I had a great devotion in my email on Monday that I just have to share with you. I'll set the stage with the full story:
2 Kings 4:1-7
New Living Translation (NLT)
Elisha Helps a Poor Widow
4 One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, "My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves."
2 "What can I do to help you?" Elisha asked. "Tell me, what do you have in the house?"
"Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil," she replied.
3 And Elisha said, "Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4 Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled."
5 So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 6 Soon every container was full to the brim!
"Bring me another jar," she said to one of her sons.
"There aren't any more!" he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.
7 When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, "Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over."
Just for clarification, here is a picture of an olive oil flask similar to what this woman would have had. It is approximately 4 1/2" tall.
Empty Vessels
By Michael Youssef, Ph.D.
When Elisha looked into the widow's situation, he immediately told the woman about three conditions under which her jar of oil could become her miracle. Today we will look at the first condition.
The first condition was this: Get lots of empty jars. "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few" (2 Kings 4:3).
What are the borrowed vessels? The borrowed vessels represent her capacity to receive from God. The more vessels she has, the more she is going to receive. The emptier the jars, the more oil can be poured into them. The moment they ran out of empty vessels, the oil stopped flowing.
God blesses you to the capacity that you make yourself available for Him to bless. If you close off areas to Him, your capacity to receive His blessing is stunted. Open your life to Him and His blessing is able to flow freely into every area of your life.
If you have been filled in your heart with a spirit of bitterness and anger, God's Holy Spirit cannot be poured into you. When you are filled with the spirit of control, God's Spirit cannot fill you. When you are filled with the spirit of greed and covetousness, the Spirit of God cannot be poured into you. When you are filled with the spirit of lust and sexual immorality, God's Spirit cannot be poured into you.
When you fill your vessel with things that are not glorifying to God, you become as spiritually dry as a bone. You must offer God an empty jar, an empty vessel, to receive His spiritual blessings. If you want to experience the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, empty yourself of those things that are not from Him.
Prayer: God, help me to empty myself of anything that is not of You. I want to be an empty vessel that You can freely pour into. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
"Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me'" (Matthew 16:24).
