Regaining Your Passion Series

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.