As If It Mattered to God …

And In Return …

Elisha, of course was quite grateful for all that the Shunemite woman and her husband had done and provided for him. He called his attendant Gehazi to his room on the roof of the house and asked him to call the Shunemite woman to his room. He told Gehazi to tell her that he appreciated all that she had done for him. He asked her what he could do for her in return? He asked if he could put in a good word for her with the King or with the Captain of the Army of Israel. 

She begged off and told him that she was quite well taken care of by her own people. Thus, she did not need him to repay her kindness. However, Elisha really wanted to do something nice for the Shunemite woman and her husband. 

So, Elisha persisted with his inquiry. He again relayed his desire to Gehazi and asked what he could do for her? He wondered what she might need that Gehazi might know about. Something that the Man of God could give to a Faithful Woman of God who had shown him such abundant kindness. Gehazi told Elisha that she does not have a son and her husband is an old man.

Now that statement from Gehazi is laced with bisemous double entendre. And it was not so kind to her husband. Many Preachers have had fun at this ‘old man’s’ expense. 

But not me … 

More about him in a few …

So Elisha told Gehazi to call her back to his room. This time he Prophetically told the Shunemite woman that next year this time she would be holding a son in her arms. A New Born Baby Boy! 

Now she probably had been, like many married couples, trying to conceive for quite some time. Obviously, she and her husband, the ‘old man’ had not been successful. Gehazi’s back handed inuendo aside … They had simply not been, to date, able to conceive a child.

Again, she had likely been trying to produce a child for quite a while and had spent many a day and night in prayer. Wondering why her prayers had gone unanswered? 

She implied that she had been trying to have a child for such a long time, without success, that she had essentially given up. She had, in her heart and mind, written it off. She settled on the idea that “God just does not want us to have a child …” But it was obviously a desire of her heart (Psalms 37:4).

When the Man of God promised her a child in exactly one year from the moment of the conversation, she said “no my lord, please do not get my hopes up.” In modern parlance “don’t play with my emotions, SMOKIE!” 

Disappointed & Dejected

See, she had likely done what many of us do, when we are disappointed by the lack of manifestation of a Deeply Implanted Desire of our heart. Sometimes we will run off and try to fulfill the Desire, in our own way. Some of us receive a Promise from God relative to a particular thing.  And instead of waiting for it to Manifest as God sees fit, in His Time, and by His Hand. We run off and attempt to “land the fish” in any way we can. We just try to reel that sucker in as fast as we can. 

Saying to ourselves and to God “Jehovah Jireh you made the Promise … but I can take it from here!” We do not realize that what God Promises, He will Deliver, even if it comes in His Time and in His Sovereign Way (2 Corinthians 1:20). 

Alternatively, we can just become so frustrated with the waiting process that we can just flat out give up. Then we try to do that Jedi Mind Trick of blocking it out of our heart, mind, and memory. We begin to say things like “Some people just aint supposed to get married … I was never supposed to catch that fish … didn’t nobody want to have a baby anyway … I didn’t really want that stinkin’ job anyhow …” 

How we do go on! But it never works! Not if the Desire of your heart was put there or Implanted there by God!

God Gives … And Then Gives You The Desires of Your Heart

I Believe that God Gives you the Desires of your heart or Implants those Desires in your heart. Then He Alone, in His Time, Manifests those Desires (Psalms 37:4; John 15:1,5,&7; Hebrews 11:1). Anything that we manifest on our own is not at all what God Promised. Nor is it the Manifestation of what He implanted in our hearts (Genesis 22:13-14). 

Our job is to stay the course and remain on Enoch’s Journey with God until we reach “Was Not”. This is also known as the Promised Land. This occurs during the time of God’s Manifestation and Delivery of the Desire of our heart.

So, my friend the Shunemite Woman tried her best to put that Desire for a child out of her heart and mind. She begged the Man of God not to reopen that old wound. But she did not realize that God told Elisha to Promise her that the long latent Desire of her Heart, at that exact Time when God was ready for it, was Destined to be fulfilled.

It Did Not Matter To God

Thus, it did not matter to God that she did not want to think about the disappointment and hurt associated with her and the hubby not being able to conceive after their many attempts to fulfill that Desire on their own. And while I am thinking about the hubby, Gehazi, and the misguided Preachers who make fun of my brother, the ‘old man’, as I said in my book, Enoch’s Journey, “when God was ready … so was the hubby!” It was not his fault! It just was not time yet. God’s Time.

And it did not matter to God that the lady would have rather continue to protect and wall off her hurt and disappointment over not having a child. Rather than actually allowing God, who the “Holy Man of God” Served and Prophetically Spoke through, to tell her that EXACTLY one year from now the Dreams and Desires of her Heart will Manifest and she will hold a son in her arms! Her son, conceived with … ‘The Old Man (Genesis 16:1-3 & 17:17-19).’

I understand her sentiment. But it did not matter to God. God was ready to move. And as for the hubby, he was a member of the “Stay Ready All Stars!” He was Always Ready! And it was Time for the Shunemite woman to have a son!

And so she did …

Exactly one year later …

Just as Elisha Prophetically said …