Building the Kingdom from your Kitchen

On our recent trip to Angola, I had the joy of sharing some key parenting principles straight from scripture.

I say it often and I’ll say it again: the Word of God never ceases to amaze me!

God truly has an opinion on everything.  Even parenting. In fact, His wisdom is far better than an opinion. It’s perfect truth. And when you live your life accordingly, it’s life-giving, and better yet, life-transforming! *insert smiley face here*

Let’s start with the Biblical story that underpins this message.

“Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, ‘Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.’ And Elisha said to her, ‘What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?’ And she said, ‘Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.’ Then he said, ‘Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels.”
—2 Kings 4:1–4 (ESV)

Elisha the prophet’s instructions to the widow were clear: Get vessels, go home, shut the door (shut out the world; but shut your kids in with you) and pour out oil.

His instructions were certainly not rocket science! And when she obeyed, a miracle happened: the little oil overflowed until every vessel was full!

From verse five – “So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.” (‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭4‬:‭5‬-‭7‬‬‬)

Amazing! The widow received more than what she asked for. God’s heart is for families to flourish. Without a doubt!

And God’s instructions for flourishing aren’t confusing or complicated, but do we ask?Because God wants to answer us! God wants to help us parent well. In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus says that if you ask, it will be given to you!

It’s sobering for me to think that this widow’s late husband was a man who feared the Lord, yet left his family in crippling debt. Could it be that he never asked God for guidance with regards to his finances?

In the Old Testament, it often mentions: “… and they did not enquire of the Lord,” and usually, with dire consequences. We can love God sincerely, and still make decisions that harm our homes if we don’t pause to enquire of the Lord.

When we started leading Highway Church, we faced tough decisions about schooling. We prayed, asking God to guide us. And He did. God still leads those who ask.

Can I encourage you? You don’t have to do it alone. The widow goes to a man of God for advice. 

The miracle follows when we seek godly counsel rather than trying to go it alone. 

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” (Prov. 15:22); “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety” (Prov. 11:14); and “Victory is won through many advisers” (Prov. 24:6).

Confirmation of the God-answer is found in Christ’s community. The church is God’s chosen instrument to reveal His manifold (many-sided, multifaceted) wisdom to both the seen and unseen realms. Why would you not want to tap into such a powerful resource?!

Could our problem be that we are not as desperate as this widow?

We fail to see how we risk selling our children into slavery. Slaves to fame and fortune and false identities. Slaves to living up to the expectations of others – people pleasing performances. Slaves to adhere to a certain worldly standard of manhood or womanhood – pressure to conform. 

God help us to ask for input.

For example – since I am on the topic of schools – the best practical advice I received regarding schooling was from a wise Godly woman in leadership: the closest school is the best school. Why overcomplicate things unnecessarily? When I was young, my one brother attended a prestigious art school in another city. It was a wonderful experience for him but it left us with very little time to connect as a family since all five siblings had their own full schedules to compete with, such as music lessons, soccer club practice and more. Today, the pressure to perform is at an all-time high, and busyness has become synonymous with success. We glorify the hustle, and margin gets dismissed.

How’s the margin in your home? Or are you fitting too much in too little time?

The miracle happened behind closed doors. Not at school. Not at church. But at home. Out of public sight. A quiet moment with no audience and no platform – just a mom and her sons present.

This is very counter the culture we live in. The world certainly does not celebrate the quiet ordinary moments in households. We live in a world obsessed with the public miracle: that podium moment. And yet, behind the scenes, many homes are falling apart.

Do you have enough closed-door moments in your home – when presence trumps performance? The pouring of oil – casual conversations with our kids in the kitchen while they pack the dishwasher, lighthearted moments of laughter and playful banter, watching a movie together and snuggling with our kids, etc. This is the ordinary and plain, saturated by the Spirit.

The widow’s story exhorts us not to underestimate the Kingdom power of these moments. It’s MASSIVE! It’s worth fighting for!

The heart of the gospel is this: God loves us, not for what we do but who we are. We cannot earn His love. It’s not about our performance. But about His presence! He pours His love graciously and freely. Are we available? Empty up!

Let’s make room for closed-door moments in our homes, where we can demonstrate the gospel – the goodness of God – to our kids in simple, ordinary and profound ways.

Connection over career advancement. Presence over performance. Private over public.

What’s really happening behind the closed doors of your home?