Great Expectations—Getting Ready for God

I want to talk today about getting ready for God, about preparing for the things God wants to do in your life, about anticipating God's work.

Many times, I think, we miss out on the better blessings of God because we have not prepared our hearts to receive the things God wants to do in us. Many times we don't even recognize what God is doing because our spirits are not in tune with God's Spirit.
• God is moving, but we're not ready to move with him.
• God is working, but we sit on our hands because we don't see how he is working.

If we're going to participate in the fuller blessings of the Lord, if we're going to maximize our faith, we need to prepare our hearts and our spirits. Otherwise we won't be ready to respond when God does his thing. God will want to do something in us, but we will limit what he can do.

2 Kings 13:14-19 (NIV)
¹⁴ Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. "My father! My father!" he cried. "The chariots and horsemen of Israel!"
¹⁵ Elisha said, "Get a bow and some arrows," and he did so. ¹⁶ "Take the bow in your hands," he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king's hands.
¹⁷ "Open the east window," he said, and he opened it. "Shoot!" Elisha said, and he shot. "The LORD's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!" Elisha declared. "You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek." [Some versions say "Syrians."]
¹⁸ Then he said, "Take the arrows," and the king took them. Elisha told him, "Strike the ground." He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times."

Here's the scene. Elisha had been a prophet in Israel for many years. He had been a strong voice for the Lord—calling the nation to remain committed to the Lord. And God was with him during that time, demonstrated by miracle after miracle. His ministry was a constant reminder to Israel that Yahweh was with them and was helping them.

But now Elisha was on his death bed, so the king went to see the dying prophet. When he saw Elisha, Jehoash was overcome with concern, worried about Israel's future. The country was about to lose a national treasure, and the king was gripped with fear. "My father! My father!" he cried. "The chariots and horsemen of Israel!"

He was saying, in effect, What are we going to do now? Elisha, the prophet, was as valuable to him as his chariots and horsemen. Elisha's death would be like losing a large part of his army.

Why would the king say that losing a prophet was like losing a major part of his army? Because even though they didn't have anything like the CIA in those days, they relied on the prophets to tell them what to do—when to fight, when not to fight, even how to fight. Sometimes, they even gathered military intelligence by supernatural means through the prophet.

One example: Years before the Arameans had been at war with Israel. Whenever they sent their troops to attack in a certain place, the Israelites were ready, waiting for them. The Arameans just couldn't pull off a surprise attack because Elisha was Israel's secret weapon: "Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places" (2 Kings 6:10). The king of Aram was so ticked off by this that he suspected he had a spy in his inner circle of officers, telling the Israelites all his plans.

So now when Jehoash saw Elisha weak and dying, he was overcome with anxiety. Especially since he also had other reasons to be concerned. He had recently suffered some severe military setbacks. His army had been decimated until he was left with only 10 chariots, 50 horsemen, and 10,000 foot soldiers (13:7). Losing Elisha would be a terrible, devastating blow to Israel's defense.

Elisha saw the anguish on the king's face and heard the fear in his voice. So Elisha mustered up his strength to encourage the king one final time: You may think you're in a bad situation, but take courage! You're going to declare war against your enemies, and God is going to give you victory.

Elisha delivered this prophecy by using several symbolic actions—actions that King Jehoash would have understood completely.

First, he said, "Get a bow and some arrows [and] take the bow in your hands." In other words, get ready for war. Get ready to fight. Gather your weapons together.

Jehoash thought things were looking pretty bleak. His army was depleted. He had hardly any horsemen and even fewer chariots. His prophet was about to die. He was in a desperate situation.

But in telling him to pick up the bow and arrows, Elisha was saying, Come on king. It's time for you to do something. God is about to do something, so you've got to seize the opportunity! Seize the moment!

When we lived in Texas, my wife worked as secretary to the county judge. One of the "perks" in her job was that she was asked to be matron of honor in dozens of weddings. Couples would come to the court house to get married, but if they didn't have witnesses to sign their marriage license, Sharon would be recruited to stand up with the couple.

One couple in particular stands out. The bride, a petite, young thing, came in wearing a plain cotton dress—not elaborate, but clean and neat. Her husband-to-be was a huge man. He towered over his fiancé. His arms were massive. He wore a big, scruffy beard, making him look like a "mountain man." But the most interesting thing about the groom was his wedding clothes. He was wearing bib overalls and work boots. That was it! No shirt. Not even a T-shirt. Nada. Underneath the straps of his bib overalls you could see nothing but skin and a hairy chest. Even worse, the bib overalls were low-cut down the sides, so you could see skin all the way down, clear to his underwear, which was plainly visible from either side.

Sharon said this man seemed to be making a statement. He showed up to get married, but he apparently didn't think the occasion was important enough to prepare for.

The Boy Scouts have a motto: Be prepared. That's good advice for a marriage—as it is for everything in life. Because if we don't prepare—if we don't get ready for life—we will miss too many opportunities. We won't be able to do our best or be our best.

Let me ask you: What are you doing to prepare for God? Are you ready for what God wants to do in your life? Are you getting ready to be your best for God? Getting ready to do your best for him? If not, will you miss God's opportunities because you're not ready to seize them or receive them?

Then Elisha laid his hands on the king's hands. This was the second symbol, representing the power of God imparted to the king through the old prophet.

Like a good parent, God nurtures and prepares us. He will stretch and challenge us, but he doesn't force us to do attempt things we are not equipped to handle. He wants to equip us for success. He gives an impartation of power!

Someone has said, "God's will never leads us where his grace cannot keep us." In other words, he promises to be with us in the battle or the challenge. "God is faithful," the Bible says. "He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear" (1 Cor 10:13, NIV). In other words, he understands our limitations. He knows our capacity. He gives us only the power we are ready to handle.

Good parents don't put a chain saw in the hands of a 2-year-old. But they will let him use safety scissors. Good parents will let him ride a tricycle, but they won't let him drive the family car. Good parents want to nurture and prepare their children for success at each phase of their development. Good parents encourage and nurture their children—but they don't force beyond their capacity.

God wants to help us prepare for more, but we don't always prepare ourselves. In a spiritual sense, we often are like developmentally delayed children. We could be growing more spiritually, but too often we're content with where we are. We lose our edge. We're too satisfied. We're unmotivated.

What does God do with contented people? Not much. God will seldom take us beyond what we can handle. God works within the framework of our own expectations.

There are times when God may surprise us with more than we expect. Sometimes he may amaze or astonish us with things we didn't anticipate. God can do more than we ask or think—far more than we can dream or imagine. (Eph 3:20) The problem is never with what God can do but with what we are ready to receive. The limitation is with what we expect.

Missionary to India, William Carey: "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God."

So if we want to see more of God's work in our lives and our church, we have to increase our expectations. We must increase our capacity to receive his power. We must raise the voltage on our faith. We need to increase the amps on what we believe. Can we pray that God will give us the gift of faith?

God wants us to have strong faith. Faith that can do something—"chain saw" type of faith, but we're often not ready for anything more than simple "safety scissors" faith. For our own good, God holds himself back rather than put "chain saw" power in the hands of his children who can't handle it. So we see God doing things for us and in us, but only at the "safety scissors" level and not the "chain saw" level.

The third sign was in shooting the arrow to the east.

In ancient times, a formal declaration of war was often announced by a herald—a messenger sent throughout the land. But sometimes a king or a general would make a public announcement, often by shooting an arrow into the enemy's country. So when Elisha told Jehoash to shoot an arrow out through the window facing east—toward the land occupied by the Arameans—the king knew exactly what the significance of that action was. He was declaring war on the invaders.

Just to be clear, so there would be no misunderstanding, Elisha explained what was going to happen. This isn't your arrow, King Jehoash; this is the arrow of the Lord! This isn't your battle; this is the Lord's battle! This isn't your victory; this is the Lord's victory over the Arameans at Aphek!

Finally, Elisha told the king to hit the ground with his arrows. This was another symbolic act. Taking the bow and arrows symbolized getting ready to do something—getting ready to seize the opportunity. The prophet's hands on the king's was a sign that God was imparting power and victory to Israel. Shooting toward the east symbolized a declaration of war against the Arameans with God helping him. All these earlier signs were to be summarized in this final symbolic act.

King Jehoash wasn't dumb. He understood all these symbolic acts. So when Elisha told him to hit the ground with his arrows, Jehoash knew this would be an indication of how hard he was going to hit the Arameans. Unfortunately, he wasn't ready to take on the assignment.
• Jehoash should have anticipated God's bigger blessings and larger work, but he didn't.
• He should have had great expectations of what God was going to do, but he didn't.
• He should have had faith to believe for a complete victory over the enemy, but he didn't.

Instead of pounding the ground, Jehoash gave a weak, anemic, half-hearted response to Elisha's prophecy. He wimped out. He didn't have the passion, the intensity, the courage, the determination. He was at the pep rally, but he had no pep.

Elisha was old and dying, but when he saw this lily-livered king wimp out, he became very angry. What's the matter with you? I can hear him saying. Don't you have any guts? Where's the fire? Where's the desire? You should have pounded the ground—at least five or six times! If you had, you would have won the battle AND you would have completely destroyed Aram. But three times—only three times? Okay—three times is what you'll get. You'll win only three battles, but you won't wipe them out.

Some people have a "bib overalls" attitude about the things of God. They show up, but they're very casual about it all. It's not that they skip out; they just don't seem to think God's opportunities are really that important.

God doesn't force us to receive things we're not ready to receive. God doesn't drag us against our will, kicking and screaming, into the Promised Land. When the Israelites said they weren't ready to fight giants, God said, "Fine. Have it your way." And they were stuck in the wilderness for 40 years.

When Barak refused to lead the fight against the Canaanites unless Deborah, the prophetess, went with him, God said, "Fine. Have it your way." But he took the honor of the victory away from Barak and gave it to Jael, a woman.

When King Saul failed to step up and fight Goliath (even though he was "head and shoulders" taller than all the other Israelites), God said, "Fine. Have it your way." And he recruited a young shepherd boy to do a king's job.

C. S. Lewis: "There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.'"

If we're not ready to walk in his will, God will let us sit in the desert. When we're nervous about taking on a new challenge, God can find someone else who will. But we'll miss the opportunity to fulfill our God-given destiny. We'll miss our calling because we've settled for less than God's best. We'll get stuck in a mediocre existence instead of fulfilling our purpose.

God won't force us to do something we're not ready to do. If we don't prepare our hearts and our spirits for the things God wants to do, he says, "Fine. Have it your way." Even though he wants us to grow and even though he will challenge us with new opportunities, he allows us to set our own pace.

When you read the Bible, there are two questions you should always be asking yourself:

(1) What does this mean? In other words, what really happened here? What occurred at this time in history? What did this event mean to those who lived it? What did this letter meant to those who first read it?

(2) What does this mean to me? In other words, what are the lessons or truths I can take away from this passage? Is there an example for me to follow? An example to avoid? Can I learn something about God here? Is there a command for me to follow?

There are lessons in this Bible passage that we can apply to our own lives. The lessons are just as valid and appropriate for us in the 21^st century as they were thousands of years ago back when Elisha, the prophet, was alive. Even though we're in a different time and culture and we don't have the Arameans attacking us, Elisha's advice to the king still contains principles that fit our lives. How do they fit?

• Because we still face "enemies"—challenges and difficulties, circumstances that invade our lives, situations that rob us of peace and disturb our well-being.
• Because we still struggle with our faith, with believing that God has the power to help us gain the victory in our everyday lives.
• Because we still have trouble getting ourselves ready to receive from God, still have trouble preparing our hearts and spirits for the better blessings of the Lord.
• Because God still has more he'd like us do, more victories he'd like to see us win.

[Jehoash] didn't have enough faith, and discouragement caused him to quit. Many are called to do great works for God, but they are never finished because of opposition or discouragement. Difficulties cause people to give up and say, "This must not be God's will." They try a couple times, maybe three. But they don't finish the job. They don't go on to five or six. But wishful thinking won't get the job done! Soft faith won't get the job done.

Jesus was not able to do many miracles in his home town (Mark 6:2-6) because people didn't expect anything from him. They had low expectations. People disrespected him because of his background, his reputation, his familiarity. They took offense at him, so they were not open to what he could do, and they restricted God's grace. Their unbelief put a lid on God's potential in their lives.

The gospel says that Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith.

I had a dream this past week (or more accurately, a nightmare). In the dream I had to take a test at school (I've been out of school for 30 years and still have nightmares). But showed up for the test without having read the text books, hardly having a clue even as to what the subject was. I arrived late for the test; everyone else was already deeply immersed in the test when I got there. I was expecting a 2-hour test, but discovering it was a 6-hour test. Then, as I sat down to take this test I wasn't ready to take, the teacher said it was an "open-book" test and handed me four more brand new books to use during the test (two of them still sealed in the shrink plastic). The feeling I had was terrifying—I'm not prepared for this, I thought. This is going to be a fiasco.

The question for us is this: Are we prepared for the test? Are we ready for what God is doing? Or will we put a lid on God's work? Will we restrict what he wants to do?

We often fall short of God's ideal. God has a bigger plan, but he confines himself to where we are. He restricts himself to our limitations. There are exceptions to the rule, but usually God lets us choose what we're ready for. Usually he works at that level or capacity. God stretches and challenges us, but he does not normally force us beyond the limits of our own will.

Jesus said: "According to your faith will it be done to you" (Matt 21:22). If your faith is the measurement of what's going to happen, what will be done according to your faith?