The Floating Axe Head
“And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See now, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us.
The sons of the prophets are asking for better living accommodations as there isn’t enough room in Elisha’s dwelling. Also I think this might represent the prophets who’ve been caged up in one place, or hiding go out among the trees – the men of the earth.
2 Please, let us go to the Jordan, and let every man take a beam from there, and let us make there a place where we may dwell.” So he answered, “Go.”
Unity in all participating in building a new house for the prophets, or maybe even a new house or foundation for the Lord !
3 Then one said, “Please consent to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I will go.” 4 So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. 5 But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, “Alas, master! For it was borrowed” 2 Kings 6:1-6 NKJV.
Elisha in this is a type of Christ, and the prophets are saying, please come with us! [As we go confront those you are sending us to!]
The iron ax head falls into the water. I was told that Axe heads when used a lot, the wood at the joint of the handle will shrink, and that real axe men will soak their axes in OIL at the end of the day so that that junction swells and holds the axe head securely. But in this case, that has NOT been done. Axe head had not been soaked in oil; therefore the ax head flies off while trying to hack on a perhaps hard wood tree. We know that OIL stands for the Holy Spirit. So proper use of the axe-head requires soaking in the presence of the Holy Spirit DAILY! – Going in His power and not our own!
“6So the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float. 7 Therefore he said, “Pick it up for yourself.” So he reached out his hand and took it.”
We’d discussed some things about 2 Kings and the death of Jezebel. I was led to the above scriptures and contemplating them when I had a vision of a man chopping at a tree, but the wood is hard like the axe bounced off, but the axe-head fell into the water. Then I was pondering it, and how the axe was borrowed so the guy needed to get it back. So Elisha says to throw a stick [a Branch] in and the axe head levitates to the top of the water so it can be grabbed up. I feel the branch thrown in the water is representative of Jesus: the Branch, that needs to be restored to headship in the Church. It is the stick/branch that secures the ax-head so it can be put back on the handle. And the ax-head representing proper authority that is able to uproot the idolatry in the church and in the world.
Years ago the Lord showed me the end times army would be like Gideons.
( see: Gideons)
Gideon’s first task was to tear down the idol of DAGON in his father’s house. Dagon according to legend was the father of BAAL. This end times army is up against the harlot church whose head is the Jezebel spirit. Jezebel was a worshipper of Baal and induced her husband Ahab into it. Also Baal has increased here in America through Freemasonry practices, along with other occult practices.
Trees are likened to men, and this one was hard wood, which reminded me of the pride of man. What came immediately was Job 41 how leviathan has a tough coat that cannot be penetrated. Leviathan is the spirit of PRIDE. And here is an axe-man [Gideon means ” cutter of trees”] taking the ax to the hard tree, and the ax-head falls off. We cannot do our job and be effective if our ax head is not soaked in the OIL of the HOLY SPIRIT.
The proper anointing will enable the Gideons to go forth and do what they are called to do to bring down the roots of false doctrine in the church. The whole thing of Gideon being in the winepress, sifting wheat, has symbolically to do with searching in Scriptures to bring forth pure doctrine according to Conner’s book on symbols and typology in the Bible.
[ Conner’s Symbols and Types ]
We’d just been praying for the Gideons and Jehus to be empowered with the Spirit of Might, and be brought forth by the Lord. Jehu of course was commissioned to kill Jezebel. When he arrived, he called to the Eunuch’s to throw her down! There is witchcraft in the Father’s house today that needs to be thrown out the window and annihilated. And there is a heap of witchcraft to be dealt with in the world, but we can’t be very effective if our own house is filled with control witchcraft and selfishness, and all kinds of carnality.
You surely don’t want to be opposing someone like the Jezebel spirit without being cleansed and filled up yourself. We need to be relying HIS strength and wisdom, and not our own.
The axe is held in the palms of your hands. We’d just been contemplating why Jezebel’s palms of her hands were not eaten by the dogs. Several thoughts came:
1) We are inscribed in the palm of HIS HANDS.
2) Jezebel had bloodied hers with the killing of prophets, so that even those palms of her hands were not fit for dogs to even eat! I don’t doubt that beheading may have been the means.
3) Lord also pointed out to me how for centuries, true doctrine has been eaten away by the locusts, like it says in JOEL. So that the raising of the axe head in order to secure it again to an axe handle for the cutting of trees, has to do also with RESTORATION of what has fallen in the waters, and been lost. Lost anointings, lost courage in facing/confronting the sin in the church.
4) The cutting edge of the blade that whittles away hardness of trees can be likened to the [blade of righteousness]. Apostolic power requires apostolic HOLINESS which we can only receive by being in His presence… hence the OIL.
You don’t get apostolic power by following after men or the world, but by becoming more and more like Jesus. It is a lonely walk for most.
5) Trees are likened to men a lot in scripture, but can also represent the structures of men.
God is whittling away at trees in his church. He is RESTORING our lives and RESTORING the church to what it was meant to be, for it very quickly got off course in the first centuries. He is going to RESTORE apostolic power. When apostolic power came to the church, the FEAR OF THE LORD was restored and the church GREW. Men fell dead at the words of the prophetic apostle Peter. The proper fear of the LORD was reestablished in people. 3000 were saved in a day etc. Ezekiel 34 talks about God restoring true shepherds and removing hirelings.
Beheading – addendum to The Floating Ax-Head
Also we had discussed the Nick Berg video I watched… which was probably NOT a good idea for me, but was sent me by a well intentioned friend. It caused me to go into travail, and wailing and weeping. In a sense I felt also I was crying for what lies ahead. And there were other things I did, like repent for the cutting off of heads of Native Americans here in California. [They got $5 per head for them in gold rush days which is abominable in the sight of God. – I had just read that detail also in an article online about California] And as I had my head tucked in a pillow screaming and weeping after the video, The Lord said to me, “Imagine if that were your son!” ” Imagine If you were a Native American mother watching it happen to your son. Seeing his head sold in a shop by white gold prospectors!” And I was wailing some more and repenting for the sins of that generation, and pray God will wash the blood off our land and replace it with His blood in terms of redeeming the people of California.
I also felt when I watched it that there was something symbolic about it that God wanted to say. He often uses events to speak to me. David lobbed Goliath’s head off when he killed him with Goliath’s own sword! Seems to have been a thing in the middle east to cut off heads. Samuel cut off the head of the Amalekite king in front of Saul, because Saul had not done it. Here we have a young American Jewish boy who went to help the people who were there, and he gets beheaded by those so-called “extremists”.
He had an Israel stamp on his passport the news said. Since then the vision of New York by an online friend came describing the Empire State building collapsing and water flooding out of it into the streets, and I feel the whole head chopping thing has to do with removing those in authority who are not meant to be there, and the bringing down of the EMPIRES of MEN in the church. Judgment begins in the house of the Lord.
The prophet in the story of Elisha, whose axe-head fell off, may represent those whose oil has been quenched. Lost anointings are rampant in the church due to false doctrine being taught and the quenching of the Holy Spirit by spirits of control like Jezebel. Jezebel spirit always tries to kill the prophet’s anointing. A spirit of divination is always involved with Jezebel, in trying to even BLIND the prophets to what God is showing them, and to steal from them. Remember how John the Baptist was beheaded by the spirit of Jezebel in Herod’s wife Herodias? Python is a divination spirit.
It was the eunuchs who threw Jezebel out the window… the very ones she emasculated and whose fruit-bearing ability was “cut off” were the ones who responded to Jehu and threw the witch out. To be capable of this act God will call many to in taking off the head of the Jezebel spirit, means that you cannot harbor bitterness in your heart towards those in authority. But must walk in humility and forgiveness, the enemy having no place in you. You cannot be one who walks in VENGEANCE.
But rather that you have GOD’s heart in the matter. Then you will be able to deliver HIS WORDS in the manner HE WILLS. And they will have the intended effect. We WAR NOT against flesh and blood, but powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places!
~ Priscilla Van Sutphin
PRISCILLA VAN SUTPHIN is the founder of Upstream Ministries, California, online at www.upstreamca.org and blogtalkradio.com/ Upstream. Donate to Upstream: via secure Paypal by sending as gift to upstream.ca @me.com or send to: Upstream, PMB 545, 14311 Newport Blvd, Suite G, Tustin, CA 92780, USA.
Romans 12:19-21
Amplified Bible (AMP)
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave the way open for [God’s] wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay (requite), says the Lord.
20 But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.
21 Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome (master) evil with good.