Note: I must give much credit to Tommy Tenny and his book “God’s Eye View” ch. 4 It was a great inspiration in thought and structure.
Title: Regaining Your Passion
Theme: To show how we have lost our passion and need to regain it.
Text: 2 Kings 13:14-21
2 Kings 13:14 Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, "O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!" (15) And Elisha said to him, "Take a bow and some arrows." So he took himself a bow and some arrows. (16) Then he said to the king of Israel, "Put your hand on the bow." So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. (17) And he said, "Open the east window"; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot"; and he shot. And he said, "The arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them." (18) Then he said, "Take the arrows"; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; so he struck three times, and stopped. (19) And the man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times." (20) Then Elisha died, and they buried him. And the raiding bands from Moab invaded the land in the spring of the year. (21) So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.
Introduction
For around 60 years, Elisha had been the prophet of Israel (5 kings Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoash). God had taken his ministry to a new level. You may remember that Elisha is the one who spent around 10 – 15 of years following Elijah, waiting and being a servant to Elijah until God called Elijah home. There was one request Elisha had for Elijah, “give me a double portion”. Of whatever God has poured into you give me a double portion. Of whatever relationship you have with God.
I could imagine Elisha following Elijah around and watch God use him . Inside of himself Elisha would say, “God use me like that one day.” Right before Elijah was taken to God his mantle, “robe” fell onto Elisha, and God answered his request. God used Elisha to perform twice as many miracles as Elijah did. It boggles the mind the many miracles that God did through Elisha.
2 Kings 13:20 Then Elisha died, and they buried him. And the raiding bands from Moab invaded the land in the spring of the year. 21 So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.
Now here it had been 60 years since Elijah’s death and Elisha is on his death bed. When Joash says, “14 Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, "O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!"
He is saying you are on your death bed, I can see the angels waiting at the door and you are about to die.
Joash came with fear in his heart. Elisha was to him the voice of God. At this time God would use prophets to speak to the people. They were the voice of God. Elisha was the spiritual strength of Israel. Joash was afraid of losing his strength.
So he goes to the bed of Elisha and says, I am here would you impart that spirit and power into Israel. We need God’s strength.
For some we would call this praying for revival. “Revive us again oh God. We need revival”. I have no doubt that this was the intention. I believe it should also be hours. God we need revival. God we have got to have a revival in this place. Lord even more I need revival in me. I have got to have revival.
Watch what Elisha does,
(15) And Elisha said to him, "Take a bow and some arrows." So he took himself a bow and some arrows. (16) Then he said to the king of Israel, "Put your hand on the bow." So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands.
When the prophet Elisha put his hand on the king’s hand, he was illustrating the process of spiritual instruction, guidance, and coaching. He said, “I don’t’ want you just to shoot the arrow –anyone can do that. Put your hands on the bow . . . now let me put my hand over yours.”
This is a beautiful picture of how God places His hands over weak human hands to accomplish supernatural things.
Psalms 144:1 Blessed be the LORD my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle;
Zechariah 4:6 So he answered and said to me: "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts.
The king must have thought, who is this frail old man to tell me how to shoot an arrow? But the prophet was about to mentor him in a whole new level of spiritual warfare. Elisha would introduce him to the real power, where uncalloused hands of an aging prophet are more dangerous than a warrior king’s practiced hands of war.
The king couldn’t see his target
The problem was that the king could not see his target. It would take the hands of a prayer warrior to aim the arrow. This was an elevated battlefield. This is one of those.
Eph 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Moments
2Co 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
Now notice what he says next.
(17) And he said, "Open the east window"; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot"; and he shot.
He had not shot the arrow by himself yet. It had been with the assistance of Elisha. Now it was his turn. Notice what he says next. King Joash is about to learn a lesson in listening. I think the art of listening is a tough thing to learn.
James tells us in James 1:19 “My dear brothers and sisters, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.”
Look at verse 17 -19
And he said, "The arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them."18 Then he said, "Take the arrows"; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; so he struck three times, and stopped.
King Joash wasn’t really listening to the prophet. He was expecting something dramatic to happen. As mentioned earlier miracles were a common occurrence in the days of Elijah and Elisha. The last thing he expected from this meeting was for this dying prophet to make him look foolish in the presence of everyone. Elisha had told him to strike the Syrians until they were destroyed, he found it impossible to believe the total defeat of his enemies depended on this ludicrous action.
It seems that he reluctantly took the arrows to humor Elisha. I mean I could understand taking the arrow but striking the ground with them. This seemed to be inappropriate. Yet Elisha said, “strike the ground”. And he did just to humor him. It seems he was a little embarrassed by the whole thing. He was the king and the people were watching him .
Wait a minute I came to church to get a miracle. I didn’t come for all the strange stuff. I just came to get. Then you put your boney hand on mind. What is up? It sounded good when you were prophesied all that deliverance stuff but to shoot an arrow.
I mean the king managed to overcome his embarrassment to shoot the arrow and do what is told but obliviously his heart nor faith was in it.
There was a clear warning from the prophet to “strike the ground” until God has delivered his enemies from him. Yet is seemed the king said, “Hand me them arrows and let me get this over with so that we can get to the real miracles.”
Yet Elisha the prophet could see right through this passionless performance and he knew all was lost.
Polite or Passionate
Notice Elisha’s reaction. It had to have shocked the king.
19 And the man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times."
King you should have struck the ground five or six times, you would have totally destroyed Syria, your enemy. But you kept you passion in check. You were polite instead of passionate. You were more concerned with you dignity that the will of deity.
Somehow, between the grasping of the arrows and the striking the ground, disbelief and fear of man won the battle for the kings heart.
Sadly by withholding his passion the king sacrificed his nations hope on the altar of public opinion and personal doubt.
Perhaps if King Joash had known the ramifications of his actions he would have hit it more. I mean couldn’t he get this from Elisha. I just believe that God is that hard to figure out the biggest question is are we listening.
And here we are. Our Passion
“The passion with which we respond in the spiritual realm almost certainly predetermines our victory in the physical.
“All to often, we allow our destiny to be sabotaged by the passion police roaming the halls of worship.“
If we ever realize that we hold the arrows of prophetic destiny in our passionate fervency for God whether it be in our praise and worship, just pure pursuit of God. The devil has told us a lie and tried to steal our destiny by taking away our passion for God.
God’s Hand on Ours
When we lift our hands in passionate worship it is God putting His hand in our hand. Just as when we lay our hands on the sick, what we need is God’s hand in ours. If we are not careful we can pray passionless prayers over people and never see anything happen. We go through the routine just to “obey scripture” not understanding that we must have faith.
We convince ourselves that it is the certain of anointing oil or spot in the sanctuary where God heals. We turn it into a ritual and lose our passion. Oh it feels good but where is God in all of it. Sinning the same songs as the other anointed service.
I am not interested in religious formulas, equations, or programs for igniting revival, I am calling for a rekindling of old-time passion in the church for His presence for God and His spirit.
Breaking Traditions
I believe that we have got to break our traditions, move our rituals and crucify our politeness in the name of passion.
This is what people who received from God often did.
Blind Bartimeus cried out to Jesus with all of the power that his lungs could muster. People told him to hush, to be rude they told him to “Shut Up!”. Yet he did care. He was tired of being blind and polite. Mark 10:47
The woman suffering from an incurable and chronic blood hemorrhage pursued Him in the middle of a crushing crowd. She risked everything just to secretly touch the hem of His garment, which may indicate that she approached Jesus from behind on her hands and knees while using on hadn to fend away the feet of the crowd pressing around and above her. Mark 9:20-22
The persistent mother from Canaan pursued Him beyond the accepted boundaries and protocol of social, racial and religious protocol. She was desperate to win deliverance for her daughter. Matthew 15:20-28
The demonic possessed by a legion of demons rushed to meet Jesus at the lakeshore with his body covered by nothing but the blood of self-mutilation. Mark 5:1-20
The desperate friends (talked about two weeks ago) of the paralyzed man who spent days and nights on a litter restored to property damage and breaking and entering to place him in the presence of the healer. Mark 2
Will you be polite or desperate?
If it hasn’t happened to you yet you will come to a point where you will have to make a choice to either be polite or be desperate for him.
David had to make that choice as he danced through the streets of Israel. Ridiculed by his wife because of her “embarrassment”. What was he going to do? I like his response.
2 Samuel 6:14-23 Then David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. (15) So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. (16) Now as the ark of the LORD came into the City of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart. (17) So they brought the ark of the LORD, and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. (18) And when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts. (19) Then he distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins. So all the people departed, everyone to his house. (20) Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, "How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!" (21) So David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the LORD. (22) "And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor." (23) Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
Message
2 Samuel 6:20-23 David returned home to bless his family. Michal, Saul's daughter, came out to greet him: "How wonderfully the king has distinguished himself today--exposing himself to the eyes of the servants' maids like some burlesque street dancer!" (21) David replied to Michal, "In GOD's presence I'll dance all I want! He chose me over your father and the rest of our family and made me prince over GOD's people, over Israel. Oh yes, I'll dance to GOD's glory-- (22) more recklessly even than this. And as far as I'm concerned . . . I'll gladly look like a fool . . . but among these maids you're so worried about, I'll be honored no end." (23) Michal, Saul's daughter, was barren the rest of her life.
Conclusion
What are you waiting on?
What are you waiting on? What turns your switch on? This could be your divine appointment with destiny. Or are you going to settle for the same ole worship and the same old songs.
