Your Due Season Has Come: The Widow's Oil and Supernatural Increase

Sermon outline

God has a covenant of supernatural increase with His people, more and more and not just enough, so expect it, be diligent, trust His character and follow His instructions, because 2020 is a year of supernatural increase and extraordinary miracles.

1. The widow's oil: God uses small things

   A prophet's widow faced a creditor coming to take her two sons, and all she had was a small jar of oil. Elisha told her to borrow empty containers, and not just a few, then shut the door and pour; the oil only stopped when there were no more containers. She went from having nothing to paying her debt and living on the rest. The containers represent your capacity, and the same miracles God did in the Old Covenant continued through Jesus and never ceased.

   “God can take small things and use small things.”

   • 2 Kings 4:1-7
   • Zechariah 4:10
   • Job 8:7

2. The Shunammite woman: a word under the anointing

   The Shunammite woman perceived that Elisha was a holy man of God and built him an upper room. She was well off and needed no favours, but she had no son, and Elisha spoke a word: at this season next year you will embrace a son. She said, 'Do not lie to your maidservant,' yet she conceived, because the man of God spoke under the anointing.

   “The man of God spoke a word out of his mouth, under the anointing, and she conceived and had a child.”

   • 2 Kings 4:8-17

3. A covenant of supernatural increase: more and more

   The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children. We cannot live from paycheck to paycheck or from one miracle to the next, because we have a covenant of supernatural increase, so increase your expectation and stop limiting God. God has no problem with your increase as long as you remember to honour Him as the God of increase and never forget who brought you up.

   “It is not just a get-by covenant. It is a covenant of supernatural increase.”

   • Psalm 115:14
   • Psalm 115:9-14
   • 2 Kings 3:19
   • Romans 13:7

4. Continual prosperity, a lifestyle without lack

   God's prosperity is not sporadic, arriving only to get you out of a financial jam; R. K. Harrison renders it 'continual prosperity', without interruption. God promised Israel a good land where they would lack nothing, and He will give a surplus of prosperity, enough left over to leave an inheritance to your children's children. There is no such thing as a prosperity preacher: we have a prosperous God.

   Illustration: He and his wife both came from another religion and at first knew only what others preached to them, so he began studying the Bible for himself and found, book after book, that God is good, merciful and full of grace.

   “There's no such thing as a prosperity preacher. We have a prosperous God.”

   • Deuteronomy 8:6-9
   • Deuteronomy 28:11
   • Proverbs 13:22
   • Isaiah 55:9

5. Walking in increase: expect it and be diligent

   First, expect increase, because what you reject you push away and what you embrace comes towards you; our thinking is our limitation, so see it with the eyes of your heart. Increase also takes commitment: it comes to the faithful and diligent who never quit, and in due season we will reap if we don't give up. There is a set time, a designated moment between you and God, and God never forgets what you prayed for.

   “Our limitation is our thinking.”

   • Ephesians 1:18
   • Hebrews 11:6
   • Deuteronomy 28:1
   • Galatians 6:9
   • Ephesians 3:20

6. The blessing of the Lord adds no sorrow

   Proverbs 10:22, his favourite verse, says the blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow, because lack brings sorrow and embarrassment. If God did one miracle in your life, it can be multiplied, and riches will chase you down when you obey. Your due season has come: God created by words, Elisha's words brought the Shunammite a son, and his words under the anointing will shift your atmosphere, so your battling days are over.

   Illustration: Long ago his credit card was declined for insufficient funds and he walked to the car embarrassed. Another time, driving his V8 Jeep near Ballito, he forgot to fill up; when the warning light came on with no garage ahead, he hit the dashboard and declared in Jesus' name he would reach the next station, and a few minutes later the gauge read a quarter.

   “If you experience a miracle, you can experience it again.”

   • Proverbs 10:22
   • Deuteronomy 28:2
   • Genesis 1:3

7. Hidden ingredients in every miracle (1 to 3)

   A miracle is an extraordinary event beyond human or natural power, ascribed to God, and every word is a seed that grows. First, you must need and expect a miracle: if you expect nothing, nothing will happen. Second, you need an intercessor, someone who will agree with you, such as a spouse, a parent or a prayer partner. Third, believe in your own worthiness, because God has made a great investment in you; when demons try to stop your miracle, humble yourself, resist the devil and he will flee.

   Illustration: Don't get in your car and say the preacher was talking nonsense; if you can't say anything nice, at least keep quiet and you still have a chance of getting something good.

   “If you expect nothing to happen, nothing will happen.”

   • Matthew 18:19
   • James 4:7

8. Hidden ingredients in every miracle (4 to 7)

   Fourth, have a miracle worker you trust: Jesus lives in you. Fifth, have confidence in God's character, for God is not a man that He should lie; teach your children to trust Him as well as to study. Sixth, listen for the unique instruction that unlocks the miracle, like Naaman, who had to dip seven times. Seventh, keep your expectation high all year; disappointments will come, but you will trust God and overflow.

   Illustration: When Saul's army was shaking, the young David trusted God and not the army or armour. After his wife preached the previous week about sowing a special crossover seed, the Holy Spirit gave him a specific figure, which he sowed that night over and above the tithe, expecting a thousandfold return.

   “God will always, before He gives you a miracle, He will give you an instruction.”

   • Numbers 23:19
   • Ephesians 4:5
   • 1 Samuel 17:32
   • 2 Kings 5:10-14
   • Joshua 24:15