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.”
• This indwelling manifests itself not only in the presence of the Holy Ghost by virtue of the redemption God has placed on our lives but by an anointing that enables us to worship God and work for God. Everything you need to make the journey is given in him. I Cor 1:21 “Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;” I John 2:27 “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” The anointing of the Holy Ghost is the touch of the hand of God that enables the people of God to do the work of God. I Samuel 10:26 speaks of a band of men whose hearts God had touched. The only thing that will enable us to do the work of God in the way of God is the touch of God!
• The anointing to worship and work may be lost. A man can become spiritually ineffective. This may be as a result of sin, but it may be because of slackness as well. I Cor 9:27 “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” II Peter 2:19-22 “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”
Have You Lost Your Cutting Edge? There are some things in this passage that we must learn:
1. Because you are under a Bible believing church and pastor does not mean you have the axe head. Elisha was a great man of God, but his follower lost his axe head.
2. Because you are actively working in the church or a ministry does not mean that you have the axe head. They were working, but they did lose their exe head in the midst of the work.
3. Because you are called and commissioned of God for a work does not mean that you have the axe head.
Do you know what it is to experience the anointing of God? Have you lost your axe head? What must you do?
I. Accept Responsibility: He did not blame the deacon who hurt his feelings or the preacher in whom he lost confidence. It is your responsibility to seek the anointing of God for your life. If you have lost that touch you once had, it is not the fault of another. You will never get your cutting edge back while blaming others for having lost it in the beginning.
II. Weep Over The Loss: the man said, “Alas!” (v. 5). From a primitive root word expressing emotional pain exclamatorily. Until you come to realize your loss, accept responsibility for it, and weep over it, you can never have the anointing again! The loss of the anointing of God is the most terrible loss a child of God can experience. If you will not weep over it, you will not recover it!
III. Admit It Was Borrowed to Begin With: It was not his; it was borrowed. Furthermore, his pain tells us that he had not sufficient means to pay to replace it. This too is where we are. The cutting edge is not our own; it is his. We cannot pay for it! Romans 7:18 “For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” We did not earn it or buy it; we borrowed it from the Lord.
IV. Seek Counsel of God’s Man: (v. 6, “The man of God said…”), You don’t need to talk to a carpenter about an inoperable vehicle; you need a mechanic! You don’t talk to a banker about a sick cow; you need a veterinarian! If your problem is Spiritual… seek spiritual help! The world does not have spiritual answers. Heed the message of the man of God. God will send what you need to help you be restored. He’s doing it today, if you will just hear it and heed it!
V. Remember Where You Lost It: Elisha asked this (v. 6), and it is the most important question. What were you doing when you had your cutting edge? and what were you doing when you lost it? Quit doing what you are and start doing what you were doing! Did you lose it at the Honky Tonk? Beer Joint? Dance Hall? That Floozy’s House? Did you lose it in a prayerless night? Careless Worship? Life without witness? Did you lose it in your pursuit for money? Success? Popularity? Acceptance? Achievement? Possessions? Get back to where you were before you lost it. You will find it there still!
Conclusion: You may have to lose something else to get back your axe head. He cut down a stick and cast it in the water. This “stick” was a beam that could have been used for building the house of God. But they never got the stick back. If you lose your cutting edge it may cost you something valuable to you to get it back. You may have to cast away something to get the axe head back, but it will be well worth it. Though they lost the beam, you don’t find one word of complaint over the loss of it! You will recognize the miracle when the axe head is restored. If you have lost your cutting edge, today is the day to return to where you lost it and be restored. Are you willing to give up the thing that it will take to get it back? Are you ready for God to work a miracle in your life? It is time to seek the Lord!
