2 KINGS 3 PREPARE TO RECEIVE GODS PROVISION2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Kings 3 Prepare To Receive Gods Provision

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018.

Well, this morning as we spend some time here in 2 Kings chapter 3, it's that time of year again where I like to encourage us all to stop and consider how the year has gone and prepare ourselves for the new year that's coming. It's time for us to kind of reflect on 2018 and look ahead to 2019. What is your plan to grow spiritually heading into this new year?

What's your plan for receiving what God has for you? And as you look back at this current year, how have you done in responding to what God has been speaking to you this year? How have you done in your walk with the Lord and your spiritual growth and your maturity as a believer in Jesus Christ? And it's a good opportunity for us to stop and reflect.

how things have been, what we've been hearing from the Lord, and how we have walked in those things as we prepare now to head into the new year and the new things that God has in store for us. As we look at 2 Kings 3 this morning, I've titled the message, Prepare to Receive God's Provision. And I want to encourage you this morning to consider the preparation specifically that the Lord would have for you.

that there is some provision that God wants to pour out. You might also replace that word provision with blessing. There is blessing that God wants to pour out upon your life, but at the same time, there is also some preparation that he would call you to. And as we head into this new year and this season, it's a good opportunity for us to consider what that preparation is.

that we might be fully equipped, that we might be fully prepared to receive all that God has for us. As we work our way through this passage here in 2 Kings 3, I have four points for us to consider to help us prepare to receive what it is that God has for us. And so we want to work our way beginning here in verses 5 through 9 with point number one, and that is all of our resources run free.

Here's the first part. The first thing that we need to recognize and understand as we talk about and think about God's blessings and God's provision in our lives. And that is that when it comes to us and what we can provide and our own resources, we

Well, they're always going to fail at some point. They're always going to run dry. And that's what we see happen here. These armies gather together, but they run out of water and they're in danger of being destroyed because of their great thirst as they try to go against Moab. Jumping again into verse five and six, here's what it says. But it happened when Ahab died that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

So King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. We're jumping into this account where Israel has been divided. And just a quick look at the geography to kind of put these things in order in your mind. The land of Israel, this is the portion of land that was given to Israel and they were led into that land by Joshua and God promised that land of the Canaanites. And so it's

This territory here with Galilee at the top and the Jordan River that runs down and then the Dead Sea at the bottom and then the Mediterranean Sea on the other side. And this was the territory that God had promised us

And they had lived in this land for some time now, through the time of the judges, and then with King Saul, and King David, and King Solomon. But if you've been reading along with us, you know after King Solomon, the kingdom was split in two. His son Rehoboam made some foolish decisions, and Jeroboam led Israel away. And so now there's two kingdoms, two nations. And

One is called Israel, the other is called Judah. And here in verse 5 when it says, when Ahab died, we're talking about the king of Israel at that time, the northern kingdom. And so Ahab died, his son Jehoram takes his place. And at that time also it tells us that Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

And so this portion down south of Israel is the land of Moab, and they were in subjection to Israel. They were paying taxes essentially to Israel and were a good source of income for them. But when Ahab dies, Moab decides now's a good opportunity for us to stop that payment. We're not going to pay tribute any longer. We're going to be our own independent nation.

And so King Jehoram, now the new king of Israel, begins to experience the resources running dry. And that, well, his budget now is impacted. The resources are running out because now these people, the Moabites, are not going to be paying tribute any longer. They had this inflow of money, but now it's not going to come in. And so

With the resources drying up, he takes some steps to resolve that and to put Moab into subjection again. And if you look at the steps that he took, there's wisdom in these steps. First of all, he gathers an army. In verse 6, it tells us, So he took some time to gather his own resources and

He gathers all of Israel. And so he calls in all the soldiers. They're all on duty now. And they're going to now prepare for battle against Moab. He gathers an army, but then he also makes some alliances. In verse 7, it says that he went and sent to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.

So he's making an alliance with now the king of the southern portion of Israel, the king of Judah, and saying, hey, let's join together. He's not just relying upon his own resources, but he's linking up with his neighbor, Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and saying, we're going to join together and go against Moab together. And we also find out in these verses that they join up as

And so all three of them join together. There's an alliance together to go and defeat Moab in this rebellion. And so they gather an army. They make some alliances. And then they seek counsel. In verse 6, or verse 8 rather, it says, And so here we find Jehoram seeking counsel with Jehoshaphat. Hey, Jehoshaphat,

Here's the plan. We're joining up together. Now, what's the best route? There's two options. We can go over the top of the Dead Sea and come down from the north against Moab, or we can go down to the bottom of the Dead Sea and then come up from the south and attack Moab that way. And so they, they

talked it over. They discussed it. They sought counsel together and decided the southern route is the way to go. Moab will be less, you know, defended on the southern portion. And so it'll be easier for us to come that way. They won't be expecting it and we'll be able to have victory.

And so here, as you look at these things, you can say, hey, there's some wisdom here. King Jehoram, he's not just rushing, making a rash decision and just, you know, blindly running into battle, but he's doing the best that he can to make provision for this battle, to set himself up for victory. He gathers together the army of Israel. He makes some alliances with the neighbors nearby and receives counsel about the best way to go about this. Everything is in order here.

And so now it's time to march. In verse 9 again it says, Everything seemed to be in order. Preparations were made to the best of their ability. But the problem was they run out of water on the way to the battle.

They get right to the border of Moab. They're right there about to be engaged in the battle. And there they run out of water. They're dehydrated. They're thirsty. And it's set themselves up for disaster because they are easily going to be defeated because of their thirst, because of their lack of water.

Even though he made his best efforts, even though he did the best that he could, gathered the whole army, made strong alliances, and sought counsel and thought it through and figured out the best approach. He did the best that he could, but they ran out of water. And the problem with all of this was none of this was God's provision.

All of this, there's a lot of wisdom in it that you could perhaps look at and consider, but all of this was not God's provision, but Jehoram's provision. It was his own resources. And he found out the hard way here at this point that, well, his own resources were not sufficient. They run out. And the best effort, you know, that he could put together, the best that he could muster up was not sufficient for this task that was at hand and the battle that would take place.

It's a good reminder for us. This will be the case in our lives as well. All of our resources run dry. We can have a lot of wisdom, great strategies, seek counsel together, work together. We can do the best that we can to meet the needs that are there. But if we are operating out of our own resources, there's going to come a point where the water runs out. They are not sufficient to

To really take care of what needs to be taken care of. Think about what Jesus told the woman at the well. Remember in John chapter 4? He told her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. Now Jesus is at the well with this woman, but he's not talking about the physical water that she's seeking to draw up.

He's talking about her thirst, and he goes on to ask her about her husband, and well, I'm not married, and Jesus says, you're right. You've been married five times. The guy that you're with now is not your husband. You're not married to him, but you keep going back to that well. You have this thirst. You have this need. You keep trying to meet that need with these different men, and it's not working. You're satisfied for some time, but then the resources run dry. That well runs out, and

Now you're moving on to the next one. But Jesus says, look, if you come to me, then you'll receive a water that quenches the thirst. It's a resource that does not run dry. And so before we can really begin to receive God's provision and God's work in our life and the fullness of God's blessings in our life, we need to come to the understanding that our efforts, our wisdom, our ideas, our resources are

They don't last if it's not a work of God. And we really need to come to the understanding and the recognition that we need God to provide for us. And that can be difficult when, you know, there's plenty of money in the bank account and we can easily operate on our own resources and forget that those will run dry. Here, as they find themselves in this position, they now turn to God and

And that gives us point number two this morning in verses 10 through 14. Turn to God for provision. Now the ideal thing to do is to turn to God for provision before you get to this point where you're out of water and you're in desperation and all of that. But here's the good news. Even waiting until this point, until all the resources are out and now you're in danger of full destruction, you're not going to be able to turn to God for help.

It's not too late to turn to God for provision. Let's look at verses 10 through 12. It says,

who poured water on the hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, the word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. Here is these guys are experiencing this dilemma of being without water. You see these kings and they have different responses to the situation. Jehoram looks at this and he says, God is seeking to destroy us.

In verse 10, he says, look, the Lord has called these three kings together. That's Israel, Judah, and Edom. He says, God called these three kings together. We don't actually know that that's true. There's no evidence that God told them to engage in this battle. But here's his perspective. God put us together in order to destroy us at the hand of Moab. That God has set us up for this failure so that we would be defeated by Moab. And that's his perspective on the situation.

Jehoshaphat has a different perspective. He says, you know, we need to seek the Lord on this. We need to ask God what's going on here. Is there a prophet of the Lord that we can go and inquire of the Lord and find out what God has to say about this? And they find out, yes, there is a prophet nearby. It's Elisha, the student, the disciple of Elijah. Now has a double portion of the spirit of Elijah. He's a great prophet. He's nearby. And so they go to him to seek the Lord on

and hear what he might say. They go to inquire of the Lord because of Jehoshaphat's influence. If it was up to Jehoram, he's already concluded, no, God's out to get us. He set us up to destroy us. He's not going to be going to seek the Lord. But Jehoshaphat says, no, no, we need to go and hear from the Lord. And so they go. The three kings go together. In verse 13, they meet up with Elisha. Here's what it says. Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, what have I to do with you?

Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother. But the king of Israel said to him, no, for the Lord has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not look at you nor see you. Elisha has some pretty strong words here for King Jehoram. He's the one...

Not really interested in hearing from the Lord, but he is the leader of this alliance and this battle. And so Elisha is interacting primarily with Jehoram. And he tells Jehoram, I want nothing to do with you. What do I have to do with you? Hey, why don't you go call on the other false gods that you have been serving? The false gods of your father and of your mother and, well, some of those you've turned from.

but you've been not seeking after the Lord. Why don't you go trust in the gods that you've been relying upon? And Jehoshaphat still stuck in this idea. He says, no, no, God has called us together. We're here with you because God brought us together to destroy us. And Elisha says, you know, I wouldn't even pay you any attention. I wouldn't talk to you. I wouldn't give you the time of day. The only reason I'm interacting with you is because Jehoshaphat is with you. And because of that, I will inquire of the Lord.

There's some important things to consider in this interaction that takes place. Sometimes we forget, but let me remind you, God does not owe you anything. God does not owe you anything.

God has already done above and beyond what we could ever earn or deserve in the salvation offered through Jesus Christ. We could never earn that. We could never deserve that. If God never did anything else for us in our whole lives and all of eternity, he's already been so abundantly merciful and gracious towards us. We cannot expect or demand from God. He does not owe us anything, but that's especially true if you are not seeking God.

Here is Jehoram who is, he's not walking with God. In fact, he was living in rebellion against God. And so it's appropriate for Elisha to say, I wouldn't even give you the time of day. You can't just come to me and expect and demand that I, you know, intercede on your behalf or have some word from the Lord for you when you're not walking with God.

We go back to verse 2 here in chapter 3 of 2 Kings, and we find that Jehoram, it says he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now it goes on to say, but not like his father and mother, for he put away the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made. And so we see he's a little bit better than his father and mother. Ahab was the notoriously most wicked king of all of Israel's history. So Jehoram is not as bad as his father, but that's not much different.

To brag about. There comes a problem with those kinds of comparisons. You might say that Jehoram was more righteous than his father. But more righteous is not the same as righteous. You could say he was more righteous, but you can't say he was righteous. He wasn't right with God.

Or maybe wording it another way, you might say he was less wicked, but also that's not righteous. And so that's the problem with comparison. He might be better than, he might be less wicked than those who have gone before him, but still the declaration is he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

Here's Jehoram. He is in rebellion against God. He's not walking with God. God has no obligation to provide answers for him or help for him. He has no obligation to provide for people who do not walk with him. And although that is true, and that is something that we need to remember and keep our expectations in order, but at the same time, here we see God's grace and mercy demonstrated once again.

Because even though Jehoram is not walking with God, God is going to provide a solution. He's going to give an answer and work miraculously. We also have Jehoshaphat in this picture. Now Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah. He was a good king. He loved God. He walked with God, but he didn't always make good decisions. Here he is in this alliance with Jehoram, and probably he had no business being in this alliance.

He made a similar alliance with Jehoram's father Ahab. Again, probably had no business making an alliance. Barely escaped with his life when that happened in that previous account. Here he is walking with the wrong crowd, even though he was a good king and sought after the Lord. And because of his presence, God is going to work in this situation.

I like what F.B. Meyer says about this. He says, Jehoshaphat, though erring, was still God's child, and deliverance came to him. The heights of our senseless folly and the depths of our waywardness will not succeed in severing us from God's love. The heights of our folly, when we are the most foolish, and when we wander the farthest, we make the biggest mistakes. Those mistakes

Things in our lives do not sever us or separate us from the love of God. And so we still have opportunity. Again, even when we find ourselves having exhausted all of our resources and trusted in all the wrong things and desperate now, thirsty, it's not too late for us to turn to the Lord. Even when we've been spending time with the wrong crowd or, you know, been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There's still opportunity for us to turn to God for provision. Where do you turn when resources run dry? We see again in these two kings a difference. Jehoram blamed God. It's God's fault I'm in this situation. He brought us here to destroy us. It's his fault. While Jehoshaphat had a different attitude. No, no, let's approach God. Let's call out to the Lord. Let's invite God to work in this situation.

And God is going to work. And it's based upon Jehoram's association with the king of Judah. It's a good reminder for us, a good encouragement to us, because there is a king of Judah that you can associate with also. So that even if you've been like Jehoram, doing evil in the sight of the Lord, even if you've been wandering and wayward and in rebellion against God, you can associate with the king of Judah. It's Jesus.

who sits on the throne of David. Jehoshaphat sat on the throne of David. He was in the lineage of David. And here that goes down to Jesus, who is the king of Judah. And by association with him, even though God doesn't owe me anything, even though I could never earn or deserve for God to work or provide or bless or anything like that, but by associating with Jesus, by walking with Jesus, by loving Jesus, by seeking Jesus,

there is an opportunity for you and I to inquire of the Lord, to hear from the Lord and receive the provision and blessings of God. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 5, verse 6 and 7, he says, Peter tells us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, but then he tells us how to do that. How do you humble yourself before the Lord?

He says, cast your cares upon him. This is one of the ways that we humble ourselves before God. We cast our cares. We give him our stresses, our fears, our anxieties, the issues that we're facing and the things that we're going through. We cast it upon him. We trust in him. And in doing so, we humble ourselves before him. And we can do this because he cares for us. Again, because of his grace and his mercy extended to us.

Through the King of Judah, Jesus Christ, we have this opportunity to turn to God for provision. Well, moving on to verses 15 through 17, we kind of hit the core of the message and the points here in verse 15 through 17. Point number three is obedience prepares you to receive God's provision. Our resources run dry, but we have the opportunity to turn to God and He can provide for us. But in order to receive from God,

There is some requirements for us. There's a responsibility and a part that we have to play. And we'll see that demonstrated here in these verses. Let's read verses 15 through 17. Here's what it says. Elisha says, but now bring me a musician. Then it happened when the musician played that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, thus says the Lord, make this valley full of ditches.

Here is they go to seek the Lord. Elisha agrees because Jehoshaphat is there and he calls for a musician. He spends some time in worship and then the Lord begins to speak.

And he has a direct word from the Lord for these kings. He says, thus says the Lord in verse 16, make this valley full of ditches. Another word that you could replace for ditches is trenches. The idea is grab a shovel, start digging, and dig some trenches all throughout this valley. Make it full. Literally in the Hebrew, it's

Trenches, trenches, or ditches, ditches. That is, make the trenches so abundant that even the trenches have trenches. You know, like, let's just dig it all up, make all kinds of trenches filled throughout the whole valley. Now, remember the context. What was it that brought these kings to the prophet Elisha to begin with? They had run out of water. They're in the midst of the desert, thirsty and desperate.

Now, who would want to dig ditches in the desert when they're already thirsty and at that point of desperation? Nobody would want to dig ditches in that condition. That's not like a hobby thing, like you just kind of get up and like, you know, I just feel like a little bit of a workout, so, you know, I'm gonna go dig some ditches outside in the sun, even though I'm already dehydrated and thirsty. Yeah.

What God was asking them to do was a difficult thing to do. And it was going to require faith for them to really trust God because, well, it doesn't make sense to do this. There's no rational reason to do this. It doesn't seem like a good way, you know, for it to resolve the situation. But God tests their faith, calling them to be obedient and to make the valley full of ditches. And God's going to miraculously provide water.

But the way that he's going to provide water, they would only benefit from it if they believed and obeyed God. Verse 17, thus says the Lord, you shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water so that your cattle and your animals may drink. God's going to provide water in a miraculous, a supernatural way.

It's not going to rain on top of you. So you're not going to be able to like get out buckets and, you know, collect the water and then you'll be able to drink and your cattle will be able to drink. It's not going to come that way. It's not going to come the normal means. But instead, the water is just going to flow through the valley. Now, if you think about this, right? So here they are in the desert. If the water flows through and they don't dig the ditches, they don't get to receive this miraculous provision of water that God is giving. Right?

Have you ever poured water out into the dirt and then tried to collect it back up? I mean, I guess you could kind of scoop it into your mouth and try to, you know, suck on the mud, but that's not going to be a pleasant experience, right? The water would just pass through. Some of it would soak into the ground, but it would just keep on going if there were no ditches, trenches to be filled by the water. God is going to provide for them, but there is some preparation that they must do in advance in order to receive water.

This blessing that God is providing, this miraculous provision that God has established. Pastor Dave Guzik encourages us with this. He says that this demonstrates the principle that God wants us to prepare for the blessing he wants to bring. Listening to him, we are to anticipate his working and get ready for it. I don't think it's, you know, in dispute. I think we all want God to work in our lives. We would all sign up for God's blessings.

But not all of us sign up to dig ditches in the desert while we're thirsty, right? We don't all sign up for the preparation. We're not all willing to put in some effort to prepare ourselves to receive the work that God wants to do. But this is a principle of God. This is a way that God works. He wants to bless. He wants to work. He's going to work. But if you don't prepare yourself, the water is going to flow right on by and you're going to miss out.

God works in such a way that, well, there is some investment that's required of you based upon what the Lord is saying to you. And so it's important to consider this morning, what is the Lord saying to you? What does God want to do in your life? For these men, it literally meant grabbing a shovel and going out to the dirt and digging trenches. Probably that's not the literal thing that God wants you to do, but there is something.

That God would speak to you and say, I want to work in your life. There's some preparation that's needed in advance. And you need to give of yourself. You need to expend some energy and prepare yourself to receive what it is that I want to do. And it brings us back to this principle that we often refer to. And that is that we as believers walk by faith and not by sight. To dig a trench in the desert while you're thirsty is an act of faith.

It's obedience to God at his word. It doesn't make sense why I'm digging a trench in the desert. It doesn't make sense that water is going to fill it. It doesn't add up. It doesn't make sense. It's not rational. But this is what God said. And so I'm going to do it before I can tell. Now, if they waited to see the water, it would be too late. Oh, water's coming. Quick, dig. You know, they might be able to catch a tiny bit, but not the resources that they needed.

They had to, before they could see the water, walk by faith and dig those trenches. In the same way, what is God speaking to you? It's going to require faith to prepare yourself to receive the work that God wants to do in your life. And maybe we need to back up for just a moment. I've been asking, what is the Lord saying? But maybe a more appropriate question is, is God speaking to you? Do you even have an idea, a sense of what God is saying, that God is speaking to you?

And even to hear what the Lord is saying, well, there needs to be some trench digging on our part. There needs to be, we need to give God opportunity to speak. There needs to be some preparation that we set aside some time in prayer and that we spend some time in the word, that we spend some time seeking counsel perhaps in order to give God opportunity to even begin to speak in our lives.

Again, as we close out this year and look forward to the new year and there's new things that God wants to do, how did you do this year in hearing from the Lord and receiving from the Lord? And I pray that you did well. I pray that you've been walking with God and God has been speaking to you and that's great. But whether you have or haven't, what I would encourage you now as we look forward to the new year is let's begin to prepare ourselves to dig the trenches a little bit deeper.

Let's get ready to grow a little bit more. Let's get ready to fill our lives a bit more with the work of God, the person of God, the worship of God, walking with God, to receive more of God in our hearts and in our lives. It's also illustrated in today's reading in 2 Kings 4. We see this account of a widow who was out of resources and desperate. She went to the prophet and the prophet said,

go gather as many jars and vessels as you can. And as she gathered them together, he said, now pour out. You have this little bit of oil? Pour out that oil into all of these vessels that you've collected. And she poured out and

miraculously, supernaturally, the oil just continues to pour, even though she's already poured out much more than that container could hold, but it keeps coming. And so give me another vessel, give me another container. And she's filling up all of these containers with this oil that God is miraculously providing. And the oil only stopped flowing when she ran out of jars to fill up. And in this, God provided for her and met her needs. But how much oil she received was...

in direct response to how many vessels she had collected. If she had only, you know, gathered like five jars, she would have only received five jars worth of oil. But if she gathered 500 jars, she would receive from the Lord 500 jars of oil. There was opportunity for her to receive from the Lord to a greater degree with the preparation that she put into it. In a similar way, I would encourage you to consider what

What can you do to prepare yourself a little bit more to get another shovel full out of that trench and prepare yourself to receive from the Lord to a greater degree as you move forward? There's many aspects of our life that we could consider. I'm going to throw out a few examples, but I would encourage you to also just continue to seek the Lord as far as what he would be saying to you. But one thing to consider is your time in the word of God.

Now, we encourage you continually and regularly to read along with us through the Bible in three years. And that is a great opportunity for you to have some time with God in His Word. Now, I often refer back to this passage as an exhortation for those who are reading through the Bible because, well, sometimes reading through the Bible, it just feels like you're shoveling dirt, if you're honest.

Not every day reading the Bible feels amazing. Not every day is just like such a blessing and overwhelming and just amazing how much God spoke to me. Not every day is like that. You don't see the blessings every day. Sometimes it just feels like you're shoveling dirt. You're just working your way through in obedience to the Lord. But that's okay. It's okay that it's that way because that's part of the preparation. Every shovel full of dirt makes room for God to speak and pour out His Spirit. It's

It's part of the preparation. It's part of the walking by faith and not by sight. That we continue to walk in that even when we don't get all of the feelings and experiences and things that we might hope for when we spend time in the Word of God. And so I would encourage you to be with us in the Bible in three years. Maybe you've fallen out, but there's opportunity. Just jump back in. The reading schedule's there. It's available. But

I would on top of that just say, well, give God opportunity to speak to you about maybe he wants to change things up in your devotional life. And maybe it is the Bible in three years, but maybe that's not all that it is. Maybe there's something additional God wants to do. Maybe some other way. Maybe it's some memorization perhaps that God wants you to engage in, to spend some time with him in that way.

Maybe it's, you know, some other portions as well in addition to you. Maybe it's some other portions altogether. It's whatever God has for you. But maybe you can do, you know, just a little extra shovelful in expanding your relationship with God, with Him in His Word. And do you want to see the Holy Spirit work in your life? Paul refers to the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit. Dig some trenches in the Word of God. Make some room for the Holy Spirit to work.

By immersing yourself and investing yourself in the word of God. Another aspect of our life that we can consider in regards to digging some trenches and preparing ourselves for the work of God is prayer. Prayer is an important part of what God wants to do in our lives and what God calls us to do. And it's another thing that is really a walk by faith and not by sight type of thing because we are called to pray regularly.

Even when we can't see the rain, even when we can't see the water, we don't see the solution. We don't see how it's going to be answered. We don't see the prayers answered right away, but we're called to pray. In Luke chapter 18, Jesus teaches a parable, which we're not going to get into, but the point of the parable, Luke chapter 18, verse 1 says, he spoke a parable to them that men ought always to pray and not lose heart.

The point of the parable that Jesus was wanting to get across was, look, you need to pray and keep on praying and don't give up praying even if you don't see the results right away. Again, it's walking by faith and not by sight. There's some things perhaps that you've been praying for, but there's a great temptation to lose heart because you're not seeing the results. You're not seeing the change. You're not seeing anything happen. You don't see the rain. You don't see the water. It doesn't make sense, but

Jesus says, don't lose heart. Those things I've put upon your heart and called you to pray for, keep on praying for them. And maybe dig out a couple more shovelfuls and spend a little bit of extra time praying for those things. God will answer those prayers. Those ditches will be filled. But there is a need for us to do the digging and prepare ourselves to receive that answered prayer by spending the time in prayer for it to be answered.

Another aspect of our life that we could consider is our worship. Spending time expressing ourselves to God and singing his praises and worshiping him and adoring him and expressing our gratitude to him. Now listen, if you only worship God when you have feelings of worship, you will worship God very seldomly. But really the call for us is to sometimes worship is digging ditches. Did you know that?

Sometimes you need to sing to God when you don't feel like singing to God. Sometimes you need to express your heart to God in this way when it doesn't feel worshipful. But it's not about walking by sight. It's about walking by faith. God has called you to worship him. He's called you to express gratitude, to praise him and lift his name on high. He's called you to that. He deserves that. He's worthy of that, whether you feel like it or not.

And so you can approach times of worship and understand that sometimes it's going to feel like you're shoveling dirt. But you prepare yourself to receive the presence of, you know, the scriptures tell us that the Lord inhabits the praises of his people, right? You prepare yourself to experience God's presence many times by worshiping God when you don't feel like it. And as you're digging those trenches, God will fill. He will fill. He will refresh. He will renew. But you don't wait for that feeling to

to then try to start worshiping God at that point. Kind of brings in another aspect to our walk with God, and that is our fellowship together and our gathering together as believers, what we call church. You know, there's a great opportunity for you and a need for you to prepare yourself for coming to church.

Sometimes we don't think about it in those terms. We kind of forget the spiritual disciplines that God would call us to. But, you know, when you arrive here, that's not the time to begin preparing to spend time with God. But we really should arrive here already prepared, having spent some time with God. Coming to church is not just, you know, sitting through an event or watching a play or hearing, you know, a music show. It's

Well, it's fellowship together for one thing. And so there's ministry that needs to happen between you and others. And so there's some digging that needs to happen ahead of time as you're praying for people on the way and before, and you come ready to engage and minister to one another. There's some preparation, talking about worship, that you come prepared, kind of set your mind and your heart and your attitude. I'm going to worship God, whether I feel like it or not. That

That you're not showing up and caught off guard by, oh yeah, we're supposed to sing or something like that. But that you come ready to engage with the Lord, ready to hear from him in his word. Again, there's a lot of things that we could talk about that we do in preparation, digging some ditches and preparing ourselves to receive from God. But I want to throw out a couple more before we move on. Think about healing. Sometimes God wants to do a miraculous work of healing in your life.

Now, it's not always in every case that God physically heals us right now when we want it or exactly when we pray for it. Of course, we know that ultimately in eternity, we have the ultimate healing. But we shouldn't also go so far to think that God doesn't sometimes want to do a miraculous work of healing in our lives. But that work of healing in our lives perhaps could be, it's going to require some digging on our part, some preparation on our part.

Think about what the Apostle Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 5.23. He says,

He's not encouraging Timothy to, you know, drunkenness or to, you know, get into alcohol to kind of numb the pain so he doesn't have to think about his sicknesses. He's talking about it in a medicinal way. It might be valuable for you. It might be helpful for you to take this medication, to receive this medication. And through that, perhaps God is going to provide some healing on your behalf.

And so sometimes there is the place for God to use medicinal type things. There are some trenches that we need to dig and walking through that with the Lord. But looking at it from a different passage, a different perspective, James tells us in James 5, verse 14, Are you sick? Here's what to do, James says.

Now again, this isn't a guarantee. You demand it and God has to heal you. But this is a way to dig some trenches. And I always find this passage interesting because it doesn't say, elders of the church, go find the sick and pray for them. No, what does it say? It says, are you sick? Then you call for the elders. You raise your hand and say, I'm sick. Can you guys pray for me? There is the potential. There is the possibility that perhaps God is willing to heal. But if you don't do the preparation,

You don't do the obedience. You don't give the opportunity. Well, the water might just flow right on by and you haven't set yourself up to receive that work of God in your life. We could consider finances and work. We could consider marriage. We could consider all kinds of aspects of your life. But again, the point is, obedience prepares you to receive God's provision. What's the Lord saying to you? You need to walk by faith.

And maybe you're not going to feel it. Maybe you're not going to see the results right away. Maybe you're not going to be excited about it. I'm sure those guys were not excited about the call to dig ditches in the sun in the desert. But obedience to God prepares you for the work that God wants to do in your life. Even Elisha had to dig some ditches. Think about verse 15 again. He says, but now bring me a musician. Then it happened when the musician played that the hand of the Lord came upon him.

Here's Elisha with double the spirit of Elijah the prophet. But he didn't just have the word of the Lord. He had to spend some time in worship. Digging some ditches, just spending some time in worship. As he's doing that, the Lord fills that time of worship and speaks to his heart. Paul encourages us in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 1, Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. Similar to Elisha.

God gifts us spiritually. He gives us spiritual gifts. But even those spiritual gifts that God gives to us, they don't just happen upon us. There is some preparation. There is the pursuit of love that is our digging of ditches. That we would love one another enough to desire to be used by God to minister and to work in each other's lives. And there is the need to desire spiritual gifts.

And it describes a fervency and intensity. Lord, I want to be blessed by you and enabled by you to minister to others. And in pursuing love and desiring spiritual gifts, we prepare ourselves. Spending time with the Lord, we hear from the Lord and are able to minister to one another. Obedience prepares you to receive God's provision. I would encourage you to walk by faith and not by sight before you can see the water.

Be obedient. Dig those trenches. Set yourself up to receive all that God has for you as we move into this new year. Finishing up in verses 18 through 20, we get point number four, and that is God's provision is abundant. Here's what it says in verse 18. And this is a simple matter in the sight of the Lord. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand.

Also, you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city and shall cut down every good tree and stop up every spring of water and ruin every good piece of land with stones. Now it happened in the morning when the grain offering was offered that suddenly water came by way of Edom and the land was filled with water. These three kings came to Elisha because of this urgent need. They were dehydrated. They were thirsty in the wilderness. And God says, I'm going to provide that.

And that's just such a simple thing. You came to me for that urgent need. It's a simple matter. I'm going to do so much more than just give you water. In fact, I'm going to use that giving of water to give you victory over Moab. If you desire to, you can read on.

The rest of the chapter, which explains how God used that water. It looked like blood to the Moabites. They thought they had victory already. They walked in not expecting the attack of Israel and Judah and Edom. And they were wiped out as a result. There was a great victory there that happened because Israel believed God, dug the ditches, and then God filled them just like he said he would.

The land was filled with water, it says in verse 20. And God did a greater work than just quenching their thirst. He met their physical need for water, but also then gave them victory in the mission that was at hand. F.B. Meyer says, our expectant faith creates the capacity to receive God's gifts. But when we have gone to our limit and the valley is filled with ditches, he is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond.

This is the way that God loves to work in our lives. We might begrudge it at the moment as we're digging the ditches and not be that excited about it. But God uses those things to minister to us above and beyond what we would have thought, what we could have asked for, what we could have imagined. He uses those things in our lives to bless us and work in our lives abundantly. This is the way that God works. And so I want to encourage you to consider, especially as we

Look back and reflect on this year. As we look ahead to the new year and what God might want to do, let's prepare ourselves to receive God's provision. Not simply trusting in our own resources. They'll run dry. They'll run out. We can't rest in what we have and our wisdom and our tactics. But instead, let's turn to God for our provision.

Let's trust in God for our provision. And as he speaks, let's be obedient and prepare ourselves. Even if it means digging in dirt in the hot sun, it's gonna be worth it. What God has in store for us is abundantly beyond what we could ever ask or think. God has great things in store for you. Miracles in store for you. Times of refreshing in store for you. He's got great opportunities and ministry in store for you.

But if you don't prepare yourself, the water is going to flow by and you'll miss out. We need to stop and be obedient to the Lord and walk by faith, dig some trenches, invest ourselves in the things of God that we might be fully prepared to receive what he desires to pour out. Let's pray. God, I pray for each one of us. And you know, Lord, exactly where we're at. If we are like Jehoram,

just really far from you and doing evil in your sight. Or if we're like Jehoshaphat, walking with you, but making some bad mistakes, hanging with the wrong people. Lord, you know where we're at. You know our hearts and you know, Lord, what's been happening in our lives. And the great and amazing thing about you, God, is that you still invite us and give us the opportunity to turn to you. Not because of our own efforts, our own righteousness, but because

of what you've done through your son, Jesus. Lord, we can come to you in your grace and mercy. And Lord, you desire to speak. You desire to work. You desire to recover. You want to do great things. Help us, God, to believe you, to walk by faith and respond as you speak to our hearts. Whatever that may be, God, I pray that you would help us to be obedient and to make our valleys full of trenches.

Lord, that we would be a people who are prepared and ready for you to speak. Lord, that we would be attentive to your voice, that we would have the capacity to be able to receive from you the work that you desire to do in our lives. I pray, God, that you would draw us near to you. And Lord, I pray that you would expand us and grow us in our walk with you, that we might know you more. Lord, that we might be closer to you than ever before, that we might love you and be

have more of a passion for you than previously, Lord, that our lives with you would be increasing more and more, not diminishing. Lord, as we respond to you, Lord, that you would be at work to a greater degree. We invite you to do that, God. I pray that you would speak to us. Show us, Lord, how we might prepare and set ourselves up to receive all that you have for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.