Insight

Its amazing what we can do with our sight, not only in the physical, in appreciating the beauty of nature, seeing our kids grow up, having a watchful eye...In a similar way, our spiritual eyes are also of great importance and power. The following episode from Elisha's life helped me to see the special tool, God gives His children in terms of seeing in the natural and seeing in the spiritual.

Background: 2 Kings 6:8-23.
As I read this event, it slowly came upon me that this episode is more about insight, sight, seeing, opening the eyes, blinding the eyes and I found some very good lessons here. I thought to myself, it would be so great to have insight about the enemies doings and be on guard of the enemies ways lest we be tricked, like Jesus always asks us to be. It would be even greater to know what to say or do when we want to share the "right" words with an unbeliever, so as to usher them into the Kingdom of God. Many times we lose a soul, for something vague or unclear that we've said, because we had nothing better to say. Jesus wasn't tricked by the devil when he was tempted, because He had insight through the Word of God. Every Word Jesus said, brought forth its results, nothing went out of His mouth without impact. That, to me, is the demonstration of a life of a believer in his full capacity. Jesus "lived" what He believed and showed His life on earth as a demo for us. A life with insight, knowing what to do and more than that, knowing what God the Father would have us do. Not groping through the task set for us, but marching on in confidence.
Insight-(meaning:an instance of apprehending the true nature of a thing, esp. through intuitive understanding )

1. God grants insight to those who ask for it- God given insight, Solomon had it, because he asked for it "1 Kings 4:29[ Solomon's Wisdom ] God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore."
2. Encouraged to seek insight, wisdom and discernment-After receiving insight himself, Solomon, begins his book of Proverbs with words to exhort us to seek insight, wisdom and to love wisdom (meaning:the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight. )
3. Insight, comes through meditating upon the Word of God -"I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes" says David in Psalm 119:99

Outcome of Insight

1. Preparedness: God let Elisha know every time, the enemy planned to attack them, and hence the Israelites found protection through this insight. They were able to make their forces stronger and be prepared, exactly where the enemies had planned to attack. There is no point in defending Gate number 1 when the enemy is attacking Gate number 2???? How does this apply to us? God is able to give us the insight, so we can be prepared, when the enemy knocks on our door, they will not find that gate empty or unprotected, but guarded by the child of God. The doors could be our heart, our eyes, our family, feelings...anything, but when our lives are guarded by the Insight from the Word of God we're prepared for anything.
2. Protection: Elisha could see something his servant could not, that made Elisha calm about the situation of being surrounded by the enemy troops. This situation could have caused panic(meaning:a sudden overwhelming fear, with or without cause, that produces hysterical or irrational behavior, and that often spreads quickly through a group of persons or animals), if they didnt know what was going to happen. They would have been overwhelmed by the situation...but as God opened the servant's eyes, he was able to see what Elisha saw. When Jesus was about to be crucified, Peter came up to him and even rebuked Jesus for talking about His crucifixion, he could not "see" the plan. In Jesus crucifixion was the resurrection of the entire human kind.

Conclusion: There is more to this than just Preparedness and Protection, I'd say why don't you, my readers list out a few things that an insght from God can do to our lives. Elisha's insight on what God was doing with them, turned a probable defeat into victory. All the men in the Word of God, knew that they knew inside of them, that what God had planned for their lives is beautiful and powerful and did not weaken to do the tasks they were called to do, be it building a boat on land, sacrificing their only son, being tempted after a fast of 40days and nights, for Jesus, even to the point of death....having the insight, knowing, that He would rise up on the third day.

The "insight" : as Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:21-23 "you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." : is to have in mind the things of God.

Learning to Fly Like the Eagle

From reading about the Shunnamite woman , the Word of God showed me a lot of things as lessons for my life. You can read about her in 2 Kings 4.
This woman opened her house for Elisha so he could come and stay every time he was in town. Later Elisha finds that she doesnt have any children and blesses her." 16Elisha said, At this season when the time comes round, you shall embrace a son. " Now after some time the woman did have a son and now am reading at the place where her son died due to some problem in his head(v19-20). This woman goes all the way to meet Elisha and then Elisha comes into the scene and the boy is restored to life.

Here are the lessons I learnt, even as the woman learnt as she went through the situation of her dead child.

1. Anytime, God's ready-We may not be ready for the situations in our life, but God always is. Because He Knows the end from the beginning. (Isaiah 46:10). This woman had so got caught up with the way God was working in ELisha's life (since she'd been watching him from the time he had started staying with her and family) she knew she could go to Elisha any time. So when her husband doubted whether ELisha would help her "out-of-tern" so to speak, 23And he said, Why go to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath. And she said, It will be all right". She said it is all right.
2. Out of the comfort zone-This woman had a room made for Elisha and she knew that Elisha stays with them every time he came to Shunem(v8-10), but this woman (once well-to-do and content) has now become desperate. She could have waited for Elisha's visit, but she didn't. Now this woman, who would have spent her entire life in the comfort of her home asks her husband "22And she called to her husband and said, Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may go quickly to the man of God and come back again." She was leaving her home on a journey to meet Elisha, because she was met with a situation she could not deal with, but she needed a solution. I wonder if she would have dared to go that far out and go see Elisha . If her son wouldn't have died she would have never left her home. There is a stage in every believer's life, like this woman, when God will shove them out of their comfort zone so we will start running after God and go where He is. Not just on Sundays but every day, or any day when God calls.
3. The Lord alone will help and lead-This woman's life was stirred up by the death of her child (the child was a gift from God) and now this makes sense to me, when God says his children will fly with wings like the eagles. Deuteronomy 32:10-12 says "11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. 12 The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him." When God stirs up our nest, He also hovers over us and spreads His wings and catches us in His wings. For this Shunnamite woman, Elisha was the only one who could help, because he was the one who blessed her with the child. So also, when our life is stirred (only because we should learn to fly, move onto the next step of our spiritual life) God is right there, hovering waiting and watching and if we should fall, He will catch us in His arms and ONLY HE CAN HELP and LEAD
4. Faith ALWAYS counts-"25So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite. 26Run to meet her and say, Is it well with you? Well with your husband? Well with the child? And she answered, It is well." Whats wrong with this woman, her son just died and she says It is well!!!. Thats how faith works, "1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" Hebrews 11:1 She went in faith to Elisha, with hope that Elisha will surely know how to fix it.
5. Are you talking to the right man!!-When Gehazi (Elisha's servant) met the woman, she had nothing to say to him but she pours out her heart before Elisha "27When she came to the mountain to the man of God, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came to thrust her away, but the man of God said, Let her alone, for her soul is bitter and vexed within her, and the Lord has hid it from me and has not told me.
   28Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?" She knew the person who could help her, she did not linger around Gehazi but went straight to Elisha. When we're in a situation we don't understand, after all God had blessed that barren woman with the child, she went to the giver of all life. She knew Elisha was the man of God. So also when we're faced with situations we never though should have happened, we must run to the One who already knew. To God. The One who gave us life, ONLY can fix it. Else we'll be wasting our time and money with counsellors, evaluators, dictators, and all kinds of others who think they've got the right to tamper with life itself. Dont, lets run to the One who gave us life.
6. God Himself will intervene- (v29-v35) Initially Elisha sends Gehazi with his staff to go heal the boy but nothing happens. Elisha then himself goes and the boy is brought back to life. God knows what will work for our situation and what will not, and in the case when nothing else works, no doctors are able to find the solution, no marriage bureau is able to find the right man or woman, God Himself will intervene and find the right answer for you. God will not stop at anything in order to bless, the one who has obeyed Him, had faith in Him and followed and run after Him.
7. Stay with the Anointed One, not chase after anointings- Here is something wonderful I noticed, when ELisha sent Gehazi out to put his staff on the woman's boy, "30The mother of the child said, As the Lord lives and as my soul lives, I will not leave you." The Shunammite woman refused to leave Elisha. She was supposed to get excited and run after Gehazi and be there when her son would come to life, but she doesn't go with Gehazi who carried Elisha's staff, but stayed with Elisha. Many times, we get distracted by the wonderous things God does through a man and we start running after the man instead of God. We start looking forward for directions from the man, instead of God. We start trusting upon the man for our life, more than our God, without even knowing we would have run far away from the Anointed One, chasing after the anointing. God doesn't want us to run after the anointing, but to stay with the Anointed One, our Lord Jesus.

Conclusion: God has been so merciful to me in sharing such wonderful lessons from the life of the Shunammite woman. I am sorry for this being such a long post. I pray that you, my readers, will also be blessed, as I have been blessed learning this lesson. Remember, if you are a child of God and your nest has been stirred up, its only so you can learn to fly. And when you're in the process of learning to fly, remember God is by your side, with open arms so He can catch you if you fall. He's there hovering like the eagle hovers over its kids when they're learning to fly. Soon when we've learnt to trust our God with EVERYTHING about life, we'll be flying too and will become a blessing to people around, miracles from the Anointed One will change our situations. God will not stop at anything less than the best for His children, if only we have faith in Him and obedience to follow His lead.

God Bless

Emmanuel

I discovered in yesterday's post that God loves to stay with the people who invite Him in their lives.

God is so in love with us that He loves to be with us every single moment of our lives, if only we want Him. He is so serious about this fact that even His name reads "Emmanuel" meaning "God with us".

Results of God being with us.

1. Fullness in God- Elisha wanted to bless her with what was lacking. He searched and found out, through his servant. 14 "What can be done for her?" Elisha asked. Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son and her husband is old." (2Kings 4:14). When we've invited Jesus to dwell in our lives, He will search what is lacking in our lives and fill up our lives. Our Lord Himself said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 11"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:10)
2. Protection of God-When God dwelt with the Israelites as a pillar of cloud and fire, He provided them protection from their enemies.
3. Guidance from God-Not only did the Israelites get God's protection, when the pillar of fire came between them and the enemy, but also the pillar of cloud showed them the way to go. The pillar of fire lit up their path.

Conclusion:Our Loving Father, paid a heavy price just so He could have fellowship with us. He paid it in the blood and death of His only Son. How can we let go by such a costly sacrifice? No matter what you're in, God wants to be in it and bring you out into fullness. If, like this woman we are invite God to our lives. He will complete it in ways we could have never thought possible. God is able to provide for us, of things we thought we could live without, like this woman thought she could do without a son, yet God knew how and what could fill up the person's life. The person who values God's sacrifice, for the sake of our fellowship with Him.

Knowing our Father's Voice

1 Kings 22

Israel and Judah have been separated since Solomon's reign and now for the first time after 3 generations the two divisions of the Israelites decide to act together to fight for Ramoth Gilead. At this time Israel is being led by Ahab and Judah by Jehoshaphat.

3 The king of Israel had said to his officials, "Don't you know that Ramoth Gilead

belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?"
4 So he asked Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?"

Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses."

5 But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, "First seek the counsel of the LORD."

Notice here that Ahab asks Jehoshaphath for alliance to win Ramoth Gilead, after all it was their territory and Jehoshaphath agrees to it, yet he also said "First seek the counsel of the Lord"

6 So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—

and asked them, "Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?"

"Go," they answered, "for the Lord will give it into the king's hand."
7 But Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there not a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?"

Notice again that Jehoshaphath asks him for a prophet of the Lord who could prophesy the real Word from God.

I couldn't help but see the difference in these 2 kings and the following characteristics stood out

1. First seek counsel from God- While Ahab must have been thinking of acquiring more land,(even though it was theirs) Jehoshaphath knowing that it was theirs wanted to know what God would have them do, whether to go ahead with the plan or remain. Jehoshaphath clearly brings God first and asks Ahab to "First seek counsel from God" . The Word of God says "5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" It is to acknowledge God in ALL your ways, in ways when you can guess the right answer or not. A friend may need a good word for guidance, yet maybe God would have us shut up and just be there and that would mean more to the friend than us trying our best to do something we think is right and talk. Let is first seek the counsel from God for no matter what we face. The result, God will make the path straight
2. Discernment- Though 400 prophets were prophesying the king to go on for the battle, Jehoshaphath asks him, isn't there someone who can inquire of the Lord. It almost sounds to me like, don't you have any real prophets. Jehoshaphath had a discerning spirit to understand whats from the Lord and what is not. 1 Corinthians 12 says "7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good........10 to another distinguishing between spirits,". This is something God would have all His children, all His sheep know. The Bible says 27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:26-28

Conclusion:These 2 points bring out to me the very heart of God. The centre of God's training of His sheep academy, to lean on God and to be able to discern His voice. When a child is born, they start recognising their parent's voice, it comes to them naturally, because they are born of them. So also we who are born of the Holy Spirit and of our Living God in our spiritual lives have the ability to listen to our God's voice in our spirit "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." Romans 8:15-17. Now, how well we listen to our God's voice depends on how often we listen to His voice. If we get accustomed to listening to other voices of this world , soon we will start doing what other voices tell us. Let us continue to go to our Father in Heaven every single time we have a need and in every situation of our life, let us continues to read His Love Letter to His children, the Bible and God's Spirit Himself will help us get connected in our spirit to our Daddy in heaven.

Not Duplicates-Unique Lives

1 Samuel 8
Background:Samuel is grown old, his sons Joel and Abijah are now taking over as judges for Israel, however they are not honest in their judgment like their father. The Israelites come complaining to Samuel and ask him to give them a king like everyone else. Samuel is grieved, he thinks they have rejected him as judge. In those days, the judges were working as leaders for Israel and God would lead Israel in that manner, through judges. Samuel goes before God regarding this request that the Israelites made, God tells him what would happen if they wanted a king right now. Samuel gives them the entire detail of what would happen if they chose the king, yet the people wanted a king.They got Saul.

Lesson I learnt
The Israelites were not happy just with Samuel being their leader, they wanted a king, like everyone else."4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead [a] us, such as all the other nations have." (1 Samuel 8:4-5). God was leading the Israelites through judges all this while. All people were equal, the judge was a mere leader, who would listen to God's Word and lead the people in His ways. However the Israelites were not satisfied with that. They wanted a king like everyone else. They wanted to be like the other nations.

Sometimes I too want a life thats, common, predictable, goes the way it goes with anyone else. Or like someone else I have seen. I sometimes think, my life should have been like this or like that. However over the years I have understood, that there's no other way I would rather live than to live with the Lord. It is difficult, in the manner that , if the 'so intelligent' world would ask me where I am heading, I would have no answer. Thinking of it, God wanted His people to be special, set apart from the rest of the crowd, different, standing out.He would love the same for His children now. We may not be the ones to blend in the crowd, we were never meant to. Thats why God made one of each type of person. Even the twins aren't alike. We are all unique creations.

1 Peter 2:9 says

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood,

a holy nation, a people belonging to God,

that you may declare the praises of him

who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. "

So if we belong to a Living God, our lives are deemed to be different from others , deemed to shine out, now, would we want to trade in our calling for something just to become like the rest of the world? Would we want to trade all that Jesus did for us, so costly through His blood, to become like everyone else? I say not. I encourage all you brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, lets be, all that God wants us to be according to His perfect will for our lives. Let's shine for our Living Lord.