Make Room for Your Miracle (8 page)
I got ready and went to the kitchen. Again the table was laid out in a sumptuous feast fit for a king. I said to my hostess, “The Lord visited me last night.”
She said, “I know.” Then she said, “Several days ago my husband came to me after fourteen years of marriage and said he had found another woman and was leaving me. My heart broke, and I went into my closet and cried out to God. I have never cried like that, and I asked God to help me. For the first time in my life, I heard the audible voice of God. He said,
I will send My
prophet to your home, and when he comes treat him as you would
treat Me, and he will have healing for your home.
”
She was expecting me, and that was why she had laid out a feast every morning and given me her master bedroom. She had made room for the Lord to come and touch her and her household with her hospitality. She was preparing a place for her friend Jesus.
I did not come back to that region for nearly fifteen years. But when I did, I found that the Lord had completely healed their home and restored her marriage.
Her prayer in her time of desperate need made room for the miracle she needed and more. The visitation of glory that filled my room that night was a specific answer to her cry, and it left with me a permanent deposit of healing glory that has since brought healing to thousands of others whom I have ministered to around the world.
The Shunammite constrained Elisha to come because there was “something of God” about him. His presence in her home confirmed her discernment. She soon realized, as we will see in a moment, that she wanted that presence to abide there, and she made a place for him.
What a lesson for us as we seek to make room for our miracle! Our confidence must rest in the Hope of our salvation. His Presence must fill the place where we wait for His promise. As we are filled to overflowing with obedience, worship and service, as we desire above all else to make room for this Guest, we constrain Him to come!
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
Psalm 46:10
The Shunammite Speaks . . .
After that first day, Elisha stayed at our house whenever he came to Shunem. I felt without knowing why that this was a holy man of God and made every effort to welcome him. As was the custom he and Gehazi slept on our roof if they came in pleasant weather. When it turned cold or rained we moved a servant from his quarter and gave that sleeping place to our guests. Our hospitality did not leave him wanting.
We still knew little of his business, really. Sometimes he was quiet and sometimes very talkative. He spoke of the nature of the world and the climate of things between Israel and Judah. Other times he recited proverbs or verses from our holy Law. Among the few belongings he carried with him were some scrolls with the ten words and scrolls of songs of David, which he would bring out and read. Sometimes he glowered, and I suspected that the court of Samaria lay behind his disfavor. But regardless of his burden he was always kind and thankful for every act of hospitality we showed. But do not think we were overly familiar. Though he soon seemed a member of our household, we had traditions in our culture and I was careful not to overstep them.
Joktan was sometimes rapt and interested when Elisha feasted with us, and sometimes nodding from a long day overseeing his estate. But I always sat at Elisha’s feet catching every word as if it were the purest gold. I found that each time Elisha came I was being changed. Not since the days of being in my father’s house had I felt so certain of Jehovah’s grace.
I began to think we should make a steady place for them to stay. It would not be unusual, for in the days when the judges ruled our valley, houses hired the Levites and supported them with board and provision since they had no other heritage among the tribes.
I spoke with Joktan one evening about the idea, and he was pleased with it.
So it was settled.
We set laborers to work the very next day. While the construction was underway I visited the carpenter and ordered a fine bed and table with a chair rather than a simple stool. When the chamber was finished and the furniture set in place I had servants bring up our vermilion carpet, the wedding gift that had been hanging as a tapestry since our huppa. It would serve now as a floor covering, my final offering for the servant of the Lord of prayer.
Now you may not think that putting a man of God on the roof is much of an honor. But our roofs were exactly like their position: high. It was the place where families gathered as long as the weather was fine, which was most of the time in Israel. It was the center of most of our living. By establishing Elisha on our roof we were making our house his, putting him and his wants and needs center place.
When he came to us again the first time after the construction of the upper room, he was a man exhausted. He looked as though he had not slept for days. He was lean and drawn, and his step seemed labored as a man who wore his mantle heavily. Things had been difficult in Israel. King Joram’s reign was evil. We suspected that our friend was often in Samaria as tensions between the north and south escalated after the war.
When I led him and his servant to the room I thought for a moment that the gesture, our gift, might move him to tears. Elisha looked at me with such kindness. It was a look of the grace my father used to give me when I knew I had done well.
“Even a carpet!” he said.
With a smile in my heart I said, “I’ll send up water and have you some food prepared.” And with that I excused myself and left the man of God and his servant to the restful quiet of the warm afternoon.
And We Listen . . .
Why did Elisha keep coming back? Because he could rest there. This was not a ministry stop for him; it was literally a refuge. He was not there to preach to her, he was not there to pray for her, he was not there to talk with her friends, he was not there to make everybody in town know that she was something special. That word
resting
—it is like the Holy Spirit settling on Jesus in the gospel of John when He came up from the baptismal waters. So the question becomes: Can we have a heart and a life where the Holy Spirit can come and be at rest? A place for His Spirit to descend and remain?
Mostly we get distracted from this goal by focusing on work, struggling in one way or the other. Sometimes it is from hyper-spirituality; sometimes we just miss it, like Martha. But there is real grace in letting the Lord rest. And that is one of the reasons this couple’s relationship with Elisha evolved—he found a permanent place to rest. There is no way to tell whether or not Shunem was a regular stop for him prior to her running into him and constraining him to come home with her. But from that point, just as Jesus would go to Bethany and stay with Lazarus and his sisters, Elisha would go to Shunem.
But, at the same time, the Shunammite and her husband were not presumptuous regarding their guests’ time and talents. The reason we know this, as we will see later, is that after he has come many times and wants to do something for her, he does not even know that she has no kids running around! We are talking serious rest for him.
Making room for a miracle means building a habitation for the Presence of God, being a reservoir for the glory. People are usually unable to relate to the Holy Spirit because they never allow Him to come and rest. They are always demanding—
give
me, give me, give me
. This is a more childish approach, and the opposite of what He expects. He desires a place to rest.
How do we move from visitation to habitation? How do we cultivate the atmosphere of miracles? How do we keep it around us? The atmosphere determines the Presence of God, the breakthrough and the miracle provision. Here are four ways we have learned.
It Starts with Servanthood
The Shunammite was foremost a servant. She had no agenda. This was an attribute that Elisha would understand because he had learned it himself. It is how he came to have a double portion of the anointing of his mentor, Elijah.
Elisha’s double portion goes back to the beginning when he was first called. First Kings 19:19 tells how the great prophet Elijah came along and called Elisha to the “ministry.” Actually, Elijah never said he was calling the young man to the ministry. Elisha was going about his father’s business, taking care of his father’s fields like a good son, stewarding his own inheritance right there in his hometown on his father’s property. This particular day he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen.
Everybody knew who Elijah was; he was called “the troubler of Israel.” So when Elijah came along and threw his mantle over you it was not exactly going to make you the most popular kid on the block. But that is what Elijah did: He threw his rough mantle over Elisha. The minute it happened, Elisha got excited. He probably said something like, “Oh! I’m the chosen one! Well, thank you, sir, I had a feeling you needed a helper in your ministry. I’m ready to come alongside you; let’s go to the nations. But, hang on, I need to take care of a little business at home—tell Mom and Dad, do a few things. . . .”
Elijah did not even break his stride. He did not go back to get his own mantle; he was on a mission from God. His reply was, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” (verse 20).
At that moment, Elisha got the most prophetic revelation of his life and future ministry: He found out it was not about him. It was not about his priorities. It was not about his necessities. He realized that the anointing is going to cost you.
Elisha died that day of his calling. That is why he could get up every morning and serve a cranky old prophet. We can guarantee that Elijah never said to him, “Son, let’s sit down over breakfast and you tell me what you dreamed last night.” Elijah probably never asked Elisha’s opinion about one single thing. He never said, “Here, let me show you my notes.” No, he probably said, “Do this. Do that.”
When Elijah was getting ready to be taken up, he and Elisha were on what we might call their last great preaching circuit (see 2 Kings 2:1–7). Elijah was going around to all the high places where Israel would gather in the regions, and at each stop the sons of the prophets would run out to Elisha and say, “Don’t you know your master is going to be taken up today?”
And every single time Elisha would put down the luggage and look at the prophets and say, “Yeah, I know he’s being taken, and I know what I’m supposed to do—keep carrying this luggage.”
Elijah told Elisha to join those prophets: “Stay here,” he would say. “Go join up with them. Establish your ministry center here: ‘Elisha and the sons of the prophets.’ Everyone will be coming to you.”
And Elisha would answer him, “No, thank you. I’ve got to pack now. You’re getting ready to go on.” And he continued with him on the journey.
That really speaks to us about the nature of moving and developing in the anointing; you will never reach the destination. Or to put it another way, we should not let the destination be to establish a ministry where we are known for hearing the voice of God. That should not be the goal. The goal should be: I am here for the long haul. I am a servant of the Lord. What does He want me to do now? Reach out to my neighbors? Serve in children’s church? Care for a widow? Paint my house? Often obedience in the mundane things is the bridge to our moment of encounter. Finally Elijah turned to Elisha and said, “Okay, what do you want?”
Elisha said, “I want a double portion of the Spirit that is on you.”
“If you see me taken up, it will be yours,” Elijah said.
Elisha was going to have to stay with him, serving him until Elijah literally was not there anymore, for the double portion to be released.
So if we want to make room for the anointing, we must never grow out of being just a simple servant of the Lord. There is no need to be in a frenzy, to feel compelled that somehow I must wake up hearing the voice of the Lord say something monumental. But maybe I got up this morning and I was thinking of that widow down the street, and how her screen door needs to be fixed, and how she needs somebody to pray that that pain of arthritis in her hands will leave her. That is servanthood that welcomes the Presence.
We are often grateful for the eighteen years that we stood by Brother Derek Prince, a senior apostle of the Lord, and served him. We never made demands on him. We reveled in every opportunity, small or great, to ease his needs, supply his wants—to let him rest and enjoy. For many years we cleaned his house for him. It was an honor for us to serve this man of God who was touching hundreds of thousands for God’s glory. And you know what? In the day that we needed healing for our sons, the Holy Spirit was there. We sometimes wonder to what degree we were loosing the great anointing and blessings of God by serving and honoring the servant of God.
Jesus paid the price, and now we have a privilege of just walking in His footsteps. If it costs an arm here and a reputation there, then say hallelujah! We are just unloading baggage and making more room for the Presence.
Seek His Presence More than His Gifts
We have seen some unusual phenomena in recent years— waves of amazing and potentially confusing things. One of the things that we are observing is the difference between His gifts and His Presence. Which do we seek? His Presence.
Here is the thing. Romans 11:29 says that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” or “without repentance” in the King James Version. That means He does not take them back. These are divine, supernatural, anointing, equipping gifts, and they have His essence and power in them. We welcome all of them. They are for adorning His Bride.
Now the bride’s dress is not the essential thing. Her jewelry is not the essential thing. The essential thing is the bride. The gifts are for her adorning; He gives them and He does not take them back.
But here is a mystery. Because God gives His gifts and does not take them back, a man or a woman can be walking in the flesh and can still use those gifts. This is why we sometimes see prominent ministers in big trouble. When the flesh begins to take over, God will come to us patiently year after year and say, “Let’s work on this. Let’s adjust this. No, let’s not do things that way.” But at a certain point if the flesh insists on having its own way—no matter how “religious” it is—the Holy Spirit can be grieved, and He will just quietly move away. When that happens, a vacuum is created, and you know the rule: Nature abhors a vacuum—the supernatural realm even more so. If the Holy Spirit moves back, another anointing can move in.