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Please Stay Here from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

There is a story in 2nd Kings where the prophet Elijah tells his servant Elisha to stay behind three times, but Elisha refuses. Later he receives a double portion of Elijah's anointing.

(2 Kings 2:1–2 NASB) And it came about when the LORD was about to take up Elijah by a whirlwind to heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here please, for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel." But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.

(2 Kings 2:4 NASB) Elijah said to him, "Elisha, please stay here, for the LORD has sent me to Jericho." But he said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they came to Jericho.

(2 Kings 2:6 NASB) Then Elijah said to him, "Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan." And he said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on.

(2 Kings 2:9 NASB) When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you." And Elisha said, "Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me."

It seems that Elijah was testing his resolve and commitment. Elijah asked him to stay behind three times in a row, but Elisha refused to stay all three times. He kept following him. Elisha had been a servant of the prophet for several years when this happened.

Elisha would not take no for an answer. He inherited a double portion anointing, and he lived the life of miracles we read about in our Bible. There were many other Prophets too, fifty at Jericho alone. These all stayed behind and missed the anointing that Elisha received. If Elisha would have listened to those over him and stayed behind like they asked him to, then he would have missed his destiny and the best part of his life.

There will be times when you have to choose to obey God or man. When Peter and John were arrested for healing a crippled man at the temple, the council threatened them and told them to not mention Jesus anymore. Peter and John told them this:

(Acts 4:18–19 NKJV) So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.

There was a time when God told us to move on after serving faithfully at a church for many years. We had been praying and fasting a lot, and our spirit had become restless. We began to look for people to take over the tech team, which we took care of. When word got out that we were withdrawing, we were told by the ones over us to wait. First privately, and then publicly.

God was telling us to do something else, and the church leadership just could not see it. To them, we were backsliding. The pastor meant well, but it led to one-on-one sermons about faithfulness, dedication, and rewards for those who wait. Sometimes he called our name out during his message to let us know he was talking about us.

We tried to stay longer, but it became very messy. The anointing on our lives dried up entirely. We became burnouts. It would have been better for everyone if we had obeyed God and gracefully left when He had first told us to. Instead, we tried it their way, and there is no drama like church drama.

After taking a year off to heal from church abuse, God led us somewhere else, and the Spirit began to flow in our lives once again. At the new church, we got drafted into the technical team as usual. We began to work with modern equipment and technologies, and we learned many things we use at Refreshing Hope today. God wanted to teach us the skills we would later need in ministry, but the previous church leadership could not see that. At the time, all they could see was they were losing the tech team. If we had chosen to stay there, we would probably not be in ministry today.

There is a terrible story about a nameless young prophet in 1st Kings who is only called the "Man of God from Judah." God sent him to Bethel to deliver a prophecy to Jeroboam. When King Jeroboam pointed at him and told his guards to seize him, the King's arm instantly shriveled up. The altar the King was standing beside split apart. Then King Jeroboam begged the man of God to pray for his hand to be restored. When the prophet prayed for him, he was healed. Obviously, this was a very anointed, mighty prophet of God with signs and wonders following him.

King Jeroboam invited the young prophet back to his home to give him a reward, but God had told the young man to not eat or drink anything while there. So he refused the King and started home. But there was an older prophet who lived at Bethel. When he heard about the miracles being performed, he followed the young prophet out of town and caught up with him on the road outside of Bethel:

(1 Kings 13:14–19 NASB) So he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak; and he said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" And he said, "I am." Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread." He said, "I cannot return with you, nor go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. "For a command came to me by the word of the LORD, 'You shall eat no bread, nor drink water there; do not return by going the way which you came.'" He said to him, "I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.'" But he lied to him. So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.

God had told the young man one thing, but an old prophet told him a lie in the name of the Lord. The "Man of God" chose to obey the older prophet who lied to him instead of God. He went back to Bethel and ate at his house. When the young man left the house, he was killed on the road, and his ministry cut short. That is the last we read about him. It's a sad ending to an anointed ministry.

There will be times when you will have to choose between obeying God or obeying man. Each time you decide to follow man, you will stall in your journey. This choice may involve making a tough decision and making some people upset. Also, you need to be prayerfully careful because pride will blind you. Keep yourself humble during this time with fasting and prayer.

When God calls you to do something, He may only tell you about it. And when He does, you cannot "Stay here."

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please give me a clear vision and guide me to where You want me to be. Speak to me in a clear, unmistakable way that I can understand. Give me the grace to live this life and help me make the right decisions, in the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!