This is an exerpt from a book I've been reading, "Unlimiting God" by Richard Blackaby. It really challenged me to put "more pots" out for God....check it out-
"There's a wonderful story in the life of the prophet Elisha, in 2 Kings 4:1-7, that illustrates this principle. Elisha was approached by a desperate, impoverished widow. Her creditor was coming to take away her two sons and sell them into slavery as compensation, and she was frantic to save her children.
Elisha asked what she possessed. All she had of value was one jar of oil. He instructed her to gather all the containers she could borrow from her neighbors. "Do not gather just a few," he urged her. She was to our her meager amount of oil into those containers, then "set aside the full ones."
If God gave you that message, how many containers would you collect? When would you decide you had gathered enough?
The prophet knew that the only limit to what God would do was how aggressively the woman believed and obeyed. The woman and her sons gathered pots and took them inside their house. At a certain point they decided they'd amassed enough. She began pouring oil from her original container into the borrowed ones. The oil miraculously kept flowing until she had filled the last pot. Seeing this miraculous supply, the widow called out to her son, "Bring me another vessel." But they'd used all the containers they had. "So the oil ceased."
Then Elisha instructed her to sell the oil, pay off her creditors, and live on the rest.
The flow of oil ceased because the widow had no capacity to recievve anything more from God. It wasn't that God couldn't keep the oil coming; the woman simply was incapable of recieveing any more. Had she collected containers more aggressively, she would have recieved more oil and earned moremoney.
As it wa, God responded to the level of her faith. Did the woamn sin in not gathering more pots? No. She recieved according to her faith.
Likewise God invites each of us to prepare for what He intends to do in our lives. Some poeple expect to do great and mighty things, so they organize themselves accordingly. Others have smaller expectations, and as a result they aren't disappointed.
What God wants to do in each of our lives is to expand our trust in Him so we gather an enourmous number of pots-- because we believe God will do a fantastic work."
What a challenge. We recieve according to our faith. I pray that God gives each of us dreams and that we expect God to follow through and do amazing things. May God increase your faith!
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