Jo Ellen Stevens
http://dstevens7.wixsite.com/tcic
Isaiah 43:18-19 (NKJ) “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.”
And the Lord said;
“I am getting ready to close the doors of the past seasons behind you as you take the step of faith toward your destiny in this coming year! It is time to shake off the dust of some past things that I have been speaking to you to leave behind and when you do, I will not only slam the door behind you, I will lock it from the inside so that you will not even desire to go back! It is time to pour what you have been given into those that I have given you.”
“For if you will see what I see in front of you and gather them then I will supply the oil for as many as you will believe me for. And you will be anointed to pour into them as long as you will believe that I am able to do all that I said that I would! Believe me for more!!”
“Believe me for more souls and for more abundance, and for bigger houses to do your ministry in! Believe me for the greater things in this season and if you will believe me I will open new doors and as you see the new vessels to pour into I will anoint you to pour it out upon all of those that I am calling out of darkness for such a time as this!!”
2 Kings 4:1-4 “One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, ‘My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the LORD. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.’
‘What can I do to help you?’ Elisha asked. ‘Tell me, what do you have in the house?’ ‘Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,’ she replied. And Elisha said, ‘Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.'”
SHUTTING THE DOOR ON THE PAST
At a meeting I was at once a teacher was teaching on these scriptures. He asked the question. “What does shutting the door indicate to you?” The answer was obviously closing the door on our past but then Elisha asked her what she had in her house and she said, “Nothing but a flask of oil”. So after he told her to shut the door behind her, He told her to gather all the jars that she could from her neighbors and she began to pour that oil into them and it didn’t stop until every one of them was full.
As the teacher was talking about this, I began to think about my younger days in the Lord back at the old “First Assembly Of God” and how I had taught in those days and led worship and how glorious it seemed at the time to me and then I got sidetracked by a situation in my life and I seemed to go into a type of wilderness experience.
At the time it seemed like I had lost it all and would never recover what I had back there at the old church and in my ministry. I pined away for the “good old days” thinking they were better than the little that I was doing in my new life that I had come into through all of the circumstances.
What I didn’t realize was that while pining away after the “good old days”, I was the only one that was putting a limit on what God could do through me in the days ahead.. I was counting the gift that I had as nothing because it didn’t look like what I had back there! I didn’t see that all along the way, in the small stuff I was doing, God was preparing me for a bigger and greater platform in Him!
I had not yet “shut the door behind me” so I could not go forward! One day, I was telling God that if I could just go back there and do what he had called me to do that I would be happy. He said to me, “I want you to go forward Jo Ellen… I want you to forget about the good, the bad and the ugly, because I have something greater up ahead and as long as you are pining away after the ‘good old days’, you will limit what I want to do through you in the future!” He then said, “Behold, I will do a new thing. Shall it not spring forth?”
You see, as this teacher explained that until the woman began to see what she had in her house and poured it into the vessels, she was dying and her sons would have probably died also. However, she went and borrowed the jars and her oil did not stop until they were all full and she had enough to sell and save herself and her sons!!
FORGET THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY!
Until we can shut the door on the past, no matter how great it was in our “glory days” and embrace what God has for us ahead and begin to see what great anointing he has put in us and not be limited by our past thinking, we will not be able to fulfill the great purpose that he has for us now and in the future. Stop thinking, “I have used everything God has given me in my past season and now I am just going to sit down and die!” Until we begin to pour our little bit of oil into as many jars or vessels that are available to us, we never will know the great plans that God has for our future in Him!!
You see, her end was greater than the beginning and she and her sons were saved! Many of you have been holding back. Some of you have been told that you blew it because you went through a dark time in your life!
Many have stopped pouring your oil into other vessels because you counted what little you have as nothing compared to what you had back then but God is saying, “Get up! Shut the door behind you and begin to just pour what you have into all of the vessels that are in front of you and all the vessels in your neighborhood and then in your community and your city, then your region!”
Your oil will not run out until your vision does! We are the only one limiting ourselves! God has a bigger plan and a greater purpose and His oil never runs out! Religion may have disqualified you and people may have snubbed you and you may have disqualified yourself but God still has a great plan for you if you will shut the door to your past and just begin pouring out! Arise Shine! Jo Ellen Stevens
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