A
Letter from the Chairman
Dear
Friends
This
time I wanted to speak about the necessity of listening to the voice of the Holy
Spirit as we seek to go forward, particularly as it is shown in the contrast
between Elisha and the “sons of the Prophets”.
THE
NATURAL MIND OR THE SPIRITUAL?
Elisha
sees Elijah taken up to heaven, (2 Kings 2)
Elisha’s
one request of his master, or spiritual father, (cf.
Kings 2:l2) soon to be taken away, is for a
double portion of his spirit.
Elisha’s longing therefore was to be a first--born son, (2
Kings 2:9), not just any son, but the son who
assumed the priestly role, took on the leadership of the family from his father
and received a double portion of the inheritance.
This was not a lust for power by Elisha; he had been widely recognised as
a servant, (2 Kings 3:11).
Servanthood is the only ground for any true service, he was the one who
‘poured water on Elijah’s hands’ So his desire for a double portion is
from entirely pure motives, and born out of humility, submission and obedience.
We,
too, are called to be first-born sons, the church of the first-born;
unfortunately we have not always taken up our inheritance to the degree that God
intended. Our choice is to become mature sons of our Father with
priestly, intercessory and prophetic responsibility, authority and resources, or
to stay as babies that are always carried by God.
The call to us is to receive from the ‘God who is Lord’ (Elijah) and
is all that is necessary so that we can be people who demonstrate that ‘God
saves (Elisha).
Elijah’s
response to Elisha’s request for a double portion is somewhat cautionary, you have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken
from you, it shall be so for you, but if not, it shall not be so’, (2
Kings 2:10)
It’s
the same for us as we desire to be the church of the first-born.
We must seethe Lord in his ascension and enthronement in heaven.
Our focus must be his present work, ruling. reigning and interceding, and
not only his past work on the cross.
Our longing, our consuming passion must be to know Christ the crucified
one yet alive, much as Elisha’s longing was to follow Elijah in his last
journey and not to leave him, but to keep his eyes open in case he should he
taken.
In contrast, the sons of the prophets have a more earthbound focus: true, they know that Elijah has been taken, but their concern. is to scour the surrounding countryside to see where God has dropped him! They are activists, using their strength and reason, to organise and tie up all the loose ends. They pressurise Elisha, and he reluctantly lets them undertake their fruitless search. He seems rather too tolerant of them, but what else could he do?
The
sons of the prophets are spiritually aware, but in a fleshly way.
They see the spirit of Elijah resting on Elisha, they are aware of
the earthly signs of God’s activity as are many today, but not their
heavenly source value, and significance.
They resemble Jesus’ twelve disciples during his earthly ministry; a
mixture of natural and spiritual, so often getting the wrong end of the stick,
the spirit being willing but the flesh weak.
The
difference that separated Elisha from thesons
ot the prophets is that Elisha had been through the Jordan twice, (2
Kings 2.8,14).
This river speaks of death, death to self, death to sin and the
flesh, and death to human ambitions - a radical and deep encounter with the life
of God. Even the way Elisha
responds to Elijah’s call is hallmarked by
death; in 1 Kings 19:19 Elisha kills the oxen and burns his p!oughing equipment,
investing his whole life into following Elijah.
The sons of the prophets had never faced the ultimate challenge -
confronting the Jordan, looking, as it were, death in the face and demanding
that resurrection should come: Where
is the Lord, the God of Elijah?
The
contrast between the natural mind (looking in the hills for Elijah) and the
spiritual mind (seeing the Lord ascend) is not in the realm of reason and
unreason as some seem to think. Human reason is important, we must use our minds,
but they get us only so far if we
are not filled with the Spirit.
Our
only hope is that to human reason must be added revelation, an unveiling, a
disclosing that God is personal and can be known personally and experientially.
This is precisely what Paul prayed for the Ephesians (1:17), that God
will give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge (epignosis)
of him. Our minds, then, are
enlightened by an encounter with the living God.
So, rather than going around asking questions of all the data of the
universe, God himself approaches us and asks us a question saying ‘Who do men
say that I am?’, or ‘What do you think of Christ?
Whose son is
he?’ That God the
creator can step into his universe and interrogate it is an affront to western
intellectual pride, which would rather ask questions forever than answer one for
eternal life.
So
to be first-horn sons we need to focus on the crucified, risen and ascended Lord
in the heavens, and to ask for a Spirit of wisdom and revelation because it
is the Spirit that leads us into all truth.
This is not unbridled subjectivity because we use the data, the
Scriptures, and we ask the Spirit to teach us and reveal Jesus to us out of
them.
The
purpose of the church is to bring Jesus to the nations and the nations to Jesus.
Our destiny is to be the church of the first-born, knowing a double
portion of the Spirit. Let’s
keep focused on Jesus, seated at God’s right hand, interceding for us; as he
fills our vision and our gaze, we will not wander off his track onto our own or
others.