“And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.
And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.”
2 Kings 2:7-8
Elijah and Elisha had a unique relationship. Elisha saw something in Elijah that he desired. He saw and respected the anointing upon Elijahs life.
You will never receive anything from a man or woman of God unless you respect the anointing that rests upon them. You can not learn from somebody you resent, you can only learn from somebody you admire.
Elisha saw something in Elijah that he desired and was determined to stay in a relationship with him regardless of the cost.
When Elijah told Elisha to stay in Bethel he refused.
When he was told to stay in Jericho he refused again.
He went with him all the way to the other side of the Jordan River.
Each time Elijah told Elisha to stay somewhere Elisha responded by saying:
“…as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.”
2 Kings 2:6
Each time the sons of the Prophets told Elisha that the Lord was about to take away his master he told them to “Hold their peace.”
Elisha was determined to stay connected to Elijah. When Elijah smote the Jordan River with his mantle and the waters parted, Elisha was still there.
“And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that the two went over on dry ground.”
2 Kings 2:8
The fifty sons of the Prophets “viewed from afar off,” but only Elisha crossed the Jordan River with Elijah.
God was about to do something new in the life of Elisha, but he first had to take him to a place where
the crowd could not go. The same is still true today.
Everytime God is about to do something new in your life, whether it be receiving a new anointing, going to
the next level of your destiny, or taking you into a
season of prosperity; God will lead you to a place where the crowd will not be able to go.
When God was going to do something new in Moses life He called him to the back side of the desert. When Jacob was at a point of change in his life he found himself alone wrestling with God.
Everybody will not be able to go where God is going to take you. Everybody will not be able to hear what God is about to speak to you. Everybody will not be able to see what God is about to show you.
Some people will not be able to handle the blessings and the prosperity that God is about to give you. This is why God is taking you to a place where the crowd cannot follow. That is why He is leading you to “the other side of Jordan.” God is trying to position you for what he is getting ready to do in your life.
If you are not careful people will mess you up! We blame the devil for a lot of things that he has nothing to do with. It is not the devil that has messed a lot of Christians up; it is the people that they associate with.
People will mess with your anointing; they will stop your blessings, and even keep you from reaching the next level of your destiny. There are four kinds of people.
There are people who add to your life and there
are those who subtract. There are people who divide and then there are those who multiply. Remove the people who subtract and divide. They will slow your progress and possibly even stop you from becoming
what God has destined for you to become.
It is time to re-evaluate and see if the people around you can handle what God is about to do in your life. How will they respond when you enter into the next level of your destiny?
Just because someone says they are with you today does not mean they will be with you tomorrow.
There are people who may tell you they love you to-day, but that does not mean they will not turn against you tomorrow.
Josephs brothers had no problem with him the day he was born. In fact, they celebrated his birth. But once they realized he was their father’s favorite son, and when their father gave him an expensive coat, a coat of many colors, they became full of jealousy.
Then when he began to share his dreams with them their jealousy turned into hatred and they wanted to kill him. Some people have no problem with you as long as you do not have a dream or a vision. As long as you live in the “world of average” everything is all right, but once you decide to move into the “world of greatness” they will rise up against you and even try to destroy you.
Some people love being around you as long as you are not a threat to them and their little kingdom.
They like you as long as they feel better and bigger
than you, but once God begins to bless you, once your
ministry begins to prosper, or God blesses you with a
better car or home, that is when “all hell breaks loose!”
As I have said many times if you want everybody to like you, do not go anywhere and do not have any-thing. As long as you live in a lower place than the people around you, they will not have a problem with you.
You do not need those kind of people in your life. You need people in your life that will celebrate you, not tolerate you! You need people who will rejoice when you are blessed, people who celebrate your victories and promotions.
Jesus makes it very clear that with prosperity comes persecution:
“And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,
But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”
Mark 10:29-30
Some people will get angry when God begins to bless you. Some Christians will not celebrate your victories and blessings with you. Some will even become jea-lous and begin to falsely accuse you.
When this happens do not become sad and depressed but begin to rejoice and be glad. Because one of the last things that happens before a promotion comes is you will encounter an enemy.
Some people will not understand your blessings. They may even ask you, “Who do you think you are?” Answer them by telling them I am a child of the living. I am an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”
John 1:12
“I am an heir of God and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ!” Romans 8:17
Tell them, “I serve a God that delights in bles-sing me. In fact, the God I serve takes pleasure in my prosperity.
“…how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”
Matthew 7:11
“Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour
my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the
prosperity of his servant.”
Psalms 35:27
Some will not understand your blessings and
may even walk out of your life; however your reward will be much greater than the pain of their loss.
Your destiny is never tied to anyone who can walk away from you. Anybody who can walk away from you-let them walk!
Quit begging people to stay in your life. Quit begging people to stay your friend and care about you. Quit trying to force people to share your dreams and visions. It does not matter how attached you may feel to a certain person. It does not matter what they have done for you in the past or how much you think
you have to have them in your life to succeed. “If they can walk away-let them walk!”
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”
1 John 2:19
If a person is not walking in the same level you are walking in, they do not have the same spirit you
have, or if their dreams are different than yours you cannot make them stay in your life if they decide to
leave. It does not always mean they are a bad person if they walk away from you, sometimes it simply means “Their part in your life story is over.”
It means God is starting another chapter to your life and they are not in the new chapter.
You have to know when a person’s part in your life story is over. If you don’t you may spend all your time trying to resurrect a relationship that God says is dead.
If a person walks away, you really did not need them in your life in the first place.
Remember, your destiny is never tied to anyone who can walk away from you. If they leave rejoice and be glad because God is about to do something new in your life.” T. D. Jakes said “the gift of good-bye” is the 10th spiritual gift.
Well, I guess I have the 10th spiritual gift because if someone wants to walk out of my life—then let them walk. Why would I want some one to stay in my life if they did not want to be there? I would be a bigger fool than them if I begged them to stay.
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
Proverbs 17:17
The exit door is as important as the entrance
door.
The bathroom in your house is as important as
the kitchen.
God is allowing people to exit your life so you will be in the proper position to receive the blessings He has destined for you to receive.
When a person leaves your life do not allow yourself to become bitter. Face the fact; people will walk away from you. People will betray you. Betrayal is something others do to you, but bitterness is something you do to yourself.
Everyone has experienced the pain of betrayal. Everyone has had people that they love walk away. Remember Jesus had twelve chosen disciples and one of them was a devil.
After watching Jesus heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out devils for over three years Judas still walked away. Not only did Judas walk away from Jesus he also be-trayed Him. The saddest thing about Judas betraying Jesus is that he betrayed him with a kiss.
Yet Jesus refused to become bitter. He looked beyond his present pain to the salvation of mankind that He was about to purchase at the Cross.
Do not become bitter when you are betrayed by people you thought were your friends.
Do not become bitter when you are misjudged by those closest to you, including sometimes your own family members.
Jesus was continually being misjudged by those around him. And remember He was betrayed by one of those who was in His inner circle.
When people misjudge you or betray you; some-
times you have to just move on. You cannot waste
Your time defending your actions to people that really do not even care about you.
Some people will never understand you. Some do not want to understand you. To be honest, it really does not matter what people think about you as long as you have the right thoughts about yourself and you know what God thinks about you.
Being misjudged by people is just part of the process you have to go through on the road to your destiny.
“ Do not waste your time on your critics”.
“Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.”
Proverbs 23:9
Critical people are hurt people. They are people who are disappointed in themselves so they spend their time trying to destroy the people around them who are successful. Do not spend more time with a critic than you spend with a true friend.
One famous preacher was once accused by a major newspaper of having a large sum of money in a certain bank. His friends told him he needed to respond to the accusation. He responded by saying, “My friends do not care how I got it and my enemies would not
believe me if I told them.”
You are not going to change some people’s opinion about you and the things you do, so quit trying. Remember your friends do not care and your enemies would not believe the truth anyway.
There are people who will walk away from you as you travel the road to your destiny. That is a fact that you cannot change.
But there are also other people that you will have to walk away from.
There are some people that are in your world that should have never been allowed to be there in the first place. They are holding you back from your destiny. They are stopping you from moving forward and laying hold of the blessings God has for you.
Satans most successful entry point into a believer’s life is through another individual. Spirits can-not walk so they must attach themselves to a person close to you. Then when that person comes to where you are they bring those spirits with them. Some people are nothing but carriers from hell, carrying spirits with them.
These spirits have been assigned to keep you from moving forward into the next level of your destiny. Do not let everybody in your world! There is a high price for having the wrong people in your life.
Learn from the life of Jesus. He refused to let everybody into His world. He preached to the mul-titudes, had seventy disciples, but He only had twelve chosen disciples. Out of the twelve He had an inner
circle of three—Peter, James, and John.
Jesus did not spend a lot of time with the multi-tudes. He did not even spend a lot of time with the sev-enty. He spent most of His time with the twelve, espec-ially with the three in His inner circle. Jesus did not impart into everyone. He mainly imparted into the twelve and especially to Peter, James, and John.
Even out of the twelve, the ones that He spent time with, the ones that He imparted into, they had a hard time under-standing the Cross.
When it come time for the cruci-fixion, which was the next level of Jesus destiny, they could not understand its purpose and Peter wanted to stop it! When Jesus told His disciples that in a few days He would be crucified, for it is written, “…to this end was I born…” John 18:37,
Peter immediately told Jesus not to talk in such a way. Peter was not going to let Jesus go to the Cross, if he had the power to stop Him. Jesus immediately turned to Peter and said to him:
“…Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”
Matthew 16:23
What Jesus was saying was this is Gods Plan! It is part of my destiny! Do not try to stop me from what I was predestined to do!
Anyone who tries to stop you from your destiny, anyone who tries to hinder or stop you from becoming what God has called you to be, or doing what God has called you to do, tell them what Jesus told Peter – “GET BEHIND ME SATAN!”
I do not care how much you love them or how important they may be to you, they are not more important than your destiny. Nobody is worth losing your destiny over.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus called Peter, one of them who were in His inner circle, a devil? Yet He called Judas, who placed the kiss of betrayal upon him, “a friend.” Peter was trying to stop Jesus from fulfilling His destiny while Judas was helping Him ful-fill it.
Jesus’ destiny was not feeding the multitude with five loaves and two fishes. His destiny was not healing the sick, casting out devils, or even raising the dead. These were simply things He did on the road to His destiny. But His destiny was the Cross, the crucif-ixion. The closer Jesus got to the Cross, the more peo-ple began to misunderstand Him, lie on Him and per-secute Him. The closer He got to the Cross; more and more people began to forsake Him.
So many left Him that He finally turned to His chosen twelve and said unto them, “...Will ye also go away?” John 6:67.
The closer you get to your destiny you will find your
friendship circle will get smaller and smaller.
If you are being misunderstood, lied on, and persecuted by those you once thought were your friends, it is a sign that you are close to your destiny. If there has been an increase of spiritual warfare against you, like Mike Murdock says, “It is a sign that Satan has discovered your purpose and you are closer to a breakthrough than ever before.”
Before Jesus returned into Galilee full of the power and spirit of God He went through a time of spiritual warfare.
After He faced an increase of demonic activity against Him, He began His ministry of signs, miracles, and wonders.
The closer you get to your destiny; you will find all kinds of unusual things will begin to happen. Peo-ple you thought were for you will turn against you.
You cannot stop people from turning against you or hating you, but you do not have to allow them to stop you.
My advice is turn your haters into elevators. Do not let your haters pull you down. Instead make them stepping stones that take you to a higher place of blessings and glory.
Just like in the life of Jesus when He got ready to enter into the next level of His destiny, His friendship circle began to change. Your friendship circle will also change when God is about to do something new in your life. Remember, everybody will not be able to go where God is taking you. Everybody will not be
able to hear what God is going to speak to you.
Everybody will not be able to see what God is about
to show you. And many people will not be able to handle the blessings that God is about to give you.
To grow means to outgrow. You do not wear the same size shoes today that you wore when you were five years old. You do not wear the same size of clothes today that you wore when you were twelve. When you grow you outgrow! This is what has happened to you in some of your relationships. You have outgrown some people that you have had in your life for weeks, months, and maybe even years.
You have to now let them go so you can enter the next level of your destiny. Do not allow people that refuse
to grow in God, stop you from your progress. They are simply not worth it.
God told Abram to disconnect from his family so that He could bless him in a greater way than he had ever known:
“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse
him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of
the earth be blessed.”
Genesis 12:1-3
God told Abram, for me to bless you in the man-ner that I want to bless you; you will have to make some changes. God said I want to bless you so much that the whole earth will call you blessed. But first you will have to separate yourself from your kindred, your father’s house, and even leave your country.
Why did God tell Abram to leave his own family? Because they had a belief system that was wrong. In fact, it was more than just wrong, it was deadly.
God said, Abram you have to disconnect yourself from that system and the people in that system if you want the blessings that I have for you.
Do you have people in your life that have a deadly belief system? Is your friendship circle made up of people who continually talk negative, complain, or find fault? How do you expect to go to the next level of your destiny if you are continually having negative words spoken into your spirit?
“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”
Amos 3:3
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
2 Corinthians 6:14
You must have people in your life who will speak what God says about you and not what other people say about you. People who will focus on where you are going to, instead of what you are going through. People who speak not what they feel or see, but rather what the Word has already declared. People who believe in your dreams and visions.
You need people in your life who are people of
faith. People of faith do not say, “Hold the fort.” They shout “Let us possess the land!” Faith people do not focus on the giants, they focus on the grapes. Faith people do not look at the storm, they look at the rain-bow.
Faith people will tell you, “You are who God says you are and you can have what God says you can have!” They even do what the scripture says, “…calleth those things which be not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17.)
If the devil tells you that you are going to die they will say, “…you shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” (Psalms 118:17)
If the devil tells you that you are a failure they will proclaim, “You are not a failure-you are a winner!”
“Nay, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us.”
Romans 8:37
You must have people in your world who are people of faith. You also need people in your life who do not see you where you are but they see you where you are going. They have a understanding that the place where you are is not your end but in the end you will go where God said you would go, and what God promised you will come to pass.
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry,
wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”Habakkuk 2:3
One of the hardest things for people to do is see a person in their end, not at the place they are. You must have people in your life that see you in your end. People who realize you have not reached your destiny but you are on your way. You are somewhere between A and Z. Somewhere between a caterpillar and a butter-fly. You must have people in your life that understand you are in process. You have not arrived but you are on your way.
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”
Philippians 1:6
Regardless of what people think or say your dreams and visions are about to come to pass. You are about to go where God said you would go. You are about to become who God said you would become. You are about to have what God said you would have. You are about to step into your destiny! Your appoint-ed time has arrived. This is your greatest day. This is your greatest hour. God is now turning the page in your life’s story. A new chapter is being written.
The devil does not have the power to stop you. Your enemies do not control your future. Your destiny is in your hands as well as Gods. Where you are at is not your end.
The pit was not the end for Joseph. Egypt was not the end for Israel. The fiery furnace was not the end for the three Hebrew children. The lions den was
not the end for Daniel. And greatest of all, the tomb
was not the end for Jesus! These were just places and things that they had to go through so they could get to
their end.
The truth is, the things they went through prepared them for their greatest blessings. The road to your destiny will lead you through a lot of places and
through a lot of betrayals but in the end you will go where God said you would go and you will be what God said you would be.
Israel went through a lot of things but in the end God brought them into a place of great wealth.
“Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads: we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.”
Psalms 66:12
The word “wealthy” means a place of overflow or abundance. They went through the fire but it did not destroy them. They went through the water but it could not stop them. Even though the children of Israel had to walk through the wilderness, He brought them into a place of abundance and overflow just like He promised them.
Let every man be a liar, but what God says is true. His promises are true! You do not need every-body to believe in you, just the right people. Most importantly you must believe that what God has said about you will come to pass. Believe that He is with you and for you regardless of what may be against you.
“What shall we then say to these things? If God
be for us, who can be against us?”
Romans 8:31
Everybody likes to have people in their world, but sometimes on the journey to your destiny the
crowd with you is small. Sometimes if there is nobody to talk to, you have to just talk to yourself. If you have nobody to pray for you, you have to pray for yourself.
If you need a prophetic word and there is nobody to prophesy to you, you have to prophesy to yourself. I
have learned you can pray, preach, sing, talk, proph-esy, and even lay hands on yourself.
There will also be times when you have to do what David did and that is “encourage yourself.”
“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”
1 Samuel 30:6
Sometimes you will feel that nobody understands what you are going through as you move toward your destiny. There will be times that you will feel like giv-ing up and there will be nobody to encourage you. What do you do in these times? “Encourage yourself!”
Do not expect everybody to understand what you are going through. Do not expect everybody to speak words of encouragement. It is not going to happen. “Encourage yourself in the Lord your God” during the times of discouragements and tests.
Do not allow everybody to speak into your life. Do not allow everybody that carries a Bible to prop-hesy over you. Do not allow everybody to lay hands on you. Protect your anointing! Protect your dreams and visions! Watch who you allow to impart into your life. Some people will impart fear into you instead of faith. Some people, even some so-called men and women of God operates under a bad spirit and when they minister to you they will impart their bad spirit into your spirit.
You need people in your life who are godly. People who are stable. Not people who are like the wind, one day they blow this way and the next day an-other way. One day they say one thing and the next day they say something totally opposite. One day they believe in you and the next day they don’t. One day they are for you and the next day they are against you.
You do not need people in your life that play with your emotions. If you are not careful the devil will send people into your life that will have you spending all of your time trying to figure them out. You will be trying to figure out if they like you or do not like you. You will be wondering if they are for you or against you. You will become confused trying to figure out if they are a friend or an enemy.
Let those people go, you do not have time for confusion. You do not have time for their foolishness. You are too close to destiny to allow people to side-track you and play with your emotions.
You need people in your life that you can trust! People that love you when you are on the mountain but
also when you are in the valley. People who love you in the good times but also in the bad times. You need people in your life who will stand beside you during the heat of the battle and say, “I am going to help you fight your way though this!”
“And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.”
2 Kings 2:8
Everybody did not cross Jordan. Everybody did not pick up the mantle of Elijah.
Elijah and Elisha crossed the Jordan and only Elisha picked up the man-tle. Everybody will not go where you are about to go. Every bird has the ability to fly but no bird can fly as high as the eagle. The eagle is different than any other bird.
Like the eagle you are different. You were not created to live in low places but you were created to soar in the Heavens!
Tell the people in your life, “I am about to go where I have never been. I want you to go with me but if you refuse, I must move on.
I do not want to leave you behind but if I have to I will.” The two of them,
Elijah and Elisha, crossed the Jordan…alone.
There are secrets that God wants to reveal to you, but He can not as long as you have too many oth-er voices speaking into your life. There are places that God wants to take you, but He can’t as long as you al-low people to hold you back. There are blessings that God wants to give you, but He can not give them to you as long as people have a stronger influence in your life than He does.
Once Elijah and Elisha crossed the Jordan a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and Elijah was taken up into the heavens by a whirlwind.
“And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”
2 Kings 2:11
When Elijah was taken up into the heavens by a whirlwind the sons of the Prophets who had been trained under Elijah’s ministry were not there. The multitudes that he had preached to and ministered to
were not there.
The only one that had faithfully stayed with Elijah was Elisha.
“And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my
father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan;
And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.”
2 Kings 2:12-14
Because Elisha was willing to walk away from the sons of the Prophets and go where they were not willing to go, he received the thing he desired so much,
“A double portion of Elijahs anointing.”
Any of the sons of the Prophets could have been there to pick the mantle up, but they chose to view from afar. They even tried to stop Elisha from following Elijah. But Elisha was determined to stay with Elijah regardless of the cost. Elisha simply walked away from the sons of the Prophets and crossed the Jordan without them.
If you have to walk away from people to get to
the place where God is calling you, start walking. Once you get to the place God is calling you and receive all that God has promised you, you will be so glad you
did. Nobody is worth losing your destiny over. Regard-less of how bad you want people to go with you—remember everybody can’t go where God is taking you!
