Covenant Relationships... By Any Means Necessary

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Today's Passage: 1 Kings 19; 2 Kings 2
Memory Verse: 2 Kings 2:9

There's a side to total devotion that many don't even like to think about, let alone accept. It's the side that more often than not requires us to establish ties with people who are not our family members. For a season, we may even be separated from our loved ones due to the calling on our lives. As a matter of fact, our unwillingness to make the separation happen means the difference between stepping into our destiny, or remaining where we are for the rest of our lives.

In today's passage, it was evident that Elijah had hit a place in his ministry where he needed someone to bear him up, support him, and be his companion as well as glean from him in preparation for the next level. After all the miraculous things he had accomplished, God showed him that he could not spend the rest of his time as a lone ranger. But watch how, although God gave him the name of the person who would be his servant and companion, it was up to Elisha to accept this calling.

Elisha represents us in this passage. When he meets Elijah, and hears that God has need of him, he immediately wants to step back into the familiar. "Let me go home and see about my parents," or "let me go get all my business in order first" is a familiar expression made by many of us who are informed that God has need of us. Not understanding the urgency with which God needed him to take Elijah's place, he hesitated. But the prophet recognized his hesitation for what it was, and would not let him procrastinate.

As ministers of the gospel, we, too, have an urgency to pass on what God has placed inside of us. When we recognize the anointing in others as pointed out to us by the Father, we must be equally relentless in pulling it out of them. There can be no putting anything or anyone else before the call of God -- especially if they require us to choose them or Him. Our alliance must be with those whom God has chosen to walk with us down the path to our destiny, at all cost. The anointing is worth it.

Prayer: Father, in these last days You're calling us to to be more vigilant than ever before about staying on the path of obedience You have chosen for us. Open now doors that lead to the people You've ordained us to be in covenant with; and when they come before us, make us ready to respond so that You can get all the glory. In Jesus' Name, Amen.