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The rise of the house of Elisha, part 1

We completed the work of the house of Joseph when we poured out the seventh bowl of wine and water in Babylon, NY on October 7, 2006. The bowl of water was thrown into the air, following the example of the seventh angel in Revelation 16:17, while the group shouted, “It is done!”

At the Tabernacles conference in Reading, PA the following week, we reflected on what had been accomplished since the first bowl was poured out in October of 2000. Much had been revealed to us that we had not known prior to walking out this pattern. Our understanding of prophecy had been increased greatly as we focused on the Scriptures relevant to our work.

It often happens that God does not reveal the nature of the next work before we finish the previous one. This case was no exception. When we tossed the last bowl of water into the air, we immediately began to discern that this day marked the beginning of Noah’s flood. While the rain fell for 40 days and nights (Genesis 7:17), the waters prevailed over the earth for 150 days (Genesis 7:26). This, then, established the timing of a prophetic work 150 days later.

The Two Floods

While Noah’s flood removed the breath (ruach, “breath or spirit”) from all flesh (Genesis 6:17; 7:22), that same flood prophesied of a second flood that would put the Spirit back into all flesh. Joel 2:28 says,

²⁸ It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind [basar, “flesh, gospel, good news”]; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. ²⁹ Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

The Hebrew word basar has a dual meaning: flesh and gospel. The word prophesies of those who would believe the gospel that Jesus spoke. Those who believe are said to be eating His flesh (John 6:51). The prophet Joel adds to this, prophesying that the Holy Spirit was to be poured out on all basar.

When the flesh of an animal was sacrificed under the Aaronic priesthood, it represented Christ’s flesh, which was then eaten (unless it was a burnt offering). These sacrifices prophesied of the day when we would eat Christ’s flesh spiritually by believing His gospel. In other words, those who believe that Jesus is the Christ and who believe in His first mission on earth—to be the Sacrifice for the sin of the world—are those who are of His body. We become what we eat.

These are the ones who will receive the Holy Spirit, which is the antidote to the effects of Noah’s flood, which had removed the ruach of life from all flesh. The day of Pentecost in Acts 2 was the start of this, but not its fullness. The fullness required a second work of Christ after the Age of Pentecost. That second work of Christ is what we today are seeing. When it fully arrives, we will see a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit under the anointing of the feast of Tabernacles.

The second work of Christ, however, has not come immediately. Much preparation work has had to be accomplished first. Babylon had to be brought to judgment through the seven bowls of wine that were poured out from 2000-2006. On the positive side, the seven bowls of water that accompanied the wine prophesied the outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh.

Yet these were still just prophecies of future events, for Babylon’s God-given dominion did not end until October of 2017. The real preparatory work was to begin after this work of the house of Joseph had been completed. It was to be done through the house of Elisha, the prophet who received the double portion of the spirit of Elijah (2 Kings 2:9).

Elijah and Elisha

Many today are looking for the coming of Elijah (but, unfortunately, without remembering Moses!), as prophesied in Malachi 4:4, 5, 6,

⁴ Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. ⁵ Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. ⁶ He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.

The angel Gabriel revealed to Zacharias that he would have a son (John the Baptist) who would be anointed with the spirit and power of Elijah. Luke 1:13, 16, 17 says,

¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John… ¹⁶ And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Jesus later said in Matthew 11:14,

¹⁴ And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.

After Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus explained to His disciples the connection between Elijah and John the Baptist. Matthew 17:10-13 says,

¹⁰ And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” ¹¹ And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; ¹² but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” ¹³ Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.

John was “Elijah” who was called to prepare the way for Christ’s first coming. In that sense, “Elijah already came.” But Elijah was neither raised from the dead nor reincarnated, for John himself testified in John 1:21, “They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” No, he was not literally Elijah, but he was anointed with the spirit and power of Elijah.

 The spirit of Elijah is the anointing that was upon Elijah.

Jesus said also that “Elijah is coming,” implying that another “Elijah” must prepare the way for Christ’s second coming. In fact, neither of them were literally Elijah. In fact, when Elisha received the double portion of Elijah, he too became “Elijah,” only with a greater anointing to complete the calling that Elijah himself was unable to finish. Elisha too came in the spirit and power of Elijah.

What we learned in 2007-2009 was that John the Baptist was Elijah in his day, preparing the way for Christ’s first coming, but that there is an Elijah company in our time that is called to prepare the way for Christ’s second coming. Because the second coming of Christ now includes His body, with Christ as the Head, so also Elijah has come through a body of people whose work is in the spirit and power of Elijah.

Yet this body is better compared to Elisha than to Elijah himself, because the double portion is needed to complete the work. Elijah was a great prophet, but Elisha was greater. Elijah performed eight miracles; Elisha performed sixteen under the double anointing. Likewise, John the Baptist was the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets, but under the New Covenant we have a greater anointing. Jesus said in Matthew 11:11,

¹¹ Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

To be greater than John the Baptist is to have an anointing greater than the spirit of Elijah that was upon him. That greater anointing is the spirit of Elisha, by which we today have been doing the work of preparing the way for Christ’s second coming.

The Remnant of Grace

When Elijah was too exhausted to fight Jezebel anymore, he fled to Mount Horeb where he sat in the cave (1 Kings 19:9) where, no doubt, Moses himself had once sat. Paul too went there to receive his revelation of law and grace (Galatians 1:17; 4:25). That cave is still there on the original site that is now called Jabal al-lawz.

God did not condemn Elijah for fleeing in fear from Jezebel, but there God revealed that He had preserved a remnant of 7,000 who had not bowed their knees to Baal (1 Kings 19:18). When Elijah returned to Israel, he passed the mantle to Elisha (1 Kings 19:19). Essentially, his calling had come to an end. It was time to pass it down to his successor.

The double anointing given to Elisha empowered him to finish the calling that Elijah had been unable to do. I believe that this was made possible by the prayers of the remnant of grace. Whereas Elijah had worked largely by himself, being ignorant of the remnant, Elisha knew about them. (No doubt Elijah told him what God had said.) Being in unity with the 7,000 as a body gave strength to Elisha that Elijah did not have.

So is it today. There is an Elisha company, no longer an individual acting alone, but a body of people—the remnant of grace—working and praying together to ensure success and completion. This is what I call "the house of Elisha." We are part of the greater work of preparing the way for Christ’s second coming and the outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh.