What Will You Do?

 "Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, bring me another vessel. And he said unto her, there is not another vessel. So the oil ceased." 2Kings 4:6

The miracle of the multiplying of the widow's oil is a wonderful story of what God did through Elijah the prophet. And what God did for the widow woman, He can do for you!

What stood out to me in this story is the fact that nothing goes on or lasts forever. Oil is usually a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Pastor says that the vessels are the local church. In the beginning it is, hand me another vessel, and another vessel was quickly handed to her. There was a time when you thought that this will go on forever. But there came a time when they ran out of empty vessels.

Could it be that we have churches who are running low on empty vessels? Our pool of eligible workers, saved in our ministry, is growing smaller? We have the evidence of multitudes of full vessels to point to of what God used to do. But no more empty vessels to fill up.

No matter what the widow did or how hard she and her sons worked, or how fervently they prayed,  the oil stopped. Elijah had set the boundaries for the miracle. When they crossed the boundary, the miracle stopped. The problem was not with God. If they had found another vessel, the oil would have filled it too.

"...and he said, go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest." 2Kings 4:7

For the widow, there was enough to meet her need and enough to live on. They went on living with not one more miracle to report. We have to continue on doing our job and being the people God wants us to be even if we have no more empty vessels to send out.

"...they... limited the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power:..." Psalm 78:41-42

Maybe it is time once again to ask the Lord of the harvest to give us laborers for our harvest before we run out of workers.

When your oil runs out, what will you do?