Premonition, Precognition, And Prophecy

Sometimes God will send a person to confirm what is going on. They might give you a prophetic word as well. Basically, it's what God is willing to reveal to us and sometimes we don't know the tool He is going to use. Some people may receive premonitions from dreams, a feeling, angels or from visions, others never receive one.

As Christians, we don't know everything when it comes to the supernatural. But we also need to be on guard against deception by being discerning when it comes to premonitions. We can't predict the future, but God knows our path. Lean on Him when you have a premonition or anything you believe is a sign from Him.

Today we are going to see all three of this type of unique future declarations and how the people responded to the warnings. Check yourself to see if you would respond the same way.

Today’s scripture begins with the Shunamite woman mentioned in in chapter 6.8-37. We are probably to see that her husband has since died, for he is not mentioned in the narrative. Thus, the inheritance now belonged to the son. But Elisha foresaw a lengthy (‘seven year’) famine which was coming and advised her to take her household and seek refuge outside the land. Obediently she sought refuge in Philistia and waited for the famine to be over. We have no information on what if any procedures would be followed in a case like this. It is possible that the house and land came under the protection of the crown. But no doubt those who took possession of it would not be desirous of returning it.

So on her return at the end of the period she presumably discovered that her son’s inheritance had been taken over by someone, who had also presumably occupied the house, and her intention was therefore to appeal to the king for her son’s rights to be restored. The author probably intends us to see that it was in the will of YHWH that this happened precisely at that time that the king was asking Gehazi, Elisha’s former servant, to recount to him some of Elisha’s miracles, and Gehazi was telling him about the raising from the dead of the Shunamite’s son. And when Gehazi saw the woman coming for an audience with the king he pointed her out as the Shunamite whose son Elisha had healed. The king accordingly spoke with the woman and arranged for her house and lands to be restored to her, along with the produce of the land during the famine.

8 Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can; for the LORD has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years.”

The reason why the Shunamite woman had left her house and land was because Elisha had advised her to do so in view of a ‘seven year famine’ which ‘YHWH was calling for’ on the land.

2 So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines seven years.

In accordance with Elisha’s instructions as ‘a man of God’ she took her household and stayed in the land of the Philistines for the seven-year period. The non-mention of her husband may suggest that he was dead.