I'll Take Two

And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?"

Elisha said, "Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me."

So he said, "You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so." 2 Kings 2:9-10

Elisha was Elijah’s “Prophet in Waiting.” It had been revealed to the prophets that Elijah would be taken up to heaven alive and Elisha seemingly would now be his replacement.

Elijah asks Elisha what he wanted from him before he went up and Elisha makes a bold request to receive a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, and he does. Elisha had the nerve to ask this man who, among other things, had stood up to a king, killed the prophets of Baal, raised someone from the dead, and brought down fire from heaven to give him two times the spirit that he had.

When I look up at those who have gone before me and see the great feats of Christian leaders and missionaries I say in false humility, “I could never do that. There’s just no way! If I could be half the man he was, I would be content.” Imagine now if Elisha had asked for half the portion of the spirit of Elijah. What would the future have been like for Elisha? Human attitudes limit the power of the Almighty in vessels of weakness. Why do we say “I hope I can be half the man that he was?, If our marriage could be a 10^th of what theirs is, if our kids were a 20^th as good as theirs are.” The equations are endless if we want to think that way. It is because we are such nice people. We don’t want to be seen as audacious, or presumptuous. I have an answer for that: Stop being so nice, offend some people with your boldness, presume a little. Don’t worry about whose toes you step on and just go forward in God’s plan for your life. It might be that he wants you to be not the next Billy Graham, but the next _____________ (fill in the blank). Jesus said, in John 14:12 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” You see the truth is that God does not need another Billy Graham, or CT Stud, or Dwight L Moody, or James Kennedy. What God needs is you. He needs you to be a person who is not afraid to ask. Elijah said to Elisha, “You have asked a hard thing.” Jesus says to us in Luke 11:9-10, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

We “are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner [stone].” Ephesians 2:20 The things we do therefore are eternal in the Lord. In 2 Kings 13, after Elisha had died, men burying a friend had to stop because of a military incursion into their land, so they put the body of their friend into the tomb of Elisha. When the man’s body touched the bones of Elisha, the man came back to life. This represents our lives having an affect on people even after we are gone.

We must believe God for hard things. Thankfully we have many examples of men and women who have gone before us who can show the way of faith.