This is a miracle. The miracles of Elisha were “on-demand” ones. The Lord worked the impossible in unusual situations. A man was chopping a tree and the axe head flew off and went into the water. Iron sinks. It’s made that way. Who can bring the iron from the bottom of the riverbed? God is God. He can.
If you lose iron out of your body you get weak. It’s easy to lose the iron spiritually in our Christian life. If you’ve lost your iron edge, you need to get it back.
II Kings 6:1-7 And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.
We are chosen to a wonderful position with the Lord. We have a relationship to sustain. It’s wonderful to walk with Jesus. We have a work to do. For people to be saved it takes putting our faith to work. What we read and study, we apply to our lives and then help others. A successful church works every day.
The sons of the prophets saw a need for more room. They needed a bigger place. We live in a time of falling away, but the kingdom of God is growing. Someone is saved somewhere every week. It’s a chopping away. The work of God is building the kingdom of God. We chop away the hindrances. The more we chop, the greater the kingdom. God has a ton of blessings to send our way. It’s time to enlarge ourselves for the filling of God. The more we surrender, the greater room there is for blessings. We serve a great big wonderful God, and we have to be expandable Christians.
This man was swinging his axe and the head came loose. We need to be careful. It’s important to work and be busy. It’s important to keep swinging the axe for God, but we need to be watchful as we serve. It’s possible to get so active and busy that we lose the axe head without realizing it. Without the head, the axe does no good. If we’re going to grow we must do it God’s way. We cannot clear the forest with the same thing in the forest. You’ll never cut down a tree with only an axe handle. Wood on wood doesn’t work. You need the iron of the axe head. There must be an edge. Do you still have your spiritual edge? Is God still a reality to you? Be involved but monitor yourself. Paul tells us to constantly examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith as we should be. We can think we’re cutting away, but our axe head is dull so we get nowhere. Is your axe head loose? Tighten it. If the edge of God is slipping, take the iron of the Word and get it tight. That’s the only way you will be effective.
The man’s axe head flew in the water. If you lose something in the river, it’s usually gone. I’ve lost more than one fishing pole because I set it down to eat or talk and got a bite and it was gone. If you lose your edge there is one thing to do—turn to the Lord. This man didn’t jump in the water after the axe head; he knew he couldn’t find it. He turned to the man of God. That’s what we have to do—turn to God. Come to Jesus and ask him to retrieve what you’ve lost.
When Elisha was told about the axe head, he cut a stick and threw it in the water. The iron came up. It didn’t just float; the Bible says it swam. The man just had to reach out his hand and get it. Do you believe that story? It’s the Bible. It swam to the man who lost it. Has the devil told you that you’ve lost your edge and can’t get it back? You can! Jesus will stick the cross right where it needs to be and you can start swinging again.
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 