Take Up

Your Son

Gen. Deborah Green

P RAISE GOD. Welcome to Battle Cry Sounding—Battle Cry Pounding. Yes, the Lord is on the move. The Lord is moving at this particular time that I'm delivering this message, by His wrath, and by His mercy. That is, the Lord is continuing to display His sore displeasure with the sins of humankind.

But, at the same time, He is giving an opportunity through a REPENTANCE REVOLUTION—that He has called to bring men unto repentance—that men and women throughout the world would see the error of their way and genuinely repent and be sorry before God for their sins, and change from that. In other words, not continue in a life of sin, mocking God, but turn from a life of sin and be found upright in the eyes of God.

Now, the name of this message today is, "Take Up Your Son" and we're in 2nd Kings, chapter 4, beginning in verse 8, and I will be reading out of the Amplified version. Now when we start here, and we go through this, there are several things that we'll point out that we can benefit from. Because God wants us to know, and those of us that are watching the decline, the suffocation, the eradication of what we once knew as "Christian America," God wants us to know, in the midst of all that, that HE'S ABLE.

Because, a lot of Christians are losing their faith, not because there's a communist with a gun to their head, or a Muslim with a sword to chop off their head, but because they are looking at the dreariness, the weariness, the desolation, the despair of the times that we are in.

And, instead of believing that God is able, they are believing the signs of the times in the sense that they say, "What's the use? There's no hope. We'll never recover. It's an endless cycle of death. There's not even reason to witness because nobody will change" and on and on and on. But, those are lying accusations sent by the devil to defeat God's people. Now, what we are meant to do is BELIEVE THAT OUR GOD IS ABLE. Keep believing no matter what the circumstance may appear to be.

Now, I'm sure when God brought His people out of Egypt, and Pharaoh's army was on their, shall we say, posterior end, and they were speeding as fast as they could walk towards that Red Sea, I bet many of them, or I should say I believe—I don't bet, I'm not a gambler. But, I believe that many of them probably thought within themselves they were facing death going into that sea. Or, they're facing death behind them because the Egyptians are there—in hot pursuit.

But, you know what? Because they kept on going, because they kept on believing, because the leadership did not back up and say, "Oh, it's impossible; we may as well lay down here and die." We're in 2nd Kings chapter 4, that guess what? They got through the Red Sea, because God made the way.

Now, WE ARE NOT MEANT TO LOOK AT THE CIRCUMSTANCE OF THE CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and attribute God-like power and all authority to the elite, to Mr. Obama, to any other figure-head that could come in to be the puppet for the agenda of evil men and women that want world take-over. And, we're not meant to look at that and give up. But, we're meant to look to God, and know He's able.

So, today, as I read here in 2nd Kings, we're going to see how God demonstrates—through those who believe in Him that He is able. And, we find that this woman, who was commanded by the prophet to take up her son, had a son who was dead. His very life breath was gone, he was laying on the bed, there was no life left in him, and when the prophet came, well, as we'll find out as we go through the story, the life came back into him.

Because, number one, she had believed this prophet, and because she believed this prophet, God moved for her, because he was a true prophet of God. And, God moved for that woman—in the sense that He returned her son to life again.

Now, if God can bring back a dead man, well, I guess he was a boy, I don't know what age he was. I imagine he was probably about 14 or 15, something like that. But, if God, through His prophet could bring back life into him, why can't we hope for the impossible? Come on! Why can't we set our hope upon what God can do, rather than upon the evil that men can do?

That's all you hear anymore—is what the Obama-Trauma is going to pull next, or has already done, how the Communists are going to take over, how the Muslims are going to kill everybody off, how the socialist agenda is going to make everybody in rags, and totally destitute, impoverished from head to toe, make Cuba look rich, and on, and on, and on. Just tales of woe, suffering, affliction, and yes, this nation deserves it because of its backsliding.

But, God has called us to REPENTANCE REVOLUTION! And why? Because, number one, HE'S THE GOD OF MERCY. And number two, He's able—if we believe in Him. Now, the point I'm getting to is, if true repentance goes forth that is satisfying to God, cannot God even bring up a nation that is dead in trespasses and sin, and put the breath of life into that as easily as He can put the breath of life into a dead boy?

See, we limit God. We limit God because we say, "Well, I don't care, you know; we'll try to repent, but what's the use? It won't do anything." Well, are we not looking at the factor that God is involved, and God told us today in the spoken word He "is able." You say, "Well, you're just trusting in a vain hope." No, if God is the One who tells us to repent, then why is that a vain hope?It says that: "All that hope in Him will not be made ashamed" (1 Pet. 2:6). Ok, if we set our hope completely cemented to God, we will not be made ashamed—because the Lord will move on our behalf.

Ok, starting here in chapter 4, verse 8 of 2nd Kings, let's see what it says. It says, "One day Elisha went on to Shunem, where a rich and influential woman lived, who insisted on his eating a meal. Afterward, whenever he passed by, he stopped there for a meal. And she said to her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by continually."

So, we see that Elisha was looking to who as his source? The Lord God Almighty. I don't read in this whole chapter one time where he went to this woman, this influential woman, and said to her, "Without your help, this ministry cannot go on." And, I do not read where he came up to her door, knocked on the door and said, "Lady, can you spare me a dime?"

He was not putting himself in a place of begging from the arm of flesh, or demanding, as they do now, from the arm of flesh. HE WAS IN SUBJECTIVITY TO GOD. And obviously, it was GOD WHO SUPPLIED HIS NEEDS along the way, and obviously, it was God who put it upon this woman's heart to be kind to this traveling prophet.

And so, as it was, when she said she perceived he was a man of God, what did she want to do? She wanted to provide further for him, because why? Because he WAS a TRUE man a God. See, men have stopped looking to God for their provision, and they believe they must have the penthouse in the hotel—the penthouse suite. They believe they must have the bridal suite, they must have this, they must have that, they've got to have all these jets, they've got to have all these mansions, and they don't do you no good in Hell. We won't get into all that.

But, there are many religious leaders that have turned aside merely for the gain of the wealth, the riches of this world, and they are not men of God, they are not women of God, they are laboring for Satan. Like it or lump it, it's true. When you see men and women of God living in superfluous elegance, they are not men and women of God. Their hearts have been filled with deceit, and the lust for material gain, and the deceitfulness of riches.

You just read this Bible through and through, and the only one who went bezerk for riches was Solomon, and Solomon completely abandoned God—he forsook the God of his fathers. He forsook the way of righteousness, and he took up the foreign gods of his heathen wives and concubines, and he built altars to them.

So, if you want to say, "Well, you know, it's in the Bible; look how rich Solomon was!" LOOK WHERE SOLOMON ENDED UP. He ended up destitute of faith in God. And, he was definitely in disobedience from the beginning to the end.

So, what I'm bringing up about this is, this guy—this Elisha, was a TRUE PROPHET of God, and he was not rolling with riches. You don't read about his caravan came by with all these camels, and all these horses, and all these donkeys, and you know, the satin pillows that he was carried to this woman on.

It sounds to me like he and his servants were on foot. Or, at the most, had a donkey or some kind of beast of burden that they kept their possessions on when they traveled.

So, but anyway, it says, "She said to her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by continually." So, you see, he didn't come to her and strut his stuff and say, "Look lady, I'm a man of God, and you'd better provide for me!" She said, "I perceive that." It's not that he was throwing himself around. She just perceived the godliness of the man because of his behavior.

Ok, so then she says to her husband, "Let us make a small chamber on the [housetop] and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then whenever he comes to us, he can go [up the outside stairs and rest] here." In other words, "Let's build an accommodation for him as an addition to our home that he can privately go and rest, if that be his need."

It didn't say, "Let's build him a mansion." It didn't say, "Let's buy him a subdivision." It didn't say, "Let's get him a Cadillac, and a Rolls Royce, and a Chevy...Let's not do any of that, let's just make a place where he can rest for a little bit and provide that for him, because he is a man of God."

Ok, so this was out of the goodness of their hearts, but mainly, it was because of what? It was because of the fact that THEY WERE PERCEIVING THAT HE WAS A MAN OF GOD.

Ok, going on from them, then it says, "One day he came and turned into the chamber and lay there. And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. When he had called her, she stood before him." Now, this is how God works, this woman was receptive to the Spirit of God. And she moved in obedience to bless the servant of God. Because, not only was she preparing, or having her servants to prepare a meal for this fellow, but she even got her husband to consent to building a small room for him that he could rest when he came.

So, she was perceptive to the fact that yes, he had physical needs and yes, she could provide those needs because number one, it says she was wealthy, and number two, she was receptive to what God wanted her to do. Did you know there's some people that don't even make claims to religion, and they can be receptive to the Spirit of God? AND THEY CAN BE MORE CONSIDERATE OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD, THAN GOD'S OWN PEOPLE.

But, anyway, here he is, he's there lying down, trying to rest, and something is coming to him. What is coming to him? It is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is coming to him because God is wanting to reward this woman for her obedience, for her desire to provide for the servant of God, and for her willingness to do that.

I mean her husband could have screamed at her and said, "Shut up! What do you want to do, have an affair with that guy?" I mean he could have. But, she approached her husband in such a way that he respected her wishes and the room was built.

Because here, the next sentence we have, "One day he came and turned into the chamber and lay there." So, Elisha was in that room that had been built by her pleading for that provision.

So, going on, it says, "And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. When he had called her, she stood before him. And he said to Gehazi, Say now to her, You have been most painstakingly and reverently concerned for us; what is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king or to the commander of the army? She answered, I dwell among my own people [they are sufficient]. Later Elisha said, What then is to be done for her? Gehazi answered, She has no child and her husband is old. He said, Call her. [Gehazi] called her, and she stood in the doorway." So here, this is the second time that she's been called, beckoned to come to the chamber.

"Elisha said, At this season when the time comes round, you shall embrace a son. She said, No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid. But the woman conceived and bore a son at that season the following year, as Elisha had said to her. When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father with the reapers. But he said to his father, My head, my head! The man said to his servant, Carry him to his mother. And when he was brought to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him and went out. And she called to her husband and said, Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may go quickly to the man of God and come back again. And he said, Why go to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath. And she said, It will be all right. Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, Ride fast; do not slacken your pace for me unless I tell you."

So, we see that the gift of God, or the son, as this child was, was smitten. Something transpired in its head, it died, and of course she wanted it laid upon the bed of the man of God—put the body there, and then she's going to find the man of God.

So, what we see about this woman is, number one, she was willing to serve. Even though she was wealthy, even though she had everything in her life that would have made her appreciated as prosperous, SHE WAS WILLING TO SERVE THE SERVANT OF GOD.

And, because she was willing to serve the servant of God, and even to put herself in a position whereby her virtue could have been questioned—as to why she wanted a separate room for some guy that was a wayfaring stranger always traveling through, she went beyond that. And, she did what the Holy Spirit was guiding her to do in order to make a natural provision for this man of God.

So, not only did she see to it that he was fed, but also that he had a place that he could pray and rest his body from the weariness of journeying. SO, SHE WAS IN A SERVANT'S MIND, A SERVANT'S ATTITUDE, and then the first thing she did when her child died was she went and laid him on the bed of the servant of God.

Because she believed truly that Elisha was the servant of God, and she knew that God was able—in the sense that she recognized the fact that God could do things that humankind couldn't do; because that's how she had been given the very child who died—is by the impossibility of God. What's impossible with men, is possible with God.

So, she was attentive to all of these things, even in her hour of great loss and great grief, and she made up her mind she's going to go get the servant of God, and get him as fast as she can in this situation.

So you see, SHE'S TRUSTING, EVEN IN THE FACE OF DEATH, THAT GOD WILL MOVE, that God will move. For one thing, the very fact that she's, what does it say here? "And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him and went out."

It doesn't say that she called the servants and they prepared him for burial. Or, that she called her neighbors and they put up a wailing of lamentation, and sorrow, and grief for this child who had passed away. It said “she laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door, and took off, or went to tell her husband what she was going to do because she's going to get the servant of God.”

So, what is she doing? She's proving, through her actions, that she believes in God, even in the face of death. She could have said, "Well, the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord." She could have folded her hands, and grieved, and then called her servants, "Prepare the boy for burial."

But, you know what? This woman was believing in the supernatural gift of God. This child was her supernatural gift. This was not because she was able to conceive because obviously she'd been married to this husband for a long time. It was because God gave her the gift of that child. So, she was still trusting that child to God.

Now, unbelieving believers, you know, people say, "Well, God gave to America the greatest revelations, God gave to America the greatest wealth, God gave to America the greatest potential of expanding the Gospel, God gave, God gave, God gave, God even founded America to be a Christian nation, God this, God that, God this."

But, do you know what? At the first REAL threat of demolishing what God gave, in other words, death to the nation, where are most believers? Are they saying, "God gave me this, and if it dies, I'm still going to trust it to God"? She said AFTER THE KID WAS DEAD, "I'm going to get the servant of God." Not when the child was even sick, and dying, and going down like this nation is. She said after it was dead, "I'm going to get the servant of God."

Are we still trusting and believing God that He is able? Or are we trusting the agenda of the elite? Are we trusting the serious, horrendous, mad, and insane laws that Obama's passing? Are we trusting Barak more than Jesus Christ? Are we looking at his evil, and quivering and shivering over the same? Are we trusting the Almighty God?

This woman is a testimony of faith. She said, after the boy died, she put him on the bed, she got ready to go, and she took off. To find what? To FIND THE MAN OF GOD, the one that she knew was close to God, could get through to God, and would get the answer from God.

So then, as it goes on here, it says, "So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite. Run to meet her and say, Is it well with you? Well with your husband? Well with the child? And she answered, It is well. When she came to the mountain to the man of God, she clung to his feet."

This is a wealthy woman, this is a woman of position and power, this is a woman who has servants under her, I am sure. And here she is, THROWING HERSELF DOWN AT THE FEET of this, you might say, destitute prophet who is dependent upon God moving upon people for His natural provision. And she throws herself down at his feet.

So what does she do? Not only is she a servant, not only is she willing to believe, not only is she trusting in the face of death, but she's willing to humble herself at the feet of the man of God—throw herself down at his feet.

And Gehazi, it says, "came to thrust her away, but the man of God said, Let her alone, for her soul is bitter and vexed within her, and the Lord has hid it from me and has not told me. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up your loins and take my staff in your hand and go lay my staff on the face of the child. If you meet any man, do not salute him. If he salutes you, do not answer him. The mother of the child said, As the Lord lives and as my soul lives, I will not leave you. And he arose and followed her. Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff on the child's face, but the boy neither spoke nor heard. So he went back to meet Elisha and said to him, The child has not awakened. When Elisha arrived in the house, the child was dead and laid upon his bed. So he went in, shut the door on the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. He went up and lay on the child, put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself on him and embraced him, the child's flesh became warm."

What is that a sign of? What is that a picture of? What is that an indication for us who believe, for us who want to see God move, for us who are trying to intercede as God says in REPENTANCE REVOLUTION, that if we will put our WHOLE BEING into it, if we will literally lay ourselves, in the spirit, on the dead, that they can come to life again. What is God trying to get through to us today? KEEP ON BELIEVING, KEEP ON TRUSTING BECAUSE HE IS ABLE.

This child was DEAD; probably by now several hours dead. And the man of God went in there, shut the door, and put himself totally into the project at hand. Laid right on top of a dead body. Right on top of a dead body, put his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on the child's eyes, and what does it say? It says, "And as he stretched himself on him and embraced him, the child's flesh became warm."

So, what did he do? He totally gave himself over to the intercession for that child. And that child was already dead. That child was already dead. Are we going to give up in repentance revolution? Are we going to say, "Oh, it's inevitable that the agenda of the elite will be fulfilled," or are we going to believe for God to be ABLE TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE because He is able?

Are we going to believe, as we will do as this servant of God did, and put ourselves fully into it, and put ourselves in the place of life over the dead, that the DEAD can be RAISED to life again—that the Christian roots that are here can come to life again, and men and women can get into full-scale repentance revolution, turn from their wicked ways, rise up in the authority and the power of God, and cast out the workers of witchcraft; and see our God prevail? I'm going to keep hoping. I'm going to keep hoping, and I'm going to keep believing, because God is able. God is able, and He's the One that we should look to.

This whole thing was nothing but a death trip. The woman with the dead kid, the prophet facing the dead body, it was a death trip; it was all death. And there, life came forth. Because of what? Belief in God. Belief and trust in God.

And then it says, "Then he returned and walked in the house to and fro and went up again and stretched himself upon him. And the child sneezed seven times, and then opened his eyes. Then [Elisha] called Gehazi and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she came, he said, Take up your son. She came and fell at his feet, bowing herself to the ground. Then she took up her son and went out."

So, see, even at that, the woman finished it right; she finished it with thanks to God, she finished it with oblation to God, and she finished it in humility, rather than just merely grabbing her son, she fell at the feet of the prophet, giving thanks, and then received her son. ARE WE GIVING THANKS? ARE WE HUMBLING OURSELVES? ARE WE BELIEVING FOR THE DEAD TO BE RAISED TO LIFE AGAIN? AMEN.