"Let Us Go": Daring to Ask God to Move You Forward (2 Kings 6)

There are seasons when you sense you need to cross a starting line. One foot back, one foot forward, and you hesitate. In 2 Kings 6:1-7, the sons of the prophets come to Elisha with a very simple prayer: "Please let us go." Three words that carry an observation, a request for permission, a decision to stand together, and a faith that gets moving. This message from Samuel Mabboux (Église de Nice l'Ariane) digs into this passage to help you discern what God expects when you want to move forward.

Article outline

1. The observation: God often waits for you to ask
2. The solution: ask for permission before every major decision
3. The collective work: everyone cuts their own beam
4. God's presence: approval and provision
5. The borrowed axe: God cares about your small problems

1. The observation: God often waits for you to ask

The story opens with a very concrete remark: "See now, the place where we dwell before you is too small for us" (2 Kings 6:1). What's striking is that the request doesn't come from Elisha but from his disciples. Elisha taught in that building. He must have seen it too. But he waited for his students to put the need into words.

It's often like that with God. If you see that a space has become too small, that a season has ended, that a project is waiting to be born, God saw it long before you did. He knew it even when there was still room. But he waits for you to ask him for it, to put your faith into action.

Jesus does the same thing in the gospels. He asks the blind beggar: "What do you want me to do for you?" (Mark 10:51). The answer seems obvious. Yet the Lord waits for you to ask, to call out, to put your faith into words.

He also says: "The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he send out laborers into his harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). If he sees the harvest, why not just send the laborers himself? Because the Lord wants it to come from us: he wants to use us in answer to our prayers.

That's what Jesus promises in Matthew 7:7-8: "Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened." Nearly every great modern revival began with a small group of people praying in a particular way, often in a living room or a garage. God could have done it without them. He waited for them to rise up.

2. The solution: ask for permission before every major decision

"Please let us go to the Jordan" (2 Kings 6:2). Naming the problem is good, finding a solution is better. And this solution starts with asking for permission.

Before every major decision in your life (and even the smaller ones), learn to ask God for permission. His approval. His divine stamp on your choices: your marriage, your job, your move, a property purchase, a rental, an alliance to seal. Don't commit yourself without first seeking the Master's confirmation.

It's this posture that sets the disciple apart. He doesn't just rely on his own good ideas. He lays his plans before God and waits for a green light.

3. The collective work: everyone cuts their own beam

"Please let us go to the Jordan, and every man take a beam from there, and let us make us a place there, where we may live" (2 Kings 6:2). The text doesn't mention a small group of disciples or a handful of them: it speaks of the sons of the prophets, all together.

To have God's approval, unity is essential. Together, they recognize that the place is too small. Together, they go to Elisha. Together, they go and cut down trees. Each one brings his own beam, but everything is pooled together to build.

A church project is no longer just the pastor's, or the elders', or a few founding families'. It becomes yours too. This is the biblical logic of the body: we are living stones being built together, with Christ as the cornerstone (1 Peter 2:4-6). God gave the plan for the tabernacle, but it was people who built it. He gave the plan for the ark, but Noah and his sons built it (Genesis 6). He gave the plan for the temple, but Solomon and the people built it. He inspired the wall, but Nehemiah and his brothers raised it up (Nehemiah 2). You're only one worker for the Lord, but you're an indispensable one.

Faith is not inaction. It proves itself through works, as James 2:17 reminds us. The disciples ask for approval, then they get moving. They go to the Jordan, they cut down trees, they work while it's still day. May the Lord find you working when he returns.

4. God's presence: approval and provision

Elisha says "Go," but one of the disciples insists: "Please be pleased to go with your servants" (2 Kings 6:3). God's approval isn't enough for them. They want his presence too.

God's presence in a project is the only real guarantee that everything will turn out well, even in hardship. The one question you need to ask yourself, in everything you undertake, is this: is God with me in this project?

As soon as Elisha agrees, the disciples stop thinking twice: they go. They don't look at their own resources, or at their circumstances. God's approval is enough to set you in motion. And with approval comes provision. The people in the wilderness hadn't planned to wander for forty years, but because God had approved their coming out of Egypt, he provided for them the whole way (Exodus 16). If God is in it, he will provide.

5. The borrowed axe: God cares about your small problems

While one of the disciples was cutting down a tree, "the axe head fell into the water. He cried, and said, 'Alas, my master! For it was borrowed'" (2 Kings 6:5). This was no small thing: back then, an iron tool was costly, and this one wasn't even his own.

The man of God simply asks where it fell. Then "he cut down a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron float" (2 Kings 6:6). The prophet says, "Take it," and the man reaches out and takes it back.

God doesn't just open the big door of the project. He also stoops down for the small setback on the job site. Nothing you go through is too small for him. A borrowed axe, a missed appointment, an unexpected bill: when you're walking in a project he has approved, he stays close to fish out what's sinking.

Key takeaways

• God sees your need long before you do, but he often waits for you to ask him clearly.
• Before any major decision, take the time to ask the Lord's permission.
• Nothing solid gets built for God without unity: everyone cuts their own beam, and everything is pooled together.
• Faith is not inaction. Once approval is received, it's time to get moving.
• With God's approval comes provision, right down to the smallest detail of your project.

Personal application

1. What "place that's become too small" in your life have you never dared to bring to God in prayer? What do you want to tell him today?
2. For which current decision (a job, a relationship, a commitment, a purchase) have you not yet explicitly asked for his approval?
3. In what church or family project are you still standing on the sidelines when God is calling you to cut your own beam?
4. Is there an area where you're waiting "arms folded" for God to do everything, instead of stepping out in faith?
5. What "borrowed axe" (a concrete worry you consider too small for prayer) do you need to hand over to the Lord tonight?

Verses cited

• 2 Kings 6:1-7 · "Please let us go to the Jordan..."
• Matthew 7:7-8 · "Ask, and it will be given you."
• Matthew 9:37-38 · "The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few."
• Mark 10:51 · "What do you want me to do for you?"
• James 2:17 · "Faith, if it has no works, is dead."
• 1 Peter 2:4-6 · "Living stones... Christ, the cornerstone."
• Nehemiah 2 · The rebuilding of Jerusalem's wall.

FAQ

Why does God wait for me to ask, if he already knows my needs?

Because he's after a relationship, not just a result. Asking is an act of faith that acknowledges his sovereignty. Jesus himself says: "Ask, and it will be given you" (Matthew 7:7). God wants to be involved in your life through your prayer, not only through his silent interventions.

How can I know if God approves of a project I'm carrying?

Lasting inner peace, agreement with Scripture, confirmation from mature brothers and sisters in the faith, and doors opening or closing are all signs to watch for. The sons of the prophets only move forward after Elisha's "Go" and his promise of presence: don't skip the steps of discernment.

What should I do when a church or family project has been dragging on for years?

The text of 2 Kings 6 encourages us not to confuse delay with refusal. Faith is not inaction. Keep asking, seek unity, get moving, cut your own beam. May the Lord find you working, even when the outcome isn't up to you.