The Dilemma of Potential by Brother Curtis Hansen

         This morning, we are going to turn to the book of 2 Kings. It will be the 13th chapter, starting at verse 14. In this selection we are going to read about the prophet Elisha as he is nearing the end of his life.

        14 Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

        15 And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took bow and arrows.

        16 And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon thy bow. And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands.

        17 And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, til thou have consumed them.

        18 And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed.

        19 And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou should have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shall smite Syria but thrice.

        Let's summarize the events leading up to this scripture. King Joash comes distressed to the prophet Elisha, as Elisha is on his deathbed. The nation of Syria was gathering its forces to surround and attack Israel. We are going to focus on verse 17. Joash opened the east window, took the bow and arrow and shot an arrow out the window, Syria was towards the east of Israel.

        The title of the message is the dilemma of potential. There was a lot of potential in what Elisha said, but, Joash didn't follow through with the command. Joash had only smote on the ground with the arrows three times. Elisha was upset saying Joash should have done that 5 or 6 times. If the king had hit the ground that many number of times, Israel would had consumed Syria.

        the Bible has a lot of potential. Everyone has a way to protect themselves and something they are fighting against. Potential is what you're qualified and skilled at in life. You can have a lot of potential, but, it is up to you to find your purpose. There are 5 points I want to speak about regarding potential.

        1) Potential is unpredictable. What are the patterns and behavior when examining potential? Look at the patterns in your own life. How do you handle anger? Anger has roots back toward self-indulgence. Why did King Joash stop at three times in smoting? It was a failure of faith. His faith was strong enough to start, and couldn't retain the strength to finish. Fear of failure. Various levels of success can cause a stagnation of your life. You kick back and rest on your laurels. Everyone peaks at a different time.

        2) Potential is limited. Unlimited potential is merely a figment of your imagination. Faith pushes you towards your purpose. Most of us have more faith than what we are using.

        3) Potential doesn't push you where you don't need to go. If you don't have good patterns, you don't have good potential. If you're going to fulfill your potential, you need to stop and step out in faith.

        4) Potential has potential. A good example of this was King Saul. He started with the potential of being great, but ended up as a crazy man throwing spears at his successor. You can build people up or you can tear them down. Potential is like milk or any other perishable good, because it expires over time. Philippians chapter 3 verse 13, Paul speaks about forget those things behind, and reaching forth to things which are before. Strive forward so you may be able to attain through faith.

        5) Process reveals your potential. It is revealed from your patterns. Through the process, you remove things from your character and build things in your character. Some people may not even know that they had potential until they began the process.