We Are on the Winning Team

As we learn about the life of Elisha, this penultimate message is all about gaining a proper perspective from 2 Kings 6:8-23. When God opens your eyes your whole perspective changes. Do you need a new perspective?

In this passage, we find Israel and Syria at war. Israel was growing weary, but God intervened on their behalf; Syria's plans and strategies kept getting leaked to the king of Israel. The Syrian king tried to determine which of his men was passing along the information, but he found out that it was the miracle prophet Elisha who was helping the king of Israel. The Syrian king commanded his troops to go and capture the prophet. One day Elisha's servant told him that they were surrounded, but Elisha insisted that it was the soldiers who were outnumbered. Elisha prayed to God so that he could see the truth of their situation.

We, too, are in a battle of our own- a spiritual battle for our souls. When Elisha prayed that his servant's eyes be opened, he saw the mountain was covered in a holy army of horses and chariots of fire. Elisha asked not for calmness for his servant's mind, but for is eyes to be opened to see the invisible forces all around them. He prayed for the servant to see by faith, not by sight. He wanted his follower to discover the power of the lord.

Our God is the God of angel armies and we should see Him as someone always ready to help us, protect us, and direct us. But Elisha didn't ask God to use those armies to defeat his attackers, he asked God to cloud their eyes so their physical blindness would reflect their spiritual blindness. He dissuaded the king of Israel from killing them, fed them at a great feast, and then sent them home to their master. After that there were no more Syrian raiders.

When God defends us we have no need to defend ourselves. We can turn our energies instead to loving our neighbors as Jesus taught us to do. Some of us today need our eyes opened to see what our situation really is. We feel broken, defeated, and outnumbered by the world. We need God to open our eyes and show us we're on the winning team. Ask God to open your eyes and show you the victorious prescence all around you!