2 Kings 4:8-36; 8:1-6

One of the easiest ways to keep God safe and not too dangerous is to remove the
wonder, majesty, and mystery from our walk with God.

A Japanese CEO: When I meet a Buddhist monk, I meet a holy man in touch with another world. When I meet a western Christian, I meet a manager who is only in touch with the world I already see and know. That is why I am a Buddhist.”

Albert Einstein was asked what inspired his theory of relativity:
“Wonder and mystery! Either everything is a miracle or nothing is a miracle … for me, we are all living in the middle of a miracle.”

We are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps 139) – which means that you and I are designed to be part of the story of God’s Majesty and Wonder.

1. You have to Make Room for God in Your Life

Let's make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. (v. 10)

2. Your Faith Must be Greater than Your Fear/Pain.

v 16 “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord,” she objected. “Don’t mislead your servant, O man of God!”

This response revealed the depth of her desire to have a son … and the depth of the fear she had about not having one.

God moves in the PAIN of our lives.

Mark 16:20: And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. KJV

Study from Univ. of Michigan: LOSSES LOOM LARGER THAN GAINS.

3. People Who Seek Hardest often Suffer.

• Phil. 3:10-11 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
• Acts 14:22 - We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,”

4. Prayer Must Be Our Work. (v. 33-35)

v 33-35 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy’s body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

a. Prayer is Waiting

b. Prayer is Intimacy

v. 34 - Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy's body grew warm.

c. Prayer will be a STRETCH

As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy's body grew warm.

5. Famine Follows the Call - But God Restores it ALL

2 Kings 8:1-6 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the LORD has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.” The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years. At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to the king to beg for her house and land. The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to beg the king for her house and land.
Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” The king asked the woman about it, and she told him. Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

Joel 2:25 “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten

Audio File: 

2009-09-13.mp3

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