Persevere With PowerSample

Outstanding in His Field

From Abraham to Jacob, Ruth to Rahab, Gideon to Esther, the Bible shows us that God’s glory often shines through the unlikeliest of heroes. Despite their inadequacies, they kept pushing their respective plows. And God used that willingness to reveal His power.

We see this same willingness in the lives of Elijah and Elisha. Elijah, in his spiritual stand against the idolatry of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, had to persevere through trials every bit as hard and rocky as the field Elisha plowed. In fact, I find it significant that Elijah found Elisha pushing a plow.

In Elisha’s day, plowing required great physical strength in order to keep the rows straight and the oxen pulling in tandem. I have several friends who grew up on family farms. None of them describes the work as anything less than exhausting. 

Upon seeing the straining, sweating figure with the plow, Elijah must have been impressed. How could he not have admired Elisha’s sheer physical force and focused attention? Perhaps it is similar to the respect we feel for those working hard in their particular fields. It is the reaction I experience when I listen to a gifted young preacher or when a lightning-fast runner dashes by me on a track or trail.

Elijah’s response to his new prophetic partner speaks volumes: He draped his mantle over Elisha’s shoulders. This action symbolizes a generational passing of the torch from one servant-leader to another—God’s present prophet anointing his successor.

When Elijah’s mantle fell on Elisha, the man pushing the plow was given an invitation to a new season, a higher level, the next chapter. This invitation might also be interpreted as a kind of reward or recognition—not for plowing the longest time or the straightest rows but for willingness to do the hard work God had placed before him.

You see, many people desire the mantle without ever pushing the plow. What they do not understand is that prophetically speaking, the mantle—a symbol of God’s assignment, anointing and authority—only descends on those who faithfully push their plows.

The plow you are pushing today is preparing you for the mantle you will wear tomorrow.

Questions to Ponder: How have you handled the pressure so far to keep plowing? What obstacles and circumstantial barriers are getting in the way? What do you need from God most right now?