Have You Lost Your Cutting Edge?

2 Kings 6:1-6 (NASB20) Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “Behold now, the place before you where we are living is too cramped for us. 2 Please let us go to the Jordan, and let us each take from there a beam, and let us construct a place there for ourselves, to live there.” So he said, “Go.” 3 Then one of them said, “Please agree and go with your servants.” And he said, “I will go.” 4 So he went with them; and when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. 5 But it happened that as one of them was cutting down a beam, the axe head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, “Oh, my master! It was borrowed!”6 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.

Axe heads do not get lost when they are not being used to cut down trees. It is in the midst of our usefulness in the Lord that we can sometimes lose our cutting edge. And understand that that sharpness, that cutting edge we have in the spirit, that usefulness is, not our own. It doesn’t come from us. The text reads, “Alas, it was borrowed,” borrowed from the Lord for us to use to expand His kingdom.

2 Corinthians 3:5 (CSB) It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.

We cry to the Lord, (verse 1), “The space I now occupy in You is too limited, too small! Lord, use me in a greater measure. Remove the barriers. Release me to do greater things for You. Expand my territory!” And the Lord approves it and even joins us in the work, bringing wonderful help and oversight and affirmation. The Lord doesn’t expect us to go out and build on a mere directive, but He desires to accompany us; His Presence is with us, not just a nebulous, distant presence, but a closeness where He encourages us and where we can converse with Him and see how He involves Himself in the work.

Exodus 33:15 (NIV) Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

And, when we do lose our cutting edge and it seems to disappear in the murkiness, Lord, You are there to throw the stick into the water, that is, to let what You’ve done on the cross make sinking, hopeless things return to the surface and regain their usefulness. Because of the cross, the giftedness and usefulness that the enemy intends to drown is revived and restored to continue the work of the Lord.