The Best Way to Go

The life and experiences of Elijah, influencing lives in 2022.

This is Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. As we looked at this series of messages entitled How God Works, we've seen in the life of this man how God works. We have seen how God hit Elijah in Cherith Brook. We have seen how God provided for Elijah supernaturally in the middle of the heart of Baal worshiping country. We have seen how God performed miracles in Zarephath. We have seen how God performed miracles on Mount Carmel. We have seen how God ministered to Elijah when he was depressed, when he was discouraged, when he wanted to die. God ministered to him at every need. And today we see God taking him home, taking him to the very presence of the Lord. The last moments of life, sometimes sudden and unexpected, other times drawn out, allowing last words and lengthy goodbyes. Today a look at the last days and the prophet Elijah's life. It's the final message in Dr. Youssef's series called How God Works.

So let's get right to it. Here now is Dr. Michael Youssef with the message he's called The Best Way to Go. I want to tell you that the scripture couldn't be clearer about the issue of life and death, heaven and hell. But in our anxiety to accommodate, in our anxiety to compromise, in our anxiety of not offending anybody, we have compromised these truths, these biblical doctrines that are as clear as the sunshine. So many of the surveys that are conducted in America, among the population in general, the vast majority of people think that everybody, when they die, they'll go to heaven.

Now I want to tell you, I wish that was the case. I mean there is not a bone in my body that want to see anybody go to hell, but the truth is the truth and the truth is not everybody's going to heaven. This is a lie from the pit of hell that Satan delights to spread out in the population.

Why? To keep people from turning to Christ, to keep people from turning to the lordship of Jesus Christ. He want to keep them going on their way to hell and therefore he blinds them to that truth. So many of unbelievers out there are deceived in thinking that they can go to heaven without Jesus.

Listen to me, read my lips. It is absolutely no, not, never, it's impossible that anyone will get to heaven without faith and surrender of one's life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Regardless of your church affiliation, regardless of your family connection, regardless of your head knowledge of what you know, regardless of your moral and ethical stand. You can only get to heaven if you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You only go to heaven when you come to the point in your life when you acknowledge that I am born a sinner and I will die a sinner unless I recognize that Jesus paid for my penalty of my sin. In the life of this great man of God, Elijah, we're going to see today how he went straight up to heaven from earth.

Why? Because he was a man who walked with God. He was a man who obeyed God. He was a man who trusted in God and in his word.

He was a man who feared God with all of his heart, despite of his temporary defeat, despite of his temporary depression, despite of his temporary discouragement. Elijah, like all of those who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, was taken to eternal life in heaven. Elijah was a man who walked with God and now it is time for him to be in the presence of the Lord. And when the time came God decided that Elijah, like Enoch, is going to go straight to heaven. He will not see an earthly grave, but he is transformed to a heavenly body on his way up. You see Paul said that this flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Paul said this is a corruptible tent that we live in and therefore it goes to the ground and rot just like the seed goes into the ground.

You never see it anymore. But in heaven, for the believers, when you get up there, Jesus has a body that is prepared for you, a heavenly body, a body like the Lord Jesus Christ after the resurrection, a body that is free of pain, a body that is free of battles, a body that is free of agony, a body that is free. But God in his mercy and God in his grace, he did not allow Elijah or Enoch to rot in the ground. I want to tell you that tent came undone on his way up there and fell to the ground, symbolic of the mantle that fell off him. So he goes up to heaven. His corruptible body fell to the ground. Incorruptible body was prepared for him in heaven. His mortal body was literally dissolving as he was going up because he received an immortal body.

This perishable gave way to the imperishable. As we looked at this series of messages entitled How God Works, we have seen in the life of this man how God works. We have seen how God hid Elijah in Cherith Brook. We have seen how God provided for Elijah supernaturally in the middle of the heart of Baal worshiping country. We have seen how God performed miracles in Zarephath.

We have seen how God performed miracles on Mount Carmel. We have seen how God ministered to Elijah when he was depressed, when he was discouraged, when he wanted to die. God ministered to him at every need. And then we have seen how God restored him to a ministry to even the next generation of Israelite kings. And today we see God taking him home, taking him to the very presence of the Lord.

Turn with me if you haven't already to 2 Kings chapter 2. Elijah has been given a word from the Lord and now he said it's a matter of hours before he's going to be propelled into the presence of God. But before that he goes into a missionary journey. He goes out and he visits three seminaries that he has helped found.

Three Bible schools in three different cities where the sons of the prophets, these are all students of Elijah. He goes over there and he says goodbye to every one of them before he takes off and goes into the presence of God. Elisha, his understudy, Elisha his disciple, Elisha who is his heir apparent, would not leave him. He goes with him wherever he goes. Every time they go to town he said, look, you stay here. He said, no sir, I'm going with you. He said, now you stay here.

He said, no, I'm going with you. And these towns that Elijah has visited with Elisha in tow have significance within them and in the sequence in which he visited them. I want you to listen very carefully, mark them in your Bible because they are important.

They are the three stages in which every believer goes through. First, in verse 1, he went to Gilgal. From Joshua chapter 4 we know what Gilgal is. Gilgal represented the place of beginning. Gilgal represented the place of security and safety. Gilgal represented the place of communion and sharing with God. Gilgal represented the place of preparation. And in Joshua chapter 4, Gilgal became engraved in every mind of every Jew.

You say, why? Because there Joshua piled up 12 stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel. And he said to them, he said, in the future, when your descendants ask you and say, what are these stones stand for? He said, tell them that this is where God dried up the River Jordan in order that God's people may cross over and go into the promised land. Gilgal is a symbol of preparation and there Elijah was remembering the beginning of his obedience to the Lord God. It's a time when God gave him a challenge and he said, get up and go to Ahab. And he said, yes Lord. That is a symbol of his preparation. It's a symbol of his obedience to the Lord when he called him initially. From Gilgal, he goes to Bethel.

Mark it again, Elijah close on his heel. Bethel is a place of altars. Bethel means the house of God.

Abraham, when he came out of Egypt in repentance and turned back to God after he lied in Egypt, he offered a sacrifice in Bethel. Jacob offered a sacrifice in Bethel. Bethel is a place of heart searching. Bethel is the place of self-examination. Bethel is the place of putting whatever is precious to your heart, whatever you're holding onto, whatever you're clinging onto. And God says that, whatever that is, God wants you to put that on his altar. That is Bethel.

Let me ask you this. What is it that God has been saying to you? Put that on the altar for me. Put that on the altar for me.

Not because God wants it or God needs it, but because you do. From Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho. Jericho represented battles. For there, Joshua led the people of God into a supernatural victory when they shouted and God got the walls to fall down.

Jericho is a place where God supernaturally gave victory in battle. And there, Elijah stood there and he remembered. He remembered his battle in his own life. He remembered the battles with the prophets of Baal. He remembered the battle with Jezebel and with Ahab. He remembered the battle of discouragement, the battle of depression, and the battle of despondency. He remembered the battle of injustice that took place when Naboth the Jizreelite was killed for no reason except greed. And there he remembered the battles.

And I guarantee you in my own heart, I'm convinced Elijah is saying, I am so glad the battle is over. Gilgal into Bethel, into Jericho, and into Jordan, the departure point. Some of you are in the place of beginning. Some of you in Gilgal. Some of you in the beginning in your Christian walk. Some of you have begun your process of sanctification.

You are symbolically speaking in Gilgal right now. Then others of you are making your way into Bethel. And there you're building an altar for God. And there you're hearing the voice of God telling you to sacrifice.

There you're hearing the voice of God and saying, the reason you feel that there's dryness in your Christian walk, the reason you feel that heaven is like iron and the earth is like brass is because you're not obeying me and sacrificing in Bethel. That sacrifice might be a torn home. That sacrifice might be a broken romance. And that sacrifice might be a shattered dream. That sacrifice might be a lost job or a lost career. That sacrifice might be a loss of a loved one.

Whatever it is, hand it over to the Lord. Don't ever, ever, ever, ever forget that when you are standing there at Bethel offering your sacrifice, God is doing his work in your life. But then there's some of you who already been to Gilgal and you've been to Bethel and now you are in Jericho.

You have known even the places of victory in battle and after battle. It may have been a battle in your own home and God gave you victory. It may have been a battle of your son or your daughter who turned away from the Lord and God brought them supernaturally to the kingdom. It may have been a battle through where you have wrestled in doubt and you have wrestled in fear with God, that you have wrestled with unbelief and disbelief and now you've made it across the river. It may have been a battle in prayer where God is telling you to spend time with him.

It may be a battle of sensuality. Whatever it is, a battle, whatever Jericho you're in, God, if he has given you victory in the past, you know what he wants to give you victory again and he wants you to look back at the past victory and know that the one who gave you that victory in that day wants to give it to you again. I want you to notice that Elijah wanted to go and walk in these places alone. You remember back after Mount Carmel, he was so discouraged. He got to Beersheba and he put his other servant, the one before Elijah and he said to him, he said, you stay here and I'm going to go alone and when he got there alone, he said to God, take my life.

He was so discouraged, he was so despondent. Remember I told you that had the servant been there, Elijah probably would not have been discouraged because this young man would have reminded him of the goodness of God. And here again, he wants to do it alone. But Elijah, God bless him, Elijah would not let him go alone. Elijah, out of sense of love and out of sense of loyalty and out of sense of commitment, out of sense of devotion, he would not let him walk there alone. Such friendship and such commitment, such devotion is very rare indeed but it is also blessed indeed. For later on you're going to see how Elijah received double portion of Elijah's spirit.

Let me stop here for a moment and tell you this. If you have one person who walks with you into Gilgal, who walks with you into Bethel, who walks with you into Jericho, you are blessed indeed. But if you don't, listen to me please, I would urge you to take time to cultivate a person who would walk with you, not only to Gilgal, not only to Bethel, not only to Jericho, but all the way to Jordan.

A man should choose a man and a woman chooses a woman. When they got to the Jordan, the point of departure. As the gust of wind began to blow, Elijah's mantle falls and Elijah picks it up. And when the departing moment came, Elijah the mentor, Elijah the discipler, turns to his disciple Elijah and he says, what can I do for you? What can I do for you?

What are you going to ask me? You know I love Elijah's boldness. I really, really do.

I just love it. I have been praying for God to give me such boldness. You know his attitude could have been, oh shucks, I don't need anything. I'm not worthy to receive anything. But he didn't do that. Look at his response. He said, I want a double portion of your spirit. Praise the Lord. Now this language is very familiar to the Old Testament. The older son receives double portion of his father's inheritance.

Why? Because he's supposed to take care of his mother and the widow and he's supposed to take care of the little ones. But he received double portion and therefore that's not a strange thinking when Elijah said to Elijah, give me a double portion of your spirit. He knew exactly what he was asking.

It wasn't an easy thing, but he got it. If the Lord Jesus Christ will start walking, come and sit next to you and he says to you, call you by name. He says, what can I do for you? What is it that you're asking of me? What would you ask for?

What would you say? Think about this for a long, long time. Elijah could have asked for power to call down fire from heaven, but he didn't ask for that. He could have said, give me power to raise the son of widows, but he didn't ask for that. This wise man of God, he asked for the spirit of God that dwelt in Elijah to dwell in him and he asked for the spirit of God in abundance.

James tells us that you have not because you ask not and when you ask, you ask wrongly. I believe that when it comes to God's work, when it comes to God's glory, God wants us to ask for big things. God expects us to come to him and ask for an ocean, but instead we go to God and we bring him a thimble and God says, why a thimble? I want to bless you.

I want to use you. God wants you to come to him at times and ask for a mountain and we come to him and ask for more hill. When you read on the life of Elijah, you're going to discover that God answered his prayer exactly, specifically for Elijah performed four miracles, but Elijah performed eight.

What a great God we have. Dare to ask God for big things. Dare to ask God for great things. Dare to ask God for mighty things.

He wants to do it. It is your lack of faith that's stopping it from coming through. You know when it comes to the work of God, when it comes to the kingdom of God, when it comes to salvation of souls, when it comes to equipping of the saints, when it comes to impacting the world for Jesus Christ, I want to tell you I am the first among the naming and the claiming it. If something struck me as I was working my way through this passage, when Elijah was privileged to be lifted up on the way to heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ himself after the resurrection and spending time with his disciples, he was ascended into heaven.

This is a series entitled How God Works, but notice how in both cases the witnesses were personal disciples, not the large crowds. Listen, if I was entrusted to stage Elijah's going up in the whirlwind man alive, I wanted to bring the Israelites' royal family there. I would have wanted to bring the leftover prophets of Baal there. I mean, I want to bring everybody there. I want to say, see?

But thank God, this is not serious about how Michael Yusuf works, but how God works. If I was in charge of staging the Lord Jesus Christ's ascension into heaven I'd tell you I would want to have some people there. I want to have Pontius Pilate there and especially I want his wife there. You know why?

Because I knew she was going to turn to him and say, I told you so. I would want to have Caiaphas the high priest there. I would want the Roman soldiers who nailed him to the cross there. I would want the crowd who said, give us Barabbas.

I want them to be there. But God didn't work that way. God does not work this way. These moments were reserved only for the eyes of faith. These moments were reserved only for those who determined to live by faith and walk by faith and not by sight. I want you also to notice that when Elijah was taken up to heaven, his mantle spirit fell on one man, Elisha. Oh, but when the Lord Jesus Christ was ascended to heaven, the Bible said he gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to all who desire it.

I want to end this series of messages where I've began this message. Namely, that if you truly desire heaven in the hereafter, you have to walk with God in the here and now. Jesus said, only the Father knows the hour. And I live every day as if Jesus will come back today.

But here's the question. If you were to die and you go and face the Lord Jesus Christ, what would you say to him? If you look in his eyes, the one who died for you, the one who paid the price of your sin and saved you and redeemed you, what would you say? Now if your answer is I'm not sure I'm going to heaven, you can't be sure today. Just take God at his word. That's all I'm asking you to do. But if you have known the Lord Jesus Christ and you have walked with him, what would you say when you see him eye to eye?

What do you say? I'm sorry, Lord. I was indifferent. I'm sorry I was cold. I'm sorry I was busy. I'm sorry I didn't realize your kingdom needed me.

I'm sorry. Will you apologize for all these things or would you say, Lord God, I've given you my all. The word of God tells us that there's not a single member in the body of Christ that is not important to him and to his work and to his kingdom. We all offer different gifts, but each of us can offer something. Could you say, Lord Jesus, I have given you my all. May that be the prayer of my heart and your heart today.

What will you say to Jesus in the moments following your last breath? Dr. Michael Yousef and the Leading the Way team would love to help make conversations with a pastor easily available to you. Maybe the teaching about Elijah's last moments brought some questions to your mind.

Well, we encourage you talk to a Leading the Way pastor today and just begin that conversation by going to ltw.org. Now, if you're a new listener, you may be interested in knowing more about who Dr. Michael Yousef is. It's really an amazing story. God called a young man out of a difficult situation and led him down a path to worldwide impact. You see, young Michael Yousef was living in Egypt.

This was during a time when a dictator was allowing chaos to overtake the region. Now, following a call to ministry, Michael was miraculously granted a visa out of his home country just before the borders were permanently closed. With only what he could carry by hand, he traveled to Lebanon, then on to Australia, where he began and completed Bible school and of course, met his wife, Elizabeth. Michael continued his education in California and in Georgia, ultimately settling in the Atlanta area, where God called Michael Yousef to begin the Church of the Apostles. From the very beginning, the mission was to reach the lost, to equip the saints using all means available.

And so, Leading the Way began and is now heard in 27 languages through various media and technologies worldwide. Learn more about how God is using the obedience of Dr. Yousef to take the Gospel worldwide. Visit ltw.org or call us 866-626-4356. That's 866-626-4356. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yousef.