Regaining the Cutting Edge

By Helen Jesze, 21st November 2015

“Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, place before you where we are living is too limited for us. Please let us go to the Jordan and … let us make a place there for ourselves where we may live.’ … when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.

But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, ‘Alas, my master! For it was borrowed.’ Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?’ And when he showed him the place, he cut off a stick, and threw ​it in there, and made the iron float. And he said, ‘Take it up for yourself.’ So he put out his hand and took it.”

2 Kings 6, 1 – 7

T​here is an old saying: “A bad workman always loses his tools”, and this is exactly what happened to a young man many years ago. Some of the sons of the prophets were cutting down trees on the banks of the Jordan, when there was a loud cry: “My axe has fallen in the water – and it wasn’t even mine, it was ​borrowed!”​

It is not quite clear if this was the only axe among them, and anyway, there were not many iron tools or implements to be had in Israel at that time, and a ​borrowed ​axe must be ​paid for​, if it was not returned to its owner. This young man may not have lost his tool because he was a bad workman. Perhaps it had not been properly put together, or was old and worn, and the axe-head just fell off.

Now it had fallen in the water, down into the mud at the bottom of the river. But Elisha, the prophet, had an answer. He threw a stick into the water just where the axe had fallen in. Due to God’s miracle-working power and against all the Laws of Gravity, the axe-head floated up to the surface of the river, and work could be resumed.

Sometimes, in our Christian walk we lose our effectiveness, our cutting-edge, ​or even our ‘axe-head’​. This may be through our own fault, or life’s constant challenges, or by an attack of satan.

This story is not telling of a magic trick. The stick used was symbolic of the ‘wood’ on which Jesus Christ would later die. When we believe and apply the victory of Calvary into the difficult things we face, situations and lives can be changed, and ​the impossible ​becomes the possible! Sometimes this means going back to the place where we lost our ‘tool’​. The victory Jesus won on the cross and by His resurrection was for ​us​, not for ​Him.

In everyday life and in our service for the Lord we constantly need to watch that we do not lose our axe-head, that we are not just swinging the ‘axe’ – just swinging the stick – without anything on there to accomplish the task! We often do things out of habit and do not realise that we have lost the ability or the anointing for a certain area, and need to seek the Lord that He might help us to find it again.

Then there are times when our tool has become blunt and we need our cutting-edge to be sharpened. Many times we, ourselves, do not have the tools or resources we need to accomplish the task which may seem enormous to us, but God and wonderful, faithful partners and friends help and motivate us, to take new steps of faith, to help us! Just as God sent the answer through the prophet, God sometimes puts someone alongside us to bring our answer.

I want to share a little poem the Lord gave me when I was tempted to lay down my tools, and not to continue in the task he had given me, wondering whether it was worth it. We all get those times, but God wants to encourage us today to pick them up again, and in His strength and with a ‘cutting-edge’​​newly sharpened by His Word and Spirit, to continue our task. ​After obedience, comes the joy!

We ministered at a church, and unbeknown to us, there had been almost a split in the church, with many people being hurt and a lot of difficulties and unforgiveness among the members.

The pastor’s wife was so deeply disappointed, so tired of the constant struggles, that she prayed, “Lord, if you don’t speak to me this weekend, if you don’t touch me in a new way, I can’t go on any longer! I’m giving up!”​

We knew nothing about this, but GOD knew and touched this lady’s life in a wonderful way that weekend. In this new strength and anointing, she picked up her tools again!

Prayer: Dear Jesus, touch every one of my readers’ lives today! I speak Life and new strength into every one of them! Every ‘tool’ that has been lost or that satan has robbed them of, must be restored in the Name of Jesus and through the power of your sacrifice on Calvary.
Resurrection Life from God flow through each one, right now, and new courage to face the day fill their hearts! Thank you, Jesus, we take it by faith now!
Amen.