DETERMINED TO FOLLOW

From Bethel, Elijah headed to Jericho and again, he did not encourage Elisha to come with him but Elisha would not leave him. “Then Elijah said unto him, ‘Elisha, stay here, please, for the LORD has sent me on to Jericho.’ But he said, ‘As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!’ So they came to Jericho.” (2 Kings 2:4)

“Now the city shall be doomed by the LORD to destruction, it and all who are in it… And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it… So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.” (Joshua 6:17-18-20)

There are many cursed places in our lives that have not experienced the cleansing power of the Blood. Areas of thought and emotion can actually hold back that flow of life and do not allow the easy flow of the Spirit of God through our lives. Yet, Jericho became the place where faith was born in the Israelites, and it can be a spiritual birthing for us as well.

For six days the Israelites marched around the long-standing walls of Jericho as they were mocked and laughed at by the inhabitants. Silently they faced those walls, trusting in the Word of the Lord. On the seventh day they circled the city seven times and after the last circle, they shouted. It was not a shout of confusion or despair, but a shout done in faith to God. They did not identify with the walls of Jericho, but they identified with the Creator of the universe.

“Then Elijah said to him, ‘Stay here, please, for the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan.’ But he said, ‘As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!’ So the two of them went on.” (2 Kings 2:6) There is a fourth dimension to our lives, which brings us into a new kingdom relationship with God and His Church and this happens at Jordan. The number four presents a foundation experience that occurs in our lives as we cross over into the “kingdom” possession through death to ourselves. It is a final cutting away of the old ways from the new man.

At Jordan, Elisha became a prophet. He had followed from Gilgal to Bethel, to Jericho, and now, finally to Jordan. The transformation had been taken place all along the way, inside Elisha, so that at Jordan he saw the move of God and was ready for it in order to take on his new identity.

In His Love,
      Sigi

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