Shoot a lot more times

 

Trust Maanda
Looking at the Unseen

 

2 KINGS 13:14-19

Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

 

[15] And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows.

 

And he took unto him bow and arrows.

 

[16] And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow.

 

And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king’s hands.

 

[17] And he said, Open the window eastward.

 

And he opened it.

 

Then Elisha said, Shoot.

 

And he shot.

 

And he said, The arrow of the LORD’S deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them.

 

[18] And he said, Take the arrows.

 

And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground.

 

And he smote thrice and stayed.

 

[19] And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.

Joash heard that prophet Elisha was sick, and he went down to visit him.

He went and wept over him, and said: “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof.”

In other words: “My father, you are worth more than all the chariots of Israel and all the horsemen thereof.”

Elisha’s presence in that nation was worth more than all the horses and chariots they had.

 

The Word of God, spoken by a true prophet of God, gives a believing nation more protection from all the enemies more than all the atomic bombs that can be made.

 

Elisha knew that Israel was about to be besieged by the Syrians. Elisha told Joash to take a bow and arrows.

He told him to open the window and shoot towards the east with the arrow. Joash only shot three times.

Elisha was angry with him for not shooting more times.

 

The more he struck would be the more he would defeat the Syrians.

 

Joash missed the opportunity.

 

He shot a few times.

 

Before had shot, Elisha had put his hand on Joash’s head to anoint him.

He should have known that the prophet had blessed him for victory.

 

But he shot only a few times.

 

He was now going to defeat the Syrians only three times, whereas if he did more times, he would defeat them until they were no more.

How many times do we get an opportunity and we let it go by unused?

 

The same has happened in the Christian church.

 

We have not fully utilised the opportunities God has availed to us. We have only shot from the arrow of God’s deliverance very few times.

The arrow of deliverance is the Holy Spirit that has been sent, shot from the bow of God’s love.

When the eternity to eternity was pulled together by the cord of love, God shot the arrow of deliverance into the church on the day of Pentecost.

 

The church was given into her hand the arrow of God’s deliverance.

The Holy Spirit will deliver the church out of any kind of a chaos it could get into.

But what does the church do with it?

The church has only struck three times.

 

They struck short of many blessings.

 

We only built churches and taught theology, and thought that was enough.

The church has struck short of the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

 

It struck short of deliverance from sin.

God shot the arrow of deliverance to us, and we have just about struck it long enough to make ourselves have all sorts of denominations, but without the very essence of God.

God has given the arrow of deliverance to everyone to strike against the powers of the devil.

 

But we strike short.

 

We join church, and we think that is all right.

 

That is not all right.

 

Do not strike short of any of God’s blessings.

 

Shoot a lot more times for all the blessings of God.

 

Do not stop at a small blessing.

 

Go for more.

Every promise in the Bible is ours, every chapter, every verse, every line.

 

The arrow of God’s deliverance will deliver from sickness, from worry, worldliness, and from everything else.

 

But we have struck short of it.

We have all sot of opportunities before us.

 

Let us not strike a few times.

 

Let us do more for our businesses, family welfare, spiritual life and everything.

You have the Holy Spirit, The arrow of the LORD’S deliverance.

 

Keeping on shooting.

 

Trust Maanda is a Gospel preacher and transformational speaker. He writes in his personal capacity. He can be contacted on +263772432646.