Double Anointing: Lessons to be Learned from Elisha

FROM THE BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF TOTAL FORGIVENESS

God uses people as they are and will let history determine one’s legacy.

This book will guide me through the challenges and blessings of receiving God’s anointing so that I can use greater wisdom and discernment of how to properly use a double portion of anointing.

Next to Moses, Elijah was the greatest prophet of the Old Testament. But he was so human—so much so that James said he was "just like us" (Jas. 5:17). One day he challenged the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and fire fell from heaven. The next day he was running from Jezebel, scared to death. Toward the end of his ministry Elijah selected an unknown person—Elisha—with no obvious qualifications to succeed him.

Elijah was Elisha’s mentor, but they were different. Elijah was colorful; Elisha was by comparison colorless. But God’s hand was equally on Elisha as with Elijah. In a short period of time Elisha put a bold request to Elijah, asking for a double portion of his spirit. It was granted. But how was this manifested? That is what this book is about.

The anointing can be manifested in more than one way; we must all discover our anointing and live within it (Rom. 12:3). Elisha’s double anointing was partly in quantity rather than quality. Elijah performed something like seven miracles; some of Elisha’s miracles overlap with Elijah’s. But the total of Elisha’s miracles comes to at least fourteen, including raising the dead, as Elijah did.

These things said, the two men were different in personality. Elijah ended brilliantly. Elisha ended not only as a lackluster successor to Elijah but in personal disappointment. This is a reminder that not all saintly Christians end their pilgrimage with sensational testimonies.