Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Godly Spirit Goggles

"Whoa." He slowed his pace while pulling on the reigns of the oxen. Slowly they got the message to stop. No longer being carried by the oxen's motion, the plow tipped to the side in the soft ground. Nabi moved to relieve the oxen of their yoke, and let them rest for a while.

Nabi looked up into the sky, the sun high and bright, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. A breeze greeted him from the east, helping immensely to cool him off. They had plowed the whole field, and much like all the others, he was exhausted. They were preparing to plant, and all the sons of the prophets, even some of the prophets who God had not called elsewhere, were all chipping in with the work.

"Look!" Nabi turned to look in the direction that the men were pointing. In the distance, he could see someone running. After several minutes, Sageh, a young man of about twenty-five summers, came racing into the field. He stumbled over the upturned beds awaiting their seeds, and tumbled. His crashing stop destroyed the section of freshly plowed earth.

Nabi groaned. Now he would have to redo that part. He fought his irritation at the young man, and moved to extend a helping hand. Sageh grabbed it, and hoisted himself up. Brushing himself off, Sageh jumped into the reason for his hasty arrival, and the other sons of the prophets came closer to hear him.. Nabi only half listened until he heard a name. "Elisha."

He grabbed Sageh by the shoulder. "What about Elisha?"

"He's coming this way!"

"There! I see him," a voice shouted, and as one, the group of men turned to look. Indeed, there was a man coming towards him. He was alone, with a long cloak billowing behind him in the breeze. Nabi watched as the man in question came closer, and indeed proved himself to be Elisha.

A stirring rustled through Nabi's soul as he watched Elisha approach them. He knew this feeling. He had experienced it a few times in his life, and he had seen others, the prophets, change due to this Heavenly stirring. He had felt this overflow of anointing whenever he was around Elijah. He also knew it wasn't coming from him, just to him.

It was coming from Elisha.

Elisha, who was alone. Elisha, who had Elijah's anointing.

Based on 2 Kings 2:15

Now in my Bible, 2 Kings 2:15 says, "Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, 'The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.' And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him." Immediately upon spotting Elisha, the knew that something was different about him. They knew that God's mighty Spirit was resting on this man, and that it was the same level of anointing that Elijah had. They just knew instantly.

You've heard about night vision goggles. These funky things remind me of a cross of glasses and binoculars. You can put these things on in the dead of the darkest night, and you can see other people and animals moving. How those people were able to look at Elisha and know that God's spirit was upon him reminds me of night vision goggles, only it should be renamed to Godly Spirit Goggles.

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and is now in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error." 1 John 4:1-6

You remember as kids, we were told not to take candy from strangers, or go anywhere with strangers. We were taught, Stranger = Danger. Why? Because our parents had no idea what kind of creeps and weirdos those people could be! God tells us the same thing. He wants us to have on our Godly Spirit Goggles. This way we can see if other people are people of God. How do you do this? The answer is in the verses we just read. If that person is all about the world and weird religion with only a splash of God thrown in, run away. If that person knows and loves Jesus, and confesses Him the Savior from God, then God's Spirit rests on that person. Same with church and doctrine and life.

The same goes for us, personally. There are other believers using their Godly Spirit Goggles with you and me because they to figure who we serve. What do they see? Is it a poser who talks God, but walks in the world? Or do they see someone with the Spirit of God resting on them? Do they have the same response to us that the sons of the prophets had when they saw Elisha? They knew instantly when they saw Elisha, and that should be our own aim. We want people to know that God's Spirit and anointing is on us immediately. We don't want them to be second guessing because of the things we do, and the ways we act.

We need to use the discerning that God gave us to know His people, AND we need to make sure that we are being discerned as children of God, and not children of the world.

V. Joy Palmer

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