Lesson From the Shunammite Woman

Church fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. We thank the Lord again for another privilege in His presence to come and learn at His feet. We appreciate Him for how He has been feeding us with His word from the beginning of this year. He has been pointing us to Jesus, how He is, and how we must be like Him in holiness. It is a privilege to learn this because it is scarce in our time. My prayer for everyone of us that has been going through this series is that the Lord will give us grace. I want to appreciate the authority of this ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the one He has put in place as a man to carry on the work on earth. I appreciate Him for giving us this privilege to sit and stand to minister His word. Thank you so much, sir and ma. God bless you in Jesus' name. Let’s pray together as we sing this song. God must be honored, must be honored, must be honored. Jesus must be honored in my life every day. Hallelujah. God must be honored, must be honored, must be honored. Jesus must be honored in my life every day. Hallelujah. God must be honored, must be honored, must be honored. Jesus must be honored in my life every day. Our Father in heaven, we are grateful to You for the gift of life. Thank You so very much for the salvation of our souls. Thank You for Your full redemption. The Bible says that Your redemption is full and complete, and that You have graciously given to us. Father, we are grateful. Accept our thanks in Jesus' name. Thank You for the power of Your word in our lives and in our midst. You have graciously opened Your heart to us, especially at a time like this when all the signs of Your coming are in place. Lord, we are looking forward to Your imminent coming, and You are bringing to our memory again that Your standard still remains the same, and that which is holiness. Father, we thank You. We bless Your holy name that You do not hide Yourself from us. Take all glory, Lord, in Jesus' name. Lord, we are here again with fear and trembling in our heart to hear You, to hear what You will say again. Please speak to our spirit man in Jesus' name. Send forth Your word into our heart to heal us and to deliver us from the destructions of our time in the name of Jesus. Open our eyes to see clearly that which You wants us to see in the name of Jesus. Let Your grace accompany Your word in our lives so that we can be doers of this word in the name of Jesus. Lord, I submit my heart to You. Please pass through me. Bless me and bless us all together in the name of Jesus. Thank You, Lord, for hearing us pray. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We have been looking at the theme "Dynamics of Holiness." In the initial time early this year, we were looking at what constitutes holiness. What are the characteristics? For some time now, we have been looking at individuals in the scriptures who at one time or the other have the privilege and the opportunity we are having, and how they used it. As I was looking and reviewing what we have done and preparing for this, it struck me that every one of these people we are studying at one time or another had the opportunity to either choose to live for God or not to. Opportunity was presented to them. Is it Gehazi you want to talk about, or Eli, or Lot's wife? Every one of them had the opportunity to live for God in holiness. They were presented with opportunity the same way we are being presented with opportunity now. It’s a challenge to us. To me, it’s a challenge to my heart. What we do with what we are having or what we are hearing now will determine our doom or our success. May it not lead to doom for us in Jesus' name. But the choice is ours. Those people made their choices. They made their decisions, and it led to what it led to for them. My prayer is that this journey for us will lead us to eternal life in Jesus' name. Today, we are looking still on the "Dynamics of Holiness," but we are looking at lessons from the Shunammite woman. As I was looking at it, I realized from the scriptures that we were not even told what her name was. Everybody just refers to her as the Shunammite woman. What occurred to me is that she's another woman like any other woman. She's another human being created by God like any other person. Another Israelite, another breed of people that were given privilege to walk with God at her own time. Though she was nameless as far as scripture is concerned, heaven pointed attention to her. That's why her story was written. The Bible kept saying all these stories were written for our examples unto us that the end of time has come, so that we can learn from their lives. We are not concerned about them solely or particularly, but we are learning for our own lives through theirs. I pray the Lord will give us understanding as we look into this life that heaven has pointed to in Jesus' name. I would like us to read the story of this woman. Let the Bible speak for itself about this woman. We find her story in 2 Kings 4:8-37. "One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. She said to her husband, 'I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 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. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.' One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. He said to his servant Gehazi, 'Call the Shunammite.' So he called her, and she stood before him. Elisha said to him, 'Tell her, "You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?"' She replied, 'I have a home among my own people.' 'What can be done for her?' Elisha asked. Gehazi said, 'Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.' Then Elisha said, 'Call her.' So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. '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!' But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her. The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. 'My head! My head!' he said to his father. His father told a servant, 'Carry him to his mother.' After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out. She called her husband and said, 'Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.' 'Why go to him today?' he asked. 'It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.' 'It’s all right,' she said. She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, 'Lead on; don't slow down for me unless I tell you.' So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, 'Look! There is the Shunammite! Run to meet her and ask her, "Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?"' 'Everything is all right,' she said. When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, 'Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.' 'Did I ask you for a son, my lord?' she said. 'Didn't I tell you, "Don't raise my hopes"?' Elisha said to Gehazi, 'Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy's face.' But the child's mother said, 'As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.' So he got up and followed her. 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 on the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, 'Call the Shunammite.' And he did. When she came, he said, 'Take your son.' She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out." Praise the Lord. So fascinating a story. It’s a wonderful story. I pray that the Lord will open our eyes to see the great lessons that are embedded there in Jesus' name. Like I said, the Shunammite woman, we were not told what her name was. She's a typical woman like every one of us, human being created by God, born of the spirit as at that time. We can call her a believer in Yahweh. Praise the Lord. And then she was a woman of substance. She was rich. She has the substance, she has the wealth in her hands. She lived at a time where there were a lot of false prophets roaming around. You remember Ahab? Ahab had just passed on and his son had just taken over. Ahab and Jezebel, their tenure was characterized by prophets of Baal who were parading around and moving around in the kingdom. And even the son that took over was not much different from his parents. We can see that in 2 Kings 3:1-3. "Jehoram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless, he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them." Such was the time that this woman lived. She lived at a time when idolatry was the order of the day. Yet she cleaved to God. She embraced God. She followed God. Not only that she followed God, she was able to differentiate a false prophet from an authentic prophet. Elisha was only passing in their frontage. Possibly he did not pray. We didn't know whether he prayed while she was watching. We are not too sure of any physical thing that made her to know that this man is a man of God. But I want to believe that it’s because she's a woman of the presence of God. She was a woman of intimacy with God. Otherwise, there were so many other false prophets, like we have in our time. There are so many eloquent prophets in our time. There are so many eloquent pastors. But the scripture says by their fruit you shall know them. You may not recognize them at sight, at first sight. But because this woman was a woman of the presence of God, she was a woman of communion, she was a woman that had fellowship with God. She could detect, she could say by the leading of the Holy Spirit, that man is a man of God. And to the extent that she opened her home to him. She was a woman of the presence of God. She was able to recognize whom she should befriend and welcome to her home. That was only possible, like I said, because of her intimacy with God. Remember that the Bible says in Proverbs 3:5-6 that we should not lean on our own understanding, but in all our ways we should acknowledge Him. Sometimes when you see someone judging by human understanding, you will enter into a wrong hand. What time is it that we should be more careful than the time we are now? This time that false prophets are around. Somebody said there are no more herbalist homes. Every herbalist has become a prophet. As a child of God, we need to be careful. We need to be very careful like this woman. We need to be careful, and the carefulness is not suspicion. It's not "the way he did, the way he walked, the way he talked." No, it’s not suspicion. In fact, the false prophets were even more eloquent than the called. They have more facts in their hands because they prepared well for their evil deeds. We need to be careful as a time like this. We should be people of the spirit. We should be discerning in our hearts. It takes discernment to live successfully in the time we are in now, either in church or in business, in anything we want to do. People who are duped, they are duped because they were not sensitive. If we are sensitive, there is a way the Holy Spirit will be nudging your spirit and saying, "No, don't go that way. Don't pass that place. This is not the right way." May the Lord please help us to be sensitive in our spirit in Jesus' name. Another lesson we must learn from this woman is she was a notable woman of integrity. This was obvious by her involving her husband in her decision. She was the one that saw the man of God. She was the one that noted that this man is a man of God. And she was a woman of substance, of wealth. She would have just taken the law into her hands and do whatever she wants to do. We are not too sure what her husband was doing. We don't know much about her husband. The scripture did not tell us much about her husband. But she carried her husband along. "I saw that this is a man of God and I think we should do this, we should do that for him." Praise the Lord. She involved her husband and her husband agreed. I see that as a product of trust. Praise the Lord. That's trust. The husband trusted her judgment. Trust is not built in a day. The husband must have been observing her for a time and realized my wife is trustworthy. So when she said, "Sir, I saw this man that passed our frontage like this, I think he’s a man of God, I think we should do for him," the husband didn't question it and supported her to do it. The husband invested in the project, though he didn't have a clear-cut personal relationship with the prophet. We never saw and the Bible never revealed to us whether there is a time that he interacted with the prophet. But he supported the wife because he trusted her. He trusted her wisdom that she knew what she was doing. The Bible says about this virtuous woman in Proverbs chapter 31 that the heart of her husband trusts in her because he knows that she will not do him evil. Praise the Lord. As women, as Christians, are you trustworthy? Can people trust you? Can somebody just do something with you and go to sleep? Can people entrust things in our hands? It’s a challenge. How trustworthy are we? Wives, how trustworthy are you to your husband? Husband, how much of trust can your wife place on you? It’s a very critical matter that we must look into. And the Lord will help us in Jesus' name. She was generous. She was a generous woman. She has the substance and she was generous. And she was not given to vanity. She knew what to do with her substance. She didn't have to do it. She was not compelled to do it. She was not forced to do it. But she chose to do it. So she was a woman generous, even to a stranger, because she didn't have any relationship with Elisha until this point. But yet she was willing to open her house to strangers according to the word of God. The Bible says Abraham attended to strangers and look at where he ended. So it’s a challenge to us. How much of attention do you give to strangers? You may say I don't have as much substance as she has. But what you have, how much of it do you give to others? When we were looking at the characteristics of holiness, one of the points that was raised there is the fact that a holy person gives. He gives out of his substance, he gives. He gives of his time, he gives of his substance. You may not have the physical or material substance, but what about your time? What about your prayer? Every one of us has one thing or another to give. Nobody is empty. God has created us with virtues and substances. Then we are the ones to determine how do you use it. This woman chose to bless even a stranger with substance. And her giving is not because she wanted something back. She was not giving so that Elisha can give her something back or somebody else can give her something back. No. She was giving without expecting. When we go down, you will see why. When Elisha was asking what can we do for this woman, you can see her answer. If it were other people, they would have liked to take advantage of Elisha and say he’s a prominent man. He’s a notable man, so I think I can gain something. The generosity that God blesses is the one that is done selflessly, not because we are expecting back. I pray the Lord will help us in Jesus' name. She believed and accepted the sovereignty of God. Why did I say that? She was a woman of visible challenge. She has a very visible challenge, obvious challenge. When Elisha was asking what can we do to this woman, you realize that Gehazi said in verse 14, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is old." Every man has challenge. There is no man under the sun that doesn't have challenge. But some challenges are more obvious than the other. For a woman who has no child, it’s obvious. Praise the Lord. So her challenge was obvious, and that should have put her on edge. That should have made her to want to take advantage of the prophet of God if it were in our time. In fact, the reason why she would have opened her door for him would have been so that he can pray for her. But that's not her mind. That's not her heart. She just believed that God is sovereign. He can do with her what He pleases. She was not agitating. She was not agitating. And you can even see the fact that her obvious challenge was not so obvious. Why did I say that? If it was obvious, Elisha would have known. He would have seen it at first sight. Immediately he came into the house, it would have been obvious that maybe by the reason of her complaint or by the reason of her countenance. He would have known. But she was a woman who has submitted all to God. Like I said, every man has one challenge or another. How do we handle our challenges? How do we go by it? You could not be able to detect her challenge from her appearance. And despite her challenges, she still gave herself to the service of God. Look at that. That was not a barrier for her service to God because that which she did to Elisha was a service to God, purely. She did it for God. And we saw another couple in Luke chapter 1, verses 5 to 7. The Bible says they were stricken in years, Zechariah and his wife. They were old, and yet they don't have a child. It didn't disturb their service to God. It didn't keep them back from the fullness of service to God. Challenges can be weighty sometimes, especially obvious challenges. Because of traditions and people around us, there could be pressures. For example, a woman who has no child, there will be pressure here and there from the in-laws, even from friends. Questions will be asked. Pressure. But for her, because she trusts in God, she believed in the sovereignty of God. I always say, and I sing it to myself, that except a man knows and understand the sovereignty of God, he will not live a happy life as a Christian. Because there are so many things you see that will make you question the existence of God. There are so many things that will happen that you sometimes will think is God really answering prayers? So if you have not come to understand, to accept, to believe the sovereignty of God, that believer will never live a fulfilled life. It's important for us to note. Praise the Lord. But this woman was a woman who had understood that, and she was living her life. You will not even quickly know that she has obvious challenge. She was not one that will wear her challenge as a cloak on her body. No. The Lord will help us in Jesus' name. She was a contented woman. She was contented with whatever God has given her. Verse 13 shows us that. Elisha said, "Tell her, 'You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?'" What did she reply? She said, "I have a home among my own people." What does that mean? It’s like I'm around my own people. I'm okay. I'm sufficient in God. I'm all right. She wasn't going to take advantage of Elisha. Though he was a prominent man, he was a notable man, if Elisha had actually spoken to the king on her behalf, something would have been done for her. She was contented. Contentment does not mean we are not aspiring. No, contentment does not take aspiration away. But it just means that where God has placed me now, I am all right there. I will be happy there. Our pastor here always said right from long time ago, he said we will increase as God increase us. That's the spirit of contentment. When you just know I can move only when God move me. That's the spirit, and that's the spirit that is in this woman. She was contented. She will not take advantage of another because she wanted to improve herself. She waits on God, or she was waiting on God who alone is able to lift up. I pray the Lord will help us in Jesus' name. She was a woman of faith. Her faith in God made her to be calm even in the face of challenges. When she laid her dead child on the bed, can you imagine how what can be more painful than a woman to watch her child on her lap die in her hand? I think that's quite painful. It's like the dream dead. It’s devastating. But this woman, I wonder what kind of strength she had. Carried her dead child, put him on the man of God's bed. "This is where you began, stay there." And she believed that God that child will come back. That's why she did that. Instead of digging grave, no, she put the child on the bed. She has strong faith in God that the blessings of God make rich and add no sorrow, and I will not have sorrow over this child. She was calm. And remember I said calm. Calmness is not passivity. She was not passive. It’s not that, after all, before I didn't want him. Now that he's here, now that he has gone, he has gone. No, that was not her mind. She was calm because she know the end of this matter is going to be glorious. We might be passing through the valley of shadow of death, but in God we know every battle of life under God always end in victory, obvious and visible victory. This woman had that understanding. She had faith in God. I don't know how much of God's manifestation of power she had seen. But she believed God. So instead of her wailing and running helter-skelter, she put the child on the bed and went to her husband. "Please I need some means of transportation." The husband said, "What for?" She said, "It is well." I wrote something here. What can one do when the promise of God seems to lead to dead end? When it seems that the promise of God is dead in my hand? The promise of God is not coming through? The promise of God looks like it has passed and it may not come again? There are so many reactions to that. Some is doubt, doubting God. Disappointment, grief, despondency, discouragement, and all you can think about in that line when it looks like the promise of God is leading to a dead end and you cannot even understand it. You don't know where it's going, you don't know how it’s going to be. But a man of faith will not panic in the face of challenges because he knows where to focus his attention. When we don't know what to do again, that's the time to face God. When the pains look like it wants to overshadow and overwhelm you and you are not too sure of what to do, that's the time to wait on God. That's the time to run back to God. If it is to cry, cry. If it is to complain like David always do in the book of Psalm, tell Him. If it is to speak to yourself, do it. Our attention must be focused on God. And that's what that woman did. In fact, as she was even going, she didn't tell her husband. She was a woman of few words. She will not express her concern to one who will not be able to help her. She will not sit down and be explaining her situation to someone who cannot help. No. She didn't even because she knows that my husband is not in position to help me in this matter. And honestly speaking, there are situations around us that no human being will be of help at that particular time. Only God. It’s only as we go to God and hold Him. And that's what this woman did. She held onto God. She didn't explain herself to her husband. She just said, "I want to see the man of God." It’s like when I come back you will see. You yourself you will see when I come back. She not because she did not trust her husband, but because she was in an urgent situation that required urgent attention. So she didn't have the time to explain. And her husband didn't question her or query her because like I said in the beginning, he trusted her integrity. He trusted her. He trusted in her integrity and in her wisdom. He said my wife does not do anything rashly. So that trust was there, and he respect her spiritual perception. Women are perceptive at heart. Every man that put aside women, they are losing a lot. I met a young woman who said, "When we first married, my husband will not even listen to me and we have so many loss. In fact, one of them is that he took a loan of millions when money was money and that money scattered." She said, "But now he realized that me too I have wisdom." Praise the Lord. Women have wisdom. They have perception. The Lord will help us in Jesus' name. Another lesson there is she was persistent. She was persistent. We see that in verse 29 and 30. "Elisha said to Gehazi, 'Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.' But the child’s mother said, 'As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.'" Look at that. Until Elisha followed her. She was persistent. One thing that is missing and lacking in our Christian life today is persistence in the place of prayer. Luke chapter 18, verse 1 says men ought always to pray and not to faint. If we do not persist in the place of prayer, we will faint. We will faint. A man that will not persist in the place of prayer will faint. So when issues are in our lives and the enemy seemed to be taking advantage, it’s our persistence that will drive him out, drive him away. We must persist in the place of prayer. Hold onto God. Hold onto God. Hold onto God until something happens. Push. Operation PUSH. Pray Until Something Happens. We will pray and pray and pray and pray. So we must learn to persist in the presence of God. We must learn to look up unto Him. And I pray He will come to us in Jesus' name. So this woman knew that when a promise or blessing comes from the Lord, the preservation is equally in Him. Whichever way you get a thing, that's the same way you will maintain it. It's normal. So she understood that if this dead dream, if this dead child will come alive, it must be from God. That's why she didn't dilly-dally with people around her. She wanted to go to the man of God. She knows that only God had the power to fix the problem. Who can wake a dead person? Is it not only God? It’s only God. Who can resurrect a dead dream? Who can resurrect a dead desire? Who can restore a lost hope? It’s only God. It’s God. So no matter what is going on in our lives and around us, we must learn to persist in the place of prayer before God and see Him do what He normally does best. And I pray we will see the salvation of God over every issues in our lives in Jesus' name. She was not petty. She will not take offense. You remember when he got to Elisha? He would have been like but I didn't ask you to give me a child. She said it but just to prove her point, not because she was petty. She looked at Elisha and said, "Sir, when we were starting this thing I told you don't raise my hope." And she waited on Elisha until he followed her. So she persisted and insisted on having her child back alive. And glory be to God, she have what she want. We too we can have what we want under God according to His will when we hold onto Him. One of the lessons about four weeks ago we learned that to be holy is only by God. Is it not by God? It’s by God. It’s by grace. No man can say, the songwriter said, "My decisions I easily break." He said, "Oh, take me as I am." We may determine and say I will not do it. Except the grace of God attend to it, you will not know when you will do it. And I pray the grace of God will not be taken out of our lives in the name of Jesus Christ. So as far as this woman is concerned, she was just doing what she needed to be done. We need to learn from her life. We need to look intent into her life and know that this has been recurring and recurring in every of our lessons and every of our meetings. If you will make it and become like God and please Him in anything, in anyway, it has to be by a deep communion and fellowship with Him. It has to be by intimacy. A deliberate walk with God. Apostle Peter said in one of his epistles, "This truth that we have seen, we have handled, our eyes have seen it, we have handled." And that can be our testimony if we have an intimate walk with God. How is your walk with God? How do you fare in your relationship with Him? How are you with His word? So many believers these days we even rush out in the morning without looking at the law of liberty, seeking direction for the day. May the Lord show us mercy and help us in Jesus' name. Looking at this woman in the same 2nd Kings chapter 8, something happened to her there. 2nd 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 said, 'Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.' Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored a 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.'" Praise the Lord. Look at a singular step of generosity. Look at what it brought to this woman. Look at what she earned through that. Number one, if she had not stretched forth that hand of generosity to Elisha, she wouldn't have had a child possibly. And when the famine was coming, she would have been cut off with it. And now, the restoration of her land and everything. Not only that, because what that woman came for was just that since I left somebody maybe some other people have been occupying the house. O king, can I have my house back and my land? Maybe that was her intention. But as she came and through what had happened before, she was even able to get the land and the house back and the profit that had ensued through it for the past seven years was restored back to her. She became a testimony. The Shunammite woman became a testimony such that when Gehazi was trying to explain and explain and explain to the king, the moment the woman came is like my job is easy. Look at the woman. I always pray I don't want to share testimony alone. I want to be a testimony. I want to be a woman that people will see and say that is the handiwork of God. I want to be a woman that wherever I stand, even without saying this is what God has done. The Bible says when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream and then they around us, they said the Lord their God has done great things for them. That's a testimony. That's being a testimony. And I pray for every one of us that the Lord will make us His testimony in Jesus' name. We can be testimony of holiness that when they want to do wherever we are, when they want to do their dubious activities, they will say, "No, if she is there, if he is there, it may not succeed. Don't let him know. Don't let her know." Not only that he will not allow you to do it, he will not participate, but he will not even allow it to succeed. That's a testimony to the holiness and righteousness of God. I pray the Lord will help us in Jesus' name. So her generosity brought chains of profound blessings upon her and her family. Holiness of life is never a minus in anyway. It’s a plus in time and eternity. Holiness of life is a plus. You may be mocked, you may receive cold shoulders from people. People may say you are too much. They may persecute you. But I tell you the truth, holiness is never a minus in time. We are not even talking only of heaven. I heard a man of God say it long time ago. He said even when we got to heaven and say we don't need holiness to go to heaven, that all of those abstinence and all those sacrifices and all those denial of self is not necessary. He said he will not have a regret. And I share that opinion with him because there is a life, a peaceful life that the life of holiness gives to us. Is that not true? If a man acquired a thing by lie, do you know he will not have peace? Because he will always be thinking of what other lie to cover it so that the first lie will not show. So holiness as a way of life is profitable. It's profitable in time and even unto eternity. It's profitable. Look at promiscuous boys and girls. When they contract diseases, has it paid them? No. Or somebody who cheated in an exam, even if you are not caught, do you know each time you hold that certificate, something will tell you but you didn't work for it? You will not have peace. So holiness of life gives us peace. It help us to live an honorable life. A life of integrity attracts favor. You can trust him. You can trust her. You can commit it into her hands. But nobody will commit anything serious into the hands of a man who is a man of sin, who cannot be trusted. The Lord will help us in Jesus' name. So the singular act of holiness of this woman brought great benefit to her and her family. She experienced miracles, deliverance from barrenness, restoration of her child unto life. She experienced miracle, firsthand miracle. It's not miracle of "I had headache and then headache went." No, she saw God. The Bible says blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God. They will see God in His actions, in His activities, in His doings. For a little while it may look like if I had done what other people are doing, I would have gone far from here. I would have been where they are now. Stop jumping, start climbing. When you climb accordingly, you have a base to stand on. There is a pedestal that you stand on. So even when storm comes, you are standing on something solid. But a man who jumps, the law of gravity tells us that everything that goes up must come down. So a man jumps, it doesn't matter the height to which he has jumped. He is definitely coming down. And the unfortunate thing is that for some, is that at their old age they come down when they ought to be resting and everything will finish. May we not jump above God's plan for us in Jesus' name. So she experienced miracles from the hands of God. Provision in times of famine. Look at that. Seven years, seven good years, and she didn't lose any. There was no loss. For a man of holiness, there was no loss. And there shall be no loss to us in the name of Jesus. There was no loss. So every accumulation of the rents, land and of the house for the past seven years were given. Look at that. She got what she couldn't have been able to get if she was around. Because if she was to be around, she will be living in the house, she will not have any payment for it. But she collected rent for the land and rent for the house for seven years and the land and the house was eventually restored back to her. That was the benefit holiness give to a life. She became a testimony. And in all of this, the conclusion of this is that it's only God that can do this. Jesus Christ was talking to His disciples. He said if any man desire to follow me, that desire must be there. There must be a desire to say I want to follow this Jesus. And when that desire is there, He take it up from there. He supplies the grace. He supplies the strength. Even when sometimes you get to a point and you are struggling with what should I do now? What should I do? And flesh want to dominate, want to take over, want to prevail. Grace will appear and you will run. So a holy man is an overcomer, the overcomer here in time and even unto eternity. And the Lord will help us in Jesus' name. Let's bow our head to pray. I don't know what you have heard the Lord say to you today. Can you respond to Him? Respond to Him and say, "Lord, help me. Help me to walk with You in holiness. You are showing unto us lives that stood in holiness to You at their time. You are showing us benefits they reaped. We saw how Elisha at his old age was honored. We saw Zechariah even though he was old, heaven recommended him. He received the commendation of heaven. And ones that missed it, we saw how heaven realized their lives. If another epistle will be written, what will heaven write about me? What will heaven write about you?" We need to cry to God and say, "Lord, help me. Help me in this journey. I want to be holy. It is Your instruction to me that 'Be holy as I am holy.' Because You are holy and I'm Your child, I have to be holy. I must be holy. All the strength I need, Lord, all the desire and the determination, because the scripture say You are the one that work in us both to will and to do of Your good pleasure. Release upon us, Lord, so that Lord God Almighty, we will walk the surface of the earth being holy as You are holy. Because these men we are talking about, they lived on earth. They were not living in the sky. They didn't have a separate place to live. They lived among corrupt people, they lived among devilish people, and the devil was still there even at that when they were living. Please help, Lord." Lord, please let Your help be evident in our lives to the glory and honor of Your name. Thank You, Father. Our Father, we are grateful unto You. We thank You, we bless You, we give You glory. We thank You for Your word. The scripture says holiness, integrity, is profitable. Not only for here, but even for the time to come. Lord, as we look at this woman again, as we look into this life, as we look at these things that are written down for our learning, Lord we are pleading, Lord we are asking, let it not be that our life could not learn from history in the name of Jesus. Lord, may that which is written down for our learning, may we gain insight in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord our God, we are asking again. A single act of generosity became a chain. Something that came from somebody that could perceive what God wanted her to do. Lord God Almighty, we beg You. Holiness is not the lack of money; it is the lack of vision. May we hear what You are saying. May we see what You are doing. May we do what You are doing in the name of Jesus Christ. The scripture says when people cannot see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves. King James says they perish. Lord God, we beg You. That woman saw what God was doing. She keyed into it and her story did not remain the same. Lord, everywhere in life we need to key into things that You are doing. Help us to see them. Help us to key in. Help us to connect where we need to connect in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. Thank You, our Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's share the grace together in fellowship. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forever more. Amen. This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission heat. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counsel, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp, First Bridge, Elere Community, Opposite Very Joy Filling Station along Ijetu Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are: 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.