The Shunammite Woman: Trusting God's Sovereignty in Life's Challenges.

Like the Shunammite woman who received her child and was living happily, I can just imagine the joy that radiated from her household at the arrival of her son.

There are times when we receive answers to our prayers, but then we encounter challenges. Does that mean the Lord hasn't answered? A day came when the enemy thought the woman had rejoiced enough, and he decided to steal her joy. But he forgot that what the Lord gives, He gives forever.

God’s Word speaks in Matthew 13:25:
"But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds (tares) among the wheat and went away."
The devil came to challenge the miracle God had given to the woman, but the Lord showed up and delivered her son.

2 Kings 4:18-20
18 The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers.
19 He said to his father, "My head! My head!"
His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother."

20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

There are times when we’ve prayed, and the Lord has answered our prayers, but we still face challenges that make us question whether it was truly a miracle after all. We may wonder why the Lord answered our prayers only to allow difficulties to arise. But this is not the plan of the Lord. His Word says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)

It is just like the enemy to want to corrupt the testimonies of God's children. That’s why, when you receive the answers to your prayers, you must not relent. If you do, you give room for the enemy to operate. We are not ignorant of the devil’s devices, and it is in these very ploys that the Lord will show Himself mighty.

Friends, the challenges that have come to question your testimony are not from the Lord, but they can be dealt with by the Lord. God doesn’t give gifts that cause pain. Every good and perfect gift comes from Him (James 1:17).

Are you going through a phase where your health is being questioned, your career seems to be dimming, your family is in turmoil, or your children are behaving in ways that concern you? The Lord is calling you back to your prayer altar to set things right.

A Promise Fulfilled in His Timing.

 As I reflect on the goodness of the Lord, I am amazed at how far He has brought us and how He honors the words He gives for each season. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119:105 (NIV) When the rollercoaster of life comes—whether we face joyful days or challenging ones—let us not forget that our joy is not determined by our circumstances. As God's Word says, "The joy of the Lord is my strength." It is the joy of the Lord that sustains us and brings us peace amidst chaos.

Over the next few days, I will be speaking on 2 Kings 4:8-37.

2 Kings 4:8-17 is about the story of a wealthy Shunammite woman who, in her spirit, perceived that Elisha was a man of God. She spoke to her husband about providing a comfortable place for him to rest whenever he traveled through. When she did this, the prophet was overjoyed. Imagine traveling from one place to another without a place to stay. To the glory of God, the Lord used this woman to provide for Elisha. The Lord knew she had no child and her husband was old, but He allowed the situation to unfold for His glory. He allowed the woman to remain in her circumstance for a while until the appointed time. I can imagine how Elisha must have wondered how he could repay her kindness. He asked his servant Gehazi and was told that the Shunammite woman had no children. This was a moment of remembrance for the woman. She must have given up on having children, based on her response to the prophet. But when God decides to remember a person, He does so without regard to the environment. He moves in His own perfect timing.

2 Kings 4:15-17 (NIV):
"Then Elisha said, 'Call her.' So he called her, and she stood in the doorway.
'About this time next year,' Elisha said, 'you will hold a son in your arms.'
'No, my lord!' she objected. 'Please, man of God,
don’t mislead your servant!'
But the woman became pregnant, and the next year, about that same time, she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her."

The prophecy from Elisha was a statement of conviction. Even when the woman objected, it came to pass.

Many of us have received prophetic messages for this season of our lives, and we eagerly await their manifestation. Like the Shunammite woman, God is granting us the desires of our hearts. Whether we believe it or not, this is a season of restoration. The Lord is calling His sons and daughters to a place of tarrying in prayer, to bring the invisible into the physical realm, when we tarry in prayers, in faith and work, there is a manifestation of what God has promised. Out of us, a nation will emerge—a nation that will proclaim the knowledge of the Lord on the earth.

Do you feel you’ve been misled in the past? Have you trusted but not yet seen the fulfillment of your desires? The Lord is giving you your heart's desire and restoring to you the years you’ve lost. He cannot fail or falter. When He promises something, He is able to perform it, and He will. Just like the Shunammite woman, we will receive the desires of our hearts.

Stay Revived!

The God of all Comfort

The God of All Comfort

As the younger sister, I've always cherished the privilege of running to my elder sister for comfort. We share a bond that makes people mistake us for twins. Whenever I faced heartbreak, failures, rejections, or setbacks, she was my go-to person for comfort. Her presence made me feel secure, even when my mistakes led to those struggles.

This relationship has greatly influenced my life choices and lifestyle. Similarly, God desires to be our Comforter. He wants to be the one we turn to in times of need.

Just like those affected by the recent hurricane, many people are overwhelmed with emotions and need comfort beyond human encouragement. They need comfort that brings hope, peace, and a way out of despair. That's the kind of comfort Jesus offers. The kind of comfort that doesn't leave us lost or wondering how to survive but a comfort that is a total package, a comfort that brings us hope and a future. 

 He knocks at our heart's door and asks us to come to him. 

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." He knows we're struggling, and He invites us to come to Him.

I've often found myself stuck in overwhelming situations, but God says, "I can be your comfort." He wants us to come to Him today, to experience eternal rest and peace.

As 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 reminds us:

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,

4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we receive from God.

Stay Revived!

God Sees the prayer in it all

God Sees the prayer in it all

Have you ever felt like stopping prayers because the answers didn't come as quickly as you had expected? Or maybe do you still pray? 

What made the doubt and resignation set in? 

I know that yesterday we concluded through God's word that he always comes but what if concerning that request you’ve held on to for years he doesn't ever come? 

Would he cease to be God? It is one thing to quote the scripture "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17) but what about the moments where those prayers graduate to Habakkuk 2:1 (paraphrasing), We will stand upon our watch and see what he will say to us? 

What about when the particular answer to our prayer isn’t a manifestation in signs and wonders but rather a ‘what he will say to me’?

As I reflect on my 2024 prayer journey, I had one request on my lips and I prayed it consistently into 2025, I did receive prophecies of answers but then I kept on saying to God "There must be a physical manifestation of the answers", so I kept on with the same prayer point into the present year. On the third day of seeking God in 2025, I thought to myself, "What was the need to continue another waiting on the Lord when the last one I did I received no evidence of the answers", I didn’t just need a prophetic declaration all I needed was a speedy manifestation of what God has spoken to me. 

That was the answer I needed. I know just like me you might have been caught up in that point, in that point where you just want to stop praying and go for the next option and that is if you have any, but the answer that came to me remains to "keep on praying".

If the words of that prayer have become too cliché and heavy on your lips just maybe it can become a worship, praise, or a living sacrifice to God. The error is when you stop believing in God's ability to fulfill your desires. The God who searches our hearts and souls can put meaning to every tear and pain that our life exhumed. 

While following a worship session online my sister kept looking at me, I was silent and she was wondering while I didn’t say any word or prayer; words do fail most times. The moments when words fail us rather than sighing out our hopelessness or resigning our life to fate, why don’t we raise a song declaring God’s faithfulness? 

The Psalmist in Psalm 65:1-3 declares this reality through the MSGV 

1 Silence is praise to You, Zion dwelling God, and also obedience.

2 You hear the prayer in it all. We all arrive at your doorstep sooner or later, loaded with guilt,

3 our sins too much to ask but you get rid of them once and for all.

Other translations of the bible would have given something different but the highlight in verse 2 is God hears the prayer in it all. As long as in those moments we desire that they become requests to God, he hears them all. In each moment whether the requests are met or not we would still exclaim in our hearts that we have seen the goodness of the Lord.

 And yes ‘’God sees the prayer in it all’’.

Stay Revived!