THE PROCESS IN FINDING YOUR IDENTITY III

As the time came for a new prophet to be anointed by the Elijah, he chose a farmer. “So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by and threw his mantle on him.” (1 Kings 19:19)

It was the first time Elisha had felt a touch of the anointing. The touch did not cause Elisha to begin to walk in the prophet’s anointing, but awakened the seed of life in him that obviously had laid hidden in his human life. It stirred up a desire to follow and to find the anointing for his life that would separate him unto God.

“…For many are called, but few chosen.”(Matthew 20:16) We are chosen if we do the correct choosing. Many of God’s people are called, but they never choose to walk in the calling for which they had been anointed. Elijah never asked Elisha to follow him. All he did was touch him with his mantle. “… And he said to him, ‘Go back again, for what have I done to you?” (1 Kings 19:20)

Elijah’s mantle represented his identity as a prophet of God. In these biblical times, a man’s clothing always revealed his profession and social position. Mantle is from Hebrew word “addereth”, which means something ample (as a large vine, a wide dress) garment, glory, goodly mantle, rob. In Elisha’s case, it was the prophet’s glory which reached into his inner being to awaken his calling to see God’s glory for himself.

Elisha was a farmer at the time that Elijah touched him with his anointing and as this anointing touches our lives as it did Elisha’s, we have to make some decisions. Elisha had to decide whether or not he would break with his old way of life and completely cut off his ties with the past. He chose to burn his plow and kill the oxen. He chose to destroy his old identity as a farmer and all the attachments of that life in order to be identified with God.

Many people want to serve God, but they do not want to completely break with old lifestyles or securities in case the future does not work out as they hoped it would. We cannot serve two masters because we will become like the one we serve. If we compromise, our dedication will be a compromise.

After Elisha offered to God his past life, his old nature and his means of support, he became a servant to Elijah. Just because he had felt the touch of God, it did not make him a prophet. He could not minister in the role of a prophet until he had become a prophet. He had to have a new identity formed within which would give life to others. That is why he needed to associate himself to the prophet as a servant to learn the ways of his master.

To actually become a new person is a process that takes time. It is a maturing and growing process in Jesus. Many people profess to be something that they have not become, and their lives do not have the power to affect change in people’s lives.

Elisha went through some specific experiences in his transformation process from a farmer to a prophet. Each experience built upon the other to bring out the necessary work of the Spirit to prepare him for the impartation of Elijah’s spirit. The work that needed to be done in his life is illustrated through his journey with Elijah to the four cities. The transformation process touched every part of his trinity, his entire being, body, soul and spirit.

In His Love,
      Sigi

• David & Sigi's complete: International Schedule