Continuing our series on Elisha, Man of Miracles! You can read the first one here! Love this story of Elisha and the Shunammite woman. So much faith, so many good nuggets to tuck away in our hearts! If you do not know the story, I will be quoting quite a bit of scripture so we do not miss a thing in this great story from the Word of God.
A little chamber on the wall…
In 2 Kings, Chapter 4, the story begins like this: “And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.”
She is described as a “great woman” here in the King James Version, as a “notable, wealthy, well-to-do, and even leading lady”, in other versions. We gather that she is, at the least, well-known in her city. It is also obvious she wanted to serve the prophet, Elisha. She wanted to do something special for him any time he was in the area. She even fed him regularly!
But for this woman of faith, it wasn’t enough and she asks her husband to make him a room. It wasn’t fancy, as we see in the scripture, just a bed, a table, a stool to sit on and a candlestick for light.
Elisha is thankful for the place to stay and wants to do something special for the woman in return. His servant, Gehazi, tells the prophet that the woman has no children so Elisha prophesies to her, “About this time next year you shall embrace a son…the woman conceived, and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her.”(NKJV)
Here is his first miracle for the Shunammite woman…a child of her own after so many years of being barren.
The child gets a little older and one day runs to his father in the field holding his head and complaining of pain. His father has the servants take him back to his mother to care for him. The Bible says he sat on her lap until noon and then he died.
Distraught, this woman of God “…went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out.”
She didn’t take him to his own room, nor to her room, but to Elisha’s room!
Then she gathers what she needs for a journey…and takes off to go find the prophet.
Elisha sees her coming and sends Gehazi to meet her. “…and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’ And she answered, ‘It is well.’”
Pausing here! It is well? Her son is dead and she says, “It is well.” Why? Because she knew if she could get to the man of God that all would be well! What faith!
She ran on to the prophet, caught him by the feet and Gehazi came close to push her away. “But the man of God said, ‘Let her alone; for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”
The Shunammite woman tells Elisha what has happened to her son and Elisha immediately sends Gehazi on ahead of the two of them. “Get yourself ready, and take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him; but lay my staff on the face of the child.”
Gehazi obeys and when he arrives he lays the staff on the face of the boy but nothing happens. He runs back to Elisha, who is coming to the house, and tells him, “The child has not awakened.”
Elisha goes into his room, shuts the door and begins to pray. He then performs one of his more interesting miracles!
“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.”
Things are starting to take place but the boy still has not awakened. He is not completely healed.
Elisha begins to pace in the house, we assume he is praying, and then he goes back up to the boy and does the same thing again. This time the child sneezes seven times and then opens his eyes!
Persistence has paid off on the part of the Shunammite woman! Persistence has paid off on the part of Elisha!
He calls for Gehazi to bring the mother and presents her son alive and well.
This miracle is exciting in the fact that the boy was a gift to his parents when they were unable to have children. The Shunammite woman was honored by God because of her service to the prophet, the man of God, Elisha.
When trouble comes, she immediately goes to the source of her miracles; the man that she knows can touch God! She believed in the God of Elisha, she believed even before He had given her a son, so now in her time of grief and distress she runs back to the prophet so that he can touch God for her situation.
Today, we don’t have to have a mediator; Jesus already took care of that for us at Calvary. He paid the price, we don’t have to, and He took upon Himself all of our sickness and even the keys to death and hell.
If we have persistent faith like this woman, we can see our prayers answered and miracles, signs and wonders performed for us too.
What if the Lord asks you to do something different to see that miracle come to pass? To step out in faith and trust HIM and Him alone to do what needs to be done? Elisha had likely never laid his body on another before to see life come back, but he was obedient to God, and that is what it took to accomplish the miracle!
What if your prayer is not answered the first time?
[Tweet “Keep praying, keep asking, keep knocking and let God be God.”]
He will answer in His time, according to His will, and what is best for us at that time.
If Elisha had walked away after the first attempt at raising the boy, there would have been no miracle, no joy for that family and nothing recorded in the Word of God for us today. But because of his faith and persistence, God showed up and proved once again that He is God. He alone controls life and death!
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That was her way of allowing God into her life and today we can have him literally in our hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Let Him be Lord of your life and begin to believe Him for great things in your life. You will be a living testimony in reaching others for the Kingdom.
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