The Plow

 19So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 20Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah." I Kings 19:19-20....."Don't get discouraged and give up, for you will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time." Galatians 6:9

If you're one who seeks to serve and follow Christ with all your heart, you probably know something of discouragement. Likely you know a lot about discouragement. Discouragement by it's very name takes away courage. It "takes the heart out of us." To be encouraged is to have courage, His courage, added on to us. For the believer, to be encouraged is to be empowered with the heart and spirit of the Lord. The need for this is great in the church today, and I hope in some small way, this writing may encourage you.

I recently heard preacher and writer Samuel Rodriguez speak about Elijah's passing his mantle of ministry on to his assistant, Elisha. When he did this, he had found Elisha plowing a field with 12 oxen. Without a word, he draped his mantle, the symbol of his ministry as a prophet of God, about the shoulders of Elisha. Then, again with no words, he walked away. Elisha ran after him. When Elijah told him what it all meant, Elisha asked to be allowed to say goodbye to his family. Elijah simply told him to consider what had just been placed upon him by God. With that, Elisha sacrificed his oxen to God, left all, and went with Elijah.

There is much more there than I can even begin to get into, but here are the main things that speak to me. First, if we are to be His, we must be fully His. If Elisha had 12 oxen, he must have been a prosperous man. The oxen would have been one symbol of his wealth, yet he sacrificed them all to the Father. It was symbolic of giving all of himself to his God. Then he left all to become Elijah's assistant and servant. Though he had been given the mantle and ministry of Elijah, he would now spend the next ten years as a servant. This had to be discouraging at times, to know what he was called to, but as yet, couldn't enter into. He would stand by and see wonders done by the Father through Elijah, but we have no evidence that God did any through him. Ministry can be like that....often. Others seem to have great anointing and favor, while we.....not so much.

Another thing I see here, helped by Rodriguez, is Elisha's act of plowing. I've never done it, but I know the work can be brutal, and boring to boot. It would seem that the plowman often feels he is traveling far distances while actually going nowhere. Ministry and service in the Kingdom can be like that as well. Plowing, plodding onward, with each day, week, month, even years, going on with nothing really changing. What can't be missed is that God's call and the "mantle" that went with it, came while Elisha was plowing. The heavens weren't torn asunder. There weren't even any spoken words to accompany the call. Elisha was plowing, and Elijah knew where to find him....in his field, plowing.

Hopefully, you can see something of where I'm going with this. If you're His, you have a calling, a ministry. As Oswald Chambers says, it's not for us to decide where that ministry is to be. Like Elisha, we're to give ourselves over to Him. Our sacrifice is to surrender all self interest to the call. Whether the call is to what men call greatness or not, it is where He's placed us, and in this place, He's placed His mantle upon us. None of us know exactly what's entailed in that mystical call, but His expectation is that we give all of ourselves to it.....and trust Him not only with the calling, the mantle, but also with the yield of our work. Elijah knew where to find Elisha, plowing his field. This is where the Father needs to find us as well, at our plow, tending our field, regardless of the size and the yield. Faithful in our call, faithful in our field. Following, trusting, believing, and knowing, as Galatians 6:9 promises, there is reward for our work.

Elisha no longer tended a literal plow, but in the decade of serving Elijah, he was still plowing. As Galatians promises, at the "appropriate time," his reward began to unfold. He asked for and received a double portion of the spirit and ministry that had rested upon Elijah. God brought him into a new season of fruitfulness, a place he would never have reached if he'd taken his hand from the plow.

I don't mean to say that you will have a spectacular ministry like these two great prophets. I don't say that your field will yield the kind of fruit that the mega ministry nearby does. What I do say, what I know, is that whatever field you plow, His mantle is upon you, and if you will have it, a double portion of His Spirit. It is not the amount or size of our fruit that He measures, but our faithfulness in producing it. Wherever you are, wherever we are in His Kingdom today, keep plowing. Don't give up. Let us keep our eyes upon Him, He knows where we are and what we do, and the ground upon which we work. As someone said, it is not the physical size of our place that matters, but that any place we are where He is present is a large place. Plow on and see how true that is.

Blessings,

Pastor O