Hidden Elijah's And Melchizedek's Of The Kingdom (Part 1) -
​Rod Mills

God is calling us to be hidden Elijahs, a part of the remnant set apart for God, whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. The calling of being a hidden Elijah is more than just being a part of the family of God, but being those who are intentionally listening to and hearing God, who are quietly walking in full obedience to Him.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):






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​All right, well, it's been a few weeks since I've taught, we've been having some great teachers, haven't we, man, I've enjoyed it. I've taken a lot of notes I, I tell you, Heidi's teaching last week on the honey and the bees, we've got to get that recorded, we did not have the ability to record that with good quality. Now, I'll get Dan on it and help us because he can actually help us do the recording on Zoom. And it's pretty good. But that was a phenomenal teaching. She's done that twice for us in Michigan House, and then in one of the prayer councils, but phenomenal. Also, just to let you know, Janae is helping us right now get all of the teachings transcripted. So that they will be also in words, and you can get those and then also, each individual teaching having its own page on our website. So that'll help with the search features to be able to get that. So lots of good things, we're actually working on some more stuff that you'll be really excited to hear about. And I'll let you know about that later. But right now, I have, you probably forgot what series I was on. But I was doing an expanded teaching on spiritual fathers in the mantle of Elijah. And you guys, here's kind of what's happening. For me, I feel like this is I'll call it an apostolic mandate for us as a spiritual family from the Lord, to to minister teach and impart this message to the church in many places, and other nations as well. And so what I'm doing is not just teach the same thing over and over, but teach from different perspectives. In other words, like, if we were to take something, set it here in the middle of the room, and we say, Brad, describe what you see, well, you're going to describe it from the angle that you're sitting, and you're going to see it from different shapes and forms. And then Mike, you share it, and then you guys share it, and then you guys share it, and then over here, you guys share it. Well, pretty soon, you're gonna get a perspective of whatever it is we're describing, from many different angles. And I think this is going to be important. But there was a sub point that we were teaching, and I did not get into this in the seven pillars teaching series last year. But we did get into this and spiritual fathers in the mantle of Elijah and this concept of what we call the unknown Elijah's or the hidden Elijah's And then Paul talked about it in Romans 11. So we introduced this concept, but we didn't go real deep into it. In previous studies, we were examining the connections of the words of Jesus in Matthew 11 and 17, regarding this mantle of Elijah, the prophecy of Molokai in Malka chapter four. And by the way, you don't have to write all this down, you could go listen to those teachings there in the teaching library, if you just do a little search in there. And then we looked at the words of Gabriel in the angel and Luke one, when he talked to John the Baptist as parents or father, about John the Baptist, in the mantle of Elijah, he called it the Spirit and the power of Elijah. And then later on, Jesus just says, John is Elijah. And we understand that doesn't mean he was reincarnated. We understand from the words of Gabriel that Jesus was talking about the Spirit and the power of Elijah. And then Paul's words. In Romans 11, he talks about the hidden Elijah's or the 7000, that God told Elijah, remember when in First Kings 19, when when Elijah had that encounter with God in the cave, and he was saying, I'm the only guy left and nobody does this, and nobody does that. And I'm the only guy. And we'll cover a couple of those verses today to remind you, and God reminded him or didn't remind him, he told him, he says, Hey, I have 7000. And then he God gives a description of who those people are that whom John had, I mean, whom Elijah had also given a description, and we'll cover that, but we see that I'll tell you this. Paul's words caught my attention Romans 11 Because Paul reveals a little bit more about those people that we didn't know about in our readings in First Kings chapter 19. And as we've pressed deeper in the studies, and this is getting exciting for me, and I'm not going to be sharing a lot today, but I'm hoping to next week provide We can get there. But I'm really seeing a lot of significant connections between the hidden Elijah's and those who whom I'm going to call the Melchizedek of the kingdom. And there's been different words about the Melchizedek. 's and, and kind of a fresh move of Melchizedek in the kingdom of God. And there are different people have been sharing about this in the body of Christ. But I'm going to share with you what I see as a lot of the common denominators. And I believe, we may be looking at the same mantle of Elijah, if you will, or the same spiritual DNA, if you will, that God is describing in the Melchizedek priesthood. Now, obviously, we this is calling this is a calling we see in Hebrews, the Melchizedek priesthood is a calling upon all believers, but I'm not so sure all believers really enter into that it's like anything in life. There are many areas to obey in. But do I enter into each of those areas in every area? So a lot of people will look at obedience almost like a checklist, it's like, well, am I checking the block, not realizing sometimes, that obedience is actually the opportunity to enter into a whole region of blessings. So every area everywhere God tells us to do something, or gives us counsel, or gives us a commandment, think of it as a doorway, or as a trailhead, into a region of God's blessings. Everything God tells us to do, and the enemy gets this turned around. He's like, Oh, God doesn't want you, you know the words. He's, if you do that, you know, God just doesn't want you to have fun, or he doesn't want you to do this, or he doesn't want you to do that. And what he's doing is he's putting up all the detour signs he can at the trailhead, to keep you out of that region, to keep you off of that mountain to keep you out of that land that God has for you. And every area of God's calling God's commands, God's directions to us, is a trailhead into these regions of blessing. He wants to bless our lives with extraordinary real estate, extraordinary regions of blessing. But many people do not enter in because they are afraid of the trailhead, they're afraid of the doorway, they're afraid of the commandment, they're afraid of the calling, or their you know, either I say they're afraid, either they, they're afraid, because they feel like they're gonna miss out on something in the world. Or they're afraid because they don't think they're good enough, or they don't think they're qualified or that they, they can't fulfill what God has for him. There's a lot of different regions that God or that the enemy, will put to keep people out of those trailheads of those blessings of God. So, in this, we're talking about the hidden Elijah's, but as we do, I'm hoping next week to connect this to what I call the Melchizedek of the kingdom. And I believe God is calling us to enter into a region of blessing and a spiritual anointing, the mantle of Elijah, that is very, very unique. It's definitely unique in the world. And when I say unique, it's not the majority who are entering into this eve, we know that's not true in the world. I mean, we know it's true in the world, the majority is nine are into it. But even in the church, there are many who do not enter into this Elijah calling of spiritual fathers and mothers and, and this heart connection that God has called. But today, specifically, I want to spend more time and we'll do a little bit of review, but this review will also be an expansion will. So we'll review but we'll also expand into some of this a little further and talk about the hidden Elijah's what I called also the unknown Elijah's, I like calling them hidden because they're not unknown to God or to heaven, even though they're often unknown to the world. So we'll start by reading out of Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. And I'm going to read starting in verse two, and I'll read through verse five, and the king New King James Version. He says, Paul says, 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? This is what Paul says God said to him. Part of this is in the text at first Kings 19. And part of this is not in the text. But Paul tells us God responded to Elijah and said, I have reserved for myself 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to bail, even so at this present time, there is a remnant remnant, now he connects the word remnant, to the 7000. And he says that remnant is according to the election of grace. In other words, Grace, elected these people in the heart of God. He says in, let me say this, and let me just define remnant for a moment, in in this passage, these are those whom Paul is calling remnant who are deeply devoted to the Lord Himself. And they are set apart for Him. It's not just believers, okay? There, there are people who believe God in that time, but were they entering into this level of obedience and setting themselves apart into God, and God says, are 7000, who have set themselves apart? In other words, they didn't just believe that I'm their God, they didn't just believe that, that they were in the family of God or in the family, you know, the tribe that they're in, in the family of God, that there are 7000 that he gives very specific, Elijah and Paul, give spirit very specific characteristics of, and Paul, when he says it is repeating what God says. So we therefore understand, as he's been inspired by the Holy Spirit, this is what God is saying. This is the only place in the New Testament where the Greek word for remnant is used. It's the only place, man now that has my attention. Because this is not a word, the writers of Scripture just kind of throw around and use in their writing. This is the only place we see it in the New Testament. And from what we can tell, it's really used to describe those with very specific characteristics, as I said, and I'll get into that in a moment in Romans 11. Paul is describing those whom Elijah describes as non existent. So Elijah thinks they don't exist. Paul describes them. And Paul's repeating what God says, and what Elijah said in First Kings 1910. And we're going to turn there now and look at first Kings 19, for a moment. So this is interesting in First Kings 1910. Elijah describes who doesn't exist people like me, is what he's saying, he's not being proud about this. He's really concerned that people are not being set apart to God, and are not walking in this way. And so he's so concerned that he turns around again, four verses later says the same thing again, if not verbatim, really close to verbatim, and we'll read it. So first Kings 1910. This is Elijah interacting with God in the cave. And Elijah says, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant. They have torn down your altars, they've killed your prophets with the sword, I alone am left and they seek to take my life. Now, four verses later, let's read verse 14. He said, I have been very zealous for the Lord God 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. Have you ever done that with God? Have you ever had a prayer time and you're like, Lord, and you just start laying it out? And you lay it out? And you lay it out? And then a little while later you're praying, and you realize you're saying the same thing to him again? Have you ever done that? I've done that many times, I've done that. And I'm like, Okay, wait a minute. He already heard me the first time. He heard me the third time. And he heard me the 10th time, by the way, in Scripture, when somebody says something twice, you guys understand, these are not transcripts. This in fact, this is a side note, but this is very important. You guys keep consider this. The Bible is not a transcript service. God didn't have a recorder. transcripting voice to text. And your Bible is a voice to text of what Jesus said or what Elijah said, this is really important. A lot of people get confused by this. So what'll happen is, you'll have one, one author in the gospels will say and Jesus told them on the mound this and then the other author is saying, talking about the same exact sermon, and he says something different. And then and then there are atheists and people that don't want to believe and they go see, the Bible contradicts. Well, there's not anything's not being contradicted. It's kind of like today, if you take notes and you guys take notes, and You guys take notes and you guys take notes. And then you say, God says, I want you to write down what happened there. And you say, well, he said this. And then you say, he said that, and they say he said this? Well, it's gonna say all kinds of things, right? Because you're hearing different aspects of it. So anytime you see something in the Bible, like, for example, Elijah saying it in verse 10, and then saying it in verse 1014, that does not mean he only said this to God two times, it means that it was so much on his heart, he said it more than once. The truth is, he might have said it to God 20 times we don't know how many times he said it. But the Bible is not a voice to text transcription of what took place there. It is the recording of the general facts of what happened in that place. But needless to say, we know this was really on Elijah's heart. So from Romans 11, in the story that Paul relates of Elijah's interactions with God in the cave, from First Kings 19, we begin to see that the remnant are those who are deeply committed to God, not just believers, but people who have this deep commitment to God. Now, I always made the assumption, well, I'm in the remnant. And maybe that's true. Maybe it may be no matter what you're in it, no matter what if you're a believer, but I am starting to believe that the remnant specifically is parallel to the 7000, which is parallel or is transmitted is is communicating as such that there is a certain set of characteristics of these people who are Gods seeker. So we understand several things about these people from First Kings 19. First, we understand that they are like prophets, in that they are people who listen to and hear God. So he's, for example, he says, he says, they've killed your prophets with the sword, and I'm the only one left now what is a prophet? Now, I understand that a prophet is someone in an office in that time. But I think there's a bigger message here. I think that he's concerned that there's no one hearing what God says, and speaking what God says. Some people get hung up on it, as in the office of the prophet. And yet, let me give you an example, in the New Testament, when Paul is talking about people who prophesy, he'll use the terminology, he'll say, oh, may prophesy one by one. And then there's another tent to place where he's speaking about the general population of people prophesying or speaking, prophetic words, and he'll call them prophets. But some people say, that's not prophets with a capital P, that's prophets with a small case p. In other words, he's just saying the people who are saying what God's saying, not necessarily all the people in the prophetic office, and I believe that we can see something very similar here. He is concerned that there's no one hearing and speaking what God says. So we understand that the remnant or that the 7000, are, in fact, people who are hearing and speaking what God is saying they're engaged in it. Another thing is their altar builders and altar repairs. So not only are they people who are reflecting God's expressions faithfully, they're also people who are building altars. Now, he he said that the altars were torn down. See, he said, they've torn down your altars. In other words, there's no one building altars. What did Elijah do? Remember? Elijah built altars and he repaired altars. And again, he's not talking about carpenters at church. Are you tracking with me? He's talking about people who spiritually are altar builders. What are altar builders? These are people who establish fortresses of relationships with God, for themselves. And for others. I'll say it again, Altar builders are people who establish spiritual fortresses of relationships with God, for themselves and for others. So that you think of this an altar is a place where worship happens. An altar is a place where prayer happens. An altar is a place in life, his life where fire happened, right, the fire came down and consumed the fact vice. Some people look at the fire coming down like it was consuming people are destroying and killing. That's not what happened. It destroyed the sacrifice. It was literally the manifestation of the presence of God, from the spiritual realm to the natural realm. An altar is a fortress, it's a place in space and time where God brings manifestation of His interactivity in the heavens onto the earth, but I call it a fortune. is because that activity is fortified, that activity is consistent. That activity is sustained at an altar. You can pray anywhere, you can worship anywhere. But the altar was the place the fortress, where there was sustained worship. And I don't mean every minute of the day, but there was worship and it was sustained. And there was interactivity with God. It was a fortress, if you will. It was spiritual fortress. And so we see that the 7000, or the remnant, or altar builders, they are people who establish these fortresses. All we're doing is just describing what we see here in the scriptures in First Kings 19. And then we will in Romans 11, also, and some of the other passages that describe the mantle of Elijah. The next thing is, they are covenant keepers. So here's what he said, he goes, Israel has forsaken your covenant. There's nobody else like me. He's saying, who keep your covenant God? Where are the people who keep the Covenant, the covenant of God, the covenant, within there are several covenants of God, right? There's there there's the covenant of Godhead with Israel, there's the marriage covenant, there's the know a covenant. There's Abrahamic covenant. There's the new covenant for us today. But the key is that a lie just concerned that there's no one keeping covenant with God. There's no one walking in covenant with God, that's his concern. And so God when He corrects him, God is pointing out there are these people, they're in there, 7000. And these, Paul said, are the remnant, they're covenant keepers. These are people who keep the covenant, you starting to get a picture of who the remnant is, we're starting to get a picture of who the 7000 are. Now, a wider survey of this remnant, from the descriptions of Jesus, the descriptions of Paul the description of Malikai, and the descriptions of Gabriel, the angel and Luke one. And these come from scriptures if you want to write these down, or you can go listen to our other teachings there in Romans 11 Malikai. For Romans 11 Malikai, for Matthew 11, Matthew 17, Luke chapter one in First Kings 19. Now, other than First Kings 19, we're talking about the references to Elijah. And when you look in there, you'll see that Jesus was not talking about a reincarnated Elijah, like I said, at the beginning, he was talking about how Gabriel described, John the Baptist would come in the Spirit and the power of Elijah. And then Jesus says, John the Baptist is Elijah, understanding, he's talking about the anointing. And he says in Elijah will come again, and bring restoration. This idea is that I believe there are people rising up in the final generations, who will walk in this mantle of Elijah, and we see this prophesied in Malikai, chapter four, verses five and six. And you could see that there as well. That the the A Elijah would come again and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and children to the fathers. Now, there is some teaching in the church that Elijah will actually come back to the earth and do this. I don't know if that's true. If he does, he does. But my point is, I believe there's a greater meaning here, I believe, when you look at the words of Gabriel in Luke one, and you look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 17. And Matthew 11, what we actually are seeing is an anointing we're seeing that people who have a relationship with God in this particular way, ie covenant keepers, Altar builders, they're people who hear and listen to God and express God faithfully in the earth. And the other things, of course, that he says there. We see from Malikai, that these, this anointing, if you will, and I believe, what are the people who walk in this, this is my belief in the interpretation of that they have a unique supernatural ability from God, to connect at the heart level across generations. This is why we call them spiritual fathers. And we've done many teachings on why the Scripture, we I believe why I believe the Scripture reflects that Elijah was a spiritual father. And Elijah was because they were called Father, unlike all the other prophets, and we see this anointing and Malikai for being prophesied. I believe he's talking about maybe even in an entire generation. I believe there are many who will rise up in this anointing rather than just one John the Baptist. But, again, you can read those scriptures, don't take my word for it. Go read the passages, and really meditate on all these passages and see what the Lord shows you. They carry a powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit to turn hearts across generations to one another. So they have this this supernatural ability this moment What Malikai says to turn hearts of fathers to children, children to fathers, what happens when you connect hearts of fathers and children? What happens? something amazing happens. Let me ask you this way they use an illustration. What happens when they connect a power line to the grid, the electrical grid and the electrical grid in your house? What happens? When there's a connection, suddenly, your house your home is powered by the electrical grid, there's a transfer, right? What happens when you connect hearts, there's a transfer. What happens when you connect hearts from one generation to the next? There's a generational transfer. And I believe this is critical for our day. This is a big challenge right now in the church. The culture has turned hedonistic, like the Roman Empire, the culture has turned wicked and anti God in many places, in many areas, it's getting worse. It's not going to get better. Darkness will increase like Isaiah prophesied until it covers the earth. But a rise shine for your light has come as what Isaiah prophesied, the people of God have the choice to rise up and live in the light of God. Don't let the darkness intimidate you. But I'll tell you this. It won't be organizations and executives that bring generational transfer, it won't be church executives that bring generational transfer, no matter how good they administrate, no matter how good they can have programs, no matter how much money they can raise, it will not create generational transfer, spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers actually bring about generational transfer. And I believe it's by the power of the Holy Spirit. And this transfer happens. Because it's a spiritual thing. It's not a natural thing. There must be an intimacy with God, to become that spiritual father or mother. And then in that intimacy with God, there's a transfer that starts to happen. Because the ability to connect Hearts is something that happens by divine power, not just by human power, we can no longer treat parenting as a natural enterprise. Parenting is a spiritual enterprise. You guys know that. If you just treat parenting as a natural enterprise, there'll be a lot of things you won't be able to do. But if parenting becomes a spiritual enterprise, that means it's their spiritual activity, there's natural activity, there's intellectual activity, there's whole person activity, then suddenly you begin to have an influence in the hearts of your children on a level you didn't have before spiritual fathering, and mothering is a spiritual enterprise, it is not just a natural enterprise, the impartation that happens from one generation to the next must be divinely powered and divinely influenced, not just you and me in our own energy, trying to talk the next generation into doing the right thing and stay out of the fire, right? It is a spiritual enterprise, and it's divinely empowered. Wow, man, do you love this as much as I do? I can tell this is exciting, because this is the call of God and these generations, and I'm excited to be a part of it. These these people that we're describing, we learned from Jesus are granted the power of the Holy Spirit to bring profound restoration. This is the way Jesus says that in Matthew 17, verse 11, indeed, Elijah is coming first. And He will restore all things. He doesn't say he just says will restore all things again. What are we talking about? Do we believe in reincarnation? No, the church does not believe in reincarnation, when but he says in verse 12, but I say to you, Elijah has already come, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise, the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands. Then verse 13, then the disciples understood that Jesus spoke to them of John the Baptist. So the disciples understood Oh, yeah, Jesus is not talking about reincarnation, he means that what Gabriel said that John was walking in two things, the Spirit and the power of Elijah. And this, I believe, is the same application. For the first words, Jesus said when he said, Elijah is coming first. He's talking about people who walk in the Spirit in the power of Elijah, that is as a spiritual father, and I believe women spiritual mothers, when Elijah tells the Lord, that there are no more people like he describes in First Kings 1910 The Lord assures him, there are 7000 like Elijah. However, we learned from Paul in Romans 11 That God adds to more qualifications of the hidden 7000 This is interesting Because the Lord specifically said, let me read Romans 11 For to you again. But what does the divine response say to him? I have reserved for myself 7000 who have not bowed the knee to bail. Two things he adds to their qualifications. In other words, Elijah named Lord, there's no one. There's no one keeping your cover, and there's no no air, the altars are broken down. There's nobody here and God, I'm paraphrasing. There's nobody hearing and expressing faithfully the voice of God and the earth. You know, I'm my paraphrase. God says there are 7000 Oh, and by the way, they have not bowed their knee to Baal, and they are reserved for me. They are reserved by God for God. Ah, whoa, that's different. That's more than what he thought. Do you see what I'm saying? This gets really interesting. For every public, Elijah, you see, there are many, that God reserves for himself, maybe 7000, maybe 70,000, maybe 700,000. Now today, we have so many people in the world, maybe for every public, Elijah there 7 million. But the point is, there are many unseen Elijah's there are unseen people who walk in this spiritual DNA we're describing, I'm calling them Elijah's who are not known. They don't have a public, well known ministry or big church, or, you know, and they're not, most of them are not pastors anyway. They're people who walk with God and do these things. So some people have thought, perhaps, God holds them in reserve in case of an emergency, and he needs to replace a public, or a well known Elijah. You know, like, you guys all know, like, some guy does the wrong thing. And he has a moral failure and God goes up, we got to bring up the reserves. Now, those of us in the military, this is the way we think, because that's the way we war fight. There's always a reserved right there, you know that there's always a reserve force. And that's the way we think, Oh, the reserves are just there. They're the they're like, there's they're there on the bench in case we coach needs to put them in, you know, well, that's probably true. But this is more than just sitting on the bench. God didn't say, I got 7000 sitting on the bench, but they're not players. But they will be if I need him. He doesn't say it like that. He says that he has reserved them, not for the battle. He has reserved them when the guy falls. No, he says he's reserved them for himself. You see the difference? Yeah, they're the reserve, but they're not the reserve like we think the reserve. You guys getting this? Yeah. So God makes His primary purpose explicit for the 7000. In this passage, the others whom God reserves for himself, these are the unknown obliges, those who are not burdened by many of the same encumbrances and cares, have a highly visible ministry or church or you fill in the blank, highly visible, they're not highly visible, or public, something where they have to spend all their time in ministry. Now you guys know what I'm talking about. Many of us in this community, have spent our lives many of us in the military and a lot of us at senior levels in the military. And you know, what happens when we got to the senior levels, different levels, we're doing all this administration, the more you know, the more you're administrating. And you really lose your ability to to be closely connected to people in the same way that you were, or that we were when we were in the lower ranks, right? Well, I believe that we can see something similar here. And that is, that if, if we, if we are connected to heart, sometimes we have to sacrifice something, we have to make a decision. Which am I going to do? Am I going to am I going to focus on over here and try to make this so big that I'm no longer able to connect to people? Or am I going to be connected to people? I'm not saying that that's always a sacrifice for some people, but for some people it is. And the essence of this calling for us is to walk in these characteristics in our walk with God in our walk with people. And so I believe, and I'll say this in several different ways, but I believe the key is don't worry about how influential you are. Don't worry about your brand or what people me there are people who have no business at all, but they have a brand on Facebook and Twitter and or what's it called x now or I don't know how to how to say that But on social media and all the different social medias, and they almost even individuals almost have a brand and society is teaching them. Oh, you know, if you're going to influence people, you got to have a brand people are going to think of you a certain way, well quit worrying about that. Let's focus more on what God's called us to do. And people God's called us to influence. These are the unknown Elijah's, they're deeply devoted to God Himself. And they deeply devote their lives and time to God, and to his people. And also the things that are, excuse me, deeply on his heart. And they may say, Guys, these people are not hard to identify. Let me just read a few descriptions. And we'll we'll probably stop there after I read these descriptions today. Because we'll kind of be at a breaking point. But these are people who prefer personal intimacy with God, and legacy, more than public recognition and success, whether it be success in ministry, success and business success in their promotion levels, or what have you. Number two, these are people who are more concerned about being famous in heaven than known on the earth. Hidden Elijah's, keep in mind, Elijah didn't even know about him. Not only did the people not know about him, Elijah didn't know about him. And I think if they weren't pretty hidden, Elijah would have probably known about him. Their lives are usually characterized by relative obscurity. A guy's listen. There's too much of the opposite of this. There's an anti Elijah thing going on right now in the world, anti hidden Elijah thing, you track with me on this, that everybody wants to be famous. I mean, everybody in their brother is trying to get on or their sister is trying to get on social media. They're trying to get their channel going, they're trying to get this going. They're trying to become an influencer. I understand not everybody, but you know what I mean, a whole lot of people are so focused on what people think about them, and who knows them. And this is epidemic, if you're as old as I am, you really start to see this, because I'm comparing it to how people were when I was a teenager, people weren't like that. And we see and we see this, you know, it's, it's really hard for me in my age to understand how people can go kill themselves when they feel bullied on social media. And the reason why is because I wasn't raised in the atmosphere, where we even care about what people think about us on social media. You know, it's kind of like, oh, somebody said something bad about you, I don't care. Why do I care? You know, but if I grew up cultivating a love of what people think about me, and I grew up constantly being focused on that, suddenly, I'm very vulnerable. Set, do you see what I mean? Certainly, I'm very, very vulnerable. And we have to have compassion on young people. And this is not just young people. Now it's actually people getting older than young, depending on your how you see age. The point being, that it's kind of the opposite. It's kind of like, right now, there are some news agencies who have a policy, that if a masked killer or somebody kills a bunch of people, or does some really wicked things, they will not even say their name. You guys know that right? Some of them they'll go and the guy who killed bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. And it's our policy not to say that any names why? Because there's people so perverted and so warped in society, they want to be famous, even if it means they're famous for killing people. This is the distortion of the world we live in saying, You're not significant unless you're famous. You're not significant, unless you're known. Listen, I got good news for you and me, we are known and we are loved, and we belong. And there is a majority of the congregation of heaven, the witnesses of Hebrews, that Hebrews describes the great heavenly company. Listen, you are very well known. You are very well known. Does that make you I mean, you listen, this has to be a revelation that we see that we are known. We're not just known by God. We're known by the heavenly company. And we are supported by the heavenly councils and we see them in Daniel. We see them in Revelation. We see them in several different books of the Bible. And listen, you're very well known, and you're loved and you're cared for, and you belong to an eternal family, you can't get more significant than that, right? Who cares on the earth who knows your name, you see what I'm saying. And so the world right now is running in the opposite of this hidden Elijah spirit, they're actually telling you, you're not significant. Unless people know about you, you're not significant, unless you've got a good brand, or this or that, or you make money or you know, all those things. And these people, they are more concerned for the next generation, than they are their own success. Ah, if you're a parent, and you have children, as they grow up, you really start to understand this. If you're if you're mature, not some parents don't think like this. And that's unbiblical. But as parents, the more you love kids, the more you love your kids, even when they're grown, especially when they're grown. You're like, Man, I want to do everything I can to help them excel beyond where I was. This is the nature of spiritual fathers and mothers. It's the very nature. Even Jesus did this. Remember what he said to the disciples, he says, these works, and greater works than these, he's talking about that he had done. You shall do because I go to my father. In other words, how if the Son of God can raise up disciples and say, You're gonna do these works, and you're gonna do greater works than me? What? Like, who is doing greater works than the Son of God? I'm like, I would say nobody, except Jesus said that, right? The point is, Jesus is saying, I'm going to raise up people who go further than I went, because I have to go to my father, that doesn't, he's not saying, well, you're better than me. He's not saying that. But I want to raise up a generation who go further and God than I went, Oh, go deeper in Him, who go further, who go beyond what we've gone beyond. No scientist who's a teaching at the university goes, Well, okay, I want all my students to just get to where I have stopped. And that's it. You want them to stay want them to start where they left off. In other words, they keep they give them their research, they teach them what they've learned. And they say, Okay, this is as far as I've gone. Now, you take it and you go to the next level, you go to the next step, that's what science has done for years. And that's the same thing we do as as spiritual parents. And hopefully, as natural parents. We're more concerned for the next generation than we are our own success. And that's what that shift we talked about with Elijah. That's what happened to Elijah in the cave. Remember, when we talked about the transition from the success paradigm to the legacy paradigm, this and you don't have to wait till you're old to make that transition. The earlier you make it, the better off you are. The earlier we transition to the legacy paradigm, the more we live the crucified life, the more we quit worrying about us and start being concerned more for others that God's called us to invest into. They are more concerned with the kingdom's branding than the branding of themselves are their own ministry or their own social media, or whatever, because building the kingdom is more important than building their kingdom. Or let's get a little closer to home, their ministry. Let's get a little closer to home, our ministry. Because this is not our ministry. I mean, it is in that God gives a stakeholder ship. But as far as ownership go, instead ownership, it's our ministry and ownership. It's his ministry. Ultimately, this spiritual family and spiritual family of families is here, to serve Him, and to serve his people and to build His kingdom. Because the day will come when this ministry, if you will, will end but this spiritual family will not right it will this spiritual family will live on and our legacy shall live on both on the earth and in the heavens. And our legacy will continue and it will continue to grow. Because usually, I've noticed that when God does something like this, he has the future in mind. In other words, he's building for the future and most of the future that God is building for is not the future on this earth. It's the eternal ages and many of the plans of God that he has in the eternal ages. We don't have time to teach on this, but I want to just say it, and we'll explore the scriptures later. Many of the plans of God in the eternal ages have already been birthed and are at work here, right now. The relationships that are being formed and developed the work that we're doing in here His kingdom is the embryo of things to come in the coming ages, not just what we're doing. But the relationships that we're in. All of these things have a strategic continuity with eternity. And Jesus taught this, I don't have time to go into it, but we can talk about it later. They are more concerned with fathering sons and daughters are of mothering sons and daughters, then they are seeing how many sheep they can gather in one barn. Now this has become a problem. I want people to go to church, I want people to be saved. But when the church becomes so focused on how many people they can gather in a building, instead of how many sons and daughters they can raise up, it's not that they're focused completely on the wrong thing. It's that they're prioritizing the wrong thing, right? You see the difference. And some churches are really good at not doing that some churches are really bad at it just depends on that particular church. But the idea is, it's not about how many people you gather into your barn. So you can build bigger barns to gather more people. It's about how many sons and daughters and disciples we're raising up in the house of God, to do the work of the Kingdom of God, because ultimately, we're here to build the kingdom, not our ministry. Spiritual fathering, and mothering is more important to them, than impressing the world with the size of their business, or the size of their influence on their job, or the prowess of their ministry, or the prestige of their title, or their position or their rank, or you fill in all the other blanks. The point is the spiritual father and a mother and is much more important to them, because the people are more important to them than they are. Now, I don't have to ask you. I mean, you wouldn't have to think very long. I'll say it that way. You don't have to think very long if I asked you and I'd say, Do you know people who you know, they can't do that, because they are more important to them than the people around them are in their lives. Most of us have worked for some of those people at some point. And man, it's tough. When they're the most important person in the room, don't be that guy. But you know what, I don't want to just not be that guy. I want to be the opposite. I want to be the opposite and be like God was training Elijah there in that cave, and everything shifted. It's not a lesser honor to be one whom the Lord has reserved for himself. It's not a lesser, less honor. It's not there's not less honor, in being called to love and serve God in relative obscurity. Now, when we say obscurity, that's a very relative term people know you, they love you, you have an influence in people's lives. But that doesn't mean you're famous. You know, I was I mentioned this here a while back, I was reading this article of certain famous people. And they said, every time this person tweets or sends out a message, certain kind of message, they make a minimum of $80,000 in one tweet, now, I know everybody goes, Man, that'd be pretty nice. Yeah, that'd be pretty nice. But the point that I'm trying to make is that if you don't have that kind of influence, pretty soon if you live and immerse yourself in that world, you'll start to think your obscurity equals in significance. Well, first of all, you're not obscure, you're called to the realm that you're called to. Don't worry about if that realm is big or small, or expanded or not expanded. Just be faithful in that calling that God has given you. And some people, especially even Christians, and people in ministry, they try to, in the name of influence of the kingdom, they try to become famous. And when they do that, they're literally start focusing on the wrong thing. I'm gonna tell you, you can build a big ministry, that's not hard to do, if that's your goal. But it's really hard to do. If that's your focus, it's really hard to build the kingdom if you get too focused on the wrong things. So don't think that whatever relative obscurity, you find yourself in, that you're less significant, I promise you you're not remember what Jesus said, even in giving with a widow, she gave to mites. And Jesus said, she just gave more than everybody. God's economy is not our economy. When you come into the days of coming before the Lord, and you stand before the Lord and I stand before the Lord, he's not going to say, well, how big was your ministry? Or how many of this did you? He's going to say? Did you do what I asked you to do? Were you faithful with what I gave you? And I want to be able to say yes, Lord, to the best of my ability, you know, and Lord, it's all yours anyway. And Jesus said this, that the righteous servants will say, Lord, we're just unprofitable servants. Now, somebody said, does that mean In that the ones that Jesus really approves of is all the unprofitable servants. Well, we know that's not true. Because remember what he said, the unprofitable servant went and buried his talent. He said, You wicked servant. Right? What he's saying when they, when he in the parable, when he says they will say, Lord, we were just unprofitable servants. He He's teaching us what their heart will be. And I pray that will be every one of us, I pray that we'll be all the people God's called us to love and serve. But the idea is, is that we recognize that there was no prophet that I could possibly bring that God did not bring it because of his power in my life, his motivation in my life, his grace in my life, his gifting. In other words, without him, I couldn't have done it, right. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, man, I love this. These are the hall of heroes who God has chosen to forego fame and notoriety, in earthly circles, and even in Christian circles, in order to more deeply devote themselves to God, through prayer, and His Word, to devote themselves to Him in His ways. So in the Christian world today, one of the keys to notoriety in large ministry, it goes back to things like administration and organization and all those things, I'm not bad mouthing those things. But I want to put them in their place, they have a place, and their place is not first. So keep that in mind. We'll talk about that a little bit next week. But Lord willing, next week, when we enter into this, we will start to explore the Melchizedek of the kingdom. Now, guys, this is gonna be exciting, because I think we're gonna see is the Melchizedek 's of the kingdom. And the hidden, Elijah's are very similar. They have a lot of similar qualities, their spiritual DNA looks about the same in many ways. And I want to talk about that. I'm hoping we can just get right into that next week. But we'll see how it works out in the notes this week. And we'll go from there. Amen. Let's pray. And then we'll open it up for discussion. Lord, we thank you so much. Oh, what a Lord, we just thank you that there's a seat at the table for each of us. Lord, in that great day in the marriage supper of the Lamb. We thank You that Lord, we're not far off from the greatness of the kingdom that you long for us to have. Lord, I pray for all my friends here, those that are gathered on Zoom, those that are gathering to listen on the teaching library. Bring a spirit of humility and the fear of the Lord into our lives deeper and deeper, more and more, so that we may live as faithful servants of Jesus Christ your Son, so that we may live as the Hidden Elijah's And, Lord, if, if you call some to not be hidden anymore, that's fine too. But Lord, no matter what help us to be humble, and to be faithful, and to love you and recognize that Lord, we're just unprofitable servants, but by your power, you bring profit and fruit of all kinds, but it's not us who has done it, it's you. But help us we pray be faithful in this so that you can bring it to pass. In us also. 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