5 Smooth Stones

towards one another, to the extent that the Lord said he would duplicate this spirit before His arrival (Malachi 4:5, 6). Certainly the Lord would not duplicate the spirit of failure or of disobedience. Elijah combined the directives to ordain as well as his vision to raise up sons generationally. In doing so he multiplied his authority through others and accomplished both mandates that he had been assigned. When the scripture speaks of the spirit of Elijah, it is speaking of a spirit of spiritual fatherhood, a spirit to raise up others who can do even more than the father was able to in his time. Therefore, Elijah did ful fi l the ministry given to him by God to anoint Elisha, Hazael, and Jehu into their respective callings. Elijah actually only anointed Elisha, but Elisha, his spiritual son, continued the ministry and in turn commissioned Hazael to be King over Syria (2 Kings 8:13). Elisha in turn sent one of his spiritual sons to anoint Jehu as King over Israel (2 Kings 9:1-3). So when David took fi ve smooth stones from the brook he had the heart to complete the job of killing the giant enemies of the Lord. He ful fi lled what he intended by multiplying himself through others, and ul fi lling his desires through spiritual sons who would continue the fi ght, and carry the vision that he held. The Lord Himself is continuing the ba tt le today through His people, the church, through His fi ve smooth stones the ascension ministries 2 . Ephesians 3:10 “to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.” His fi ve smooth stones of ministry are today called to perfect the saints and equip them to carry out the ba tt le plan of the Lord. Like David, and Elijah, He expects them to raise up others, spiritual sons and daughters, who will be able to show forth His manifold wisdom and authority. Like David’s fi ve smooth stones the Lord’s stones are not exactly alike and there are fi ve for a reason. Five is the number that signi fi es His grace and each of these gifts is called for a di ff erent purpose. He has apostles and prophets, and shepherds, and evangelists, and teachers, so that He can use the proper stone at the proper time to take down the speci fi c enemy stronghold which is set against His purposes. He uses each of the fi ve to release or manifest a di ff erent aspect of His divine nature on earth. Too often in the church we have been limited to one or two or perhaps three of the Lord’s ministry stones. This has been a major reason that the church has not always been able to retain 9