An Associate Child of God

Background: 2 Kings 13:20-22 "20 Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. 21 Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.
22 Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz. 23 But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence. "
These verses bring me to the end of Elisha's valiant life, in the Living God. It was amazing for me to see that even though, Elisha had passed away, his bones still had the power of God. In Acts 19 we read "11God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them." More than that, even with our Lord Jesus, when the woman with the issue of blood, touched the hem of Jesus' garment she was healed.

Lessons I learnt:

1. Associate-When we hang around someone too long, we start getting impressions of that person on our life as well. In our terms we call it to "rub off on"-meaning: to become transferred or communicated to by example or association". Elisha had been associating with God so closely that God's power rubbed off on him, even to his bones. God's power was so intense on Jesus and His disciples that even the inanimate objects like clothing carried the power of God. I had never thought of associate as a powerful word, probably because I hear of it more in a business perspective, but it is, it even goes as far a meaning "union". The Amplified Bible expands associate as [closely and habitually]. So can you imagine what can happen to our lives, when we closely and habitually associate with our Lord Jesus.


2. Realise-Can we know God's power has rubbed off on us or not?? We may not know immediately, but the people who will see us, outside of us, they will know, because they will experience it. I had a friend who I used to like a lot for her happy nature, she had a british accent, soon in a few months I was sounding like her, no, I didn't know I was sounding like her, other people told me so. Well I liked that accent a lot so I didn't mind that. You see, we will not know, even Moses did not know his face was shining after he had met God, people were afraid when they saw him and then he realised something was different about him, his face shone. Exodus 34:28-30.


3. Demonstrate-For us who are already steadfast about our Living God, believing is seeing.(Hebrew 11) but for those who do not know, they would need to see first in order to believe. What best example there could be than to show through our lives. People read us first through our behaviour and then our words. Our words will have no impact, unless our life can demonstrate it. Before we can even share the gospel to anyone, we must have our lives in close and habitual association with our Lord Jesus, once we've got the association right, you're life automatically starts demonstrating signs of the Saviour in it, may not be to you, but definitely to others who see you.

Conclusion: We may have a heart to serve the Lord, but we may not be finding an "opportunity". Looking at the example of Elisha's bones, I don't think Elisha might have had a clue what his bones could bring about. Also, for Paul, I don't think he would have himself been aware of the power his handkerchiefs were bearing. For both Paul and Elisha, they could share God's love and power with the obvious crowd, but their lives bore far more results than that. Their associated life with God, touched the obvious before them, and also those in the bakground who had watched him from far. Our lives are capable of being an example of association with the Living God and touch lives far beyond the obvious. No matter how dead we may feel, when our lives come in contact, in associations, with the Giver of Eternal Life, His life flows right through us and people will see the results of the association.