Prophecy

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II Kings 2:9, “And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for you before I be taken away from you. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double-portion of your spirit be upon me.”

Jesus told His disciples after His resurrection, “And you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you...”

John 16:24, (Jesus said to the disciples), “Hitherto (until now) have you asked nothing in My name: Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

As long as Jesus had been with the disciples on earth in the physical, He had readily taken care of their every need (the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want..Ps.23). Shortly, after His resurrection from the dead, Jesus would ascend to the Father’s right hand. He would no longer be with the disciples where they could see and touch Him physically, but He would be with them by His Spirit.

His Spirit would indwell them at the moment of salvation---
John 20:21-22 “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father has sent Me. even so send I you. 22-And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” (Also see I John 2:27).

The Holy Spirit quickens and brings a dead spirit to be alive unto God. The disciples had become “new creatures in Christ Jesus” (II Cor.5:17). As Jesus said in John 16:7, (paraphrase), “Even though I’m going away, I won’t leave you comfortless. I will send you another Comforter.” Jesus assured them, just as He assures each of us that, “I’ll never leave you, nor forsake you” (Heb.13:5).

And it came to pass on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit, the other Comforter came in His fullness, just as Jesus promised He would. He filled them all in the upper room (the 120) to over-flowing with a too much anointing. Hallelujah! It over-flowed them and onto the people out in the street where 3,000 souls were saved that awesome day. Glory to God!

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ELIJAH & ELISHA---JESUS & THE CHURCH:
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Not long ago, the Lord began talking to me about the life of Elijah and Elisha---how they are a type of Jesus and the Church from the OT. Their lives were a type and shadow of how Jesus gave the Church His mantle of ministry to carry on with in the earth because He was going to the Father.

“And He gave some, apostles; and some prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers. For the perfecting (equipping) of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying (building up) of the body of Christ: Till we all come unto unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect (mature) man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph.4:11-13).

The Call:
1 Kings 19:1 says, “So he (Elijah) departed thence, and found Elisha, the son of sha-’phat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelve: And Elijah passed by him, and cast (threw) his mantle upon him.”

The mantle being thrown around Elisha’s shoulders represents the government and responsibility of the call into the office of a prophet. It was a call that would require of Elisha all he had to give. He would be required to follow the prophet Elijah wherever he went without question. It was a matter of faith and obedience to answer the call at all costs. Elisha finished his present business that day, then set out on a miraculous journey that would take him into a greater place of God’s glory than he could have ever imagined.

From that day forward until the day when Elijah was caught up to heaven, he discipled Elisha in the prophetic ministry, and in the way’s of the Lord. The first thing Elisha learned was how to serve other’s before he served himself. He was to minister to the man of God first, as he ministered unto the Lord. That’s a novel idea for a lot of layed back, apathetic Christian’s today, who don’t want to be put out for anyone.

Today’s a new day and we’re closer to the second coming of Jesus than ever before, so there’s no time to be so enthralled with “self” as we’ve been in the past. It’s time to kill off self and allow a resurrection to occur where we arise in newness of the Spirit, being passionate about Jesus and on fire to bring the lost into the Kingdom of God. Amen! Hallelujah!

Just as Elijah did with Elisha, Jesus did the same with His staff of twelve. He walked by the seashore and called this one and that one to “follow Me.” He called tax collectors and fishermen and said, (paraphrase), “You will now become fishers of men.”
He discipled them and said in John 8:31-32, “If you will continue in My word, then you are My disciples indeed;
32-And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Jesus hasn’t changed. He still wants to, and does personally disciple each of His children by His Word and through His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is here to lead us into all truth, teaching us that not only are we son’s and daughter’s of the most high God, but we’re son’s and daughter’s who serve. Elisha had to learn this truth; just as the Church of Jesus Christ today must also learn and act on this truth.

There’s a difference in being a servant and being a son. A servant is one who serves other’s and when all is said and done, he’s still just a servant who has no inheritance. But a son is an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus (Rom.8:17). He has an inheritance that was bought with the blood of Jesus---a blood covenant, if you will. Therefore, he can serve and still be a son.

John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the son’s of God, even to them that believe on His name.” Jesus Himself said in John 15:15, “Henceforth (from now on), I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what His Lord does: but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known unto you.”

Elisha was totally devoted to Elijah and became a spiritual son. Elisha learned to serve his spiritual father as a son who served. We, as the Church learn to serve our heavenly Father as sons and daughters also. How do we do this? Mark 11:22 tells us, “Have faith in God (in His word),” and by being “a doer of the Word, and not a hearer only” (James 1:22). Thus, it takes faith and obedience to God’s word, His will and His way of being right and His right way of doing things.

In faith and obedience, Elisha did whatever was required of him in the way of serving the man of God, who was discipling him. Jesus calls each of us in the body of Christ to be devoted to Him first above anything else in this same way. “Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as you love yourself”
( Matt.22:37-40). Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

We say we love God. We sing about loving Him, read about loving Him, but the real question that each of us has to ask ourselves and be brutally honest, is, do we have faith in God and therefore obey His Word? If we love the Lord, then we will be more concerned with His word, will and way in our lives than we are our own.

As the Church, we are to follow Jesus wherever He goes without question---wherever He takes us on this journey to glory. There will be many places, just like for Elisha, that we “haven’t passed this way before,” but if we remain faithful, we will “pass over our Jordan,” just as Elisha did. All the while, we are to minister to Jesus with our worship and praise because we love Him with all our heart, with all our souls and with all our mind. And since faith operates by love (Gal.5:6), may we all become quicker to obey His word out of love without complaint. Amen.

We must come to realize, as the body of Christ, that serving others is to serve Jesus. Simple adoration and devotion of the heart is what our Lord desires from each one of His chosen, called and blood bought children. This requires of us that we give Him our all, regardless of cost, and allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into that place of glorious fellowship and intimate communion with our Lord Jesus.

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SEASONS OF PREPARATION:
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After Elisha received his call from God, he had to be prepared and matured before he could be commissioned and fully set into the office of a prophet. That was vitally important because, as a prophet, he would speak in behalf of God to the people. Elisha, like Elijah, would become God’s ‘mouth-piece.’

Jesus personally trained His disciples for three and a half years. They ate with Him, lived with Him, traveled with Him and served Him. They were constantly learning and practicing in preparation for their commission into fulltime, Holy Ghost empowered ministry.

I’ll say it again that we, as the many membered body of Christ, have to allow the Holy Spirit to train us in much the same way. He will teach us and lead us into all truth (1 John 2:27) as we’re being formed more into the image of Christ in character and nature. No mater what gift’s have been poured out on the body of Christ (Eph.4:11-12---Romans 12--1 Cor.12--1 Cor.1:5-7), God is more concerned in forming our character to reflect the character of Christ before we ever step out there to speak for Him. Amen!

With God, it’s more about our character than it is about our commission. Without the character of Christ in us being exhibited outwardly among men as a witness to the purity and righteousness of God, the commission He gives us will be corruppted. Too often, it’s more about us having a commission for ministry rather than our having a character that’s molded and made in the image of Christ.

I see people all the time who want and try to go after the big ministry, the big crowds, the big double-portion anointing, a big name, etc. but they possess very little power and are exhibiting very little of the character of God as a foundation and as a light. Unfortunately, there are people in ministry who have been like a meteor that shot high quickly with seemingly great power but soon came crashing back down to earth, and it was not a pretty sight to see the aftermath.

For the disciples, after Jesus went to the cross, had died and had been raised from the dead by the glory of God, and right before He ascended to the Father, He gave, what is formally referred to as, the big commission.

Mark 16:15-18, “And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every to every creature.
16-He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned.
17-And these signs shall follow them that believe; In My name they shall cast out devils (demons), they shall speak with new tongues;
18-They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

I think even today in a lot of modern circles, people seem to want to think that Jesus only gave this great commission to those twelve men in the Bible. If that is the case, then it would be profitable to clear things up a bit. The great commission given at that time is still, in this present day, the Churches corporate commission from the Head of the Church Himself, Jesus Christ. This commission is given to every blood-washed, born again individual person on planet earth.

You don’t have to be called into a big time five-fold ministry to preach the gospel---the good news of the Kingdom of God. You don’t have to have a five-fold office gift to cast out demons, or lay hands on the sick and have them recover. Jesus said, these signs will follow YOU as “believers” in the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are a believer in Christ, then these signs, Jesus said, will follow YOU. The question is, do you believe it? Jesus stated plain as day that these signs would follow those who believe. Somebody says, ‘but what if I don’t believe?’ The answer is in Mark 16:17.

When Jesus ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father, He assured the newly commissioned disciples, “I’ll be with you by My Spirit, confirming the word of the Kingdom you preach”
[Mark 16:20] (paraphrase). God says in His Word about Himself, “I change not...” Therefore, what He told the disciples, He was saying to the Church, that is, He’s talking to you and me today. And His Word’s are still just as powerful today as they were then, and they will continue to be throughout all eternity. Praise the Lord of glory!

Jesus also told His disciples, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believes on Me, the works that I do shall you do also: (refer back to Mark 16) and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father” (John 14:12).

Elijah, as a type of Jesus, did seven major miracles in his ministry as a prophet of God. It was perfectly right for Elisha to ask for a double portion of Elijah’s anointing, because he would do greater works than his spiritual father had done after he was taken up. Besides, it was all in God’s plan for what was about to come. As the Scriptures record, Elisha did fourteen major miracles in his ministry as a prophet. He did double that of what his spiritual father had done during his ministry as a prophet.

Again, we can see a picture of Jesus and the Church, as we carriy out our mandate to preach the gospel of the Kingdom to every creature. The mantle of Jesus, our Lord, has fallen to the Church, but has the Church totally picked it up and truly embraced it? Or have we just been experimenting, you know, kind of trying it on for size to see how it feels? Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” This certainly applies to the responsibility of taking up the mantle of His anointing amd going forth to complete our destiny.

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THE ANOINTED AND HIS PROMISED SPIRIT:
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Just as Scripture says, Jesus was and is the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah. On one occasion, He asked His disciples who were men saying He was? They answered that some were saying He was John the Baptist, or Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the other prophet's. Jesus asked point blank, “But who do YOU say that I am?” Directly Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus told Peter that flesh and blood had not revealed that to him but His Father had given him the revelation (Matt.16:13-17).

Jesus went on to say that ‘upon that Rock (of revelation), He would built His Church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it’ (Matt.16:18). He would build upon the revelatory truth that He is the Christ, the Anointed One, Who is anointed with burden removing, yoke destroying power of almighty God (Isaiah 10:27--Isaiah 61:1--Lk.4:18).

Peter himself preached this truth later in Acts 10:38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.”

Jesus said of Himself as He read from the book of Isaiah 61:1 in the synagogue on the Sabbath,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor,
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted; to preach deliverance to the captives; and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

He put the book down and said, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears.” He was making a declaration of absolute truth that He is the Christ---the Messiah, which in both Greek and Hebrew means, Anointed One.

Jesus was anointed to carry out and fulfill what He had come to this earth to do. This same anointing of God was put upon men like Elijah so that he could serve God in the prophet’s office. David was anointed in order to carry out his calling as king of Israel. He was also a prophet of God. Moses was called and anointed at the burning bush in order that he could be God’s instrument to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt’s bondage. He was also a prophet of God. And now, Elisha needs this same anointing---the same anointing that Jesus had when He walked this earth as all/man and all/God.

In seeing that Elisha represents the Church today, its clear to see that just as he was to receive a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, we, the Church, are going to need a double portion of God’s Spirit in order to carry out our mandate to become a prepared and matured Bride for the soon coming Bridegroom. We’re in the day now of the double anointing, double favor, double victory--the doubles, which calculates up to being,
too much anointing,
too much favor, and
too much victory.

The too much---the over-flow, the abundance that God gives to His children; because He wants to (Eph.3:20), is to help us reach out and “love other people as we love ourself.”

Before we ask God for that double portion anointing, we must be sure that we understand what it will cost us. Jesus said, “Count the cost.” We must be sure to understand that this double-portion anointing doesn’t come cheap. It’s going to cost you and I everything that we’ve been holding onto concerning the ‘self’ life. Today, more than ever before, we, as the body of Christ, are being confronted with the choice to either hold onto our ‘self' life or die out completely to self and be infused with God‘s Zoë’ life and glory instead.

People everywhere who profess to have had a salvation experience with the Lord is being faced with making the choice to totally allow Jesus to live His life through them. That is, He want’s to not only be our Savior, but He wants to be the Lord of our minute by minute daily lives. How does Jesus live His gloriously victorious life through us? By His Holy Spirit Who works with the Word (John 1:1, 14).

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THE FORMER RAIN---LATTER RAIN:
================================= Throughout the Old Testament, the Spirit was prophesied for hundreds of years as a promise before the day of Pentecost ever came to pass.

Joel prophesied, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaidens in those days will I pour out My Spirit” (Joel 2:28-29).

There is an old saying that goes like this: When it rains, it pours. We usually refer to this phrase in the negative sense when we’re having one problem right after another one. Very seldom, if ever, do you hear people say this phrase in the positive because God is pouring out double blessings upon them, one right after another one. As soon as you thank Him for a particular blessing, here comes another one. Then, before you have time to finish thanking Him for the latest too much blessing, another comes until you have to say, “God, your blessings are so abundant in my life that my cup is running over, but pour on, Lord!” Amen! Glory to God!

One pouring rain is a lot but when you have a double out pouring, now you’ve got a too much rain. You’ve got an abundance. You’ve got an over-flow that’s more than enough for every person on planet earth to be saturated with the glory of God. Hallelujah! We are sons and daughters, heirs of the most high God, who serve a too much God! Our Father enjoys giving His children an over-flow of love, peace, joy, faith, peace, hope, health, prosperity, revelation, wisdom, etc. So, why shouldn’t we stick our faith out there as far as it will go and receive it? We should and we must because the Church is going to need this out-pouring to be able to complete her mandate.

Read carefully through the NT sometime, it may surprise you to see how much God talks to His people about fullness, being filled, full (being filled with all the fullness of God---ask that your joy may be full, etc.). God is all about abundance.

Elijah said in I Kings 18:41, after destroying the false prophets of Jezebel, “...for there is a sound of abundance of rain.”
It wasn’t just a rain, it was an abundance, it was an out-pouring. It was a “too much” rain. In Biblical symbols, rain is one of the symbols for the Holy Spirit.

WHEN WOULD THE RAIN COME?

Hundreds of years after Elijah prophesied these words, Joel prophesied that a rain was coming---an out-pouring of the Holy Spirit. What a phenominal promise of God. This outpouring is refered to as a rain. The old time sages, the prophets of old, talked about a former rain and a latter rain that was to come. The question was, when would it be? In the fullness of time, Jesus came to earth to dwell among men. At the appointed time, Jesus went to the cross and shed His life’s blood for the remission of the world’s sins.

Jesus literally died, He was literally buried and He was literally raised from the dead three days later by the anointing---by the resurrection power and glory of almighty God. Hallelujah! Forty days after Jesus had risen from the dead, He told His disciples to assemble themselves in Jerusalem to wait until they were endued with power from on high (Acts 1:8). In faith, they were obedient to do as He said by going to an upper room to pray and wait.

Then, early one morning, ten days later, the Holy Ghost---the Anointing Himself, came roaring into the upper room in all His glory and sounding like a tornado. You could say that they certainly experienced an outpouring of the Spirit. A Holy Ghost rain, They experienced the former rain if you will, and it was quite an abundant out-pouring. You could even say, they received a portion but not the full outpouring of the former and latter rain together that is coming. What does portion mean? It means, ‘a part of a whole.’ We are individually part of the whole body of Christ and we’re to “forsake not the assembling of ourselves together with other believers.”

In large meetings we can, and often do experience more of the fullness of the Spirit when our anointings are joined together corporately. This also happens in small groups of two, or three or more people who are sincerely seeking the “...kingdom of God and His righteousness...” instead of putting on a show to gain approval from man (Matt.6:33). Jesus made the promise that “where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:19-20).

Over and over again, the Lord has showed up in gatherings and meetings of the saints when He’s been invited to do so and He’s poured out of His Spirit upon all those who want “too much” of Him. When you invite Jesus to come in all HIs glory, look out for blessings you’ll have a hard time containing. Oh what a problem to have, which is no problem at all. It’s just God showing His delight and favor to His children and what should be our faith response? “Pour on, Lord. I receive it.” Amen!

ONLY A DROP IN THE BUCKET:

In the last several years, we’ve heard a lot of teaching and preaching about the former rain and latter rain our-pouring of the Holy Spirit before Jesus comes back to earth. Some theologions have said that this refers to the anointings of men and women in the OT, as well as men and women of the NT. That both the former and the latter anointings are to be poured out together as rain in a double-portion anointing on the saints. This is to happen prior to the second coming of Jesus for a last days great revival and right before He gathers up the Church. Regardless of how and why it’s coming, the main point for all of us to understand is, God said through His prophets that this last out-pouring is to come. That alone settles it and our part is to pray for it, believe for it and then receive it. Amen!

In 1997, while in a conversation with the Lord about His glory, He said, “The day of Pentecost and what the Church has seen since has only been a drop in the bucket as compared to what is about to come.” Later, on this particular day that He talked to me about Elijah, Jesus and the Church, He showed me a bucket in the Spirit. It was just an ordinary big silver bucket. The Lord said, “Not only was Pentecost a drop in the bucket but each one of the revivals I’ve sent to the Church, such as the Welsh revival, Azuza Street, Brownsville and others. They have each added a drop of anointing in the bucket.” Have you ever noticed how God does things in the fullness of time?

In the fullness of time, God sent Gabriel to Mary to deliver God’s message of the child, Jesus, she would birth.
In the fullness of time, Jesus was born into this earth realm.
In the fullness of time, Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead.
In the fullness of time, Jesus will come the second time to this earth to first gather His Church, and fight the final battle where satan is thrown into the lake of fire.

And in the fullness of God’s time, there is coming, as He promised in Joel, a mighty out-pouring---the former and latter rain upon all flesh. God’s fullness of time would make an interesting study of the Word.

We need to understand that when God was talking about the anointings in the bucket, He was talking about His glory. We also have to understand that God’s concept of a drop and our concept of a drop is two entirely different things. God doesn’t think little, dream little, nor does He act little. He thinks and acts big because He’s a too much God. We think, dream and act in terms of just ‘enough to get by.’

You also have to realize this, that if a thousand years to us is but a day to God, or vice-versa, then the drops that come out of His bucket are going to be a gully-washing down-pour of His Spirit upon all flesh. If each legitimate move of God, if each revival has been another BIG drop of anointing from out of His glory bucket, can you imagine what’s we’re going to see when this final outpouring does come? Hallelujah!! God said, His glory would fill the earth before the return of Jesus. If He said it will, then you can count on it, it will come to pass.

All of those big drops is made up of that which Joel spoke about---those anointings that have been held in reserve for these last days. This final out-pouring is coming and its already being experienced in many parts of the country. Peter preached on the day of Pentecost and said, “This is that which Joel spoke of. It was but it was only a portion of what was yet to come because the Spirit wasn‘t poured out upon all flesh. This out pouring in the upper room only fell on the 120. God said, His Spirit would be poured out upon all flesh, so we’re still looking and expecting that day to come soon.

As the Lord said, what has already been poured out has been ‘only a drop in the bucket,’ for there was another rain---another outpouring to come which would be the double portion. The former and latter rain anointings would come forth like powerful twin waterfalls, poured out and flowing together at the same time into one body of people.

God has the bucket and right now, as I saw it, it’s full, it’s tilted and about ready to be turned up totally and poured out upon ALL flesh at once.

As mentioned earlier, the Apostles and the others with them, took their empowerment to the streets after the out-pouring of the Spirit and they preached Christ, (the Anointed One) and the Kingdom of God. As they did, of the 3,000 who accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, they received the Holy Spirit also.

When this last day outpouring comes, as I understand it, it will literally fall on ALL fleshed just as it was prophesied. All means all. It means that whether a person is saved or not, no matter where they are in life, the outpouring of the Spirit will come on them. Many people will repent because of it and give their hearts to Jesus Christ, but just as many will not. Didn’t God say in His Word that His goodness and mercy rains on the unjust as well as the just? Yes, He did. Amen.

As the Lord continued to talk about this, He said, “What the Church has been experiencing has been the overflow because of the bucket being so full. It‘s been an appetizer.”
Is it possible that we’ve just been experiencing the appetizer in Pensacola, Toronto, Brownsville and other places? Has it been a drop of overflow from out of God’s glory bucket of the latter rain combined with the former rain? If that’s true, then it would put us presently, in this day, of the double portion rain of God’s Spirit.

In the book of Amos 9:13 it says, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the tender of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.”

How can the plowman, the one who harvests, overtake the seed sower unless the two seasons run together at the same time? You have a former rain for the spring season when you sow your seed, then you have a latter rain in the fall of the year but what happens when you’ve got the former rain and the latter rain pouring out together at the same time---the spring and the fall rain coming together? You’ve got a double portion outpouring. You’ve got an abundance. You’ve got a too much out-pouring of the glory of God. Right before, or just after you can get your seed in the ground, there’s the harvest.

James 5:7 also talks about this, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth (the Church), and has long patience for it, until He receive the early (former) and latter rain.”

This is talking about not losing patience in suffering as you wait for Jesus to come. The farmer has to wait for the rains to come for the harvest of his crops. That’s in the natural but I believe this is also talking about the spiritual aspect of things to come in the latter days for the Church right before Jesus returns.

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THE BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT:
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To prepare the Church for the coming ourpouring of the Spirit, God is now moving on the heart’s of pastor’s everywhere to begin teaching and preaching on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit again. Not only teach it but to open the altar’s (if you don’t have one, make one) and invite people to come, be saved and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Many people are saved but have never gone on to receive the baptism in the Holy Ghost. God wants His people prepared in all the spiritual gifts He‘s provided for thr Church in order to mature.

Yes, the glory is here and it’s filling up the earth but God said, theres yet an outpouring of My Spirit to come upon ALL flesh that dwells upon the earth. The double portion outpouring hasn’t come in it’s fullness just yet. I tend to believe that God has released “drops” of this latter rain glory over certain parts of the earth for His own purposes. He’s released it on a people who have gotten hungry for His presence. It should make the rest of the body hungry for Him also---for His holiness, and for His truth, and for His righteousness.
Elisha, as a type and shadow of the Church, he was hungry and he went after a double portion of the Spirit on Elijah. The 120 that went to the upper room in Jerusalem had to have been hungry for all Jesus had to offer too because they were obedient to go, not knowing how long they would have to wait. They proved that by their obedience and faith in what Jesus told them---they would be endued with power from on high not many days from then. As we’ve seen, what Jesus told them came to pass.

Just as Elijah was taken up to heaven in God’s chariot of fire, so did Jesus ascend to the Father in clouds of glory to heaven. Can you imagine, God came personally to pick up Elijah in His lightening fast, chariot of fire. Faster than the speed of light!

STRIKE THE WATERS:

Elisah didn’t come into the double anointing until he picked up the mantle left to him by Elijah and struck the waters with it. When Elisha saw his spiritual father taken up to heaven, he cried, “My father, my father!“ And He ripped his garments. I mentioned this earlier but I want to touch on this subject a little bit more. Elisha had said goodbye to family, etc, he had left home to follow Elijah, but he couldn’t pick up the mantle until he completely got rid of anything that might hinder him.

He had to separate himself from everything that still clung to him from his old self-life. Everything he still carried around from his past had to be torn off and ripped away from him. He had to strip himself of his past history in order to be filled with the future that lay before him. He had a choice, just as we all do. He could choose to cling to all the old wounds and disappointments of the past, or he could choose to get over them. He could just let them go to totally embrace God and the destiny laying at his feet. Is your mantle laying at your feet and you’re afraid to pick it up? Take courage and by a step of radical faith, pick it up and put it on then go forth to fulfill your destiny and purpose.

In order for the Church to be able to put her double portion mantle on in this last day outpouring, God’s people are going to have to strip off all the things that pertain to ‘self,’ i.e., me, myself and I and became self-less. The Church wants all the power but not the change required in order to receive it. People don’t want to change out of their filthy garments spotted with sin and put on their robes of righteousness. They don’t want be a holy people, set apart unto God. Righteousness and truth certainly have fallen in the streets today, but it fell first of all in the Church. Therefore, God must set about to restore His truth back in the Church so that truth can be restored out in the streets, i.e., the marketplace.

ITS TIME:

We are in a time right now where there is most assuredly an open window of blessing over God’s people. This is a heightened season of God’s unmerited grace and favor and God is encouraging His people to step out of the boat in radical faith and walk on water to do mighty exploits for the Kingdom of God. It’s also a time of serious decision making, that is, becoming more committed to the will and purposes of God for your life.

It’s a crucial time for God’s people and all people to be making eternal choices that are the right one‘s. It’s a time of getting your house in order by truly getting right with God. It’s a time for the Church to quit playing church and come on in the ‘house’ if you will, to get cleaned up and lay all filthiness of the flesh and sin down at the foot of the cross. It’s time to get on up there on that altar of sacrifice and say to God, go ahead, whatever is not of you, get rid of it.

Don’t let anyone tell you that we don’t need to come to the cross of Jesus anymore. No, Jesus is not on that old rugged cross, He has risen and He’s alive forevermore! Praise God! But in our push for prestige, we’ve moved away from the cross of Jesus in many respects. Is it any wonder that a majority of the people of this newer generation don’t have much respect or reverence for the cross of Jesus Christ? A lot of them do respect it, but just as many don’t.

The Church has sown some bad seed, as well as much good seed. And don’t fool yourself, there’s a price to pay for those bad seed unless they‘re dug up through repentance and re-sown with the good seed of God‘s Word. Whatever you sow, you will also reap, Gal. 6:7 says. The Church has reaped some good and bad harvests (consequences). But in these days now, we need to be diligent to sow more words of life seed for good and reap fruitful harvests.

We most definitely need to acknowledge the cross of Jesus in the Church again, and the realities of it for every lost sinner and for every blood-bought person who professes to be a Christian. Paul said, he only preached Christ and Him crucified. Read the New Testament sometime and see just how much they did preach Jesus. He was the center of all their messages. Are we suppose to move on into the deeper, more meatier things that God has for us? Most definitely yes, but not at the expense of leaving the cross of Jesus behind completely. Without the cross, you don’t have any gospel (good news) to preach about. Amen, it’s the truth. But people feel more comfortable, less confrontation and conviction with the physical emblem of the cross removed out of sight.

Just as Elisha had to make room for his call and anointing by tearing away all the old of yesterday, so must the Church (each individual person) do the same thing. There was a great responsibility awaiting Elisha when he picked up that mantle as a ‘prophetic church.’ Not only would he be responsible as a ‘voice’ for God, but he would suffer much persecution and redicule. We have been given the “ministry of reconciliation” and Jesus said, to be a witness of Him in all the earth. You can’t do that without speaking forth the great and mighty things God has done, is doing at present and is about to do. We as the body of Christ must, by faith, pick up our mantle and follow the example that THE Prophet, Priest and King, Jesus left behind for us to do as He did.

As God has been restoring the prophet’s office and prophetic ministry back to its rightful place in the Church, it has suffered much persecution and redicule as well. Are we any better than Jesus, Who suffered far greater things than we ever will? Have we truly suffered as He did when He went to the cross to be crucified in our place? Of course, we haven’t. As Paul said, we must consider what we go through ‘but a light affliction.’

Jesus told us ahead of time in His word, that if they persecuted Him, they would persecute us also. In light of that, should we ever be surprised to find ourselves being persecuted for our stand of radical faith in Jesus Christ? No! James said, “Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations” (James 1:2).

IT CAME TO PASS:

Everything Elijah had done in training Elisha was for that day when he would be taken to heaven and Elisha would be left on the earth to continue his ministry. But like Jesus told His disciples--His Church, ‘greater works than these shall you do because I go to My Father.’ God did some mighty miracles through Elijah, but He did even greater miracles through Elisha. Elijah did seven major miracles. Elisha, having the double portion of his spirit did fourteen major miracles in his ministry as a prophet. This is what Jesus was telling the Church as a body of individuals---the day of greater, double-portion miracles is beginning and is here even now.

Jesus, when He ascended to heaven, He promised to send the Comforter---the Holy Spirit. Did He come? The promise of God to His people was fulfilled. It came to pass. Jesus said, the Holy Spirit would teach them (and us) and tell them (and us) of all He had to say. Has He done this and is He doing this now? Yes, He is. It has come to pass. The Lord’s assuring words of another Comfortor was a glorious promise to the Church. Did He come? It came to pass. The Comforter came on the day of Pentecost to begin His earthly ministry and He’s still here with us filling up the atmosphere of this planet. There’s no place you can go in this world that you can get away from the Holy Spirit’s presence (Psalm 139).

Jesus kept His promise to never leave us nor forsake us. He is here with us, His Church, through His Spirit. Everything God has promised in His word to His people and to the nations, to the world and all people, has either already come to pass, or its in the process of coming to pass. Did He promise to save you if you called upon the name of Jesus? Yes. If you’ve called, it came to pass---you’re saved. Because God’s promises are truth, they shall ALL come to pass---even a double-portion outpouring of the glory and anointing of God in the fullness of time.

Plain As Day Ministries

Shirley Williams

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