A prophetic message for these final days

A very true statement spoken by Elisha the prophet from his death bed. (2Kings 13)

Great men of faith like prophet Elijah and his successor Elisha were men by whose hands the Lord God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had done great things, yet at their time of departure they left a very distinct impression on the believing people in their lives. In the story of Prophet Elisha’s sickness through which the Lord took him home, there is a great lesson of faith to be learned. When Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, it is important to remember that Joash was not a worshipper of the false gods; he was a false worshipper of the true God. But he had some respect for the true God, and therefore some regard and honor for Elisha and that is why he came to

The prophet for respect and mourning, because he recognized the Lord’s prophet and that He was the vessel of the deliverance of Israel. That is why he said “Behold the chariots of Israel and their horsemen”!   Elisha said these very same words to Elijah at the end of the elder prophet’s days on this earth. When he said this to Elijah in 2 Kings 2:12, he recognized the true strength of Israel. He knew that the strength of Israel was really in the presence of the prophet of God.  Now Joash sees the same strength slipping from this earth and mourns over it. Then Elisha said “Take a bow and some arrows:” But Joash was still concerned that the true strength of Israel was about to depart from this earth. However, Elisha used this illustration of the arrows shot through the window to show him that the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance was still present, and all Joash had to do was to shoot these arrows in faith.

This was also done to make the King of Israel Joash recognize that anointed men of God are sent to earth for a season to accomplish God’s will in many different arenas of God’s working, and that they are only to be respected and regarded as models of faithfulness in their obedience of faith. This recommendation of Elisha in regards to shooting the arrow from the window of his bedroom toward the east was to remind the young king of the God that he needed to heed completely in faith and not His vessels.

This was a very vivid lesson of obedience of faith for victory and deliverance even when no physical sign of God‘s presence is to be found. While Joash was saying the same things Elisha said when Elijah departed to heaven he was trying to say it is your presence among Israel that gives victory to us, but in return Elisha turned the attention of the young ruler to God’s omnipresence and the power of faith that needs to be in him.

This was also done to make the King of Israel Joash recognize that anointed men of God are sent to earth for a season to accomplish God’s will in many different arenas of God’s working, and that they are only to be respected and regarded as models of faithfulness in their obedience of faith. This recommendation of Elisha in regards to shooting the arrow from the window of his bedroom toward the east was to remind the young king of the God that he needed to heed completely in faith and not His vessels.

This was a very vivid lesson of obedience of faith for victory and deliverance even when no physical sign of God‘s presence is to be found. While Joash was saying the same things Elisha said when Elijah departed to heaven he was trying to say it is your presence among Israel that gives victory to us, but in return Elisha turned the attention of the young ruler to God’s omnipresence and the power of faith that needs to be in him.

Elisha in this heroic act of faith at his death bed was demonstrating a faith image that would speak to the King about the presence of that divine strength within him. He was saying our faith counts much more than great men of faith who are sent to the people of God. Elisha was portraying an image that our faith is many times like an arrow that needs to be thrown at the difficulties of this passing life. The great men of God are sent to strengthen and polish us and our faith, but it is us who need to believe that our God is as powerful to perform all His promises when we trust Him for all things. Many like King Joash who was not a loyal worshipper of God have their trust more in men than God and their own faith in Him.

That is why many follow men forgetting that the same strength is residing in them when they decide to exercise their faith. Giants of faith are not to be mistaken with the author and finisher of their faith. Elisha once Had spoken the same words, but it was when his master was being taken up to glory by the chariots of fire and that was the last time he saw his lord and master prophet Elijah. Here the prophet Elisha is saying the victory of the Lord is in your hands and by faith and a God given vision you will bring the deliverance of the Lord for yourself and those whom God has divinely placed in your lives. Although this story has more to follow in regards to shooting more arrows and the significances of them, but Today I would like to focus on the meaning of this particular image of faith.  The bow and the arrows that are shot are a symbolic picture of what even God would do with His vessels of glory. God has us as arrows in His quiver. We are kept there after we are sharpened and polished, so that at the right time He could shoot us where He has intended to bring deliverance and victory. Just like king Joash and his victory over Syrians which became a reality by the acting upon his faith. Some of us are in this season of being placed on this string that is being stretched. With this spiritual stretching we who are seemingly very zealous and ready to be used of God for His divine purposes feel like going even backwards. We feel this reverse act of stretching from the Lord is a little bit too much at times. We are saying, “Lord isn’t it enough?  I cannot take this pressure any longer, I thought I was pressing toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, but lately I feel like I am going back” But the Lord is probably getting ready to tell us. “I have sharpened you and polished you and now I am placing a pull on the string of your life for a little set back which would allow me to shoot you even harder and to reach even much farther than you could ever think or imagine. In some of our lives the men of God whom we use to rely upon are being pulled away, but they must have taught us enough by now about how to shoot our  arrows of our faith or even ourselves to hit a target chosen by God in His divine timing.

Some of us in the body of Christ the Messiah had placed too much reliance upon the men of God. That is why the Lord is allowing some of things we see in the lives of many leaders of faith, so that we recognize they are men like us too. This is to stretch us back in faith and to see us go back to Him alone and to the basics of faith which is to rely on God and no one else. There will be soon a changing of the guard and many who are very unknown in the faith by other men will be rising to a higher level of faith. Since, “The glory of the latter temple will be greater than the former”. This sense of failure soon will be replaced by a much higher glory manifested through many unknown but preserved saints.

Fame and glory of the few famous will be replaced by a meek and a humble people who are trained and kept in secret for the final task of deliverance coming from the Lord on this earth. The hidden vessels of the Lord themselves will be utterly surprised of how in the spare of a moment God will lift them up and shoot them where no man can reach on his own strength or doing. In Isaiah chapter 26 verses 16 through 18 a picture is painted by the prophet that can somehow describe this set back and lack of deliverance on the earth, but suddenly like Isaiah foresees again as a true Seer in Isaiah 66 verse 6 , 8 & 9 which say “ The sound of noise from the city! A voice from the temple!

The voice of the LORD, Who fully repays His enemies!

“Before her pain came, she delivered a male Child, Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? “Just like Israel’s birth in 1948”

For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the time of birth and not cause delivery? Says the LORD.

This is what the Lord can do when He is ready

to do what He only could when He shoot the arrows of His deliverance in this final storm that is going to devastate this fallen world and all the enemies of God who will be scattered and destroyed by this final act of deliverance on this earth. Here only the meek and the humble of the lord will be exalted for a quick work in this final hour and everyone will know from the young to the old that this one was the Lord’s doing.

This time it would not be as in Isaiah 26 verses 17 -18 which said “ As a women with child is in pain and cries out in her pangs, when she draws near the time of her delivery, so have we been in Your sight, O LORD. We have been with child, we have been in pain; we have as it were, brought forth wind; we have not accomplished any deliverances in the earth, Nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen.” This final arrow shut by the lord at this world would bring true deliverance and redemption, because it would be done by Him

And through His vessels who are prepared in secret for His own glory. Vessels who are prepared to keep on shooting in the battle field in constant prayers against sin. Those who keep on shooting in the attainment of His knowledge. The ones who keep on shooting in the attainment of faith. They who keep shooting to do more for the kingdom of God. Men and women who keep on shooting because the world, the flesh, and the devil will not stop their shooting of their arrows at them. This last one meaning the saints who never slumbered to the point of no return. Yes you might be one of those who are being prepared, sharpened and polished and being placed at the bow stretching you back , but know this that the hour is near when “ The arrow’s of the LORD’s deliverance “ will be shot, and  you and I could be among those very ones. Therefore let us arise and shine for our light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon us”