Mensa Otabil - Keep Striking (10/27/2025)
Welcome to day number 14 of our 40 days of power. Thank God for His strength, for His mercy, and for His grace that has brought us this far. As you know, this week we are talking about breaking barriers. If there is a barrier in front of you, you’re going to break it in this season. We look at 2 Kings chapter 13, verses 18 to 19.
Then he said, «Take the arrows.» So he took them, and he said to the king of Israel, «Strike the ground.» So he struck three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, «You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria until you had destroyed it. But now you strike Syria three times.»
It’s a very interesting prophetic encounter between Elisha and Jehoash, the king of Israel. At this time, the Syrians were attacking the Israelites, and this is about the time when Elisha is nearing the end of his life. He calls Jehoash to him, the king of Israel, and does two things with him. First, he gave him a bow and arrow and said, «Shoot the arrow through the window towards the east.» He did, and then secondly, he gave him this instruction: «Take the arrows and act in a certain way.» All of these actions had to do with what God was going to do with the Syrians through King Jehoash.
So, I want you to take note of Elisha’s instruction. First, he says, «Take the arrows.» Arrows normally stand for something that hits a target, something that goes ahead and hits a target. They speak of opportunity. He says to King Jehoash, «Take these arrows, representing opportunity, and strike the ground with them.» The ground is the atmosphere, the world in which you live. In other words, Elijah says, «God is giving you an opportunity in this place, on your land, so strike the ground.» It’s a great opportunity.
What does King Jehoash do? He takes the arrow and strikes three times on the ground. In other words, he recognizes a great opportunity but decides to use it just three times. After he had done that, Elisha was very angry with him, upset with him, and rebuked him. He said to him, «You should have struck about five or six times.» In other words, «You should have continued striking until God had given you a total victory.»
What you did represents what God is going to do with Syria. He’s going to give you the opportunity, the advantage, to win battles against the Syrians, and you struck three times. You' ll win three times, but that will not be enough to totally give you victory. You should have continued to achieve a great victory.
What is the lesson we learn here? That God gives us opportunities, and when He does, we must not hold back. Especially if you’re young, you have the opportunity now to work with your strength; work with all your strength before you become old. God opens the door for you-make the most of it. God gives you a job-make the most of it. Don’t limit and destroy opportunities.
Many times we want to break barriers, but God gives us the opportunity, and we hold back. We are like King Jehoash; we do just a little, we get tired, and we don’t want to do it again. But in this season, may the Lord give you strength. May the Lord give you ability. May the Lord give you resilience and persistence, so that when you start doing something and God gives you the victory, you don’t get tired, you don’t get weary, you don’t stop, and you don’t make excuses. You just keep pushing and pushing until you have total victory.
That’s how we break barriers. We don’t break barriers by relaxing and hoping that everything will be nice for us; we break barriers by being persistent and consistent. That is the blessing that Elisha taught the king of Israel. You win some victories, but ultimately you’re not going to get it as thoroughly as it should have been. You should have persisted. I tell you, keep moving, keep praying, keep pushing, because the giants are falling, and they must all fall down before these 40 days are over.
Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunities you have given me. With diligence, I will fully execute your assignments. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»
Well, I’ll catch you again. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.