“Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me” (II Kings 2:9). That’s what Elisha asked when he knew that the prophet Elijah was about to be taken up into Heaven. But what was Elisha really requesting? What does it mean for a prophet to have the Spirit of God upon him?

Most obviously, prophets are messengers from God, and Elisha was not an exception to this rule. He condemned the infidelity of the king of Israel (II Kings 3:13), while also proclaiming that God would grant his alliance victory over the Moabites who fought against them (II Kings 3:18).

But prophets display the Spirit of God not only in the truthful words they say, but in the loving deeds they do. The widow of one of Elisha’s disciples had fallen into debt and was in danger of having her children sold into slavery, so Elisha miraculously multiplied the oil she had in her house to ensure she would have enough to live on (II Kings 4:1-7). At the other end of the socio-economic spectrum, Elisha also blessed a wealthy couple with a child, and then raised the child from the dead (II Kings 4:8-37).

And no detail was too small for his attention. When his disciples goofed and put some poisonous gourds into a pot of stew, Elisha made it safe to eat (II Kings 4:38-41). When the people of Jericho complained about the impure water they had for drinking and irrigation, he announced that the Lord had purified the waters (II Kings 2:19-22). And then there was the time that Elisha took twenty loaves of barley and multiplied them so that a hundred man could eat and have some left over (II Kings 4:42-44).

And didn’t Jesus display the same divine Spirit to a much greater extent? When a woman came to Him who had lost all her money trying to treat a chronic hemorrhage, she was healed simply by touching Him. When the prominent ruler of the synagogue lost his daughter to sickness, Jesus raised her from the dead simply by speaking to her and taking her hand (Mark 5:21-43). Jesus didn’t just make water safe to drink – He calmed the storms with a word (Mark 4:35-41) and walked on the surface of the sea (Mark 6:45-51). And when Jesus needed to feed a crowd of 5000 families, he only needed five barley loaves and two fish to prepare a feast for all of them (Mark 6:35-44).

So, if the same Spirit of God is present in all those who trust in Christ (Acts 2:38), shouldn’t we be about the same sort of business? Shouldn’t we be helping the poor, caring for the sick, and feeding the hungry? Most of all, shouldn’t we be proclaiming the Word of God and praying for the outpouring of His Spirit, Who alone can bring those dead in their sins to new life in Christ? Can there be any other way to follow Jesus?

II Kings 4:42-44 (NASB)

42 Now a man came from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And he said, “Give them to the people that they may eat.”
43 And his attendant said, “What, shall I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give them to the people that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have some left over.'”
44 So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.