Empty vessels!
2 King 4:3”Then he said, "Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors,
empty vessels and not too few.4 Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and
your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside."
When you shut the door behind yourself for an intimate meeting with God, I assure you
“the windows of heaven will open for you and God would pour down for you a blessing
until there is no more need.”(Malachi 3:10)Isn’t that exciting?
Jesus clearly points out the benefits we receive when we shut the door for prayer:
Mathew 6:6 “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your
Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Have you ever been in a situation which looked absolutely hopeless? Situations in your
life look so grim that you feel that there is no way out, are you there? I want to tell you
today that God would make a way for you! Amen. The above passage tells of Elisha’s
instructions to the widow of a prophet who comes crying to him, because her late
husband had left behind huge debts and the creditors were claiming for her two children
in exchange for the money. Elisha looked at her and said, "How can I help you? Tell me,
what do you have in your house?" The widow replied that she has nothing except a jar of
oil. Elisha gave her a set of instructions for the grieving lady and nothing else.
Elisha told her: a) go outside b) borrow vessels from all the neighbors (not just a few)
c)empty vessels and d) then shut the door along with her two sons e) pour the oil into
the vessels. Well, the most outstanding instruction was “shut the door behind yourself
and the two sons!” They had suffered much and had been humiliated much, now it was
God’s time to bless them much! Most of us want miracles to happen in our life but we
never want to shut ourselves with God. Are you listening?
When Pastor Paul Yonggi Cho was a young minister with several thousand members in
his church, he felt greatly blessed and actually drifted into complacency in his ministry.
Then God allowed the perplexity of physical weakness in his body. He developed a case
of nervous exhaustion and some problems with his heart, he had difficulty to simply
carry out even his daily tasks. During that period, God drew him close to Him and
showed many changes that needed to take place in his life. (From Pastor Paul Yonggi
Cho’s book “Solving Life’s Problems”) Sometimes through sickness God shuts the door
to be close with Him.
Elisha did not say, let me see how much money I have in my bank account, instead he
gives her instructions to use ‘her own resources’. This was no spectacular modus
operandi for a super flow miracle. It was the most weird plan. The widow takes a
remarkable step which was the reason for the whole miracle! Verse 5 says, “So she
went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they
brought the vessels to her.” That’s fantastic faith! The important key to blessings is
obedience! She did not linger behind to question the authenticity of the instructions, ‘she
just obeyed.’ When she shut the door with a giant faith with her two sons to pour the oil
into the empty cans, God stepped in to fill the cans. Hallelujah! In fact, both her sons
were involved in carrying the jars. The empty jars filled up, but the jar she was pouring
from did not run dry. She kept pouring and pouring! Amazing! Many times we pray for
the situation to change. We desperately want God to deliver us from the situation but we
are not willing to do as God says. Through the Word, we receive certain instructions -
some things we need to do or change, but we are unwilling to obey and therefore fail to
experience the miracle that God has planned for us. Are you listening?
The boys had the tough task of visiting all the neighbors and asking them for empty
vessels. They did not ridicule Elisha for this absurd instruction because they believed the
word of the prophet. From where did the oil come? From heaven! Can we give a shout of
praise! If you really want God’s miracles then you must get alone with God. Shut the
door! The boys must have been awed when they saw the oil flowing into the empty
vessels. God did not say go borrow money, rice or dhal but he said, ‘just go get the
empty cans’, the woman stepped out in faith and experienced an amazing provision in
her life. Elisha tells her, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can
live on the rest." He is surely a God of abundance! It all started with her faith in shutting
the door which enabled God to open His Hands! When we are at the end of our road, we
should turn to Him, listen to Him and take the step of faith and walk on. Don’t try to
reason out God’s ways and plans, just obey! Let us remember what the Lord says, “For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.”
(Isaiah 55:8)
The prophet Elisha had God’s purpose in his mind, when he instructed the widow to ‘Go,
borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors’, the widow and the boys might have initially felt humiliated to visit all the neighbors and collect empty vessels, however, God not only
gave them abundance through His provision, but also changed their humiliation to joy.
Since they had visited the entire neighborhood for empty vessels, after the miracle, the
entire town came to know of it. God’s name was thereby glorified! God changed their
shame to fame! When I was brought home in a stretcher from the hospital, the people in
the entire street came to see me; I felt ashamed, hopeless and helpless, to be carried by
strangers, however, God later healed me, gave me a beautiful baby boy, I rejoined work
and went to office; God lifted my head in the same place where I felt
miserable. Psalm 3:3’But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who
lifts up my head.’
During the quarterly printing of our “My Delight” magazine, we were running short of
funds. We had to send out the magazines to the subscribers and the time frame was
short. We wiped out all the money in our kitty and we paid an advance but the printing
could be started only if we paid the balance amount which was quite huge. My husband
and I shut our prayer room and were praying to God for a miracle. I knew in my heart, it
may be a big amount in my sight but not for my Lord. Nothing happened for a week but
on the eighth day, I got a call on my mobile informing me that a brother from Dubai had
sent an offering which was exactly the amount that we needed. Amazing provision!
I like prophet Elisha’s bold confidence when he says in advance, “when one is full, set it
aside” My, that’s faith! He knew God would pour down His blessing behind the closed
door! That’s fantastic! This is what it means by saying, ‘walk the talk!’ Are you listening?
I would also like to mention of another woman of faith who shut the door with her dead
son. This is absolutely a scintillating miracle! The Bible says 2 King 4:21”And she went
up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door behind him and went
out.” The Shunammite woman was given a son in her old age. Much like the birth of
Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, a gift from God. But when her ‘miracle child’ dies in her
lap, she did not lay the body of her son in his bed she did not take him and put him in her
bed, she did not call for help, but she placed him in the bed of Elisha, the man of God!
Amazing! She did not prepare for his burial but instead she was getting ready for his
resurrection! I am just thrilled and excited as I write this! We need to put our faith in Him.
God will never bring you to it without making a way for you to get through it! Hallelujah! I
like the way she kept confessing ‘It is well,’ while her son lay dead in the bed. That’s faith
in action! Proverbs 18:21“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that
love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” When they hit the first boulder itself, people begin to
complain and grumble, rather than jump up in faith and cross the hurdle. Let’s not allow
problems to crush our faith, instead, let us learn to tell, ‘all is well!’ Champions do not
buckle down with pressure but are made of sterner stuff. They have the ability to use
defeat as a stepping stone to success. Let’s turn our heart-break to joy-break! May be
things are wobbly in your life right now, don’t bother, keep going steady for the Lord.
Watch your end! People are not going to like you for your stand for God, though. But we
need to stand strong like the Shunammite woman. She didn’t slow down. She kept on
going.
When prophet Elisha comes to know of the death of the boy, he gets behind shut doors
too. Look what happens! 2 King 4:32 “When Elisha came into the house, he saw the
child lying dead on his bed.33 So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them
and prayed to the LORD.” I want to talk her about the hard, fervent prayer of Elisha:
“And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his
eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out on the child, and the
flesh of the child became warm.” When the flesh of the child became warm, he did not
become content and stop praying, but now he intensifies the prayer. I’m excited as I
write this! We have volumes to learn from this great man of God. How soon we get
satisfied and content! But God is looking for strong, severe intercessors! Hallelujah! By
placing his eyes on the eyes of child, by putting his mouth on his mouth, by laying his
hands on his hands and by stretching himself on the child; the prophet reveals his
steadfast faith in God and His power. He depended on the anointing of the Holy Ghost
Fire to deliver the child. We need to pray until we see the enemy’s fort come down, until
we see the Jericho wall come down, until we see the devil under our feet, until we see
the salvation of our loved and near ones, until we see light shine upon the dark! Elisha
returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched
himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.’
Awesome! Elisha triumphed over the enemy through prayer! Elisha defeated the most
dreadful spirit of death. The triumph is even bigger because of the size of the opponent!
Friend, do not worry and get palpitations when you look at the magnitude of the problem;
the bigger the problem, the stronger and deeper should the prayer be. Half-hearted,
shallow prayers would do no good. Got that?
Wesley L Duewel in his book “Touch the World through prayer” says, “God expects His
children to face mountains of difficulties and to move them. He does not intend for us to
be stopped by them, but to accept them as a challenge, either to turn them into
highways for God’s greater glory or else to cast them into the sea, completely removed
from the sight, as if they had never existed. Jesus assures us that this is fully possible 41
when His children confront the mountains with faith, but reminds us that such mountain moving
may require prolonged prayer and fasting. The Holy Spirit will do the miracle. It
will not be done by our might or power (Zech. 4:6)”
Hard nuts were cracked on one single day, when 3000 souls accepted Jesus Christ
through the sermon of Peter! Acts 2:41 “Then those who gladly received his word were
baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.”
The three thousand who heard the message from Peter were no ordinary people but
they were the same hard hearted people who crucified Jesus. How could such people
turn their heart to Jesus in just one day’s time and with just one sermon? Now watch
this, such things are not humanly possible or through human strength, it is the power of
the Holy Spirit that harvested the souls for Jesus. When Apostle Paul refers to this
power, he said in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 “And my speech and my preaching were not with
persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. “
Friend, we need to have enough ammunition to combat the demonic forces. Now, what
is that? P-r-a-y-e-r! Where do you think Peter, who ducked away during times of
emergency, emerged with such boldness to address an aggressive, hard-hearted crowd
who crucified Jesus? He received the nerves of steel, power and guts from the upper
room where they had tarried and prayed. Wonderful! Dakes said, “Private prayer brings
public power!”
After three days of fasting and prayer, my husband and I went to preach in a Youth
meeting, the venue wore a festive look and various programs were being conducted.
The time was ticking away with group dance, skits and quiz programs, I wondered would
I get a slot to preach? Finally when it was time for me to preach and after the mike was
handed over to me, some church elders started distributing tea to the members. I was
appalled! I strictly refused to preach and instructed the tea distribution to be stopped,
after much persuasion they took back the tea trays. I pleaded for discipline, silence and
requested them to prepare themselves to hear the voice of God. What followed was
breath-taking! The Spirit of the Lord took control of the meeting and at the end of the
meeting, the boys and girls who earlier danced and sang, were wailing loudly to the
Lord. Touched by the presence of God and cut to the souls, with hands lifted up, tears
rolling down their cheek, the young people were crying unto the Lord! It was an
enthralling sight! The pastor and the elders were shaken up by the response of the
youngsters. What brought this revival? The time that my husband and I spent in the
throne room of heaven brought down the power from heaven on that church. The
testimony of one young girl moved me immensely, with her mom standing next to her,
with tears and amidst sobs, she said that the youth leader of that church had
continuously compelled her to attend this particular meeting, though hesitant she had
come to the meeting and God had touched her heart. Right in front of me, she
apologized to her mom for her rebellious attitude. She seemed to be oblivious about the
crowd around her, all that mattered to her, at that moment was God! Friend, after the
meeting, engulfed by the love of Jesus, the youth surrounded us and never wanted to
leave us. My husband and I stood captivated by their love and affection! Such is the
power of prayer! Stop running wildly during times of crisis, learn to trust God and sit in
His presence.
I was called to pray for a 9 year old boy who was suffering from severe convulsions and
vomiting, he was a ‘special’ child since birth with multiple complications in his body. The
parents were worried about the convulsions and the doctors had advised immediate
brain surgery; the desperate parents were hectically running for second opinions from
various other doctors. I could see fear and pain in the eyes of the parents. With both of
them working, they had taken leave on that particular day and were making phone calls
to various hospitals. My husband and I walked into their home on that particular day. I
listened to them patiently as they narrated their part of anguish and pain, then I just
asked them one question, “have you both prayed for your son?” I was astonished to hear
the father say that they did not find time to sit together and pray. Isn’t that painful? I
requested them to just postpone everything else and immediately set aside time to fast
and pray. Before leaving their home, the father said, “I feel peace now and encouraged.
At a time, when everything around us looked dark and frightening, the subject of prayer
and Jesus has brought light into our life.” Eventually prayer brought victory and brain
surgery was not necessary for the kid. Hallelujah!
God meets you personally and His ears are inclined to your pleas when you shut the
doors for prayer!
