Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.” And he said, “You have asked a hard thing.” II Kings 2:9, 10a.
We are familiar with the story of Elijah and his wonderful exodus from this world into heaven. That man was really something! I love every story about him. I like the way he taunted the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. I like the way he poured the water on the sacrifices. I like the way he out ran Ahab in his chariot. I even like the way he prayed, “Lord, let me die,” as he sat under a juniper tree. The angel probably heard him and said, “Lord, let’s turn that one down.” That prayer was never answered! Elijah never did die; he was translated.
Elisha was really the prophet with the double portion; the Scriptures record twice as many miracles performed by Elisha than by Elijah. Truly Elisha did have a double portion of the spirit of Elijah. It rested upon him very deeply. Elisha did not have much training. We are not told that he attended any great theological school. Of course, we realize that something was going on in the land which had been inaugurated mainly under Samuel. Young prophets from the school of the prophets gathered together and wandered through the land. They were one of the greatest forces in Israel, and they were still around in Elisha’s day. Read about them in II Kings 2.
I do not think that Elisha came out of a school of the prophets, however. I do not know where he came from! He was plowing one of the back fields when Elijah passed him and threw a mantle on him. Elisha killed his oxen, took the wooden plow and burned it for kindling, and had a farewell barbeque. Then he was on his way. Elisha had this one distinction: he was a servant. The Word says, “This is Elisha who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” He stuck with Elijah; he stayed at his side, cooked for him, and took care of him. Finally, when the old prophet was ready to be translated, he asked a question of the young man: “What shall I do for you?”
“Just one little thing; give me a double portion of what rests on you. Give me a double portion of it, twice as much.”
Elijah, who had never asked for anything like this, said, “You’ve asked a hard thing.”
This story has a prophetic significance. Throughout the Scriptures, there is the thought of a double portion. Chapter 61 of Isaiah, for example, talks about the restoration, about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which is to come. (It was from this chapter that Jesus read on the Sabbath day in Nazareth as He began His ministry.) And it also says, Instead of your shame you will have a double portion. Isaiah 61:7a. A double portion of the Spirit of the Lord is to rest upon God’s remnant. I do not believe this double portion is a little luxury that we can do without. It is prophesied for the day in which we live, and we must enter into it. This is the day; now is the time when the double portion will begin to be poured out upon the people of the Lord. I firmly believe it. This is a day of a double portion. I am not claiming that we are fully into it, for in its fullness it will mean the greater works. But I do believe that what God has given to us is going to be doubled.
There is also evidence that we are entering into His rest. That rest is so beautiful. Spiritual assault has increased, but at the same time we experience the rest of the Lord, a peace. We are going to move into one victory right after another. God is bringing forth victory in the midst of assault, in the midst of trouble, in the midst of everything the enemy throws at us.
Seek the face of the Lord. Get ready for God to meet you. If you have problems, get over them. Come and get ministry; get a word from the Lord. Get some help and find out what God has for your life. If you need any kind of an anointing for any situation, believe that God will give it to you. Come in and get it; it is up to you to see what God will do for you.
Matthew 25 talks about the five wise and the five foolish virgins. Do not think that those five foolish virgins were not spiritual, or that they were not concerned about spiritual things. They are called virgins because, in type, they represent those who really seek the Lord. Jesus said, “Then shall the Kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins” (Matthew 25:1). When? In the end time. All principles of truth about the grace of God will be in force down through the ages until a certain time which is a termination point. At that period of time in which the end comes, men either will be prepared or they will not be ready at all. The time finally comes; at the midnight hour the cry goes forth.
The foolish said to the wise, “Give us of your oil because our lamps are flickering out” (Matthew 25:8). They may have said, “We have some oil. We have an anointing of the Holy Spirit, but we don’t have any oil in our vessels.” The wise virgins had oil in their lamps, and they had some extra oil in a little vessel. You might say they had a double portion, because their lamps were full and their vessels were full. The oil in the vessel was not a luxury; it was an essential thing. Those who did not have that oil went out to buy. The foolish virgins were not without an intention of doing the right thing. They intended to press in sooner or later. They suddenly realized, “The urgency is upon us; we’d better get with it. We don’t have enough time. Maybe we can borrow some oil; or else we’ll go and buy some. We’ll hurry.” But there was not enough time.
You who say, “Sooner or later I’m going to really get with it and walk with God,” might turn out to be a foolish virgin. You may have done everything that was necessary to walk with God with the exception of one thing. You missed the anointing which was necessary at the very end.
A double portion—why? Because we are living in the beginning of a period known as the rage of Satan. This is a time when Satan rages against the inhabitants of the earth because he knows his time is short (Revelation 12:12). We are living at the culmination of many things which have been in action for centuries. In our generation, we will find the conflict of the ages coming to a head. We will find principalities and powers, witchcraft and the raging of Satan all around us. When in the history of the United States have we ever had churches openly dedicated to the worship of Satan? When have there ever been so many covens of witches? We are living in the day of the rage of Satan. Do you think that the Christians and the churches who are running on yesterday’s blessings will make it? No—no more than you can take a horse and buggy on a freeway.
Times have changed, and the spiritual demands upon people have changed. There are many churches full of good people who love God. That is why the Charismatic movement has come up. People began to hear. They said, “Our lamps are flickering out. We had better get another anointing of the Lord, more of the Holy Spirit upon our lives.” They felt the need of it, and they went to search.
We must all search. We must all come into the fullness of Pentecost and not wait. There is a double portion for everyone. I believe it has begun. I am aware of something taking place. The age is changing, and we are being projected into another era. I feel as if we have reached into the Kingdom. I know what is happening; it is like another sight is coming.
In the last days, He said, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Joel 2:28. The other world, the world of the spirit, is going to open up and become real to you. You will become so sensitive to it that you will say, “I don’t know what it is, but the things I cannot see are becoming more real to me than the things I see with my eyes. I seem to feel the presence of the Lord. I feel the assault of devil power. I feel the authority of the Spirit to take dominion over the enemy, and I watch him being cast down. Almost without any conscious thought of it, I seem to enter into spiritual warfare. I am aware of what is going on, but I’m not fighting as one who beateth the air” (I Corinthians 9:26).
This double portion is necessary. It is a double portion because the Church of this day is called upon not only to walk in the grace of God that reaches out in mercy, but it is also called upon to be participators with the Lord in the judgments which are coming at the close of this age. It takes much more dedication to walk in judgment than it does to walk in mercy.
We are coming into another period. Whatever you are lacking, whatever is disturbing your spirit, seek it; it is the moment and the hour sovereignly presented to you by God when you may have a double portion of the Spirit of the Lord! Stand and believe for the Spirit of the Lord to fall upon you. There is no reason to believe that it cannot come. God has been leading us, highlighting and pointing out the things which are to come in the Feast of Pentecost. It can be as true at this point in history as it was in the book of Acts.
“When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1). Is there any reason that there cannot be the same visitation of the Holy Spirit again? If the Holy Spirit moved at the birth of the Church, will He not move more gloriously at the close of the Church age? Is there not reason to believe that if the Spirit moved in the day of the single portion, that the day of the double portion should be even more glorious? Open your heart and seek it! Believe that the Lord will pour out His Spirit upon you!
Some may contend that they have received the Holy Spirit. I do not want to hear about their experiences. Anything that happened last year is already dated. The Church cannot walk in the same ways of worship, the same ways of communion that it did a year ago. We must walk closer to the Lord this year than we did last year, not because we have entered into a greater dedication that warrants it, but because the other world has come closer, even as it was prophesied that we will see visions and dream dreams (Joel 2:28).
There is a conjunction of two worlds. The world of spirit and the world of our senses seem to be joining together until we are walking more and more into the day of spirit. Surely one age is dying and another age is coming forth. The transition period is not going to be easy. We will hear the shrieks and groans as many things come down. But we will also hear the tender cries of the sons of God as they begin to come forth in the name of the Lord. The anointing of the Spirit is coming. A double portion will be ours. God’s people can walk in it, if they will open their hearts to seek it. We cannot draw back; we must reach into it. We must have a meeting with the Lord. We must have faith for this double portion to come to us.
We do not struggle to a place of victory, but we battle from a place of complete and perfect victory and provision which comes by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are not struggling to win, for we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us (Romans 8:37).
We stand in our position of faith, For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. I John 5:4. We do not for a single moment admit defeat. Pressures come, but we have the confidence that if the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him (Isaiah 59:19). It is our destiny for Satan to come against us in order that the occasion of judgment might come forth and that he might be sent to the abyss.
The Holy Spirit is poured out, because the prince of this world is already judged (John 16:11). The Holy Spirit ministers judgment in every one of our situations so that the victory of Christ may be made real to our hearts, and we will not waver. We take dominion over all the power of the enemy. We loose ourselves from any thought of depression or defeat, from acceptance of any circumstance which places limitations upon us that God has not imposed. We do not accept the appearance of limitation when the Lord says we can do all things through Him who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13).
We open our hearts to a new day of living and a new day of thinking. The only limitation we accept is that we are His bondslaves and belong to Him with all our heart and our soul. Beyond that we do not accept any limitation of circumstances, of necessities, of evil, of oppression, of our own heredity, of foes within or foes without. None of these shall separate us from the victory of Christ and from His love (Romans 8:39). In all these things we are going to prevail, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.