“The Truth About --The Lie About”

BuiltWithNOF

Chapter 27

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What Killed Elisha

 

Most believers in the Church have put service before relationship. This is a great deception -- and it has fooled even the great men of the scriptures. It is very easy to fall into that deception because we are taught to use the world system of buying and selling to get gain. When we do that -- we think we can accumulate goods if we use them for doing good works.  Works are only seen as good by God if Jesus is Lord and author of what we are doing and that they are the fruit of blessings by inheritance.

In the Garden of Eden -- Adam and Eve were only picking fruit to eat so they could make themselves like God. Yet-- they had been told not to pick fruit for that reason and so-- what seemed like a good work -- was really the evidence of self-rule.  That action brought a curse on them and all of Creation. I use the term self-rule because rebellion carries with it the idea of some evil action.  Self-rule of the worst kind is good works that are not the purpose and directive of God.

One such incident that comes into my mind that illustrates this truth is Elisha and Elijah.  If you have been a Bible student very long -- you have read that story. You will find it recorded in II Kings 2:9: .

(2 Ki 2:9 KJV) 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.

(2 Ki 2:10 KJV)  And he said, Thou hast asked 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.

(2 Ki 2:11 KJV)  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.

You have heard this taught many times. But the teachings that I have heard have missed The Truth that is hidden there. 

The reason that The Truth hidden there is missed is-- the teachers think that Elisha is more blessed than Elijah because he did twice as many miracles as Elijah did.  Well -- I will tell you that I would take Elijah’s way of leaving this Earth rather than Elisha’s.

The way Elijah left the Earth shows forth that he was much honored by Christ and held a special place in the purposes of God because of his relationship with Him. We see him again when he shows up on the mount of transfiguration with Jesus and Moses. He is a type of saint that represents those that don’t die but are taken to Heaven without seeing death. He is one of the greats in the Bible account of faithfulness to the call of God on his life.

In contrast to that -- we see Elisha leaving this Earth by the process of sickness and death. If you are a thinking seeker of Truth -- you would have to ask;  How can that happen?  The one with the double portion anointing dies of a sickness while the one with the single anointing goes up to Heaven in a fiery chariot. The scripture about Elisah’s death is found in II Kings 13:

(2 Ki 13:20 KJV) And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year.

I won’t put all of the scriptures in this lesson -- so you can read it for yourself.

However -- we can’t help noticing the contrast between Elijah’s death and Elisha’s death.

Elijah is a great prophet of God and he does many miracles.  He has another man named Elisha that God has told him to prepare to take his place when he is called home by God. There is no doubt about the fact that when Elijah left this Earth it was God that sent for him to come home.  Elijah left this Earth in a fiery chariot.  Elijah had finished his course and the work was complete and so-- he left the Earth. He went from life to life more abundantly.

Elisha was told by God that his master would be taken up to Heaven and Elisha was zealous for the work of the ministry to pass to him. So -- he stuck close to his master so that he would be in the place to receive the mantel that was on Elijah when he left this Earth.

So -- just before Elijah left -- he asked Elisha what he wanted God to do for him. Elisha -- in his zeal -- asked for a double portion of what Elijah had.  Here we read it in    II Kings 2:9:

(9)  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: 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.

If Elisha sees Elijah go up -- it means that Elisha is ready to take up the mantle that falls from Elijah. If he can’t see where the mantle falls -- he won’t know where to go to pick it up and so -- he isn’t ready to receive it.

As the Church teaches on these verses -- they say that Elijah is a type of Christ and that the Elisha is a type of the Church.  I believe that is right.  That we -- as the Church -- have a double portion of the Spirit of Christ on us and we will do greater things than Jesus did. I believe that “greater” means -- more in number rather than greater in magnitude. They say that we will fulfill that type by doing greater miracles than Jesus did and they rejoice over that.

Having a double portion anointing is a great blessing -- provided we are also ready to walk in a relationship of intimacy with Jesus that will put Him first in our lives. 

The only way I can get to that kind of a relationship with the Lord is to spend a double amount of time with Him in His presence. That is the hard part: Not to be drawn into such an intense amount of service that I can’t spend the time with the Lord to know what He wants to do before I make a move.

If I don’t do that -- I will be drawn into so much service because of the power of the anointing -- that I will not have the time I need in His presence. If I’m not in His  presence -- I can’t know what to do and I begin to live off my past decisions and they will not be right -- for I must hear from the Lord for each occasion.

Well -- what the Lord has shown me is to be careful what I want and most of all -- be careful why I want it.

When Elisha asked for a double portion of the Spirit that was on Elijah -- the Lord said thru Elijah: “You have asked for a hard thing.”  Well -- surely it wasn’t a hard thing for God to give Elisha the power to do more miracles.  So -- What was the hard thing? 

I believe that Elisha saw the miracles and the power --  but he didn’t see the relationship that Elijah had with God;  Nor -- did he see the price of having and keeping that kind of a relationship with the Lord. 

There are some things that happened in Elisha’s life that maybe indicates that he had a pride problem. Like the time he cursed some children for calling him a baldhead.  That was wrong for them to do -- but hardly worthy of the death of over forty children.

Then -- there is the verse that says Elisha was sick with a sickness that killed him. We find it in II Kings 13:

(2 Ki 13:14 KJV) Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

Something befell Elisha’s life that allowed sickness to take his life from him.  If you look up the word “sick” in the Hebrew -- it can be rendered “flattery.” Could it be that because of the fame of Elisha’s miracle working power  that many are drawn to him and their flattery caused him to be lifted up in pride and so -- he fell into the same curse that many famous men and women do: taking the glory that is meant for God alone upon themselves?

Why is the Lord dealing with this so deeply in these days? I believe it is because the anointing that is coming on the body of Christ is going to be so powerful that -- if a person isn’t dead to self-rule they will soon be dead because of the anointing.

It seems Elisha didn’t fall into taking money for the use of his anointing like so many do today. He wouldn’t even go out to see those that came to him for help.  Is the reason that he didn’t go out to meet the people that came to see him because he didn’t want to get lifted up and so -- kept hidden -- or was it a kind of contempt for those that thought they were more important than he was?

Could he have thought -- Well -- this is an important man that has come to see me -- but I’m more important than him because he has to come to me for help? I believe the only protection we have from being lifted up is to be in the presence of the Lord all the time because -- when we see the Lord -- there is no room for us to be proud.  The Lord is so awesome and beautiful that all we can do is fall before Him in worship.  That keeps us humble before Him and in the right place before other people.

Even today -- we see men do great miracles and we want to be able to do that -- but we don’t see the time and the love that exists between God and the men that God uses in this way. 

That was the hard thing that God saw that was necessary if this ministry was going to bless Elisha.  God doesn’t give men things to give to other people that those men don’t need themselves. The question was -- would Elisha seek a double portion of the kind of relationship that Elijah had with God -- or would he just seek the power of the miracles and the attention and prestige that those miracles bring?

Well -- you may not agree -- but I believe Elisha failed that part of the test -- just as the present day Church is failing and will fail the test.  He put service before relationship and died of a sickness that killed him.  I believe that the Church will get the anointing everyone is asking for.  Everyone wants it -- but they don’t want the relationship with the Lord that will make the anointing a blessing to them. 

They want the glory of the service -- but not the intimacy and love to be in the Lord’s presence.  I believe that the anointing will kill them.  They will die before their time.  The Scripture says that the dead in Christ will rise first.  That’s because they will die first. They will die first because -- although they are in Christ -- they are dead to The Truth as Jesus tells it for living by inheritance by the death of self-rule.

When I asked the Lord about this -- He answered me by showing me these Truths. I asked: How come that when some men lowered a dead man down into Elisha’s tomb -- and the dead man touched the bones of Elisha -- he was brought back to life and yet -- that anointing couldn’t keep Elisha alive?

The anointing on Elisha’s bones was so strong -- even after his death -- that they brought a dead man back to life. Yet -- Elisha was dead.  He died of a sickness.  How come the anointing couldn’t heal him? The anointing doesn’t allow pride -- it kills it and anyone that won’t let go of it.

The Lord said that without the relationship of intimacy with God -- the anointing will kill you.  The very thing that God gave to Elisha to bless him -- killed him because he began to trust in his miracle working power for his life instead of his relationship of blessings by inheritance with the God that anointed him.

The previous events make me think that is what happened -- this is also the very reason that caused Lucifer to fall. He was caught up with his power and his recognition that brought much goods to him. Perhaps -- Elisah wasn’t interested in the accumulation of goods because I believe he had all he wanted.  However -- his student Gehazi had a deep desire to get the wealth. He ran after Naaman to receive gold and silver from him because of Elisha’s power to heal. The actions of the student oftentimes reveals a lot about the teacher.

God isn’t looking for servers -- He is looking for people that will love Him and His Word and walk with Him in an intimate relationship of love. That’s why He created you and me.  When we come into that place -- many will see the joy of that relationship and want it for themselves.  We need to realize that people are supposed to come to receive Jesus as Lord because they see my relationship of intimacy with the Lord and not because I have an anointing to work miracles.

They will come by the hundreds and ask you how to get what you have; Not the money you have because most of them have that already. They want the peace -- stead- fastness -- joy -- intimacy and health that money can’t buy. That’s how you preach the Gospel;  You become the Gospel and you walk around in the Earth and let people see what living with the King in the Kingdom is like.  You won’t have to say very much.  They will be able to see what they are hungering to have.

I have seen a great number of ministries arise lately with huge numbers of people following the pastors of those groups. These men seem to have great humility in the light of what is being built and that is good. However -- in most of them -- the pastors seem to fall into groups where the average church member can’t get to them anymore because the average member doesn’t belong to the select group and can’t afford to go on these trips where these pastors meet.

In these ministries  --there doesn’t seem to be any foundation of The Truth of the Kingdom being taught.  The only thing that is seen is the great buildings and grounds that these ministries are setting on. Airplanes and vast amounts of Mammon being used for the spreading of a gospel message that doesn’t so much as mention the reality of the Kingdom of God.

I pass no judgement as to the way these ministries are run.  They are not my responsibility.  I have all I can do to keep myself in the place where God has called me -- but the foundation for a relationship of intimacy with the King and the Kingdom of God is built on is the death of self-rule in my life. Without that -- all our religious works amount to the worship of another god.

The outward religious church will die as Elisha did -- of some sickness because of pride and living according to the systems of the world of buying and selling and storing up for the future.  Living without an intimacy with the Lord on a daily basis is the evidence of self-rule -- even if it’s covered by doing good instead of walking before the Lord in perfectness. Remember the Lord’s command to Abraham:  “Walk before Me and be though perfect.” We are only perfect when self-rule is dead.

 

G.F.L

 

 

Proclaiming “THE TRUTH:” Righteousness by a Gift and Blessings by Inheritance.

Exposing “THE LIE:”  Righteousness by Works and Blessings by Self-rule.

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