THE MIRACLES OF ELISHA

PROCLAMATION

“And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed … He went in … and prayed unto The Lord … And he went up, and lay upon the child … and he stretched himself upon him … and the child opened his eyes.”  2 Kings 4:32-35 (KJV)

EXPLANATION

These words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  The human author is unknown although some Bible scholars attribute this book to the prophet Jeremiah.  A certain woman, one of the wives of the sons of the prophets of Elisha, came to him saying that creditors were going to take her sons as bondmen because her husband was dead.  Elisha asked her what did she have and she said nothing but a pot of oil.  He told her to borrow as many vessels as she could.  Then he said for her to use her pot of oil to fill all of the vessels.  Then he told her to take the oil and sell it, and use the money to pay the creditors, and that was exactly what she did. (2 Kings 4:1-7)  When Elisha passed through the town of Shunem, there was a woman there who would feed him bread.  Because he passed by frequently, the woman and her husband set aside a place in their home for him with a bed, a table, a stool, and a candlestick.  Elisha asked the Shunammite woman what he could do for her.  He was told that she did not have a son.  He said that she would have one, and she did. (2 Kings 4:8-17)  Some time later when the child was grown he died.  She took her dead son to the man of God at mount Carmel.  Elisha told his servant Gehazi to take his staff and lay it upon the face of the child.  He did so and nothing happened.  Then Elisha went to the dead child, prayed to God, then laid upon him and the child opened his eyes. (2 Kings 4:18-37)  Elisha went to Gilgal and was sitting with the sons of the prophets.  Someone was cooking a large pot of food.  They went out and gathered herbs and wild vines and put them into the pot.  As they were eating to food from the pot, they cried out there is death in the pot.  Elisha cast some meal into the pot and said that they could eat it and no harm would come to them.  And they ate.  Later there came a man with twenty loaves of barley and corn.  Elisha told him to give it to the men to eat.  The man said this was not enough for the one hundred men.  Elisha told him again to give it to the men for thus saith The Lord they shall eat.  He set it before the men and they all did eat, according to the word of The Lord. (2 Kings 4:38-44)

APPLICATION

The Lord God is all powerful (Matthew 28:18) and He can share His power with whomever He pleases. (Isaiah 40:29, Acts 1:8, Acts 4:33, and Acts 6:8)  The prophets of old were given the power to perform miracles from The Lord God.  The man of God today could also have the power to perform miracles.  If we had sufficient faith in God, faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, we could also perform miracles. (Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:6)  Our problem is that we have too little faith in God. (Matthew 6:30, 8:26, and 16:8)