a message. This is a condition that we live in. And if you've ever driven a car and that low oil light comes on, you know, it's just sitting there with that oil container and it's red. If you had older cars, it comes. And you already know that that's not a suggestion. It's a warning because oil that keeps the engine from drying itself out, from destroying itself.

8:40 Oil reduces the friction. It keeps everything flowing smoothly. It protects the internal parts under pressure. Now, I'm not a mechanic, so if there's a mechanic listening or you have a husband that's a mechanic, he'll tell you that riding on low oil will destroy the engine. It will actually stop the engine dry. Once it's dry, there's nothing else that that car can do. But here's the danger. The car doesn't stop right away. It can keep driving. And it can still get you where you're going. Everything may look good, working good on the outside, but internally damage has already started. Metal starts grinding against metal. Heats start building up. Pressure increases. And if you ignore it long enough, what was functioning will completely break down.

9:26 Not because the car was designed to fail, but because it was run without what it needed to survive. And this is exactly how it works spiritually. You don't just wake up one day empty. You keep going, keep serving, keep showing up. But something on the inside starts to wear you down. Your patience gets shorter. Your peace becomes inconsistent. Your clarity starts fading. Things that used to flow now feel forced. And sometimes it just feels fake. You know, like you're just going through the motion like a robot. If you don't stop and refill, you don't just feel drained. You will eventually burn out. So if you don't take a refreshing time to get some more oil, you will burn out, just like the car.

10:10 It'll just be on the side of the road. And once you ride it on low oil, it just don't start again. It's done. I had a car in my younger days and I was headed to the mall and I know it was low oil. It was not low oil. You didn't know that, but I didn't know if it's going to make it back. But lo and behold, it didn't. It died right in the parking lot. I had to get a ride back home. I think we called the bus home from the mall. And it sat there and sat there and it wouldn't start. And that's sometimes how we can be. We can be motionless. We can be so drained that we'll get to where we need to go, but we have nothing to add to the party, right? But scripture gives us an answer to the warning at the same time.

10:51 Ephesians 5.18, like I read earlier, it says, filled with the Spirit. The word filled means continually. It means to keep being filled, stay filled, live filled. So when this is in the Word of God, we know that there's something that we have to do. So if you're feeling low, your oil light is low, you're spiritually low, you came to the right place because God never designed us, you, me, to run on empty. Proverbs 23 says, keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life, which means whatever is happening on the inside of you, inside of you will eventually show up on how you live.

11:33 So if your oil is low and it's low internally, your life is low, your life will reflect it internally. And that's why we can't ignore the warning because low oil doesn't just affect how you feel. It affects how you live. So let's go deeper. And this is what we're going to do. We have 10 episodes to help identify the elite and also help with restoration, right? And so sometimes warnings come that we can't ignore. There are warning signs in life that we just need to not ignore. And we know in nature, we talked about this, when a vehicle shows a low oil warning, It's not a suggestion, right? It's a signal of danger.

12:19 Oil is low. Oil is low. And if you don't put some oil in it, even if you pull over at a gas station and tell my oil is low, it's leaking, can you give me oil to get home? You can get home with a little refill of oil. And sometimes when I had older cars, I would keep oil in the car, keep it in the trunk. Because when that oil light come on, I'll just put oil in it and get myself home because it's leaking somewhere. And in our life, we have to find out why it's leaking. And if we continue to ignore that, we might end up leading to greater destruction. I like when it says when the oil is low, metal starts to get hot.

13:01 And so it looks at us as though we're easily angered because of that low oil. Because remember, everything is rubbing against each other. You're very sensitive. Now, what's to be functional... Is now inoperable. Not because the vehicle that was designed to fail, it because what it needed to survive is not being provided. You got to understand that we are spiritual beings. We live in a body. And so that means Christians running low on oil may still show up. They will still serve. They will still speak. They will still function externally, but internally something is breaking down. Without the consistent feeling of the Holy Spirit, there is increased friction in our lives. And we know when that happens.

13:48 What once flowed with grace becomes difficult, and what once brought joy becomes exhausting. That what once felt clear becomes confusing. Left unchecked, the condition does not just weaken a believer. It can begin to affect their discernment, their decisions, their relationship. Their spiritual sensitivity. It's not that the spirit has left, but the spirit has been neglected. This is not a message of condemnation. It is a call to awareness because just as there is a warning, there is a solution. You know, God always gives us solution. And so I love this Ezekiel. I'm going to find it Ezekiel 37 talks about the dry bones.

14:33 Let's see what it reads. Ezekiel 37, verse 1. And the hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley, which was full of bones and caused me to pass by them around about. And behold, there were very many in the open valley and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, son of man, can these bones live? live. And I answered, O God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, prophesy upon these dry bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.

15:18 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you. And cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and a holding, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them about, but there was no breath in them. And then he said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus says the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

16:01 So I prophesied as he commanded me. And the breath came unto them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dry, and our hope is lost. We are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land.

16:46 Then shall ye know that I, the Lord, have spoken. And performed it, says the Lord. That ends at verse 14. And it goes on. You got to read Ezekiel 37. God told Ezekiel, what do you see? I see dry bones. I'll be very dry bones. He said, I want you to start prophesying. And then Ezekiel just followed instructions. He began to say what Spirit of God was telling him to say. And so what he did was he was carried by the Spirit into the valley of dry bones. These were not scattered randomly. They were described as very dry. indicating that whatever life once existed had long been gone.

17:29 The scene represent complete depletion, disconnection and loss. Yet God did not leave them there and he will not leave you where you are today. But God asked, he's asking you today, can these bones live? And what did he say? Zeke said, only you know it. And then what followed was not instant restoration, but a process. The bones came together, structure returned, But even then, there was still no life until breath, the breath of God was breathed into it. And then it did. What once was dead stood up again as a living army. This is the hope of this devotional. No matter how long the warning has been ignored, no matter how long the oil has become, no matter how dry things feel, restoration is still possible.

18:21 God does not just refill, he revives. He doesn't just repair, he restores. This devotion is the invitation to pay attention, to return, to receive what has always been available. A life filled, sustained and overflowing in his spirit. The warning light is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of restoration. Ephesians 5.18 tells us a life that must be refilled. And it tells us that do not be drunk with wine. We're in excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. So the first time that you are dry, dry literally, is that we want to go back to what was.

19:03 So if you were drinking, if you were partying, you start to go back to your old ways. That's a sign that you are dry. This is still the intro, and I'm just sharing what's on my heart, and we're going to get right to the body of it. But right now, what I feel is like a lot of times we will feel empty, but we can't identify why we feel that way. But when you start to slip back and slide into your old ways, God has calmed you down. You're no longer angry, but then you become angry. You stopped eating a lot, but now you're eating a lot. Some of those are just simple signs that our flesh is crying out louder than our spirits, right? This verse is not a suggestion. It tells us, be not drunk with wine. It is a command.

19:47 At first glance, it may seem like a simple instruction, be filled with the Spirit. But when we examine it more closely, the language reveals something deeper. The phrase be filled carries a continuous filling. In its original sense, it points to an ongoing action, continually filled. Keep being filled, remain filled. This is not a one-time experience. It is a lifestyle. The comparison Paul makes is intentional. He contrasts being drunk with wine with being filled with the Spirit. In both cases, the idea is influence and control. A person under the influence of wine is affected in their thinking. Speech, and behavior. In the same way, a person filled with the Spirit should be influenced in how they live, responded, and move.

20:35 But here's a deeper implication. If the instruction is to keep being filled, it reveals that it is possible not to remain full. Not empty of the Spirit's present, but lacking the fullness of His active flow. This is where many believers live without realizing it. They have received the Holy Spirit, but they are not consistently yielding to Him. They are indwelt, but not overflowing. They are connected, but not continually being filled. I like this. It is so good that God identifies a challenge. and then he tells you why you're there. And then he says, this is what's happening.

21:17 You're not continually being filled. And if you have a car or anything that runs by, anything that runs by other than maybe solar, you know that you have to fill that car up. You can ride it for a while and you might get lots of mileage, but eventually you won't have to have a refill. That's the same way what I'm hearing the Lord say. It's like when you're constantly running dry, right? And you're not in the overflow. The Bible says that there's an opportunity that you might go empty. And over time, this starts to show up and show out in our lives. If our lives are not continually filled, our spiritual sensitivity begins to dull.

21:59 And when we begin to dull, we revert back to old tricks and games. What we used to do. And then everything was resolved from, even though you lived that life for a long time, you just stopped being filled and you're going to start to feel spiritual dull. Response becomes more flesh-driven than spirit-led. God might have delivered you from cursing, but yet you are cursing again. God might have delivered you from fornication, but yet you're fornicating again. God might have delivered you from any type of drinking, alcohol or drugs, but yet you are back drinking and using drugs again. He might even deliver you from a crazy boyfriend, but yet when you're sitting there dry, that's the only thing that's barking at you now, and you're back in your same situation.

22:49 Responses become more flesh-driven. Be careful of that. Joy becomes inconsistent. Remember, the joy of the Lord is your strength. You're not happy anymore. Strength begins to fade under pressure. You're feeling weak and lost. And this does not happen all at once. It happens gradually, just like the oil running low. The engine is still running. The vehicle is still moving, but something is missing. Ephesians 5.18 exposes this reality and corrects it at the same time. It calls believers back to a posture of continually receiving, not striving, not yielding, not forcing, but making room, not relying on yesterday, but engaging with the God.

23:33 Of today. To be filled is to live in a state of openness where the Spirit is not only within you, but actively flowing through you. And this is why the very next verses describe what life looks like. Speaking with spiritual awareness, when you feel you're alert, you're speaking with spiritual awareness, God's giving you visions and dreams. He's just keeping you informed of what's to come and what he has for you. Worship flows from the heart. Gratitude becomes consistent. Relationships reflect humility and reverence. These are not behaviors you force. These are evidence that you are continually being filled.

24:14 So when these things begin to fade, it's not a sign that God is left. It's a signal that you need to be filled again. Ephesians 5.18 does not just give instruction, it gives permission, permission to return, permission to refill, permission to live from the overflow instead of depletion. Because the life in the Spirit has never meant to run low. It is designed to stay filled. Glory to God. And so I'm looking forward to us joining in the next 10 episodes on low warning, fixing the leaks in your spiritual life. And it really triggered me after the last episode and when Mary had enough oil to actually give it away to Jesus, right? And that's what we need.

25:05 We need an overflow of oil, not just running on full, but running in the overflow, right? So that we represent Jesus, that we're not sometimey, that we are consistently filled so that we can be able to be representative of Jesus in this earth today. I'm looking forward to our episodes. The next one for day one is low oil warning, recognizing the signs before the breakdown. I'll see you on the next episode.

25:49 Family, thank you for spending time with me today. To every woman listening who has ever felt hidden, overlooked, or pushed aside, hear me clearly. God has not forgotten you, and neither have I. Now let's go before the Lord and close this out with a word from God. Because someone out there needs this reminder today. Jeremiah 29, 11, verses 11 through 14. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then when you call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

26:37 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and bring you back from captivity. Father God, we thank you for your word, that it is true, that it is living, that it is for us. You said you know the plans you have for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future. So today we receive that, not just in our minds, but in our hearts. When we feel overlooked, remind us you still see us. When we feel forgotten, remind us you still have a plan. And when we feel hidden, remind us you are still working. Your word says that when we call on you, you will listen. So we call on you now.

27:20 Hear us, strengthen us, guide us. Help us to seek you with our whole heart, not halfway, not sometimes, but fully. And as we seek you, let us find you in every season, in every place. Even the hidden mind. Restore what was lost, renew what feels broken, and remind us that nothing in our lives is wasted in your hand. Lord, we trust you, we believe you, and we stand on your word. In Jesus' name, amen. This is Diary of a Black Woman podcast, and I'm your host, Connie Morris, and I'll see you on the next episode.