Who or what is leading you?

There was a woman known simply as the ‘Shunammite woman’s in 2 kings, who was hospitable to Elisha anytime he passed by Shunem. She made sure he was fed and eventually created a room for him to lodge in her house whenever he was in town. She was living a comfortable life – her husband had a business, many servants, she dwelled amongst her own people and she didn’t have a son. As the story goes, Elisha rewards her with a son, the same son dies and he brings him back to life.

4 chapters later in 2 kings 8, Elisha gives the woman an instruction “Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can; for the Lord has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years. So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines seven years.” II Kings 8:1-2

Now recall that at this point in time, this woman was well to do and there was no sign of a famine yet. Besides, couldn’t the same God that gave her a son and raised him from the dead preserve her and her household in Shunem if a famine did come along? She was in her ‘home country’, among her people. Leaving came with it the risk of losing everything they had worked for all their lives yet, she promptly obeyed the instruction and left.

This reminded me of God’s instruction to Abram. ‘Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.’
Genesis 12:1. Abram was already blessed in the land he was from a physical perspective yet God said leave.

Then we go to Isaac. There was famine in the land ‘Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.’ Genesis 26:2‭-‬3. From experience, Egypt made sense to Isaac when the famine hit because that is where his father Abraham went when there was famine in his days yet, God said stay in the place of famine.

In all three examples, there is one key theme – immediate and complete obedience to God’s instructions regardless what was happening in the physical or seemed logical. Being where God wants you to be per time because your sustainance is in the obedience. God’s provision is available to back His vision not our vision.

The Shunammite woman got back home after the 7 years of famine and God gave her favour before the king such that all her properties including all she would have earned on them in those 7 years, were restored to her (And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now.”II Kings 8:6). Abraham became the father of nations and Isaac sowed in the land during famine and was exceedingly prosperous that he became enviable – in famine. (Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him. Genesis 26:12‭-‬14).

Many times, God’s instructions don’t seem logical or palatable but they are out of His love for us and to bless us. There is a way that seems right to man, but the end is destruction. Could God have kept the woman in her home during the famine and provided for her if he wanted it that way? I believe so. However, as a display of His love for her, He chose to keep her out of the experience whilst He chose to leave Isaac in the experience and demonstrate His love in the famine by making Isaac exceedingly fruitful.

Can we chose to trust God’s love and obey His instructions no matter how illogical they are? Quiet the noise (what people will say, what others are doing, how it makes you feel, what you think you might lose, misalignment with your own plans and thoughts etc.) in your soul and lean in to God’s heart to hear what He’s saying to you in the now and when He directs, please don’t hesitate, simply obey by acting immediately.

Remain connected,
Bolaji Ajayi.