It’s all about vision.
If you’re a quarterback, you need to be able to see in a split second what the defense is doing so you can throw the ball to the right spot on the field, where your teammate is going to be a few seconds later.
If you’re a business owner, you need to be able to recognize the intangibles and emotional intelligence in entry level employees. Do they have the right makeup to be promoted into future managers and even franchise owners someday?
If you’re the mother of a strong willed toddler filled, with perseverance, can you see where Jesus is training and harnessing greatness for future leadership in them to be a prophetic voice in their spheres of influence?
If you are a student, you need vision to see how learning economics is actually going to benefit you in your job and even in ministry later on in life, to help you be successful.
Elijah the prophet showed great vision to raise up and train his successor Elisha as the next prophet to God’s people. He had been pouring into groups of people to train them up, in groups of fifty in several cities. When Elijah the prophet walked with his protégé Elisha on his last day of earth, he asked one final question before God takes him to heaven.
2 Kings 2:9-10 (NIV)
9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?" "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied.
10 "You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said, "yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours--otherwise not."
Elisha’s last request of Elijah is for God to give him the inheritance of a first-born son. The double portion (or share) would be given to the eldest son, while others would only get one part each. So if there were four sons, instead of getting 25% of the estate, he would get 40%, and the other three would receive 20%. In this case we aren’t talking about money, instead Elisha is asking if He could do twice as many things as Elijah does.
Elijah responds and tells him, if you have the proper vision to see past what’s happening in the physical realm, and into the supernatural realm, then you can have that double portion of power and miracles on display. Elisha isn’t asking selfishly so he could be the greatest prophet ever, he really wants to show the love and power of God in tangible ways, and he knows that unless the Lord comes and gives him the power by the Spirit, nothing will come to pass.
When you ask God for things, you may rarely think to ask him to expand your vision. If we don’t have the proper vision of things (God’s perspective), than whatever we receive may not be used in the way that God intended for it to be used. It may end up only being a selfish gain or limited blessing. When we get God’s view, the blessings extend much further and His perspective always gives our life purpose.
So, Elisha’s vision test happens when Elijah is taken away in a chariot of fire, and the Lord allows him to see come and gather his master up to take to heaven.
2 Kings 2:10-14 (NIV)
11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
12 Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.
13 He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
14 Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. "Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
Elijah ended up receiving the power of the Holy Spirit and he immediately uses the power of God to part the waters of the Jordan (just like Elijah had done earlier that day). Elisha has “grown eyes to see,” as one writer put it. The God of Elijah had become Elisha’s God and source of strength. Elisha walks out the rest of his life by faith, and ends up doing exactly twice as many miracles as his mentor Elijah. He did receive a double portion.
I believe the Lord is calling to us and asking if we will allow our hearts to be stretched to receive more of His love and power. Will you make today’s prayer: “Enlarge my heart God, I choose to make more time, more space and give you more of me today. I want you to fill me again with your Spirit. I surrender.”
As you do this, God will begin to show you things you didn’t see before, and you may find that other’s don’t resonate with you when you see supernatural things – behind the scenes of the natural world.
2 Kings 2:15-18 (NIV)
15 The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, "The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha." And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
16 "Look," they said, "we your servants have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley." "No," Elisha replied, "do not send them."
17 But they persisted until he was too ashamed to refuse. So he said, "Send them." And they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him.
18 When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, "Didn't I tell you not to go?"
So these prophets who have been in training with Elijah totally miss what is happening in the supernatural as he is being taken away. We see that some of these guys actually get a prophetic word about Elijah’s ascension to heaven earlier in the day and they tell Elisha about it before it happens. There is still a dullness to what the Spirit is really doing, and they think that Elijah has just been tragically swallowed by an F2 tornado. Elisha finally allows them to go and search for Elijah’s body, knowing that he stated what God did and that they wouldn’t find anything.
There will always be people in your life who can’t or don’t want to see supernatural things. Don’t be surprised if people think you are crazy when you talk about what you have seen that is “beyond the veil.” Jesus longs to share more and more incredible things with us, but we need to be ready to be misunderstood after we get a peek into heavenly things.
May God bless you with strength to pray the surrender prayer today.
May He open the eyes of your heart that you might see great and mighty things.
May there be a new discernment rising in the people of God to see into the super natural.
God give us a new grace to love others who misunderstand our passion, zeal and wonder when you reveal your thoughts and ways to us.
- Andrew Burchett, Lead Pastor