The Seven Pillars (Part 19)-Pillar 5-The Mantle Of Elijah: From Success To Legacy-Rod Mills

This is a series on the 7 Pillars of the AeroNova spiritual family, the DNA markers of who God has called us to be as a people. 
 In this profound teaching expanding on the teaching of the fifth pillar, taking up the mantle of Elijah, we talk about the transition from a paradigm of success to a paradigm of legacy. The success paradigm is a life focus on our own success. The legacy paradigm is about the multiplication of the anointing of God in your life imparted into the lives of others.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):

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​So we're talking about the seven pillars of, of the Friends of Jesus, what I believe is a movement that's emerging in the earth, but also the AeroNova spiritual family as well ecosystem, many of the people that we associate with in this fifth pillar of the seven pillars, the mantle of Elijah is something we feel strongly called to. And today, I want to talk about something I feel is extremely important that I wish that I had when I was a lot younger. And I think I got bits and pieces, but I never heard this taught as a whole, like an embodied teaching, if you will, or if I did, I sure don't remember it. And so my prayer today, and I'm asking you to pray for me and pray for you. My prayer is that, that I will do a good job of, of really relaying and imparting what the Holy Spirit is seeking to impart to us. And that we will have ears to hear and receive hearts to receive what God wants to do. Now, I'm gonna tell you guys, this teaching, and not my teaching, but this principle, this truth, will set you free from a lot of things that will hold you down, that there will be different kinds of bondage and fear and worry, and all kinds of things. And it is profound, the truth is profound. And it's not my truth. It's God's truth. It's you, some of you are going to hear it and go, Oh, yeah. You know, I've got that. And you guys know me, I'm like, we never got it, right, we always want it. It's like, if it's if it's penetrated into two inches of my heart, it took me several years to get there. But I want it to penetrate 10 feet into my heart, I want it to penetrate deep into my living, my lifestyle, and my living condition and how I think and how I feel in the culture of God penetrating me in this area. And so, if you will, I want to say a prayer. And when we pray, I'm asking you, please pray for me. And also pray for you, that we will all together be able to communicate and hear what the Holy Spirit is doing. Please take a note here in there of what you got speaking to you. And you know, me, I'm looking what God shows you is just as important and sometimes more important than what God shows me. That's why we always have the sharing time, have you share and speak. And what our goal is, is that you and I are a conduit for the Holy Spirit to speak to all of us, we have a lot of responsibility in this little spiritual family that we have, because we minister to a lot of people and a lot of nations. And so that's a large responsibility. And so it becomes very important, what we impart. And, you know, I learned a long time ago. You know, isn't it interesting that when God called Abraham to be the father of many nations, he gave him one son of promise, you would think that if God was going to call him to be the father of many nations, he was said, Okay, well, let me give you two or three dozen children. But he gave him one son a promise. And in that son of promise, it's not so much about how many kids you have to become a great nation. It's the quality of the investment and to the ones you're given. So if we go out and we plant a seed into the ground, and we grow apple tree, a banana tree, well, we don't grow up in entries here. But you know, we grow something, how well we care for that plant will determine how well it will reproduce, and reproduce and generations were to other trees, if it's an apple tree to other apple trees to other apple orchards. But the quality of the seed and the cultivation is critical, because that quality or lack of quality gets repeated. What do we always say, Man, I don't want to repeat my mistakes, my parents mistakes because I don't want my kids to live with them. And so it's really about the focus on the quality and investment, where we are. It's not about how many kids you have or how many this you have or how much fruit it's really the quality of the investment so that in the multiplication, it's pure, it's good, it's strong, it's fruitful, all the above. And so that's kind have the background to what we're going to talk about today. So Lord, we ask you, for your words, your truths, more than just truths, but unveiling of revelation that changes our hearts, and ushers us into places in God, where we have never been before, or at least where we have not been enough. And you we pray, ushers, and carry us into these places of your heart so that we are transformed. We don't want to just come out of this time together, knowing more, we want to come out of this time being transformed, something happening, those areas of our lives that are caterpillars, that you are calling to become butterflies that you are transforming different areas of who we are into you in Jesus name. Amen. So this morning, we're talking about a Elijah's transition. So we're talking specifically about a lie just transition from what I like to call success, to legacy. In order to better understand the significance of this mantle of Elijah in our own lives, it's really, I believe, critical to see this transition, there is a strategic shift in Elijah's life, that he has forever changed. And he's up in the early part of his life, he's been focused on his mission, and his calling to the nation, you're gonna see this when we read some of the scriptures. Through this crisis, God brought Elijah to a strategic shift in his life, and this strategic transition. And he transitioned him from a focus on success. Now remember, he's a, he's a pretty successful prophet in Israel. He's he's got spiritual authority. He's, he's considered the most successful of all the prophets in Israel at this time. But God was about to re focus him into another whole area, and transition him from a focus on success to a focus on legacy. And this radically changed his life forever. Now, so I see them as two paradigms, there is the success paradigm. And there is the legacy paradigm stick with me, the success paradigm is a life focus on our own success. I won't ask for a show of hands, especially those of you that are over 20. But I'm talking about even in righteous terms we're focused on, it's a good thing, like we want to be successful, right. And I'm not talking about being rich, I'm talking about we want to do the right things and succeed in doing what we're supposed to do, being who we're supposed to be doing and being what God desires. And I can say, honestly, I've been there most of my life. It's not that that's bad. But we're talking about focus. This is good. And it's certainly a part of the target of seeking God's will for our lives. The legacy paradigm is different. It's a life focused on others, success in the kingdom of God as a Christian, as a Christian, it's focused on other success in the kingdom, not so much. Ours. Let that sink in. So aiming at success, let's look at the success paradigm for a minute. I mean, that success is kind of like aiming at the outer ring of the target. It can be good and it right and it's right, it's the target, right? It is the target. And it something that people notice you notice about the target is the outer ring defines the target, right? Like the literally the outer ring, and everything inside of it is the target. So so when we say we're aiming for success, we're basically aiming for the target. We're aiming for anything in that target, if you will. But aiming at legacy is like shooting at the bullseye. They're different, even though there's overlap in their meaning. If you focus on other success, you're going to experience success yourself. The Scripture teaches that blessed is he who waters for he shall also be watered, it will come back to you so that in others it will come back to you multiplied times. But that's the key is sowing into others and being focused on that. If you hit the bullseye, you have hit within the outer ring, you've hit the target. But if you hit the outer ring, you have not hit within the bullseye. So the essence of the Write commandments that we talk about all the time. What are they love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, be in love with God. That's what he's saying, with everything hearts, so your mind, your strength, everything you are everything you have totally given to the Lord. And number two, love your neighbors yourself. Those are the great commandments. And the great commission is Jesus command I give you authority Go therefore, make disciples and all the world. So the essence of these, these two, or these three is the construct of the legacy paradigm. Now I know that's a big statement, you'd have to just go home think about that for a while to really reflect and realize how true that is. But it's the construct of the legacy paradigm. Because if I love God, God's a giver. So God has always given he doesn't give because he needs something back, he gives because it's in his nature he's giving, he's a giver, he's a giver. Well, then, he noticed Jesus didn't tell us love our neighbor. First, he said, love God first, because then there's this overflow of divine love, and everything about God that flows out of that relationship. And then you can love people. Matter of fact, you can't help but love people, you don't even have to try to love people you does love them. And forgiveness gets a whole lot easier. And a lot of other things in life. If you ever noticed someone who has a very unhappy marriage. Life is hard. Sometimes it's tough, have you but if you're in a happy marriage, and you're in love, even when the hard times come, they just don't feel as hard. Right? We're talking about love, right? We're literally talking about love. This is why love is so important. Because the more you love, and the more we're in love with God. And the more we're in love with each other as God's people, brothers and sisters in Christ, then all it's like, it's like oil in the engine. But man, the engine does not run without oil, it'll seize up after a while. But that it's like, oh, man, life can be really hard. And if you've got a great marriage and a great famine, there's lots of love in the family. It just doesn't seem as hard to you. So the point being that the great commandments, and the Great Commission is all about us in our investment, the legacy paradigm, it's not about my success. It's not about me doing the best and all these things. Elijah's life is the tale of two paradigms. Now, your I tell you, this is going to be fascinating to watch. And scripture is the tale of two terms, two paradigms, two ways of living, two perspectives of seeing, and experiencing the world, to completely different types of motivations, and all of the heart motives that go with that. So in this section, we're going to examine Elijah's transition, because the lie just stuck in the success paradigm. And God has a plan to transition him out of it. And it forever changed his life. I'm convinced that God tries to transition a lot of people out of that, and some cooperate and some don't. A Elijah cooperated so well that the last two verses of the Old Testament are prophecy about his mantle coming. And it came in the time of Jesus. And Jesus said, John the Baptist exam, it says, If you could accept these come in, again, not talking about reincarnation, but talking about this anointing and this way of living in God, that's different. I love this, it will set you free. It is awesome. And sometimes the problem with being in the bondage of the success paradigm is you don't even know you're in it. I'll say it again. When you're in it, you don't know you're in it. Elijah didn't know he was in it. So let's read. I'm going to read out of the New King James, more Scripture than I usually do. But this is going to be important, because I'll read the Scripture, then we'll come back and visit some of the phrases in there that reveal this. So I'm reading from First Kings 19. And I'll start in verse one. I'm going to read 14 verses, so hang with me and pay attention to the phrases. And he had told Jezebel all that Elijah had done also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. And then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow, about this time. In other words, I'm gonna kill you in the next 24 hours. And when he saw that he rose and ran for his life. He's like, Okay, I've been around long enough to know you don't go up against her and all the armies that they command her and her husband command. So he went to bear Sheba, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there that's going to be very important here in a minute, but he himself went a dazed Yarny into the wilderness and he came and he sat under a broom tree is an interesting, he said under broomstick, maybe think about Jonah. You know Jonah kind of did this when he was in big trouble and woe is me and he goes, it sits under a tree. I don't know something about that. He prayed that he might die. You ever been there? That's pretty discouraged. He's praying, he's not only wanting to die, he's praying to die. That's pretty rough. And he said, It is enough. Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father's. That's a strange statement. We'll come back to it in a minute. Then as he lay in, he slept under a broom tree. Suddenly an angel touched him said, Rise up and eat. Then he looked in there by his head was a cake cooked on coals and jar of water. And he ate and he drank, and he lay down again, he wasn't going anywhere. This guy is depressed or discouraged or something. The angel the Lord came back a second time. And he touched him. A lot of times in the scriptures, when an angel touches someone, they're actually infusing energy into them. That's another study for another time. He says, Arise and eat because the journey is too great for you. So the angels preparing him for something. He's preparing him for this journey. So he rose and he ate and he drank. And he went in the strength of that food, 40 days and 40 nights as far as horror of the mountain of God. And there he went into a cave, and he spent the night in that place, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him. And he said, I said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant. They've torn down your altars, they killed your prophets with the sword. I alone, am left and they seek to take my life. Does he feel alone? Yeah. Then he said, Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by there was a great strong wind tour in the mountains broke the rocks, and pieces before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind, after the when an earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake, after the earthquake of fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire is still small voice, there's a whole teaching right inside that little space there. We're not going to do it today. So it was when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle. He went out and he stood in the entrance of the cave. And suddenly a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah. And he said, I've been very zealous for the Lord of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars killed your prophets with the sword, I alone, am left. And they seek to take my life. Now, before we study, Elijah for a minute, I want to remind you of James 517. James makes it clear that Elijah had frailty and faults. So Elijah is not a perfect example. He's an example. But he's like the rest of us. He has faults. He has all these things. The scripture says that he was a man with a nature like ours. And that word nature means the same kinds of feelings, the same kinds of passions, good and bad, the same kinds of desires good and bad. In other words, he didn't get everything right. So we will see this and learn from this passage. But I just wanted to remind you of this, because we're going to look at some of the mistakes that were being made. Elijah recognize that Jezebel within was within hours of killing him. You ever been there before you ever been close to death? I'll tell you I have. I've been close to death many times. And I will tell you, you're alert, you're tuned in. But this came on the heels of an enormous victory. This came right after the whole Mount Carmel episode, where he stands up and there's fire from heaven, and they slay the false prophets, all of that. Now, I want to just stop, say something here. Some of my spiritual fathers and mentors have taught me over the years, to be very vigilant after a great victory. Be very vigilant, spiritually vigilant after a great victory, because this is one of the most vulnerable times to defeat because people have their guard down. Because you think, oh, man, I did this and this and this and this. And so our guard goes down. This is especially true when we're operating from a success paradigm and I'll come back in a minute and explain in this paradigm, we're extremely susceptible to contracting the disease of over importance. You ever had that disease before? We all have. We get to this point where we think that God needs us and if he doesn't If we're not there, then it ain't gonna happen. Now there are times when God is like, well, it might not happen right away, it would really be better if you would obey, it would be really better if you would do the right thing here. But it's not like God's left in the dark in the cold and he doesn't know what to do, right? We this is very important in it. In this paradigm of success, this success paradigm we're talking about are going to talk about victories can inflate the ego, instead of edify the spirit. Now, the problem with this is sometimes when this happens, you don't even know it. You really don't know it. Now, stay stick with me. And you'll see. Here's observation one, verse number three, Elisha, isolated himself. Let's look at verse number three. When he saw that he rose and ran for his life, and the last phrase there says, He left his servant there. I won't ask for a show of hands of when you're in a spiritual battle. How many of you and myself included have isolated ourselves to the point that the one guy, the one person who's with us day and night, we're like, oh, no, no, I need to hear God. I need to hear God. You stay here by literally isolating ourselves completely. Well, yeah, Elijah. Now you're by yourself. That's what you said. But even the guy who was with him day and night, he says, you stay here, because I think I can hear God more clearly by myself. Just me and him. Isolate, beware, when you're in spiritual warfare, the last thing you want to do is isolate yourself. Then in verse 10, he talks to God about how zealous he is for him, and that he's the only one left. You saw that in verse 10. He actually said it twice, verse 10, and I think it was in verse 14, says, He's the only one left again, his focus is on himself. Which the success paradigm reinforces he, he reinforced his belief that he was the only obedient one left in Israel. He doesn't say, I'm the only prophet left in Israel. He says, I'm the only one left. We know this isn't true. Because God cleared this up in verse 18. We didn't read that. You remember that? Verse 18, we may read that in a few minutes. In verse 18, the Lord is telling him what to do what to do what to do, I'm paraphrasing here. And then all of a sudden, the Lord is like, Oh, by the way, let me clear something up. There are 7000 in Israel, who have not bowed their knee to bail, who don't like this, who are just like you, you know, I'm paraphrasing, but the point God was like, let me just put a side comment in here, you need to know you're not by yourself. It's very easy to become spiritually myopic if we operate in the success paradigm. Now, I'm not saying that we're all self absorbed, if we're in the success paradigm, we've all been in it. But our focus is in, oh, Lord, I need to be successful. Oh, Lord, I need to do this, oh, Lord, I, I want to please and there's nothing wrong with those kinds of thoughts and actions to to do the right thing. But they are not the focus, the best way to get there is by living in the other paradigm. And that's what really we're getting to hear. Many people have thought that they are being more spiritually by isolating themselves during spiritual warfare, like we talked about. And their past successes have reinforced this belief because God still helped them in it. It's like God didn't, he didn't abandon them in it. So that ends out reinforcing that belief system that's actually wrong in spiritual warfare and attack, no matter how spiritually strong you and I might think ourselves to be. Isolation is rarely the key to victory. I'm telling you, guys, this is so so true. I just want to go, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen, and Amen. And so many of you in this room and others who aren't here today, we've walked through our journey together. And don't feel bad if this is touching you right now. Don't feel bad, because there are many of us that feel that way right now. Because that's what the enemy says to do. That's what the success paradigm says to do. isolate yourself. And you can work through this by yourself. In the toughest moments of extraordinary spiritual warfare in Jesus life. When was the most before the cross? What was the most what was the toughest, most intense spiritual warfare of his life? It was Gethsemane. It wasn't the wilderness at the beginning when he's getting started. That was just a little hors d'oeuvres of spiritual warfare. The toughest time was gift 70. And he did not go alone. Wow, Jesus Himself, when He sweat, great drops of blood. He didn't isolate himself. Many times Jesus would retreat to a quiet place and be alone with the Father in prayer. Absolutely. But when he was in the most intense spiritual warfare or, and you know, if he, if he was longer on the earth, I think we would have seen more of these cases than just Gethsemane when he went to the wilderness of sorts. Of course, he was by himself in the ministry. We're not saying don't spend time alone with God, absolutely. We're not saying that. But what I'm saying is that really what I see is that the enemy really tries to get isolate ourselves, but you're going to see an audit trail if you track this. And hopefully, I'll do a good enough job communicating this today. And in two weeks, that I believe you will see an audit trail between the success paradigm and this kind of behavior, and other behaviors that we all struggle with, and we'll, we'll talk about it. Jesus surrounded himself with the people he trusted most when he was in the greatest spiritual warfare. Number one, you have to have those people, right, you have to have those people. Now Jesus did not have these relationships for what they could do for him. He had these relationships for what he could do for them. Did that did that sink in. In other words, Jesus was pouring in to so many disciples, and then the 12 apostles, and then the most committed to him those three, Peter, James and John. And so whenever he was going through some of the toughest moments of his life, he surrounded himself with the people who he trusted most, but also whom he was investing the most. There's your legacy paradigm, right there. Jesus was not my OPIC. Jesus was not focused on himself. Yes, he was struggling with the mission. Yes, he was like God and Father, if there if it be your will let this pass. I don't want to do this unless I have to. And I'm paraphrasing, but you know, Jesus was like, but he brought them as one who was invested in legacy not focused on his problems. And you'll see this as we dive into Elijah more. Elijah was so discouraged that he wanted to die, and he prayed to die. The success paradigm will set you up for great discouragement, or jealousy, or negative emotions, because it's focused on its own successes, even in the good things. Because I well, you know, did you do that? Did you do that? Right? Was that, you know, if you if I asked you guys to speak or to come up and share, or whatever, you don't get caught up in this model, you know, it's just perfect. You know, and this was, and I want it to be like, success, paradigm, success paradigm? Do you trust the Holy Spirit, that he can actually speak to people what he wants, you just get up and obey God and do your best. I'm not saying don't be prepared. But this, this perfectionism that sometimes we fall into comes from the success paradigm rather than okay. It's not about how I look. It doesn't matter how anointed I look, or how it comes across. Or if I speak it perfectly, or any of those things. I have learned. I'll tell you guys, so many times, you'll be teaching, and you'll share. And after you're done, someone will come up and say, I tell you that was so powerful, how and then they'll start saying some principal and you're like, I didn't say that. And usually, it's good. It's usually right now if it's wrong, you got to correct it. But most of the time, it's right. And what was happening was the Holy Spirit was teaching them personally. That's what matters, not what I say. But what he's teaching them. When he's speaking, what he's imparting the graces that he's depositing inside of them are transformational. And I have learned that I'll never forget the sister that shared with us in one of the gatherer conferences, I forget her name. And I won't say her name here anyway. But anyway, she was talking about speaking at these big crusades over in Asia. And she was speaking at one and there was like, how many was or 30 40,000 people and she got deathly sick, she got food poisoning. And she says, I was just sick as a dog. Like I couldn't leave the bathroom. I was throwing up all this kind of stuff. And she said the next morning, I could barely stand up. I was dizzy. I was so dehydrated. And she said, Lord, I don't even you know And she said, she just got up. She shared a few things, the gospel in her total weakness. And she sat down. And there was like, and I forgive me, I don't remember the numbers. But there was like 10s of 1000s of people that gave their lives to Christ. And there was like 30 or 40, blind people that got healed that day. And she said, I learned right away, it was not my ability that mattered at all. See, God used her sacrifice, her willingness to obey. There are many areas in life, if you just have you guys ever met someone, and they don't really worry about what people think, or if they're gonna do it perfect. They just man, they're just like, they get out and they just do it. They're not, they don't care what people think. I love those people. They don't care, by the way how little it is. There's a lot of people they won't do ministry unless it looks good, or it's a certain size or as this impressive, in a lot of there are people who just, they're like, Well, I don't care. I'm just obeying God. And the Lord uses them. Because they're not stuck in a success paradigm. It's the end of their lives. It's not about what people thought about them. And what I've found is as if we live in this other paradigm that God was moving Elijah into, in an amazing way, they experience a lot of times more success than the other people do. But if they don't, they don't care. They're not worried about it. I love this. All right. So notice Elijah statement, verse four, this is important, I mentioned this, for I am no better than my father's. This is a strange statement to make. When the deal what he's dealing with is someone is trying to take him out and kill him. For I am no better than my father's. He says that in verse four. Again, in this phrase, in this phase of his life, his focus is more on himself, and what he is doing for God. Now, it's good to seek and DO what is pleasing to God in our study here is to examine focus. But he's still focused on how am I doing, compared to my father's M, I know, he wants to be better than his father's. I'm not saying that's bad to want to do better job. But the problem is, it's the it's the focus in his life, rather than the periphery. So in ministering in life, it's not uncommon to find people so nervous about doing a great job or nervous about failure. And by the way, both are the same thing. If you're nervous about, well, you know, I need to do this the best. And normally, that nervousness is the fear of failure on the other side of the coin, and many times that folks are nervous about this, and they struggle to function. They are not free to function in God's will. And because they're focused, they're looking in the mirror a little bit too much the paradigm is too much about, am I succeeding? Am I doing this right? Rather than? Am I helping get to these people what God wants to get to them? And by the way, when you're that way, you sure don't mind bringing other people with you? You don't mind bringing other people up to speak? It doesn't have to be you. That does the speaking or does the ministry or does the all of a sudden your focus. It's not that we don't want all those people to be successful, but our focus is on the people that we're serving, the people that we're investing into. And when we are focused on them, we are set free from all of the expectations. Is he anointed is she hearing from God is this powerful, blah, blah, blah, you know, I'm using ministry, but this could apply to any area of life. Guys, listen, this will set you free. But it is a transition literally. This is more than a way of thinking. It's an entire paradigm of life. You like it doesn't work. To think like this, but live in the success paradigm. You have to make the whole transition all the way over, like Elijah did. So they either struggle to function or they just don't say yes. Because they're afraid of failure to God's call to whatever God is calling us to. Others worry less about their own mistakes, because their focus is on the people they're serving. So what if I make a mistake? I'm not I'm not talking about trying to make mistakes. I'm saying that. Man, I'll tell you what, there are so many stories. I have mistakes I've made. And I you know, the older I get, the less worried I am about him. I hope that's because I'm maturing but what I'm realizing and seeing is that God is fully capable of using us and making up difference. He just wants us to be in relationship with Him in partnership with him. It's like, Did you ever notice how much of that you're actually doing? Now, the older you get, the more this becomes clear because you have been doing the things of God. And all of a sudden you realize, I contributed about 1%. There, I thought I was at 90%. And I used to think this, like, I used to think that, to a large extent, so much, so many of the decisions I made in life, I was in control of my life. The older I get the real, the more I realized I wasn't near as much control as I thought I was another teaching for another day, the angel seems to know that Elijah needs to make this journey. Now, the reason why I call this out is because there's some there's a teaching that I've heard many times and I don't think I agree with this teaching after spending some years in this passage, God asks a Elijah twice, in verse nine and verse 13. What are you doing here, Elijah? Now, some have interpreted this to mean that God did not want him to come to that place, as if he were in the wrong place. But have you guys noticed many times, God will often ask a question in order to solicit a response and engage us. Because when we start responding, we start thinking about what am I doing here? What am I doing? So this, I used to think this, God was saying, What are you doing here, Elijah, like, you're not supposed to be here. You know, rarely in my life, if ever have I seen, where if you're in a crisis, you go to a place of retreat to connect with God, that God goes, What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here. Very rarely, I don't even recall a time. God loves it when we turn to him when we're in crisis. When we get into troubles when we don't turn to him when we don't go to the cave. And just to back this up, the angel comes to him twice and says, you need some food and drink. You gotta make a journey. In other words, heavens with you. So when God says, What are you doing here, Elijah, I believe he's, he's getting Elijah to get the stuff in his heart and speak it. So that can come out into the open so that he could see it. So God, God already knows what's in our hearts, right? He's getting us to see it. And I believe also, so we today can see what was in Elijah's heart. So Elijah thought he was alone, verses 10 and 14, twice, he says this, he was so focused on his mission, and his perceived lack of success. Where did we see that? When he goes, I'm no better than my father's. He's focused on his mission, his perceived lack of success, how he appears. Now, you might think I'm being hard on Elijah, but I really tell you, it's it's repeated too many times to ignore this. That he could not see others like him. God had to tell him, there are 7000 other people here, buddy. God help us never to be in a place where we're doing what he's called us to do. And we feel alone and that there's no one else. That's not going to happen, guys. We might be alone somewhere. In a cave, we might be alone. But God wants us to know you're not alone alone, you there are other people you got to see past yourself. This is not about your success as a prophet in Israel, and your quote, memory of what people say about you guys, the it is not about our success, alone. And what just what people say about us now, yes, we care what people say. But it's not about that. It's about our investment into the people God has called us to serve and love and to raise up generations. Now you're starting to see what happened in this transition of Elijah, and this whole thing of the mantle of Elijah, because God did something in him that got reproduced. Now this is what's cool. When God does something in you that can be reproduced. It's reproducible, worthy. That's a that's my. In other words, God goes okay. I'll give you one son, Abraham, you do a good job with him. I'll make you a mighty nation. I'll make you a great nation. And Abraham did a good job with one son get in other words, he invested but now because that investment was was pure was good was true was strong. Not that Abraham was Perfect, he didn't have to be perfect. But he had to be focused in, in this legacy paradigm and not in this success paradigm. And then the multiplication starts to happen. And man, when God starts multiplying, look out because multiplication gets really high really fast. It starts out slow. It snowballs. And the bigger it gets faster, the faster it gets bigger, faster. Oh, man. So he asked him twice. What are you doing here he tells him, and then Elijah thinks he was alone, focused on his mission. And then Elijah comes face to face with his own frailty. He postured himself to hear the voice and the direction of God, which was a little harder for him to hear, because it was not about him. It was not about him producing some kind of some people call their reputation legacy. Listen, Heaven will record the true reputation of every person. That's our legacy. What people say about you on the earth is going to come and it's going to go, but the legacy and the heavens, it's going to stand forever. And that will be recorded our true legacy is that investment into the people God has called us to serve. And this is the legacy paradigm we're talking about. So it was hard for him to hear. It was not about him. It was not about how powerful his ministry would be. And up until this time, he was convinced that he was the only guy pulling for God, he said it and he said it more than once. And just in case that he didn't feel strongly about that enough. That enough, he leaves the one guy who's the most dedicated to him and goes down, you don't go with me, you just stay down here. And he really isolates himself. And that's the problem with the success paradigm. It becomes myopic, and Central, up until this point, his life focused on his ministry. And I've I've heard it taught that this was the beginning of the end of Elijah's ministry. And I went through probably a decade or more of believing that this was actually the conclusion of Elijah's ministry. And now it was time for him to start training people to take over after him. How many of you have heard that teaching? We probably all have. We have heard, okay, Elijah has had his ministry has been successful. Okay, now to train your successor. Now it's time to train your successor. And what we learned very quickly is that was actually his ministry. The other stuff was just getting him ready, so that he could do that. So I've heard it taught that was the beginning of the end. And I think perhaps it's the other way around. This was the end of the beginning, was actually that it was the end of the introduction of His ministry, because it makes a critical juncture. And then he begins the true beginning of His ministry, if you read in Malikai, if you read what Jesus says, if you read the way they characterize it, it's not about him confronting prophets at Carmel, and fire falling from heaven. It's about the coming generations. It's about turning fathers hearts to children and children to fathers, and the generational transfer that will occur. It's about this impartation all the way through the generations unto the final generation, when this mantle rises in the earth is what Jesus was prophesying about. They weren't talking about Jezebel, they weren't talking about his victory at Carmel. I'm not saying those weren't important, but they were just the preparation to get him into the legacy paradigm which characterizes all of the mantle of Elijah. Somebody say Amen, that he may not have known it, but it was a strategic decision point in his life. Now, guys, listen, many times, we reach a strategic decision point in our lives. And I can tell you, I can look back in times in my life, I had no clue. I was dough. I did not understand how strategic that decision point was. Thank God. Thank God he was there and helping us the hopefully the more discerning we become, the more we identify, oh, this is a strategic decision point. I've seen people become derailed. They love God, but they make the wrong decision. And they make the wrong decision, because they're in the wrong paradigm. And so then God has to take them around the mountain and difficulty and pain. I'm not saying God inflicts the pain. I'm saying they chose the path of pain, because they're stuck in the success paradigm. And they cannot see God's truth seeking to transition them into the legacy paradigm. And so there are so many characteristics of both of these, and the enemy will try to tempt us into the future. First, because he knows if you catch on to this, you're in, you don't have to have a special talent. You don't have to have a special gifting. You don't have to be rich, you don't have to have a lot of things to own a lot of things. And you can still have an extraordinary impact throughout generations if we if we make this transition and live in this legacy paradigm. When Elijah met God at Mount Horeb, it was either the end of his life, or it was the transition. And for him, he came out of that having encountered God, and it became a life transition. Now, let's read first Kings night team, we're going to read about four verses here. Four or five. This picking up where we left off. Then the Lord said to him, 1915, first kings, the Lord said to him go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, anoint Hazel as king over Syria, Syria, Syria. He says, Go anoint hail as king over Syria. He's like, Lord, I'm not even a citizen of Syria. What's going on here? Pay attention. And also you shall anoint Jehu, the son of NIMH, she has king over Israel. All right, king. He's not even to the profit part yet. And then he says an Alicia, the son of shea fat of Abel, mellower, you shall anoint as Prophet in your place. This is where people think, okay, he's anointing his successor, Elijah, his ministry was far, far, far from over. This was the beginning, it shall be that whoever escapes the sort of hazy algea, who will kill whoever escapes to sort of Jehu Alicia will kill. And yet I have reserved 7000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him. In other words, they don't like him. They don't like this demon God in this idolatry. So he departed from there. And he found Elijah the son of che fatten was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the 12. Then Elijah passed by him and through his mantle on him. That's another story for another time. But now God refocuses him. He used Elijah to anoint a foreign ruler, a domestic ruler, and a prophetic leader. And again, we see the divine mantle on his life is so respectable of the normal human boundaries of one's profession. So in other words, he didn't go okay, Elijah, you just go annoying, the guy that's going to relieve you as a prophet that's going to take over for you after you're gone. He says, No, there is something bigger happening here. There's an impartation happening here. And this impartation that's coming from your life to theirs. It's going to Kings, it's going to prophets. And what we find out later, it's going to even though sons of the prophets, God used Elijah to anoint him since Elijah had transition. It this was his transition. This is when God took him because Wait a minute, see what's happening here. This is not about your ministry, this is about your impartation and what I'm doing through you into many others. He said, he transitions into this legacy paradigm, and the righteous effects and influence of God's anointing on his life was multiplied, multiplied into other leaders and other nations. Do you guys see this change? That's happening? Now, what's interesting, he actually goes from here, and I don't know how he's feeling. But he's not he's not paralyzed by fear for his life. You see that? Because now it's like, oh, wait a minute. 7000 others, oh, two other two kings. Oh, another prophet. Suddenly, he starts to see the people around him. Now, he doesn't have to worry so much about God's activity in the earth. There's a relief. Wait a minute. All of a sudden, I don't have to carry this heavy burden that I've placed on myself because I'm in partying into all these people God's called me to invest into and again we see the divine mantle on his life. Man, I love this guys. And we see it when we when you get to Alicia, later we read the Scripture a few weeks ago, when you get to Alicia, later, you see it keeps on going. Alicia is a spiritual father to the king. Because he lives she got a hold of this. He caught on to this. Elijah could have never had this kind of influence, operating out of success paradigm, because it would have been about him. It would have been about his ministry would have been And what people thought about him, it would have been all these things he could have never done what he did. We would not be talking about the Elijah mantle today if he did not make this transition, but because he made it, it set him free. And it's blessing us still in these generations, according to Molokai as it was prophesied, and then again by Jesus. Now, I understand that some say, this is true success. And yes, it is. This is true success. But the way you get to success is counterintuitive. You don't try. You don't try for success. You press for legacy. You live in that. And you know what, suddenly you're lighter, you're freer. You realize you don't have to be perfect. And while you're doing it, you don't have to do something impressive that impresses people. You don't it's not about your reputation. And I'm not saying reputation is important. I'm talking about with character. But it's not about what people go you do this or Oh, you make that much money, or Oh, you do. That stuff doesn't matter to you anymore. But what really matters is where am I that I'm investing in, I'm living in the legacy paradigm. Let that sink in. So he saw the righteous effects and influence of God's anointing on his life was multiplied into other leaders in other nations loving it. Here we begin seeing the legacy nature of this mantle of Elijah we're talking about. And at this point in his life, God is multiplying the anointing that's on Elijah's life. When we say anointing, we're talking about the presence of the Holy Spirit, and how he relates to Elijah and expresses himself to Elijah. And Elijah expresses himself to him. That's what we will mean when we say anointing. God's multiplying that anointing now, spiritual leadership, spiritual fathering spiritual mothering, generational transfer. They're all irrespective of professions, and positions in the natural realm. They are heavily influenced by divine calling in our relationship with God. That's what they're influenced by. That's what's going to make the difference. So this legacy of generational transfer, and impartation, in his life, his life is much bigger than hazy, hazy LJ, hue, and Alicia again, because he's no longer in that success paradigm. He's in that legacy paradigm. Now he his eyes are open, he goes, whoa, this is about more than the kings. It's about the nations. This is about more than Elijah, this is about Alicia. But it's also about this multiplication and impartation that keeps going. When Elijah encountered God in the cave, and God called him to pray. And in part two, these three, his impartation became much larger than these three men when he received that mission. I believe, and I'll say it this way, Malikai, the last two verses of Malikai. Were not written until later. But I believe at this moment, they were firmed up in the heavens. If they weren't firmed before, they were right here. I believe right here when he said yes to God, and he accept to live in this paradigm and not worry so much about his own success or his own. You go into all those things, something shifted in the spirit, something shifted in his heart and in his life. And we already observed all the all of the places in Scripture that describe the sons of the prophets, we looked at this. Remember, we looked at the the sons of the prophets, and there were the schools of the prophets in Samuel's time and a largest time and that's it. You don't see them anywhere else. They're only in these two. And we see that whenever they rose up, they did not start showing up until this encounter in the cave. And then they start, listen, this is what I love about God. You don't have to do everything or start everything when you say yes. When you say yes to the Lord. It's like this divine magic, like God's Spirit starts working and the anointing the Holy Spirit, he starts working and moving and things just start happening in places where you don't make them happen. Because your yes to God was was enough for him to go, okay. Now we can use you this way. Now we can do this. And these schools have the profit start popping up after that, go check it out. And then this though, the scriptures will be in the notes that we provide. Now, we're going to have to stop here because we've been going for quite a while. But listen, there's a lot more here. But I'm telling you when we get to the application stuff, because we're not to that y'all know the application is like the steak of the meal. Like I know we've got some application And here we sprinkled it in, because I wouldn't want to bore you with just the principles, but this is getting ready to get really good. So wherever we are two weeks from now we got to be there because listen, the application stuff. I love it. But when I was reading, I was like, Oh God, and you know, the Holy Spirit's teaching us like, this is incredible. It's life changing. It's transforming. It's nothing we have not heard in some form before. But when God repackages something, and brings it to us in its whole form, and it starts to change our thinking in a way that it was never changed before, it will set you free. Because you are way more important to God than you think you are. You see, and when and when these open, our eyes open, we can live in a freedom. And then when God calls us to do something, we can operate in it. Amen. I love this. It'll set you free. Lord, we thank you, God teach us this way. Help us boy, when we talk about the mantle of Elijah in the fifth pillar of the Friends of Jesus, Lord, we want to live this way free, as people who live in the legacy paradigm, as a ledger made this transition help us to more and more and more completely transition into this way of living. And Lord, I pray for those who are younger that they will make the transition much earlier than we did, because it will set them free. It will be awesome. They will experience an overflow like they could never experience without it. And we pray Lord, help us be faithful in this in Jesus name. Amen and Amen. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network, and numerous international seminary scholarships. Together, we are lighting the fires of revival, fueling prayer movements and raising up friends of Jesus in the nations. We invite you to partner with us in this extraordinary movement. You can sign up as a prayer and financial partner today by going to evernote.org and clicking give. Please include your email address so that we can send you updates. That's era nova.org. Click give and become a monthly partner today. 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