Dear Christian,
Tell Me, What Do You Have In Your House?
The Prophets Widow
She just buried the body of her husband, but that did not deter the debtors he owed from coming to ask for their money. He was a Prophet.
The mourning clothes she was wearing, the tears and inquisitive questions of her two young sons asking their mother why their father’s body is been buried under the ground and when he was coming back didn’t even touch their hearts to at least give her time to mourn her dead husband before coming to ask that she pay the debt owed.
Before he died, they lived from hand to mouth, barely surviving, which was what necessitated him taking a loan to meet the needs of his family.
One of the debtors who were Hell-bent on getting their money threatened that the next time he came to ask for his money and she didn’t pay him, he would not be as lenient as he has been as she left him no choice but to take her two sons with him, to serve as slaves, to pay the debt their father owed.
He had to recover his money irrespective of the means by which the money is paid.
Losing her husband was the worst nightmare of her life.
If her sons are taken away from her like their father was by the cold hands of death, she will lose it completely.
This particular debtor who made this threat is not one to joke with.
She looked up and down and thought very hard about how to raise money to pay this debt, but nothing comes to mind. She busted into tears because of fear and frustration as she felt so helpless.
he left her and the children no money in the bank neither was there a property or asset to sell to raise the money.
She was left with no choice but to look for a solution outside, though it was against their customs and traditions that a woman mourning should be seen walking on the road with her mourning clothes.
Walking and running, she arrived at the house of the Prophet Elisha.
Immediately she was ushered to see him, she broke down in tears and said;
“My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the LORD. But now his creditor has come, threatening to take my two boys as his slaves.”
“What can I do to help you”? Elisha asked. “ Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Nothing at all, except a small jar of oil”, she replied.
Elisha said to the widow, “Go around and ask all your neighbours 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 did as she was told.
Her sons kept bringing and she kept pouring.
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, he said to her “ Go sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.”
Beloved the widow of the Prophet I’m sure went to the house of Prophet Elisha with two things in mind. Either he gives her the money to pay her debtor or prays for a miracle money with which she will pay.
She did not know that “A small jar of oil” lying carelessly by the corner of her kitchen was the solution for her to pay not only the debtor threatening to take away her sons but also all her debtors and she would have more than enough to live by.
The Fugitive Exodus 4:1-5
He was a fugitive on the run for his life from his adopted father, who was the King and, the most powerful man in the land of Egypt.
Although he was adopted into the first family of Egypt, his knowledge of his root as an Israelite was not far from him, because the woman that nursed him for the first family of Egypt as a baby till he became a man, was his biological mother.
This was made possible thanks to the LORD God, by his elder sister Miriam who stayed back, to watch him when their mother had no choice but to put him in the basket and drop him at the bank of the River Nile when she could not hide him anymore.
It tore her heart but she had no choice.
Either she let him go or incur the wrath of the King upon her household.
He was named Moses by the daughter of the King who heard his cry when she went to the river to have her bath and found him.
She fell in love with the child the moment she set her eyes on him, by the favour of the LORD, and from that day onwards he became her own.
One day, Moses went out to the field as usual for a walk and saw one of the Egyptians maltreating an Israelite he felt a deep anger within him.
Yes, he was dressed as an Egyptian Prince who he is by adoption, but by blood, he was a true Israelite.
Seeing the cruelty being meted on his people, he fought one of the Egyptians. While doing so, one thing led to another he killed and secretly buried the Egyptian.
On another day, he visited the field and saw two Israelites fighting.
Moses tried to separate them, but they turned against him, asking if he wants to kill one of them like he killed and buried the Egyptian when he thought no one was watching.
Hearing this, he ran. But words travel fast and the whispers of his heinous act got to the ears of the King Pharaoh, so he sorts to kill him, but he fled from Egypt.
After so many years of being on the run, he took up a profession as a shepherd.
One day whilst he was in the bush tending to the flock, of his father-in-law, Jethro, he led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai the mount of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush.
Moses stared in amazement because the bush was engulfed in flames, but it didn’t burn up.
“ This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “ Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.
When the LORD saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “ Moses! Moses! ”
“Here I am” Moses replied.
Having caught the undivided attention of Moses through the burning but un-engulfed bush, the LORD God told Moses the Purpose of his birth and commissioned him to immediately set out to the land of Egypt, from whence he was running as a fugitive, to set His children the Israelites, who are under the slavery and captivity of Pharaoh the King of Egypt free.
But Moses protested again and again.
“ What if they won’t believe me or listen to me?
“What if they say the LORD never appeared to you?”
Then the LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied.
“ Throw it down on the ground,” the LORD told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake!
Moses jumped back.
Then the LORD God told him, Reach out and grab it by its tail. “ So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand.
Every shepherd is always moving with a rod or staff, with which they tend and defend their flock.
Moses was not an exception.
To Moses, the shepherd’s staff, or rod in his hand was just an ordinary staff, with which he puts the sheep in line if any of them stray out of the flock and also to ward off and defend the flock in the face of danger.
But the staff could do much more than that and he did not know until it was put to work in the place of his Purpose and calling.
The same ordinary shepherd’s staff, when he came before King Pharaoh turned into a snake and swallowed up all the magician snakes of the Egyptians.
The same shepherd’s staff was what the LORD God instructed Moses to use, to part the Red Sea into two, when he and the Israelites came before it and there was nowhere else to turn, with King Pharaoh and his choice Egyptian chariots and army in hot chase and pursuit, on their heels to take them back to the land of Egypt as slaves.
“And the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” Exodus 14:15-16
Use what is in your hand was God’s instruction to Moses.
Beloved, I welcome you into the New Year 2023. Before we proceed into the New Year properly, I have this nudge and leading in my spirit to ask you ;
“ Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“What is that in your hand?”
We all know that; every “ New Year”, comes with new challenges, puzzles, and problems to solve in different areas of our life.
Someone said, without life challenges and problems, living life on Earth will be boring. Hm…
But whenever we face a problem or challenge in life, we tend to seek help from someone who we think or feel seems to be able to solve our problems and challenges, depending totally on him or her, to help us and meet our needs.
Rarely do we look inward or around us to see what we have, that can solve our problems and challenges.
For example; once there is a financial need in our lives, the first thing most people do is to start calling friends and family to either ask for a loan or seek financial help to meet their needs or they start going from one worship centre to another calling on the clergy there to help them call on God for help.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to seek help from family and friends or loved ones, nor take a loan to finance projects and meet needs, nor am I saying it’s wrong to seek help from God.
But I’m saying that it’s time we do things differently than we used to.
Why?
Because as the saying goes, “ You can not keep doing the same thing all the time and expect a different result.”
What if, instead of begging for help all the time, you put your mind and brain to use in solving that problem you have?
What if, instead of calling on God all the time, you make use of the gifts and purpose He made you with, to offer valuable services, in turn, you are paid for the values you provide, and from there, you solve your problems and challenges.
What if, instead of always going to take that loan whose payment you default and loan sharks start harassing you,
Sending embarrassing messages to your contacts, you use “ the rod in your hand, and the little jar of oil at home, to solve your problems, thereby saving yourself and loved ones the pain, shame and embarrassment of loan sharks?
The same rod that turned into a serpent when Moses encountered God in the burning bush, was the rod that would divide the Red Sea.
The little jar of oil lying carelessly in a corner of the house was what the widow of the prophet used to pay her husband’s debtors, save her children from being taken as slaves, and had enough to live by.
Prophet Elisha could have easily given the prophet’s widow money to pay her husband’s debtor, prayed for her that God should give her miracle money to pay her debt,
or
Prayed that the man threatening her and the children should forget the money or die mysteriously, for daring to threaten the wife of a prophet and her sons but he asked her, “ Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
Today you may not have a shepherd’s staff in your hand like Moses, or a little jar of oil like the widow of the Prophet.
But you have a gift, a Purpose, which when you put it to use in providing value, you can exchange for money to solve your needs.
Being a Christian and believer in God’s miracle is not an excuse for you to sit idle, waiting for God to rain manna from heaven.
I’m not saying he can’t.
I’m saying that you are made in God’s image, after his likeness. Thus you are a mini-god. You are made to be like your father “ the LORD God, ” innovative and creative. Taking dominion in the stock market and showing forth the glory of God in whatsoever your hands find doing in career and business.
You must not have an office space to earn money today.
The phone in your hands can fetch you money.
You can create content with the things you know, and people will pay you money to know the same.
This is the Creator Age.
You can create content about almost everything and anything. All you need to do is decide on a niche, research and consistently share content on it, teach about it by designing it as a course, and sell products related to it before you know it, you are making money from your value-provided services.
God does not print money in heaven.
Money irrespective of its denomination is only used here on earth as a tender for transactions. Because it’s printed here on Earth.
The ONLY thing God does, is to give you money-making ideas.
When you put the ideas to proper use, you make money from them. This is why it is written that; “ He giveth thee power to get wealth.”
The power God gives you is Ideas, Knowledge (information) which when rightly applied Wisdom gives you wealth.
Jesus Christ whom you profess to follow and believe was a Carpenter.
Apostle Paul was a tent maker.
What’s your excuse?
Whether you are a Clergy or laity, go out there and put your brain, mind, and hands to work. It was given to you by God for a reason.
Where I come from in Eastern Nigeria, an adage says “ Dirty hands bring oily mouth.”
Beloved just as Elisha asked the Prophet’s widow, and the LORD God Moses at the place of the burning bush, I’m asking you today,
“ Tell me, what do you have in your house? What do you have in your hands?
Remember, “ The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. “
Deuteronomy 28:12
The LORD God will Bless The Work Of Your Hands, not your idling about begging.
I welcome you into the New Year 2023.
For the Year 2023 to be a HAPPY NEW YEAR, you have to put to use, what you have in your house and in your hands.
God Bless You
