The Power Of Borrowing Vessels, Evans Olang

2Kings 4:1-6, “3… go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors-empty vessels; do not gather just a few…”

Naturally man is selfish knowingly or unknowingly, that is the nature of man. We always come for us, it’s always about what we can get, how to get it and how we are going to benefit from it. Look at many of the praise and worship songs today, the lyrics of the majority of the songs have (me, my, I etc).

The text above tells of a woman had two sons but her husband was dead. For some unknown reasons, her husband owed creditors who came to take her sons to be slaves. This was a form of satisfying the debt. She cries to the Elisha and all she can testify was the fact that her husband feared the Lord.

The first question Elisha asked her, “… Tell me what do you have in your house?…” and the woman’s response is amazing, “…Nothing but a little oil in jar“. Sometimes, what you have is all you need to get you started. She was not hiding anything, she was transparent. If we are going to desire blessings from the Lord, we have to be transparent with what we have.

She may have hoped for the man of God to call things from heaven to fill her house with good stuff but that’s not the response she received. She was told to go borrow vessels from everywhere, from all her neighbors and friends, empty vessels and not few as she was advised. How can one borrow vessels when there is only very little in a jar, and the vessels borrowed are not even filled vessels, they are empty borrowed vessels? Being obedient to the word is a channel for blessings, that is what they needed. They went and borrowed vessels until they could not borrow anymore. They then closed the door behind them (sign of going into your closet to seek God) and poured little oil in every vessel. As they did, God filled all the vessels they poured little oil in. God gives increase.

What is my message? For one, the bible calls us jars (vessels) of clay 2Corinthians 4:7. Therefore, prayers is the little jar of oil we have and are, and the empty vessels are the people around us who need our prayers. Friends, neighbors, family members need our prayers. The moment we begin to borrow these vessels, we move from thinking of ourselves and how we can get more blessings from the Lord and we respond to the call of God in borrowing vessels and not thinking of how to benefit from them. In this call we begin we borrow vessels of those who are struggling, have nothing, weak, sick and the like and we pour the little oil of prayers in those vessels and God will fill them. God allows us to go through some things as a reminder that there are people going through the same. Why pray for them? because you have learnt how to approach the throne of grace and you know how prayer works. You are the attorney God has chosen to represent them in the courts, you will fight for them as you know the truth, you know what to do for them to obtain mercy for those you are representing. You put little oil in those empty vessels, God will fill those vessels and what He has done for others, He will do the same for you.

Every jar this widow and her sons poured little oil into, God filled and that became the means by which their needs were met, through borrowed vessels. God also turned Job’s captivity when he prayed for his friends (borrowed his friends as vessels and poured little oil of prayers), Job 42:10.

At times forget what you are going through, forget what you don’t have and remember that there is someone out there who’s condition is worse than yours. Always remember to borrow these kind of vessels and more. Take care of God’s business and He will take care of yours. There is power that flows when one pours little oil in borrowed vessels. Blessing Ev

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