What’s in Your House? What’s in Your Hand?

The woman responds by saying she has a bottle of oil and that is all she has. He tells her to get the bottle of oil and when she obeys the man of God, her and her family is sustained for the entire time of famine.

Let’s look at the scripture:

The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.” Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.” Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

I know of a Pastor who sat down and figured up what the oil yielded that day and found it to be a thousand-fold return.

A while back, one of our partners and I were talking about this very thing. She shared with me how she once sowed a seed and received a thousand-fold return.

She shared this exciting testimony of a thousand-fold return with her pastor. Her pastor sought the Lord about the validity of a thousand-fold return. She said her pastor asked God about it and God took him to this scripture, as well as to Deuteronomy 1:11, which says, May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times over and bless you as He has promised.

Just this week God brought this truth back to my mind. I needed fresh picked blueberries. Brailee, my granddaughter, loves blueberry jelly. I could not find blueberries last year. I was determined to find them this year. I had looked in several surrounding cities with no luck. I could not find any fresh picked berries, only farms where you pick your own.

The Lord has been talking to me recently about harvest. I am determined to heed His promptings concerning harvest and glean every bit of harvest I can this year. Both in the natural and in the spirit.

Blueberries were the only thing I was having trouble finding. I really didn’t want to pick them myself. The weather here has been incredibly hot. Even at 7am, it is 85 degrees.

One morning I woke up with a thought, “I am going to glean every bit of harvest I can this year.” It was a simple determination that hit me.

With this new determination, I knew if I was to have blueberries this year, I would have find a place and pick them myself.

It wasn’t what I wanted. It wasn’t the way I wanted it. But if I was to have harvest, at least of blueberries, it was the only way.

I jumped out of bed. I drove to the blueberry farm and began to pick blueberries. There wasn’t a plethora of berries on the bushes. It was incredibly hot, and it was taking longer than I hoped. After two hours, sweat was running down my face and my back. I had several kind of bites on my arms. It was not pleasant. But I was determined. I came home with blueberries. I made enough blueberry jelly for the entire year.

We must be determined, if we are to have our harvest. I was determined. The heat, the sweat, the bugs, didn’t stop me. I intended to have my harvest that day and I did. I had hoped to have 14 jars of jelly…in the end, I had 26. God multiplied the fruit of my labor.

As I thought about this later, God said to me, “sometimes it is what is in your house, sometimes it is what is in your hand to do.”

In this time of harvest season, I know one thing. We can’t sit idly by and expect it to just come to us. There are things we are going to have to do. We may have to give/ sow something that is in our house. We may have to trust God to show us a way that will work only for us. We may have to put our hand to some things that we would rather not do. It may take labor. It may take sweat and tears…but if you will do what the Lord says, you will have your harvest.

I am reminded of something a prophet of God spoke to me years ago. He gave me this incredible prophetic word. Then he said, “God says, if you will pay the price, if you will pay the price.” God was saying, “this is yours if you will pay the price, make the sacrifice or obey whatever I tell you to do.”

That has been a truth in my life for over twenty-five years. God has done many amazing things for me and my family. I am so very thankful. That being said, there has often been a cost, a price I paid. There has been a time of sacrifice and obedience that proceeded the harvest each and every time.

Harvest season is here. It is ready and ripe for the picking. Are you willing and ready to do whatever God says to do? If He says give a sacrificial offering, will you obey? If He says go pray for the sick, will you obey? If He says forgive AND forget, will you? If He simply says, trust Him, will you? If He says pray all night long, will you?

It’s time for harvest, are you determined to partake of your harvest? It may take effort. Perhaps it is what is in your house. Perhaps it is what is in your hand to do. Ask God, He will show you.