Pressing On

The Lord recently took me to the story of the call of Elisha in I Kings 19:19-21. Elisha is just doing his job, plowing his field, when at God's command Elijah comes by and throws his mantle on Elisha. Elisha kills the oxen he was using to plow, then burns his plow, his source of livelihood, sacrifices the oxen and follows Elijah. 

I Kings 19:21 concludes, "Then he arose and followed Elijah and became his servant." Elisha gives everything up to follow the will of God, and the will of God was that he would first become the servant of Elijah. The call of God is not the same for all but the pursuit is all-encompassing. The call may not be an abandonment of vocation but of self. The call of God is not passive but requires an active response. Elijah arose and followed Elijah. The call of God begins with servanthood. “And Jesus sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." (Mark 9:35-36)  

As you fallow the story of Elisha following Elijah in 2 Kings 2:1-18, Elisha is tempted to stop at Gilgal, the place of meeting or fellowship, then to stop at Bethel, the house of God, and then at Jericho, the place of victory. However, at each place he refuses to stop in his pursuit of God through his service to Elijah. Finally, the last test was Jordan, the place of death.While the rest of the prophets stopped at Jordan, Elisha pursues God and his service to Elisha, even through the place of death and comes into the double anointing that God had for Him.

We oftentimes compartmentalize our service to God as spiritual activities that we may do in church, or with brothers and sisters in Christ, or the privacy of our home. Being a disciple of Christ is not a part-time job, it is 24/7 no matter what your vocation. It means serving those around us, whether believer or not, as you would serve Christ. It is a single-hearted pursuit of God and the manifestation of His love, grace and power through our lives to the world in which we live and operate. This pursuit of God, as with Elisha, requires a death to self that the life of Christ may be seen in us.

The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:12-14, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

I would encourage you today not to give up, be discouraged, or become complacent, but keep pressing on to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of you. The plans God has for you “are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Andy Clark