Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 13, Issue 13: When God Gives You A Word Part III

This is a follow-on article to a prior post. Please read "When God Gives You A Word" and "When God Gives You A Word Part II" then come back to this post. In the first post, we spoke about how you know that God has given you a word, what happens in many cases and what to do. In this post, we are highlighting the third and fourth of five examples from Scripture of when God gave a Word.

3. God's Word for the Shunamite woman (2 Kings 4:8-37)

In this story we see that nothing can hinder the fulfillment of God's word. We are introduced to the Shunamite woman. At the point of her encounter with the man of God, she was a wealthy woman and her husband was an old man. This is the same woman I wrote about in the "Extravagant Restoration" post.

Through prophet Elisha, God promised the Shunamite woman a son. She didn't believe it was possible for her to receive such a blessing. So she brushed it off, telling the man of God not to raise her hopes in vain. But God's word came to pass and she bore a son a year later.

However a few years later, tragedy struck and her son fell ill and died. But God had given her a word. She knew this son wasn't her own production but the doing of the Lord. So she refused to resign her fate and set out in pursuit of the restoration of what God had given her. Elisha prayed and her son was brought back to life.

4. God's Word to Zechariah (Luke 1:5-25)

God gave his word to Zechariah through Angel Gabriel while he was in the sanctuary of the Lord burning incense. God promised to give him and his wife Elizabeth a son who would be great in the eyes of God, dedicated to the service of God from birth. The child's life's purpose would be to prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Lord Jesus.

However, Zechariah doubted the fulfillment of the word since both he and his wife were well advanced in years. Because of his unbelief, he was made mute until the child was born. But his unbelief did not keep God from fulfilling his word at the appointed time.

When Zechariah's week of service in the temple was over, he returned home. Soon afterwards his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and later bore a son whom they named John, and everyone rejoiced with them.

God fulfilled his word to the Shunamite woman and to Zechariah. When God gives us a word, nothing can stand in the way of its fulfillment. Not our doubt or unbelief or age. Not even death. Just like Zechariah and Elizabeth were too old to bear children, the Shunamite woman's husband was an old man. But their old age and barrenness did not keep God from fulfilling his word to them.

God is able to override your disqualification and unbelief to bring to fruition what He has spoken to you. When God gives you a word, hold on to it, travail for it, pursue it, persist in it and keep praying for it. Believe the word of God even when it seems impossible given your lack of prerequisite qualifications.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi