What to do so you don't lose your axe head!

I have always heard that if God awakens you from your sleep, that He wants to minister to your spirit. So lately, when that happens, I grab my journal and sit quietly so I can hear His voice clearly. And as He speaks to me, I try to write it all down because I know God is telling me something important, and that the message will be helpful when the devil tries to attack.

So the other night He gave me a message about an axe head. Now, I was still pretty sleepy and thought I had misheard His nudging of my spirit. Axe head? What in the world was He trying to tell me about an axe head? Then came the words faith, 'just ask Me', and obedience.

As I thought about what God was trying to tell me, I remembered a short story from the Old Testament about an axe head that floated in water. I looked up the scripture so I could re-read the story and better understand what God was trying to tell me. I opened the Bible app on my phone and began to read 2 Kings 6:5-7. The story was about a very Godly man, Elisha, and a group of men who went to cut some trees down because they wanted to big a bigger dwelling place for all of them. The men gathered the tools they needed and headed down to the Jordan river to cut down trees. One man, who was really poor, had to borrow an axe from a friend. Back in those days, if someone borrowed something from another person, the borrower was indebted to the lender until the item was returned in the condition it was or better than when it was borrowed.

The story tells about these men who went to cut trees down by the river. The poor man who borrowed the axe was swinging to down a tree and suddenly the axe head flew off and landed in the water! He was devastated because he wasn't sure exactly where it landed and how he would retrieve it. The axe head was a heavy piece of metal. Surely it had sunk to the bottom of the river. The frantic man ran to Elisha and told him what happened. "Alas master, it was borrowed! I am too poor to replace it and will forever be indebted to the man whom I borrowed it from!" Elisha asked him where the axe fell. The man showed him about where it landed. Elisha reached over to a tree, cut off a stick, and tossed it into the water. Suddenly, the axe head floated to the top of the water! What a miracle!

The axe head is the 'business end' of tool. The metal axe head has a hole in the end so the wooden handle can fit snugly in it. This opening is called the eye of the axe. The wooden handle is divided into the shoulder (closest to the axe head), the belly, and the throat. You have to choke up on the end of the handle, the knob, so you can get a firm grip. That way, when you swing the axe, you have control of where the blade lands. The bit or the blade is the sharpened piece of the metal axe head that cuts into the wood. The blade must stay sharpened so it is always ready to use. And there my friend, is where the message of the axe begins!

If you remember at the beginning of this blog, I said God spoke into my spirit the words faith, then 'just ask Me', and then obedience. After reading the story of the axe head, the meaning of His message hit me! An axe has to remain sharpened to be ready to use anytime it may be needed. Our spiritual heart and mind (our axe head) must also remain sharpened and ready for use when God presents us with an opportunity to speak of our salvation and faith in Him.

If our axe head (heart and mind) is not prayed up, it won't be ready when God needs us. How do we sharpen our axe head? We pray, worship, and meditate on God's word. We go to church and fellowship with like-minded believers. And most importantly, we must have a true, genuine relationship with God. We must feel comfortable talking with Him and telling Him what's on our heart. It's just like crawling up in daddy's lap and asking Him for what we need or for His advice about something. When we are prayed up, we demonstrate faith that God will always lead us on the path that He has chosen for us, so we can minister to others.

The next phrase He gave me was 'just ask Him". It does not matter how small or large our problem may be, He wants to know all about it! Our flesh will make mistakes, and we can easily become overwhelmed with life, work, family, and finances. No problem is too small or too big for God! We just have to simply ask Him to help us when life becomes overwhelming to us. Ask Him for wisdom, strength, peace, and courage to face each day here on Earth. Remember, He orders our steps every day, we just have to trust Him to follow those steps.

As we trust Him, we will understand the meaning of the next word, obedience. We must trust His plan for our life, especially when nothing seems to make sense. We must obey His calling for our life. We must be obedient to His word. And with that obedience, you will find the peace you are searching for. Trusting in God's faithfulness is the story of the floating axe head. He will always come through for His children in time of crisis.

When we hit a bump in the road of life, our (axe) head could fly off our handle too. And some days, when our axe head flies off, it may land where we never think we could ever recover it. That's why we need to be prayed up and stay sharpened. We never know when worldly stress may rise up and overwhelm us. God tells us in Exodus 23:12 that we must take a day to rest so we will be prepared to handle any attack of the devil. Even God rested on the seventh day after creating the heavens and the earth! "Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest." In Matthew 11:28, Jesus also tells us to "Come to me, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Resting clears our mind and brings us closer to God. Resting reminds us that He will replenish our strength, provide peace for the journey ahead, and give us the enthusiasm that we need to reflect His love toward others.

All we have to do is rest in Him and He will renew our spirit. Yahweh-Shalom, The Lord is Peace.