Connecting Life with Faith: Strike while the Iron is Hot

Take the Arrows and Strike the ground said Elisha, the prophet of the LORD

God works in mysterious ways is a commonly used line by many.  The Bible says that His ways are higher than ours His thoughts and plans greater in every way in Isaiah 55 The LORD declares,

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

and this means because God can see everything at once and we can`t it makes sense that we can`t comprehend His methods and His timing for things.  That being said I want to share a story that the LORD keeps bringing to mind.

The story is from 2 Kings 13.

We will pick up the story from verse 14

14Now Elisha had been suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”

15Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. 16“Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.

17“Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”

18Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. 19The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”

20Elisha died and was buried.

Now just to give a little context this King was not a good king.  In fact the verses previous specifically say that he did evil in the eyes of the LORD.  However, God gives this King a chance for victory but because of his apathy and lack of faith to respond to the WORD of the prophet complete victory was not achieved for the Kingdom of Israel.

Recently God has open doors for us to start GBC-radio as a way to spread the Gospel in Japanese and now starting this month in English.  When the LORD opens a path for you or clearly directs you he wants us to strike hard and fast.  Notice how Elisha said "strike!" not how many times the King should strike.  God wants to see our obedience and desire for His victory.  When he says "go" or "strike" we shouldn`t do it and think how long or how many times.  We should know that if it is the LORD with every strike there will be victory.  With every encounter! With every journey! We will see His victory.

We have been uploading podcasts daily to GBC radio and we are seeing victory in the name of JESUS.  We have seen God bring at least three people into the KIngdom of God through listening the WORD and seen deliverance and healing in many more listeners who send in emails daily and record their testimonies for us.  Most of our listeners are Japanese, a country with 1% Christian.  But now is the time to strike.  With every upload of a podcast may there be victory!  

And for you those of you reading this, remember that God wants to show you His might and power but even more His love for you.  Jesus shares His victory over sin and death through faith in Him.  

Grab hold of that victory today! in Jesus name!