Transcribed from a message
given by T. Austin-Sparks in 1959. The spoken form has
been retained verbatim. Words which were not clearly discernible have been enclosed in [square] brackets.
Reading: 2 Kings 6:1-33
In the second book of the Kings,
chapter six: And the sons of the prophets said unto
Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell before thee
is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto
Jordan and take thence every man a beam and let us make
us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go
ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with
thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with
them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood.
But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the
water and he cried and said, Alas, my master! for it was
borrowed. The man of God said, Where fell it? And he
shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick and cast it
in thither; and the iron did swim. He said, Take it up to
thee. So he put out his hand, and took it.
I confess that I used to wonder
why that story was included in the number which we have
of these acts of Elisha; very interesting and of
course quite wonderful, but what is its lesson? What has
it to say? And in thinking about it, several things have
become quite clear to me and I would like to pass on just
one or two of them this morning.
Of course this, with all these
other things that are recorded about the acts of Elisha,
this, with them, is included in the great beginning of
his life. You recall that as his master Elijah was about
to be taken up into heaven, he asked Elisha what he might
give him. Elisha said, "A double portion of thy
spirit". More literally: the portion of the
first-born. Elijah said, "You have asked a hard
thing, nevertheless if you see me when I am taken up, it
shall be." And as they passed through the Jordan,
onto the other side, the chariots of the Lord appeared
and caught up Elijah. Elisha cried, "My father, my
father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen
thereof!" The mantle fell from Elijah and Elisha
took it up.
The sons of the prophets, who come
into view at that point and are mentioned so many times
in this book, find the spirit of Elijah does rest upon
Elisha and they bow themselves to the ground. Now that is
where it all begins, for these various, shall we call
them stories - they are more than stories, works of power
- were the expression and outcome of that mighty
anointing with the Spirit; that portion of the
first-born. So that what we have here in every one, and
in this one of which we are thinking this morning, is the
real work of the anointing. That is, the Holy Spirit
operating in the power of resurrection. Every
incident, as you notice, theres that stamp in some
way or another, in some form or another: it is the mighty
working of resurrection power by the anointing, by the
Holy Spirit.
It would be easy, and we have done it
before, we will not take the time to repeat this morning; to
show how this is but a foreshadowing of the ascension or
receiving up of the Lord Jesus whereupon the Holy Spirit
descended upon the Church. The mantle of the firstborn,
the portion of the firstborn, fell upon the Church.
We want to know what the portion of the firstborn is. It
is just this: the power of His resurrection. Seeing that,
let us come to this story.
The sons of the prophets, again in
view, and note what they represent: they represent the
generation succeeding, following on, to carry forward the
prophetic testimony, the next generation, the sons of the
prophets. The heart of this whole thing, where they
appear again and again in relation to these mighty acts
of the Spirit through Elisha, the heart of the whole
thing is this: that these called sons of the prophets who
were in the schools of the prophets being educated and
trained to carry on the work of the prophets, to fulfil
their ministry in the next generation, were not just
academic students. They were being, by these various
ways, brought into the closest touch with reality. And
you will at once see how true that was in the case of
this man and his axe-head. For these sons of the prophets
expressed quite a legitimate ambition or desire when they
said the place where we dwell is too strait for us and
said let us have enlargement; perfectly legitimate
ambition or desire, a right thing, nothing wrong with
that at all. To desire to escape limitation and
straitness and to enlarge and to expand for the work of
the Lord; thats quite a good thing and quite a
right thing. And so Elisha raised no objection, put no
difficulty in the way, but encouraged. And when some of
them said to him, "Look here, were not just
going on with this without you, were not discarding
the old generation, you come with us, we need you"
he said, I come. There was a towardness in this whole
matter, and quite rightly so. But even so, with a perfectly
legitimate desire and ambition, a right quest in which
there is no objection at all; the thing has got to be
kept very close to life. And thats what this
story is about.
Amongst the various lessons that it
teaches, there are just two that I will point out this
morning. But in our going on, or our desire to go on, our
quest for enlargement and increase and escape from
anything that is small, narrow, straitened, limited...
all that is employed in the work of the Lord must be
first-hand. It cannot be done with BORROWED tools. And
there are many ways in which the testimony can be
second-hand. It may be children brought up in it in their
home. I wonder if I might refer to such an occasion in
our own midst several years ago. When our brother
Patterson was taken so suddenly to the Lord, his son John,
who was with us at the conference time recently, passed
into a very difficult phase and he came to see me. He
said "Im having a very difficult time. I have
discovered that I have been living on my fathers
testimony. I have just taken what he said, followed him,
thinking that I was on the same ground as he. Ive
discovered that it was his, and not mine and I have got
to find it all for myself right from the beginning.
It was a difficult passage. He came through of course, hes
on his own ground. It was a borrowed axe.
We may get it from our meetings;
teaching that we have received over years. Weve got
it in our hand, we think, and then we imagine that we are
going to use it in some way and it's going to be a
serviceable thing and then something happens: we find it
doesnt work, the head comes off. It just comes off
and lets us down. This is not ours, alas, it was a
borrowed one. It wasnt ours, it was someone elses.
It was the fellowships, the meetings, or the
teachers. In various other ways it can be
something borrowed, from the study and the library and
the bookshelves, the commentaries and the translations
and all the authorities, the godly men whove
written it. Weve got it, we think, and it doesnt
work. The head comes off, alas, for it was borrowed.
Now, the Lord allows these incidents
- if you like: these accidents, theyre no accidents
at all - these things to happen where the whole thing
seems to let us down, doesnt seem as though its
working. He does that. A crisis arises, such as arose
with this man and his axe, in order that the thing should
pass through death onto resurrection ground and become
ours in the power of resurrection. When the whole head
has come off and we are left just [with a handle], with a
shaft in our hand which wont hue down any trees at
all, wont accomplish anything, left like that
standing... its a painful hour, a painful time. We
feel that perhaps weve been on the wrong road, that
weve been in some kind of illusion. Well, maybe,
but the Lord is very faithful, the Lord is very faithful.
And such experiences may seem to be like disaster and we
cry alas, alas. Those experiences are in the very
faithfulness of God to bring that thing onto new ground
where its ours by a miracle of God. Its ours
because the power of His resurrection has come in and
when that has come in, it's no longer a borrowed one, its
yours. Im quite sure youve seen more than is
necessary for me to say.
No, dear friends, the very
faithfulness of God necessitates on the one side the loss
of the axe-head sometimes to leave us standing crying
"Alas!". All our power to do things is flown,
its gone, were stranded. On the other side
there is always the positive purpose of God in such
experiences, that we shall know this portion of the
firstborn. You get the firstborn portion, you
know, if you'd like to go back to the book of
Deuteronomy youll see what that is and where that
arose. The portion of the firstborn is something which
secures the inheritance to the individual concerned. It
is not something bought, paid for, earned, but a gift of
grace. The portion of the firstborn. It is knowing the
anointing in truth. We will all agree, every one of us
here this morning will agree at least with the theory,
with the statement, that we dont want borrowed
experiences or teaching, second-hand addresses, studied
up things; we want people who KNOW and can speak out of a
deep experience. They have been through the depth of
Jordan, they have BEEN into death and have come onto
resurrection ground. They know it by the bitterness on
the one side of loss, failure, disappointment; on the
other side the wonderful strength of this miracle of
resurrection life. We want sons of the prophets who are
in the GOOD of the anointing, not just students of it.
Well, thats the first lesson, simple it is, but it
explains a lot I think, of the Lords ways with us,
that everything has got to be established upon the ground
of a living personal experience and not be somebody elses,
but our own.
The other thing which goes with it,
of course, quite clearly is that in this that happened,
this miracle of resurrection, it was a complete and
perfect reversal of the natural order. It is the nature
of a piece of iron to sink. That is nature. It will sink.
For a piece of iron, a lump of iron, an axe-head to
float, is contrary to nature. I only need hint at things,
you see much more than I need say. Dear friends, by
nature we are all bits of iron. Let me put that another
way: by nature we are of the sinking kind. We know that.
It wants very little to push us under, to put us down; its
in us. And especially when there is some spiritual demand
on hand, for here was the whole matter of enlargement,
expansion and increase in the work of the Lord, and I
wonder if you have noticed that whenever something more
of the Lord is in view, how quickly we get down, we get
pressed under. I have noticed that it happens, it just
happens with something of the Lord just coming on, youll
find people under things, theyve gone down, theyve
been caught in some way and theyve sunk. We have to
really gird ourselves for anything that the Lord is going
to do, it just doesnt happen. Well, were made
like that, naturally were of the sinking kind.
Perhaps you may think that youre
a very buoyant person. I venture to suggest that the most
buoyant person in this place this morning, with the most
buoyant and optimistic natural makeup, coming right up
against the forces that are set against the things that
are of God, will find that they need more than natural
buoyancy. We are not going to swim, to float, to stay on
top, without something more than our own strength of
nature, our own constitution. And the wonder of the
anointing, lets say it quickly and close, the
wonder of the anointing, the wonder of the Holy Spirit,
the wonder of the portion of the firstborn is this: that
although we are so sinkable, we are such sinkable stuff,
naturally it is decline, it is to drop down under
pressure, under trial, but the marvel is that you and I
are afloat today. It is a marvelous thing that we are
afloat today! Many of you know that, perhaps you think
that youve sunk many times, but youre afloat
today! Your heart may be sinking today you think, but youre
not drowned yet, youre not at the bottom yet, youre
not lost for good yet, weve all been there many
times, we can say with the Psalmist Though I fall,
yet shall I rise, though I fall, yet shall I rise.
There is some extra factor in the child of God and in the
servant of God called according to His purpose, that
causes us to survive a thousand drownings: the power of
His resurrection. Its a wonderful thing and this
simple little story just says to us that if the Holy
Spirit is in us, there is a reversal of the way of
nature; nature declines, nature goes down, nature sinks,
but here the Spirit is always reversing that and causing
us to rise, to rise, to go on again and again. Its
like that, there is something that is different from
nature in us, it's the divine nature: the power of His
resurrection.
So, for the moment, the simple message is we must be
on TRUE ground. Everything must be true and real; not
borrowed and second-hand. We can do nothing really
effective with tools that are not a part of our own
being, wrought into our own experience, but of which we
can say "Now, this truly is mine, Ive been
through death with this. This has brought me into life!
This is mine, this is mine, not something that Ive
heard, not something that Ive got from someone
else. I have this because Ive gone through it with
God on this matter." It must be like that to carry
the testimony on, the prophetic testimony. And then this
great assurance, this wonderful assurance: we have the
Holy Spirit. If we are the Lords, we have the
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelling
in us and that is something not only more than nature,
but contrary to nature. And although oftimes we may feel
were going to the bottom, we may feel we have
touched bottom, were going to come up again if that
Spirit is in us. The Holy Spirit is not going to die in
the grave; if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from
the dead be in YOU, He that raised up Christ Jesus from
the dead shall quicken your mortal body by His Spirit
dwelling in you, your body of death quickened; the power
of His resurrection. And the iron... the iron did swim.