Seasonal Relationships ~ God’s Providence!
Seasonal relationships are part of God’s providence and his sovereign will in order to transfer power and to carry others into their divine destiny!
The LORD is speaking strongly to my heart! Many of us will have what is called a seasonal relationship when it comes to meeting new people because the LORD is using this time for a period of training and impartations!
Many of us think that those we come into contact with will be for long term but just like Elijah they shall disappear! The reason being, is because they are there to push you into destiny. Sometimes this is hard for some people, because they get attached to those whom they come into contact with and develop what is called, “separation anxiety”
This usually happens in infants and small children who leave home, or in people to whom the individual has a strong emotional bond or an attachment. They may go through periods of loneliness, sadness and even depression, because they miss someone very close to them.
But God wants the people of God to know that in this season, while you are in the training and impartations stage of your ministries and assignments, you cannot afford to become to attached to anyone or anything!
Why? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s, (1 Corinthians 6:20) and the earth is the LORD’S, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein, (Psalms 24:1).
Whatever God says, that is what we do and say! The people of God are not led by emotions or feelings but by His Spirit!
You see, as it comes towards the time when Elijah was to be taken up to heaven and he and Elisha are together, traveling from Gilgal, Elijah asked Elisha to stay where he was whilst Elijah goes on to Bethel. But Elisha says he wouldn’t leave him, so they travel onwards together closely like a father and a son would in a relationship.
However, the prophets of Bethel also know what is about to happen, because God has revealed it to them! So, they approached Elisha and asked if he’s aware that the LORD is going to take Elijah on that day.
Elisha says that he knows. Elijah says he must push on to Jericho like any father would, because the work must go on, whether they are together or not – but that Elisha should stay put.
Again Elisha insists on going, and not leaving Elijah, so they travel onwards together. Elijah is a mature prophet and he understands that this work is not about a permanent bonding, but it will be seasonal!
The LORD is saying that many of His people have not grown up off the bottle and like Elisha, they are looking for something permanent, where they can experience a bonding and nurturing relationship.
But how can God enlarge your territory if you never fly the coop and refuse to leave the nest and live on your own as a mature adult in Christ?
Again Elisha holds on for dear life like a little child wanting a sucker afraid he will miss his time and his season, not knowing that God is in control of all things!
The prophets of Jericho came and asked Elisha the same question and Elisha said he knows that the LORD is going to take Elijah on that day.
Again, Elijah stress an important revelation to Elisha and says he must push on to the Jordan, but that Elisha should stay put. For a THIRD time, Elisha insists on going with him, so they walk on together because Elisha did not want to miss his inheritance!
Fifty prophets have accompanied them to this place and, at a distance, face Elijah and Elisha at the Jordan.
Elijah takes his cloak off and strikes the water with it – the Jordan river parts, and they cross over the river on dry land finally making it to their destination. But notice it was Elijah pushing this baby out continually, telling Elisha he must push on to his divine destiny!
Elijah was not going to allow Elisha to cause him to miss God all, because he wanted his inheritance, but he remained focused on the vision! After he reaches his destiny, then God allows him to deal with the impartation to be bestowed upon Elisha and grants his request!
Elijah offers Elisha any last request – ‘What can I do for you before I am taken from you?’ Elijah knows his time to depart has come!
Elisha asks, “A double portion of your spirit.” Elijah suggests that though this is difficult to promise, yet‘if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours’.
Even though Elisha was seeking an impartation from Elijah, he still had to come to the realization that it still was not coming until it was time after all the following him and staying close to him. His request did not come until God’s divine timing; His calendar!
Sometimes we get in a hurry to receive the things of God, but God wants us to know that they come with a price a condition and stipulation placed upon them!
After all that following this great man of God, the impartation that Elisha sought for was now close to being birthed from the womb! Even though he had already spent so much time following Elijah already he still had to wait on the LORD!
God makes us wait so that he might be glorified! I know religious leaders want to feel as if they are the ones dropping mantles and ordaining folk, but God wants us to know we go by his biological clock and time tables and not man!
We as a people have no control over whom he sends or anoints! Come on somebody, you might give and hand out titles, but no oil will flow unless God approves it!
I can’t stress this enough! God wants His people to know that I don’t care how much you follow a person to catch an IMPARTATION or a mantle, if God has not birthed that office or gift into your inheritance, it will not come!
Elisha felt pressured because he knew Elijah was soon to leave and the prophets kept reminding him, but it was not until God got ready that this impartation came!
You can carry suitcases, shine shoes, pray, be faithful whatever but your inheritance is in the hands of God and not man!
You see, the ‘double portion’ represents the first-born son’s inheritance – a double portion for the son-and-heir, and a single portion for other sons. Elisha is asking to be Elijah’s true heir.
Many have developed separation anxiety and they are afraid to cut the apron strings, but the time has come to leave the nest! Suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared, and Elijah was taken up into heaven in a whirlwind.
Elisha is just stunned and stands shouting, ‘My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!’ It is hard to understand why, because it had been told to him, that his master was leaving him!
Elijah disappears from his sight, and Elisha tears his own clothes in anguish and sadness!
When the changing of the guards come, so many people cannot believe God has taken their master away; their love ones. But God has warned us over and over again to be ready and still many seem to think it is surreal and this cannot be real – even the prophets who warned him, could not believe, just as Elisha did.
But God is still warning us that many are here only for a season and when your assignment and mandate is up just like Elijah you shall then pass your mantle on and impart it to the one that God assigns it to!
So Elisha picks up Elijah’s cloak (symbolic of passing / receiving the baton), and when he arrives back at the Jordan river, he strikes the water with Elijah’s cloak, and the waters part for him. Clearly this indicates that the ‘God of Elijah’ is most definitely with Elisha.
The results are in and the ballots cast! This is no fake anointing, but it is pure oil, dripping from the beard of Elijah on to Elisha! The LORD sent confirmation!
The prophets from Jericho saw all this and recognize that ‘the spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha’.
Whenever God places you or anyone else in a vacant seat or office others will also confirm it and bear witness to what he has done and it will no longer be a secret between you and God and he will bring you out of obscurity for all to see his marvelous masterpiece. HIS FINISHED WORK!
The prophets went to meet Elisha, and bow before him, (Honor / reverence). They asked that they might go searching for Elijah – ‘perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley,’ not knowing that this was a permanent move of God. That was a new season for the Prophet Elisha, because his time had now come!
Elisha urges them not to waste time looking for Elijah, but they will have none of it, and so fifty men are sent to search for him. Three days later they return with no news of Elijah, and Elisha says…’I told you so!”
A new season has come and many are coming out of old relationships into a new season!
See: 2 Kings 2.
~ Apostle Geraldine Fisher
Apostle Geraldine Fisher has a World-Wide-Social Media Net-Work Ministry. As a Missionary, God moved her into the Office of a Prophet, revealing to her the qualities of a True prophet, humility, humiliation, loving others, interceding in prayer, as she keeps her own life clean to accurately hear from God. Since hearing the audible voice of God calling her to ministry, she’s been called to intercede and pray for others in ministry as God speaks, instructs, directs and gives prophetic words for her to give to others. God promised He would bring her to sit and to learn before great men, all of which He did!
Shalom, sister Geraldine. I am blessed by your post. Yesterday I saw a mother and daughter, and I was so glad to see them! I said to the mother, “one minute you were there, and the next minute you were gone!” She said to me: “the work goes on!” Then I understood and I said: “times and seasons!” I was able to release them to the Lord and ask Him to bless them!
May the Lord bless you mightily!
Give God praise