Get your empty jars and Shut the door

In the book of 2 Kings chapter 4:1-7, the bible tells us the story of a widow whose husband was a prophet but died in debt and she had to pay the debt he left behind but she couldn't because she was broke. This was a prophet even recognized and acknowledged by Prophet Elisha yet died in debt. The fact that you are a child of God does not mean you are automatically immune to poverty, sickness and other evils. If you don’t study God’s word to know and enforce your authority in Christ over the works of Satan, he will take advantage of you.
The widow was broke so she told Prophet Elisha and he asked what she had left. She said nothing but a little oil. So he asked her to go out and borrow empty jars as many as she can get. Afterwards she should bring them in,shut the door and start pouring out her oil into all the empty jars and the oil won’t cease until every jar was filled.
First, the solution to the woman’s problem had been granted but nothing miraculous was going to happen until she fulfilled three conditions
i. Go out and borrow empty jars
ii. Bring them in and shut the door
iii. Pour out the oil into the empty jars.
By obeying the prophet’s word and going out to borrow the jars, it was left up to her to determine how much oil she wanted. The jars here represent the areas of our lives. How much of her life she was willing to make available to God for his oil or anointing was entirely up to her.

Why did she have to shut the door? Why was it so important?
Until she shut the door, the oil wasn't going to flow. The only limit of God’s resources and anointing in our lives is the limit of our faith and availability. The bible teaches us that the ways of God are shrouded in mystery. He is the only one that can tell the end of a thing from its beginning, "Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please" but the process between the beginning and the end is what we struggle to understand. His ways are not our ways. Remember, before he made Eve, he put Adam to sleep; He shut the door on Adam as He poured His oil into Eve.

Before God asked Prophet Samuel to go and anoint David as king, God had shut David’s door and shut him in. The bible says, David was a shepherd’s boy spending most of his time with sheep in the bush. At least that’s what everyone thought. But because God had shut his door and shut him in and was pouring His oil into Him, whiles in the bush, David was slaying lions and bears with his bare hands. 
What does it mean to shut the door?
It means to starve the flesh of all fleshly desires and with your soul and spirit, enter into fellowship with the Holy spirit. It is to do what the bible says in Romans 12 that we present our lives as living sacrifice.
The one thing shutting the door does not mean is to become passive. The truth is there are so many people who have become busy for God yet are still very passive. It is a dangerous thing to measure your spiritual maturity by what you do for God or the growth of your ministry rather than by what God is doing in you and through you. To be active means to be in partnership with the Holy spirit. The widow did not have to bother herself with how the oil was going to flow, all she had to do was pour the oil. What most Christians do instead, is to give up and say well God should do whatever he wants to do, whatever pleases Him with their troubles their burdens, their situations, their confusions their lives without bothering to find out what is His will, what he really expects from us. God speaks to us through many ways, through incidents, actions and words but because we lack the wisdom and aren't spiritually sensitive enough to identify, we miss out in partnering with Him. We function more as slaves than as sons and daughters. David after being anointed by Samuel was never asked to kill Goliath. God created the opportunity and David by the spirit in him identified it.
To shut your door means to take everything about you, good bad and ugly, each aspect of your life representing an empty jar because that’s what we are without God, and wait on Him as he works in us, through us and with us to pour His oil into our empty jars. What are your empty jars? your relationship, family, friendship, education, career, finances, marriage, ministry, attitudes, habits, character, heart emotions and mind, future present and past? Don’t give up on them because you are struggling, give them over. Place them at the master’s feet. Shut your door and let His oil flow.

Does God Really Forget Our Sins?

When we sin, it is recorded in heaven and the devil also keeps a copy of the record. This is because the bible says that the enemy is the accuser of the brethren. He comes to court with a list of the wrongs we have done to accuse us and to gain permission from God to access our lives in order to steal kill and destroy all that God has for us.  

When you ask for God’s forgiveness and confess your sins according to his word he forgives us 1 JOHN 1:9 if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. He is faithful and just because he is our eternal judge.   
Acts 10:42 and He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead. He judges all things brought before him and the bible says he declares us holy and blameless before God. The bible teaches us in John 8:36 that whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Our righteousness is of God according to the book of Isaiah in Isaiah 54:17 no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, AND THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OF ME, SAITH THE LORD. We are completely cleansed of all unrighteousness and heaven has no record of our past sins.

When we confess our sins, not only does he show us mercy but he grants us grace. Mercy says: you are guilty but I forgive you, but grace says: you are not responsible for all the wrongs you did. It’s not your fault but sin that was in you. You are not guilty and therefore would not bear the consequences of your sins because Christ already did so when he was nailed to the cross.

But some Christians ask, if that’s the case then why am I constantly reminded of my past and why does it sometimes haunt me so much that I become frustrated and wonder if God has really forgiven me. When I open my mouth to pray, all I do is ask God to forgive me for all those sins over and over again.

You have to believe it; God does forgive and forget your sins. The bible says in PSALM 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Heaven bears no record of it. But the devil doesn’t get this. He doesn’t understand so he goes up before God to present his case before Christ our Judge. He seeks permission to destroy, to kill and to steal from you. Remember the bible says you are now God’s child so nothing can happen to you without God’s permission. But when the enemy presents his case he is denied access and told that you are not guilty. The blood of Jesus has paid the price for your sins.  EPHESIANS 1:7 

This doesn’t deter him, he is furious and seeks to destroy you at all cost, the bible says that the devil roams about like a lion seeking to devour 1 PETER 5:8. So armed with his copy of your past sins, he comes to you and reminds you of all the sins you have committed in the past. Line by line he bombards your mind with sins from your past and taunts you continually. He tells you how God hasn’t forgiven you that is why all these sins keep coming back to you. He tells you that if you haven’t forgotten them how much more God who is greater than you.  His sole purpose is to frustrate you and make you feel inadequate and worthless. He knows that if he can get you to focus on your past failures, you will miss out on your present victories and all what God is doing for you. He tells you no matter how much you try you won’t attain the level of righteousness God’s want you to. If you don’t stand strong in the lord and rebuke his words, trusting completely in the lord Jesus that whom the Son sets free is free indeed, with time you will succumb to his evil whisperings forgetting that you don’t have to do anything to be righteous before God and that he has already made you righteous.

Next time the devil tries to remind you of your past, thank Jesus for how far he has brought you and then remind the devil of his future, the eternal lake of fire.

God bless you.