I preached last Sunday on the cross. I love the preaching of the cross.
Elisha passed by Shunnem many times, and a woman there noted to her husband that they should build an extension on their home for a room for the prophet to rest in when he would pass by. Elisha came and took opportunity and rested at their home.
This speaks of the cross. Elisha stands as Jesus Christ in this story. Christ laid down his life and was laid to rest in the tomb. Sleep in the bible stands as death. So the place where Elisha slept stands as the tomb of Christ.
The prophet then prophesied about the Sunnemite woman having a son. This is like the work of the cross being followed by the promise of children born into the kingdom!
The woman bears a child at the foretold time and the child grows. Time comes when the boy is old enough to work with his father and reap crops. This stands for the sou8l born again who is mature enough to start working for the Lord and win the lost. Reaping.
An affliction attacks the boy's head, and he hollers, "My head my head!"
When the enemy attacks us, it is in our MINDS and THOUGHTS. People backslide due to attacks in their minds. Paul taught about casting down IMAGINATIONS (a "mind issue) that war against the KNOWLEDGE (a "mind" issue again) of God.
They took the boy to his mother, as the mother stands for the church.
The boy died on her knees, and she laid him in Elisha's bed where he slept.
The church teaches people that even after they are saved, they need to go back to the place where Jesus laid in Death. And by going back there, they need to identify in their hearts with Christ's death all over again, just as when they were first saved. They need to go over the truth of the cross in their minds when the enemy attacks, since the attack is in the mind and the mind must be renewed and aligned with truth so as to cast down the attacks in the mind from the devil.
The woman leaves the boy alone in the room. The church teaches people to learn to be alone with the Lord in their time of renewing their minds and aligning their minds with truth so as to defeat the attack of the enemy and overcome.
Elisha returns and enters the room and shuts the door behind him. When we renew our minds to the truths of what occurred in our lives when we were united to Christ in His death, back to the place where he laid, the Lord comes in and something wonderful occurs.
Elisha put his mouth on the boy's mouth, his eyes on the boy's eyes and his hands on the boy's hands. This stands for IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRIST IN HIS DEATH to the extent that we realize HE DIED AS US when He died.
He took our place to such an extent that His eyes that closed in death must be considered as our eyes. His mouth that became silent in death were as good as our mouths. His hands that sopped touching and lay lifeless were as good as our hands. He died AS US.
That is how we first got saved. Identification with Christ in His death which occurred in baptism into His death, as noted in
Romans 6:3. THIS IS HOW BAPTISM FITS THE PICTURE. It is identification with Christ in his death.
And we need to go over this in our hearts everytime the enemy attacks us, hopefully until it is so ingrained in us that our understanding of this remains intact and we overcome attacks from even getting us down again.
THE CROSS IS FOR FAR MORE THAN getting us saved. We need its truth for the rest of our lives in this world, and in this way we claim the blood, as the old timers used to say. Pursuing this understanding in our minds when attacked is actually what they mean by claiming the blood.
And then the boy sneezed seven times.
Sneezing is physically the clearance from the head of blockages and obstructions. Spiritually, sneezing would stand for clearing the thoughts and lies and misconceptions the devil used in inflicting our minds to overcome us. And by identification with Christ in His death during these times of attack, these obstructions are PERFECTLY (Number 7 stands for completion) cleared out!
THE CROSS ALONE SAVES AND CONTINUES TO SAVE!
(NOTE: AS MUCH AS THE CROSS SAVES BY OUR REPEATED IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRIST IN THE WAY DESCRIBED ABOVE, WHILE THE ACT OF IDENTIFICATION IS NOT SALVATION IN ITSELF, OUR BAPTISM THAT OCCURRED WHEN WE FIRST WERE SAVED FROM SIN IS LIKEWISE NOT A "SALVATION BY WORKS" EFFORT.)
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