2 Kings 13:18   Then he said, "Take the arrows," and the king took them. Elisha told him, "Strike the ground." He struck it three times and stopped.      

                                       

Elisha is dying and King Jehoash visits him. Elisha may be dying but he is still a prophet and he has some things to say to the king. He wants to convey a spiritual lesson to him and so he tells him to take a bow and arrows and fire an arrow out the window. When the king does it, Elisha declares, “The LORD 's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram ! You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.” (v.17) That is clearly a prophetic statement.

Next Elisha tells him to take his arrows and strike the ground. Now the king knows Elisha is in prophetic mode, he's just had God's word, so he should know that there is prophetic import in what he does, so what does he do?  The king strikes the ground three times and then stops. Elisha chastises him: “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.” (v.19)

 

Why? Why is the king being chastised? What is so significant about only striking the ground three times? It is because he is showing that he is half-hearted. If he had really been one heart with Elisha he would have carried on beating the ground until told to stop, but his heart really isn't in it, just like it won't be in it when he fights Aram.

Half-heartedness is possibly one of the main reasons that Christians don't push through to receive the full goodness of God. Whatever you do in God, do it whole-heartedly! To overcome this tendency towards half-heartedness, we need to determine to push on with everything we do and brook no obstacles and no distractions. We must not accept failure but turn to the Lord for greater help to press through the trying or difficult circumstances, or to resist the enemy and to push through to victory. It's all a heart issue - a half-heartedness, or whole heartedness.