Last week we began to look at the topic: Lesson from the school of power. Let me quickly do a recap of what was said. In Lesson one we talked about the meaning of power, Lesson two, the sources of power, Lesson three the difference between authority and power. Lesson 4, talked about our marching order from the Lord Jesus Christ. Lesson 5 talked about anointing. This week, we shall continue with Lesson six which is the double portion anointing.
The mantle that came upon Elisha represents the anointing. Immediately it came upon him, the Bible says that he moved. There was no reluctance at all. It shows that the man had good relationship with his parents and neighbours. He gave them a bye-bye party to say thank you very much. The reason many people will not grow in the Lord is because they are still attached to their mother’s apron strings. Elisha was not like that. He burned the bridges behind him and renounced his former life. This is the secret, beloved. If you carry the things of yesterday on your shoulder, there will be no double portion. Paul said, “forgetting those things that are behind and looking forward” One-Way to fall very quickly is to be looking at the back. Anybody who looks back still finds the old life exciting. Some people would say, “if God does not answer me on time, I will go back into the world. The devil does not waste time finishing the account of such people so that they won’t have the opportunity to run back to the Lord.
You won’t see your tomorrow as far as you live in your yesterday. You should not allow one mistake that you made ten years ago to be ruling your life now. If you still continue that way, forget the anointing because you are a yesterday person. Recognize that Elisha had parents too, he had a job and labourers but he burnt the bridges behind him. Likewise God has called you from the world so there must be a difference. Believers do not go to worldly parties; they don’t cook their food for them and do not eat their meat. We are supposed to be strange to them. Many believers don’t want to look strange and the Bible says we are peculiar. They should look at you and see a difference. It is time for us to be making impact. The bible did not call us to come and live a quiet life. They were busy causing trouble all over the place for the enemy. They were acting according to the word of Jesus that says, “If you are driven away from one city, go to another” That is what the Bible says. But if you are afraid nothing will happen. When you received genuine power, you can’t sit down, it is impossible. Somebody said that he received the Holy Spirit and now he is moving about like an old vehicle as if the Holy Spirit too has become old inside of him. No, something is wrong somewhere. The moment you get it, you cannot do without talking about Jesus, or without praying. It is going to be impossible. There must be a clear demarcation between the people of the word and the people of the world. God’s children must be God’s children. It is clear. The situation these days where it is difficult to differentiate from people going to disco party is not what the Bible says. It says be ye separate; Let them know you for what you are. Declare your stand make it plain. Some people say, “give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” it is only an excuse for them to commit sin. There is no Caesar in this matter at all. What God is saying is that there must be a clear demarcation. People of the world may look at you and say that you are looking dull. It is better to look dull and make heaven than to have the brightness of the world with crocodiles walking about in your legs and go to hell fire. There must be a difference. You don’t honour every invitation because you are separate. For example, nobody sends me an invitation card to come to parties any more. They ought to give that kind of testimony about you.
In 2kings 2, when Elijah was going away, there were many sons of the prophet. But surprisingly, Elisha was still the only person following Elijah and there were many obstacles so that he would not be able to receive a double portion. But God helped Elisha and God shall help you today in Jesus name. Amen
2 Kings 2:1-2
“And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal”
Gilgal was where Israel first encountered hindrance on their way to the Promised Land. Gilgal is the place of religious activities with no power. If God takes you to Gilgal, He wants to know whether you will stay there. The Bible says “Avoid all those who have the form of God but deny the power thereof” There are still many people in Gilgal. They are only engaged in religious activities no power. It is practicing empty religion and church politics verse 2 says
. [2] And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel ( that was obstacle No 1, it says stay in Gilgal). And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel.
2 Kings 2:3-4
“And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. [4] And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here; I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho”.
He was again asked to stay at Bethel, but he said, “No, l am not going”
Abraham was at Bethel, Jacob was at Bethel and Saul lost all that he had at Bethel. Another Bethel that the bible calls the house of God was later converted to a place of idolatry by jeroboam. So, Bethel could be called a place of major decisions. It is a place where you wrestle with God, it is a place where you yield yourself and die to your own desire. It is a place of complete consecrecation. After you have taken the decision to stop your powerless Christianity. The next thing that happens is that you must consecrate yourself. It is a shame to see that most of the powerful sisters around now are old women. Why? What happened to those who are within ages sixteen and forty? They would say, “I want to go and see Mama so, so and so to pray for me. I want to go and see Baba so, so and so, let him pray for me” I wonder when they too will begin to pray for others. When will they grow above that stage? It is a shame. Instead for some people to settle down and see that they consecrate their lives enough, they are busy discussing fashion. They refuse to see the design of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is saying day and night, “Get out of this weakness and receive power” The Bible says, “When the son of man shall come, will he find faith in earth? It is only you that can answer that question.
The most popular gift that people exercise in the church today is prophecy. The reason the other gifts are not common is that they require more consecration, you need to be holy. It is something you must open your mouth after eating two bowls of eba and begin to talk. A lot of people are so afraid of living a consecrated life.
Consecration is to yield yourself on the altar of God. When God says, “My son, come out,” all you need to say is, “yes Lord” and take action. But when you say, yes and you are still in Gilgal, it means that you are still arguing. Elisha did not argue. He moved forward. In verse 4, Elijah asked Elisha to tarry at Jericho but he refused to stay there.
WHAT IS JERICHO?
Jericho was that place where Joshua met the captain of the Lord of host in the Bible. So, Jericho to us now is the place of warfare. A place of war against the devil, a place of spiritual opposition. Joshua was tested at Jericho. Jericho is a place of conflict. At Gilgal, you have spiritual activities with no power. At Bethel, you die to yourself and at Jericho the place of conflict you fight. Others may have religious things and ceremonies but what you need is more of God’s power. Somebody could have a Ph.D in Bible knowledge but lack the power of God. Such a person would soon abandon his Ph.D and run after a small boy who can demonstrate the power of God. So you can have all the knowledge you want to have and all the ceremonies but what we require is more of God’s power. When you fight the devil, you get recognition in hell and in heaven.
2 Kings 2:6-8
“And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on. [7] And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.(They did not get close) [8] 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”. It remained just one more test
2 Kings 2:9-15
“And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. [10] And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: [10] And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: (for the first time in the life of Elijah, he identified something that was hard, the man closed the heaven for three and a half years, raised the dead, multiplied food, now was saying, he has asked for a hard thing) nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. [11] 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. (Elijah did not go up by chariot; he went up by a whirlwind into heaven)
[12] 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. [13] He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan; [14] 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. [15] And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him”.
Jordan, the last point of call, is the place of spiritual vision. What do you see? The devil fights to keep believers blind. It is the place of vision. Elisha passed his own test. He saw what others did not see and when he saw it, his first act was an act of humility. He tore his own cloth then took the mantel and with it he cried, “Where is the Lord of Elijah?” And the God Elijah answered. He smote the waters and he passed by to the other side. These five steps that we have gone through are the keys for operating in the double portion of God’s power.
By now, you should know whether you are in Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho or Jordan. You should know where you are. I believe that many days before that day, Elisha would have stopped eating. He knew that Elijah was going away and if he received just one portion, the problem that came upon Elijah where he said, “Kill me for l am not better than my fathers, would come upon him” And if he had only one portion, he won’t be able to cope so he needed double. If Elisha was asking for double the anointing of Elijah, we of the present day, should ask for a seven-fold of what the apostles received to cope with what is happening now and with the evil that is circulating around us.
A sister who did not have fire went to preach somewhere. The man she met in the house offered her a drink and she declined. He switched on the cassette player and there was reggae music. After sometime, the sister who came to preach began to tap her feet. Later, he removed the cassette and put in another one and the sister sang a little bit of it too. (It is very important for us to pray the world out of our system. We should pray out the worldly music from our brain and all the things we learned from the world. They have to go completely) The man said, Okay start preaching” She started and suddenly the man said, “Stop. Don’t mention that name again. Who is Jesus? The sister was shocked to see the man’s countenance change. Suddenly the man opened a wardrobe and in it were human heads, skulls, legs, hands etc arranged and labeled. The sister was glued to her seat. Then the man said this is your last preaching you better preach it very well” The sister started to say, “Touch not my anointed, do my prophet no harm” The man said, “You, what power do you have. You don’t have anything, even the small fire that some of you carry about, you don’t have” The she started to shiver and to speak in tongues but I was powerless tongues because she could not stand up again. The man opened another wardrobe and a big snake crawled out and coiled around the sister and began to squeeze her. She began to call Jesus. Eventually, God helped he that day and she was able to go out, but she was not herself again. “When she came out of the house, some people around there told her she was the first person that they had seen go in there and came out. They said when we saw you carry your bible and went in there, we thought you had power to challenge them” The sister could not talk, she rushed to her pastor and asked him to pray for her. The pastor prayed and it took her several days fast to get out of the trouble.
If worldly military officers are improving on their weapons everyday, the devil will not be that foolish not to improve on his own weapon. And if the devil is improving on his weapon, and you as a Christian, you are still speaking in the tongues you got in 1990, you are still talking about empty holiness, empty sanctification and empty salvation with no power, then you need to ask for power today. Jesus told His disciples that they shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has fallen upon them. It is when the power falls upon you that you shall become a disciple. This can happen to you when you are genuinely born again.
Lesson 7: The fire igniters
You can ignite fire in your spiritual life. What are the fire igniters?
1. Stubborn faith: These days, people torture themselves some wear strange dresses, others decide not to barb their hair, some wear tall caps, some disfigure their bodies, they make a lot of sacrifices because they want power. But the greatest thing is to believe in Him. The Bible says, “for without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he that believe God must believe that he is and he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him” Many people say that they believe God, but they fail to make 100% commitment. Stubborn faith is mature conviction that cannot be shaken either by the environment or your circumstances. Stubborn faith is when you burn the bridges behind you. You destroy the vehicle that can take you back to your former positions.
You must burn off every avenue of retreat. That is what I mean by stubborn faith. If you will start practicing that you will be shocked what will happen. What people are saying is not possible would be possible to you. When they say, “you will fail this exam” you will say, “No, I will pass it in Jesus name” That is how to operate. Whenever they told Jesus in the Bible that a child was dead, He would say, No, he is sleeping”
2. Effective quite time: Isaiah 30:15
For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. Mark 1:35
“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day,( this is Jesus) he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed”. You have to set apart a suitable time each day to meet the Lord. It should be a time when you withdraw from every distraction and be in communication with God. If your quiet time has no life, forget spiritual growth, victory and dynamic Christian life. Quiet time is your source of strength. Unfortunately, city life is turning people to weaklings. Very early in the morning some people have rushed out of the house. Some carry their bibles in their pockets and say they will read it in the bus. But when they get to the bus, somebody else has entered and is advertising one medicine or the other and begin to make noise and they cannot concentrate. They would plan to read it the next day, only for them to get there and two people would be fighting and beating themselves up in the bus. So, you must create time. You may say, “I have no time” you will have time when trouble comes. There is no escape if you want to ignite your life. So, you should create time. If you are the kind of believer that observes your quiet time only once in a while, you will not be able to grow. Or if you just open any part in the bible and do crash programme quiet time, it won’t work. It has to be organized and done thoroughly.
3. You must crucify the flesh: The flesh must die so that God can use you. If the flesh is still controlling your life, you won’t be able to ignite any fire.
4. Regular fasting and prayer: The Bible makes us to understand that some things cannot depart except by fasting and prayer.
5. You must always share your faith with others: Tell others about the love of Christ. Tell them about the love of Jesus. The more you talk about Jesus, the more you are charging the battery of your spirit.
6. Develop hunger for God’s word: Develop intense hunger for it.
7. Walk in the spirit
As you keep doing all these, you will find that power will come. As the power comes you will know that something had happened to you. When God takes up your life and finds that there is no fire in it, He will put it down and wait for you to become serious. When are you going to put on the whole armour of God? When are you going to put on all His righteousness? God has His own part and man has his own part. God’s part, He would do. When you do your own part first then God will do His own. That was what happened at Mt Carmel. Elijah did his own part, he repaired the altar cut the animal into pieces and he put the legs there. So that leg that goes about aimlessly visiting useless people, doing aimless journey, they are doing one party in Epe off you go, born again Christian. They are doing another one in Ikorodu; off you go again, those your legs have to be crucified. You better place them on the altar. The arms, head etc too went there one after the other and piece-by-piece. There are some people who are only three-quarter born again. Some are one tenth born again. For some people, the only thing that is born again is their hairs and their ears. They do not wear earrings or stretch their hair that is their own idea of being born again. If you touch any other part, it will spark like fire. For some people, it is only their stomach that is born again and the reason that is born again is that sometimes there is no food; they will go on compulsory fasting. Touch other parts, they will spark like fire.
God wants everything on the altar including your money and yourself. Sometimes, the way you can know how far somebody is moving with God is by what he gives to God. If he spends much on himself and less for God, you know where his priority is. Everything has to be on the altar. When Elijah put everything on the altar, he got results. Stop comparing yourself to other people. Do not say, “I thank God I ma not like sister so, so and so. You are wasting your time. The Bible says, “Comparing themselves, they are not wise” If you look at yourself and say “At least, I am trying” It means you are giving yourself pass mark and that is not the certificate from the school of power. God may be pointing to some things your life one after the other that have to be sorted out. And if you don’t sort them out, He will refuse to do His own part. It is not God’s business to pray. Elijah prayed and it was God’s business to send fire. Sending the fire was His part of the contract. If Elijah had not fulfilled his own part, he Lord would have abandoned His own section. Now, God is waiting for you and I to fulfill our part of the contract. The question is, are you ready? Will you be willing to give all on the altar? Will you be willing to abandon all and follow Christ? Or are you afraid that if you become too serious with this matter, God would send you to Congo now, and you feel that you cannot go to Congo now because there is no car, you have not built a house, you don’t have many of the things that your mates have. Many of your mates that have them, where are they now? Think about it.
Won’t it be wonderful if just your shadow is enough to chase out evil spirits? You don’t even have to talk, your presence alone or your shadow is enough to chase them out. This is a very serious matter. We need seven-fold of what the apostles had, not even double. Double will not help again. The apostles died a long time ago and the devil has increased and improved since that time. We need to ask for the flood of the God’s power. It is time to act.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Holy Ghost fire; ignite my life, in Jesus name.
2. Let the flood of God’s power soak me, in Jesus name.
3. O Lord make this week a week of power for me, in Jesus name.
4. The spirit of resurrection fall upon my life, in Jesus name.
5. Let my prayer stones be converted to the blood of Jesus and locate my Goliath today, in Jesus name.
6. I dismantle every satanic agenda for my life in Jesus name.
7. Lord, advertise your power in my life, in Jesus name.
