Spiritual Fathers & The Mantle Of Elijah [The Retreat 2022] - Rod Mills

This series of teachings is recorded live from The Retreat by AeroNova 2022. To find out more about how to attend the annual Retreat visit theretreat.aeronova.org. 
The connections between spiritual fathers, restoration, and generational transfer, are not automatically intuitive to some. Our goal here is to look through the divine telescopes and peer back across time at this tidal wave we call the mantle of Elijah, that began in an encounter with God in a cave and created an incredible chain reaction move of the Holy Spirit that is increasingly impacting the human race and eternity.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):





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​So we're entering this cave with Elijah. And here he is having this encounter with God. And I'll just repeat a couple of things for the folks listening on the recording. But the point is that I believe that here a tidal wave is began, something happens between God and Elijah, that initiates a tidal wave. And if you look back across time through this telescopes deep into time in this place, there's a tidal wave coming at you. Right now there is a tidal wave coming at us. This what I'm calling the mantle of Elijah. And we'll look at it and Malikai will look at it in the words of Jesus in Matthew 11. And then we I even believe it shows up in Revelation of John. And this is important because he Elijah, up until this time, his life had been very different. And so Elijah's life was the tale of two paradigms. It was two ways of living, two perspectives of seeing and experiencing the world. And two completely different motivations. I'm talking about a life, his life, Elijah's life before the cave, and he lives his life after the cave, very, very different. And so when Elijah comes face to face with God, he comes face to face with his own failures in that cave. And I've heard many sermons where they say, Elijah, he was he was in clinical depression, which might have been true because he wanted he wanted to die. So he was somewhat suicidal. But in this place when he went, and I've heard a lot of criticism of Elijah, you know, like, you know, what are you doing? Because God says, Elijah, what are you doing here? Kind of like, what are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here. But God didn't say that. A lot of times, God will ask a question, so that we will start to have a conversation with him. And then the answers start to come. But God asked him this question. And in that place, Elijah had reached the end of his rope. He had reached his his own mortality, basically. But God launched him onto a trajectory that day, that changed his life. But it also forever changed the kingdom of God. And many lives from that time on. And it continues to impact the world today. So you're probably thinking, man, what are you talking about? So hold on, and we'll explore this a little bit. But I want to make a couple of observations. Up until this time in the story, Elijah had been focused on his mission, he had been focused on his calling now, please, there's there's nothing wrong with him doing his calling, doing his mission. We believe all that. And I want to caveat that, but then I'll come back. And we'll, we'll kind of draw this out. But he was focused on his success. And he was focused, if you're focused on your success, what else you're going to be focused on your failure, right? If it's about the guy in the mirror, then then what happens is the focus, if it's on my success, and I don't make it, then the focus is on my failure. And that's a tough place to be. And that's what happened. He, he hit that point in the cave. So here in this cave, God transitioned him from a life focused on success, to a life focused on legacy, from a life focused on being a son, to a life focused on being a father. Now, some of you might think, Rod, you're adding stuff in there that's not in there, stick with me, because I'll show it to you in the Scripture. And you can be the judge and see what the Lord will say to you. And this forever changed his life. But it also changed a whole lot of other lives. And I believe it Elijah's encounter with God, on that day in that cave, can have an extraordinary impact on your life and my life right now, here today. And I tell you guys, I want this tidal wave to hit me, and I want to go where it takes me. I want to be carried away by this mantle of Elijah, that Malikai prophesize, about that Jesus prophesize about and and we'll look into this briefly, but I want to do this. Just for a quick review. I just want to draw your attention out to some phrases I won't read the whole scripture, but I'm just gonna say some phrases from First Kings chapter 19. And I will read a few sentences here and there. But Jezebel had sent a messenger to Elijah, this is, after all of his victory, all this incredible victory that he had. And he, she sends a message and she says, So let the gods do to me and more also, if I don't make your life as a life of one of them by tomorrow, this time, you got 24 hours, and you're dead. And for some reason, he had many threats against his life. But for some reason that day, it threw him into a tailspin. And I believe the reason is because of the focus where his life had been, but God changes it. And so Elijah went a day's journey into the wilderness. And then down in verse number four, is says, He prayed that he might die. I won't ask for a show of hands of how many of you have prayed that. Then he says this and the last part of that verse, he says, For I am no better than my father's. See what's happening. Now, there's nothing wrong with wanting to be in God's best in God's will. But when you get into this self condemnation, and you're comparing yourself, to your fathers, and you're comparing yourself to whoever it is, he's focused on him, and he's like, Lord, just kill me. I want to die. I'm no better than my fathers. And he goes through this and down in verse 10, he tells the Lord, he goes, Lord, I've been very zealous for you. But now he says, I alone am left. I'm the only guy left. Do you ever feel like that? Man I have. I've been in places where I'm like, God, does nobody care about your program, but me, you know, your kingdom you ever been there? Most people at some point in their lives have been really passionate about something God told him to do. And then everyone else seems like they're not interested. And again, whereas our focus, he says, Lord, they seek to take my life, it's me my eye. And so he isolated himself, and his focus was on himself. And down. In verse 18, we know he wasn't alone, because God told him, he has a wait a minute. Now you're not alone. There's a whole lot of others, and we're going to talk about that toward the end of the night. Elijah was so discouraged, he wanted to die. Man, I'm gonna tell you guys, listen, this, what we're calling the first half not even know if it's half. But the first section of his life is what we call the success paradigm. He needs to be successful, right? I need to be a successful Prophet, you fill in the blank, I need to be as successful. You fill in what that is in your life. I need to be a successful this or that, or the other. We've all been there. The success paradigm will set you up for great discouragement, or jealousy, but many negative emotions. And guys, you those of you that we served in the military with we saw this a lot. Because it in a culture of power, everything is on steroids, whatever it is at IBM, it's 20 100 times that in army, because everything's on steroids and a culture of power. And so we saw this where people become focused on their own success, and it becomes very toxic. This is true of everybody. This is not exclusive just to unbelievers, right. We're all human. But he says, I'm no better than my father's. And he's focused on this success paradigm. And it has him completely locked up. And up until this point, when his life was focused on his ministry, I often looked at this story like this, I used to look at it and go, well, the Lord realizes Elijah just didn't quite have the stamina anymore. He was just wearing out. He couldn't handle the pressure. And so God says, oh, right, well go annoying Alicia, and we'll get somebody else to take your place. Go anoint the king of Syria go anoint the king of Israel. And we'll get some other guys to help you. You ever looked at it like that? I used to look at this story. Like it was the beginning of the end. Kind of like, oh, here we are. We're at the beginning of the last chapter. And the older I got, the more I began to realize, this is the end of the introduction. This is the end of the beginning. Because God got him to the end of himself and his success as a prophet. Now God will still use you. Right? He uses us wherever we are. He didn't go well. You get it perfect. And I'll use you as a prophet. You know, I love that about God, he's with us. You know, you can go do God's 10th Best, he's not going to abandon you. But it might be really hard. Amen, Jose. But we see that this I believe what's happening here is the end of the beginning. And so this is where we pick up and that's our little review. Go listen those teachings 188 through 190. In the teaching library, where we talk about the success paradigm, the legacy paradigm, I can promise you that God will say something to you in there, that will be transfer more transformational, and it'll set you free from a lot of stuff that the devil gets us to carry around baggage that we carry around and it's just weighed on our shoulders, and it'll set you free. But that's not the teaching tonight. We pick up here in First Kings 1915. And I'm going to start with verse number 15. The Lord said to him, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, anoint hazy ale is king over Syria. You shall anoint Jehu, the son of NEM, she is king over Israel, and Alicia the summons che VFAT of Abel Mela, you shall anoint as Prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes the sort of Hazel Jaya who will kill whoever escapes the sort of J who 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. So he departed from there. And I love this about Elijah, man, God gives him a word and he moves. He didn't wait around. He's like, boom, he departed, he went straight to Alicia. And it says that he departed from there, he found Alicia, the son of Schaefer who was black are plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him, and he was the 12. That's another whole teaching right there. I love that. Then Elijah passed by him and he threw his mantle on him. Now we have a different man, here, we have a man who is willing to part with his mantle. Now he knew when he threw that mantle on him, the Spirit of God was not going to leave him. He knew that. But he had somebody who was willing to share it. Remember, whenever the Spirit of God God told Moses, Go lay your hands on the 70 elders, and I'll pour out my spirit. Two dudes named l dad and me Dad show up near close by Spirit of God pours out upon 72. And the 70 get upset. And I love the heart of Moses, Moses says, they start complaining because the Spirit of God is being poured out on to more guides. And Moses goes, I wish everybody in Israel prophesied. In other words, I wish this mantle upon all of them. God can use a humble man like Moses, in fact, and it says he was the most humble in that day, right? He wasn't worried about who had the mantle or the power, he loved it. He said, pour it out on him, God, what's wrong with it, let it let the Spirit of God be poured out on them to you hear that heart, you see the difference? You see the difference? In Elijah's life, something happened. And he throws the mantle on him. God used him to anoint a foreign ruler, a domestic ruler, and a prophetic leader. I love this to the mantle is not respective of profession. This is not where God goes, okay? What's your profession, you can coach the people who are in the same profession or discipline as you? Right? I don't know. I have 10 kids, five kids, by natural kids and five by marriage because they married my kids. So I call my kids. I have 10 kids, 18 grandkids. I don't go to my kids and go, Well, let's see. What's your job? And we'll decide whether or not I'm going to impart into your life. Right? A father doesn't do that. A father pours his heart into them, whatever their profession is, whatever their discipline, wherever they live, whatever they do, right? Whatever they do, we don't. That's why we say in air Nova in general, we say what, you know, if you're in mission house and you move off somewhere else we know say, well, here's your coffee cup. God bless you. We'll see you in heaven. I don't do that with my kids. Like, right when they move, I don't go well have a good life. I'll see you in heaven, right? Because we're committed to Him. That's what spiritual fathers do. It Elijah had transitioned into this legacy paradigm and the righteous effects and influence of God's anointing on his life. Were multiplied to other leaders now pay attention. This is a really big, spiritual leadership, spiritual father and spiritual mother in generational transfer, totally irrespective of these things. But Elijah literally I began to realize he was becoming a spiritual father. And I believe Alicia knew it too, because the first record of someone calling him father was Alicia, what what Elijah said to him, and we'll look at that. I don't believe he set out to be a spiritual father. I think he was just obeying God. And he went and threw the mantle on them. He didn't say, Well, I think I'm gonna figure out my five year plan Woody, we talked about this, oh, I'm gonna get my five year strategic plan on how to become a spiritual father. You know, it doesn't happen that way. But he became one. And we see this in Scripture, we'll look at it. Intimacy and relational closeness with God is essential to becoming that spiritual father, that spiritual mother. here's the here's the way it happens. How our spiritual fathers made. By being with spiritual fathers, how are spiritual mothers made? By being with spiritual mothers? Who's the best spiritual father in the world? Yes, he is. You spend time with God, you will become a father or mother. It just happen. Because the Father's heart Dix is going to talk to us a lot about Dick talks about this a lot to us, he's going to talk to us about, I don't know what he's going to talk to us about, but I promise you, the father's hearts gonna come out. I never even have to have just like, brother, just come share as long as you want to share, because I promise you, the Father's heart will come out, because he spent so much time with him. Right? If you spend time with the Father, and with spiritual fathers, you man, you will become a spiritual father, women, you will become a spiritual mother. And this is critical. We'll look at how important this is in a moment. Very quickly, we find out that this sustained relational closeness to Elijah, it made him something much, much more than a prophet. It made him a spiritual father. It made him someone who had something to give. And what he had to give we find out was more than a prophet's mantle. Based upon what Elijah said to him. Very quickly, we find out that this legacy of generational transfer, I love this, this impartation of Elijah's life grows much bigger than three men. This is cool. Now, this is what I call the supernatural component. Has there ever been something in your life where God says, I want you to do this? And you like, you go do it, you don't think it's a big deal? You just go do it. You're like, I can tell you. I won't go off on that rabbit trail. But I can tell you that there are many times where God told me when I was a younger man, so why don't you do this with your family? Why don't you do this with your wife? Why don't you do this? And so I just start doing it thinking, you know, this, if it's God told me to do it, it'd be good. I had no idea how that investment would grow. I became a spiritual multi billionaire. In many areas of life, from little areas of obedience, that brother, I didn't even think they were that big of a deal. I was just doing it because God said it. Right. God loves to blow your socks off. I tell you in my family, I love to give to I just love to give more than just my family. I love to give up. And so with my grandkids, I told him, I said, Listen, I said, when it's my birthday, I want to know what you want for my birthday. I'm gonna I want to just give you some gift for my birthday. So they get really excited about my birthday as much as they do. There's the Father loves to give, but he wants you to be able to receive. And so what he'll do is he'll say, hey, why don't you go? Why don't you do this? If God suggests something to you do it. If he command something, do it. But if he suggests something, I highly recommend it. Because usually the suggestions or the premiums in life, and I love that about God. And so here Elijah goes, and he annoys these three men. But then he finds out something amazing that the mantle is supernatural. And something huge happens. When he obeyed God to anoint these men in the natural. Other men started to become spiritual sons that he wasn't planning on. And all the places in scripture that I can find that describe sons of the prophets, this term, sons of the prophets, all of them that I can find and I got some pretty good Bible software. Every single one of them occur in Elijah's law. life and ministry, or a luscious life and ministry? What does that tell you? Oh, by the way, they do not appear until he goes and anoints those men. Now up, you might think, Well, Ron, what about the schools of the prophets, there were schools of the prophets during Samuels time. And then they disappeared. And there were no more schools of the prophets. They didn't appear. But then when Elijah goes out, and he noids, these three, many obeys God, then we suddenly start seeing the sons of the prophets rising up, many of them in Scripture. And if you have, if you want the notes later, we can get we'll get that PDF to you and I give all the Scripture references. All the sons of the prophets start rising up in Israel at that time, because the mantle has its own multiplication power. We're talking about the mantle of Elijah. Whenever we obey God, God causes that multiplication effect. And it starts this chain reaction, and it carries its own supernatural power. And the dominoes start falling. And so it impacts this person's life and in this person's life, and in this person's life. We're not talking about ministry. Remember, this didn't happen in his profit ministry. Are you guys tracking with me? It happened in his spiritual father ministry. It happened when he started imparting to others. And then this chain reaction happens. And we see the sons of the prophets rise up. So here now there's this change in Elijah's life, and the success, we see the success paradigm in Elijah's life. I'll put it in the first in the first person, it focused on what I can do. The legacy paradigm focused on how much others can do. Ah, the success paradigm focused on how much I can affect in other words, how much I can go out in influence, I can touch this I can touch that I can influence this, I can influence that. Whereas the legacy paradigm focuses on how much I can effect. What does effect mean? It means I push a domino over and 100 dominoes later and 100 domino falls way over there. Did I push that domino over there? No, I didn't. I pushed the 100 I pushed the first domino, God made the chain reaction happen. And he causes the second, third, fourth, fifth order effects start taking place in the kingdom. If you don't have to get the credit. You can do a lot in the kingdom. Right? Because it's not about what you do. It's about what you give what you impart. When we can reach that place where we know God already has a record in heaven. You see, you're not gonna lose anything by giving it away. Amen. Do you like this? As much as I do? I tell you, I love it. The first. The first is how much I can personally give firsthand influence to and the second is how much I can help others influence and give, right? If success is a whole target legacies bullseye. So in other words, if I, if I shoot at success, if I'm firing at success, I may or may not hit legacy. But if I fire at legacy, I'm guaranteed to hit success. Now, there's a lot of scriptures you could use for that message right there, but you get the idea. And so the legacy paradigm is crowdsourcing by impartation. And you might say, Ron, what does this have to do with me? I'm sure you're making some personal applications, but it's going to get really personal here in a few minutes. The success paradigm is self focused, even in good work. Did you hear all those words of Elijah and kings? He was focused on himself and his good works, but the legacy paradigm is others focused. It's focused on them. So in the legacy paradigm, humility really comes much more easily, isn't it? Because you don't care? I don't care if I get the credit. God knows my name. Those are the famous people in heaven. Right? Those are the people who are known in the heavens. Man, I tell you, I don't care who knows my name on the earth. What I care is that God does my name. He's the biggest audience in the world. The audience of one man I'll tell you when God applauses you it doesn't matter. It's not even compare a billion people can't match that. Right? Or 100 billion or a two brilliant people or however many more people that have been ever created, all the angels, all the demons, all the people, all the beans that have ever been created, nothing compares to the applause of heaven of God Himself. And you know, I got a feeling when God applauses I gotta feel in heaven. Applauses Amen. I love that scripture and Daniel, where the angel comes to Daniel, and before he will give him the message, he says, You need to know something you are a man greatly loved. Did you ever notice he said, this happens more than once in Daniel's life, and angel shows up. And before he gives him the message, he goes, You are a man greatly loved. But the way it's written in the Hebrew, it does not say, Daniel, God loves you. Oh, what does that mean? Because he's given us a glimpse of heaven, you are a man greatly loved. I'll tell you when the Father loves you. And I'm not just talking about the universal love of God, I'm talking about the Sonship love. There's another whole teaching on the multi dimensional love of God, if you go read John 17, and read it enough times, you'll start getting it. It's confusing when because of how we've been taught over the years, but we find out that there's extraordinary affection for Daniel in the heavens. And he is purposefully ambiguous. Because it's more than one person that loves him. There's a whole lot of people going, Man, I love this guy. I really love this guy. I want to meet this guy. I believe the day you enter into heaven, I believe there's gonna be people. I believe that your relatives will be there and your spiritual family and all the people that went before you. But I believe there's some people that you've never met before. And they're going to be people who want to meet you. And they're going to say, Wow, I was with you. I was praying for you. I was watching you. I love you, man. I love you, woman, you are awesome. That and I'm talking about in spiritual terms, I hope you can hear this. In the legacy paradigm, this humility comes much easier. And the mantle, this mantle of Elijah is a legacy paradigm. It's a spiritual father, spiritual kind of mother paradigm. It's not. It is not just a son paradigm, right? Because it is a giving heart. And Elijah and Elijah are the only prophets that I can find in Scripture, who are called spiritual fathers. I can't find any other profits. Now, if you can find one, I would, I would seriously this series I want, I would love you to tell me where it's at. Because I want to look at it. I want to explore it and study it. But they are the only prophets that I can find. And when Elijah was taken up into heaven, a Elijah, Elijah did something very abnormal in his time, in Second Kings to 12. He cried out, and he says, My father, my father, I think I mentioned this last year when we did another teaching that was different than this one. But he cried out to Him, and He says, My father, my father, the chariots and the Horseman of Israel. Now we know the relationship of Alicia, to Elijah. It was a father relationship. He specifically called him Father. Wow, that's interesting. And then we see that Alicia, the same thing happened. King Joash was with Alicia at the end of his life. And whenever Elijah was dying of the disease that he would die from. The scripture says that King Joash says, He cried out to him, my father, my father, are you seeing this? We see two prophets, one mantle, get it? There's one mantle. He didn't just take on a legacy paradigm, he became a spiritual father. Oh, this is very important. When we want to look at Malikai in a few minutes, to understand the prophecy of Malikai, to understand the prophecy of Jesus and Matthew 11, because they have some things to say, Jesus explanation and prophecy of Elijah. I'll read it Matthew chapter 17. Let's look at verse 11. Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them saying, Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. And his disciples asked Him saying, Why do the scribes say that a Elijah must come first? Why did the scribe say this now? We have a sneaking suspicion the scribe say it but as of the last two verses in Malikai, but we'll read those in a few minutes, Jesus answered, and he said to them, indeed, Elijah is coming first. Let's get that right. He says, Yes, that's right. Elijah is coming first, and will restore all things. He says, But I say to you, that Elijah has already come. And they did not know him. But they did to him whatever they wished. And then he says that the Son of Man will suffer in like manner. But in verse 13, the next verse, it says, Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them about John the Baptist. So Jesus tells us, John the Baptist is Elijah. Hmm. Jesus reveals to us a pattern before his first coming. A Elijah shows up before His Second Coming. Elijah shows up. Since Jesus is very clear in his teachings, that he doesn't believe in reincarnation, right? What Jesus is clear in his teachings, and we don't have time to go into it now that this is not John the Baptist was not actually Elijah reincarnated as Jesus cousin. Right? We understand that. So Jesus is talking about a mantle, or an Elijah like anointing that was upon John the Baptist. And Jesus compares John to the coming Elijah, oh, it's because Jesus makes this parallel or this comparison. It's a safe interpretation of his words, to see a coming mantle of Elijah before His Second Coming. Are you with me? Now I know, a lot of people talk about, you know, Elijah is going to return to the earth. And we'll talk about that for a moment. But that's the issue of whether or not Elijah shows up on the earth is not as much of an issue as seeing that Jesus is actually talking about this mantle of Elijah, upon people. And I believe it's really big because of what Malikai said. So let's look at the Malikai scripture, because Jesus saw this pattern. And I want to say this, I'm not supporting or disputing that a man, Elijah, Man will come back to the Earth. Some people say, Elijah, some theologians say, well, Elijah never died, he was taken up. So therefore he'll come back down in his same old body. Well, I'll tell you what, I hope I'm not in this same old body 1000 years. But I'm not supporting that. I'm not disputing that. But what I am saying is Jesus is very clear, we see, because we know he doesn't believe in reincarnation, that there is an anointing that is upon Elijah, that is coming. I believe upon the final generations before the coming of the Lord. Math Malikai chapter four. Verse five, Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, okay, so he said, I'm gonna send, I'm gonna send a prophet. Then he goes more than a prophet, he says something, that we start to get a glimpse of the spiritual father, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and he will turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. You see what happens right now in society, many of them, they blame this and they blame poverty, and they blame, you know, upbringing and they Brandt blame all these things, but at the core of many of the problems that has turned into an epidemic in our society today is fatherlessness. Now, I don't just mean there's no father in the home lot of times, there's a father in the home, but he's not present as a father. Right. And we'll talk more about that this weekend. But being present as a father, it does something to it connects with the heart. And then there is a turning power involved. Right. There's this incredible turning power, Mallow chi, he's prophesied that the Lord will send the mantle of Elijah in the final generations to connect the generations at the heart level. Now we understand when we read the scriptures, please don't think whenever the scriptures prophesy, it's everybody in the world, right? We understand that. Right? We understand that many things that will come to pass will only come to pass is in those that is prophesied about not necessarily the entire world. But I believe that the Elijah Jesus that Malcolm is prophesying about, I invite you to look at Malikai four, through the lens of what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 11, interpreting scripture with scripture. I love the words of Jesus. Jesus words give us more clues about how to interpret Malikai probably than any other passage in the Bible, in my opinion. So this prophecy has a much greater impact on our hearts, when we start to realize we're in the prophecy in some way. Now, please don't miss hear what I'm saying. There have been people in history in the church, who God starts using their ministry really powerful. And there's one in particular, I won't name him. He's long, he's gone. Now gone away with the Lord. But he got to a point where his ministry was so powerful, he started to believe he was Elijah return to the earth. That's not what I'm talking about. Okay. He started to believe I'm the Elijah in Revelation. I'm the Elijah and Malikai. But really what we're talking about is many Elijah's you might say, Rod, where is that in Scripture? Hold on. We're almost there. This prophecy though, and Malikai is core to generational transfer. generational transfer happens because hearts are connected. If hearts are not connected, if the hearts of the fathers are not connected to children, children to fathers, then there is no power line for the for the power to transfer through. Right? Not just in natural families, but in spiritual families. People are wondering rot I've had, I've had fathers come and talk to me and say, I don't understand, I raised my kids in a powerful church. And three of them are agnostics, what's going on. And then we have difficult conversations. Because you can't expect the youth leaders to disciple your children. We've said this many times, they'll put the polish on for you. But you must disciple them. You must walk with God and bring them to walk with God with you. My spiritual fathers, many of them. You remember brother, Billy Skinner, he was one of my spiritual father, I think years, he would say, Rod, let's just pray. Andrew, you remember you were seven years old, and we'd go pray. And he just Come on, bring Andrew Moo, just pray. He was the oldest and he was old enough to go with me. And we've just spent two or three hours. And we just pray. And we had a big map of the world. And we'd pray and we'd walk with God, Together. Together. That's how people learn to walk with God is to walk with you, as spiritual family. And we've said this much, but there's a struggle going on right now throughout the world, in the house of God. And we're trying to use wine skins that don't have spiritual family in them. I'm not criticizing any of the wineskins. But I'm saying there must be spiritual family in the wine skins. And you know what every family needs a spiritual father and a spiritual mother. Every family needs a father and a mother. And fathers and mothers are different, but they must. That's how families work and operate and connect. And that's how generational transfer happens. And so a primary Oh, let me back up and say this before I say that. This is why Jesus, this whole idea of generational transfer. This is why Jesus says Elijah will restore all things. See, now, we understand Jesus didn't mean Elijah is going to come back and the whole world all them believers are going to be restored. That's not a good interpretation. And there's about 1000 scriptures to show us that that's not the way it works. But this this mantle, this anointing is the power of the Holy Spirit, to bring restoration in a person's life and restoration in families in the kingdom, physical families and spiritual families. This is the key to restoration. This is the key to what we're calling transformation or restoration. There are people in my life, there are people in this room. There are people in the other rooms of my life, who were this close to sliding off into hell? And if I had been a reverend to them, they probably would have but instead I was a father to them. I didn't do everything right. Please don't hear what I'm not saying that. This is the cool thing. Have you ever met other than God? Have you ever met a perfect father? Have you ever met a perfect mother? But yet amazingly, God uses us. He uses us just like we are. And he made many of us natural fathers and mothers, when we were far too inexperienced and didn't know a thing. And he made us a father or a mother. And some of us it took us about 15 years, and we look back and go, Man, 21 I've man, I'm sorry, I gotta apologize to my oldest son who's here tonight. I'm sorry. Because man, I didn't know anything when you were born. I knew nothing about fatherhood. I thought I did. Right. You know what I'm talking about. You've had kids for a while. Here's the point, God, he he says, Hey, listen, this is not about perfection. This is about humility. Because whenever you realize, man, well, I don't understand my kids, right? I need some help. Right? And then we go and our hearts are open. God knew what He was doing. He was making us teachable. Well, this is the same thing. Now. You don't have to wait till you're old to be a spiritual mother. You In fact, if you're 20, it's time to start learning. Let's grow let's let's invest, because you will have a powerful impact. I'll never forget our darn daughter, Nicole, I think she was in junior high or high school. And she started gathering these junior high girls together. And just what they call it daughters of the King, they call the daughters of the King. And she started investing into those junior high girls. And after about six months, I was like, of a toll Beth one Decimator. She, she's like their mother. They're telling her things that they should have been telling her mother, their mothers. They're talking to her about things that they should have felt open to talk to their mothers about. But she was mothering them. She was loving them. Like an older sister not going hey, let me teach you something she just come alongside doing life heart connection. Malikai for heart connection Malikai. For I tell people this all the time, if you have teenagers, one of the keys is don't lose their heart. But at the same time, you got to be their father, their mother, before you're their buddy, right? They got to understand that that's different. We're not here to teach on parenting. But the point is, this is spiritual parenting. Right? It this is awesome. And so this is the key to restoration. And so lastly, I want to look at Romans 11. Now that Paul has an interesting revelation, in Romans 11. Romans 11, verse two, God has not cast away His people whom he for new, or do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars, and I alone am left and they seek my life. But what does the divine response say to him, I have reserved for myself 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to bail, even so then at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Now there are these are those who Paul calls a remnant who are deeply devoted to the Lord Himself, and set apart for Him. I used to think the remnant just meant all believers. I don't think I believe that anymore after I went and study what he says in the context. From what we can tell, this is not used to describe all of God's people, or even all believers, but it's used specifically to describe those like a Elijah, God is responding to Elijah's description. Are you with me? And so he got Elijah, literally he gives a description. He goes, I'm the only one left there's nobody else like me. He didn't say like me, but he used the descriptions like him, Prophet, Altar builder, there's no more prophets. altars are torn down. All the dudes like me are dead, they're gone. And God and Paul says, God has remnant. God says he has 7000 Paul says God has remnant. It is a remnant of Elijah's. Are you with me? It's a remnant of people who have not bowed the knee to Baal, who are faithful, who are totally committed to God. And they are altar builders. Are you with me? These are people who are altar builders. And they have not compromised in their set of partners to God. Wow. So the implication in the call context of the scriptures are these are people who are unwavering. And their heart is like Elijah, they hear the voice of God. And they are altar builders. So they have this unique, supernatural ability from God, to connect at the heart level. Now this is something anyone can have. But they connect at the heart level. That's what we learned from Malikai. Then we learned also from Malikai, they carry a powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit to turn hearts. But then we learned from Jesus that there's a profound grace for restoration. So when Elijah tells the Lord, there are no more profits or altar builders, he's implying nobody like me, God says 7000. But the Lord specifically addresses his concern about no profits and no Altar builders. Are you with me? In other words, what I'm trying to say is, God did not say to Elijah, you're right, Elijah, there are no profits, or altar builders. They're all gone. But at least I have 7000 who am about to bail. God didn't say that. Are you guys tracking? In other words, God and say, Well, you're right, Elijah, they don't have these two qualities, but at least they haven't bowed their need to bail. I got 7000 He literally is putting that 7000 in the same category as Elijah. Right. Mm hmm. And then the part we miss usually in Romans 11. There's two words in Romans 11, that do not appeared first Kings. Paul did not quote that scripture verbatim. He says that the Lord, he says literally, that the Lord has reserved them for himself. Oh, wow. Now, as a guy who, Doug, you relate to this, Tom, as a guy who grew up, I say, grew up in the army literally lived decades of my life. When you talk about reserved, I have reserved for my 7000 What do you think about my, we think of Oh, God's got all these in reserve, just in case he needs them. In case this army fails, right here. That's the way we think you ever watched a movie with a battle? And then general goes put in the reserves? Right? I used to think of it like that. But God didn't say that. He said, I have reserved them for myself. Hmm. Now this has piqued my my my curiosity. God makes His primary purpose explicit for the 7000 that they are specifically for him. 7000 Elijah's. Are you picking this up? In other words, God makes it clear. They are like Elijah, he didn't say they're not like you. He's like, Oh, wait a minute. I have these in it. And he literally puts them in the same category as Elijah, and says, I've reserved them for myself. The others. Wow, these I call them unknown Elijah's. Perhaps for every public figure, I don't know what the ratio is. I'm sure it changes. But for every Elijah, perhaps there are 7000, unknown Elijah's. They're not burdened with the same encumbrances or obstacles, or cares of a highly public ministry, or the administration, or all of the things that take up their time and details, because they are able to be devoted to the Lord and to his attention. Very interesting. I'll tell you. Some of you know this, but I'll tell you, the more. The more senior we become this way that was in the military. Some of you relate to this man, the more senior you become, the less your time is your own. In fact, when I left, I retired earlier than I could have. And I told my boss I said, he said, Why are you retiring? I said, Well, I said, you know, Acts chapter six, he goes, Yeah, I said, were the apostles said, that we need we can't be waiting on tables. And so they delegated to seven men for the administrative duties. And they said, We must give ourselves continually to the Word of God and to prayer and they ordained deacons. I said, the more senior in rank I get, the more I'm doing the work of a deacon instead of an apostle. I said, that's why I'm retiring. And God told me to, but my point is that there is a place in God, where you may not be known by man. You may not be on TV. You may not be, you may not have a church of 10,000. Guys, listen, don't let the enemy diminish your call, and the importance of God's call upon your life. It is no less valuable lesson the Lord has reserved here for himself. I tell you a word from God that He told me to tell you that the Lord has reserved you for himself. You have been hidden, so that you can be with him, so that you can be with his people. And you don't have to worry about the encumbrances, of money, of fame I'm talking about in the church, I'm not just even talking about in the world. You don't want to be you don't want to be famous. You don't want you we want to be famous in heaven. See, the grass is not greener on the other side. And when you receive this word from the Lord, you will walk in the fullness of your calling, you will walk in it because the enemy will have no power upon you to diminish the intensity and importance of your call. Paul actually said he magnified his calling. Some people think what, we don't have time to go into that tonight. He magnified his calling. Paul was not as famous as we think he was. Because he's famous now. Now, yeah, he was kind of known around Asia Minor and what have you. But his largest church was Corinth, and most scholars save 75 people, right? He's doing what you do. He's going out and he's ministering to this little group of people when he's over here with these few people. And then he takes four leaders over here. And he goes, Hey, the cretins are hard Titus, take care of this, you know, and he's just out there doing God's work. When there's no TV, there's no radio, there's no podcast, there's no anything. And and Yeah, a few people know him well enough to get him in trouble and get him beaten up and thrown in prison. That's about it. Are you with me? The unknown of largess. Now, you may say, man, what is this have to do with restoration Malikai. Four, we have a lot of people are going to do a lot better job than me that connecting this to restoration, and connecting this to generational transfer. But guys, we got to get this part right first, because if we can't receive the calling, because it's diminished, and we don't see how important it is. Right now there are people sitting in this room. And your whole life was changed, delivered, saved from certain destruction, because of someone else in this room who walked with you through that trial. And nobody knew it, that person and you right? There are, there are pairs of people in this room that that's happened to. And I'm thinking of different circumstances in my mind right now. And I'm not going to say them. But there are silent heroes in this room. And I watched you walk with someone in situations. And literally you were walking in this mantle in this calling. Now, if you have this if this word is sunk into your spirit, that the real task is we have to impart it. That's really why we're here is to take what God has given us and impart it to others and say, God, I'm not just going to be a son, I'm going to be a father. Whatever your age is, if you're 18, if you're 20, if you're 25. If your ad, it doesn't matter, we say God, I'm going to walk, I want to walk like Elijah walked in this in this after the cave, part two, I want to live like that. Because this, this chain reaction is going to have an extraordinary impact in people's lives. Well, that's the that's most of it right there. But as we enter into these connections, and we're going to have some wonderful times together, please see where you are in God. You're important to him. Very important to him. Lord, we're so thankful that you have reserved so many for yourself. We're honored, Lord, to be in the inner circle with you. We want to be like Peter, James and John. We want to be like John. We want to lay our head on your chest and be close to you Do we want to be called the disciple whom Jesus loved? We know you love the others. But we want to see how you love us. Because we are that much better at loving others when we can receive that love. And Lord, we pray, I just pray for my friends, my brothers and sisters here, and those who are listening, open our eyes, open our hearts. I'm gonna ask our worship team if you guys would come up right now. This is our prayer, their hearts and minds, our lives, Lord, we will see who we are in your heart, and not who the world says not even who the who the popular Church says, but who God says, Lord, we love you. I just feel the Lord saying too many. Please, no and see your seat at this table. Not just the table of the Lord. But the table of those whom God has reserved for himself. Because when you can see it, you can walk in it. And Lord, we pray for eyes of faith to see here. And Lord, what a relief it is. Because in this we can let it go. We don't have to get the credit. Because we're right there with you. And you receive all the praise and all the glory in Jesus name. Amen.