There are ministries and churches that are lifeless and spiritless because they are controlled by men and women, rather than the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a serious matter to serve the Living God in the energy of the flesh. It is dangerous. Its inevitable result is death. It is a dangerous thing to inject your opinion and to take people in a different direction than where God is leading. It is disastrous to operate by consensus. To work for the Kingdom of God, we must ask, "God, what do you want?" and obey blindly.
So what is the solution to the misery of control? Continuing where we left off yesterday in 2 Kings 4, "Elisha said, 'Get some flour.' He put it into the pot and said, 'Serve it to the people to eat.' And there was nothing harmful in the pot" (v. 41).
The power of the resurrected Christ can deliver us from the spirit of control.
What was the flour? In Scripture, flour is a type or symbol of the resurrected Christ. Christ's resurrection power was a result of the crushing and the grinding of the grain of wheat, and Jesus Himself said, "Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds" (John 12:24). The grain of wheat had to be crushed in the mill of the cross before it could become the Bread of Life. Jesus is the flour who is thrown into the pot of death and sin. This is a picture of Calvary—through his perfect life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has absorbed sin unto himself and brought life. The poison in the pot, which was brought by man's intervention, by man's effort, had to be absorbed out of the pot. Death that was brought by man's intrusion on God's provision had to be neutralized.
The power of the resurrected Christ can deliver us from the spirit of control. It can help us out of our stubbornness and sin.
Prayer: God, thank You for the power of the resurrection! Thank You that I can be free from the sin of control. Help me to follow where You lead and to keep my hands out of the pot! I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
"For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live" (Romans 8:13).
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