Reading: 2 Kings chapter 4 verses 1-7

In this incident from the life of the prophet ELISHA, we meet a widow and her two sons. Her husband had been a God-fearing man but sadly he had passed away. The widow was bankrupt and therefore she was unable to meet her debts. All she had in the house was a pot of oil. Conditions, therefore, were at their lowest ebb, when she approached Elisha for help. One of her creditors was demanding her two sons to act as servants for him. What she did not realise was that God had got the answer to her desperation in the one POT OF OIL. In the Bible oil is a picture of the Holy Spirit. She had far more in her house than she thought! When we are in need, Christians today may have little of this world’s goods but we have the greatest possession of all, i.e., God’s gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us to guide and empower us!

All the pot of oil in the widow’s house needed was empty vessels, A SHUT DOOR (to shut out the evil world that could not answer her need), the faith and desire for each vessel to be filled. It was the vessels that ran out, not the oil! When this happened, Elisha told her, ‘Go sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest’.

We too must learn to SHUT THE DOOR on our temptation to look to those in the world to answer our need. Once we trust Christ as our Saviour, we can rely on the indwelling Holy Spirit to lead us in the paths of all truth. We will never exhaust His resources but we must not hinder Him in His divine work on our behalf. Paul writes, ‘But be filled (continuously filled) with the Spirit’, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18. We must eliminate from our lives those things of the world that crowd out the Spirit.

Concluded