Elisha’s Ministry: "Christian – How Is Your Little Upper Chamber Furnished?” Part 1 Of 2 Series

ELISHA’S MINISTRY: “CHRISTIAN – HOW IS YOUR LITTLE UPPER CHAMBER FURNISHED?” Part 1 of 2

SERIES – MESSAGES ON ELISHA – HIS LIFE AND MINISTRY Number 8

2Kings 4:8 Now there came a day when Elisha passed over to Shunem where there was a prominent woman, and she persuaded him to eat food, and so it was, as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat food. 2Kings 4:9 She said to her husband, “Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God passing by us continually. 2Kings 4:10 Please, let us make a little walled upper chamber and let us set a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand, and it shall be, when he comes to us, that he can turn in there.”

2Kings 4:11 One day he came there and turned in to the upper chamber and rested. 2Kings 4:12 Then he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite,” and when he had called her, she stood before him. 2Kings 4:13 He said to him, “Say now to her, Behold, you have been careful for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Would you be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the army?” and she answered, “I live among my own people,”

2Kings 4:14 so he said, “What then is to be done for her?” and Gehazi answered, “Truly she has no son and her husband is old.” 2Kings 4:15 He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. 2Kings 4:16 Then he said, “At this season next year you shall embrace a son,” and she said, “No, my lord, O man of God, do not lie to your maidservant.” 2Kings 4:17 The woman conceived and bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had said to her.

Elisha obviously had a circuit he undertook from time to time, no doubt at the leading of God, for that meant he had any base and any calling for any duration of time. The Lord’s service is not bound by human timetables, and all His servants must be open in their calling, not bound by conceived plans of man, committees and organisations. How the work of the Lord sometimes must suffer by artificial time terms and contracts, for these can take the leading of the Holy Spirit out of the equation. I have been acquainted with the calling or appointment of ministers to churches in a few different denominations, and all I can say, is that this is a very complex issue that I don’t want to expand on.

However there are two major points I will make. The first is where a true man of God is appointed, he does the Lord’s work as best as he is able and God can and does bless his ministry. I see this at work to some extent in the Sydney Anglicans. The second point is that there are ministerial boards that appoint to clerical positions in churches of that denomination, and some who hold positions on those boards are not at all controlled by the Holy Spirit or guided by the mind of God. The result is a hit and miss placement. Then you have the situation adopted by the Baptists generally, where the church is considered autonomous, and is free to call its own pastor, but this means smaller churches can miss out while richer churches appeal to a good number of pastors who see life easier and incomes better. One of the flaws of this calling is it appears that the Baptist minister is on an “auction roulette”. All would be so much easier if churches remained autonomous and functioned according to the gifts and men the Lord grants to those gathered together in a communal church. Nevertheless, many communal churches struggle because of a lack of spiritual gift among the men caused by a failure to study to make oneself approved before God, and to cultivate the gifts and talents God has given, and wants you to develop. One must be disciplined and exercised.

A certain day came when Elisha's ministry led him to Shunem and there he made the acquaintance of a certain woman who had a husband and a house. God’s leading is always an exact one. Abraham’s servant went to a distant country and there God led him to the correct person for Isaac’s bride. The disciples of the Lord were led to the owners of the donkey that was to be the Lord’s mount on Palm Sunday. God led Ananias to Straight Street to meet Saul. Cornelius sent some soldiers to Joppa to find a certain Simon the tanner in a house by the sea. Elisha needed care in his ministry and the Shunem house was that exact provision from God. The Lord will always make contacts available for His people that can lead to connections and a furtherance of ministry, even if it is not for the immediate instance, then for a time yet future. We do not know what is achieved by our contacts with others, and where it could lead. I have just returned from a cruise where we made some Christian contacts through the bible study each sea day, and God gave opportunity for the writer to share the word of God with others over several weeks. We may have been as ships passing in the night, but none of God’s moves is accidental or meaningless. I myself made contact that has blessed me through a book, whose author was on the cruise, and he wrote a manual for those in ministry. Praise God for that. Well Elisha and the woman met and she provided for his food – the word says, “She persuaded him to eat food.”