We are entering a time where radical obedience is more important than ever before. The Spirit is leading me to do a series of blog-posts on obedience since it is a topic that He has laid heavily on my heart.
Before you continue to read, remember that the motivation behind everything God does is always love. He loves us and therefore calls us to obedience (more on this in the next blog post).
The Obedient Will Enter into Higher Realms of Authority
In 2019 I had an experience that the Lord used to teach me the importance of walking in obedience. As I was spending time with Him, I felt He was calling me to enter higher realms of authority.
That day I was struggling to breakthrough deeper into His presence, but I felt a prompting in me “to press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14).
The Lord showed me layers of victory in the spirit, and only when we have broken through one layer, we can enter into the next level. This is how we train ourselves unto godliness (1 Tim 4:8).
I kept pressing in and eventually, I felt the perfect peace of the Fathers’ presence. I saw a vision of a Lion’s face and I heard the words “The spirit of Elijah.” I then saw mantles of Elijah being released from heaven. It was such a heavy weight in the spirit that I could barely keep standing.
The Lord showed me that these mantles will be given to very specific people in the body of Christ. I received the scripture:
“Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things,
which you do not know”
~ Jeremiah 33:3
These great and mighty things are found in higher realms of authority. We will access it when we call on the Lord’s name and set our heart’s desire on Him.
The Lack of Obedience in the Body of Christ
Immediately after I had this intense encounter, I had a very strong feeling that the body of Christ greatly lacks obedience.
A strong conviction came over me that we do not listen and obey. We hear His words but we do not put them into practice. According to scripture, this is what a foolish man does, and his fall will be great on the day of testing (Matt 7:26).
I realized that we are so eager to receive the supernatural gifts and that everyone wants these mantles but God simply cannot entrust it to people of disobedience.
I saw a vision of what this looks like in the spirit. I saw people with layers of cement all over their bodies. Each time they hear the Lord speak and they do not obey, a layer of cement flows out of their hearts.
This then forms a thin layer over the body of that person. The more the person ignores the voice of the Holy Spirit the more cement is being secreted from the heart and the thicker the layer of cement becomes over their body.
This vision reminded me of the verse in Hebrews:
“Today, if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion”
~ Hebrews 3:15
All of a sudden, I saw what looked like an army of people that were completely stuck in cement and I heard: “THEY HAVE BECAME IDOLS OF THEIR OWN WAYS.”
These words pierced through me because I knew that most of us are guilty of this. The people in the vision could not move because they were idols of cement! I felt the grieving of the Lord Jesus over these people because He could not use them as a result of their condition.
God can only use those who walk in HIS WAYS and these people were walking in their own ways. They have stopped their ears and they cannot perceive His voice. I heard the Spirit say: “They cannot walk in their destinies because My Spirit cannot move them”.
This Condition is Not Incurable
This looked like a hopeless situation but the Lord said:
“You need to see your condition so that you can come to Me to fix it. Come to Me with a contrite spirit, ask for My Spirit of repentance to come upon you. Humble yourself at My altar and allow Me to crush the idols that you have created. Allow My Spirit to anoint you with oil so that I can flow through the cracks of your self-made idols to destroy it”.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”
~ 1 John 1:9
Repentance is a beautiful gift! The Lord longs for us to repent from our wicked ways and to start walking in greater authority. He desires that we become good stewards of the mysteries and He longs to reveal them to us.
How to Gain the Mantle of Elijah
We will gain the mantle of Elijah in the same way Elisha gained it – through responding with immediate obedience!
I love the way Elisha responded when Elijah threw his mantle on him. We read in 1 Kings 19:21:
“So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and become his servant.”
Elisha immediately recognized the upward call of God! When Elisha uses his livelihood to host a farewell celebration, he openly declares that there is no turning back to his former way of life. What a beautiful and inspiring way that Elisha responded in. He gave himself as an empty vessel to the Lord.
While not everyone is called to receive the mantle of Elijah, the Lord is calling everyone to a higher life, by receiving the upward call of God in Christ Jesus and to walk in new levels of authority. Whatever the Lord’s call is on your life, it will require sacrifice and obedience.
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me”
~ Matthew 16:24
I pray that these words will penetrate your heart and minister to you and that you will present yourself as an empty and useful vessel to our Lord Jesus Christ.
thank you . what a great visual w/ the concrete. (one i can too easily appreciate….)
I am glad it blessed you. May God help us to become His vessels of obedience in this hour!
Blessings