2 Kings 6:5-7 (NKJV) 5 But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, “Alas, master! For it was borrowed.” 6 So the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float. 7 Therefore he said, “Pick it up for yourself.” So he reached out his hand and took it.
In today’s scripture, we read a story form the life of Elisha. It seems that the prophets had run out of room and needed to build bigger place to meet. They came to Elisha and suggested a site near the Jordan River where there were plenty of logs. They could use the logs to build a bigger place. Elisha agreed to the plan and told them to get to it. They asked Elisha to come along and again he agreed.
I cannot help but think this sounds like so many of us in the church world today. We see some need in the church and we go about making a plan as to how to meet that need. In this case, it was a building project. We might do site planning, hire an architect or do some other kind of prep work to get the project under way. Once we have a plan, we begin the work just as they did. Where we might just leave things to the natural builders at this point, the prophets in Elisha’s company understood they needed the input and influence of the man of God.
As they were working chopping down trees, one of the young men lost the head off his axe. It must have flown off the handle and into the water as he was chopping one of the trees by the river. He turned to the prophet and said, “That’s a problem because the axe was borrowed. I can’t go back without it!”
The prophet asked him where it had gone into the water. Apparently, it was deep enough that they could not just reach in and get it. We all know that iron does not float. The prophet does not dive into the water to look for it. He does not command the axe to rise. He does not put his staff or his cloak into the water. He does something that seems completely unrelated to the problem. He cut a stick and threw it into the water. Immediately the iron axe head floated to the surface. “Grab it!” Elisha said to the young man, and he did.
There is a great deal to learn from this simple story. Let me focus on one of them for a few moments. I heard a friend of mine preach on this once and he spoke about what the axe head represented. An axe is made up of two parts and each one is important. An axe must have a handle. Without a handle, the axe will not generate enough force to chop down a tree. However, many things have handles. What makes an axe unique is the head. On the head is the thing that really does the work. The axe head contains the cutting edge.
His point and mine today, is that the church needs to get the cutting edge back. Many of us are working hard to build churches or ministries. As I have been observing some of what we are building, it seems to me that we have some great handles but we are a little lacking in the “cutting edge” department. Some of our handles are very high tech. Some are beautiful. Some are very organized, running like well-oiled machines. We beat away at our communities with our exceptional handles and wonder why we do not seem to be able to cut down any tress.
Sometimes our handles attract trees that are already cut down. Sometimes we attract the interest of trees that come to take advantage of the fine services we provide them. That is fine but if we do not “cut the trees down” so they can be fit into the building, what good are we really doing. We may have well cared for tress in huge orchards, but they will eventually die and be “cast into the fire.”
To cut down trees and fit them into the build of the Church of Jesus Christ, they must first die and then be born again. For that to happen we need more than a great handle. We need a cutting edge. We need something that can cut through objections, culture and any other thing that causes our “trees” to resist the call of God to salvation.
Let me say here that handles are not a bad thing. It is very difficult to cut down trees with just an axe head. We should have the best handle we can afford. We should maintain and make it the best handle it can be. That said, we could have a very basic handle if we have a sharp cutting edge and still get the job done. If we have the best handle in the world but no cutting edge, we will never get the job done. The job is the great commission.
Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT) 18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
To do this job effectively we must have more than a handle. We need the power of the cutting edge. The cutting edge is the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Without that, we can do some really good things but we cannot do the job Jesus us gave us to do.
In this story, what did it take to get the cutting edge back? They could not get it back with any natural thing at their disposal. Although they were building a natural building, once he lost the cutting edge, even the natural part this young man was to do became impossible. He could have beaten the trunk of a tree all day with the handle but it would have done no good. He needed the cutting edge and there was nothing in the natural he could do to get it back.
He turned to the one person he knew could go beyond the natural. He turned to the prophet Elisha. As I already pointed out, Elisha did not do anything spectacular. Too often, we mistake the spectacular for the supernatural. We look at the hype and the glitter and think, “That must be supernatural!” We may look at natural success and think that must mean supernatural success as well. Sometimes it does and sometimes it does not.
Truly supernatural things are often the simplest things. Elisha cuts a stick off one of the trees and throws it into the water. This simple act was supernatural and the axe head was recovered. If we want to get our cutting edge back, we must begin to look past all the impressive things and focus once again on some of the simple things. We are going to have to turn to our relationship with the Lord and the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives. These are the kinds of things that produce a cutting edge ministry.
If we lost our axe head, we might study ways to get it out of the water. We might have taken an opinion poll to find out what people thought was the most important element in axe head recovery. We might have invested in some axe head retrieval software or expensive equipment to get it out of the water. Elisha just cut a stick and threw it in the water. I do not think most of us would come up with that kind of a plan. Elisha chose that course of action because he was in tune with the Spirit of God. That is what the Holy Spirit said to do and it worked.
As we build our lives and ministries, I want to encourage all of us to go back to the thing that gives us our cutting edge. We can have great handles, but it is the Holy Spirit who will give us back the cutting edge we need to reach our world. Without his active work, we might build something but it will not be the church Jesus said would win the world.
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