Titus Connection Volume #20 Number 1, January 2026
WISE INTENTIONAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
TITUS CONNECTION
Volume 20, Number 1 January 2026
Intentionally Developing Multigenerational Leaders
Throughout The World
Happy New Year! Ready to be used mightily for the Lord in 2026? What do you have to offer the Lord? How are you gifted and how is your availability for Him? Pursue Him with every aspect of your life. Mike
Elisha and the Widow’s Oil
Last month the discussion centered on a person’s sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit, specifically in Paul’s case listening to the call from the Macedonian man (Act 16). In 2 Kings 4:1-7, A widow with two small boys was at the end of her financial means. Her husband, a former prophet, had been dead for some time and in order to live, the widow sold everything in the house just to survive. The creditor was coming to take the two boys away.
Desperately, she went to Elisha. Instead of giving an instant miracle, he asked if there was anything left in the house. There was only a very small amount of oil left. The widow was instructed to gather as many jars they could find in the neighborhood and begin filling the jars with the oil she had remaining.
Her faith was put to the test as she was to obediently follow the directions of Elisha and gather as many jars as possible. The oil flowed until there were no empty jars available. With the jars of oil, the widow was able to sell the oil to pay her debts and live on what they had left.
There are several observations here. First, just like the widow, we need to make an accurate assessment of the resources we have available to us. It is easy to overlook small or simple resources but in God’s hands, small amounts can become great when He is able to work with it.
What is insignificant to us may become totally significant with God’s hands. Take an inventory of all the gifts, talents, abilities and resources you have. What resources, abilities or talents do you possess that you feel may be insignificant but potentially could be used greatly by God?
Faith and obedience work together. What is the connection between faith and obedience. Elisha gave some unusual instructions with an insignificant amount of oil available at the time. Yet the woman was desperate and when we are desperate, we are willing to do the “foolish and illogical”.
She obeyed and that was the proof of her faith. We are responsible to obey God’s directions even when they seem foolish, illogical and impossible but that is where God often steps in. Why is it hard at time to trust God even though we have trusted Him in the past?
When we have nowhere else to take our faith, God is right there. As spiritual leaders we probably will be asked to stretch our faith in God, to follow through on something that seems impossible or crazy. The choice is whether to obey. It is easy to talk about faith when things are easy or going well. The true evidence of faith is revealed when God is the only entity we can hold on to and all we can do is trust and obey Him.
If the woman had collected more jars, the oil would have kept flowing. We limit the amount of blessings from God by our faith. When have we limited the blessings we could have received because of our limited faith? A definition for blessing so often means more than material gain, as it has more of a spiritual application than physical.
God will accomplish His will regardless of our level of faith. How obedient are we to His leading? I think most of us want to be obedient but is there something in my life or your life where you are not completely sold out to serve Him? It is easy to say, “I will serve You Lord as long as… (you fill in the blank)”.
What does seem illogical or impossible in our minds often is what God uses to reveal Himself through us. Am I willing to let Him work through me in what seems like impossible, or foolish to people who do not believe in God, even foolish to some Christians? Keep providing the “jars” of your life so God can keep using you for His glory.
Youth Ministry
Elisha Stuck Close to Elijah (2 Kings 2)
Elisha wanted to be close to Elijah before Elijah would be taken up to heaven in a world wind by God (2 Kings 2:1-12). Elisha knew something was up and wanted to learn and be with Elijah. He wouldn’t leave Elijah alone even when Elijah told Elisha to stay put. Before Elijah was swooshed into heaven, Elisha was asked what he wanted from Elijah. Elisha wanted a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. He emphatically wanted Elijah’s blessing.
A double portion of an inheritance in the Hebrew tradition was given to the first-born son and the family name went through that son. The double portion had huge significance. Elisha did receive that request as he saw Elijah get sent off into heaven.
Elisha refused to leave Elijah’s side in the last moments of Elijah’s life plus he had spent considerable time with Elijah prior to that moment. In 1 Kings 19:19-21, Elijah met Elisha for the first time. Directed by God, Elijah traveled to the area Elisha lived and found Elisha plowing with twelve yokes of oxen. Elijah threw down his cloak or mantle on Elisha, symbolizing his anointing and call to ministry. The response from Elisha was to leave his work, slaughter the oxen, and follow Elijah to become his disciple.
That was commitment, to give up your livelihood and immediately follow someone. The follow up question for each one of us is how close do I want to be with Jesus? It takes commitment to know Him, to develop a deep, intimate, personal relationship with Jesus.
It does not come about by talking about it or wishing you could have a good relationship. If you have gotten married or wish to, you do not simply hope it happens, you must put effort into building a solid relationship in order for a marriage to last.
With Jesus, a Christian needs to spend time reading, reflecting and applying the Word of God into your life, spend time praying – communicating by listening and talking with Jesus.
We need to be obedient to what He directs by His Word, sacrifice to prioritize relationship with Jesus, and then serving others by placing people’s needs at times ahead of our own. Getting to know Jesus causes you to think more like Him.
As you think like Him, what you say and do are more Jesus thoughts and actions. (Romans 12:1-2) From Psalms 42.1-2. A deer thirsts for water, panting to satisfy its thirst. How thirsty am I for God’s relationship? “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.” How thirsty am I to get to know Jesus better the older I get?
Is God convenient, meaning do I go to my food source when I eventually get hungry enough and I connect with Jesus when all else fails? Deepening my relationship with my Lord is He is my immediate interaction, that I am so intertwined with Him because my relationship is natural? His thoughts are becoming more my thoughts, my perception of life is more how Jesus views life and the situations that arise.
As a Christian, my life must exemplify Jesus and draw people to Him. I should long interact with Him that it consumes all my thoughts. My number one priority or goal in my life is to deepen my understanding and relationship with Him. That is like a deer that is so focused on a water source, it consumes all its thoughts. We need to aggressively prioritize to make time to interact with Him in the different ways mentioned.
Start by little obedient steps by reading the Bible and communicating with Him. Follow through what you read and hear from the leading of the Holy Spirit. Spend quality time with growing Christians in a formal church setting and then outside of that time. Have an older, mature Christian mentor or as Christians say, disciple you. Learn from Christians who have wrestled in their faith, sometimes being victorious in their faith and times when they failed in their obedience to Jesus.
Be like Elisha who would not leave Elijah’s side because he knew there was something special available for him. Pursuing Jesus with every aspect of your life is the ultimate goal in a Christian’s life.