Growing Olive Trees: Oil for Another Generation

Psalm 128:3

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine,

In the very heart of your house,

Your children like olive plants

All around your table.

Zechariah 4:1–14

Vision of the Lampstand and Olive Trees

4 Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep. ² And he said to me, “What do you see?”

So I said, “I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. ³ Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.” ⁴ So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”

⁵ Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?”

And I said, “No, my lord.”

⁶  So he answered and said to me:

“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts.

⁷  ‘Who are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!
And he shall bring forth the capstone
With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” ’ ”

⁸ Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

⁹   “The hands of Zerubbabel
Have laid the foundation of this temple;
His hands shall also finish it.
Then you will know
That the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.

¹⁰  For who has despised the day of small things?
For these seven rejoice to see
The plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.
They are the eyes of the Lord,
Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.”

¹¹ Then I answered and said to him, “What are these two olive trees—at the right of the lampstand and at its left?” ¹² And I further answered and said to him, “What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains?”

¹³ Then he answered me and said, “Do you not know what these are?”

And I said, “No, my lord.”

¹⁴ So he said, “These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.”

Revelation 11:3-4

³ And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”

⁴ These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.

There is something burning in my heart concerning the olive trees of Scripture. I do not believe God has called the church merely to possess oil; I believe He has called us to raise people whose lives continually produce something that can be poured out for His glory.

We have spent a great deal of time asking God for more oil, and rightly so, but I hear another question rising in my spirit: Where are the olive trees? If there are healthy olive trees, there will be fruit. If there is fruit, there can be pressing. If there is pressing, there will be oil. If there is oil, the lamp can burn. And if the lamp burns, there will be light for another generation.

Psalm 128 gives us a beautiful beginning to this revelation. The psalm begins, “Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways” (Psalm 128:1). Then verse 3 describes the blessing within the household: “Your children like olive plants all around your table.” Notice that God calls them olive plants. They are not mature trees yet. They are growing. Their roots are developing. Their branches are forming. Their fruit has not reached maturity, but God already sees what they can become. We may see children sitting around a table, but heaven sees potential olive trees.

This changes the way we must look at the next generation. Children and young believers are not interruptions to the work of the church; they are part of the future supply of oil. We are not simply trying to keep them occupied until they are old enough to participate in church. We are cultivating olive plants. We are teaching them to pray. We are putting the Word of God into their hearts. We are teaching them to worship. We are showing them what holiness looks like, what humility looks like, what serving looks like, and what it means to love people. We are helping roots grow that one day must support the weight of fruit.

And notice where Psalm 128 places those olive plants: around the table. Before there is a platform, there is a table. Before there is a microphone, there is a table. Before there is public ministry, there must be private formation. The table represents relationship, instruction, correction, conversation, fellowship, prayer, and example. A generation cannot merely be told what Christianity looks like; they need to sit close enough to mature believers to watch it being lived.

Then we come to Zechariah 4. The prophet sees a golden lampstand with a bowl on top and lamps upon it. Beside the lampstand are two olive trees, one on the right and another on the left (Zechariah 4:2–3).

Zechariah does not understand what he is seeing, and in the middle of God’s explanation comes the great declaration: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the LORD of hosts (Zechariah 4:6).

This is the secret of the oil. God’s work cannot ultimately be sustained by human strength. Talent is not oil. Personality is not oil. Education is not oil. Organization is not oil. Charisma is not oil. None of those things are necessarily wrong, but none of them can replace the Spirit of God.

What God begins by His Spirit must be sustained by His Spirit.

Zechariah then looks more closely at the olive trees. In Zechariah 4:11–12, he asks about the two olive trees and the branches that empty the golden oil through the golden pipes. The picture is extraordinary because the supply is connected to something living. This is not merely a bottle of yesterday’s oil sitting beside a lamp. There is a living source continually supplying what the lamp needs to burn.

Then Zechariah is told, “These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth” (Zechariah 4:14). That phrase grips my heart: they stand before the Lord. Before oil flows from them, they stand before Him. Before there is public ministry, there is private presence. Before there is proclamation, there is prayer. Before there is a pulpit, there must be an altar.

I have learned something in my own life: I must learn to flow in prayer before I try to flow in a pulpit. I cannot protect the public flow if I neglect private flow. Prayer is not simply preparation for ministry; prayer is ministry to the Lord. The secret place is where roots go down. It is where the tree drinks. It is where God deals with motives, pride, fear, ambition, wounds, and distractions. If I want oil to flow publicly, I must protect what happens privately.

This is why the church must be careful that we do not merely teach people how to perform ministry. We can teach someone how to preach a sermon. We can teach musicians chord progressions. We can teach singers harmony. We can teach leadership principles and communication skills. But we cannot manufacture oil. Oil comes from a life that has been cultivated before God.

An olive tree does not produce oil overnight. It must grow. It must become rooted. It must survive seasons. It must bear fruit. And then the olive itself must experience pressure before its oil is released. There is a spiritual lesson there. God uses seasons of pruning, waiting, obedience, correction, surrender, and sometimes suffering to develop His servants. We should never glorify suffering itself, but neither should we assume every season of pressure means God has abandoned us. Sometimes the pressing reveals what God has been developing inside us.

That is why I believe God is calling us to become a church that grows olive trees. I do not want BASH merely to be known as a place where somebody can come and experience somebody else’s oil. I want it to be a house where olive plants become olive trees. I want children to grow into men and women who know God. I want new believers to become mature disciples. I want people who once needed everyone else to pray for them to become intercessors who know how to pray for others. I want those who once needed to be carried to become carriers of His presence.

We cannot build the next generation by teaching them to depend permanently upon our oil. We must teach them how to stand before the Lord.

That brings us to Revelation 11. John describes God’s two witnesses and says, “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth” (Revelation 11:4). John is deliberately drawing upon the imagery of Zechariah 4. Christians have understood the precise identity of these two witnesses in different ways, so we should not force the passage beyond what Scripture says. But the connection John makes is unmistakable: olive trees, lampstands, standing before God, and powerful witness.

Notice again their position: standing before God. Before they witness before the earth, they stand before God. Their authority is connected to their relationship with Him. Their public witness comes out of a heavenly position.

This gives us a principle that I never want to forget: You cannot continually stand before men in spiritual power if you refuse to stand before God in private surrender.

The olive tree produces what the lamp requires. The oil feeds the flame. The flame produces light. And Jesus said, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). Oil was never intended merely to make us feel anointed. Oil has a purpose. The lamp is supposed to burn. And the lamp does not burn so people can admire the lamp; it burns so people can see.

This is where I believe we must protect the flow. We cannot manufacture fire, but we can guard our relationship with the One who supplies the oil. We protect prayer. We protect the Word. We protect humility. We protect holiness. We protect unity. We protect our hunger for God. We refuse to allow success to disconnect us from the secret place that produced the oil in the first place.

Don’t just protect the oil — protect the tree.

And when we look at the young olive plants around us, we must be patient. Do not demand from an olive plant what only maturity can produce. Don’t crush young believers because they are not yet mature. Cultivate them. Protect them. Correct them with love. Water them with the Word. Surround them with prayer. Give them opportunities to grow. Let them watch mature believers live faithfully. Our assignment is not merely to use their gifts; our assignment is to cultivate their lives.

I believe there is a generation coming behind us that must have more than our stories. They need their own history with God. They cannot survive on our prayer life. They cannot live forever on our revelation. They cannot continually borrow our oil. They must learn to pray until they know His voice. They must open the Bible until the Word burns within them. They must worship when nobody is listening. They must learn obedience when nobody applauds. They must develop roots deep enough to survive storms.

We must stop merely asking, “Who will carry my mantle?” and begin asking, “Who am I cultivating into an olive tree?”

• Psalm 128 shows us the olive plant.
• Zechariah 4 shows us the olive tree supplying oil.
• Revelation 11 shows us the olive tree standing before God as a witness.

Can you see the progression?

The plant must grow.
The tree must mature.
The tree must produce fruit.
The fruit must be pressed.
The oil must flow.
The lamp must receive the oil.
The flame must burn.
The light must shine.
And the witness must point people to Jesus.

This is what is burning in my heart: God, give us a church full of olive trees.

Let the children around our tables become olive trees.

Let the broken become olive trees.

Let the recovered become olive trees.

Let the overlooked become olive trees.

Let the young preacher become an olive tree.

Let the worshiper become an olive tree.

Let the intercessor become an olive tree.

Let our sons and daughters become olive trees.

And let us who are mature never become so concerned about protecting our position that we fail to cultivate the plants growing around us.

I don’t want the oil to stop when my generation is gone.

I want there to be another tree.

And another…

And another…

I want there to be olive trees growing all over the house of God until there is oil flowing into lamps everywhere.

Psalm 52:8 says, “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.” What a picture—a green olive tree in the house of God. Alive. Rooted. Growing. Fruitful. Dependent upon God’s mercy.

Perhaps our prayer needs to become bigger than, “Lord, give me fresh oil.”

Perhaps we need to pray:

“Lord, make me an olive tree. Let my roots go deep in Your presence. Let my life bear fruit. And when You allow the pressing, let what comes out of me be something that can feed a lamp in somebody else’s life. Then help me cultivate olive plants around me so the oil will still be flowing long after I am gone.”

Because a bottle can eventually become empty.

But a living olive tree can produce again.

We are not building a museum to yesterday’s oil. We are cultivating living trees for tomorrow’s fire.

And the Word of the Lord still declares:

“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the LORD of hosts. — Zechariah 4:6

Grow the olive plants.
Protect the trees.
Guard the flow.
Keep the lamps burning.
And let the light point a generation to Jesus.