Ask what I shall do for thee

And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. (2Ki 2:9)

There are instances of asking in the Bible, for example God asking Solomon what He shall give him (I Kings 3:5). Jesus taught about asking in Luke 11 relating to the Father’s willingness to give His Holy Spirit to those who desire earnestly and ask. Jesus mentioned that there were three actions on our behalf, first being asking, second seeking and thirdly knocking. Three in the number is representation of divine completeness as with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well as God being ‘Holy, Holy, and Holy’. There is a divine completeness to receiving from God but it begins with asking.

Elijah knew he was to be translated to Heaven by whirlwind and Elisha was asked to tarry three times. Each of the three times Elisha’s consistent reply was ‘As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee’. Do we consistent want to receive from God as Elisha did or we ask amiss (James 4:3) to consume for ourselves. Therefore we have to ask for the right thing so that it pleases the Father’s heart to give. Likewise earthly fathers don’t just give anything that a child asks for. Some things may not be necessarily bad, for example a child could ask for a knife. The knife is a useful instrument but if the child is not ready to handle it the knife is forbidden.

Jesus taught in the Matt 6:8 that we don’t waste our prayers like the heathens making repetitive prayers for things beyond the necessary. We have to learn to trust the Father Who will lovingly provide for all our needs. In Matt 7:11 Jesus said that the Father will give us good things. If we cross reference to Luke 11:13, He was referring to the good gifts or things as being the Holy Spirit Himself. He was referring to the better things in life worth asking, seeking and knocking on doors for is the presence of the person of the Holy Spirit permeating our lives.

Elijah knew that the Spirit of God that rested on Elijah was what he wanted. Three times asked to tarry, but three times consistently replying with the same desire. The sad thing about Gehazi was he followed after Naaman (showing his persistency) to ask for material gifts. This man could have received double of Elisha’s anointing which numerically will mean four times of Elijah’s! The Bible recorded double the miracles in Elisha’s ministry and Gehazi could have quadrupled. What a waste we might say, but do we have the desire and persistency of Elisha which will not ask amiss to spent it on our own desires? Check our prayers, what proportion of it deals with asking for His desire or His Holy Spirit or for His Kingdom coming down on our nation, community and our families. It’s either God’s Kingdom we want or we want our’s to supersede.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
(John 14:26)

As a disciple of Christ, the Holy Spirit is the promise Who will bring revelation of everything Jesus taught. We may know about what Jesus taught, but the true revelation of the Word (John 1:1) Himself is through the Holy Spirit. Paul’s apostolic prayers have always been that we have the revelation of Christ. It was by the Spirit the apostle John had the Revelation of Jesus Christ. So ultimately, the Comforter will reveal Christ to us. Paul could say truths like he was determined not to know anything among the believers except Christ and Him crucified and he was crucified with Christ. These are revelations of Jesus’ promises for He promised two things…… the cross (Luke 9:23) and eternal life. We like the latter but don’t be enemies of the cross (Phil 3:8).

I believe the revelation of the cross is firstly the revelation of our redemption. The whole creation groans and labors pang for it’s redemption through the revealing of the sons of God (Rom 8:22, 23) likewise we also groan for the redemption of our body at the Appearing of Christ second coming. The sons of God need to have the revelation of our redemption so that we know the cost of God sending His own Son and the cost of the Son His life lest we trample of the Son’s precious blood. When we have the revelation of the redemptive power of the blood of Jesus we will think twice about sinning and keeping our live pure and holy to live before God. Today we can despise the redemptive work of Christ by the way we live, talk, spend our money, time and priorities. We who are still living in this ‘tent’ need to continually repent that we might grow from glory to glory. Rejecting repentance also reject the redemptive work of Christ because we think we are alright and not willing to work out our salvation in trembling and fear.

The second revelation of the cross through His Spirit is the cross we need to bear daily in following Jesus (Luke 9:23). This is called the cost of discipleship, the dying to self to take on the life of Christ. Oh, that we have the same revelation that Paul had that’s why he could peek into heaven (Acts 26:19) and know his destiny. Do we know our destiny or does it end at the grave or our destiny is an eternal one in Christ? What are we asking for these days?