Prepare For Increase

  • Carlton Williams
  • Feb 17, 2009
  • Series: Chew On This

2 Kings 4:6 ‘Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased.’ (emphasis mine)

PREPARE FOR INCREASE

The story in 2 Kings 4 is a sad, though typical story.  The story begins on a promising note, ‘A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets…’  This was a godly, righteous family. Righteous… but poor.  The head of the home had died and left his family heavily in debt.  In those times, creditors were authorised to take the children of a debtor into slavery to work off the debt.

How could this happen? This was a family that had a covenant with God. God had promised Moses that if His people obeyed His commandments and walked in His ways, ‘The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you’ (Deut. 28:8).  As far as we know, this family was walking in God’s ways but not walking in the benefits of the covenant that belonged to them.

The same situation applies today. We are a covenant people. We live in a covenant of abundance. God has promised in 2 Corinthians 9:8, ‘… to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.’  Why is it therefore, that poverty and lack still persist among God’s covenant people?

As the woman in our story cries out to the man of God for help, we see Elisha show this woman how to activate the covenant of abundance that was hers all along. The miraculous turnaround that the woman came to experience was the result of the activation of the covenant of wealth that she was under.  Elisha asked one question and gave one instruction which, when obeyed, propelled her from a position of not having enough to having more than enough.  Answering the same question and obeying the same instruction will propel us into the same abundance today.

‘…Tell me, what do you have in the house?’  We hear this question asked in different ways throughout scripture. Before Moses’ great turnaround, God asked the question, ‘…what is in your hand?’ (Exodus 4:2). Just before the great miracle where 5000 men and their families were fed from a little boy’s lunch, Jesus asked, ‘…how many loaves do you have? Go and see…’ (Mark 6:38).  In all the above instances, we see somebody that had ignored their God-given talent or gift, regarding it as insignificant or commonplace. But what we also see is that in every case, God will use what is in your hand to change your life! The key to your destiny is in your hand right now!

The woman in our story responded by saying, ‘Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.’  We hear this sentiment of not having enough echoed when Moses responded to God’s question with, ‘…a rod’.  The disciples were not so discreet, ‘There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?’  (John 6:9) Today it is, ‘all I have is a passion to help young people’, ‘all I have is a good voice’, ‘all I have is an aptitude for numbers but what is that among so many applicants?’

Next came the instruction. Elisha instructed the woman to go and borrow vessels from her neighbours; he set no limit on how many vessels to borrow but gave her a hint, ‘…do not gather just a few.’ She did as instructed and experienced a miracle. As she poured out the little oil she had into the empty vessels, it multiplied and filled all the vessels she had collected. She sold all the oil and was released from her debt.

Notice that the miraculous oil supply ceased when the last vessel was full. So we see that what she supplied determined what she received. The miraculous power of God was limited by the number of ‘vessels’ she had. I believe that those vessels represented her expectation; that was why Elisha encouraged her not to borrow just a few – his way of saying, ‘raise your expectations!’  Our expectations (our faith) determine the extent of God’s miraculous power we experience in our lives and circumstances. This dear woman had been living in poverty all this time, even though all she needed to do to experience a turnaround was to use what she already had, and raise her expectation from a God that keeps His covenant!

Two key principles for activating the covenant of abundance are therefore, firstly to identify the gifts and graces the Lord has already placed in your life and secondly to recognise that however insignificant they may seem to you, they are the keys to your destiny. As you develop those gifts to a place of excellence, raise your expectations as you employ them in the marketplace.  Remove all limits because God’s covenant guarantees the outpouring of His blessing into your life.

Isaiah 54:2 puts it best, ‘Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations…’ Since you are the one setting the limits, you are the only one who can remove them. (emphasis mine)

Identify your ‘oil’.  Remove all limits.  Prepare for increase.