This is a story about Faith and Courage. Syria Besieges Samaria in Famine. A siege is when the enemy surrounds its opponent, cut off water supply, cut off food supply, cut off lines of help, cut off communication, till the nation is brought to its knees to surrender or die.
That is still the plan of the enemy to your soul to disorient and suffocate you to make you feel you are Hopeless, Helpless, Useless, Worthless.
In such a situations and times like this you can make all kinds of unwise decisions.
Sometimes it looks and seems like all your friends have turned their back on you.
Put you in a place of loneliness. Your phone will not ring, No text messages, No WhatsApp
Post something on Facebook and nobody likes it except you. That feeling of loneliness, worthlessness do happen to us sometimes. Life is sometimes like that. The people of Samaria were in their darkest moments. Everything had gone wrong during the farming.
They were in a great depression just as this virus is causing an economic crunch in many nations including the US.
You will notice at many of the darkest moments in history, from the church you will see the brightest light shinning. Sometimes in the darkest moments of history, the brightest light shines which leaves no explanation for it apart from the intervention of God. When we look at history, we often think of what man has done. How often do we realize what God has done.
History is not ours it is God’s. It is His Story.
There was darkness, desolation, depression and farming and all of a sudden we see an intervention that could only be explained by the supernatural in our time.
2 Kings 7:3 NKJV
Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another,
“Why are we sitting here until we die?
Lepers’ were considered outcast back then. They were not allowed in the gates. 4 men who were lepers not by any doing of theirs but what life threw at them.
In life sometimes, things happen to us that we did not sign up for. (It is a fact of Life)
Sometimes, you may think that you have hit a dead end but you will discover that the bend in the road is the end of the road unless you refuse to turn. They had something in common.
We all have something in common. No matter how your life might look like you have all your “I”s dotted and “T”s crossed there is definitely something in your life that reminds you, you are human and need God’s grace.
- They Caught a Revelation and Made a Decision2 Kings 7:3-4 NKJV
3 Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die?
4 If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die.”
The 4 lepers came to themselves and said to each other, why sit here until we die.
If we are going to die at least we have to die doing something and not sitting doing nothing.
The Four leprous men sat and looked at their present situation and prospects and decided if they don’t make a move, they will die.
In fact sitting and doing nothing is a slow form of death.
Many times you’ll never know your miracle or breakthrough until you get up and do something.
If you are going to succeed in any enterprise in life, you have to take a critical look at where you are right now and ask yourself honest questions. Nobody gets to their destination by accident
You have to be Intentional, Calculative, Strategic, Deliberate.
- They Acted on Their Decision
They Made a Move2 Kings 7:5-6 NKJV
5 And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians; and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise no one was there.
6 For the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses—the noise of a great army; so they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us!”
God most of the time will change our situation when we make a move.
- If you have a desire, you have to pursue.
- The proof of desire is pursuit.The 4 lepers determined that if they remain where they were their prospects will neither change nor improve but worsen.
Nothing changes if you keep on holding to what is killing you
If you keep on holding to the old
If you keep holding on to your anger
Why sit in your anger until you die
Why are you letting yesterday’s bitterness rob you of tomorrow’s promises?
Let is go.
Joseph could have been bitter all his life but……
- They Took a Risk
Changed their Position
2 Kings 7:4 NKJV
If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die.”
It is said every entrepreneur is a Risk Taker and being a child of God makes you a risk taker.
What is it about modern day Christianity that we always want to play it safe. Be a risk taker as a child of God and be intentional. God knows how to give you the advantage over your enemies.
God knows how He can cause them to hear strange noise for them to flee.
Proverbs 28:1 New King James Version
The wicked flee when no one pursues,
But the righteous are bold as a lion.
Many organizations, churches, people fail not because they lack talent, power, prayer power, goodwill etc but because they refuse to change. I pray that someone will change their position so that God will change their situation. Many organizations, churches, people fail not because they lack talent, power, prayer power, goodwill etc but because they refuse to change positions or shift.
- They Shared the Good News
The Lord Almighty change your situation for good and for better
2 Kings 7:9 NKJV
Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell the king’s household.”
No matter where we are in life, God can use each one of us t fulfill His purpose.
Nothing to loose, everything to share, they had a world to confront. God sometimes does not make sense. He sometimes will use the unlikeliest, the uncelebrated, the nobodies, the rejected, the weak things around you to teach you life greatest lessons.
The rejected 4 lepers who were kept behind the gate left everything and went back to share and spread the good new – The Gospel. Don’t let us keep the good news of Christ to ourselves.
Go back to where you have been rejected, looked down upon, ostracized and present to good news of Christ.
- Hold on to the Prophetic Word.2 Kings 7:1-2 New King James Version
1 Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs (about 12 pounds) of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’ ”
2 So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?”
In the midst of the siege, the Prophet Elisha stands up and declares a 24hrs turn around.
God still specializes in turn arounds.
The saddest thing you can do is to lose hope. There are no Hopeless Situations but Hopeless People. A close door is not the end of your life. Sometimes it is to protect you from the enemy and from destruction – Noah and the ark. God is a God of open doors and a God of shut doors.
There is a place called tomorrow. Your tomorrow will never be like the yesterday that you have been through. Tomorrow by this time a stranger you meet can alter your life for good.
Don’t loose hope today because tomorrow by this time……………………………. (Fill in the gap)
That prophetic word is still sure for today. When Elisha declared tomorrow by this time
A professor of logistics in the university of unbelief in Samaria doubted the word
He allowed the enemy to use his brains to paint a picture of impossibility. Every battle you face is not a battle for you but a battle for your prophecy.
DO YOU SEE WHAT I AM SAYING ~ Sometimes, words bring revelation. It paints pictures.
In the Hopelessness, In Helplessness, In the Doom, In the Gloom, A light of revelation came upon the 4 leprous men in the form of a question
WHY SIT HERE UNTIL WE DIE?
By Rev David Gyawu