We’re continuing this theme called Spark. I’d like us to sit with this morning in the moments we have here with the idea that our spark for the present will increase in strength when we start to gain a strong sense of vision for the future God has for us. Our present will be directly impacted by the way we see our future unfolding. Especially when our journey becomes a faith journey and God becomes a part of that journey. He longs to speak to us about the future in such a way that it directly impacts the passion, the life, and the way we are present in the moments we have here. I have to say this idea of a future, wanting to be a place where God speaks, means something to me. Perhaps more now than ever before because this father’s day is an interesting one for us as a family.

It’s the first one because of our daughter. I get the privilege of moving from celebrating my dad, grandfather, and the fathers that I have in my life that I’ve impacted to becoming part of the celebration. For the first time, this becomes something of an experience. It makes this idea of the future of aspirations, dreams, and desires a little bit more personal. My journey into parenthood has just begun. It had an interesting beginning. I remember it was definitely last year. We discovered that we were expectant parents and we were excited as any parents would be. There was a timeline where we went in and received tests. We were really excited to discover we were going to have a little girl.

I was more sobered and then excited, but we were very excited and very expectant. Through the course of different exams in ultrasounds, there came a point where the doctors expressed a degree of concern. They weren’t as enthusiastic as my wife and I were feeling. The doctors ended up bringing in another medical professional. They came in, took us to a different room, and started talking to us about a condition that they saw our daughter was going to have. They said this condition she’s going to have is going to create a challenge in her life. She’s going to have some special needs that are going to emerge. We’re not going to know exactly how they’re going to happen. In fact, any child is walking through life with this, they have a wide spectrum.

They said some children like this could go from being completely dependent on their parents for life, the entire course of their life, or they can go from that extreme to the other extreme. There have been many cases in which adults have been discovered to have this same condition and no one would have ever known it. They look indistinguishably normal and typical. The main impact is that it will end up creating a challenge in development. We don’t know what that looks like. We don’t know exactly how this is going to unfold, but we know that development will be delayed and there are so many variables. After telling us this, we were sitting there considering what this all means. My wife and I are sitting there with the medical professionals, which I believe it’s their part of their job, their duty.

They ended up suggesting that we consider terminating the pregnancy. I have to tell you as faith-filled Christ-followers, we are convinced that God is the one who gives life. God breathes life into every human being He puts not only life into a person’s body, but He is the one who knits them. He fearfully and wonderfully makes them and imprints His own image on every single person. We just thought that’s not an option. In that moment of celebration and the expectancy of considering this exciting new adventure in our lives as a couple and now becoming parents, it caused us to make a conscious choice about the future. What was not expected, desired, and not planned for, had now just come knocking on our door.

I remember being in that place of reconsidering. What does this mean for us as parents? What is life going to be like? There are so many unknowns. What started to creep in was a degree of uncertainty and doubt. Some degree of discouragement started to become part of our experience. I have to tell you in those moments in those days and that season, something became rather clear to me. I needed to get an idea of what the future looked like in order to actually be able to walk out in the present. I needed something in my own life, in our own life as a couple. We needed to start to grab a grip on the Lord. What is it that you have in store? How is that supposed to impact me today?

If that was not there, then it made the present very challenging. I share that because I think it is a picture of what life is like, is it not? We have our plans, our dreams, and our aspirations. We have our goals, pursuits, and ideals. Then reality comes knocking, doesn’t it? It’s funny how that happens every single time. Very few times, things unfold exactly how they’re supposed to go. The truth is life can become something rather challenging when we start to move into the future looking at it through this lens of losing hope and feeling like the obstacles perhaps are too great. Maybe what we’re doing is not going to make a difference. Wondering if nothing will ever change in that place of losing a sense of faith in the future we’re walking into. 

One thing is for sure. We can become complacent, if not something worse. We can start to move through the motions if we’re not careful. Perhaps eject ourselves in our own way and seek to escape what is actually real in front of us. All the while, just drifting rather than moving towards something God may have for us. Perhaps this is why I love the scriptures. In particular, I love the prophets of the Older Testament. They’re not perfect, but they seem to have in their lives and journeys, a grip on reality. They’re not in denial. They’re not pretending everything is going to be okay. They know exactly what’s going on or they have a very clear picture of it. On the other hand, they have a grip on the goodness of God that gives them hope, faith, and strength. They seem to be able to walk this tension out in a way that I think we can all use. The prophets have the capacity to give us strength.

In fact, if you open up your handout, I’d love for us to explore a passage that’s found in the book of second Kings in the older Testament. This account is about a man named Elisha who was a prophet. He was in the final days of his life. Elisha, just so we understand what we’re going to interact with here, was a spokesman for God for about 60 years. There was a new king on the throne of Israel who had come to see him as a sense of security and stability. Elisha was not only one who spoke for God, but he also represented something of the Lord’s goodness over Israel. If Elisha was present, then there was a sense that God was with us. That gave the Kings and nation a degree of comfort and security.

In the final days of Elisha’s life, king Jehoash ends up getting moved to enter into a point of paying him respect. You could also see he’s considering what a future without Elisha would look like. He doesn’t like it. It’s not what he maybe had desired. We’re told in verse 14 that when Elisha was in his last illness, that’s the scripture’s way of saying this would be the final days of his life, King Jehoash of Israel visited and wept over him. He said, “My father, my father, I see the chariots and the charioteers of Israel.” It’s a way he was saying you represent the Calvary. The best our nation has to offer. The largest source for security is because of you, Josephus, the ancient historian, would say. He says, because of him, they had never had to use arms against their foe. But through his words, they were able to overcome the enemy without ever having to have a physical battle.

Elisha was now departing this life and leaving the king unarmed before the Syrians and the kingdoms around them, the Assyrians, Syrians, and the enemies under them. This is why the king was crying. We’re told that he’s sitting there and grieving. On one hand, the loss of one he had come to know and love as a Sage guide is dying. But then also recognizing that the loss of Elisha also meant a vacuum in his own life. You get the sense that the king is not just crying over Elisha, he’s also crying over his future and what that means and the weight he will have to bear. The sense of insecurity his nation will face. The uncertainty that all of a sudden becomes all too real. He’s crying over the prophet and it seems that the prophet seeing this stirred his soul with perhaps a final instruction, a word of direction for this king.

In verse 15, Elisha told him to get a bow and some arrows. The king did as he was told. He may have had them in the room, in the upper room where the prophet is laying on his deathbed. Or perhaps he got them from a security detail. We’re told he makes his way, gets the arrows and the bow, and comes back into the room. In verse 16, Elisha told him, “put your hand on the bow. Elisha laid his hands on the King’s hands.” The King stands next to his bed. He says, now put your hands on the bow. He puts his hands on the bow and then Elisha puts his hands on the kings, signifying some degree of symbolic nature of what is about to happen.

Elisha is trying to transfer something. He’s trying to give him something. He’s trying to have solidarity with him. He says, now here’s what I want you to do. I want you to open the Eastern window and he opened it. Then he said, I want you to shoot your arrow. So he shot an arrow. Elisha proclaimed, “this arrow is the Lord’s arrow. It’s an arrow of victory over Aram for you will completely conquer the Aramaeans at Aphek.” In other words, the accompanying prophetic words predict in spite of the oppression, the king is very well aware Israel will overcome and revive one day. They will be able to overcome their enemies. Elijah is essentially saying to the king, listen, I want you to open up the Eastern window and shoot. I want you to shoot an arrow into time. Beyond the days I will be here with you.

I want you to shoot an arrow of faith. I want you to recognize that this arrow is meant to help you see a different future than the one you’re seeing. There is something that you could almost sense that Elisha is trying to tell them. Trust me when I tell you, the Lord sees a future, a victory for you. I know all you see is a concern, grief, and loss. All you see is anxiety and fear. All you see is what cannot happen or what’s possible to come against you. But I want you to start seeing something different, shoot that arrow. As it goes over the Eastern side it goes further and further out of sight. I want you to understand that that is what God is capable of. He can create a future beyond what you can see that is far better than you believe. Will you do that? He does it just now. 

On the other side of this word, perhaps not fully understanding the magnitude of what the king has just heard, perhaps wanting to impress upon him even further, something that he needs to incorporate into how he is walking this out. He asks the king, in verse 18, “now I want you to pick up the other arrows and I want you to strike them against the ground. I want you to get the rest of the arrows, king of Israel and I want you to strike them against the ground.” So we’re told in a kind of black and white terms, the king picked them up and struck the ground three times.

No real description is given. The sense that we are given though, is that this king who was much younger came to pay his respects. He was grieving and was certainly focused on his own loss. A king who was used to treating himself with self-importance and dignity, who had a degree of Regal nature to him. You get the sense. He kind of just went through the motions and shot an arrow. Well, who wouldn’t want to do that? Yeah, I’ll do that. I’ll shoot the arrow that has a word. Yes, it does. Then go grab the other arrows. What do you want me to do? I want you to hit the ground. You want me to hit the ground? Yeah. I want you to strike the ground.

Okay. I’m going to respect the Elderman. The Sage on his final day is fine and you get the sense he gets down and is three is enough. Is that good? Is that what you wanted? Uncertain, not knowing exactly what this all meant, perhaps filled with skepticism and doubt, not recognizing what he had just heard and the significance of what was going on. Maybe not wanting to become the undignified king, not wanting to leave his position, and how he saw his office to be carried out. Perhaps in that place, we’re told that he does this. He strikes the ground three times somewhat complacently we’re told in verse 19. Why do we know that he did it somewhat complacently? Because we’re told that the man of God was angry with him. The prophet ended up saying to the king, you should have struck the ground five or six times, three, really?

You’ve got so much more in you. At least five or six. You could have gone for it. You would have beaten the Aram until it was entirely destroyed. But now you will be victorious. Only three times. It’s almost as if Elisha, some have said, was mad because he saw in the King’s display of treating these seemingly meaningless tasks carelessly, he saw inside of him. Something of a lack of grit and determination. He became angry in his soul. It’s almost as if he was trying to transfer passion to the king. That is an amazing picture to me. It’s an amazing picture. The man at the end of his life, after serving for six decades, lying on his deathbed, ill, is seeking to transfer life and passion to the young king who had the rest of his future ahead of him.

Can you see it? As a contrast, it’s there. You could see it. If anyone deserves to have self-pity, it would be the dying prophet. If anyone deserved to bemoan the fact that he was breathing his final breaths on earth, it would be the dying prophet. Yet, what does Elisha do? Elisha was fixated on the future of his people. He was gripped with hope and faith. I’m looking into the future king. I see something good. I see good. You see the king on the other hand, who had the ability to impact that future to step into that future, to do something about it, what was he? He was rendered passive, somewhat insecure, self-pitying in his assessment. Not sure how to navigate this complacent at best.

Elisha was the one dying. He was ill, but he had more life flowing through his veins. It’s an amazing contrast. The king was young and healthy and had a position of power. He had a halfhearted willingness to leave it all on the field as it were. It might have looked like it didn’t mean much, but it showed something of his character that Elisha was trying to put his finger on. Indeed he did. Don’t go half-heartedly. Don’t do it. Why? You should’ve put everything you had in there. The prophet is on fire.

A great picture of what mature seasoned faith creates. He has sparked, it didn’t dwindle. It grew. The king was lukewarm at best. Perhaps cold. The Prophet’s fire would not be put out even in his final days. This is why I think this is so significant for us. I think I am convinced God wants us to live each day with a degree of intensity, drive, and passion in our present with the same degree that Elisha demonstrated in his final days. Can you hear it? When God becomes a part of our life, He wants to transform us into people who can see. Seers they were called, who can see into the future. They don’t see exactly the denial. They’re not denying reality, but they’re seeing something of God’s activity. It inspires them every step of the way even though their circumstances may not be ideal. They may not be great, but there is something that is meant to inform us from the future into the present. He says, can you get that, king? It doesn’t matter. It might mean you might need to be undignified at times or break out of your comfort zone. You might need to take a risk. You might need to trust in the one who is calling you. Yes, it might seem meaningless, but if you do it with all your heart, can you see there’s something there?

Elisha was more alive. I’ll say it again. The dying prophet was more alive than the young king, all because of the way the future was viewed. I think so many times this can’t impress it enough. Our spark for the present will increase when we gain a strong sense of the future God has for us. So how do we do it? How do we do it especially when the future seems bleak? How do we move from a place of not wanting to see what is present and not believing that it’s actually going to pan out well to move to a place where even though our bodies are humbling us in illnesses or taking over us, we are still in our soul fully alive. How do we do that? I think one of the things that Elisha demonstrates is to remind us to tighten our grip.

I’m going to put it up there to tighten our grip on the future God has for us. That is to say to start defining it for ourselves. What is it to grab a hold of it, to seek it out, to put some texture on it, to be able to define it, to be able to put it into words for us, God, what is your future for my life? What is the vision of the life you’re asking me to pursue? You’re asking me to build, you’re asking me to lean into. What does that look like? Now there is something in grabbing ahold of that. All of us, by the way, are responsible for doing that, which ends up fueling our soul with what we need to be able to move forward. Look at what Solomon said in Proverbs 29. He says, “when people do not accept divine guidance” and I ask them for this translation, I thought, man, that is a great way to put it. “When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.” In other words, it says they lose restraint. But whoever obeys the law is joyful, expectant, hopeful. The idea is that a vision of what God is wanting to do in our lives. Do you know what it does? It increases restraint, calm, peace, and discipline. It’s closely connected to a willingness to say, Lord, what are you wanting to do in my life, in my future?

How do we receive divine guidance? I think number one, we have to understand that His Word, a ritual, a habit of digesting His Word in our lives gives us the capacity to receive instruction. It may not be detailed like we’re used to receiving on a map app. But it is powerful enough like a compass to direct, point, and guide us. His Word, as we become more familiar with it and understand it, starts to reveal something of what He wants to do in our lives personally. To read it, not just going through the motions, but to be fully present when we engage with His Word and we invite God, will you speak into my situation through what I’m reading?

Will you do that to be intentional? We can not just seek His Word. But seek counsel from those who have been walking with Him for a little bit longer than us. Seek counsel from those who have been able to consistently follow Him, not perfectly, no one ever will. Seek out people who have a distinguished sense, a resolute devotion they’ve demonstrated through the highs and the lows of their lives. This is why, by the way, one of the beautiful things of our church is that we have multi-generations in one community where we have the access to be able to garner wisdom from another generation who has walked through similar situations. What is the difference? The king, who is young, is anxious and fearful. The prophet who is seasoned is hopeful, optimistic, and alive. The beauty of counsel, the beauty of being able to receive it from those who may be a tad more mature than us.

I have to say, there’s nothing replacing the individual desire to ask God, “Lord, will you show your will for me, for my life? Will you show me your will?” To prayerfully ask Him, show me, God. I believe you’re alive. I believe you have a plan. So what does that look like for me? I’ve discovered that a lot of times we may not get a direct revelation like king Jehoash got. We won’t be able to go to some Sage in his upper room, cry at his feet, and have him do some symbolic gestures. I mean, that would be cool, but it doesn’t happen. Do you want to know what normally happens? What normally happens is that we start to invite God into our lives and ask Him to unfold His future for us. 

What happens is He will start to speak to us very directly. Not exactly all the time about the circumstances we’re going to step into. I won’t say He doesn’t. It just doesn’t typically happen. Normally, it’s not going to be the domino effect; this is exactly how this is all going to pan out. These are the sequence of events and this is the future you’re going to step into. That’s actually far less normal. What is more normal is that you will begin as we consider our future and we invite Him into, He starts to say, “This is the person I want you to be in that future. I want you to start becoming that person. I want to speak to you about who you will be in your future.” He will start to speak to us about people, the father, husband, friend, coworker, son, daughter, and the person that we are meant to become in our future. Our future may not be certain in terms of circumstances, but what is certain is who He wants us to become.

When we start to get a hold of what He is asking us into, you know what happens? It’s almost as if we start to ask, “Lord, who do you want me to be? Who do you want me to be tomorrow? Who do you want me to be at the end of this year? Who do you want me to be next year? Who do you want me to be in the next season of my life?” We start to see that. We start to recognize what God whispers to us. Look at how Paul put it. I love the message translation. “When faith comes alive in us and faith becomes a part of our journey, what you don’t have is nothing that exists between us and God.” But our faces are shining with the brightness of His face. We are transfigured much like the Messiah. Our lives gradually become brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him.

Something about our future is always meant to be beautiful, reflecting goodness. Why? Because as we invite Him into our lives, He starts to show us a picture of who we will be like. This is what it would look like. To me, I know for a fact, my wife and I, can’t dictate the circumstances, every detail, or exactly how this will pan out for our daughter. There’s just no way. There is no way, but we can start to ask the Lord, what kind of parent do you want us to be for our daughter? Who do you want us to become? It’s not exactly how we saw it happening. So what is it that you’re having in mind for our future? What does that mean for our marriage? What does that mean for my friendships and relationships? Who are you wanting to build through this?

What does this look like? When we start to ask that question, we start to discover an enormous amount of empowerment as we recognize that our future is built in the present one step at a time. Our future is built in the present one step at a time. It’s so obvious. It’s so simple. If only it were so easy. Why is it we’re stating them? Because sometimes the strength of our faith can become overwhelmed by the prospects of what the future has in store. The challenges can seem to be larger than our capacity. We can doubt if we have the ability to endure. We can start to feel like we never get traction. We can start to feel like no matter how much energy we put in, we don’t really get the results we desire. Something inside of us starts to wonder if what we’re doing is meaningless, or if it’s not actually producing anything.

Add to that, we can start to compare ourselves with other people’s journeys. We can start to see they’re getting further ahead than ourselves. Why should I even try? It is very easy to slip into that way of thinking and viewing the future. When the future is viewed without hope, it zaps us of the capacity to impact the very future we’re stepping into. Anxiety may rob us of recognizing our role to impact our future. But we need to believe in our present as our lives depended on it. Because they do and not just our lives, but those who depend on us and those who count on us, they depend on it. There is something of a requirement in this journey of faith. It requires us to be willing to lay it all on the line today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, not next year, not next season, not when I get around to it, but today right now.

There are arrows in our hands that we know God has whispered into our soul, “do this.” Rather than doing it half-heartedly, there is something inside of us that is supposed to do it with everything we have. We push against whatever doubt and fear we might feel. We’re going to say, “you know what? It doesn’t matter. If I look undignified, I’m going to go for it. I’m going to go and I’m going to go and I’m going to go and I’m going to do everything I can today. Right now, I’m going to love. I’m going to serve. I’m going to forgive. I’m going to move forward. I’m going to show up. I’m going to sing. I’m going to do whatever. I’m going to pray. I’m going to read your Word. I’m going to go for it. I’m going to lay it all in line.” Elisha was trying to tell the king, “you do that and you’ll overcome.” You do that and we’ll start to discover what Jesus said. He who is faithful in little will become faithful in much. We’ll discover the joy as the prophet said, don’t ever minimize the day of small beginnings. Because if you remain faithful with everything you got, you will rejoice at the harvest.

It doesn’t matter. The future we’re trying to build is to become more willing to endure inconvenient, seemingly meaningless tasks and responsibilities. I just wonder when we do that, when we leave it all on the field, where is that place right now where we would say, God has a victory for us. What He’s asking of us is this commitment in this area, “will you do everything you can today? Will you put into action what I’ve asked of you? Hold nothing back. Will you do it?” If you do that, we’ll discover that God wants a better future for us than we can ever imagine. This is why I believe the prophet was filled with so much life. It’s what Paul said. That is what the scripture says. When they say no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.

There is no possible way when God is invited into our lives. Our past may be messy, who’s isn’t? Our present may be challenging and our future may look bleak. But if God is with us in the present and we’re inviting Him in, then our future becomes far better than we could ever imagine. This word is a word that speaks of eternal life. Do you know what it doesn’t do? It doesn’t promise success on Earth the way we would define it. It doesn’t promise that everything’s going to be okay. Everything’s going to go our way and promises something far better. It promises eternal life in the midst of challenges that are temporary. It promises eternal hope in the midst of circumstances that seem like they’re hopeless. It promises a strong fire of passion for the present that is never able to be snuffed out.

At the end of the day, Paul said it this way, “the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives within you, and He is able to empower you.” If God is for you, who and what can be against you? Filled with that, our days and steps in our present become steps that are hope-filled. Those steps are strong and courageous. Every step we take forward, we start to gain momentum. As we gain momentum, we start to discover that we too have an arrow in our hands. It is an arrow of faith. With everything we got, we might say, “Lord, I don’t know right now if I like what I’m seeing, but I’m going to shoot this arrow into the future of faith. I’m going to believe that you’re going to create something far better than I ever imagined. I want you to light my soul for what I got to do today.”

Oh, may that be the case. May He spark us because of what He wants to do in the future. In a moment, we’re going to see our time of giving and closing song. I’d love to pray. Lord, I thank you that you are the God who is able to step into our lives. Who promises your grace always outruns whatever mess we might feel that makes us out of reach, that your grace is always able to convert our circumstances. Something that you are creating that is beautiful, filled with life and hope. Your light shines brightest in the darkest. I pray God that you would give us the courage we need and the ability to take a hold of the future you have for us. Help us take one step in that direction. We pray for that in Jesus’ name. Amen.