The Mantle of Elijah - Part 2 — David Wilkerson

Elijah’s Warning Against Idolatry and Compromise

Of God. But I believe that Elisha is remembering another prophet that had come into that city and prophesied to Jeroboam's idol. And Jeroboam was there when he prophesied. And he said that all is coming down, that golden calf is coming down, that idolatry is coming down.

And God knocked it down right in his presence and the ashes poured out of the altar. And Jeroboam reaches out to strike him and his hand is paralyzed. But he remembers that prophet didn't have what it took to reach that society because he was seduced by an older prophet who lived in Bethel.

And that man ends up being eaten up by a lion who's a type of Satan. He didn't have what he needed to reach that wicked society. He didn't have it. And Elijah knew that Elijah didn't have it, but he wanted to see it.

He wanted to hear it. Elijah wanted, I know in his heart to say, oh, there's something deeper that I need. There's a greater work of the Holy Spirit that's needed in my life before I can ever stand up against the spirit that is in this city.

The Double Portion for a Wicked Generation

God had sent prophets. These people had been warned. He said to the prophet, Elijah, I will not. I'm going to tell you something. We face a society today that Bethel couldn't even comprehend. Elijah and Elijah never saw what we are seeing now here in the United States and around today.

We have lost our young generation just as they did in Bethel. We have kids killing kids. We have to have now metal detectors at the doors. We have a generation. I suggest someday if you want your heart broken, come outside the department.

I live a block from this church and listen to the public high school kids coming by and listen to the girls' language. They can't put three words together without the F word and without all of the cursing and the vileness.

They talk like drunken sailors. Look at the movies that they're pouring into, the X-rated movies. Think of a whole generation now given over to drugs and alcohol and promiscuous sex like no other generation could imagine.

Now, I'm not condemning the whole generation. Thank God, even in this church and other churches in this city, we have godly young people on fire for God. And I thank God for the many that are still taking a stand for Christ.

But folks, even the most liberal atheistic reporters in this nation are saying, we have backslidden. We've become immoral. We have no moral guide. We have lost the whole generation. And what is it going to take to reach this lost generation?

It's going to take men and women with a double portion of the Holy Ghost, something no other generation has had because we face a generation unlike any other generation when it comes to sin mounting to the heavens.

Elisha represents that holy remnant saying there is more. There is a remnant who say, I am not going to go out and face this generation until I know I've been touched by the hand of God. Preachers who are not willing to go out and just do it because it has to be done, not just because there's a world of wickedness out there, but because they've been shut in with God and they say there's more.

And when I go out on the streets, when I go out into the city, I want to know that God's going to work for me and through me. I want to be able to stand up against every demon and devil and hell and not be shaken.

I'm not going to be devoured by a lion. As the Lord liveth, Elisha said, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. Now Jericho, the meaning of the word Jericho is a pleasant place. But Elijah and Elisha come upon a situation of barrenness, dryness, deadness, emptiness.

Jericho and the Dead Church

There were no trees. We'll come back to the reason for it a little later in my message. There were no trees. There were no pasture. There was no fruit. Everything had dried up because there was a poison stream coming through Jericho at the time.

And this represents the dead, dry, barren church of these last days. It's the sardish church that has a name that it leaves and yet God said it's dead. Now we know that at Jericho, they visited the school of the prophets that Elijah had established there because they had come to Elijah, Elisha, and he says, do you not know that your Lord is going to be taken from you today?

Do you know that you're going to lose your master? Now these were some upstart young men because Elijah had to cut them right off and said, be silent. In other words, keep quiet. I know it. You see, they were students of the word of God.

They knew the theology. They even had a streak of prophetic vision. They somehow knew that Elijah was going to be taken that day. But you see, these young men of God were going to be those that sent out across Judah and Israel to minister to that society of young rebels that we've just discussed.

And I picture Elijah standing by. Elijah knows what's in the heart of these young men. And he's wondering if Elisha is going to see where the ministry is headed. And he's standing by to see if he has discernment, if he picks it up.

And Elijah says to Elisha, why don't you stay here? You see, these young men, they are students, but they are totally ignorant of the ways and the moving of the Holy Spirit. Because they know that Elijah is going to be translated.

And when Elisha comes back alone and they know the Spirit of the Lord is taking him up, they meet him on his return trip from the Jordan, through the Jordan. They say, Elisha, we know God's hand is on you and we know the Spirit of the Lord carried your master away, but we've got 50 strong young men here going to go back over the Jordan and we're going to go search for him in case the Holy Ghost dropped him on the mountain or in a valley.

That's total ignorance of the ways and working of the Holy Spirit. And that's where many churches are today. These young men, if you talk to them, they can talk about the ascension. They can preach theology.

They can tell you about the miracles. They know the history. And that's the reason he would not stay at Jericho, because he knew if he became their teacher, if he became a pastor to these young men, all they'd be talking about was Elijah.

Tell us, how many hours a day did he pray? What time did he get up? What kind of meals did he eat? Tell us more about his miracles. See, they'd be living in the past. We've got, I know theologians who've been studying past revivals all their life.

I know two or three have written books who have spent their lifetime trying to resurrect some method of the past. And he knew that if he's there, all they're going to talk about is the past. They're going to talk about Elijah and want to know about him.

And he's going to send out 50 little Elijahs trying to recreate his miracles without the power and the authority of the Holy Ghost. Oh, we've got them all over the country today. You know, man of miracles, signs and wonders.

You really don't know, have never been visited with the Holy Ghost truly to probe the depths of sin in their lives. Elijah said, if I ever come back here, if I were a pastor here, I'm going to come and I'm going to be talking about some miracles in the past.

I respect my father. I respect the fathers and the spiritual giants of the past. But God wants to do a new thing. He's gone and I'm here. And I have to have the touch of God myself. I'm not going to talk about the past.

Seeking Present Revival Rather Than Recreating the Past

Oh, folks, we have people trying to resurrect New Testament patterns. We have people studying revivals and trying to get the keys to revival. No, no, no. There are no shortcuts. You see, we talk about the past because we have nothing to care with when we ask about revival.

All my life I've heard people and pastors and churches talk about, we need a revival, a Holy Ghost revival to sweep across the nation. What many are saying, we want the Holy Ghost to do what we ought to be doing.

They don't want to witness. They want to sit in a church and seek God and have the blessing of God and have an anointing of the Holy Spirit in their own life and let the Holy Ghost do the evangelizing.

No, no, no, no. Elijah knows he's going to face wicked spirits at Bethel. He knows that he's going to be dealing with the deadness and dryness of the church. And he says, I need greater power, Elijah, even that you had.

Under Elijah, those revivals never came. And God picks up a young man and he does a new work. And just the way he's doing it now, Bethel to us represents that wicked, awful society. Jericho represents the dead church.

And so, these young men were destined to build schools. They were destined to build the church of the future and to live by faith. But something was missing. We have fallen into the same snare in our day of looking to the past and not having faith to believe for miracles today.

We go to our Bible studies. We go to our Bible and we read of these great fantastic miracles. And all along, God is saying, I've offered you something better. I've offered you something greater. I want to do miracles in your life.

I want to change your home. I want to do miracles. I want to fix your marriage. I want to save your unsaved. You're going to face your own Red Sea. You're going to face your own Jordan. I want to do it for you.

Hallelujah. That's something that ought to be rising in all of us in this last day. Folks, we're facing perilous times that are coming. They're right at the door and we're going to need more than some of us have right now, including myself.

Again, he says, I will not leave you. I'm going on. Thank God for those who are going further and deeper in the Holy Ghost. They're not satisfied with what they have. I don't ever want to be satisfied.

I want to stay hungry and thirsty until Jesus comes or until they bury me. And now they're standing at the shore of the Jordan. Been to Bethel, been to Jericho, now they're at the Jordan. Now, why did Elijah insist on a miracle passing rather than a natural passing?

Crossing the Jordan by Faith

Now, there's 50 young men right there, strong men. They could have built a raft in two hours. They're strong enough to have taken them under their shoulder and swum them across. Swum, swam, swam. They could have carried them across.

Why did he insist on a miracle? Think about it for just a minute. There's no word that it was a swollen river at the time, and really the Jordan was not that wide or that deep. But he insisted on a miracle crossing.

In part, it's the same lesson that God's trying to teach. Elijah's saying to Elijah that the miracle crossing of the past, the Red Sea, the Jordan, in fact, this miracle that I'm showing you now, this is what God wants for you.

This is what God wants. He wants you to believe for a miracle. I'm going to be gone soon. And you're going to come back over the same way. I want you to come back the way that you're going now. I want you to believe God for the miraculous in your life.

I want you to believe. He knew his mantle would be left. Folks, that mantle has no power in it. There is nothing. It's a piece of cloth. There's no power in it. If you believe there's power in that, then you've got to believe that there's power in that cross that somebody has, claims to be a piece of wood from the original cross, and they want to touch it as if there's some power in that piece of wood.

It wasn't in the piece of wood, the cross, not the wood itself. It was the Christ who hung on the cross. What he's saying, when you go forth now, Elijah, I don't want you to talk about mere miracles. I want you to talk about the miracles you've seen and experienced in your own life.

Hallelujah. Now, over the Jordan, Elijah says to Elijah, we go back to it now, and he says, ask of me, what shall I do for you before I go? Now, he's not acting the part of a genie that's popped out of a bottle and says, I'll give you three wishes.

You can't compare it to that. That's not what it is at all, because really, he's limited in what he could do. He was not God. There's no way he could give of his spirit. Only the Holy Ghost can do that.

He couldn't do that. He was penniless. What could this man do? Now, place yourself in this scene, and this great man of God, this miracle worker has raised people from the dead, and he says to you, I'm going.

What do you want me to do for you? Now, I know what I would have probably done. I would have said, well, look, I've been to Bethel, and I've seen this society that's going to hell in a handbasket, and it's getting wicked.

It's unsafe to walk the streets, and I'm tired of this battle against sin and the devil. Take me with you. Oh, come on, folks. If the Lord told me tomorrow, listen to, God told me tomorrow at midnight here on 51st, right here, 51st Street, he's going to send a chariot after me.

How many of you would like to go along? You have just proven the point of my whole message. God doesn't want you now. He don't want me now, because he's still bleeding for those in Bethel. He's still weeping over his dead, dry church.

He's got to have somebody that's still here. So, forget the chariot. You ain't going anywhere right now. I know the Bible said that we're to say, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. We're to continue to look for his appearing, but folks, many in the church have become absolute escapists.

They want Jesus to come right now, only to lift them out of the horror and the shame around them and all the trials that they're going through. They just want to be delivered so they can just kind of go to heaven and lay their pillow, head on a pillow and relax and get rid of the stress in their life and have a nice, easy eternity.

And forget a city of wicked and vile people. Forget the people around them. They're going to go to hell. Not so for Elisha. Elisha knows his master's work is done. He knew he's got to have to stay, and the responsibility is going to be upon him.

And he said, now look, Elijah, you know what I'm going to face. You know the problems. You've just shown me the world. You've shown me the condition of society. You've shown me the condition of the church.

Asking for a Double Portion of God’s Spirit

Now, you know I'm going to need more than anyone has ever needed. I'm asking for a double portion of the Spirit of God on you. Elijah says, if you can see me when I depart, it shall be done unto thee, but if not, it shall not be.

You've asked a hard thing, he said. Hard for who? Is it too hard for God? No. It is too hard for Elijah because he can't give of his spirit. But no, it's hard because of the cost to Elisha himself. The hardness has to do with the young man he's talking to and he's training, and it's his last lesson.

He said, you know, you read this. Nevertheless, if you see me when I'm taken from thee, it shall be done unto thee, but if not, it shall not be done. Well, what is this? In other words, if you see me before I go, you're going to get your blessing.

If not, you're going to leave disappointed and all this is going to be in vain? No way. In the original, there are two words that are not. In fact, they're in the italics in your King James, and that is when and am.

When I am taken. That is not in the original. In fact, that's been corrected in the revised edition. In context of the whole teaching of this chapter, there's only one conclusion. When you see me as being gone, it's something that has to do with the fact that it has to happen in you.

Elisha, when I go, you can't build me a memorial. You can't be preaching about what I did. You have to see me as gone. When you see me in your mind and your heart that the past is dead and gone. He wasn't wanting—Elisha was a humble man.

He didn't want him going around building schools in his name. He didn't want them to be talking about what God did through him or who he's raised from the dead. Elisha, God wants you to raise the dead.

He wants you to do more than I ever did, but you've got to see me as gone. And when I go and it dawns on you, you stand alone. He's gone. Here I am, Lord. This is all you've got to work with. And you lay hold of that by faith.

The Holy Ghost will come upon you. And suddenly Elijah's gone and there's his mantle. He tears his own clothes in two, and he picks up the mantle, puts it on his shoulders. He goes to the Jordan and he says, where's the God of Elijah?

He smites it. And the Spirit of Almighty God was on that man. The waters opened. He had received that double portion. The prophets of Jericho had seen it and they bowed for him. They said the Spirit that was on Elijah is on, not the Spirit of Elijah, but the Spirit that was on Elijah is now on Elisha.

And what does he do? He retraces his steps. He's ready now to face a dead-draught church. He's ready now to face a society that's gone mad because he's had a touch from God. He has the Holy Ghost revealed to him.

He knows his ways now. The Holy Ghost, he had gone further than any man had gone with the prophet. He went deeper. He paid a price. Now, I know this salvation is free, but folks, if you're going to know the ways of the Spirit and the true intimacy of Jesus Christ and know the ways of the Holy Ghost, you're going to spend time.

You're going to go deeper into the closet, further into the Word. You're going to walk closer than any other man or woman has ever walked through the power of the Holy Ghost. There'll be a hunger to cry in you, I can't stop.

Healing the Poisoned Waters Through a Clean Vessel

I will not let God go until he teaches me his ways and gives me the spiritual authority I need to go out and witness for Jesus Christ and change lives. He comes to Jericho and the 50 prophets meet him and they said, now you know this is called a pleasant place, but look around.

There's death everywhere you go. Now, I told you to go to 2 Kings, and I hope you have your Bible open there, and I want you to go to 2 Kings 2 chapter verse 18. He's on his way back now. He's retracing the steps.

Verse 18, and when they came again to him, for he tarried at Jericho. Now, remember Elijah had asked him to tarry there, and he said no. He knew he wasn't ready. He wasn't prepared. Now, he's tarrying at Jericho.

He said unto them, did I not say unto you, go not? And the men of the city said unto Elijah, behold, I pray thee, the situation of the city is pleasant. That's the name of the city, really, as my Lord seeth.

But the water is not, and the ground is barren. He said, bring me a new cruise and put salt therein. They brought it to him, and he went forth to the spring of the waters and cast the salt in there and said, thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters.

There shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day according to the saying of Elijah, which he spoke. Look at me, please. Fifty men of God, fifty students of theology, fifty students who could talk about ascension, could give you all the details and miracles of men of God of the past.

But they're totally helpless, totally powerless to stop the poison that's creating the deadness and the barrenness, representing the church. They said there's a problem here. There's a poisoned well, and it's bringing polluted waters, and it's killing everything, killing everything.

Now, you see, until this man had been alone with God and crying out for that double portion of the Holy Spirit and getting to know him and yielding himself fully to the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit and not to the flesh, not at all, now he has the Holy Spirit upon him and working in him and through him.

He has his own touch of God. He has his own vision, his own anointing. And now he knows. Here comes a man with the answer. And what is the answer to the pollution? What's the answer to deadness, dryness in the church of Jesus Christ?

Where did the pollution come from? It came from the wellhead, from the pulpit. Men of God who have never dealt with their sins and full of iniquity, and there's poison, there's a disease in the heart.

It can be pornography on the Internet. It can be almost anything. Now, I'm not indicting the whole ministry. I'm indicting those ministers who have killed their churches, literally caused death because they can't preach against sin.

They have polluted everything that comes out of their mouth because the stream is polluted. They that bear the ark must be holy and clean and pure, the Bible says. Those that handle the things of God and out of this, you show me a church where a pastor is in the pulpit who doesn't believe in the inerrancy of the Scripture.

He doesn't believe in the virgin birth. He doesn't believe there's a heaven, there's a hell. He doesn't preach against sin. He doesn't expose the sin in his own life. He's comfortable with what he's doing.

He's not going to deal with sin in the congregation. And I can show you a dead church and a man who's sending people to hell on the left and on the right. And what's the answer? What's the answer? He didn't go to the stream and try to rebuke it.

He said, the answer, a new vessel, a clean vessel full of salt. We'd call it a salt shaker. But he said, this, I want a new one. That's the new heart. See, sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Salt. By the way, folks, what is the water?

The water is the Word of God. It was polluted. The deadness in the church is caused by a polluted gospel that's going forth. He said, get me a new vessel and pour salt in it. And he goes to the spring, not to the river.

He goes to the spring where it started, the wellhead, and he pours the salt into the river and it's cleansed from that day on. Folks, that salt is the gospel of purity. It's the gospel of righteousness of Jesus Christ preached through clean, holy vessels.

You show me a man or woman that shut in with God, hates and despises anything in their life unlike Christ, goes beyond what others are willing to go, shut in with the Lord, saying, oh, God, fill me and anoint me with the Holy Ghost, that when I speak, I speak your mind.

I don't speak the flesh. I speak your mind and your heart. You, Lord, put the salt in me. You let me live that life. Let me have that savor in me of Jesus Christ. And I'm telling you, that's a rebuke to the whole world, and that's something that no dead church can stand up against.

And that's the only cure. It's not for sharper young entrepreneurial pastors that have a lot of head knowledge. No, no, no, no. And folks, I see this now. God's raising up young men especially and young women.

They've been sending me their literature, and they're sending me their notes. And I was four hours yesterday just reading. I got so excited about what some young lady sent. I got her on the phone and started listening to what God's saying to her.

She's a housewife, and God is revealing things. I have never seen or heard in my life. I said, how did it come? She said, 12 years being shut in with God. Took a whole year off just to pray that I would get to know Jesus.

And God met my needs, and He began to reveal Himself to me. And she's saying things, and I believe there are going to be books coming out of this woman's pen. Incredible. In fact, I was working on this message.

I'd go call her and say, what do you see in this chapter? He goes back to Bethel, this corrupted society, to a lost generation. Look at verse 23, and I'm going to close in just a minute here. Verse 23.

Elisha Confronts Bethel’s Mockery and Rebellion

And he went up from Jericho to Bethel. As he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city and mocked him and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head. Go up, thou bald head. I see people looking at heads in front of them everywhere.

And he turned back and looked on them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood and tore forty-two children. There were more than forty-two, but the ringleaders, the forty-two of them were torn by she-bears.

I don't know whether they were killed or not, but they were torn by she-bears. And people who read that say, how cruel, how terrible that this man, Elijah, just touched by the Holy Ghost, should go in a fit and a rage and curse children because they called him baldy.

No, folks. No, no, no, no, no. This man was moving under the anointing and unction of the Holy Spirit.