Hello all, the message below is from our service yesterday at Calvary Army Bible Church - Warfare Tent, Ejigbo, Lagos (www.facebook.com/calvaryarmy).

I plead with you that you take time to read it thoroughly and if possible print it for continuous reading and meditation. The message contains God's instruction to everyone of us irrespective of our cadre. This message applies to pastors, general overseers, youths, ushers, choir, etc and even non Christians. Please, kindly share on your wall too and tag as many friends as you can.

It is my earnest prayer that God will open your eyes to see where you are missing it in Jesus name.

God bless you.
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DIVIDENDS OF EMPOWERMENT

2nd Kings 2:15 & 18
15 And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. 18 And when they came again to him, (for he tarried at Jericho,) he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?

The distinguishing mark between a genuine and counterfeit follower is the succession of the master. Elisha was not the only follower of Elijah. In the cities Elijah had his ministry; he also had a school of prophets. He had schools of prophets from Gilgal to Bethel, Jericho to Jordan. In each of these cities, he had at least 50 prophets implying that he had at least 200 student prophets. However, there was no successor amongst all of them. Every good leader in every generation looks forward to when his own life will terminate on earth with the focus on whoever will carry on the baton of that ministry as his major worry.

We live in a generation of outright rebellion. People no longer value what they will inherit after their leader dies but they are just concerned about what they will eat now. They will say, “The hand of God is upon me.” The next thing they go to do is to go and start a church saying God has told them to move forward. If rebellion, stubbornness and traitorship spirit is prevalent upon this generation, what will the coming generation inherit?

When Samuel the first great prophet in Israel, the man whom God raised under Eli was well stricken in age and passing on, he found no one to pass the mantle on to. He called the entire Israelites and challenged them asking them, “Whose goat have I taken?” He challenged them to choose whom they would serve. God honoured him such that not one of his words dropped to the ground yet there was no one to take up his position in the entire nation of Israel.

Generations upon generations continue to lose God’s generals all on the platform of looking down on God’s standard. God’s standard can never be limited to your own intellectual senses. The prophetic agenda of God has its own timing and when it’s time, there’s no amount of human pleading that will change or arrest it. When you come to the house of God, do you come with a totally receptive heart or with a selective heart – a heart that deliberately wants to pick and choose the words that are only suitable or comfortable to it?

I have discovered that many churches have now been taken as picnic centers where people gyrate and make noise. It is not wrong to sing and dance before God but the purpose should be to attract divine attention. However, if all these gyration and jumping up does not attract the attention of God, it means you have only come to entertain yourself in the church.

Out of 202 people (the 50 prophets in 4 cities plus Elijah and Elisha), only 2 decided to be compatible. Elisha made a very profitable decision saying “the crowd may decide not to join the two of us. What I am after is the double portion of Elijah’s anointing.”

The sons of prophets were following their leader from afar off, so also many people come to church not with the heart to grab whatever God issues from His sacred altar through His servant He has appointed such that their lives will be completely changed and humbled to do God’s will but rather they go to the church just to get God’s miracles and zoom off into their wayward life.

Closeness with God is what guarantees the outright transformation of your life. If you want to move your life closer to God, you must close your ears to whatever anyone is saying. You cannot melt the ego and pride of your heart if you are far from the fire of God. God is a consuming fire – unless we get lost in God in order to burn off the pride and ego in our heart, God’s greatness cannot be manifest in our life.

Elisha decided not to follow Elijah alone, he decided to follow through. He didn’t follow him with a skeptic mind. If you follow your leader with a skeptical mind, you will not go far. There are many fake prophets out there, yet in the midst of the abundance of the fake ones, the genuine ones still abound. Once you indentify the genuine one, hold onto the hem of his garment, ensure you don’t leave him and obey every instruction he gives you.

In each generation, there is timing for each prophet. When their time has not come, they cannot manifest at the level whereby their ministry will be known to the entire world. Why were the 7000 prophets not supportive during Elijah’s time? Elijah’s generation needed a prophet with a special gifting. Elijah could appear and disappear as it was what was needed to confront the tyrant rule of Ahab and his wicked wife – Jezebel. There is a special gifting for every generation for every prophet.

If you don’t have one mind with your pastor, no matter the mountain you go to, the voice of God will be closed against you. If you are not closer to God, you cannot know the mind of God for God detests the proud and those filled with ego.

How did these student prophets in the school of prophets know that the spirit of God on Elijah had fallen upon Elisha? They saw the practicality, the evidence of the power. It was not Elisha that publicized himself to them. The student prophets had observed the transfer of Elijah’s spirit upon Elisah when he got to Jordan and parted the river there after having smitten it with the mantle of Elijah.

Everybody who comes to church for sightseeing always finds one or two things to complain about. If you are not focused in following through what you came to the house of God for, the devil will show you so many sights such that you become a sightseer. Elisha had seen Elijah not change his apparel and he made a secret decision that it was that apparel – the mantle that he knew was the carrier of the power of Elijah was what he was going to get. The 200 prophets were only following Elijah afar off as they had no tangible decision.

Immediately the departure of Elijah took place, Elisha surfaced.

When are you warming up for a qualitative lifestyle that will impact your generation and the yet unborn generation? Do you want to pass through this life like a snake on a rock leaving no impact behind?

If not that Elijah had made up his mind, he would have been diverted. Remember the old prophet who destroyed the young prophet in 1st Kings 13 by deceiving him to come back and dine with him which ultimately led to the death of the young prophet.

Dividends of Empowerment
1. Elisha gained prominence immediately Elijah left. There was no need for any parochial committee to appoint him. You don’t cast election to appoint anyone in the house of God as you are not a politician. All those who are connected to God always have foresight of the future and already have it settled.
2. After Elisha gained prominence, he became dignified and honoured. 2nd Kings 2:15. 15 And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.” Nobody honours an empty vessel.
3. Elisha became solution to global problem starting with his immediate community – 2nd Kings 2:19-22. Every situation has divine solution if you consult God with humility and not with your head swollen up.

If you still keep ethnicity and tribalism in your heart, you will still go to hell. It is a chain of ignorance with which the devil arrests so many people into bondage. Every culture and tradition that the bible cannot change is from the devil and it will drag you to hell. Whatever tradition you cannot drop for the bible will lower your casket in the hottest part of hell.

4. Elisha became prominently popular among nations; that was why in 2nd Kings 5, Namaan the leper from Syria had to come and look for Elisha. If you encounter the power of God, even if you are living in a tattered jungle where there is no electricity there, presidents will come and look for you.

If you want the secrets of your enemy to be exposed, the earlier the better as empowerment is important. You don’t have to be a prophet before you are empowered.

5. All things work for you – they answer for you. It is not you doing it; it is the power doing it. You can now see the difference between empowerment and empty-headed religion.
6. The life of Elisha became fulfilled. How? He never bothered to go back to his father’s home town. Wherever he was, people came to look for him there. It was needless seeking the assistance of man.

Jesus said, “And ye shall receive after that the Holy Ghost comes upon you.” It was after Peter received power that he became a solution to his generation. God empowered him such that his shadow began to chase out demons. That is what is called EMPOWERMENT.

However deeply soaked in water a piece of cloth is, it will be completely dried when it is spread in the sun. How much more me when I am empowered by God? You say your child is disobedient to you, it’s because you are not yet empowered.

God does not confine His power to only one person; He wants to empower every one of us. It was the spirit of unstable commitment that afflicted the sons of the prophet such that none of them was able to even get a single portion.

One of the most backward trends in this generation is to see a servant of God with three universities yet members of his church are not able to afford such universities for their children. Any church that is closed towards evangelism and is extorting the members of their wealth deserves to be closed down completely as that church is a wicked church.

If you pursue God, God will baptize you with blessings – seek you first the kingdom of God.

There is no spiritual experience without a price.

PRAYER
- God, close every evil fountain in my life, let evil fountain flow no more in my life.
- Cry aloud; every element from the kingdom of darkness that is deposited into my life repelling my close relationship and contact with God, catch fire.
- Pray this prayer 3 times; Hand of fire, come upon my life, crush everything that is not of God, everything that God did not plant in my life and blow them away.
- Hand of fire, come upon me, and empower me for consistent and permanent followership. I want to follow God till I get God.
- The power that cannot be cheated, afflicted and oppressed, enter into my life today.
- God, let the vengeance power come into my life such that the enemy will not afflict me and go scot free.
- God, the power that will reveal me to my benefactors and my helpers wherever I am hidden, God release it upon me.