“We have moved from Elijah to Elisha. We are moving from preparation to position. A new season is here!” the apostle prophesied.
I understood what he meant, and I was fine with the summation of the revelatory declaration.
- He didn’t mean the spirit and power of Elijah is no longer functional to prepare the Lord a people. That function never ceases. He was referring to a season change in emphasis. God characterized the next season by a different emphasis.
- He didn’t mean that we stop preparing or we have reached maximum preparation. He didn’t mean the kingdom no longer needs to prepare people. He meant that some victories won can now become a foundation for different battle plans.
- He didn’t mean that God wanted us to avoid any prophetic familiarity with Elijah anymore. Such an interpretation would be inconsistent with Biblical imagery. If applied to prophetic speech patterns, it would instantly move us into error.
He meant to communicate a revelation of parallels with Elisha in double portion. This is the first-born’s inheritance. The first-born inheritor receives a double portion. In this case, the distribution of Elijah’s spirit and power, as Elisha requested, symbolized by and available in his mantle. So, the prophetic word would speak to the preparation of next-generation spiritual leaders. The word would speak to Jezebel being directly and personally confronted. The word would speak to distribution fathering spirit and power within the spiritual generation.
It would not mean the person speaking is going to die. It would not mean the leadership of the kingdom was to be completely replaced by younger leaders. It would not mean that spiritual power doubled. It would mean that leadership emphasis and strategic focus would shift.
Prophetic communication does not walk on all fours. To take any prophetic reference to Scriptural history too literally is to miss the point of the revelatory style. God uses “simile” to speak of an aspect of relevant revelation. He mentions Elijah and Elisha for a very narrow, well-defined application. He speaks of some aspect of the historical reality applied to the immediate. That applies to a measurable scope of within kingdom, not a universal or a “from now on in every place” decree.
When we communicate an impression, vision, word, or decree, the prophetic process helps interpret, apply, and implement.
We have come to think that prophets need only announce. God can use a tape recorder for that. Prophets are leaders working with apostles as leaders. Prophets work at the blueprint foundations level. They are in the gates. They are elders with defined scopes of assignment. Prophets have a lot more “how to” in them than apostles. They are strategic with a wisdom revelation on when and how and who in mind. The instructional aspect of the revelation is immediately strategic, continuing the previous season’s strategy.
An apostle will tend to see this as another mountain peak of destiny without a complete picture of the valley in between. He will see a completed strategic goal. The prophetic process will fill in the valley, provide a map, detail a team job description, make how, when, and who clear.
Many time prophets in limbo or vacuum make prophetic communication about how, when, and who, without a reference point for the long-term strategic goal. They end up with the wrong people doing the wrong thing at the wrong place at the wrong time. They interpret the how, when, and who without the reference point.
Apostles tend to make announcements of what. Then, they assume that how, when, and who involves the people in front of them or some type of major move involving them personally. I know that many apostles think they are great strategists, and some of them are, but the most strategic apostles have strong prophetic inclinations. Those that do not, simply fail at one decree and move on to make another. Decrees pile up in a boneyard without fulfillment because the apostle is unwilling to involve strategic leaders in his myopic leadership style.
Returning to our original example…now apostles and prophets function together prioritizes what teachers do to prepare people for the next season. The announcements of evangels about kingdom flow from this framework. Shepherds prepare sheep with some long-term framework in mind. The whole building, body, and bride accurately anticipate the adjustments.
