It’s great to look and admire great men of God.  I’ve met some of the greatest men of God of the 19th and 20th Centuries.  I’ve been fortunate to sit at their feet.  I’ve been fortunate to watch their lives.  I’ve stood in awe of their dedication and the efforts that it took to be what they were in Christ.  My mind hearkens back to Elijah and Elisha, and Elisha wanted to bury his father.  You remember Elisha, the young man, would pour water on the man of God’s hands.  Let me share something with you, young people.  Coming into this last hour be willing to do anything to be around the people of God, to be around the men of God.  Ready to serve in any way.  Today, ask yourself who your heroes are?  Who do you look up to?  Number one should be your dad.  Men, what are we doing to earn that respect?  It’s sure not some famous individual, the mighty of this world, those that shake and move in the economy, the super wealthy, the famous, the athletes.  They don’t even have to be men of renown, but men who are faithful to God, men who are known within the kingdom of God.

Let me get back on my thought.  Elijah put the mantle over on Elisha and continued on his way, so Elisha ran and he said, “Let me bury my father.”  What does that really mean?  It didn’t mean his dad was laying on a slab, and he wanted to go back and put him in the ground.  He was saying, “Let me go back and help put the family in order until my father’s gone, so the family can be stabilized, and I can be sure that I’ve done my job and my obligation to the family.”  Elijah said, “What have I done to you?  Do what you want.  It’s in your hands, but what have I done to you?”  “Well, you’ve provoked me.  You’re a man that’s been in the presence of God.  You’re a man moving in power and authority.  You’re a man that’s going to go on and perform things like calling fire out of heaven, shutting the heavens up, raising the widow’s son from the dead, praise God!  A man that’ll call fire down upon the enemies that would stand before him, as Ahab sent them out to bring him captive.  That’s what I want.”  As they were strolling one day, having made the decision to follow him, Elijah turned to Elisha and said, “How would you like me to bless you?”

We’re getting ready to have a baby dedication.  We just had a wedding.  Don’t count it a small thing when the hands of a man of God have been placed on you and a blessing spoken over you.  It’s real.  It’s supernatural.  It’s from God.  “What do you want me to do for you?”  When that was offered up to Solomon, he didn’t ask for wealth or power.  Solomon asked for the wisdom of God.  “That I know how to rule your people.  That I would be someone that would be just and represent the heart of God properly.”  Of the same spirit, Elisha had asked for nothing in the natural realm, but he said, “I only want one thing.  I want a double portion of your anointing, of your spirit.”