why when you’re sensing a drag in your faith, in your spiritual
fire, it can sometimes simply mean you’re doing exactly what
you’re supposed to be doing... and doing it well, at that.
Number 3: The ax was borrowed (v. 5). The presence of
passion, faith, and belief in our hearts is a gift. It’s on loan to
our souls. Like the man’s ax, our passion and spiritual fervor
come from Someone else as a gift to us. If you’ve ever cried out
passionately to God in faith, fully believing that He is able to
do more than you ask or think or imagine, it’s only because He
first stirred up that passion within you. So instead of always
feeling guilty—personally responsible—whenever your
passion in prayer is weak or missing, realize instead that it is
God’s work both to give it and then to fan it into flame inside
you. Which means you cannot manufacture it on your own.
Your enemy, however—coy as he is—wants to burden you
with blame for not having something that didn’t originate with
you in the first place. Don’t fall for that.
Number 4: Only a work of God could retrieve the ax head.
“‘Where did it fall?’ the man of God asked. When he showed
him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water at
that spot. Then the ax head floated to the surface” (v. 6 NLT).
Miraculously, by Elisha’s hand, the slab of iron rustled free