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At the beginning of a new year, many people are believing God for change. Maybe you’re praying for healing, restoration, reconciliation, or breakthrough. Maybe last year you believed God for something that didn’t happen, and now you’re asking Him to move in a real and tangible way.

One of the greatest challenges believers face is staying in faith while waiting on God. When answers don’t come quickly, faith can weaken, leak, or quietly slip away. Scripture shows us that faith must be fed, protected, and persisted in if we are going to see God move.

In this teaching, we look closely at Elisha and the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4, a powerful biblical account that reveals how God responds to determined, persistent faith.

Why Faith Can Weaken While Waiting on God

Faith does not disappear all at once. Often, it fades slowly when we stop feeding it with God’s Word. Scripture tells us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. When we neglect time in God’s presence, our faith can begin to wane even if we once felt strong.

Faith is not passive. The Bible describes faith as precious seed. Seed must be planted, watered, nurtured, and protected. Without care, it will not grow. The same is true for our faith when we are believing God for something significant.

Waiting seasons are not wasted seasons. Often, it is in these moments that God forms us, deepens our understanding of Him, and strengthens our trust in ways we could not learn otherwise.

Elisha and the Shunammite Woman: A Biblical Pattern of Persistent Faith

The story of Elisha and the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4 is not just a miracle story. It is a pattern that shows us how faith behaves under pressure.

The Shunammite woman received a promise she did not even ask for: a son. When that promise later appeared to die, she did not panic publicly, explain herself, or seek comfort from others. Instead, she took decisive action rooted in faith.

Her response teaches us critical lessons about how to contend for God’s promises.

Take the Problem to the Source

When crisis struck, the Shunammite woman went directly to the man of God. She did not explain the situation to her husband. She did not confide in Gehazi. She guarded her words and declared, “It is well,” even though it was not yet well.

This was not denial. It was discernment.

Scripture warns us not to cast precious seed before those who cannot stand in faith with us. Faith must be protected. When God gives you a promise, not everyone is meant to carry that burden with you.

Taking the problem to the Source means going directly into God’s presence, where clarity, instruction, and faith are strengthened.

Refuse to Move Without God’s Presence

One of the most powerful moments in this story is when the Shunammite woman refuses to leave Elisha. She says, “As the Lord lives, I will not leave you.”

This mirrors Moses’ declaration in Exodus 33: “If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.”

God’s presence is not optional. Every miracle, breakthrough, and answer flows from it. Sometimes God allows waiting not to withhold answers, but to draw us closer to Him.

Faith says, I will not move forward unless You go with me.

Why Some Answers Require Us to Pray Again

In this story, Elisha prays more than once. The first prayer brings movement, but not completion. The child grows warm, but life has not yet fully returned.

This is a critical truth many believers struggle with: partial progress is not failure.

Scripture repeatedly shows that some breakthroughs require persistent prayer. Jesus healed the blind man in stages. Elijah prayed multiple times for rain. Elisha prayed again when the first prayer did not produce the final result.

Faith does not stop praying because progress is slow. Faith prays again.

Declaring “It Is Well” Is Faith, Not Denial

The Shunammite woman repeatedly declared, “It is well,” even when the situation contradicted her words. Biblical faith does not deny reality. It declares trust in God above reality.

Faith speaks God’s promise while continuing to seek His presence. It does not pretend the problem does not exist. It believes God is greater than the problem.

Declaring faith aligns our hearts with God’s truth while we wait for the answer to manifest.

Why Time Never Cancels God’s Promise

One of the enemy’s greatest strategies is convincing believers that too much time has passed. But God operates outside of time.

The child in this story had been dead for hours. Yet God restored life. When God answers, He is never late. A miracle that happens is always on time.

God sees the end from the beginning. Delays do not negate promises. Waiting seasons do not mean God has forgotten.

What Persistent Faith Really Looks Like

Persistent faith is not loud, frantic, or performative. It is steady, discerning, and anchored in God’s presence. It knows when to speak and when to be silent. It knows when to wait and when to act.

Faith continues to pray.
Faith stays close to God.
Faith refuses to let go of what God has spoken.

Stay in Faith and Stay Near God

No matter what you are facing, God is trustworthy. If He spoke it, He will fulfill it. If He promised it, He will complete it.

The greatest answer is not always immediate relief. Sometimes the greatest miracle is what God forms in us while we wait.

Stay in faith. Stay persistent. Stay near the Source.

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

Jaime Luce (00:09.548)
Welcome to the Jaime Luce podcast. This is still the first of a brand new year. Maybe today you are battling through those first couple weeks of New Year’s resolutions. I heard a great statement that says, nothing changes if nothing changes. Isn’t that so true? Nothing changes if nothing changes. But in that…

in that vein of thought, if you’re looking for things to change this year, maybe last year there were things you were believing to see and they didn’t come to pass. Maybe they were small things. Maybe they were things that affect just kind of your everyday life in the mundane sort of way. Maybe it has to do with changing your body and your diet and your health, or maybe there are significant big deal things. Maybe there are issues.

in relationships that need to be fixed. Maybe there is a child away from the Lord. Maybe there is addiction. And this year you’re just kind of hanging on saying, know, I just need 2026 to be different than 2025. I just need God to step in and do something miraculous for me. I need real answers to prayer.

for things I have been believing God for. And when you’re in that state of waiting or time, it is real tempting to not want to stay persistent, to stay engaged, to stay fervent in your quest to get an answer from God.

sometimes allow our faith to get, you know.

Jaime Luce (02:12.546)
Our faith can get either bogged down because there’s so many things that are clamoring for our attention. So we aren’t feeding our faith, so to speak, the way we need to. And faith can kind of eke out of us, it could just kind of leak. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had times where I’ve been like just in God’s presence where you need to be to get real faith.

You get in God’s presence, but then you get away from that environment for an hour, maybe a day, you know, maybe it hangs on. You’ve been hanging on all week. You’ve had a great week, but then all of a sudden that faith starts to wane. And if we’re not careful to stay in faith, we can turn loose of answers. We can stop believing God for what we need him.

to do in our life. And today we’re gonna be talking about Elisha and the Shunammite woman will be in second Kings chapter four. And this is real important. I’m gonna give you a lot of word today because it is what we know the word defines itself and the word tells us that it is the, that the word is the bread, right? That we eat.

Jesus is the word and he is our daily bread. We are sustained by him the reading the word is like every day going out and getting manna so that I have what I need for the day and that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God so my faith is sustained by my continual intake of his word knowing who he is knowing what he said knowing what he’s promised and that I hang on to that by

And faith, and we’re going to be talking about this today too. Faith is, well, a good picture of it is faith is seed. It’s precious seed. It’s not just seed. is precious seed, but seed has to be cared for. It has to be planted. It has to be watered. has to be nurtured. You have to keep the weeds out. I mean, you have to tend to it. It takes persistence. It takes real…

Jaime Luce (04:36.962)
persistence and just like any great New Year’s resolution, it’s gonna take persistence on our part to maintain and to continue in a path that’s new because nothing changes if nothing changes. So we need to stay the course as they say and we have to determine that. We have to remove things out of the way. We have to clear things out of the path. We have to make sure anytime when you’re laying seed,

You’ll see first that they have to dig a path for the seed clearing out anything that was there before. You need to make sure that you have a clear place that is designed for that seed and then care for that seed once it’s been planted. So today we’re going to give you some really important steps that we find in this particular telling of Elisha and the Shunammite woman and

I’m going to give you some patterns that we see in this passage and throughout scripture, not just here, but in several places. We see a great miracle take place in this and you may feel like you know where I’m going with this and praise God, but it bears repeating. you know, I don’t want to, I don’t want to say to you that I know what God’s plan is for your life.

that is above my pay grade. He has not spoken that to me, so I’m not attributing to him anything other than what he speaks to you in his word. But we have to be those who contend by faith for what God has spoken. And there have been times when I’ve contended in faith and it didn’t necessarily go the way I thought it was gonna go. And that

If you let it, we’ll discourage you, but it shouldn’t because if we can look with eyes of faith in retrospect to what God has done and what has been said to us, what he’s promised us, he’s not necessarily promising us that things are going to go the way that we have designed it, the plan that we have set out, our strategy.

Jaime Luce (06:57.528)
But during some of these difficult times of calling on God and waiting on him to answer and needing to get something from him, it is in those times that we see things in our lives change, that we see ourselves changed. We see where he was formed in us, where he grew our understanding of him in capacities and ways we never knew possible.

or things that we just never understood about God become manifest in our life. We understand them, we see them as like revelation to us. And it is in those times that we understand it was that constant place of being in need of Him and going after God, wearing out the carpet with our knees and crying out to God. I’ve made this joke before, but…

If you didn’t know me, knowing that I’m a Christian and something scary happens, something that I need immediately for God to intervene, I might yell out, Jesus. And if you don’t know me, you might think I’m swearing. I’m not swearing. I’m not taking his name in vain. I’m actually crying out to God for help. And I’ve done it many times.

It could be on the freeway and there’s a near miss of an accident and I’ll yell out Jesus, but I’m asking him to, as the song says, take the wheel. I mean, help me here, I need some help. And so we cry out to God looking for answers, but it’s not just those moments of crying out that mold us. It’s not just in the moment and getting necessarily a speedy answer.

It’s when we are desperate and you have to go after God. When you have to pursue his presence, those times are the times that drive the roots down of that precious faith. It is those times that make us into stronger, not just Christians for the sake of Christians, but better disciples, better at following him.

Jaime Luce (09:13.474)
being close to Him so that we are close to the miracles. His disciples were close to Him at all times, and they were the ones who saw all the miracles. So don’t be afraid of the place. Why did Jesus have to say over and over again, fear not? Why did God say it before Jesus even appeared and God would say it over and over again in the Old Testament? Fear not. He’d send an angel to say, fear not if you stay close to His presence.

That’s where the miracle answers are. So let’s go to 2 Kings chapter four and we’re gonna begin in verse eight. I’m gonna go ahead and read you, this is a little bit lengthy, but I’m gonna go ahead and read you the whole passage because like I said, this is the bread of life and this is the bread that sustains you. My words.

will do nothing for you. There’s nothing I can say that will bring life to your spirit. It is only the word of God and hit the bread of life that feeds us, that nourishes us, that we can chew on it. I like to think of it as one of two things, either this word to me is like the best filet mignon. I love a good steak. That’s one of my favorite meals, some good potatoes, either a baked potato, mashed potatoes, whatever, but it is the meat.

And if it’s cooked right and it’s seasoned right, it it nourishes and it satisfies and it stays with you and it makes you happy and you think about it. Either that or some really great tacos with chips and salsa. Either way, I’m a pretty happy person. Well, I know that’s a silly thing to contrast this to, but it’s what feeds us, right? And this is what the word does for me. When I read…

these words and my prayers as we read this story today, I call it a story, it’s a true story, this really happened. And when we read this account today, this historical account, that you will not only see yourself in the need of the story, but you will see yourself receiving the answers that you’re looking for from the Father today. So let’s begin.

Jaime Luce (11:36.514)
Verse eight says, now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem where there was a notable woman and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was as often as he passed by he would turn in there to eat some food. And she said to her husband, look now, I know that this is a holy man of God who passes by us regularly. Please.

Let us make a small upper room on the wall and let us put a bed for him there and a table and a chair and a lamp stand so it will be whenever he comes to us he can turn in there. And it happened one day that he came there and he turned into the upper room and lay down there. Then he said to Gehazi his servant, call this Shunammite woman. When he called her, she stood before him and he said to him, say now to her,

Look, you have been concerned for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Do you want me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?” She answered, I dwell among my own people. So he said, what then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, actually, she has no son.

and her husband is old. So he said, call her. When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. Then he said, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son. And she said, no, my Lord, man of God, do not lie to your maid servant. But the woman conceived and bore a son when the appointed time had come of which Elisha had told her.

and the child grew. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers, and he said to his father, my head, my head. So he said to the servant, carry him to his mother. When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon and then died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him and went out.

Jaime Luce (14:01.474)
Then she called to her husband and said, please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and come back. So he said, why are you going to him today? It is neither the new moon or the Sabbath. And she said, it is well. Then she added, she saddled a donkey and said to her husband, to the servant, drive and go forward. Do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.

And so she departed and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. So it was when the man of God saw her afar off that he said to his servant Gehazi, look, the Shunammite woman, please run to her and meet her, say to her, is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, it is well.

Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, let her alone for her soul is in deep distress. And the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. So she said, did I ask a son of my Lord? Did I not say, do not deceive me?

Then he said to Gehazi, get yourself ready. Take my staff in your hand and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet him. And if anyone greets you, do not answer him, but lay my staff on the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So he arose.

and followed her. Now Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. Therefore he went back to meet him and told him saying, the child has not awakened. When Elisha came into the house, there was the child lying dead on his bed. He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. And he went up and lay on the child.

Jaime Luce (16:22.636)
and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands. And he stretched himself out on the child and the flesh of the child became warm. He returned and walked back and forth in the house and again went up and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times and the child

opened his eyes and he called Gehazi and said, call this Shunammite woman. So he called her and when she came into him, he said, pick up your son. So she went in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out. This is a

an enormous and miraculous miracle. And there are many points that I want to bring out in this today. And I hope you have something to write with because I want you to write down these. I’m going to give you about five points. And one of them kind of is a repeat of the other, but you’ll see the importance of why I’m repeating it. But I believe that if you are facing a great

If you need a great miracle today, it’s not that this is a formula, but we’re going to see a pattern of the way God responds to us. What is expected of us and how we are to lay hold by faith of the things that we are believing God for. Let’s start.

In verse, I’m going to skip past the part that she made room. That’s a message all on its own that she made room for the prophet. She made room for the word of God to come and minister in her life. And those are steps we do need to take. But that’s not where I want to concentrate today. I’ll just kind of say that that is akin to the same telling and message we hear in

Jaime Luce (18:49.278)
when Mary is going to give birth to Jesus and there was no room in the inn and there was room made in the stable meaning the miracles will come where there is a place made for it and it doesn’t have to be a beautiful place. It doesn’t have to be an extravagant place. It could be a prayer closet. It could be in your car on your commute to work. It can be, you know, it could be anywhere.

You can cry out to God from anywhere at any time and he has always got his ear ready to listen to the cries of his children. So let’s go to verse 22 through 27. And this is after the child has died and she’s laid him on the prophet’s bed and she has closed the door. And she is

faced with this crisis. It’s no longer God answered my prayer of giving me a son, which he did earlier and we talked about that, but there’s now a situation of after you’ve believed God for something, and I don’t know if you’ve ever said this, I have. When faced with very difficult circumstances, I remember saying something to the effect of

in my cry out to God, God, you gave this to me. Why are you now letting this happen? And that’s kind of loosely the language. You know, she had prayed and asked not for a son, but God saw a need in her life and gave her an answer to a prayer that she had put away a long time ago. There was grief in her heart.

when she said, man of God, don’t lie to me. was, don’t tempt me with that. Don’t go there because that’s a sacred ground and that would hurt too much. I cannot put my hope that I’m ever gonna get that because I want that so badly, it wrecks me. So I’m gonna put that on the shelf and completely ignore it. But Gehazi knew that that was

Jaime Luce (21:12.928)
an absolute need of hers. And so she didn’t ask for this, but God gave it to her. And now she’s saying, why, why give this to me? And the child dies. Like, why would you do that to me? It’s like feeling, tricked. It’s like being bamboozled. you know, I have something, but I don’t get to keep it.

It’s like receiving this great gift and someone saying, I’m so sorry, I forgot to tell you, you only get to keep it for a little while and we’re taking it back. You know, you can’t, it’s like winning the lottery and they say they want to come take the money back. You’re like, I can’t, I spent it. My heart is gone. I’ve used it. I’m poured into it. I can’t give it back to you. And she’s feeling this loss of this child. It’s enormous. It’s enormous what has happened in her life to this point.

And she received what seems like an impossible answer to prayer, even though it wasn’t being prayed out loud. It was in the secret compartments of her heart. that was a miracle in itself. But now the thought of losing this, she is in a desperate, desperate place.

I don’t know what you’re desperately needing God to do today, but he’s in the business of impossible answers. He is in the business of doing what you more than you could ever ask or think. Your brain can’t even come up with this stuff, what God can do. We limit God to the possibilities that we see that can happen naturally.

things that we think we actually can control. And he is so much bigger than this. This is why David would say, magnify the Lord with me. You have to see him bigger. You have to get bigger eyesight, bigger faith. He is bigger. He’s bigger. It’s like the cute little song, the Veggie Tales song, God is bigger than the boogeyman. He’s bigger. He’s so much bigger than what the enemy.

Jaime Luce (23:37.908)
is taunting you with. He’s bigger than the grief that you are bearing.

Maybe something has died for you. Your God is still bigger. He’s still bigger than whatever you have lost, whatever you fear you’re losing. He’s bigger. God is bigger. And I hope today I can put this faith in you, but this is point number one, and we’re gonna read these next few verses from 22 to 27. Here’s point number one.

Take the problem to the source. Take the problem to the source. Now we know the source is God. For her, this miraculous thing happened because of the prophet. Now in the Old Testament, Jesus had not come yet. So God would speak through the prophets. In fact, he said that I do nothing before I share it with my prophets. Okay, so that’s gonna come up later. He always worked through, spoke through.

gave divine guidance through the prophets. And so we at first point take it to the source. Let’s read verses 22 to 27. She’s gone, closed the door. Then she called to her husband and said, please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys that I may go to the man of God and come back. And in fact, she says run to the man of God and come back.

Now what’s interesting is her husband doesn’t pick up on the fact that the child has died. She’s saying, I want to hurry and make a quick trip to the man of God. And just to make you aware, this was not a quick trip. This trip is, I looked this up, you can Google this from where she was in Shunem. She’s the Shunemite woman. She’s in Shunem and she has to go to Mount Carmel. This is,

Jaime Luce (25:39.662)
I forget how many miles it was, but it would take approximately six hours for her to get there. And that’s on a donkey. Okay. So this is a long journey. Um, I want to say it was between two and 300 miles. It’s 200 and something miles, almost 300 miles to get there. And so the child is dead. She has closed the door and she’s saying, I need to go see the man of God.

Listen to her husband’s response.

Jaime Luce (26:13.836)
So he said, why are you going to him today? It is neither the new moon nor the Sabbath. And she said, it is well. This is really important what’s happening here. She doesn’t bother to say our son has died. She doesn’t bother to take time to explain to him. She must not feel that it would be good for him to know what she’s about.

to fully do and why. For whatever reason, she doesn’t trust to say what she’s doing and why she’s going. All she says is, it is well. She is pronouncing a faith statement.

to make a journey that is a long journey with an impossible situation behind her, okay? Verse 24, then she saddled a donkey and said to her servant, drive and go forward, do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you. She’s saying go as fast as we can go. And so she departed and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. And so it was when the man of God saw her afar off that he said to his servant Gehazi, look,

the Shunammite woman, he can see her from afar off. He knows exactly who this woman is. Please run now to meet her. So he understands she is doing her best to get to me as fast as she can. And he can tell, he knows there’s urgency. And he says to his servant, you run to her, get to her as fast as you can, ask her, is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she responds to Gehazi.

the same way she responded to her husband. It is well. It is well. Now look at verse 27. Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet. You can see her jumping off of a donkey and grabbing him by the ankles. But the man of God tried to push her away. I’m sorry, Beghezai tried to push her away and the man of God said, let her alone for her soul is in deep distress.

Jaime Luce (28:30.582)
and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. Now he knows this is a problem. God normally tells me before. know it you will see later when we get there, when we talk about Naaman the leper that the minute Gehazi left his presence, he knew the prophet knew

Already that he was going out in greed to go take something that didn’t belong to him that what he should not have done so Elisha is used to knowing What the problem is and he’s in tuned with what God wants him to do about it and we see here He’s a little confused himself He when he performed the miracle by God, but by his

from the Lord to her that by this time next year you will have a child he knew he was answering and doing something for her by God he had no thought that Something now was going to happen that would take this away from her. He had no Reason to think that something would happen as far as he was concerned he had asked God to do a miracle

God was faithful and God did the miracle and he expected to see that thing through to the end and Good. This is why he’s very concerned. She’s coming. What are the first questions? He asked is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? He knew the husband was old. Is it well with the child? He knew this was personal, but what is it and he says God is hidden in from me

This is where it is so important to watch the patterns of what we see happening in scripture. And this is good lesson for us to learn.

Jaime Luce (30:36.11)
When we are carrying precious seed, when the problem strikes fear in our hearts, do not waste your time. Do not waste your time.

telling the problem, pouring out your precious need to people who are not going to be in faith with you about the answer. This may seem harsh, but she didn’t share this with her husband. She didn’t share it with Gehazi. And Gehazi was the one who was like, actually what she needs is a child. I mean, this guy was in tune to this lady and her life.

Saw how good she was to Elisha and to him because he was always with Elisha as his servant and he was there So he had benefited from her life and was a blessing to her life and she didn’t trust the man Closest to the man of God to tell him this issue She knew I have to get straight to the source I have to go straight to the man of God the one who hears directly from God and has the

the power to stand in faith with me to see an answer and to see something change. I need to go to the source. And I’m just encouraging you today. The Bible says not to cast our pearl before swine. Why? Have you ever, have you ever, this has happened to me many times, this has happened to my husband many times and we’ve talked about this, where God,

gives you something and he just lifts your faith like you’ve been reading in the word and you’re facing a situation and you need God to answer and he gives you a promise in his word and your faith is just welled up full in your spirit and you want to share. Look what God said. Look what he’s going to do and you share it with somebody who’s a Christian, a Christian, a person of faith like her husband was at least from what we can tell.

Jaime Luce (32:51.506)
person of enough faith to go ahead and let her build a place a room for the man of God and Gehazi Seemed to be he was the servant of the man of God seemed to be a person of faith and and so we would say I’ve shared it with a Christian and they just look at you like Yeah, okay Well, I hope God does that for you like they have they not only don’t have faith with you But it’s like throwing water on your fire

God is lit a fire in you, you’re full of faith and somebody is throwing water on it and trying to diminish your faith. Or instead of coming in faith with you and believing with you, all they can do is tell you about, yeah, well, my problem, I need God to answer my problem. they’re concerned about their own issue and they don’t have faith for their own issue, but that’s all they’re willing to discuss with you.

It’s literally the picture that scripture depicts that you are casting your precious pearls before swine and they’re just stomping all over your pearls. Just muddying up the waters that you have, the pure water that is refreshing you that God gave you. And they’re just muddying it up with their dirty feet. This is so important. Protect that seed. And here, not only did she know that this is what she had to do because she was determined.

We’re not stopping. I’m not telling anybody. In fact, my faith declaration is it is well. So she’s she’s on a run and she is going to the man of God. She’s going to, she goes straight to the source. And when she gets there, she wraps up his feet like you’re not going anywhere. And I have got a major issue. This is where we go straight to the father. We go in prayer. We go and get

in God’s presence. Get in God’s presence. This is point one leads right into point two. So if you’re taking notes, point two, refused to move, refused to act until you have been in God’s presence. You need God’s presence. Let’s look at verses 28 through 30. So she said,

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Did I ask a son of my Lord? Did I not say, do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, get yourself ready and take my staff in your hand and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet him. And if anyone greets you, do not answer him, but lay my staff on the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So he arose and followed her.

There’s a couple things right here. The man of God knew that with the same urgency, this is why you go to the source, because God knows what you’re dealing with. He knows what you’re feeling. He knows how he wants to answer those prayers and the cries of your heart with the same fervency that you are desiring. When he gives it to you, he has that same fervency and desire to

give it to you, to bless you, to care for you. He loves you more than you have a capacity to understand and love somebody else. It goes beyond what you could even try to comprehend. He loves you. And he saw, the man of God saw how the effort that she made to get to him.

And the speed with which she was coming to him and she was coming directly to him. She wrapped up his feet and she would not talk to Gehazi. She was going to talk to him first. I mean, this is interesting because this is so accelerated because when when the prophet says, what can I do for her? And she basically says, I don’t need anything. I live amongst my people. I’m content. I’ve got what I need. Doesn’t need anything from him.

And Gehazi says she needs a son. Actually what she needs is a son. It was very intuitive of him. was very, he had great foresight in that. And it was also something very tender to her heart. And yet in that process, when Elisha says to Gehazi to tell her about this time next year, you’re going to embrace a son. He’s actually saying it.

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Therugh Gehazi.

Now when she goes to meet him, she’s not gonna accept through Gehazi. She’s saying, no, no, no, I’m going straight to the source. This is too important. I can’t bother with what anybody else has to say about this. I need to know what thus saith the Lord is on the matter. I need to hear from God. need, where do you hear from God? In his presence.

If I say, I’m gonna go with you, you have my presence. I’m there, I’m with you. We get in God’s presence. This is where, if you need to get to the house of God, get to the house of God. If you’re not going faithfully to church, get to church, get in his presence, get around where there are people are worshiping, corporately coming together to worship God and people who really do.

Find a church where they really go after God. They worship Him. They want to know Him. They care about what He says in His Word and they want to live according to what He says in that Word. Find, get in His presence. Though you don’t have to do it only in a church, this is the beauty I can get in God’s presence anywhere.

And she went on a journey to get in his presence. And sometimes you’ve got to go on a journey to get in God’s presence so you could hear what he has to say about it. And she says, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So he arose and went with her. This is the same tenacity we have to have when we approach the presence of God. I am not leaving here.

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Until I have met with you and spoken to you and heard from you and have you with me that I know you are going with me on this journey Because I need an answer we see the same pattern in Exodus 33 15 with Moses Moses did the exact same thing In fact, let me turn their Exodus 33

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and 15, Exodus 33, 15. And this is after Moses was given the 10 commandments. He comes down the mountain and he sees the people. There’s a golden calf and they’re worshiping the golden calf and they’re having an orgy and craziness. It’s craziness. The noise and the loudness with which they were doing this was even where God said, listen to your people, listen to what’s going on down there. And so he goes down there, he breaks the tablets.

and there’s a you know, God has to Moses deals sharply with them and God has to talk to him about it But then it culminates and he says don’t worry Moses I’m still gonna take you to the promised land You’re still gonna get to the promised land. The people are still gonna get to the promised land, but I’m not gonna go with you Don’t worry though. I’m gonna send an angel to go before you Okay God says it’s not me. It’s not my presence going with you. I’m gonna send an angel

to go with you. Exodus 33 15.

Then he said to him, this is Moses speaking in response to what God has just said. If your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.

Do not bring us up from here. This is exactly what we see her saying. As I live, as your soul lives, I am not leaving here. I am not leaving this spot till you’re going with me. And that is the kind of tenacious faith we have to go after God’s presence when we are dealing with a crisis, when we need an answer to prayer.

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The answers and the miracles that you are seeking are outflows of the presence of God. You will find what you need in the presence of God. It is where the answer comes from, where that flowing comes from. Moses knew God’s presence was the real miracle. And of all other miracles that they would need, they will flow from that.

God’s presence going before us being with us. So when God originally said I won’t go with you, but I’ll send an angel Moses says absolutely not Absolutely not. I cannot agree to those terms if you don’t go we don’t go it’s that simple and Elisha and the Shunammite woman the same pattern is happening Now he does tell his servant. This is interesting because we’re getting ready to go into

Point number three, which is don’t stop praying, okay? Don’t stop praying. In fact, this is where persistence, if I could have titled today anything, it would be persistent faith, determined faith. You have to have determined faith. And there is a point where this is where we pray and we keep praying, okay? And this is what Elisha is doing with the Shunammite woman. First he tells his servant,

Go with my staff, don’t stop. And he tells her, follow the same rules that this woman just employed. Don’t talk to anybody. If they greet you, don’t answer. Don’t you greet anybody and don’t answer anybody who’s greeting you. You go straight from my presence to the issue, okay? Go straight from my presence to the issue, lay my staff on that child. Now, Elisha was fully expecting.

that by laying his staff on that child’s head, that that child was going to raise up from that deathbed. And when Gehazi goes and does it and comes back and reports, nothing happened, Elisha. He’s still dead. Nothing happened. Elisha is faced with the same critical urgency that this mother has.

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He’s feeling what she’s feeling.

He understands the depth of this problem. He understood it enough to send his servant. He understands it enough that his presence has to go with her. And he understands, okay, and the first time that we prayed, so to speak, the answer didn’t come. He laid his staff on him and it didn’t answer. There was no answer, no life yet. So what does he do? Let’s read.

Verses 31 to 35. Now Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. Therefore he went back to meet him and told him saying, the child has not awakened. When Elisha came into the house, there was the child lying dead on his bed. And he went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Interesting, because when Jesus brought back to life,

the little girl in the New Testament, he had to close the door behind him and not let anybody in who didn’t have faith. He only took in Peter and James with him. Peter and James? Peter and John? Peter and John with him? Anyway, he took in two disciples who had faith that day and he closed the door and he did not allow the parents in, he didn’t allow the mourners in. You can see the same pattern. People who won’t have faith, you don’t even deal with those.

You don’t tell them what you’re gonna do. You don’t tell them what’s going on. But the source comes in and the source says only faith in this room. And so he’s praying. He goes into this room, closes the door and prays to the Lord. Now look what happens. And when he went up and lay on the child and put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands and he stretched himself out.

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on the child. Okay, he is literally, this is a beautiful picture of literally covering this with prayer. He has focused on this, eyes on eyes, mouth on mouth, hands on hands. He is covering this with fervent prayer. I mean, he is crying out to God for an answer to this. Every miracle up to this point,

Elisha has simply just said the thing, gave the instruction, told him what to do, whatever it was, and it happened. And the miracle of this child even coming about, it happened just that way. This is a tough miracle. This is a tough one. He put the staff on the face of the child, it did nothing. He prays for this child the second time, refusing any voice but the voice of faith.

and he sees movement, he sees change, but there’s no fullness yet. It’s, okay, here would be an example. Like let’s say you’re praying for a child who is away from God or they just don’t believe in God, never have, and you’re praying for them. And all of a sudden you’ve prayed and prayed and prayed and you see them, you know, instead of saying, I don’t want to hear that and walk out the door, they’ll let you tell them about the Lord or

their attitude just was softer and they just weren’t so short and ugly about it. Or they’re willing to go with you. You find a church, fine, I’ll go with you. You see movement, but you haven’t seen the miracle yet. This is what is happening. On the second time, meaning he went in to pray after he’d laid the staff on the first time, he’s gone in and closed the door, he’s praying.

And what does it say happen after he stretched himself on the child? It says the flesh of the child became warm. So he has warmed, but the answer is not manifest yet. So what are we supposed to be doing? We keep praying. You pray again. You have persistence, determined persistence. It’s a stay engaged.

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Okay, so we see that Elijah had to stay persistent. He had to continue to pray. If he was going to see rain, he knew he could not stop until the answer came. That’s the pattern we need to follow. And this is point number four. And even though we’re talking about Elijah, you see this already had happened with the Shunammite woman, but we’re seeing this again, even in the prophetic, even with the prophet.

And this is the point four, he declared faith before prayer. He had told just as the Shunammite had said, it is well, it is well. She is declaring by faith it’s going to be, that it’s already well. She’s saying it’s well, even though it’s not well yet, but by faith she’s saying it’s well. Okay, look, this is exactly what Elijah just did.

He says, tell Ahab it’s gonna rain. You better hurry up and go up and eat, because it’s gonna rain. But then he goes and has to pray for it to rain. So we declare, and listen, this is really important because people will think that it just means that we are denying the problem. I hear this all the time. When someone declares something in faith,

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You will hear other Christians say they’re just, and especially non-Christians, but you’ll hear other Christians say they’re just denying it. And denying would have meant that there was no attempt to go get in the presence of God and pray for the answer. There would have been no action. When you deny something’s happening, you take no action to deal with it. That’s denial. But faith says, yeah, the child is up in the bed.

dead with the door closed, but it’s well. It is well. And for Elijah, it was, I know there’s a drought, but I hear the sound of the abundance of rain. I hear rain. And then he goes into the prayer closet to pray for rain. What do we need to do? We need to go get in God’s presence, get the word from the Lord.

Right? What is the word say? What does the promise of God say? When we have that promise, we have God’s word on the matter and we pray it through until we get an answer. That’s a term that the old saints would always use, pray it through. What do they mean? You pray until the assurance in your spirit comes that that God’s presence is now going with you and that thing is being done. That thing is being done.

that you’ve been praying for.

Elijah got the assurance of Elisha, look at what the Shunammite did. Her assurance was, get in your presence, I’ve got you by the ankles and you’re coming with me. She had her assurance. She had proclaimed it was well and now he’s coming with me. There’s gonna be an answer to this problem.

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So Elisha and the Shunammite woman show us this pattern of staying persistent. You have your word of promise, which for her, the word of promise was, you’re going to have a child. So for him to die does not line up with the promise. She knows, go to the man of God. What has God spoken in your spirit?

What has God spoken in your spirit? What? And now hear me out in case you’re new to faith and new to the word, we don’t just get an idea. God speaks something to us from his word. His word cannot fail. His word is his will. His word spoken in our spirit is his answer. We lay hold of that.

and we stay firm and so many times it is time. It is time that messes us up. We think because we live in time. Look at what this poor woman dealt with. The estimate is that this child was dead for at least 12 to 24 hours because it took at least six hours to get there and six hours to get back.

And that’s if there’s no little times in between. So at the very least, this child has been dead 12 hours. It is very possible that depending on what time, cause he didn’t die till noon, depending on night and if, you know, whatever was happening, I don’t know for sure. It could be up to 24 hours. So that’s, you know, it’s somewhere in that vicinity. When something has been dead for any length of time, or when you have waited on a promise for any length of time,

The temptation is to think it’s too late. It’s too late. Too much time has passed. But can you see how her faith said time doesn’t matter? It matters in the sense that I am urgent, that I stay urgent, but she is serving the God who is outside of time.

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She goes to the prophet because she’s looking for a miracle, something that is supernatural, outside of the natural means of what can happen. Outside of natural. It’s supernatural. And when we are believing God for miracles, we’re saying, help me not to fear during this time. Help me to stay engaged, to stay in faith.

no matter how long it takes because you work outside of time. You are not, you see our end from our beginning. You know what you have spoken over us and how that plays out in our life. And so because of this, we have the ability to know that you are going to answer and it doesn’t matter if it feels like we’re out of time. With you, we are in time. It may feel like he comes at the very last possible moment, but he’s always on time.

He’s always on time. He’s never late. A miracle means the miracle happened. It took place. It’s not out of time. It’s in time. He takes what is supernatural outside of time and works it in time. So he will be on time. Did you get that? Outside of time, in time, on time. Okay. So he declares faith. You have to declare faith too. And in that declaration of faith and in that…

prayer and in that waiting time in that not giving up pray and pray again. We that you have to understand the power of faith. This is why the enemy wants you to turn loose of it. This is why he wants you to think that too much time has gone by because faith is precious seed. Psalm 126 says he who goes out weeping. He who goes out

Weeping bearing precious seed shall come rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. I like the way the King James says it because it says he will doubtless come again with rejoicing that he may have gone out with weeping, but it, is no doubt that he will come back again.

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rejoicing and he will have the sheaves with him. He will have the evidence and the proof of the precious seed that he carried. Hebrews 11 tells us that faith is the hope for things that are unseen and that without faith it is impossible to please God. The Berean literal Bible says it like this, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. I am sure, that word assurance is a very powerful word.

Because God loves to be trusted. That’s faith. What father wants his child to not believe whatever he tells him. And if he says, am providing something for you, I am doing something for you, that father desperately wants that child to just trust him. Just trust me. If I say I’m taking care of it, trust me, I will do that. That’s what a good father does. We are to trust God. That’s what

faith is I trust you that you are working on my behalf. No matter what my eyes see, no matter what my ears hear, I trust you God. You are working all things together for my good.

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Faith says I am sure I have assurance in my heavenly father Philippians 419 says my god shall supply all of my needs But it also says in james 5 16 that the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much you can see the hand in hand of scripture always there is

Have faith, have faith, have faith. And at the same time, what is faith? You pray and you pray again. Fervency. Matthew 7, 7, 8 says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, it will be open.

Those words, ask, seek, and knock, are in the present continual tense. That means you do them and you keep doing them. You do them and you keep doing them. You’ve asked, ask again. You’ve prayed, pray again. You’ve knocked, knock again. Keep knocking. It’s do it, do it again, and keep doing it until the answer comes.

What would have happened, here’s another pattern we see in scripture, what would have happened to the man in Mark 8, 22 through 26? But in fact, let’s go there, Mark 8, Mark 8, 22.

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through 26.

This is when Jesus heals the blind man. Now listen to this. Then he came to Bethsaida and they brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. So he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands on him, he asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, I see men like trees walking. But he put his hands on his eyes again.

and made him look up and he was restored and saw everyone clearly. Then he sent him away to his house saying, neither go into town nor tell anyone in the town. You will see the exact same pattern here. Jesus took him out of the town because he knew those people in town don’t really have faith. They brought him begging him, but they actually, they didn’t have faith. And he had to remove him from the situation to take him.

Go and take him and close the door behind him and even the man’s faith was struggling But look what Jesus did if Jesus had to pray more than once Elijah had to pray more than once Elisha had to pray more than once Jesus acted More than once to perform this miracle He puts his hands gets some mud puts it on his eyes or is this no he spat on him. Sorry. He spat on the man’s eyes

And he doesn’t see clearly. He can see it’s like the boy’s body got warm, but where’s the answer? What happened with Elijah when he goes in the second time? He returned, walked back and forth in the house and again went up and stretched himself on him. Then the child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes. And then for this man with Jesus, he, let me find the scripture.

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Then he put his hands on his eyes again and he made him look up and he was restored and saw everyone clearly. And look at this instruction, neither go into the town nor tell anyone in the town. Doesn’t that sound like what we just read? Don’t tell anybody. Don’t stop, say hi to anybody. This is be careful with your precious gift, what God gives you. Don’t.

There is a story, I’ll try to relay this to you quickly. I once heard, because it’s so precious and because you don’t want it to tell it to those who don’t believe with you, there was a woman minister who had gotten prez cancer and the cancer was so bad, had progressed so bad that it was manifesting on the outside of her body and her body was festering on the outside. And every morning after getting out of bed,

If she was able to sleep at all, she’d have to get up, clean her mattress, all the linens, her clothes, and soak them to get all the blood out. She just bled. Outside of her body was just bleeding from this cancer. And she went and she, because the cancer was so bad, she told no one except for her husband knew, because he lived in the house with her, but to get people to agree with her, to get people to pray with her,

She told only her inner circle. think she said there’s four or five of them who these were her trusted prayer warriors. It’s like Jesus taking his two disciples in the room with him. And she said, I knew these were the only ones, but they would have faith with me and they wouldn’t stop praying until we got the answer. And so she had her prayer team praying for her and every day she’d believe God and she’d say cancer, you’re lying to me. You’re lying to me.

until one morning she got up with blood all over the sheets and goes and stands in the bathroom mirror while the blood is dripping in the sink. And she watched with her own eyes as the tumor itself literally fell out of her body into the sink. And it was completely whole, fresh skin, completely whole, totally healed, miraculous. I mean, she should have died. The woman should have died.

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Then she took this same faith, what she got this faith, and she had faith for her brother who had terminal inoperable cancer of the throat. And he was miraculously made whole as well. I mean, she believed when it looked like he was dying, he was emaciated from not being able to eat or drink. And the man was completely dying. She kept telling him, you’re getting well, you’re getting well. And one day all of a sudden he wakes up and he says, I’m hungry. He was completely made whole.

Faith doesn’t stop. is determined. You must have determined faith. Don’t share your precious seed with anyone who is going to not have faith with you. Take it to the source. Take it to the source. And even if you’ve prayed, pray again. Just continue to pray and pray again. I don’t know what God has for your life.

I don’t know what miracles he’s going to do. Or maybe something, maybe you’re dealing with pains of something you’ve gone through, something that you can’t change and that there is no change that could take place. These are things that they’re immovable because they’re no longer there. There’s nothing there to be changed. There’s not a child in the room with the door closed.

Maybe someone has died, maybe a circumstance, the circumstances of life has so changed that it’s not, it’s not that, because we believe for the impossible, but I think those of you who this applies to, you understand what I’m saying. If someone has died and they’re buried and they’re in the grave and there are years that have gone by and nothing resolved and you’re still carrying the issues of that problem, okay.

This is where the presence of God and the word of God and the need you have from Him is that the supernatural that can happen is that He can remove the pain that you’re dealing with. He can so change, excuse me, the circumstance of your life that you can look back on it and you can rejoice and say, look what God has done.

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This applies to every kind of problem that we face. We need the presence of God. We need to stay in faith. We need to pray and pray again.

It’s just like, I’ll finish with this. It’s just like the song, is well. The man who wrote that song, all was not well according to his circumstance all around him. And he had lost his spouse and all his children, but he wrote these words. It is well with my soul. And he says, when sorrows like sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot thou has taught me to say, it is well. It is well with my soul.

That can be us today, that no matter my lot, he has taught me to say, by faith I know. His presence with me is the answer. It is the outflow from which all other answers will come. Like Moses, he knew no matter what has happened, no matter what has transpired, no matter what’s in our past, our

or our present or our future. We need Jesus, we need his presence and we need persistent faith. Let me pray for you today. Father, I thank you for your immeasurable love for us, that you want so desperately for your children to trust you, to fear not, and that we would stay

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in faith, knowing you are trustworthy, that we can trust you. can say, I don’t know how you’re going to do it, God. I don’t see an answer. This looks impossible to me, but you said it. And if you said it, I believe you. So give me strength. Lord, I pray for each one listening that you give them the strength that they need, that their soul is encouraged, that faith is poured.

into them today. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Lord, let your faith pour into each one today. May they be stirred in their faith. Give them wisdom to know who not to share their precious faith with as far as what they’re believing for. Show them who is trustworthy.

to pray with them. God give them the courage to pray again. Knock again. Seek.

And Father, I am asking you to do the miraculous. Do the impossible. You are the God who hears and answers prayer. And we are asking for miracles today. Father, I pray that so many miracles happen, that testimonies have to be given of what you are doing. I thank you that you are working and you are doing the impossible. You are redeeming the time.

For those who feel like it has taken so long, you are not only answering, but you are redeeming the time. And Father, when you do as you do, we will be so careful to give you all the glory. We come back and we say thank you. And it’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

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Well, my hope is that today you have received some instruction to know how to stay in faith, to be encouraged, to know we are praying with you. If you want us to pray with you about whatever it is that you are carrying, you can send us an email at mail at Jaimeloose.com. I would be happy to pray with you. you have prayer requests, prayer, sorry.

Praise reports, prayer requests and praise reports. If God answers your prayer and you have a praise report, I would love to hear about it. Send me an email at mail at Jaimeloose.com. If you have those friends around you, family members, the people that you know need to hear this, that need to be encouraged, that maybe you can see their faith is waning and you know, stay in faith, stay in faith. Maybe send this to them, just share this message with them.

If this has been a blessing to you, we’re asking that you would give us that thumbs up or give us a great rating. If you’re listening to this on podcast, it has been my pleasure to share the word of God with you. This is like preparing a meal for you, but my hope is that because it is the word of God that you would eat it, chew on it, meditate on it, take it in and let it nourish your soul. Let it bring faith into your spirit. Thank you so much for being with me today. It was my pleasure to spend time with you and we’ll see you next time.

Bye bye.