Encouragement
VICTORY OVER DEATH (2 Kings 4:31-35)
"Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not awakened." When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. 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 onto the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes."
The Prophet Elisha was a mighty man of God. During the early years of his life, he served the Prophet Elijah, who was used by God to shake a nation. When Elijah was nearing the end of his life on earth, Elisha asked God for double Elijah’s powerful anointing, and this is what he received when Elijah’s mantle came upon him. God did many miracles through the life of Elisha, as he walked in the fiery anointing poured out upon him. This chapter is about how the power of God gave Elisha victory even over death. God raises the dead for the glory of His name, and because of His mercy and compassion.
The little boy who is spoken about in this passage was a miracle baby (2 Kings 4:14 -17) and a result of the ministry of the Prophet Elisha. However, the Word of God tells us that one day, he developed a headache and died soon afterwards, while lying on his mother's lap. Elisha had a little room in the home of this family, and the mother of the boy laid his dead body on the prophet's bed and went in search of him. When Elisha understood that the child was dead, he gave his staff to his assistant Gehazi, and asked him to run ahead and lay the staff on the face of the child. (Anything Elisha had held or touched carried a measure of his powerful anointing). Elisha expected the boy to be raised up by the power of God as the stick was placed upon him, but there was no response from the stiff little body as Death refused to release its grip. This was what Gehazi reported to his master, when he returned.
Notice that when Elisha reached the house and saw the boy lying dead on the couch, he did not immediately begin commanding the body to rise, or life to come back into it. He went into the room, shut the door, and prayed. This is the key to seeing signs, wonders and miracles in our lives. It is only through prayer and waiting in the presence of God that we will be able to shake our neighborhoods and cities with mighty manifestations of the power of God! It is when we make our hearts still before the Lord and seek His direction that we can know how He wants us to minister in a particular situation. We need to seek His leading because the miracles are done by Him through the Holy Spirit and are not something we can manufacture.
There was a second reason why Elisha shut the door; he did not want anyone else to come in and weep, wail, and exalt the power of Death. Neither was he going to allow anyone to destroy the faith that he was looking to God to stir up. He knew this miracle could not happen unless he saw the face of God and focused on His might and power. Elisha called on the name of the Lord, worshipped the King and surrendered to His Lordship. As he invited the presence of Jehovah to come and be exalted over every name, even the name of Death, God manifested His presence. God began to give him a strategy and a way to minister life to the little dead body lying on the couch so stiff and cold. When we allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit, the impossible becomes possible; God directs us and shows us the way to bring Heaven to earth!
It is not clear how long Elisha prayed, but when God began to show him what to do, he got on the bed and lay on the boy. He breathed into his mouth, as though to resuscitate him; and as Elisha lay on the boy, pushing air into his dead lungs through his stiff, dead lips, the child's body slowly grew warm. Life was coming back into the little body; blood was beginning to circulate and the heart was beginning to pump. The Holy Spirit flowing through Elisha was bringing life back into those dead bones! A miracle was in the making! Elisha got up and walked around the room for a little while. I believe he did this because he knew he needed to pray some more; he was calling on the power of God to come and fill this boy with life; he was also warming himself up - it was the warmth of his body that had seeped into the cold, dead body of the child. He also had to focus away from the hardness of death and back on the Almighty God of Life for whom nothing is impossible. Then he stretched out upon the child once more. This time, the boy sneezed seven times, (God’s number of completion) as his lungs and nasal passages start to work again, and opened his eyes - He was alive! Hallelujah! A thankful, ecstatic mother was reunited with the child she had thought she would never see again. Her boy must have had much to tell her, about where he had been, and the glories of Heaven! The name of the Lord was glorified. God's overflowing compassion had reached down and brought power to raise the dead.
Dear Friend, whatever situation you are facing in your life right now, know that there is nothing and nobody so dead that God cannot raise to life. There is no one so hardened against the Gospel that they cannot be saved. There is no one so sick in body or mind that they cannot be completely healed by the resurrection power of Jesus Christ who conquered sin, death and disease. Believe and you will receive! In Mark 16:17 & 18, Jesus said "These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Jesus was saying that to receive these signs we have to believe that they can happen. Every part of the Word of God is true and relevant to us today. When we believe in the power of God to work signs and wonders, signs and wonders will follow us. The world could be a different place if we walked in faith and expectation, always believing that our omnipotent God will do miracles through our lives wherever we go. May the Lord increase your expectations and strengthen your faith.
May you believe for the impossible to become possible through your life, because of the power of His name!
Minoli Haththotuwa
www.wingslikeeagles.info
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