Jeff Adams

I just got back from prayer ministry at the Midtown campus. Sam Miles and I have been tag-teaming and going through the prayer passages of the Bible. While I was out on a crazy travel schedule the past few weeks, Sam covered the prayers of the great prophet Elijah. Tonight was my turn to look at the prayer of Elisha. Here’s a brief review and a bit more.

Elijah is one who called down fire from heaven, destroyed the prophets of Baal, prayed that it would not rain and it did not and prayed that it would rain and it did. This is the man who faced down the infamous Jezebel and lived to tell about it. However, despite his amazing deeds in the power of God, the New Testament Book of James (James 5:17) gives us a good perspective by saying that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. In other words, he was just a regular Joe who happened to be used of God.

Elijah, though, got a bit prideful, self-centered and worked up a doozy of a depression, even wrestling with suicidal thoughts. God answered his prayer by telling him that his great ministry was over, but that he would first have to find, anoint and train his replacement. This is how Elijah came across this young man named Elisha plowing in his father’s field. For a brief time Elisha would follow Elijah as his apprentice and learn the function of the prophet’s office.

As the curtain goes up on 2Kings 2, Elijah is in his final furry of prophetic activity, knowing that he will shortly go to meet his Maker. Elisha also knows the time of the prophet’s departure is approaching, and he sticks closely to the heels of his master Elijah. Typical of the flamboyance of Elijah’s life, his final miracle is to take his cloak and smack it upon the waters of the River Jordan, causing them to separate and allowing Elijah and his apprentice to cross over on dry land. Right here centuries earlier Joshua and the nation of Israel had witnessed a similar miracle as the waters parted and they passed over to the other side on dry land.

On the desert side of the Jordan, Elijah turns and asks Elisha if he has a final request before he departs for heaven. What would you ask for? Knowing that he has only one request, Elisha doesn’t try to renegotiate with the genie for three wishes. Instead, he asks to be the genie! Elisha says in effect, “Whatever it is that you’ve got, I want a double portion!” History will prove that Elisha’s motives were more sincere than selfish.

Then, in a fitting grand finale, a chariot of fire descends from heaven amidst a swirling whirlwind of dessert dust. What happened next must have been more impressive than the President boarding Air Force One. Elijah boards the chariot of fire and is carried heavenward in the whirlwind. However all this took place and whatever it looked like on the other side of the biblical language that describes it, I’m sure it must have been far different and more marvelous than what we can imagine.

When the dust settled, Elijah’s cloak had fallen on Elisha. And, all this had taken place with an audience of fifty wide-eyes sons of the prophets that watched the entire chain of events. What would Elisha do now? How would you like to have followed this act? No matter what he might have scored on one of our contemporary personality profiles, I think I can guarantee that Elisha must have been scared to death and had that horrible sinking feeling in his stomach.

Give Elisha credit. He immediately steps up to the challenge, grabs the cloak of Elijah, slaps the waters in Elijah-like fashion and shouts out his first “official” prophet’s prayer: Where is the Lord God of Elijah? (2Kings 2:1-14)

He’s done it now. There is no turning back. If the waters don’t split and roll back, his brief career as a prophet is over, his reputation is ruined and he’s back trying to find that team of oxen he was plowing with earlier. If the Lord God of Elijah doesn’t show up, Elisha is burnt toast.

This, I think, is where God likes for us to live – on the edge. This is the position of people of faith. If God doesn’t show up, it’s over. In this way, God gets all the credit and glory. If the spectacular events of life were all the result of our own brilliance, talent and hard work, we would get all the glory. Our lives could be explained in perfectly logical terms, and we would get the credit.

Have you ever stood at the river bank and thought there must be no way to get across to the other side? Have you ever looked over the cliff toward the next plateau to where you must arrive and wondered how in the world you could ever cross that gulf? Have you ever looked into the hard darkness of a brick wall that separates you from success? Where is the Lord God of Israel?

The smile that creased Elisha’s face must have been one of both satisfaction and amazement. The waters parted just as they had for Elijah. Where was the Lord God of Elijah? Right where he always had been – right there and everywhere that right there is. He is God. He takes no coffee breaks. He is always there and always the same. Elisha had just learned a major lesson of life. Everything that God is is always available to the person who is totally available to everything that God is – no matter what your name may be, Elijah, Elisha or Eloise.

Remember the story of John 20 when Jesus suddenly appeared to his disciples in the upper room with the doors closed? He did the same thing a week later when Thomas joined the group. Remember? I’ve heard a lot of speculation about how he did that. Did he pass through the walls? Did he just materialize like Star War’s Scotty had beamed him up? Was he invisible and suddenly became visible? This speculation misses the point. However it unpacks in a scientific manner, Jesus was there because he always was. And, he always will be. He is God, after all. He is the one who concluded the Great Commission by saying, “And, lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). Where is Jesus? Where is the Lord God of Elijah? He’s right here, right where he’s always been. Always has been, always will be.

If you are needing a river split, a wall busted down, or even just a minor miracle, you will find that the God of Elijah is still on duty, still ever-present and waiting for you to step up and proclaim your faith in him so that he can show himself to be mighty in power.

By the way, Elisha did get a double portion, as you might have already heard. Elijah did seven miracles; Elisha did fourteen — exactly twice as many. But, who’s counting? Elijah did exactly as many great deeds as God wanted him to do. The same can be said of Elisha. The issue is not how many great deeds you do, or whether you do more or less than the next person.

Live is a matter of whether or not you can believe in the God who is ever present. Can you? Where is the Lord God of Elijah?