II Kings 4:1-7
Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy
servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor
is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do
for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing
in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours,
even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon
thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that
which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought
the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she
said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And
the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy
debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.
Ok, what is the first lie here? That her husband is dead. And he was a good guy. Serving God and all. OR you could say, my company is dead, the economy is dead. And it was good, principled, incorrupt. Undeserving of dying. And here comes the "Creditor." The banks? No.
Creditor= mortal mind, the world belief that she could not take care of her family, that her sustenance came from something or somewhere other than God.
When Elisha asked her what she had in her house she honestly told him that all she had was a pot of oil.
Mrs. Eddy defines OIL. as "consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." Using semicolons to divide these words because they are a collective idea, or as she often puts it, a "compound idea", needing each other to form the idea.
Elisha told her to go and borrow "empty vessels" figuratively these "empty vessels" stood (to me) for patients, "empty souls" you might say. People that needed to be "filled up full with thoughts from God". That needed "consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." They could also be looked at as lack of jobs, clients, a company emptied of jobs or clients. Or even the world problems that we read and hear about every day.
And when she went "in" she was told to "shut the door". Mrs. Eddy tells us many times, with different words to do this. In S&H pgs 390-393 she says to dispute, blot out, destroy, suffer no claim, dismiss, rise in rebellion against, banish, mentally contradict, reverse the case, stand porter, exclude from thought.
So that is what she did. She was obedient to her practitioner. She stood porter. She excluded from her thought the idea that she could not care for her family. She banished the idea that there could be a lack of supply, a lack of jobs, a lack of clients. She dismissed it, mentally contradicted it, disputed it. She reversed the case and rose in rebellion against it and then she poured out.
She shut the door and poured out all of that "consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." This is when she "exercised her God given authority". She rose "in the conscious strength of the spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind" or the claim of the "creditor". She filled the empty vessels with the "oil" of "consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration."
She trusted "in the Lord with all her heart, and leaned not unto her own understanding"
She took "antagonistic grounds against all that is opposed" to her harmony, all that is opposed to her good, her supply. She took "possession of her" self and governed BECAUSE God had made her capable of it! and "nothing can vitiate", destroy or impair, "the ability and power divinely bestowed on man" or woman. She was "firm in her understanding that the divine Mind governs". AND she "had no fear", no doubt.
"And it came to pass" Here is the promise. The assurance. Mrs Eddy says "The promises will be
fulfilled." The vessels, the empty souls, were filled, were healed.
And the OIL stayed! The "Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." It
stayed! She was in the full time practice of Christian Science. And she paid her debt, and lived with her children of the rest.
