Elijah and Elisha PLEASED GOD
Posted by:
SeLahGirl on
January 23, 2008 at
11:43AM EST
So I've been thinking alot about Elijah and Elisha -- my two very
favorite Bible people. There are just so many things I love about the
whole dynamic of their lives. I love that Elijah was so bold as to
declare whatever God said to declare no matter the consequences. I love
that in one breath he is walking in the power of God, and a couple
chapters later he's crawled under a bush feeling as human and
vulnerable as you or me.
I love Elisha and how he came into his
own. How he wasn't so arrogant in his youth that he thought Elijah a
fool. I love that he was so determined to walk with God with the same
boldness that Eljah had, and that he owned it when it came his time. He
didn't try to be Elijah, he recognized that it was all about God and
never about a man. Though he loved and respected Elijah as a friend and
father and mentor.
And even more, I love the relationship
between the two as an excellent model of discipleship and mentoring. I
don't see that in the church anywhere these days. It's all about
SELF-esteem and coddling the fragile psyche of the next generation.. I
love Elijah's technique...
If someone (anyone) wants it, let
it be according to the measure they are willing to work to be where God
is at. If they make up their mind to witness all that He is doing, if
their heart is right, if God determines they are worthy of such a high
calling, then they will see him and serve him in that dimension.
If
they are not, then they can serve him according to all that they are
willing to sow. So many have modeled and taught a generation that you
can beg, borrow, and steal the fruit/harvest of another. But that is
not what God meant when he said that one will sow and another will
reap. That statement in no way belittles the promise that you will reap
what you have sown. Or that it will be measured back to you as you have
measured it out.
The first comment speaks of teamwork, of
God's will being performed by the church as a whole. That you should
focus on the work you are called to, and let God worry with the
fulfillment of all things that he has promised. The other comments are
referring to getting after it. Work, chase, grab a hold of whatever it
takes to serve God to the level that you have made up your mind to
serve. That kind of faith and belief is what pleases him.
How
bad do you want it? How distracted will you allow yourself to be by
what you don't have, by mean people and hypocrites, by prosperity? Will
you fight just as passionately without an audience as you would with
one? Is the approval of God a good enough reward for you?
Think
about that last one, before you commit to a textbook answer? God's not
looking for a textbook answer cuz pat-churchy-answers make him wanna
puke (Rev).
Elisha walked alot of lonely miles across that
desert. He knew what it was to be outcast, rejected by people you love,
unpopular, picked last, hated, laughed at, hunted/stalked/harassed, and
having nothing to call your own. That's the deeper (real) meaning of
that question...
Is the approval of God good enough for you?...
Just
wondering... so anyway... I love Elijah and Elisha. I mean, God sent a
Chariot of Fire to pick Elijah up and carry him to heaven. Despite his
imperfections, his humanity, and all that. He sowed (planted)
incredible faith and obedience into many not-so-fun dirty things.
Elijah farmed, and farming is hard and risky work... it involves
things that can't be seen or controlled on our part -- things that
matter most to God.
God rewarded Elijah not for his syrupy
talk and dreamy ambitions and happy thoughts, but for the callouses on
his hands and the blisters on his feet, for the sweat stains in his
shirt and the scars upon his heart. God was first, Self was last.
That's what it means to be created in his image, in the image of your
Heavenly Father. We all have the potential, it's how we were created.
Now it's just a matter of to what extent we wanna live up to it.
God
gives each of us control over our destiny. We can't blame anyone or any
situation. It's not what hits us from the outside, it's what we fight
back with from the inside. Is God our source, are we allowing him to
move thru us to affect everything in this world? That's what Elijah and
Elisha did. The power displayed in their lives was because they were
completely yielded to the will of God. It's like being a power tool
maneuvered by the hand of God. There's nothing in this world (fire,
air, earth, or water) that the Carpenter can't control and use to
build/create amazing things.
It's all a matter of letting him
move thru us by agreeing with his will and not our own. Obedience is
teamwork in action. It's working with God, carpenter and tool, musician
and instrument. Anything less than total obedience is working against
Him, and eventually causes a fiasco. That's why it's so important.
Obedience (submission) and Love define unity.
That's
how God remains one. That's why women are to submit to their husbands
and husbands are to love them for it -- because the reward (divine
reaction) to submission is love. That is unity, That is God. Without
obedience, the external breaks apart. Without Love, the internal breaks
apart.
That is why leaders/pastors should be obeyed and
submitted to as the spiritual authority, and why their reaction should
be one of love rather than arrogance. That's why so much is out of
balance, because people have lost an understanding of the dynamic of
teacher/student, submission/love, obedience/unity. The enemy has
redefined so much, and much of the church has believed the liar..
Father <3
open our eyes to your Truth.
Return understanding according to your wisdom and your mercy.
Raise
up mentors like Elijah, and students like Elisha, and help a generation
to yield to your perfect will, so that they may know your Power and
Authority --
and so that their heart's desire and only passion is to PLEASE GOD.
When that is our center, there will always be peace no matter what chaos surrounds us. In the name of Jesus.
Amen..
