EMBRACING GOD’S CALL

SERIES: WALKING WITH ELISHA.

TEXT: 1 KINGS 19:19-21; 2 KINGS 2:1-25

The proper way to respond to God when He is calling you to serve Him.

ANSWERING GOD’S CALL-1 Kings 19:19.

The call.

• In verse 16, God had instructed Elijah to anoint Elisha, the farmer to be the next prophet in the land but God had not yet told Elisha.
• Elisha was a farmer, not a preacher. He was doing what farmers do-plowing the land in readiness for planting.
• One day Elijah passed by, everyone knew who Elijah was.
• As Elijah is passing by he threw his coat martle on Elisha.
• Elisha immediately knew what it meant.
• God was anointing him to go and serve Him and Elijah.

The commitment-1st Kings 19:20.

• “He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you; and he said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you?”
• Elisha’s commitment was immediate, no struggling. God has called, I am answering God’s call.

The sacrifice-1st Kings 19:21.

• Elisha slaughtered his oxen and offered them on a fire made from His plowing equipment.
• Elisha was not going back, only forward with Elijah.
• In 1519, Hernando Cortez took 600 men to Mexico with plans to conquer the Aztec nation, which had a superior army of multitudes of soldiers.
• Cortez burned all their ships so they had no place to go or run back to.
• They would either conquer or be killed.
• If you and I are going to live and stay with Jesus Christ, we must burn everything.

1. You must realize what the call of your life is all about.
2. Burn the ships, determine what the will of God is upon your life.

• You must forsake everything else to see it through.

SEEKING GOD’S ANOINTING-2nd Kings 2.

• Elijah trained Elisha for seven (7) years.

• Elijah’s ministry is winding down and he has been training to take his place.
• Now time has come for Elijah to leave and Elisha to take over.

Obstacles to ministry-2nd Kings 2:1-8.

• Here Elisha is following in his journey. It seems that Elisha, Elijah and all the prophets in each town knew that Elijah was going to be taken up to heaven.
• In each town the prophets and Elijah himself pursued Elisha to stop following Elijah, but Elisha refuses to stop!!
• Elisha performs his last miracle parting the waters of Jordan River.
• In your life, you will face obstacles, but you must persevere if you want to      experience all that God has for you in this life.

Desiring what is best-2nd Kings 2:9-10.

• Elisha did not ask for material things. He craves the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
• But no man can give the anointing only God.
• Many want fame, power, importance, recognition, respect, money and wealth, pleasure, even in ministry.
• But God wants us to crave for the anointing.

The anointing of God-2nd Kings 2:11-14.

• The anointing cannot be taught, it is bestowed by God alone.

Notice:

1. God called and Elisha answered the call.
2. Elisha served in humility until God promoted him-1st Peter 5:6.
3. Elisha walked in faith.

• Immediately upon entering God’s work, Elisha is faced with 2 challenges.
• God’s first 2 works for Elisha was “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
• Later, 200 years Jesus Christ came to do the same “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

Comforting the afflicted-2nd Kings 2:19-22.

• Salt was a visual symbol for purification.
• God is the purifier and God used Elisha to bring purification of the land and to heal the people.

Afflicting the comfortable-2nd Kings 2:23-25.

• A group of young men began yelling insults at Elisha and God sent two bears to maul them.
• Vengeance belongs to God. For disrespecting the prophet of God the young men died.
• In your journey of salvation and ministry challenges would come your way.

CONCLUSION

• Embrace the call of God upon your life.
• Seek the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
• Embrace the ministry that God has called you to.
• The call to salvation is the call to service-we are saved to serve.