This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to our last day, day 5 of our fourth week of looking through 1 and
2 Kings. 2 Kings chapter 2 we're looking at together these last few days. We're
talking about how you see miracles start to happen in your life.

Three of the qualities that we see in Elisha as he goes through this experience
of seeing Elijah, his mentor, being taken up into heaven. Yesterday we began by
talking about the need for tenacity in serving God. Faithful servants are the
ones who see the miracles because they're the ones that go all the way to the
Jordan, that go all the way to the place where God is working in unusual ways.

There's a second quality that we see in Elisha and that's the quality of
sensitivity. He was sensitive to what the Spirit was doing, what God was doing.
As we read yesterday, 2 Kings 2-3, the company of the prophets that Bethel came
out to Elisha and said, "Do you not know that the Lord is going to take your
master from you today?

" "Yes, I know," Elijah replied, "but do not speak of it. " So here he is
sensitive to God's actions. He knows that Elijah is going to die that day.

Now there were a lot of people that were sensitive. All the prophets are sensing
this because they're connecting with God. They're listening to God and God is
telling them in their spirit, "There's something going to happen today.

" And so he knew it. Now that sensitivity empowered his tenacity. The fact that
he was sensitive to what God was doing empowered him to continue to serve.

When you're sensitive to what God's doing in the world, you're empowered to
serve in ways that other people wouldn't serve. So how do you become sensitive?
You have to become an Old Testament prophet.

The best way to become sensitive to what God is doing is through his word. As
you read his word, as you let it soak into his life, he will make you more and
more sensitive to the work that he is doing. "I need to be there.

I don't need to be there. " And you may think, "Well, there's nothing in God's
word about whether I should move to London or stay here in New York. There's
nothing in God's word about whether I should marry that person or we shouldn't
even date.

" So how does God's word make me sensitive to those kinds of decisions? Reading
God's word opens you up to the voice of God, the Spirit of God, and it makes you
sensitive to the bigger issues so that you know that you're not moving to London
because of pride. You're not wanting to get involved with that woman because of
lust.

You read God's word and you read about love and you think, "Well, that is why I
want to get married to that person. That is why I want to get a deeper
relationship with that person. " And all of a sudden, those bigger issues filter
down into the details of your life.

The way to be sensitive to God's actions is to read God's word. Now because of
his sensitivity to God's actions, Elisha was also sensitive to people's needs.
He says several times, "Don't speak of it.

" He knew his Master. He knew Elijah well enough to know. He didn't want to talk
about what was happening that day.

He wanted to rest with the Lord in what was happening that day. People who are
sensitive to God, they become increasingly sensitive to the people that are
around them. He was also sensitive to God's direction, as we just said.

So again and again, he says, "No, I'm not going to stay here. I'm going to go on
with you, Master. I'm going to see what's going to happen.

The Lord has sent me," Elijah says again and again. And Elisha went along with
what God was doing that day. He had this sensitivity about him.

That's part of what happens in my life when I become a follower of Jesus and I
listen to his word. And it's part of what enables me to be in the places where
God is doing miracles. I'm sensitive to what God is doing.

Being sensitive to what God is doing at its core means that instead of you
saying to God, "God, will you come with me in what I'm doing," you begin to
think in different ways. And you begin to think, "God, will you show me what
you're doing today and help me to be there? " Because God isn't at all
interested in coming along with you and making sure that your plans happen.

It's not that he doesn't love you. It's just that he has bigger plans for you,
has better plans for you. Why would he accept the paltry plans that I often have
when he has these spectacular plans that are going to last all the way into
eternity?

Some people think, "God won't go along with my plans because he doesn't like me.
" No, he doesn't go along with your plans because he loves you too much. He has
bigger and better plans for you.

And when you begin to say, "God, what are you doing today? And how can I be
involved in it? " That's the place of miracles.

That's the sensitivity of miracles. So he had tenacity. He had sensitivity.

And then finally, he had purity. Let me read for you in verses 7 to 10. Listen
to the purity that you see in the heart of Elisha in these verses.

"Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing
the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Elijah took his
cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water with it. The water divided to the
right and the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, 'Tell me, what can I do for you
before I am taken from you? ' 'Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,'
Elisha replied. 'You've asked a difficult thing,' Elijah said.

'Yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours, otherwise not. '"
Elisha has this purity of spirit. And you see it a couple of ways in this
passage.

First you see it in the fact that he was unafraid to ask for what he really
desired. Because what he really desired was this devotion to God. He had a
single-minded ambition to do something great for God.

And you see his purity in that. You see, sometimes we do a disservice to the
word purity. We often define purity in terms of what you don't do.

If you don't do this, you don't do that, you don't drink this, you don't smoke
this, then you are a pure person. But you can't become pure just through
abstinence, just through what you don't do. Elisha's life here defines purity in
terms of what he wanted to be, what he wanted to do, what he was most passionate
about.

That's where you see your purity. What are you most passionate about? He knew
what he was asking for when he said, "I want a double portion of your spirit.

" Because that blessing of God's spirit on Elijah's life, it had almost killed
Elijah. Elisha had spent enough time with Elijah to know that he wasn't asking
for just some privilege. He was asking for an awesome responsibility.

But he wanted it because he cared about God and he cared about his nation.
Purity is a single-minded ambition to do something great for God. It's an
unqualified commitment to follow the leadership of God in your life.

Now there's another clue about purity in these verses. Elijah says to Elisha,
"If you see me when I'm taken, then you will have purity. Then you will have the
blessing that comes from the purity in your life.

If you see it. If you see the powerful hand of God taking me up to heaven. "
Elijah is going to, we're going to read in a moment, be taken up to heaven.

He's one of the only two people that we know of in all the scripture. Elijah and
Enoch, who is taken up to heaven without physically dying. And if you see this,
if you can see God doing this, then you will be blessed.

He is saying, "If you have a pure enough heart to see God, blessed are the pure
in heart for they will see God," Jesus taught. If you have a pure enough heart
to see God, see what he's doing, see this spiritual thing that's about to
happen, see his presence at work, then you're going to have this blessing.
Purity is seen in the way that you see God at work in every circumstance.

So what happens? Well, beginning in verse 11 down to verse 14, "As they were
walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of
fire appeared and separated the two of them. And Elijah went up to heaven in a
whirlwind.

Elisha saw this and cried out, 'My father, my father, the chariots and the
horsemen of Israel. ' And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own
clothes and tore them apart, and he picked up the cloak that had fallen from
Elijah, and he went back and he stood on the bank of the Jordan.

And then he took the cloak that had fallen from him, and he struck the water
with it. Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah, he asked? When he struck the
water, it divided to the right and the left, and he crossed over.

" So now the Lord is with Elisha. Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah? He
is the Lord, the God of Elisha also.

Just as Elijah had struck the water and it parted, now Elisha strikes the water
and it parts. He experiences God's powerful presence. He is here.

He can do whatever he desires. So Elisha sees Elijah taken up to heaven, and
then he begins to serve God just as Elijah had served God. These are powerful
lessons about where miracles begin, where the miracles of faith begin in my
life.

And revolving around this last part of what happened with Elisha is the truth
that miracles come from being in the center of God's will. Now let me just talk
to you personally for a moment. Because I know when it comes to serving God in a
significant way, many of us feel like that could never be me.

But Elisha teaches us how to serve God in significant ways, just as Elijah had.
Maybe you feel like, "I've given up, Lord. " Would you pray, "God, renew my
tenacity"?

Maybe you feel like, "I've tuned out, Lord. I'm not hearing you anymore. " Would
you pray, "Restore my sensitivity"?

Maybe you feel like, "I've caved in, Lord. I don't have anything left to give. "
And in fact, the truth of the matter is I'm not living like I'm supposed to.

My heart for you has caved in. Would you pray, "Revive my purity"? In fact,
let's pray that together right now.

Just pray those simple prayers, "God, renew my tenacity. " Give me the strength
to faithfully serve. "God, restore my sensitivity.

Give me the sight to see you at work in my life, even in the midst of these
problems. " And, "God, revive my purity. Give me the passion to live the life
that you've made me to live.

And give me the purity to see you in any and every circumstance, to live for you
in those circumstances. I need you. God, I don't want to settle for half the
life that you want me to live.

I want to live the life that you made me for. So God, help me live this life of
faith, one step at a time, one day at a time. I trust you with this today, God.

I want to follow you. In Jesus' name, amen. Come back next week.

We're going to continue to learn from Elisha. We're going to learn together from
Elisha how to live a life of faith.