Kingdom Warriors

Elisha, the best example

Elisha is the best example of someone who chose the Anointing.

Elisha is the best example of someone who asked for the Anointing.

Elisha is the best example of someone who received the Anointing.

Elisha is the best example of someone who used the Anointing.

Elisha is the best example of someone who received his spiritual mentor as a father.

Elisha is the best example of someone who served until he received his Anointing.

Elisha is the best example of someone who was more Anointed that his father.

In 3 remarkable verses of Scripture, we see amazing revelation of how Elisha moved from being an ordinary ploughman to becoming the famous and extraordinary prophet who succeeded Elijah.

¹⁹?So Elijah left there and found Elisha son of Shaphat, whose plowing was being done with twelve yoke of oxen, and he drove the twelfth. Elijah crossed over to him and cast his mantle upon him. ²⁰He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Let me kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow you. And he [testing Elisha] said, Go on back. What have I done to you? [Settle it for yourself.] ²¹So Elisha went back from him. Then he took a yoke of oxen, slew them, boiled their flesh with the oxen's yoke [as fuel], and gave to the people, and they ate. Then he arose, followed Elijah, and served him? - 1 Kings 19:19-21 AMP.

Let us join Elisha on this road to the Anointing. You can receive the Anointing of the Holy Spirit if you walk the road Elisha walked. Everyone who walks on a particular road ends up at the same place. Roads do not lead to different places for different people!

7 Steps on the road to the Anointing:

1.       Accept the call eagerly.

²⁰?He left the oxen and ran after Elijah?? ? 1 Kings 19:20 AMP.

It is important for you to accept the call of God. God calls many but not everyone accepts the call. Pouting a thousand and one excuses, they give themselves to other pursuits. Many whom God called choose to live uneventful lives as ?normal?, moral, good Christians. In the name of being conscientious parents and responsible citizens, they choose to ignore the call of God.

These people receive a pat on the back from society and friends. They are applauded by the world as the ?type? of Christian they want to see.

However, Elisha eagerly ran after the call. God is looking for people who respond eagerly to the offer of ministry.

2.       Be a fighting man.

??and him who escapes the sword of Jehu Elisha shall slay? ? 1 Kings 19:17 AMP.

Elisha was a man who could fight with a sword. The Christian life is a battle and the ministry is even more of a battle. Much of the fight goes on in the mind and in the form of temptations, ideas, imaginations, and alternatives to the will of God.

There will be continual pressure to fulfill your natural desires and instincts in the wrong way. Satan will present you with a cocktail of fantastic thoughts, suggestions, deceptions, and delusions. Until your very last day, an array of people, events and circumstances will present themselves as a complicated network of tests and temptations. Devils presenting themselves as angels and angels whom you suspect to be devils, will add to the confusion and the clamour of the battle on this earth.

If you are not prepared to fight, you cannot have the Anointing. Paul fought throughout his life and ministry. When he was dying he said, ?I have fought a good fight.? You will fight for every drop of the Anointing that you ever receive. You will fight for every position that you ever occupy.

3.       Be a ploughing man.

?So Elijah left there and found Elisha son of Shaphat, whose plowing was being done with twelve yoke of oxen, and he drove the twelfth?? ? 1 Kings 19:19 AMP.

Elisha was ploughing when he was called. Ploughing the ground speaks of hard work. Elisha was a hard-working and diligent person before he was called. The ministry is full of hard work that lasts for many years. Rarely does a lazy person amount to anything in the ministry.

4.       Understand what it means when the mantle is thrown on you.

??Elijah crossed over to him and cast his mantle upon him.? ? 1 Kings 19:19 AMP.

It is important for you to understand what is happening in your life. The call of God is mysterious and may be vague. However, exactly what God is saying and what He intends to do is often hidden from you. It is important to understand the gentle indications that God sends to you.

Elisha could have asked Elijah, ?Why did you throw your mantle on me? What are you trying to say? Do you think I need some extra clothes??

Elisha did not say any of those things. He knew what it meant. He lost interest in his oxen! He did not want his ploughing business anymore! His eyes were lifted up to something higher.

Sometimes when a mantle falls on you, you just have a desire to serve God and to live for him. Sometimes when a mantle falls on you, your interest in secular things die. Nothing attracts you and no amount of money can lure you. These changes in your life are signs that a mantle has fallen on you.

5.       Kill your oxen.

²¹?So Elisha went back from him. Then he took a yoke of oxen, slew them, boiled their flesh with the oxen's yoke [as fuel], and gave to the people, and they ate? ? 1 Kings 19:21 AMP.

Everybody has something valuable when he is called. It is important to sacrifice what you have and to follow the call of God to its logical conclusion. Every call has a price. Do not think that you are going to have the Anointing without paying as high a price as all Anointed people do.

6.       Leave your family.

??Let me kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow you?? ? 1 Kings 19:20 AMP.

The call often involves some kind of separation from your family. Your family always pays a price for you to live out the call of God. Many people have a priority list in which they say God first, family second and then ministry third. Where did they get that list from?

That is in conflict with what Jesus said:

²⁶ ?If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his [own] father and mother [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God] and [likewise] his wife and children and brothers and sisters--[yes] and even his own life also--he cannot be My disciple - . ²⁷Whoever does not persevere and carry his own cross and come after (follow) Me cannot be My disciple?

Luke 14:26-27 AMP.

Husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters all pay the price because God has called you.

Although the cost of ministry is high, the cost of disobedience is even higher and this is what people do not know.

7.       Serve the Anointed man.

??Then he arose, followed Elijah, and served him? ? 1 Kings 19:21 AMP.

How necessary it is to humbly serve in the house of the Lord. Elisha was known to the public as the one who poured water on the hands of Elijah (2 Kings 3:11). The apostles were known as the servants and disciples of Christ. Joshua was known as the servant of Moses. Before you receive the depth of the Anointing, you must become a servant.