It’s dangerous to be half-hearted. God wants us to be full of zeal and the fire of God.
Let’s go all the way.
Elisha was a mighty prophet who had a double portion of the anointing that was on Elijah. Whereas the Bible records 7 miracles done by Elijah, Elisha did 14 miracles. Elisha was surrounded by strong angels that defended him and protected the nation of Israel (2 Kings 6:15-17). Elisha was like a military in the spirit realm who could destroy armies through spiritual power.
The King of Israel went to the prophet Elisha to get help to defeat his enemies (2 Kings 13:14-19). At this time, Elisha was about 90 years old. The king called Elisha his “father” because he knew that Elisha’s faith provided for and protected the nation of Israel. He also referred to Elisha as the “chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof” – referencing the times that Elisha called on God and powerful angels defeated Israel’s enemies.
Elisha told the king to take some arrows and a bow. He told the king to draw the bow and shoot an arrow. The king did so, and as he did, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands, representing that he was supporting the king in getting victory over his enemies. This arrow represented the deliverance that God was going to give to his people.
Then Elisha told the King to take the rest of the arrows and strike the ground. Elisha wanted the King to represent his defeat of the enemy by symbolically striking the enemy to the ground with the arrows. The king was to strike the arrows to the ground himself, without Elisha’s help. The king struck the ground 3 times and then stopped.
Elisha became angry. Elisha thought the king should have been more enthusiastic. He should have zealously struck the ground 5 or 6 times to show he really wanted to win. To Elisha, this lack of enthusiasm showed that the king lacked zeal and strength to defeat his enemies. He said the king would only defeat the enemy 3 times, but he wouldn’t be able to destroy them.
All these things in the Old Testament are examples to teach us spiritual lessons today (1 Corinthians 10:11).
What can we learn from this event?
We are in a spiritual battle today. We don’t wrestle against people, but we fight against evil spirits (Ephesians 6:12).
Our weapons are not bows and arrows, but they are spiritual weapons that destroy the strongholds of the enemy (2 Corinthians 10:4).
There are spiritual arrows that are flying around the world in this great cosmic war between light and darkness. Satan shoots arrows tipped with fiery darts (Ephesians 6:16), and we quench these burning arrows with the shield of faith. God shoots arrows at his enemies (Psalm 45:5), and these divine arrows are the influences of the Holy Spirit that cause people to submit to him. When Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost, the arrow of the Holy Spirit cut the heart of those who heard him (Acts 2:37), causing them to repent and give their lives to God.
To be successful in spiritual battles, we need to be like Elisha, full of zeal for God. We cannot be like the King of Israel, who was half-hearted. We need to be wholehearted and vigorous if we want to see God’s spiritual arrows fly to win a victory. We need to be all in. We need uncompromising zeal in order to defeat the enemy and throw him out.
We must be relentless in our spiritual lives. The Holy Spirit is inside us and will give us strength. We are not going to stop, but we’ll keep going no matter what. A good soldier never turns back; he keeps going until he wins.
We need persistence. Like the widow who kept bothering the unjust judge for help and didn’t give up until she got an answer, so we must persist. We are not to give up and be lazy in our prayers, but we are to keep believing (Luke 18:1). The fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 1:8). In order to avail much when we pray, we need to be fervent – full of spiritual heat.
We need vision to see where we’re going, and we must know what steps we need to take in order to get there. We need energy to take those steps. We must not stop progressing until the goal is reached.
We can also learn from other examples of halfheartedness in the Bible in order to avoid this.
Israel was too halfhearted to enter the Promised Land. Because of fear and unbelief, they wanted to run back to Egypt and become slaves. As a result, they wandered in the wilderness and died.
Saul was halfhearted. He refused to destroy all of the Amalekites, a nasty nation that corrupted the land. He began consulting with witches instead of with God. As a result of his halfheartedness, he lost his position as king and was killed.
Lot was halfhearted. He chose to live in Sodom because he thought it would be a great place for business, ignoring Sodom’s rampant immorality. God had to pull him out of Sodom before destroying it. He told Lot to run up to the mountain to escape. But Lot didn’t want to go all the way up the mountain; instead, he begged God to spare another city called Zoar so he could live there. But soon Lot had to leave Zoar and run up to the mountain anyway. Halfheartedness will allow things to remain in our lives that we will have to defeat later if we want to move on with God.
The church in Laodicea was lukewarm, which means that they were halfhearted. They were not zealous and full of heat for the Lord. Therefore, Jesus said he was going to vomit them out of his body (Revelation 3:16).
Halfheartedness is related to spiritual sluggishness and compromise.
Spiritual sluggishness means that a person is lazy spiritually. He allows his spiritual life to take a backseat to other things, and he gets covered over with evil. Therefore, he will not inherit the promises of God (Hebrews 6:12). The opposite of spiritual sluggishness is spiritual violence. Jesus appreciated the spiritually violent people who were seizing the kingdom of God (Matthew 11:12). Spiritual violence uses spiritual weapons to take territory for the Kingdom of God. Spiritually violent people force their way into victory. They win battles and rescue souls. They destroy lies, false teachings, and demonic fortresses.
Compromise means a person is trying to hold onto the Lord and something else. Jesus said we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). If we stop serving God in a radical way, we will end up serving the enemy. A double-minded man is focused on two things at once, and therefore, he cannot be wholly dedicated to God. Such a person is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8). Without stability, we can’t stand, and therefore we won’t win spiritual battles.
The most important commandment is this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength” (Mark 12:30). All our lives are to be dedicated to God. When we love God with everything, we will not be half-hearted. God will be number one, and our lives will be in divine order.
We need to “unite our hearts to fear God’s name” (Psalm 86:11). We need integrity and wholeness, with no part dark. We must be single-minded in focus on God. Our hearts should not be divided, pursuing different things contrary to God, but they should be united in submitting to God. Then we will win spiritual battles, and God’s kingdom will advance in the earth through us.
Lincoln House Churches 