Protect Your Mantle

Early this evening, cleaning up from dinner, I was standing in the kitchen washing dishes, when, completely out of nowhere, I heard these words in my spirit:
“ Protect your mantle.”
In scripture, the mantle became a picture of calling, authority, assignment and the anointing God had placed on someone’s life.
Elijah threw his mantle over Elisha in 1 Kings 19:19, when Elijah was taken up, that mantle fell on Elisha.
But Elisha didn’t just want Elijah’s mantle, He wanted what was on Elijah’s life.
“Let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.” 2 Kings 2:9
And I believe there is a lesson here for us this morning.
There will be people who will recognize what God has placed on your life and will want to borrow from it.
They may want the fruit without the pruning, the platform without the process, the authority without the obedience, and the anointing without the intimacy with God that produced it.
We have to be careful who we allow close to what God has invested in us.
That doesn’t mean we become selfish or unwilling to pour into others.
Jesus calls us to love, serve, teach, disciple and pour into people’s lives.
But there is a difference between pouring into someone and allowing someone to continually drain you.
There is a difference between covering someone and carrying someone, God never told you to carry.
So this morning, protect your prayer life, protect your consecration, protect your intimacy with God, protect your obedience, protect your character, protect your peace and protect the assignment God has given you.
Because the enemy doesn’t always have to destroy the mantle.
Sometimes he only has to get us to hand pieces of it to people God never assigned us to carry.

And remember your mantle isn’t for you to wear so people can admire you it is for you to carry so that God can use you.
Don’t protect what God has placed on your life because you think you’re better than someone else.
Protect it because you understand the weight of what God has entrusted to you.
Elisha didn’t become Elijah by copying Elijah.
He received from God what was necessary for his own assignment.
So don’t spend your life trying to borrow someone else’s oil; get in the presence of God and let Him fill your own vessel.
What God has placed on your life is sacred.
Protect that mantle. Guard the oil. Stay close to the Giver.
Have a blessed day. Pastor and I love y’all so very much!
Pastor Kim Mills