Don't Bury Your Dream

2 Kings 4:18-27

Two women highlighted in this chapter:

• A poor widow in debt, about to sell her children

• A rich woman who provides for the prophet, but lacks a child.

Poverty can be financial, emotional or spiritual - no on escapes need entirely.

The Poor Widow & The Oil - (2 Kings 4:1-7)

The woman's debt was so severe she considered selling her children.

Elisha (prophet) intervenes - Tells her not to do that. Instead, he asks what she has in her house.

"...nothing except a small jar of olive oil." she replied.

"Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars...Then go inside and pour oil into all the jars." He instructed.

When she filled all the jars, he said, "Go sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left."

A prophet illuminates what's already there - foretells or forthtells.

She was praying for something that was already in her house.

• Elisha showed her how to let the oil flow.

What God is going to pour into you, you don't have enough to hold it.

As long as you have a need, He's going to have a supply.

God only stops when there's nothing to fill (according to your capacity).

The manna fell according to the need.

Be open to receive on the level that God wants to flow.

Ephesians 1:18

I pray that you may know what is the exceeding riches of His glory.

God has enough for everything you need.

There is nothing wrong with the supply - may be something wrong with the request.

The poor woman obeyed the word of God immediately.

God flowed till she ran out of jars to fill but He never ran out of oil.

He still had enough oil to make Jesus The Messiah.

Elisha was sent to help these women in need.

• The oxymoron is that there's a broke woman in one text and a rich one in the next.

The Rich Woman & Her Hidden Poverty (2 Kings 4:8-17)

The rich woman is broke in a place we can't see.

She was a giving woman, a woman of abundance.

• No money or marital problems.

She was abundant and giving, yet lacked a child - her own "poverty."

The rich woman is just as poor in her way as the other woman was in her finances.

Poverty doesn't escape anyone.

Stop envying what God gave someone else. You probably can't handle it.

This woman is so "rich broke."

• She's so good at giving what she has and too proud to admit what she doesn't have.

Elisha wanted to bless her.

She had to climb over her status and image to admit her need.

Stopped getting her hopes up and had finally learned to live without it.

Wanting hurts.

• Having to learn how not to want something because it hurts.

• Leaves you in a state where you don't even want to try anymore.

• Hurts to the point where your spirit is broken.

Proverbs 13:12

Hope deferred makes the heart sick.

Her silence is a sign of her settling.

God is getting ready to open doors that you are afraid to believe Him for.

He's about to do something so strong that will challenge your emotional flexibility.

By this time next year, the thing you thought would never happen, will happen.

"And it came to pass."

This time it's going to work.

God is turning it around.

"By this time next year, you won't even recognize me."

Her gift made room for her blessing.

Don't bury your dream.

If you buried it, dig it up.

God is about to revive a dead situation.