“Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of your life will be many.”
- Proverbs 4:10
During my childhood years, my mother would often remind my siblings and I to shut the door when we were running in and out of the house. My mother is now in heaven, put I can recall her voice calling out, “shut the door…were you born in a barn?”
The Bible tells us of a woman in 2 Kings 4:1 – 7 who was in a crisis situation in her life. Her husband had died, and her two sons were about to be taken away from her because she could not pay her debts. She had no where to go, and no one had came to help her in her crisis except someone that she recognized heard from God, the prophet Elisha. Elisha had asked the woman what was in her house that could be used as a seed for the answer to her crisis. She replied that she had a jar of oil. Elisha instructed the woman to borrow as many vessels as she could from everyone she knew. Furthermore, she and her sons were to go into her house, shut the door and fill all of the jars. Her container of oil flowed to fill all the jars, and then ceased flowing when the last jar was filled. The abundance of oil that God supplied met her need in the paying of her debts.
The prophetic voice in her crisis situation told her to shut the door to her home. We can only speculate as to why the prophet told her to shut the door. But, it is possible that she was to shut the door to distractions and possible intrusions that could have gotten her to abandon the instructions given by the prophet. To hear the voice of God in a crisis situation deliberately purpose in your heart to shut out the world’s noise and confusion.
Prayer—Lord, I purpose in my heart to shut out the outside influences in my life; so that, I can hear your instructions clearly and plainly, In Jesus Name. Amen.
