Open Heaven of Sunday 28th July 2013. DANGER OF SILENCE Memorise: Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33:3 Read: 2 Kings 4:1-7 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. 2 Kings 4:1 And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. 2 Kings 4:2 Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. 2 Kings 4:3 And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. 2 Kings 4:4 So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. 2 Kings 4:5 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. 2 Kings 4:6 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. 2 Kings 4:7 Bible in one year: Deuteronomy 23-25 Message There are several lessons to be learnt from the Shunammite woman of 2 Kings 4:18-26, one of these is that in her time of need, she cried persistently for help until she got it. Another aspect for which she must be commended is that when her son died, she did not immediately set out for the man of God but first exercised are faith by placing the boy on the bed of the man of God. It was when the matter was beyond her faith that she set out to meet the man of God. Today, many Christians are very lazy. They hardly exercise their faith in time of crisis. They are used to calling one person or the other over the most trivial matter. What happens if there is crisis and there is no one you can call? Start trusting in the Lord. God wants you to grow. If only you can exercise your personal faith, no matter how small, it will begin to grow. When the boy failed to wake up on the bed of the man of God, she decided to take the matter to the man of God himself. Sighting her from afar, Elisha sent Gehazi his servant to her but she failed to disclose her problem to him. This raises the question of credibility and integrity. If as a minister of God people cannot share confidential matters with you, it may be that you rate quite low in integrity. If you are loosed tongued and what is shared with you in secret filters out, and probably becomes common knowledge, then you will end up overseeing strangers. Are you trustworthy as a leader? Moreover, when she got to the man of God, she grabbed his feet, resolving not to leave him. The reason many people are still nursing their problem is because they are too quiet. If you keep quiet, God will assume you are enjoying the situation, so He too will be silent on the matter. A widow of one of the sons of the prophets had a serious financial problem that could have led to her untimely death and she kept quiet. It was when she cried out that God arose for her. What situation are you or your family in? cry out today and the Lord will come to your rescue. KEY POINT It is your outcry that tells God you truly need what He thought you needed.