7 lessons from a prophet's widow

AKPOVETA, Valentine ‘t

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Contents

Lesson # 1: Anointing and Poverty Are Not

Mutually Exclusive

Lesson # 2: What Do You Have?

Lesson # 3: Ask Your Neighbour

Lesson # 4: Shut the Door

Lesson # 5: Then the Oil Ceased

Lesson # 6: The Prophet Didn’t Do It

Lesson # 7: Pay Your Debts and Live On the Rest


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7 LESSONS A PROPHET’S WIDOW TAUGHT ME

The wife of a man from the company of prophets cried out to

Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that

he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my

two boys as slaves.” Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you?

Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has

nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.” Elisha said,

“Go around and ask all your neighbours for empty jars. Don’t

ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you

and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled,

put it to one side.” She left him and afterward shut the door

behind her and her sons. They brought the jars before her and

she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her

son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar

left.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man

of God and he said, “Go and sell the oil and pay your debts. You

and your sons can live on what is left.”

2 Kings 4:1-7 (NIV)


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LESSON # 1: ANOINTING AND POVERTY ARE NOT

MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE The wife of a man from the company of prophets cried out to

Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that

he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my

two boys as slaves.”

It is very possible to be soaked in the anointing and still

enjoy the showers of poverty. Christianity is NOT a passport

out of indigence.

I want to state something quite controversial here before I go

on with the Lesson # 1. Some mischievous Christians with

less than honourable intentions seem to have gotten a notion

into their heads that God exists for their pleasure, and that

the relationship between God and man is conditional based

on man’s terms- enjoyment, pleasure, wealth, health,

hedonism. They have spread the gospel of “Poverty is a sin”.

Now, if lying is a sin, then a perpetual liar is a sinner. It then

follows that if poverty is a sin, then poor people are sinners.

By extension, James 2:5 will mean “Listen, my beloved

brothers, has not God chosen the SINNERS (poor) of this world

rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised

to those who love Him?” I don’t care who said poverty is a sin.

It’s a lie. You can be Holy and Hungry.

Wealth obeys the certain PRINCIPLES. You may be

Tongue-Speaking, Demon-Binding, Spiral-Binding,

Mountain-Going, Valley-Confident, Prayer-Warrior and

[yet be] Poverty-Stricken. Not to worry. You will still


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inherit the Kingdom of God. Wealth does not answer to

positive confession alone.

Now, let me give a final balanced view and move on to the

next lesson.

Though, being a Christian doesn’t automatically guarantee

you riches, being a Christian and practicing the principles

of wealth puts you at a distinct advantage. If you were

poor and someone has told you that giving your life to Christ

will give you an automatic jackpot or bonanza, you are in for

a rude shocker. And you will be poor. You will be very poor.

You will inherit the Kingdom of God. But you will be poor in

the kingdom of earth.

Pour all the fertilizer in the world on your farm then go home

and pray over your seeds lying safely and snugly on the

concrete floor of your bedroom. When the time of harvest

comes, your hunger will inform you of the gross folly of your

actions- or the lack of it.

I am a Christian. I practice the principles wealth. I don’t

intend to be wealthy because of the fact that I’m a Christian.

I intend to be wealthy in spite of the fact that I’m a Christian.

If I were an atheist, I would still practice the principles of

wealth.


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LESSON # 2: WHAT DO YOU HAVE? “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little

oil.”

Without fail, every single living man has something great in

them- even if they don’t know it or they see it as nothing. The

fact that some don’t have what they want in life is not that

they don’t have what it takes to get it but that they don’t

know what they have.

But there is a second stage- better, but sad all the same.

Some people have discovered what they carry but have no

idea what to do with it.

Ignorance is not always bliss. If someone tells you “What you

don’t know can’t kill you”, tell him his life is in grave danger.

And I mean that quite literally- GRAVE Danger.

I was about six months and careened of our high, front porch

while ‘driving’ recklessly my walker. I didn’t know about

gravity. I hadn’t heard the word before. It was strange to me.

Yet when I got to the edge, my walker refused to float in the

air because “what I don’t know can’t affect me.” One minute I

was in my walker laughing merrily, the next minute I was

under my walker bawling miserably. Gravity had done its

work.

What you don’t know can kill you. It can maim you and

render you useless. It can relegate you to a life of regrets,

bitterness and capsized walkers.


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The prophet’s wife said she had “nothing”. Then she added,

“But a jar of oil.” Most people stop at the “nothing”- “I have

nothing”. Sad. I don’t know what the prophet’s reply if she

had stopped at ‘I have nothing’. And if I were the prophet, I

would be tempted to reply her with, “And so you shall have

nothing!”

If you concentrate on all the ‘nothings’ you have in life and

ignore the ‘jar of oil’, it is highly unlikely you will ever get

what you seek.

You have some of the most essential things you’ll ever

require to succeed in life lying in you. Whether you know it

or not is another kettle of fish. Do you know what you carry?


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LESSON # 3: ASK YOUR NEIGHBOUR “Go around and ask all your neighbours for empty jars. Don’t

ask for just a few.”

In Lesson # 2 I said you have some of the most essential

things you’d ever require to succeed in life lying in you. If

someone tells you “You have all you’ll ever need in life in

you” please kindly throw that untruth out the window. If you

had everything you need to succeed in life in you, it is highly

improbable that you would either need or value

relationships. Our very own ecosystem teaches us that

INTERDEPENDENCE, not INDEPENDENCE, is the zenith in

relationships. You need people. There is nothing like a self-

made man. At the very least, he was made by the coming

together of his parents.

Now, let’s imagine that this widow was

1) a terrible vixen with a horrible temper who alienated her

neighbours because of her ugly attitude, or

2) she was proud or

3) she made it a point of duty to ‘borrow’ things and never

return or just spoilt whatever she took from her neighbours.

In the first case, no one would even give her a spoon, not to

talk of a vessel because no one likes her. In the second case,

shame would not allow her go and ask for help. (ehn, so it’s

now that you’re greeting me because you want my help? I

don’t have vessel). In the third case, though they might like

her, history has taught them that the woman is a black hole-


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if you never wanted to see your property again, just give it to

her. Always taking, never giving back. In any of the three

scenarios, she would have been seriously short-changed. She

didn’t have money to pay creditors; she would definitely

have had no money to buy vessels.

This widow did not know she would be needing their vessels

in future. Someone said, you judge the worth of a real man by

how he treats people who can do nothing for him. Let me put

it in a slightly better way. You judge the true worth of a real

man by how he treats people who it seems can do nothing

for him.

Another thing to learn is forming strong networks. No, not

forming friendships based on what YOU have to gain but on

what you all have to contribute. I don’t believe in “Associate

only with people better than you” (I’ve proven before that this

is a defective statement. A is better than B. B is better than C.

C wants the friendship of B, but B refuses- she is better than

C. B wants the friendship of A, but A refuses- he is better than

B. in the end, we have sad, dissatisfied people obeying the

Law of Frustration., looking for what was never lost and

what they’ll never find). This is not to say you form

friendships with every Adamu, Bayo and Chidi especially if

they’re horrible influences in your life. This is quite the

contrary. It is forming friendships based on Mutual

Contribution to both Individual and Collective

Destinations.

There are certain vital resources you need in life which you’ll

only find in other people. They don’t write it on their


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foreheads. And sometimes, they don’t even know it

themselves. You will perform far better, travel much further

and farther, and travel immensely faster in life if you value

your relationships.

Let me round up with one last example. It was originally

given by a friend, Oluwatimilehin Aiyekitan. What if, fifteen

years ago to the date I wrote this, you were just casual

friends with Goodluck Jonathan and it was revealed to you

exclusively that he was going to be President about thirteen

years later, how would you treat him?

I asked someone and his reply had me rolling in laughter. He

said, “I will call him several times a day. Even if he never

returns my calls. I will buy things for him- all sorts of things.

Then I will call him to remind him that I bought those things

for him. I would call him to ask if he has eaten, and call again

to ask if he has gone to the toilet. I will ask him if he likes

cassava bread and maybe yam flour bread. I will organize free

English Language lectures for the ‘umblerra’ Dame and her

‘fellow widows’.” (I thought it was quite funny and that he

really didn’t mean half of what he said. But you never know!

People can be quite funny and you never can tell what they

would do to secure their future!)

The truth is that you can not really tell the future of anyone

with accuracy regardless of present condition. People

change. Times change. Time changes. Situations change.

There are too many examples of failed prophecies this world

has to offer concerning people’s futures. Miss Phillips, You

Were Wrong is Peter J. Daniels, book and his reply to his


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former teacher, Miss Phillips. Miss Phillips had observed him

and his phenomenal rate at which he failed and had said he

would never amount to anything in life. He kept on failing in

school. Ultimately, he went on to even fail his former

teacher’s prophecy. He amounted to something. Something

very, very big globally- a wealthy business man, an

international award-winning public speaker and best-selling

author. His life brings inspiration to many on a daily basis.

His former teacher? I don’t know what became of her.

Frankly, I don’t even care.

Now, let me say something very important here. Some

people lose out on great friendships as a result of mistakes

and then go ahead to make foolish statements like “Afterall, I

didn’t know you before and I did not die. So if you leave, I will

not die.” While it may be true that they may not die, it is also

true that they might never find out what they have missed.

Sometimes, these friends might have been the missing key to

something important in their lives- but they never found out.

It’s like this, Mr. A has sent Mr. B packing from his life as a

result of an argument that could have been resolved if only

he killed his pride. Now, at the very moment he is watching a

great football match, there is an opportunity somewhere

waiting for the right person. Mr. B is to pick someone foe the

opportunity. He remembers Mr. A but pushes the thought

from his head and looks for someone else. Like I said, at that

moment, Mr. A is watching a football match and probably his

team is winning. He is busy rejoicing while a great

opportunity for him has been given to someone else. But he

never knew. And he’s happy. Rejoicing in his foolishness. And


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then later on, he begins to wonder where all the

opportunities have gone to…

You don’t know for sure what everyone you meet in life has

to contribute. For that reason, you must treat everyone fair

and square.


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LESSON # 4: SHUT THE DOOR “Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons.”

There are some very important decisions you will take in life.

These decisions could be the single most important choices

which would not only define but also redefine your whole

life and existence. I said something six years ago about these

kinds of decisions, “It’s not a general decision, it’s a General’s

decision.” The question of purpose and, at any rate, the most

critical answers you seek in life are usually not general

decisions or popular ones. Truth is, a wise man would take

advice from several trusted people and, almost always, the

replies are bound to be different (if every single person you

ask tells you the very same thing, please evaluate your

friends). A true leader weighs these differing options for

their merits. He knows that he’s going to live with the

consequences of his decisions. So he takes all the proffered

options, goes to a quiet place and shuts the door against all

distractions and noise.

However, leaders, and generally effective people do not

employ this method only during such critical life decisions.

They do it often. ‘Shutting the door’ is a synonym for ‘Focus’.

You have the power to choose what your focus will be. Focus

means essentially shutting out some things. In essence, it

also means giving up some things. You concentrate on one

thing and give up some others. The hunter who chases two

rabbits goes home with no rabbit. You’ve got to be able to

give up some things to be able to gain some better things.


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Give up what you have for what you want, what you possess

for what you value. Trading the actual for the potential.

There are too many ‘opportunities’ for distraction in the

present day world. They ultimately translate to

‘opportunities’ for destruction. Excess time spent with

friends just talking inanities, excess time spent in front of the

television or watching movies on our systems, excess time

spent reading what does not add any measurable or lasting

value to our lives, excess time spent sleeping or just killing

time (people who make it a habit to kill time are perfecting the

art of murdering their future), excess time spent on 2go,

excess time spent online, excess time spent ‘getting

prepared’ (does this surprise you? Many people say they are

‘getting prepared’ when they are actually delaying, afraid to

venture forth), consistently pursuing the wrong

‘opportunities’ because we can’t tell the difference… all these

are just distractions. We have got to focus our energies on

what gives the maximum returns on our time investments in

them. The sun rays, as powerful as they are, will not burn a

piece of paper from this distance from now till eternity. But

use a magnifying glass to focus the sun’s rays on that piece of

paper and in no time, it will be up in flames. Focus!

I suspect you want to be more effective in life. Learn to

occasionally shut the door. Focus.


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LESSON # 5: THEN THE OIL CEASED But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped

flowing.

Every single vessel was filled to the brim. When every vessel

had been filled, afterwards, the oil stopped flowing. NOT

before. If it had continued pouring, it would only have

wasted. God detests waste. Nature abhors waste. I wrote a

piece about capacity once. Oftentimes, people make the

mistake of asking for more than they have the capacity to

hold. They would probably never get it. A teacup approaches

the ocean and asks that the ocean gives it what the tank has.

The teacup would not get more than a teacupful. It can fast

and pray. It will not get a tankful until it has a tank’s capacity.

Listen, the oil did not stop flowing because ‘a time to stop’

has come. No. It stopped flowing because the last jar had

been filled, because the woman had reached her capacity.

If she had just two jars, the oil would stop flowing

immediately after the second and last jar has been filled. If

she had ten thousand jars, the oil would keep flowing and

then stop immediately after the ten thousandth and last

vessel has been filled.

Let’s take this a step further. If after the oil stopped flowing,

she rushed out to get two million vessels, came back, and

attempted to continue pouring, only one of the new vessels

would be filled- with the contents of the pouring jar. That

would be it.


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You see, when some people are experiencing draught or

cessation, it could be for any number of reasons, one of

which could be they have reached full capacity. Full Stop.

You have no right to receive what you have not built the

capacity to handle.

There are those who specialize in getting jars after the oil has

ceased. They wait. And wait. And wait some more. And then

they conclude that that perhaps their time has not come

and that God’s time is the best, when actually, their time

has come and gone. There is a cessation because full

capacity has been reached. No matter how long the wait is,

no oil would flow.

Thankfully, however, opportunity comes more than once.

The best time to get prepared is NOT before the oil

CEASES. The best is before the oil STARTS flowing- and

definitely not after the oil ceases.


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LESSON # 6: THE PROPHET DIDN’T DO IT The prophet gave the woman direction on what to do. It

doesn’t always happen like that and, sincerely, I don’t know

why it happened like that. I only know that this time, the

prophet didn’t do it for her. That is instructive. Sometimes,

you need help by way of direct intervention of someone who

has gone ahead. At other times, the best help they can give

you is showing you what to do.

It’s much like the difference between giving a person fish and

teaching them how to fish.

If there’s someone who you always run to every single time

you run into a fix, and the person always, without fail, helps

you out- maybe bails you out financially everytime, prays

and fasts on your behalf, carries you under their arm and

takes you everywhere, thinks on your behalf, makes

decisions for you or anything of the sort- what they are doing

in earnest is harming you. In the short term, it might look

like they are helping you. In the long term, however, they are

actually harming you. How? Simple, really. You are being

formed, slowly but surely, into a perpetual dependent, little

better than invalids. They are unwittingly forging you into a

state of existence of learned helplessness. What happens

when they are gone? You look for someone else to leech unto

and become a parasite or you are decreased to a helpless,

directionless mess. Believe me when I say they are NOT

helping you because they won’t be here forever.

Value the people in your life who show you what needs to be

done and ‘helps’ you only so far. Value the critics who point


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out your faults but don’t do anything to help. Value the

‘enemies’ who consistently seek your weakness. From them

you can learn an enormous lot. In their unkind words, you

might just find kind truths subtly hidden. Value people who

unfailingly stretch you, stretch your thinking ability, and give

you tasks that seem greater than your power, value

circumstances that test your capacity greatly, value

adversity. From them you can find hidden strengths you

never knew existed and which you’d never have discovered

any other way.


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LESSON # 7: PAY YOUR DEBT AND LIVE ON THE

REST “Go and sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can

live on what is left.”

This last lesson is an important principle in Money

Management and Wealth Creation.

I’m going to address this from the perspective that everyone

of us owes debts. I will, in little detail, explain this concept

here.

We all owe debts to whoever has to offer what we need. Let

me make this clearer to understand. No one eats money in

the paper form- at least not anyone I know or anyone in full

control of their senses. So, when we earn money, it isn’t an

end to itself. It is a means to acquiring some other things.

You must eat. If you’re not a subsistence farmer, then you

owe a part of your income to farmers, food vendors and

people in the chain of production of the food you consume.

You will give them that part in exchange for food.

You must wear clothes. If you’re not a textile manufacturer,

don’t live in a nudist camp or favour a dress made of a

patchwork of leaves and raw animal skins, a part of your

income must be paid to those who produce the clothes you

wear.

You need shelter. If you don’t particularly favour living under

bridges or laying your head anywhere darkness meets you,


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then a part of your income must go to owners and/or

managers of whatever patch of real estate on which you live.

Now, you pretty much understand what I mean when I say

we all owe debts.

Now, I classify the debts we owe under two broad

categories- Essential Debts and Elective Debts.

Basically, every product or service we purchase fall into

either of these categories. Some people, however, get the

whole concept of what is essential and what is elective, they

mix up and confuse both categories. The result is, almost

always, predictable. They run into a financial quagmire. But

I’m already delving too deep. Let me address just one

category. Essential Debts.

At the very peak of our Essential Debts is the Debt we owe to

our Future. That is the debt we must always pay FIRST. It’s

called saving and investing. In George Clason’s The Richest

Man In Babylon, Arkad (who is the richest man in Babylon)

explains something very profound- A PART OF ALL I EARN IS

MINE TO KEEP.

KEEP means I’m not paying that part to anyone but ME. I

hope you understand this sufficiently.

The injunction was to first pay all the debts and then live on

the rest. For some, it’s quite the opposite. They live on the

best part of their income and then think about paying their

essential debts.


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If you consistently live above your income, you’re living on

the best. If you regularly go binge-shopping or suffer from

impulse-purchase (always buying what you never budgeted

for), you’re living on the best. If you’re in the habit of buying

what you don’t need, with money you don’t have, to impress

people who don’t really care, you’re living on the best. If you

earn an income and have never thought to possess assets

that can be profitably liquidated on short notice and that

consistently appreciates in fiscal value, you’re living on the

best.

Even someone like Donald Trump, who, in my opinion,

spends shockingly and lavishly doesn’t live on his best. He is

one of the most aggressive real estate dealers in the United

States. If he spends that lavishly, it’s because he can both

afford and sustain it.

Look at the two diagrams below.


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This is a very simplified diagram of the Income Reservoir.

We might have noticed that the Financial Equilibrium

Position (FEP) is always beneath the tap.

Figure A is typical of the perpetually poor. The tap of their

outgoings is usually at the very bottom of their Income

Reservoir. They never have any reserve and their FEP is

never either high or substantial. These are the people who

live on their best. To add to that, in a more detailed diagram,

we would see that any tap located beneath a mark called the

Financial Safe Point is bound to ride lower and lower. The

end result is that their FEP converges at Rock Bottom. This

type of income is not exclusive to Low Income Earners. High

Income Earners with unsound financial knowledge also

suffer this too.

Figure B is typical of the wealthy. The tap of their outgoings

is located above the Safe Point, at the top of their Income

Reservoir. From this simplified diagram, we see that only the

excess above the FEP ever goes out. In the more detailed

diagram, we would notice that the tank has another tap (not

shown here). That tap is exclusive to investments and that

tap is always beneath the Safe Point for the wealthy. That tap

always feeds back into their Income Reservoir. The end

result is their FEP rises higher and higher.

Now, I will quickly define both terms Spending and

Investing. They both implicitly mean exchanging something

owned or presently possessed for something desired.


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Whereas, in the case of SPENDING, the primary focus is for

present, momentary benefit, in the case of INVESTING, the

primary focus is on future gain and residual benefit.

Poor people who make a habit of living on their best are in

the habit of spending the better part of their income and

resources.

Wealthy people who make it a habit to live on the rest are

dedicated to investing the better part of their income and

resources.

On which side of the divide are you? On which side of the

split would you rather be?

Pay your debt and live on the rest.


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RUN THROUGH Let us do a run-through of everything we have learnt here.

Get a piece of paper and honestly answer the questions

below. If there are any answers you would love to share with

me, please do not hesitate to mail them to me. In addition, if

any questions arise, I’d be happy to hear and help solve

them.

1. Without looking back at the pages of this e-book, list

the 7 lessons you have learnt from the story of the

prophet’s widow?

2. How does Lesson 1 change your approach to

Christianity? How does it affect your understanding of

the rules of wealth?

3. Can you answer the question of Lesson 2 confidently?

List your answers. How can they bring you Financial

Value?

4. Write the things you would have to consciously

change in your life as it concerns your relationships

as a result of Lesson 3.

5. Can you enumerate ways in which you have not been

observing Lesson 4? Explain how you plan to change

that.

6. Can you remember any incident in your life that

Lesson 5 reminds you of? Things that you lost

because you hadn’t built the ability to manage them?

how can you change that in your life?

7. What does Lesson 6 teach you on finding true

strengths and placing a value on tough times?


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8. Has Lesson 7 taught you anything new? What are

they? Explain explicitly how you wish to apply the

lessons learnt here in your life.

Has this e-book helped you in anyway? Are there ways you

would wish an improvement? I value your feedback in order to

serve you better.

+(237)703 237 5200

[email protected]

[email protected]




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AKPOVETA, Valentine ‘t is an Author, Effectiveness Coach, Public

Speaker and Infopreneur. He is President of the green project and

CED, Connectus Consulting. Touted as one of Africa’s foremost

Revolutionary Thinkers, and with several years of service in

Leadership Capacities in a number of organizations, he is a regular

contributor to numerous Web and Print Media. His pastimes

include Critical Thinking, Reading, Group Discussions and Writing.

You may connect with him on facebook

www.facebook.com/ofVALOUR, follow him on twitter

@akpovetavt and visit his blog

www.touchedbyapen.wordpress.com.

To book him for Speaking or Training engagements,

Place a call, +(234)703 237 5200

Or mail,

[email protected]

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http://www.facebook.com/ofVALOUR

http://www.touchedbyapen.wordpress.com/



7 lessons from a prophet's widow

Documents

forming friendships

excess time

oil stopped

connectus

prophets cried

safe point

valakpovetayahoo

grave danger