1 Kings 19:19-21 ESV – So Elijah departed from there and found Elisha, Shaphat’s son. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him. Elisha was with the twelfth yoke. Elijah met up with him and threw his coat on him. 20 Elisha immediately left the oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and my mother,” Elisha said, “then I will follow you.”

Elijah replied, “Go! I’m not holding you back!”

 21 Elisha turned back from following Elijah, took the pair of oxen, and slaughtered them. Then with equipment from the oxen, Elisha boiled the meat, gave it to the people, and they ate it. Then he got up, followed Elijah, and served him.

Grab a Plow (God Calls The “Ready-to-Work”)

1 Kings 19:19, He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him. Elisha was with the twelfth yoke

  • To hear God’s calling tomorrow, work hard today

The Village Blacksmith, Longfellow

Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.

His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate’er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.

Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.

And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing-floor.

He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter’s voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice.

It sounds to him like her mother’s voice,
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more,
How in the grave she lies;
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.

Toiling, –rejoicing,–sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night’s repose. 

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought.

Leave the Plow (God Calls The “Ready-to-Obey”)

1 Kings 19:19b-20 – Elijah met up with him and threw his coat on him. 20 Elisha immediately left the oxen and ran after Elijah….

1 Kings 19:20 – Elisha immediately left the oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and my mother,” Elisha said, “then I will follow you.”

 “Go on back,” he replied, “for what have I done to you?”

20 Elisha immediately left the oxen and ran after Elijah….

  • To Hear God’s Calling, Be Ready to Obey Immediately

Peter & Andrew

Matthew 4:20, Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

James & John

Matthew 4:22, Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

1 Peter 1:13, Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded

What conditions are you handing to God?

1 Kings 19:21,  Elisha turned back from following Elijah, took the pair of oxen, and slaughtered them. Then with equipment from the oxen, Elisha boiled the meat, gave it to the people, and they ate it. Then he got up, followed Elijah, and served him.

Following God’s Call Means, “Burn the Plows. Kill the Cows”

Luke 9:62 CSB – Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

1 Kings 19:21 – Elisha turned back from following Elijah, took the pair of oxen, and slaughtered them. Then with equipment from the oxen, Elisha boiled the meat, gave it to the people, and they ate it. Then he got up, followed Elijah, and served him.

Following God’s Call Means, “Follow & Serve… with Cow-killing/Plow-burning Devotion”

Luke 9:23 CSB – Then Jesus said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Luke 9:23 is typical. Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.

“But there must be a real giving up of the self.

You must throw it away “blindly” so to speak. Christ will indeed give you a real personality: but you must not go to Him for the sake of that. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all.

The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new
self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him.

Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring two pence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up your self,
and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it.
Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life.

Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead.

Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

–C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Matthew 19:22 CSB – When the young man heard that, he went away grieving,

1. Serve Today

Colossians 3:23-24 CSB – Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, 24 knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ. 

2. Find an Elisha Today