We cannot do what needs to be done with our own resources. And yet, God is wise enough, strong enough, good enough, loving enough that He would never command us to do something that we cannot do and that He will not supply the resources for.
Now, we need to understand that salvation is free. But while salvation is a free, there's a debt that comes with salvation. Now, how can that be?
Well, for example, we are debtors to the unsaved. Paul said in Romans 1:14: "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise." We owe the gospel to this world, don't we? We do! Your next door neighbor; you're a debtor to him. The person across the street, the person in the next city, the person across the ocean; we are debtors. And so we have a debt that we need to pay to the unsaved. We need to bring the gospel of Jesus to them.
And we have a debt to the God who saved us on the cross. Romans 8:11-12 (KJV) 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
What does he mean by that?
He means that if God has given us new life, if God has put the Holy Spirit in us, then we owe His majesty, His glory our love, and our service forever and ever and ever. It seems contradictory because we're saved by grace, but the song says, "O, to grace, how great a debtor; daily I'm constrained to be." Do you get what I'm saying? We're debtors to an unsaved world. We are debtors to a great God who loved us, and we owe Him our unfailing, undying devotion.
And not only that, but, we have a debt to our brothers and sisters in Christ. I mean, I owe you some things and you owe me some things. Romans 13:8: "Owe no man anything, but to love one another...." That is, we have a debt of love that is ours constantly and we're to pay it.
Now, here is what is required of us. There's a debt that needs to be paid, and yet, we don't have the wherewithal to do it. And yet, God has commanded us to do this. Behind every command of God is a promise of God. Every command of God is inherently a promise. God never demands of us anything that He has not already given us.
In 2 Kings 4 there is a wonderful story about a widow who struck oil. Let's look at it.
Now, this lady was dependent upon Almighty God, and she has proved in the Word of God what God has taught in the New Testament that, "Our God shall supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
1.A FAMILY THAT FELT FORSAKEN
Here was a woman with a burden of her heart. And then she had some boys on her hands. She was not just alone. She had two boys that she had to raise, and it looked like these boys, her own precious sons, were going to be carried away into debtor's prison. This lady had nowhere to turn.
On top of that, she had a barrenness in her home. There was absolutely nothing that she could see. She, doubtless, had sold the furniture. She'd gotten rid of all the assets. She didn't know what to do. And she had come to a place of desperation.
2.A FLASK THAT WAS FORGOTTEN
Elisha said, "Well, what do you have in your home?" She said, "I haven't got anything, nothing at all; oh, except this pot of oil." But the word here is linked to anointing. It was, you see, this was a preacher. And in that day, the prophets, the preachers would anoint people with oil. And so he has a little flash here that was used in his ministry. And the oil in that flask was a symbol, an emblem of the Holy Spirit. And I believe there's a little lesson tucked away, or a big lesson tucked away here.
This was a significant object. It represents the power of Almighty God, the anointing power of God; significant and sacred, but it was slighted. Somehow she had just overlooked it, or to her it was not all that important. And when I read this and I thought about it, I wondered, is, is that true about so many of us, that we have better than the flask? We have the Holy Spirit Himself in us, something that the people in the Old Testament did not have. The anointing came and the anointing went. But the Spirit of God abides with us forever. But, you know, I think some of us may go day after day after day complaining about our inability, our spiritual poverty, and we don't understand what we have in the Lord Jesus.
Did you know what the Apostle Paul had to say to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6 and 9? I want you to listen to it. Listen to it now, listen. He says, "What? What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost of God, or the Holy Ghost which ye have of God...." Paul says, "Don't you know that?" Do you know what that means? That means that you can have the Holy Spirit in you and just be so careless that you've almost forgotten. Think about, think how Paul said. He said, "What? Don't you know? Have you forgotten that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?" I think many of us do that. We are gutting it out, trying to do this and trying to do that, when we have inside of us an incredible resource. He said, "Don't you know that? Don't you understand that, that you have the Holy Spirit?" Hey, folks, I'm not talking about somebody else. If you are saved, I can say to you, "Don't you know who lives in you?"
Now, it was a significant object. It was a sacred object. It was a slighted object. It represented the Holy Spirit of God. It was her saving object. It was this thing that she had that she didn't even realize that she had. She thought she was completely destitute, and we're going to find out she, she had so much. It was this that brought her out of destitution and brought her out of poverty and brought her in to all that she needed.
You know, God had provided that. God has provided for us. And I could tell you so many ways how God provides, even before we know what we want.
When, when God made you and created you, He gave you lungs. When God made the first man, He gave the first man lungs. But before God, before God ever gave Adam lungs, He created the world with air. He knows what you need (amen). When God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac upon Mount Moriah, and God the Father knew that Isaac was not truly going to be sacrificed, God had provided a ram up there. As a matter of fact, Abraham called that place, "Jehovah Jireh," God will provide. And I don't know exactly how it happened, but I just believe as Abraham started up one side of that mountain, on the other side of that mountain that ram started up. Abraham didn't know it, but God knows it. Listen. God knows what things you have need of before you ask Him.
3.A FAITH THAT LEARNED TO FUNCTION
And what, what did this woman do?
Well, first of all, there was the preparation of her faith. Elisha said to her, "Look, go out and borrow some vessels," and he said, "Don't get a, don't get a few. Get a lot of them." And she's told to get these vessels and make sure that they're empty, ready for the blessings of God. Have you ever done that? Have you ever prepared yourself for a miracle, have you; I mean, believing that God's going to do something? Now, folks, she just went out by faith and just got some empty pots, some pans, some jugs, whatever she got. I don't know what she got, but he said, "Just get some vessels, and you do your part."
If you study the Bible, you'll find out that when man believes God, gets a word from God, makes preparation, God does the rest of it. Now, God is going to perform a miracle, but He doesn't do it without this woman's cooperation. Here was a faith that learned to function. When God wanted to raise Lazarus from the dead, Jesus told the people to roll away the stone. Anybody who can raise a Lazarus from the dead can roll away the stone, but God said, "You do that." When Jesus wanted to turn water into wine, He told the servants, "Fill the water pots with water." Well, anybody who could turn water into wine could fill water pots with water, but He didn't do it. It was their job. When God wanted to save Noah from the flood, He said, "Noah, you build the ark." Every time you look at a miracle, or most every time, or many times, at least, there is man's part and then there's God's part.
So God says to this woman, "Go get some pots and get some pans." Now, then he said, "Pour out what you have." That's an act of obedience. Had she not poured there never would have been a miracle. How does that apply to me? How does that apply to you? Folks, we need to get a from God, and before the miracle begins we need to make preparation. God can do it without us, but He doesn't seem often willing to do it without us. He said, "Go, you borrow some vessels, not a few."
Now, here's a fourth thing
4.A FLOW THAT NEVER FAILS
She began to pour out, verses 7-9. She just pours out this oil. She takes this little flask of anointing oil and she fills up a pot so big. "Boys, set that aside." Then she fills up another one. And then she fills up another. And then she fills up another. And another. And another. And another. And another. She says, "Bring me another vessel." She's having the best time of her life. And they said, "There, Momma, there isn't any more vessel." And that moment the flow stopped. Do you know what? She was the one who determined the size of her blessing. Question: Had she gotten more vessels, would she have had more oil? Obviously. As soon as the last vessel was filled, then the oil stopped. What does that mean? Small faith—small blessing. Big faith—big blessing. Jesus said, "Be it unto you according to your faith." Faith is the medium of exchange in the kingdom of heaven. More faith—more blessings.
But the thing thrills me here is that the flow never stopped as long as the vessels were there ready to be filled.
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