Why is the axe head important? The axe head speaks of a life, flowing in the Holy Ghost. If you've got an axe, and it's got no axe head, you can't cut a thing. A Christian with no power of the Holy Ghost flowing through them doesn't really achieve much at all. That's why Jesus said: wait until you get the Holy Ghost, get the Holy Ghost on you, get filled with the Holy Ghost. You will be an effective witness for Me. So we need the flow of the Holy Ghost; so a wooden stick is a picture of the man. The axe head is a picture of the cutting edge of the Holy Ghost, the anointing of the spirit of God flowing through you, energising your thoughts, giving you creative ideas, causing you to hear the voice of God, causing you to have a heart for people, causing you to reach into lives, and see the way into them to cut into their hearts, and to penetrate them, and to see them changed.It's the anointing of the Holy Spirit, God gives every believer an axe head. He gives every believer the anointing of the Holy Ghost. It's your responsibility not to lose the flow of God's power and presence. It's your responsibility to keep that axe head sharp. It's your responsibility to learn to listen to the voice of God, hear the voice of God, respond to the voice of God, do the things God's showing you to do, in your work, in your school, in your home, wherever it might be. We're all called to be an axe for Jesus Christ.
In the Book of Jeremiah He describes His church, the whole church as being His mighty battleaxe. In other words, in the hand of God, it cuts down the armies of the enemy; in the hand of God, it subdues demons; in the hand of God it shuts down the gates of hell. That's the church of the living God. You're called to rise up like that! Here this poor fellow started out well, then he lost the axe head. Notice without the axe he can't do the work. Without the flow of the Holy Ghost, you can't do the work of God. You can have a program, you can do some good works, but you won't see the fruit, that only the Holy Ghost can bring. You need the Holy Ghost!Every area of the church needs the Holy Ghost. We need that reviving fire of the Holy Ghost in every part of us! You need the Holy Ghost in your family. We need the HOLY GHOST! We need the power of God! A church with no power cannot be effective. We need God's presence filling our lives, filling and empowering us, so you burn with passion. People will come and see you then. A person without passion has got not much interest for anyone I don't think.
So you notice it was borrowed, so it wasn't something he owned. It was something he was a steward of. You are a steward of your walk with God. You are a steward of your relationship with God. If you have compromised, if you've walked away from God in your heart, if you've let your heart be filled with bitterness and anger, then you've lost your axe head. A heart filled with bitterness and judgement, religiosity, has got no cut, got no fire, got nothing to make a difference. God's calling the church out of that place, wants the axe head back, wants the axe head back on the church. He wants the axe head back in your life. He wants us to rise up, and begin to start to challenge powers of darkness, and enter into the community, and see people set free!
So what happened? Notice the first thing. He said: he cried out; and said: alas master, for it was borrowed. So the first thing you have to do if you are a burnt stone, if you've lost the fire of God, if you've lost the cutting edge with God, you have to admit there's a problem. The worst thing is to carry on trying to cut trees, and you've got no axe head. But most of the church does that, uses a wooden stick to try and cut down trees, and haven't noticed it's not got an axe head on it. Many churches in New Zealand would not know if the Holy Ghost was there, or not there. It literally would not make a difference, and that means, for the most part, they're using a wooden stick to try and chop down trees. We need the axe head of the Holy Ghost. We need His presence flowing through out life; so if that's not so, we need to admit it. You'd need to admit it. Deception's a powerful thing - we think we're doing better than we are. There's nothing that God can't solve, but you've got to really admit they've got a problem first of all. We can blame others. Blaming others is wonderful, it's a great way - there's a guy Benjamin Franklin said this: He that's good at making excuses, and blaming others, is seldom good at anything else. That's not a bad one is it, aye? He that's good at making excuses, is seldom good at anything else; so I don't want you to be good at making excuses aye. So what is the issue that God's speaking to you about? I want you to admit it: God, I need to deal with this issue. I need to face it right now.