The God of the Bible wants you to place great demands of Him, to ask for more and not less. And when you do, it will change your life forever!

<p>The God of the Bible wants you to place great demands of Him, to ask for more and not less. And when you do, it will change your life forever!</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

It Is Written

John Bradshaw

Three Strikes

I'm glad to get this opportunity to open the Bible with you and spend some time in the Word.

So, let's pray together now and ask God's blessing.

Our Father in heaven, we're grateful to have the opportunity to open up your word and allow you to speak to us.

We want to listen with open ears and open hearts.

We are going to begin by diving right in 2 Kings 13.

Now, Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness, whereof he died.

And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

It's 60 years since he was first called to be a prophet, and now Elisha is sick.

Interestingly, virtually no mention has been made of Elisha in regards to anything that's happened over the last 45 years.

Yet here comes the king, who knew that Elisha was to Israel as though he was their chariots and horsemen.

King Ahab, on the other hand, derided Elisha as a troubler in Israel.

But King Joash says he is to Israel as what?

The sun was setting on Elisha's life, and yet still he was worthy of the respect of a king.

So we don't want anyone to think, particularly the aged, to think that they're not useful.

Let not any of the younger generation think that the older generation has nothing to offer.

Their wisdom alone is a treasure of great value.

Israel at this time was prodigiously wicked.

During Elisha's ministry, He had dealt with scoundrels, scoundrels like King Ahab and Joram, Ahab's son, the zealous yet brutal Jehu, the corrupt queen Athaliah.

Now there was at least 1 bright spot, Joash, the boy king, But in general, the leaders of Israel were a depraved mob.

Through it all, however, Elisha had been constant.

He was a steadfast representative of God, even in the midst of wholesale depravity and corporate apostasy.

This tells me, friend, that God will give you the capacity to be true to Him, irrespective of your surroundings or your circumstances.

While it is true that some situations we just don't want to put ourselves into, the will of God and the grace of God is always able to sustain you.

Rough job, rough family, rough marriage, rough town, rough colleagues, rough life, rough school, rough church.

God will give you the grace to be as faithful to Him in the midst of your situation as was Elijah in the midst of the decadence, the dissoluteness, and the degeneracy that he faced." And get this, Even though the king was a wicked man, even though Elisha might have wondered if his witness meant anything at all to that wicked king, even though he may have wondered whether his life was making any difference at all, His witness was powerful.

When the chips were down, the king knew who to turn to.

Friend, even if you wonder if your witness means anything at all to people, continue to let your light shine brightly.

Somebody is going to call on you when times get rough.

Someone is going to ask you to pray when a crisis comes.

Remember when you're ready to exercise faith?

Like Desmond Doss, folks ridiculed him, wanted him out of the military, wanted him dead, But it got to the stage that they would hold up entire battles during World War II and wouldn't start them until after Desmond Doss had completed his personal devotions.

The Bible says, Jesus said, Let your light shine.

The Bible says, you are the light of the world and the salt of the earth.

And salt ought to be introduced carefully.

You don't take salt and put it in somebody's eyes.

You might take salt and put it just the right amount in somebody's food.

Your witness is going to taste good when you mix up as salt, not getting in anybody's eyes, but letting people see Jesus in you and see Jesus work through you.

Verse 15, Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows.

And he took unto him bow and arrows." Strange request!

Clearly the prophet's got something cooking.

Verse 16, And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow, and he put his hand upon it.

And Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands, And he said, Open the window eastward.

King opens it, opens it and it's facing east, in the direction of Syria, Israel's mortal enemy at the time.

Not only was Elisha prophesying with words, but he was confirming this thing with signs that the king would have the victory.

He places his old hands upon the king's hands.

For additional power in shooting the thing?

No, the prophet is a dying man, not Robin Hood.

He's not helping the king hit a target or shoot further than ever before.

He's saying, King, if your hands are in the hands of the God of heaven, If you'll move forward in faith, making God your counsel, if you'll trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding, if you'll rely on God, if you'll do things His way, You are going to have victory.

Only 1 thing preventing you from wasting your enemies, King, and that is failure to go with God.

So march to the beat of his drum and watch him do something incredible.

If you will live this life relying on God, trusting in God, depending on God, connected to God, your hands in God's hands, God is going to bring victory into your life and in the words of Peter the Bible writer, you shall never fall.

Verse 17, 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 thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them." Now, that's magnificent.

Joash did like his forefathers and permitted idolatry to go on in Israel.

Now, in case you don't know, idolatry is bad.

Yet when this scoundrel comes to the prophet, God meets him where he is and offers the guy all the help that he needs.

You can be a terrible sinner, yet if you're front up on God's doorstep, you can know that God will take you in and make you feel at home and make you part of the family.

He is in the business of accepting the repentant and forgiving sinners and fixing broken hearts.

And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground.

Or, he struck the ground 3 times and stopped 3 strikes.

Verse 19, And the man of God was wroth with him and said, You should have smitten 5 or 6 times.

Then hadst thou smitten cereal till thou hadst consumed it, whereas now you shall smite cereal but 3 times." You know in baseball, if all you get is 3 strikes, no hits, that's bad news.

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Three Strikes

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