Have You Lost Your Cutting Edge?

From the Desk of Pastor Toby Powers

Truth Baptist Church

Hwy 78

Bremen, GA

Have You Lost Your Cutting Edge?

II Kings 6:1-7

Intro: The sons of the prophets are the students of a school of young preachers under the tutelage of Elisha. This practice of teaching the young prophets was initiated by Samuel, and in this chapter we see the growth of this school under the direction of Elisha. In fact, they had run completely out of room in the place where they assembled to sit and bear his teaching. In this passage they decide to go down near Jordan and build a new building in which to meet and learn from the prophet. Elisha agrees to go with them. As they set into building, however, one of the prophets swings his axe and the head flies off into the river and out of sight. Elisha causes it to swim to the top and be recovered.

The application for us is this: the axe head is a type of the anointing of God. Without the axe head, a man can wail away at the trunk of the tree, but all he will do is get bruised hands. The handle is no good without the axe head. The servant of God is no good without the anointing of God. You may go to work on the house of God, and you may give your best effort, but you will never be effective without anointing!

Illustration: Acts 19 Seven vagabond Jews set in to cast demons out of a possessed man. The man went crazy and prevailed against them so that the seven men left naked and wounded. We cannot do the work of God on our own!

• There is an indwelling power that lives in the hearts of believers that enables us to carry out the work of God. This work of the Spirit is begun in us when we get saved, but it is far from through. He continues to work (I Peter 1:5-9, “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”).

• It’s more than eating grapes and sopping milk and honey; it’s killing giants, slaying nations, and having victory! It’s more than the helmet of salvation; it’s the whole armor of God. But the receiving of the Spirit in salvation is the beginning. I Cor 6:19-20 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Romans 8:9 “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Hebrews 12:1 “cloud of witnesses” Steam or fog of spirit. I Cor 3:16 “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” II Cor 6:16 “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Eph 3:17-19 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” II Tim 1:14 “That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.” I John 4:12-13 “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.”