The Double Portion

Pick our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad the devil mad.

We'll get into the Word tonight, first and or second, or whatever Is it third?

I don't know what it is, but anyway, whatever, we're gonna get into the Word, wave them, wave our Bibles around, make Jesus glad the devil mad.

Say this together, say Heavenly Father, thank you, holy Spirit, for moving in our midst, meeting the needs so many people.

And now the Word of God is gonna be taught.

I'm gonna lay hold on this precious Word and take it into my spirit, where it becomes food and nourishment.

My faith is growing.

I'm changing day by day from faith to faith, from glory to glory, from strength to strength in Jesus' name.

Amen, amen, all right, let's turn in our Bibles to Second Kings, chapter two.

If you weren't here this morning, be sure and pick up the media, either podcast or on Facebook or YouTube or wherever.

My first message of two messages that I'll do on the believer's authority it's really quite necessary for us to keep feeding our faith on that subject.

It's a subject that's being let slipped by many churches and many people who previously sat under that type of ministry, and it's a shame that that revelation is.

I don't know what people are looking for.

But I mean, that's just the center of what we need to be about right now, exercising our authority that God gave us.

But tonight, second Kings, chapter two, we'll start reading with verse one.

And it came past when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven, by whirlwind, that Elijah, that Elijah, went with Elijah from Gilgal and Elijah said unto Elijah, terry, ye, here, while I pray you, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel.

And Elijah said unto him as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.

So they went down to Bethel and the sons of the prophets that were Bethel came forth to Elijah and said unto him knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today?

And he said, ye, I know it.

Hold your peace, none of your business.

And Elijah said unto him Elijah, terry, here, I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.

And he said as the Lord liveth, as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.

So they came to Jericho and the sons of the prophets and so forth, you know, you can get the idea.

They all wanted to get in on it.

And yeah, I know he's leaving.

Just shut up.

Okay, be quiet.

And I know it's the Grinner translation, it's not nice, it's kind of mean.

All right, I know.

And so then he again Terry, here I'm going to Jordan.

There ain't no way I'm leaving you, I'm going with you to Jordan.

And so the two went on.

Verse seven 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off, and they too stood by Jordan and Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together, smote the waters and they were divided hither and thither that's the reason I like the King James, because I like hither and thither.

It's so much nicer than here and there, all right.

So that the two went over on dry ground and it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, ask what I shall do for thee.

And Elijah said I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.

Everybody shout double portion, I want a double portion.

And he said.

Elijah said you've asked a hard thing, Ask a hard thing.

Nevertheless, if you see me when I'm taken from you, it shall be so unto thee, but if you don't see me, it won't be done.

In other words, you're going to keep your eyes on me, there's going to be some fireworks.

You better keep your eyes on me, and if you do, you'll get the double portion.

If you don't, you won't Pretty clear.

And it came to pass.

Verse 11, as they still went on, taught that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted them both asunder and Elijah went up by whirlwind into heaven.

And Elijah saw it and he cried my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.

And he saw him no more and he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces and he took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him.

Get the picture he's taken up by a chariot of fire and horses of fire, but he throws his mantle down.

He doesn't take his mantle with him.

And so Elijah tears his clothes in two and picks up the mantle of Elijah.

And he stood by the bank of Jordan and he took the mantle of Elijah verse 14, that fell from him and smote the waters and said where is the Lord, god of Elijah?

And when he had also smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither and Elisha went over.

And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him.

They said the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.

And they came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him and so thought it'd be profitable tonight to teach on this subject.

The double portion.

And the key word in all of this testimony is father, father, father Elisha knew the season of the father's departure, the father being Elijah, his father in the faith.

He knew the season of Elijah's departure and Elisha's faithfulness was tested to the end.

You know he could have lost out if he'd have listened to his earthly father, elijah, and stayed at any of the places that he was told to stay.

He said there ain't no way, I'm staying here, I'm going with you.

He stuck to him like glue in the season of his departure, and so he became eligible for the firstborn's inheritance.

Now you know he's not literally the firstborn, he's not literally the oldest son, it's a spiritual sonship and fatherhood.

And really, back in First Kings 19,.

Let's hold her place in second Kings, go back to First Kings, I want to see this here.

First Kings 19, talking about the double portion, verse 15, and especially in the realm of the spirit.

And the Lord said unto Elijah go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus.

And when thou comest, anoint Hazil to be king over Syria.

And Yehud the son of Nimshi, shall you Anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shafat and I don't that name Abel me hola, abel me hola.

If your name is Abel me hola, I would have it changed Shall thou anoint to be prophet in thy room, in thy room, in other words, in your station.

So it's already ahead of time that that he's to be Elijah's replacement.

God told him ahead of time Elisha's gonna be your replacement.

And so then?

Yet I have left me 7,000 in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, in every mouth which has not kissed him.

You know what I'm saying.

He was kind of bummed out after Jezebel had threatened to kill him, after he had slain the 400 prophets of Baal, as were Jezebel's prophets.

Jezebel said I'm gonna kill you.

And he was all discouraged.

You know, down in the mouth, god kept using him.

He said no, go on.

Know what?

The next king over here, next king over there, and, by the way, elijah's gonna be your prophet in your room when it's time for you to go.

So he, you know.

If you keep reading, you'll find out that.

You know, when he went to tell Elijah, hey, you're gonna be a prophet in my room, elisha burned his bridges.

In other words, he had 12 yolks of oxen.

That's a whole lot of money, 12 yolks of oxen.

I mean he's in agriculture, he's big in agriculture.

I mean, you know, you have 12 yolks of oxen, that's a lot of ox on the hoof, that's a lot of money.

And he just gave all that up.

He burned his bridges.

I'm gonna kill those.

I'm not gonna come back to this, I'm gonna follow my father.

And the Bible says that he ministered unto Elijah, the word minister.

See, he left everything.

He said, hey, give me a chance.

I gotta go say goodbye to mom and dad.

I gotta, you know, take care of a few details.

I don't care what you do.

What's that to me?

I don't care.

God just told me to tell you and I'm gone now.

I mean, he didn't care.

There wasn't any tender feelings of father son between the two of them.

As far as Elijah's concerned, he just obeyed God.

He wasn't really excited about it anyway, to be honest with you.

But he's obeying God and he's saying anoint him to be profit in your room.

And so the Bible says that Elijah ministered to Elijah for a period of 20 years.

20 years, everybody shout 20 years Now.

The word minister means to attend, to wait on and to serve, and it implies yieldedness, servanthood, obedience.

And when I read this testimony about Elijah and Elisha, you know I'm reminded of what the Bible says about that subject.

You know how.

About Joseph?

Joseph, you know, was sold into slavery.

It was a terrible situation.

His family, his brothers, betrayed him and he found himself in slavery.

But the Bible says he served Potiphar, and I mean Potiphar's finances took off because Joseph handled the finances and I mean he was doing a good job until, of course, we know Potiphar's wife falsely accused him of inappropriate behavior of which he was not guilty.

She was the inappropriate one and he was the inappropriate one and he got thrown in prison and there he served the jailer for at least 13 years.

He was in jail and if there was anything to do in the jail he was the doer of it.

I mean this man had a lifestyle of faithfulness, of servanthood, of yieldedness, no matter who it was he found himself under, he served them.

Are you with me now?

So that's the kind of spirit that God can promote.

I said.

That's the kind of spirit that God can promote.

David.

You know Samuel.

God told Samuel go and know it.

David, the next king of Israel, he's a teenager, he is not anybody.

He's not on anybody's short list of king.

I mean, his daddy even forgot he existed.

Where don't you have any more sons?

Yeah, all the sons came up and no, he's not the one.

No, he's not the one.

No, don't you have any sons?

Well, yeah, I got one little run out there in the back 40.

He's watching my sheep.

Well, call him.

As soon as he showed up, the Holy Ghost told Samuel, there's the one, he's it.

And he poured the horn of all over his head.

Oh, glory to God.

Did he become king?

Not for a year, about 13, 14 years before he became king.

So the calling, see, comes way out ahead of the commissioning.

The calling comes way out ahead and even the anointing to do it comes out ahead of when you're set into that place that God has designed for you, and it takes a father for people to serve.

You're not gonna ever have your own if you don't serve somebody else's.

That's what Jesus said.

I didn't say it, jesus said it, but it's Bible and the idea is for the double portion to get involved in the church.

I mean, we need the double portion.

Everybody say I need the double portion.

Now we've got too much to do and not enough time to get it done in.

We're gonna have to have a multiplication of some sort and it's gonna have to be just dramatic.

And I believe the father message is very apropos.

So David was anointed or called to be king years before he replaced Saul, and he wouldn't replace Saul himself.

He wouldn't kill Saul, even though Saul was trying to kill him.

I mean, he'd have been justified in the natural, but he had fear of God.

He knew that Saul was still technically the king and he would not touch God's anointed.

He said no, that's your job.

God, you want him dead.

You're gonna have to do it.

I'm not gonna do it.

He had two times.

He could have done it, he didn't.

So Elisha knew the law of the double portion and, by the Holy Ghost, he applied it in the area of ministry, because the law of the I'm gonna read it to you in just a moment.

But the law of the double portion has to do with with you know, your son.

So let's look at it.

Deuteronomy, chapter 21.

Deuteronomy 21 · chapter mention

Everybody say the law of the double portion, verse 15.

If a man have two wives, man, I'm glad I ain't got two wives, that ain't me.

Hallelujah, I've got one wife.

That's plenty for me.

My cup runneth over.

My cup runneth over.

I'm being nice, I'm not.

If a man have two wives, man, I can't imagine man have two wives and one beloved and one hated.

That happens in the Bible all the time.

It looks like you'd get a brain and not do that anymore.

Come on, I'm gonna read it to you.

It looks like you'd get a brain and not do that anymore.

Come on, remember Jacob.

You know he just loved Rachel.

He had.

Oh, he was smitten, but he woke up with Leah.

Oh, leah was the older homelier one, you know, but she was a baby factory and that woman stayed barefoot and pregnant the whole time.

He must have liked her a little bit, I guess.

Oh, but she was the hated.

This is an adult service.

Children have to leave now it might be too late.

Might be too late.

Okay, I get it.

I'm gonna hear about it tomorrow.

I'm sure, if a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated and if the first born son be hers that was hated, then it shall be when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn, can't discriminate.

You can't, just because your firstborn son was the son with the hated wife, you can't say, okay, well, you're not eligible, I'm gonna leave the double portion of all my goods To my beloved wife.

Son Can't do it, it's forbidden.

That's the law of the firstborn.

But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength.

The right of the firstborn is his.

So there you have it, the law of the firstborn in Israel.

It's a powerful law.

Now you know it took the Holy Ghost to impress Elisha, to translate into the spiritual realm, into the ministerial realm, for him to have the guts to say you know, I ain't your blood boy, but I'm your spiritual boy.

You called me, you anointed me, profited in your room and the double portion belongs to me.

I'm asking for the double portion.

Well, you know, you asked for a hard thing.

See, I don't think Elijah had ever heard of it.

This is new territory for Elijah.

But he said I'll tell you what, if you see me when I'm taken up, it'll be done, if you don't, it won't.

What if he had seen the chariots of fire and you imagine the sight?

He could have got his eyes on all of that.

He could have gotten his eyes on the spectacular and missed the mantle.

The mantle is the symbol of Elijah's spiritual life, the symbol of Elijah's ministry.

It's the symbol of his reason for ministry.

The prophet's mantle.

He could have just been all impressed with the chariot and the fire and horses and the fact he's leaving the earth.

And Elijah today is walking around on streets of gold and a body like ours.

You figure that out?

Where's the oxygen in heaven?

There ain't no oxygen there.

How does he do it?

Well, god does nothing too hard for God.

God ordered him up there, him and Enoch.

They're coming back.

They're gonna be God's two witnesses in Jerusalem, they're coming back Anyway.

So he had to know it by the spirit Number one, his inheritance.

Number two the timing of fulfillment.

I mean, it could have been so easy for him to have missed the day of the departure.

Just think if he'd stayed in Gildale or stayed by Jordan or stayed by Bethel or stayed by Jordan or stayed by Bethel or whatever, and just obeyed him.

He's been obedient all along but in this case I mean, you know, his knowledge of what was gonna happen kind of made him press in and risk a rebuke.

Are y'all getting this now?

Lawrence Way Church is rich in blessing because it's a double portion church.

You got a hold of these things years ago, thank God.

I got a hold of these things and I believe for them.

I can't take credit for it.

God showed them to me, I seized upon it, I saw it and I began to realize that John Osteen was my father.

And because of the law of the double portion, I believe this church has succeeded where others have failed.

The things this church has gone through since day one would have melted most ministries and blown it up.

I mean there's a scrap heap out there of ministers that have been wrecked personally or their ministries have been wrecked, ruined Back in 1990, brother Osteen at Ordain in 1988, right after we got back the year after we got back from Corpus for a year and a half.

That's the only time that I spent apart from Lakewood.

When I first started attending, I was there the whole time, except for a year and a half in Corpus.

We moved back here in January of 87, january of 88, I was ordained and God promoted me, began to use me as well for lack of a better word, I didn't have the title, but associate pastor.

I mean I was doing associate pastor things, not just opening, closing services and all that and taking an offering every now and then, but sent on missions by a pastor to counsel other ministries coming to town.

I remember one precious assembly of God pastor and his wife are just so broken and hurt.

He had cheated on his wife and they couldn't tell anybody and they were so heartbroken.

But wife was so heartbroken he was too.

He was so ashamed and he couldn't tell anybody in his church that they would have taken his church from him and they'd worked 20 years in the ministry and worked hard.

He didn't start off to do that and he shows up at Lakewood and wanted to talk to brother Osteen.

You know what?

He sent me to talk to him.

I didn't have an office, I couldn't bring him to my house, so I went to where they were staying with a relative of theirs and got them in my van and I just rode around the subdivision for three or four hours ministering to him, letting them cry and letting them confess and letting them get right with each other and praying over them.

They went back home, they made a decision to stay together instead of tear the church up, tear each other up.

That's the kind of thing I mean.

I thought to myself how in the world did I get in this position?

I mean, I don't even I didn't ask for this, this wasn't in my thinking, but anyway.

So in 1990, justin Osteen Justin is brother Osteen's oldest child and oldest son by his first wife, his first.

Well, a lot of people don't know, he was married before, but he was married and she didn't want to be a pastor's wife and she divorced him and that was terrible.

Then he met Dodie and so then he and Dodie had the rest of the family and they and Justin was did not grow up with the rest of the kids.

But he was a servant in some kind of high intelligence agency for federal government.

I think he was in.

I think he was an interpreter for the NSA is what I think?

He's a very smart guy, knows five languages, brilliant man and somehow he came back to Lakewood and was the administrator and that's the first I had ever been around him in 1988.

I got to know the family a little bit more.

Of course I knew Joel and I knew Lisa and all the family.

I knew them very well and but I didn't know him as well.

But we had a good rep, you know rapport.

He called me after one of the services.

He said, john, I'm having a management seminar this week and I'd like to offer you, if I offered you, a scholarship.

Would you come?

It's worth 350 bucks.

I said, would you?

He said, would you come to my management seminar?

I said absolutely, and I was honored, you know, to get to go.

It was over, you know, near the Galleria, and he rented a building and there's a couple of hundred people there and he did a presentation on church finances and church management and some of the business aspects of churches and we had a break for lunch and came back after lunch and he said well, I'll tell you.

It's important for you to have a flow chart of your ministry and who's charged and how it all works.

I'll just do Lakewood churches flow chart.

Pastor John Osteen, big old right on the top.

He did an overhead projector.

He put a square up there, pastor John Osteen lying down and to the side, dodio Stain to the side but a line under him and a big long line this way over here.

You got Joel and the television department lining and then a people under Joel and you got Lisa and people under Lisa and you've got.

You know, I think April was a youth pastor, april Tambrough's already gone and Jim Graff they'd already gone to Victoria's pastor church and he's working on that, filling out this flow chart of the ministry and who's important to who and how.

It all just goes back to the pastor and I'm just.

You know, it's nothing new.

I'm new all of that, but it's kind of cool to see it in black and white.

And then somebody in the back of the room says well, where does John Griner fit on that chart?

I turned around, I was madder than a wet hand man.

I would have knocked him for a loop.

It was a man and I just thought that was so rude and embarrassing potentially for me.

And Justin said oh, that's easy, just like that.

Oh, that's easy.

He drew a line from Brother Osteen, put a circle there.

There's John Griner.

I'm not under Lisa, I'm not under Joel, I'm not under Tamer, I mean, I'm not under anybody.

I'm under Brother Osteen, directly and there's nobody connected to me.

I'm just there by myself, boo, and I looked at that and I felt the fear of God Because I knew that wasn't in my heart.

I never chose that.

God chose by the smart Alec person back in the back of the room to honor me in front of that whole crowd.

But instead of feeling the honor and I did feel honor, but I felt the fear of God I felt the awesome responsibility for that position.

How solemn it was to be next to him like that, separate from his family, separate from the staff and all of the volunteer heads.

And so, years later, of course, I was dedicated to the idea of starting this church with his full blessing.

I won't go into that whole testimony, but we did start with his full blessing, released us, blessed us.

But just a few years later, gladys and I went to a sons and daughters meeting that he called there was a couple of thousand people there that he let know that he was really challenged, health-wise and needed prayer and he wanted us to pray, have a prayer meeting, and he called me up there to lay hands on him with his family just again so honored, and asked me to pray.

Do the praying?

So I did, I prayed and by this time, of course, I've been having glorious way church for several years.

This is 1998, we started in 95.

So this was about October of 1998.

And I laid my hands on brother Osteen, I prayed over him and I was disturbed because I just didn't feel the unction going out of my hands into him.

I didn't feel the anointing going out of my hands and there was other people laying their hands on him.

This is not a position he's ever in.

He's never in a position where he's asking people to lay hands on him.

So when I got home and had time to pray, I said God, what was that?

I'm kind of upset.

I didn't feel anything going out of my hands to him and he needs healing.

And he said well, he just doesn't know how to receive from the anointing.

He gives it out.

He gives it out.

He doesn't receive from the anointing like that, he receives himself.

He receives like I do.

You just get to a place in ministry where you don't depend on others to bring the anointing to you.

So I'd answered my question.

But I was still disturbed because he just he asked me and us there were several of us, anyway.

So in November, the next month after that meeting, and he really looked, I saw him at another meeting after that and he said it looks so frail, so pale and frail.

I was so concerned for him and so I got a call one day in November of a 98 that he had to go on dialysis and his kidneys had failed.

And I was just so sad for him Because I knew that he wanted to live a long life.

He'd always said I'm gonna put my name in marble out front.

It's gonna be there a long time.

But it was not to be.

It was not to be.

And so that morning after that phone call, I was walking through the house, going from the kitchen there's a little short hallway and a little utility room off to the right into the dining room, crossed the entry hall into my study that's where I was headed, that was my pathway and walking through this little hallway right by the utility room, and suddenly I just I didn't know it then, but I fell into a trance.

I didn't know it was a trance, never had one before.

Frankly, I thought it was a vain imagination, but in this vision I saw a panel room.

It looked like a big study, heavy mahogany paneling, big mahogany table, lots of chairs around 20 chairs around this big table, conference table, really high dollar, high up.

And he up, look in place.

I heard a voice, saw no people.

I heard a voice saying and to John Griner I bequeath.

And I realized in my trance that it was the last will and testament of John Osteen and I'm about to hear what he left me.

The lawyer is reading the will.

I'm about to hear what John Osteen said To John Griner I bequeath.

I didn't hear.

There was a pause.

I didn't hear what.

It was just a gap long enough, probably for a sentence or two.

But I felt the emotion and the awestruck wonder and I said out loud you mean, he left me that I'm not even his blood.

And then I just shook myself and I realized what I was doing and what I was saying and what I was seeing and I said I rebuke this, this is not from God.

My pastor's gonna live and not die and declare the works of the Lord.

And I felt bad about that whole thing.

I just didn't.

How did that happen?

I just thought it was the devil trying to get me out of agreement.

So in January, january 23rd, five weeks later, two o'clock in the morning, gladys and I were asleep.

Phone rings wakes us up.

Brother Osteen's collapsed.

They've hauled him to the hospital, and so when we heard that news, gladys got up out of bed.

She's in bed.

When we heard that news, gladys got up out of bed.

She's hollering at the devil, walking up and down, praying in other tongues, screaming at the devil, and at the same time she's doing that I hear a very loud voice Moses, my servant, is dead, now therefore arise.

And it was like I was on the nose cone of a rocket hurtling through space.

It was like I wasn't conscious of my body.

It was like my eyeballs were on the nose cone of a rocket.

I'm flying through outer space.

And suddenly I came to this narrow area.

I don't know how to describe it.

It just felt like closed in.

And then I burst out into this vast vastness.

Somebody said well, that was the birth canal.

I'm pretty good.

It's a pretty good description.

As an engineer, I knew it would look like a venturi on a carburetor.

You know, it's just a little narrow neck.

It makes you accelerate.

It's like the neck of an hourglass.

There's an acceleration through that neck and I said honey, honey, don't pray like that.

He's gone.

Now I don't like to say this out in the big public because I don't want to make Doty feel bad.

They didn't turn the machines off till that afternoon.

They didn't count him gone, but God told me he was gone.

Moses, my servant is dead.

I went back to Joshua, chapter one, read the whole chapter and God said you know, you're going to cause your people to possess their inheritance.

You're.

You know, moses, my servant is dead.

I mean, you know he's my father in the faith and he left you an inheritance.

And that's the double portion.

Are we going to have twice as many people as Lakewood?

Well, I don't think it means that.

I just mean I think it means what it means.

I'm still discovering what it means, but I know one thing the double portion of the anointing is where there's a father-son relationship.

Father is the key word of Elijah and Elisha.

Let's look at Malachi.

You get anything out of this.

You know this church succeeds where many fail.

I wrote this down five or six years ago.

I don't know what the I know it'd be a lot worse now than it was then.

Eighteen hundred pastors leave the ministry every month.

Forty percent will not be in the ministry in 10 years.

Sixty five percent would leave their position for similar pay outside the ministry.

Four thousand churches close and a thousand open every year.

And that was before COVID, way before COVID.

There's probably a lot worse now, so we need a revival Now.

Let's look at Malachi, chapter four, and this is I think it's a part of what's missing, cause I've lived it now like high, chapter four, verse five.

Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the children, the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

So much of the curse that we're experiencing in America is the lack of father sons relationship and ministry and the fact that there's no father, father figures to add their strength to struggling churches and struggling ministry, and so one of the mandates of this church is to supply that father.

I can't say we've produced a lot of ministries out of this church, but I believe that we're impacting those.

That's why I like to get him.

That's the reason I like to get in partnership with people that are doing that job, which brother Mark is in training are doing that job.

Brother Hagan is doing that job.

What a wonderful job he's doing.

Jay and Slendy just got back from Tulsa Winter Bible and there was a couple of thousand people, most of them from all over the world.

This is the first time they were able to get back to home and they were from foreign countries everywhere, coming back home to get that father son relationship and that encouragement and that double portion.

And you know, when you are faithful and when you serve, you've got the right heart.

You're eligible for God to promote you.

Come on, lift your hands and receive the double portion.

Praise God.

We're all reaping the benefits of the double portion.

Amen, this is a double portion church.

I'm bold to say it and I know it made a difference and making a difference.

Amen, did you get anything out of this tonight?

Well, come on, let's praise God, hallelujah.

Thank you, lord.