Mantle Of Elijah, Growing Beyond Success Into Legacy (Part 2)- Rod Mills

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.
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Spiritual leadership, spiritual fathering, and generational transfer are irrespective of professions and positions in the natural realm. They are heavily influenced by Divine calling and Divine relationship. Though Elijah didn’t set out to become a spiritual father relational closeness with God transformed him into a spiritual father of prophets, kings, leaders, and many more.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):

​I shared last week that whenever I had been sharing on spiritual fathering, Dick dungun challenged me and said, I think you should spend more time and talk about this, the legacy paradigm and the success paradigm, we had visited that in our five, seven pillar series last year. But Dick had challenged me to do this. And so I went and studied it more expanded the notes. And he asked me to teach it at the men's sabbatical in Nebraska. And then, so I hadn't really taught it anymore after that. But I was preparing still, in the other series we were in, I just felt strong impressions from the Lord to teach it here, I felt like the Lord was saying, you'd need to go double down on this and, and really spend some time in mission house and do this. Now. If you're like me, I have to have repetition. Some of this you'll you've heard before, some of that you probably haven't heard before, because I tend to do like a review, and then the new stuff for review than the new stuff. So anyways, we're picking up where we were last week. And when we when we talked about we just talking about how when Elijah was in the cave, he made, there was this huge transition, he wasn't expecting to go from a success paradigm to a legacy paradigm. And I tell you guys, I feel, I feel what I believe is an apostolic burden. to impart. And I can't do this by myself, this is something we have to do a spiritual families, is we have to impart this as spiritual families. And so I feel this apostolic burden to that we need to do this. And it means a lot of things. It doesn't just mean, okay, we go teach on this series right here. This is kind of like part of the cornerstone of it. But there is a lot that God is giving each and every one of us, many of us that are here, many of us in other places. And I think that in order to impart this, it's going to take, it's obviously more than just me or you, right? I feel this deep burden to help people make this transition earlier in life. And I used to believe even after I learned about this, I started thinking, well, this is something that you probably want to do try and make this transition in your 40s. And I felt a conviction from the Holy Spirit saying no, just because that's the way you did. It didn't mean it was the right way. And I realized I was like, Man, if I had made this transition that Elijah made in the cave, when I was in my 20s, my life would be even more much more fruitful. I think even that it is. So now the task is to help others. Guys like you calling guys like others in your age group that, you know, guys like you all, you know that you're in your late 20s and early 30s. And, and it's like, let's do it. Now, let's not wait till we're in our 40s. And some people never make this transition that Elijah made in the cave. So there's a real crucifixion, there's a real dying to self that you have to have. Because that shift from your own success to the success of others. And what Elijah experienced in the cave is a radical shift in our living style in how we think and how we believe. So I want to pick up on this first part, some of you have heard me teach this. Some of you have heard me teach this several times. But it's part of this expanded teaching. So I want to revisit it, just so that we make sure we fill in all the holes as we make this as we build this wall that I'm reading from First Kings 19 In verse 15, And the Lord said to Elijah, go and return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus and when you arrive, anoint Hayes al as king over Syria, and you shall anoint Jaya who's son of Namshi as king over Israel, and Alicia, the son of che fat enable Mahala. You shall anoint as Prophet in your place. And it shall be the whoever escapes the sort of Hey, Xiao Jia Jia who will kill and whoever escapes the sort of Jehu Elijah 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. And so he departed. From there, he found Elijah the son of che fat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him. And he and Elijah was with the 12. And then Elijah passed by him, and threw his mantle on him. So he, I love this about Elijah, he obeys immediately. Like he didn't go, Okay, Lord, I'll visit him next month, he immediately went, and through his mantle on Alicia, and then we don't read this part. But the cool part about Alicia is a, Elijah immediately responds, he immediately responds, now he doesn't just jump, just take off and go with Elijah. He actually sacrifices the oxen, burns the implements of his profession, in the in the sacrifice in the fire, in order to say, I am completely leaving what I've been doing. And I'm completely dedicated myself to this calling. This is something interesting, many times when God calls us to invest our lives the way he called it, Elijah, he will call us to the lysis. And the mistake we often make is, is we try to pick the people we think are most qualified. I won't ask for a show of hands on how many have done that. But how many times have you gone? You know what I think we're going to invest into them. And they seem to be the most qualified, and they're really the most, and then you start investing. And that, you know, we talk about half the heart for God, availability, faithfulness, and teachability. And then you find out look, turns out, well, they don't, they're not teachable, or they're teachable, but they're not faithful, or they're faithful, but they're not available. And one thing I've learned is, if they have three of those, and they don't have four, it's really hard, it's still really hard. Well, when God calls us to the lysis, and I'm not talking about ignoring all the other people, right, we're not talking about don't minister to anybody else, we're talking about who we invest our lives into, completely. And those alliances are the people who go, oh, man I'm in. I'm in like, boom, I have a good friend who felt called to a church to go to a church in another part of the state years ago, 30, some years ago, and I had another friend and his wife, who said, We're called to be with you and to support you, whatever you do, we're called to do that. And so as soon as he said, Hey, I'm called to go and be in this church and be in this community. The other friends immediately quit their jobs, sold their house and move with them. And here we are, 35 years later, and guess what, they're still there. Because he was like, I am committed, this is a heart for God available, faithful, teachable, I'm committed to, to you and to the call of God here. And you know, usually the people who are committed that way to spiritual fathers are the people who are committed that way to spiritual sons. The people who are committed that way to spiritual mothers, are usually the same people who are committed that way to their spiritual daughters. You see what I'm saying? It's, you don't usually find them like, Well, yeah, I'll be committed this direction, but not that usually. It's just in them. That's who they are. I want to encourage us to keep our eyes open, our ears open to the Holy Spirit, our eyes open to who those people are. Because I promise you guys, I can make a promise to you. And I know that it's the truth. God will call you to those people. He will identify people, he'll say, Hey, did you see so and so? Did you think about Alicia over here. And I believe number one, this begins in our own families, our own natural families, parents have the primary discipleship responsibility of our children, not to youth leaders, youth leaders. I've said this for years as if you outsource discipleship of your children to youth leaders. That's a huge mistake, because you are their primary disciple errs. And if you want to have influence in their lives later on, you need to be influencing them while they're young. And I like to say it like this youth leaders, they're there to put the polish on. Right? They're there to help make it a little shinier, but honestly, we are called now I'm not saying God doesn't bring a mentor spiritual father, mother through the youth leaders that happens. And we embrace that because we realize as fathers or mothers, we don't have it all together. We don't have everything that they need. So we love that when God brings a spiritual father and mother, but don't outsource it then beyond our own natural family. God will bring people into our lives. lives. Now what I love to say is, did you notice how many people God said to go anoint? Three? Most of their time, when God's getting ready to do something big, he'll give you very simple instructions. We it gets complicated when we try to make it big and try to think we got to do all this stuff. And the Lord says, hey, this person, this person and that person, now, do you think maybe Elijah was surprised when he picks one prophet, one guy to be prophet? And he probably I think he was surprised when he goes, and I want you to go anoint these two kings, like, wait a minute, what kings like, I'm in the profit business. I'm not in the king business. A lot of times the Lord will call you to anoint and invest your life into someone. And you think, man, I'm not even qualified. Am I really qualified to be the spiritual father of a king. And we find out later, that's exactly what happened. Because when Elijah when that mantle was transferred to Elijah, he called Elijah my father, my father. Remember, when Elijah was passing? It was the king who called him my father, my father. So don't say to yourself, I'm not qualified, because I'm not a king, or I'm not a whatever, whoever God calls you, to you, if you look at it in the natural eyes, you'll say I'm not qualified. And God will say, Oh, no, you're qualified because I called you to invest in this person. And we all have stories of when this has happened. I want to read a couple of scriptures, from Corinthians. And this is going to tie back a little bit today's Mother's Day, this is going to tie back. I'm not trying to tie it back to Mother's Day, but it ties back to spiritual mothering fathering natural fathering and mothering. Because this transition that we're talking about, from the success paradigm to the legacy paradigm, is about being a father or mother. That's what it's about. And everything changes when you're a father or a mother. If you are if you're biblical in if you're being the way God is because no longer is it about who I am, or who knows my name, or how much money I have, or how famous I don't care about that anymore, right? Because I care about the next generations that God has called us to, because we are preparing them for the coming to the Lord. I want to read a passage from Second Corinthians chapter seven. I want to ask you to hear the heart of Paul. Just hear his heart, feel his heart. And you can decide whether he's in the success paradigm, or the legacy paradigm, whether he's Elijah before the cave, or whether he's Elijah after the cave. He says, Open your hearts to us. We have wrong no one. We have corrupted no one. We have cheated no one. I do not say this to condemn for I have said before, that you are in our hearts. Listen to this, to die together and to live together. Can you hear the heart of the apostle? Now it's interesting. He doesn't say to live together and to die together. He says to die together and to live together. That's intentional. Because he's talking about dying to our selfish motives. And the things that are for us the things that are for us, guys, they are wasted energy, they are wasted time. They are wasted resources. And one thing I found is if I care about the things God cares about, it's amazing how God can take better care of me than I can. He can provide for me better than I can. He has loved me better than I love myself. Every when I look upon my life when I tried to do it for me. And then I did it did what he told me his like, he's like, Rod, don't you see I love you more than you love you. And I care for you more than you care for you. And I provide for you more than you provide for you. You can trust me, to put it all for me and what I tell you to do. And when you do that you will never regret it. You will never regret pouring out your life being a drink offering for what God and who God calls you to. And so Paul is serious. He goes to die together, listen to his heart to die together, and then to live together. Great is my boldness of speech toward you great as my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all of our tribulation. In other words, all the hearts Ship all the difficulty I want to tell you guys, I love you, and it's worth every ounce of it. Can you feel his heart? For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. We were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts inside were fears. Nevertheless, God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the constellation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your morning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more, I am just feeling led to say, Guys, God is calling us to feel the heart of the apostle, a spiritual father. And you could say the same words for spiritual mother. This is truly a man who is living in that legacy paradigm and calling of the of the mantle of Elijah right here. I want to read another passage to you. Second Corinthians chapter four, so we'll take a left turn. Second Corinthians chapter four, I'm going to read verses seven forward, he says, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power of God may be the excellence of the power may be of God, and not of us. He's not even worried about himself. He says, We are hard pressed on every side, but we're not crushed. We're perplex, we're not in despair, we're persecuted. We're struck down, but we're not destroyed. We're always caring about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, there's that dine with us. And he embraced it happily carrying that cross, because of the reward of loving the people, the reward of investing, the reward of seeing the legacy of fruit. Now, I don't believe Paul saw anything like what was going to come of his labors. His the churches, Paul started were small house churches, the largest been historian say about 75 people in corrent. Paul wasn't a big man in the Roman Empire, guys, he was actually a wanted man in the Roman Empire. He's just a guy out there doing what God called him to do. And we can't see him as the famous man he is today, because that's not who he was. That happened 1000s of years later. And hundreds, of course, he says, For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. Now, going back to Elijah, this is what happened in the cave. He died to that whole success paradigm. He died to all those things about who he was in begin to invest in others. And I believe that what Paul is doing here and what Paul's communicating his love for the church and the people, he literally is operating in that mantle. And how fitting is it for today to be Mother's Day, because this is exactly what mothers do. It is exactly. And you know, what's amazing is God put it inside of you mothers, it's inside of you, you I'm not saying every mother has all the the need, but I'm saying there's a there's an intuitive, deep love that God puts now just imagine when that's combined with the spiritual mantle of Elijah as fathers and mothers, where we walk this way and we live this way. And we live poured out this way. And Paul, you never see him complain about the death that works in him. You don't hear him complain at all. He embraces it. He's like, Yeah, it's a sacrifice. But man, I sure do love these kids. I hated to call them kids. But you know, he's like, Man, I sure do love them. It's just worth it. It's worth every bit of it's worth all the suffering, the heartache, the trouble, the challenge, all those things. It's worth every bit of it. And so I'll read one more passage, First Corinthians chapter four. First Corinthians. Let me turn there, because I don't have it in my notes. First Corinthians chapter four, I want to read verse number nine. I believe yeah. He said, just for a moment I will say this, the apostles were all recognized as spiritual fathers. So you will even see this the they even their disciples that they trained up in the church even to this day. They are called the father of the church. So if you go back and look at the lineages, you can actually study the lineage. Who John discipled, who he discipled, who he discipled in the bishops that followed them the overseers that followed them, all of them were called the Fathers of the Church. And this is because the apostles did not come in as ministry executives or ministry leaders, they came in as fathers. And so their offspring in the church were recognized as fathers and the women's offspring, as mothers in the church as people. They were not recognized as pastor so and so apostle. So even though Yeah, maybe they knew they were apostle. But the point was, the title was not so much the church position as the Father position. And even to this day, if you buy series of their writings, they are called the church fathers, and that's the fruit of the apostles, and how they live. So let's read verse nine, he says, For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles last, as men condemned to death. Now, there's a lot of people today who call themselves apostles. And definitely they are not carrying this kind of feeling. They don't think this about the calling. It's more of an Executive leader who has makes a lot of money kind of thing. And I'm not bad mouthing them. I'm just saying that we need to recover some of this cruciform lifestyle, that Paul teaches us because we live sacrifice sacrificial lives, that's God's call upon us. He says, as men condemned to death, we have been made a spectacle to the world now get this, he says, both to angels and to men. He's saying, We're freaking angels out to. He's not just the people, we're not just surprising to the world. You know, you know that mean? Whenever somebody says something, and you're really surprised, and their eyes are real big, and their mouth goes, whoo, like that. That's what the angels meme is doing. They're looking at the apostles, and they're going what? Whoa, you know, they're surprised by it. He says, we're fools for Christ's sake. In other words, the world thinks, man, what are these people do a man, they don't think very highly of you. I remember a well known evangelist years ago, he said, you know, he goes for a while there. When I was flying on airplanes, people would say, Well, what do you do? He goes, I didn't want to tell him, I'm on TV. Or then I'm an evangelist, because man, that's a bad thing in their minds. So he said, I started kind of lying to him. He goes, Well, you could say, I'm a motivational speaker. He wasn't really lying, because he probably is. And you probably could say that. But it was the, it was the demeaning imagery. When you say, Well, I'm an evangelist. I go right. In today's world, that's not impressive to people. You know, but if you say, you know, most of us have been in the military, and you know, you say, Well, I'm in the military. Oh, thank you for your sir. How long have you been? Oh, man, you've been Whoa, man. And you know, they're ready to buy your lunch and give you a first class seat. And you know, all that. Well, yeah, that's really impressive. But man, you say I'm an evangelist or I'm a missionary, for the, for the Christian missionary. It's not so impressive anymore. Paul was running into that. They were not impressed in his day. He said, We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished. But we are Dishonored to the present our we both hunger and thirst and we're poorly clothed, were beaten and we're homeless man. Now we haven't had to go through a lot of that. I pray we don't but man, that's the way they were living. You know, they were barely making it. A said, and we laborer working with our own hands. In other words, we're not always taken offerings. Sometimes they did. But he says, Being reviled, we bless being persecuted. We endure being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world and the off scouring of all things until now. Why am I reading this? There was a sacrificial heart of the Father in Paul. He was willing to carry the cross. And I believe that I'm not saying that. You have to live exactly like Paul live, get beat up five times and get stoned and get flogged. 39 lashes three times and, you know, shipwreck three times and I'm not saying that but I am saying that there is a cost to being a spiritual father or spiritual mother. As we as we're celebrating Mother's Day today. When you make the choice to embrace One of the highest callings in the world, as a mother, there's a sacrifice involved. And the world was real quick to tell you, Oh, man, you're giving up this, you're giving up that you're giving up all these things. And very quickly, it can become discouraging if we don't carry the heart of a father or the heart of a mother, in our role as fathers and mothers, and as spiritual fathers and mothers, can you imagine the power of God that will be released in your life, the more you walk in this, now, guys, it'll set you free when when you don't care who knows your name, you don't care how well known you are, you don't care. If people know about your ministry, you don't care about it. Paul didn't care about that stuff. And too many are concerned about their brand and ness and that I'm not saying you guys are. But listen, we have a task on our hands. And that is to raise up men and women, excuse me, who are powerful in the kingdom of God. And it's easy for them to become derailed into the same derailment that Elijah experienced before the cave. And we talked about this, he was very successful in the ministry and he was ready to die. And it will set you up for failure until you make that transition. But once you make that transition, there's suddenly this extraordinary freedom to live and serve God. Because you have died to yourself, I have died to myself, I realize it's a daily operation. But when we do that, we can raise people up in a way that we could not before. And so my prayer for us is, I'm not worried about you guys in the obedience in this because I see your lives all the time I see how you operate and how you live. But the task to impart something is another matter. It's one thing for you to live and walk with God and serve God. It's another thing to raise people up who have the same selflessness. Right, who have the same cruciform lifestyle, who live in the same revelation. Now I tell you, the apostles did it in a heathen hedonistic kingdom, we can do it, we can do this. And no matter what onslaught and opposition is brought against us, there's nothing God was not prepared for. But he needs people who will live the crucified life. Maybe we could get one Amen out of that. Yeah, I mean, it's a big deal. Because that's the key. And that's what Elijah was doing. So as he transitioned in this legacy paradigm, this is what I love the righteous effects and influence of God's anointing on his life. We're multiplied into other leaders in their nation's spiritual leadership, spiritual fathering spiritual mothering, generational transfer, we're irrespective of the professions. Don't wait to you're qualified, you know that. It could be anybody that God calls you. They have heart for God, availability, faithfulness, teachability. He goes, Hey, did you notice that person, keep your radars up for those people. But as he was becoming a spiritual father, it was his closeness to God that actually made him this way. And I said last week, I don't think he ever set out to be a spiritual father. I don't think Elijah, there was no indication in Scripture that he goes, I really just want to go out and lay hands on other people to be powerful. You know, I think he wanted to be powerful you see that in and how I live, but he just doing what he knew was right to do at the time. So we see very quickly that the legacy of generational transfer, and impartation into Elijah's life grows into something much bigger. And I mentioned this before, several times. You don't see any sons of the prophets before this. Those were schools of Prophets, but the schools of the prophets had not been around in Israel since the time of Samuel. So during time of Samuel schools, the prophets rose up, and we see this generational transfer from Samuels life. And it began to raise up these groups. Well, we don't see that in Elijah's day. Until he anointed Elijah and the two kings. Then all of a sudden, we see schools of the prophets, but they don't call them schools anymore. They call them sons of the prophets. And here's here's the magic of this, if I can call it that. When you and I go out and we go, okay, the Lord called me to invest in these few people. I invest my life and to them and to their friends and family. That was my calling that was my, in the initial era Nova calling when I said, Lord, how do we do this? The Lord spoke to me very clearly, not out loud, not audibly, but in my spirit. He just said, why don't you do what I did? And I said, Well, Lord, would you do? And he said, Just invest your life into 10 or 12. People, their friends and family and the extended friends and family that come from that, go out to the nations and ministered serve the nations. And I and I remember thinking, Man, this is really different. You know, I've been doing things that in the natural looked more impressive, right? People were more impressed by nobody's going to be impressed if you do that. Like, I mean, yeah, some few people that are spiritually minded. But my point is, it's not impressive in the flesh. You know, no one's going, oh, yeah, you're doing something big, you know, and this and the other, but actually, it's really big. You see what I'm saying? And you guys know my response. And for those that are listening, I'll just say it. But I just remember I immediately I go, Lord, I don't know if I'm humble enough to do that. I mean, you can't you I learned a long time ago, you can't think something, not say it, and God not know it. You know, we see that with Abraham, you know, but you did laugh when Sarah laughed, you know, she laughs in her heart, and he hears her. So you might as well say it and say the Lord, I don't know if I'm humble enough to do that. And then I saw the heart of Jesus. And when I saw the heart of Jesus, I started crying. And I said, Lord, if it's closest to your heart, that's what I want to do. That's where I want to be. I want to be where your heart is. And look what God has done. You can never imagine that God would do so much. And we see that God took simple obedience, a Elijah anointing three people, and then it begins to grow and grow and grow and manifest and multiply. This is what's going to happen when you obey the simple call of God, to, to crucify your flesh, in what you're about. And you start pouring out yourself as a drink offering into those people. You have the heart of a father of heart of a mother, and you're investing, you're going to see the multiplication. Because it's not about can I go in knowing 1000 people, it's about anointing and investing into those three those 10, those 12 that God called me to. And then he uses them to do the same thing. And then he uses them to do the same thing. And that's what we call generational transfer. Let's pray. Lord, as we go deeper into studying this call, to be spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers, Lord, we're praying, give us the heart of a father, like Paul, give us the heart of a mother, like we see in Paul that sacrificial cruciform life, and Lord to not be afraid of carrying our cross. That's something I feel like the Lord's saying this morning, to some of us, perhaps here are those listening as the Lord says, You don't need to be afraid of carrying your cross. Don't be afraid to carry your cross. The grace of God is strong. It's not like you're barely gonna make it. I feel like the Lord saying, You're not, you're not just barely going to make it. So Lord, we thank You for this grace, to carry our cross each one of us. And Lord, it is a joy, to carry the cross to love these, whether it be kids, or whether it be kids in the kingdom, or whether it be your servants and Lord, the sons and daughters of the kingdom, to raise up in lysis, and Jack, who's who are anointed and powerful in this coming generation, to prepare for the coming of the Lord, even as you prophesied the mantle of Elijah to come in the last days and manifest for restoration of your people, as you prepare your people for the coming, that you return to the earth and invade this world with the presence of heaven, like we've never seen before. And so, Lord, we say, Come, Lord Jesus prepare us so we can prepare and do our work to see your return quickly. In Jesus name. Amen, and Amen.