God has just given you an assignment. It’s big and you can’t believe that He chose to use you to implement His plan. The thought of it is overwhelming because it’s you…you have no ministerial licenses or degrees and you aren’t the most astute student of the Word, yet still He chose you. Who do you tell? Who do you trust with the information that God has entrusted you with? Do you share it with anybody at all?
Just as a woman conceives a child naturally, the Holy Spirit impregnates us with God’s plans for humanity. And just as a natural child has to be birthed and nurtured, so does a vision from God. When we learn that we are pregnant with a God-idea, the excitement makes us want to run out and share it with our closest friends and family. The problem with that is that not everyone will share your excitement because either they don’t understand the vision, or sadly, they are envious. So what do you do? Who can you tell?
One of my favorite Bible stories comes from the second book of Kings. It is a story of a certain Shunammite woman who made provision for the prophet Elisha whenever he passed through her town. Because she knew that he was a man of God, she convinced her husband to build and furnish a room for Elisha so that he could lodge with them as often as he needed. Because this woman was so generous to him, Elisha wanted to bless her. She was prominent and didn’t have need of anything except a son to care for her in the event that her husband died because he was of old age. The Shunammite woman didn’t ask Elisha for a son; in fact, when he inquired of her about her needs, she told him that she had none. It was Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, who spoke to Elisha about her need for a son. When Elisha told the woman that she would give birth to a son the next year, she begged him not to lie to her about it. Sounds like she had a little bit of Sara syndrome going on. I’m sure that if I were past my child-bearing years and God gave me a word that I’d conceive, I’d have a hard time processing it as well. The next year, sure enough, the Shunammite woman gave birth to a son. The story goes on to tell us that when the boy grew up and was old enough to work the fields with his father, he was overcome with a headache and the father sent him home to his mother where he later died on her lap. Can you imagine God giving you something so special and then taking it back? Mind you, her son was a gift that she didn’t even ask for! The woman lays her son on his bed and goes to the fields to find her husband and asked him to send for a driver so that she can go to the man of God. When the husband inquired about why she needed to see him, she did not burst into tears and break the news to him that their promise was dead; instead she simply said “It will be well.” As she approached Elisha, Gehazi went out to meet her and when he asked her was her son and husband okay, she said to him “It is well.” But when she made it to Elisha, she fell at the prophet’s feet and cried out reminding him that she never asked for a son and she specifically told him not to lie to her. In all of her pain, she still never confessed that the boy was dead. The story ends with Elisha going back to her home with her and the lad being raised from the dead. Don’t you find it interesting that she never told anyone that her son had died? She didn’t even share the news with her own husband, the boy’s father! I think the woman understood the power of spoken words and that they either give life or produce death (Proverbs 18:22). Maybe she knew that her husband’s faith was weak and that if she told him the truth about their son, his faithless and lifeless words would have been used as weapons by satan to finalize his plan kill the boy. Those thoughts are definitely worth pondering.
Now let’s go back to my initial question: who do you share your God-given idea with? I think from the story of the Shunammite woman God is telling us that it’s okay to not share everything with everybody. In fact, I think He’s warning us to be careful about the words that we speak and to be mindful that giving faithless people access to our dreams can delay or abort them. Anytime that God gives us instruction to do something, it requires faith to carry it out. Speaking words of doubt are in direct opposition of faith and ultimately produce death. There are dreams and visions that God has given to me that I’ve never shared with anyone because I understand that their inability to see it (Hebrews 11:1) could be detrimental to my birthing them out.
When God gives you a vision or a plan, only entrust God-fearing people whom you know are faith-filled and who aren’t jealous. Never share your visions with people who are visionless. People without vision are generally pessimists and will speak out negative words about your dream. Remember the dreamer Joseph? He went out and told his jealous brothers the vision that God gave to him and he ended up in a pit.
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