God has given me a calling with ‘Heartstone Journey’ and there are days that I struggle with wanting more of my portion. It wasn’t until I came across the story of Gehazi in 2 King 5, where I got a reality check on the dangers of adopting this heart attitude. Sad reality is…many of us have it.

We don’t like being in the process and want more…or we want to become the “head guy” before we’re ready. We convince ourselves that we’ve put our time in and we should get what’s “owed” to us, right? This is the heart attitude that began to take hold of Gehazi. He was a servant of the prophet Elisha and served him with honor for many years until on day, he used Elisha’s name for his own dishonest personal gain — self-promotion.

But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, thought, “Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Aramean, by not receiving from his hands what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him.” So Gehazi pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him and said, “Is all well?” He said, “All is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Behold, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes.'” -2 kings 5:21-22

Let’s see what happens…

He lied to Elisha and the leprosy that Namaan was healed of came upon Gehazi! Elisha said to him, “Did not my heart go with you, when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money and to receive clothes and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male and female servants?”

Ouch!!

Because of Gehazi’s self-promotion, he immediately gets disqualified from his apprenticeship and we later find him telling stories about Elisha’s exploits to a foreign king. Gehazi was in training to someday become Elisha’s successor with a fantastic inheritance, but the world never got to experience that anointing because Gehazi wanted more than his portion. Instead of making history, he was minimized to only tell the stories of others and not his own. 

Because Gehazi was disqualified, Elisha had no one to pass his mantle to and that anointing died with him. 2 Kings 13:21 tells us that when some Israelites were burying a man, they spied a band of these raiders. So they hastily threw the corpse into the tomb of Elisha and fled. But as soon as the body touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man revived and jumped to his feet!

Gehazi started off as a good servant, with a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to learn by Elisha’s side. He lived and walked in the presence of the great prophet Elisha, sharing in his work and witnessing the power of God working through him…but unfortunately served with the wrong motives. Gehazi could have been powerfully used by God to change history…instead he only told it!

Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” -2 Kings 8:5

Don’t become a Gehazi, serving someone for self-promotion. If God promotes you He will provide the needed protection to sustain you, but we can easily promote ourselves beyond that covering with the wrong heart attitude of wanting more than our portion. The ability to manage our appetite can be the difference between being a story teller and becoming the one people tell stories about. 

If you truly have a servant’s heart and seek God’s presence and not His perks…you will be powerfully used by Him. Gehazi remained Elisha’s servant, but was only able to tell of the awesome adventures of Elisha. If you’re unable to manage your appetite and begin to use your servant’s position for personal gain, it will only be a matter of time before you walk right by the danger sign and walk right off the edge of the cliff.

In his book, ‘The Practice of Godliness’, Jerry Bridges shares this: “There is a sense in which we are growing in our character every day. The question is in which direction are we growing? Are we growing toward Godly character or ungodly character? Are we growing in love or selfishness; in harshness or patience; in greed or generosity; in honesty or dishonesty; in purity or impurity? Every day we train ourselves in one direction or another by the thoughts we think, the words we say, the actions we take, the deeds we do.”

Most of us labor in vain to get more stuff, and in our pursuit for the “good life” we ignore our responsibilities to be good stewards of God’s grace and usually step all over people in our pursuit of these things. In our consumer-focused society, our greed overshadows our need and we foolishly seek to raise our standard of living rather than our capacity to give and serve.

This heart attitude is birthed out of discontent by pursuing our happiness, peace, and well-being in the details of life (prosperity, power, position and possessions). Look, stuff isn’t the issue…it’s our heart attitude in our pursuit of it and our stuff typically ends up owning us over time. Adopting this mindset is an illusion because only God can give us true happiness and purpose in our life. For a reality check give 1 Timothy 6:8 and Proverbs 30:7-9 a good reading through.

This story of Gehazi is a sad story, it’s our story, and one that happens way too often in our lives. It’s a story that stands out with strong contrast because the things we pursue usually prove to be wasted endeavors in the end. The pleasures that we think will satisfy…ironically just increase our appetite for more.

This is why self-promotion disqualifies you. Oh, the irony!