Behind Closed Doors — Week 2
By Mable Manning, Prison Chaplain and Pastor of the Cross Roads Church of God,
Gastonia, North Carolina

In 2 Kings 4:8-37, the Word of God tells about a Shumanite woman who was a great and noble lady. She and her husband honored Elisha as he often traveled by. They invited him into their home to eat bread.

The Shumanite woman told her husband that she perceived that he was a man of God which passed by regularly. In her concern, she asked her husband, “Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.” And so they did.

As he was resting one day, he asked his servant Gehazi to call this Shumanite woman and ask her what he could do for her since she had done so much for them.

But her answer was, “I dwell among mine own people,” which meant she was cared for.

And Elisha asked, “What then is to be done for her?” God is a good pay master. You never do anything for Him without Him returning the favor.

“Gehazi answered, ‘Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old.’

“And he said, ‘Call her.’ And when he had called her, she stood in the door.

“And he said, ‘About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son.’”

She was somewhat skeptical, but just as the Word was prophesied, the woman conceived and bore a son at that season that Elisha had said. And when the child was grown, he had a sunstroke and his father told the servants to take him to his mother, she would know what to do. She lay him on the prophet’s bed and took off to fetch Elisha to come quickly.

As he saw her coming, he asked his servant to go ahead and ask: “Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? It is well with the child?”

Her reply was only, “It is well” (KJV).

When she got to the man of God, she only said, “Did I ask for a son of my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me’?” (NKJV).

Immediately Elisha sent Gehazi to put his rod on the child, and when he got there, verse 33 says, “He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes” (KJV, emphasis added).

Behind closed doors is where Elisha talked with God. Behind closed doors is where God answered the mother’s heart’s cry. Behind closed doors was where the power to raise the dead was found.

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