“Be the Shunammite Woman” Post 2
by Jennifer Greene-Sullivan
The Shunammite woman made room: a small upper room, a bed, a table, and a lamp.
In my last post, I wrote about what it means to prepare a place for the presence of God, and I wrote about the Shunammite woman’s discernment, her obedience, and her willingness to make space before she ever saw the miracle (2 Kings 4:8–17). The Lord is still teaching me. I am still learning because making room is only the beginning.
I am beginning to realize that preparing the room is not the hard part because trusting God with what happens inside it is.
The Room That Held the Promise
In 2 Kings 4:8–17, the room she prepared became the place where the promise was spoken. She did not ask for a son, and she did not expect one. Yet, God placed a promise in the very space she made for Him. That is often how He works. Ultimately, He fills what we prepare.
When I have seen this in my own life, there have been seasons where I felt the Lord asking me to make room—through obedience, through surrender, through letting go of what was comfortable. At the time, I did not know what He would place there. I only knew I was being asked to prepare. Then, slowly, He began to fill those spaces with opportunities and with a community I had not even known I would experience.
The Room That Held the Pain
In 2 Kings 4:18–37, that same promise is placed back into the Shunammite woman’s arms—lifeless. The son she was given is taken when he suddenly gets a headache and dies. Where does she go? Back to the room. The room she prepared in faith becomes the place where she carries her pain. She lays her son on the bed of the man of God: the very place that once represented promise now holds her grief.
And still… she says:
“It is well.”
She declares it is well because she trusted the One who had filled the room in the first place. Her faithful declaration confronts me because I know what it feels like to return to a place where I once saw God move and not understand what He is doing now. I know what it feels like to hold something I believed was a promise and wonder why it now feels like loss. Yet, the invitation is the same.
Return to the room.
Making Room Does Not Remove the Cost
We often think that if we prepare well enough, obey fully enough, or trust deeply enough, then pain will not follow. However, Scripture shows us something different. Making room for God does not remove the cost to us. Making room for God reveals the cost. I am learning that obedience is not a shield from difficulty. It is often the doorway into deeper dependence.
When I Made Room
There was something different about this past weekend at The Ramp Church and University in Hamilton, Alabama. I went in this unfamiliar facility to celebrate my daughter with a decision already settled in my heart. I chose to lay down every question, every concern, and every distraction. I chose to focus on the Lord and on Anya’s place inside of His plan. I decided not to pay attention to any pomp or circumstance or performance, I sought the Lord, and I chose to worship with my whole heart.
I made room, and the Lord met me there. During worship that morning, I lifted both of my hands in surrender. For months, I had been dealing with pain in my right shoulder. Sadly, I could not lift my arm fully, and I could not sleep on that side without discomfort. It had become something I had quietly accepted. BUT GOD! In that moment—while I was singing, praying, and fully engaged in worship—the pain left.
Just as suddenly as it had come, it was gone.
It released at the name of Jesus. I stood there, both arms lifted, realizing that what I had made room for was not just His presence. It was His power. Later, during the graduation ceremony, the Lord allowed me to see something I still struggle to fully put into words. After worship, several pastors stood to pray and speak over the graduates. One of Anya’s professors stepped forward to declare the promises of God. I did not know this man’s name at the time, but as he began to speak, something shifted in the room when the Lord let me see beyond what was happening in the natural.
I saw Him. I saw Jesus on that stage!
Not in a way I can fully explain, but as living water—moving, surrounding, and flowing. It was as if the Lord stepped forward, around, and through the man who was speaking. What I heard with my ears was one voice, but what I saw in the Spirit was something deeper.
It was as if the words were being carried: Released! Poured out!
The Spirit of truth was being declared with a boldness that did not originate from man alone. It looked like rivers flowing outward—reaching, covering, and settling over those graduates.
I sat there, completely undone.
Tears streamed down my face as I realized that I was being allowed to see something I could not have seen on my own. No one around me reacted. No one else seemed to notice.
But I saw Him.
And in that moment, the Lord made something clear to me—not in a loud way, but in a knowing deep within my spirit. This was an anointing: a boldness to speak truth, a willingness to declare it without hesitation.
I knew I could not leave without saying something.
So I did what only a mama, overwhelmed by the presence of God, would do. I stepped forward, introduced myself, and shared what the Lord had shown me. I spoke it simply, as best as I could, and then I left it in the Lord’s hands. That evening, we packed up and left Hamilton, Alabama, heading toward home. As we drove towards Atlanta, Georgia, the sky had grown dark, and the city came into view.
It was lit up—wide, bright, impossible to miss, and immediately, the words rose in my spirit:
“A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” (Matthew 5:14, ESV)
In that moment, everything felt connected.
The Word being spoken.
The Spirit moving.
The calling on those young people’s lives.
It is not meant to be hidden. None of it is, and I sat there in awe, realizing something I am still learning to live out: when we make room for God, we are not just making space for His presence.
We are making space for His movement.
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Made Room Too
In Luke 2:34–35, a prophecy is spoken over Mary:
“A sword will pierce through your own soul also…”
Mary made room for God in a way no one else ever has. She carried the promise inside her womb. She loved and nurtured the Messiah of all the world, and she walked in obedience without fully understanding what it would require. And at the cross, the promise was fulfilled— her heart broke as if it were pierced (Luke 2:35).
The Upper Room Was Not Without Cost
In Acts 2, the disciples gathered in the upper room.
They waited.
They prayed.
They made room.
The Spirit came, but what followed was not comfort.
It was calling.
It was boldness.
It was persecution.
The room that held the presence of God also launched them into a life that would cost them everything.
What I Am Learning
- The Shunammite woman made room in her home.
- Mary made room in her body.
- The disciples made room in their waiting.
And in every case, God filled what was prepared. He also transformed it, and I am beginning to understand something I had not fully seen before:
Making room for God means trusting Him not only with what He gives—but with what He allows.
A Personal Reflection
It is easy to make room when we are expecting blessing, but it is harder to make room when we are carrying pain. It is harder to trust when what we thought was a promise feels like a loss.
I have had to ask myself a difficult question: will I still return to the room when I do not understand what God is doing there?
Because the Shunammite woman did not abandon the room. She returned to it.
The Invitation
What if the place you prepared for God is the very place He is asking you to trust Him again? What if the room you built in faith is the place where your faith is being refined? Making room for God is not just about receiving His presence, but making room for God is about trusting Him when that presence changes everything.
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The Aging English Major 