One of the reasons we don't see the supernatural is we're too tethered to the natural. And Dr. Tony Evans says part of the problem is our unwillingness to let go. We don't want to risk giving up the things we can touch and taste for the things that are invisible that we cannot see. This is the Alternative Broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr.
Tony Evans. Getting more of God in your life leaves less room for, well, different things for different people. Today, Doctor Evans talks about the benefits of making those trade-offs. Let's join him. We come today to that time in Elijah's life when his earthly life is about to come to an end.
It's time to leave a legacy. In Psalm seventy one eighteen, it makes it clear that we are to transfer the power of God to the next generation—not just information about God, but but God's very power is to be transferred to the next generation, so that this generation should be able to piggyback off of our experience with God. Of course, if you don't have one, you can't share one. But to be able to talk about the God you know, rather than merely the God you heard about, because, like Job, you have seen him with your own eyes. You're not just telling what somebody told you to say.
You can tell your experience. Many of us have grandparents who maybe didn't have much that they could leave materially, but they could sure share with you. Their experience with God in the land of the living, even in adverse circumstances. But unfortunately, today we have a generation, like in the book of Judges, who knew not the Lord, and therefore there was nothing to transfer.
Well, we come now to. The transfer of Elijah to Elisha. Elisha makes a request in Second Kings chapter two, verse nine. When they had crossed over, 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 on me." Elijah said, "What do you want before I leave here?" And Elijah said to Elisha, "I want twice as much God as you had. I want, I want." Double the amount of spiritual supernatural experience.
Now, to make a long story short, you will discover if you read the book of Second Kings that Elisha did twice as many miracles as Elijah did. He asked for a double portion of the spirit. Let me ask you a question: If somebody asks you for a double amount of God that you have, Would they get anything, or would it be a deficit in their account? He said, "I want twice as much of the experience of God," and he didn't make that up. That came from Deuteronomy twenty-one seventeen, where the firstborn got a double portion.
God said, "I want to give the firstborn a double portion because the firstborn would have extra responsibility." And because he would have extra responsibility, the firstborn would get a double portion. Elijah picks up on that and he asks Elijah, "I want to be the firstborn. I want to be the one to receive a double portion of God in you. Are you having a spiritual legacy to transfer because you've had a supernatural walk with God? You can testify." By experience, that he is real, and you don't have to make it up, pretend, or quote somebody else.
That is what he's asking for. Do people want a double portion of you? He asked for the right thing because what he asked for was spiritual first. Let me let me let me stay with this. He saw in the life of Elijah the primacy of the spiritual.
We're living in a day when the spiritual is last and the material is first. We want stuff. We want things. We want property. We want money.
We want prestige. We want career. Nothing is wrong with wanting those things in their place, but Elisha knew that the main thing he needed was the spiritual first. Or to put it in the words of Matthew six thirty three, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you. What we have done is we've sought these things and missed the spiritual.
And that's why grandmothers' grandchildren have more stuff than she had, but not half as much God as she possessed. More stuff and more misery. Bigger houses with no home. Nicer cars with nowhere to go. More money and more misery.
Because we've sought first the things, we've left or marginalized the spiritual. But he says, "I want a double pot of God," because he knew something. If if you get God, God gets you whatever He has for you. I will add these things. If you don't have God, you got to go get it yourself.
And so he says, "I want a double portion of the God I see at work in you." And so that is his request.
Now, turn your Bibles back. Hold your page here. Turn your Bibles back to First Kings nineteen. First Kings nineteen. That's where we first meet Elisha being connected with Elijah.
It says in verse nineteen of chapter nineteen of First Kings.
So he, Elijah, departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat while he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him.
Okay, if you've got twelve pairs of oxen, that's because you live in large.
Okay. Twelve pairs of oxen told you the amount of field you had to cover, and if you had twelve pairs, that meant you had a good-sized field.
So you were driving the bins. You were you were living in a nice neighborhood. He was well-to-do. But look at what happens. Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him.
We'll find out about this mantle in a minute. But basically, he designated Elijah as his successor.
Okay. I need to turn this over to somebody, and I have selected you.
Now Elijah makes a request. He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, "Please let me kiss my father and mother. Then I will follow you." He goes home, says goodbye to his mother and father. Then he arose and followed Elijah and ministered to him. You see, if you're gonna get a double portion of God, you're gonna have to kiss something goodbye.
He had all this material; he was pretty well to do, given twelve oxen. Elijah was gonna transfer the spiritual to him, but before he could transfer it, he couldn't—he couldn't stay where he was. See, one of the reasons we don't see the supernatural is we're too tethered to the natural. We're too tied to the physical. We don't want to risk giving up twelve oxen.
We don't want to risk giving up the things we can touch and taste for the things that are invisible that we cannot see. And because we don't want to risk losing that, we wind up losing this. Unanswered prayer, powerlessness, no sense of God showing up and showing off for us because we are too tied. It's okay to have twelve oxen as long as you hold them loosely. It's okay to have mother and father as long as you hold them loosely.
But for God to take you to the next double portion spiritual level, you must be willing to kiss something goodbye when it's time to lay the mantle on you. We'll learn more about the value of those sacrifices when Doctor Evans returns in just a moment. First, though, today's teaching is the final installment in a powerful series on Elijah that concentrates on valuable insights gleaned from the life of one of the Bible's greatest prophets. Lessons about understanding and waiting for God's provision, living a life of significance, overcoming discouragement and fear, and so much more. If you contact us right away, you can get your own copy of this powerful collection on either CD, USB flash drive, or digital download.
Our gift to you, and thanks for your donation in support of the alternative broadcast. And as an added bonus, we'll also send you a copy of the Prayers for Knowing God book. In it, Dr. Evans guides you through more than fifty prayers designed to help you recognize God's attributes and handiwork.
So you can better understand the plans and desires he has for your life, to request this special double offer, visit TonyEvans.org and make your contribution, or call our resource center at 1-800-832-222, and let one of our friendly team members help you. That's 1-800-832-222. I'll repeat that information after part two of today's teaching. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. If you remember Solomon, Solomon said, "Lord, I want wisdom.
I want wisdom to lead this people. These people are too big, too great for me to lead. It's too big." God said, "Because you didn't ask me for money." Because you didn't ask me for stuff, but you asked me for spiritual insight. Because you placed the spiritual over the material, I'm gonna give you the spiritual and throw the material in for bonus. And God made him the richest man that ever lived because his priorities were in order.
In baseball, if you miss first base. It doesn't matter what any other bases you touch. See, if you miss first base, the fact you touch second, third, and home plate won't matter because they're going to throw you out because you miss what's first. All through the Bible, God demands to be first. The spiritual is to precede the physical and the material, not because those aren't important.
It's just that those are never to be first, and because we've gotten that out of whack, we're seeing much less of the supernatural. Not even to talk about a double portion. That's why Paul prayed in Ephesians chapter one, verse eighteen. Paul prays that your the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. I want your eyes to be open.
That's why this next verse is so important in Second Kings chapter two. He says after he makes the request for a double portion, he says you've asked for a hard thing.
Now I like this. He didn't say give me some. Give me a little nibble. Give me a little something, something. He said, "No, I want the honor of the firstborn.
I want a double portion." And he says, "You've asked for a hard thing." Now, when it comes to the material, we don't have a problem asking for a hard thing. Folks will ask God to win the lottery. You got a better chance of finding oil in your backyard than winning the lottery. But people will pray that they win the lottery. They will ask for a hard thing, material.
He says, "You've asked for a hard thing." When's the last time you've asked God for something big spiritually? Big spiritually, like we do for the physical miracles we want. He says to him, "You've asked for a hard thing." Verse ten. If you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if not, it shall not be so.
He says, "I want a double portion." Elijah said, "Whoa, whoa! You want, you want to be, you want to be, really chief man in charge. You really want God to double what the supernatural stuff He did for me." That's what I want, and I'm asking big. That's what I want. He said, "That's a hard thing." Meaning, I can't give you that.
Only God can give you that. But I tell you what he says: If you see me when I'm taken from you, then it shall be you'll get a double portion.
So, what would determine whether he got a double portion? It would be determined by what he saw or did not see. Why did he tell him, "If you see me, you'll get the double portion. If you don't see me when I'm taken, you won't get the double portion"? Because your spiritual insight will determine what you receive.
If you don't have eyes to see the spiritual, then you can't. Handle the spiritual, so you won't get the spiritual. Unless you live your life seeing things from God's perspective, seeing the spiritual, you won't experience the spiritual. What you see, Flip Wilson said, is what you get. And if all you see is what you see, you do not see all there is to be seen.
Unless you can look beyond the physical to see God's point of view, in fact, that is the whole nature of spiritual growth. According to Hebrews chapter five, spiritual growth is your ability to look at things spiritually first and not physically first. Hebrews eleven twenty seven says that people of faith see Him who is unseen. It's when you see God working, even though you don't see God. It's when you see God's hand, even though you don't see five fingers.
It's when you see God's heart, even though you don't see a muscle beating. It's when you see God's perspective, even though you don't see a brain, because you're looking at things spiritually. One of the reasons that we are blocked from the supernatural is we have limited ourselves to the five senses. And if all you see of the five senses, he says, "I need you. I need to know before you get a double portion that you've got eyes that can see, meaning spiritual eyes.
He can obviously see Elijah physically. He means spiritual eyes. And so here we are. He has made a request." Paul makes the request that our eyes would be open.
Now, we've already seen Elijah has given Elisha the mantle. The mantle is the transference of the of the responsibility. We see in chapter two Elijah has asked for a double portion. But something happens between him meeting Elijah in chapter nineteen, verse nineteen, and Elijah's request in chapter two, verses nine and ten, and that is between those two passages of scriptures, there is a process that is put in place. To move Elijah from where they met to where he makes the request, and the request gets responded to, and the New Testament word for the process that took place is called discipleship.
In other words, he had to learn to look at things from God's perspective. If you have been in this church or any church for a length of time, Any meaningful time, particularly five years, and there's a reason I say five years, because the Bible teaches that it takes five years for a person to learn to look at things consistently spiritually.
So, if you've been saved for five years and you've not developed to look at the spiritual first, that means you've not grown in your faith, no matter how much church attendance you had. You've not grown in your discipleship or your spiritual development because you still jump to the physical before you ever look at the spiritual.
So, in order to prepare Elisha for the mantle Elijah had placed on Elisha, chapter two, verses one to nine, show the process. With which Elijah took Elisha to prepare him for the request that Elisha is going to make of Elijah, and I hope I don't get these names mixed up. Chapter two, verse one, and it came about when the Lord was about to take up Elijah. By a whirlwind in heaven, that Elijah went to Elisha from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel." He says, "Stay here.
Don't don't don't come any further." But Elijah says to Elisha, "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel. He says, "Stay here." Elijah say, "I ain't staying here. I'm going with you." Now he had already asked in chapter nineteen for Elijah to follow him. They start walking and going on a trip. He says, "You stay here." Why would he tell him to stay there if he really didn't want him to stay there?
To test the level of his commitment. Are you just in this for the ride? Are you in it for the notoriety? Are you in it for the power? Are you in it for the name?
Are you in it for the prestige? Are you in it for the recognition? Are you Are you in it for the real thing? Because a lot of folks will start out with you when they see you got a little something, something. But the issue is, will they keep going with you when things get tough, and things get rough, and things are not convenient?
Are they in it for the long haul? That's discipleship. That's why the Bible says, "If any man will be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." And anybody who follows Jesus knows sometimes it's over rough terrain. It's not all pretty and stuff floating down from heaven and no challenges. He says, "No, you can stay here." He says, "No, I ain't staying here.
I told you I'm coming with you and I'm gonna stay with you." Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, "Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from you today?" And he said, "Yes, I know he will." Elijah said to him, "Elisha, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho." But he said, "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they kept on going to Jericho. He didn't make him stay. He wanted to see if he wanted to go. In Gilgal, the Bible says God removed the reproach of Egypt from His people. You see, all through them going through the wilderness, they kept thinking about Egypt.
Wanting to go back to Egypt, we miss Egypt. We had meat in Egypt. They were moving to Canaan while looking at Egypt. But at Gilgal, God removed the reproach of Egypt. In other words, you can't get the supernatural and the spiritual as long as you're still looking back at the world.
So, Elijah, if you want this double portion, you can really ask me for. You got to have a Gilgal reality. You got to let Egypt go. You can't be wishing to be back there and experience what God has you up here. And one of the reasons we don't get to see the supernatural is we're still tied to this world order.
Bethel was where. Jacob wrestled with God. It became the house of God. It was where he saw God at work. Bethel was where his character got changed.
If you want to see the supernatural, you can't be the same person you were. God has got to be able to deal with your attitudes and your action, your character and your conduct. He's got to be able to speak into your life. If you want to see the supernatural, you got to leave Egypt and you got to become somebody that you weren't when you left there. Dr.
Tony Evans on how living a life that lasts begins with putting more of God into it. Today's message is the final installment in Tony's sermon series on Elijah, and as I mentioned earlier, the complete six-part audio series is available for you to listen to and revisit whenever you'd like. You can get this collection on CD, USB flash drive, or digital download, and you'll have access to Dr. Evans' full-length teachings, including information we didn't have time to present on the air. And as an added bonus, we'll also.
Include Doctor Evans' Prayers for Knowing God book, designed to help you experience greater grace and peace each day as you grow closer to God through your communication with Him. Take advantage of this special package today by visiting TonyEvans.org and making a contribution to the ministry. In thanks for your support, we'll send you the complete Elijah series and the Prayers for Knowing God book. That's TonyEvans.org. org, or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-832-222, and let one of our team members help you.
Again, that's 1-800-832-222. Everybody lives life according to some plan. The question is, whose plan is it? Dr. Evans weighs in on that issue tomorrow, as he brings us a message on the Kingdom Agenda.
Be sure to join us.
