On the Same Page

"By the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established," Deuteronomy 19:15. We heard four sermons in a row by four different ministers over Sunday and Monday that seemed to be saying the same thing, "Go forward".

The first one was my husband's Sunday morning message, where he took his text from I Samuel 16:1, when God said to Samuel, "Fill your horn with oil, and go.." Samuel had been mourning God's rejection of Saul, the people's chosen king who had ceased to please God. "Now the Lord said to Samuel, 'How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.'"

The emphasis was that God had something better in mind. This time God would put His choice on the throne: David. Neither Samuel nor humble David, who was tending sheep, had any idea of the great future ahead of them. Howard urged the congregation to cast off discouragement, fill their horn with oil, and go! "Anoint yourself!" he exclaimed fervently, speaking of being full of the Spirit.

That evening, a guest minister and son of our pastors, preached about the determination of the woman with the issue of blood to reach Jesus and to touch the hem of His garment. "For she said, 'If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well." This was her statement of faith. She didn't stay home in her illness and distress, but braved a throng of people, even though she was considered unclean and forbidden to be in public, and got up and sought out Jesus. The preacher continued, "And He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.'"

Then Monday at a ministers' fellowship meeting, the first speaker focused on David, who was hiding behind a rock waiting for a signal from his friend, Jonathan, Saul's son, that would indicate whether or not he was safe from Saul. Jonathan would shoot an arrow beyond a certain point--his signal to David. From his hiding place, David heard the prearranged words: the arrow had gone beyond. The news was not good. Saul still wanted to kill David. The minister read from I Samuel 20:41, "...David arose..." then in verse 42, "So he arose and departed." Although it would be 10 more years before David was crowned king, he continued toward his destiny. He rose up in the face of despair, and we can "go beyond" circumstances, limitations, etc.

The next speaker preached about living full, and dying empty. That is to say, using all the talents, gifts and abilities God gave you to minister on this earth, because "You won't need them in Heaven," he said. He referenced Paul in 2 Timothy 4:6, "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. (7) I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

The minister finished by posing the question, "Did Elisha die empty?" He read about Elisha's bones still being so full of the anointing that when a dead man was tossed into his tomb, the man came back to life, II Kings 13:21. He thought maybe there was still some power in Elisha that hadn't been used, supporting his position from the previous seven verses, 14-20.

Knowing he was about to die, Elisha directed King Joash in an exercise of striking arrows to the ground relating to their hoped for defeat of the Syrian army. The king struck them only three times, instead of five or six times. Elisha was angry with him that they would not be as victorious as they could have been, and probably died in frustration, disappointed that the last ounce of his power had not been used to help Israel.

Fill your horn with oil. Go in faith. Rise up. Live full and die empty--heard by more than three witnesses and each a charge to Christians to go beyond!