Elisha CROSSED OVER two times

Many have heard of the great Old Testament prophet Elijah because of the many miracles that he performed in the Name of YHWH, but have you heard of Elisha, his protege? It can sometimes be confusing because their names are so similar. Just before Elijah was taken up to Heaven in a whirlwind (a type of Rapture), he threw his mantle on Elisha. Prophets were known for wearing mantles (cloak) as a sign of their calling from God (1 Kings 19:13) and a symbol of their authority and responsibility as God’s chosen spokesman (2 Kings 8). The prophet Elijah “threw his cloak around [Elisha]” as a symbol of Elijah’s ministry being passed on to Elisha.

Elisha had asked for a double portion of the “Spirit of Elijah”.

2 Kings 2:9: When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask me what I should do for you before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.

Before Elijah passed his mantle of prophet to Elisha and was taken up into Heaven, he (Elijah) took this same cloak (mantle) and struck THE WATERS of the Jordan river so that the two of them CROSSED OVER TOGETHER on dry ground. Let us focus on this for a moment because this is significant and a repeating pattern in the Bible. Where have we seen this before?

• When Moses took the Israelites OUT OF EGYPT and into the wilderness, God parted the RED SEA, and they CROSSED OVER on DRY GROUND.
• This happened again forty years later when Joshua brought the Israelites from the wilderness INTO the PROMISED LAND of Canaan. God parted the waters of the JORDAN RIVER and they again CROSSED OVER on DRY GROUND.

The Israelites experienced TWO CROSS-OVERS...the first was to LEAVE Egypt (metahphor for sin), the second was to come INTO the Promised Land. The Hebrew word for “Cross over” is`abar meaning to “Passover or PASS THROUGH.“ In-fact, the word “Hebrew” עברי (Ivrie), actually means to cross over, or pass through.  It is speculated that Abraham earned the name “Ivrie”, or “One that has Crossed Over” because he came from the other side of the river. Abraham and his family had CROSSED OVER the river Euphrates into Haran, and then God called him back over the river again to the land which we now know to be Israel. Abraham (the first Hebrew) CROSSED OVER the Euphrates River TWO TIMES.

Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through (abar) the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.

Elisha (also a Hebrew) CROSSED OVER the Jordan River twice, first as a student or disciple and second as a prophet. In the same way, Believers in Christ CROSS OVER the “waters” twice.

What is the significance of Crossing over…..”water”?

• Why did God choose WATER as the metaphor for that which must be crossed over (passed over/through) to enter His Kingdom? In the Bible, water is synonomous for Spirit. Did you know that about 70 percent of the human body is made up of water and more than 70 percent of Earth is covered in water.  Coincidence? No, our bodies are made from the earth. Water is LIFE-GIVING and God’s HOLY SPIRIT (symbolized by WATER) is the source of ETERNAL LIFE. Water also WASHES AWAY SIN. In Noah’s flood, God CLEANSED the earth of all the evil and sin. The ceremonial washing in the Mikvah, and later water baptism are metaphors for God washing away sin. Man must PASS THROUGH (CROSS OVER) the WATERS to be cleansed from sin and receive God’s LIFE-GIVING GRACE.
• The vast majority of the water covering the earth is SALT WATER (oceans/seas). Salt water is not potable (drinkable), and cannot sustain life. However, in the water cycle, salt water from earth is LIFTED UP into the HEAVENS through the process of EVAPORATION and then is POURED OUT over the earth in the form of very pure and potable RAIN WATER, which is a very key component of LIFE. In the same way, Jesus Christ the Living Water, had to be LIFTED UP to the CROSS and TAKEN UP to Heaven through death, buriel and resurrection so that the PURIFIED LIVING WATER could be POURED OUT over the earth yielding ETERNAL LIFE.
• God promises His people that when HE PARTS the water for HIS PEOPLE to CROSS OVER (PASS THROUGH), they will not drown. However, the same cannot be said for those who are NOT God’s people. When God parted the Red Sea for the Hebrews (Israel), the water DROWNED the Egyptians who followed them. This is not about nationality. God is showing us that those who are worldly or have evil intentions, those that follow satan either knowingly or through deception, are NOT GOD’S PEOPLE. We cannot have two masters.

Believers in Yeshua (Jesus) FIRST CROSS OVER the SPIRITUAL WATERS FROM the kingdom of darkness and INTO God’s kingdom of LIGHT and TRUTH. This happens when we RECEIVE the shed blood of our Savior Jesus Christ for the complete and total forgiveness of all sins, past, present, and future. We must LEAVE Egypt before we can enter the PROMISED LAND. Once we recognize we are sinners in need of a Savior, and receive God’s FREE gift of GRACE through HIS SON YESHUA (JESUS), then we RECEIVE the GIFT of the HOLY SPIRIT, the LIVING WATER who is our KINGDOM DEPOSIT. Jesus Christ WASHES our sins away and GRANTS US the LIVING WATER that leads to ETERNAL LIFE.

John 4:10:   Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”

The Cross over OUT OF SPIRITUAL EGYPT should be looked at as PERMANENT; however, there are several Biblical examples where people LOOKED BACK, desiring to “go back to Egypt” because there are sadly, many that MISS the sinful world and PREFER the wide road that leads to destruction. Sin is pleasurable for a short season, but it ALWAYS, ALWAYS comes with a COST. The wages of sin is death.

Lot’s wife LOOKED BACK, even as she and her family were being rescued out of Sodom which was under judgment with fire and brimstone for its sinful ways. She was sorrowful at leaving her home and her former way of life. Thousands of years later, after the Babylonian exile, many Jews that remained in Judah desired to return to Egypt, where their ancestors had been enslaved. YHWH warned them that they would DIE if they returned to Egypt, but HIS story tells us that they did not listen. In the New Testament, Jesus instructed us to count the costs of following Him, warning us that if we, as believers, LOOK BACK at the sin-sick world, with longing and desire, we are not fit for His Kingdom.

Genesis 19:26: But Lot’s wife, from behind him, [foolishly, longingly] looked [back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience], and she became a pillar of salt.

Jeremiah 42:¹⁹ The Lord has spoken to you, you remnant of Judah, “Do not go to Egypt!” You know for certain that I have admonished you today.

Luke 9:61:  Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say goodbye to those at my home.” ⁶² But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Although there is a sense of permanency in this FIRST act of CROSSING OVER, there is always the temptation to LOOK BACK. Jesus instructs us that if we taste the goodness of God and then turn back to the sinful world, our spiritual condition is worse than if we would have never known the Goodness of God.

2 Peter 2:21: For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. ²² It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

The second CROSS-OVER occurs when Believers come into the PROMISED LAND. For Israel, the promised land was the land of Canaan. This physical promised land is a PROTOTYPE for the spiritual promised land of God’s Kingdom. Once Israel entered the Promised Land, she did not get to sit back on “easy street”, basking in the glow of a land flowing with milk and honey. No, she was supposed to rid the neighborhood of the “bad actors” that had taken up camp in the land. God warned her that if she failed to do so, the “bad actors” would cause them to follow other ‘gods’ (idols) and turn away from YHWH. These nations worshipped demons and offered HUMAN SACRIFICE to their “gods” (demons).

Deuternomy 7:1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to take possession of it, and He drives away many nations from before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God turns them over to you and you defeat them, you shall utterly destroy them. You shall not make a covenant with them nor be gracious to them. 

The opposite of the seven-fold Spirits of God…

The First – Hittites: Label, “sons of terror”; assignment destination, Church of Smyrna; responsible for torment, terror, deception and depression of all of God’s marked.

The Second – Gergashites: Label, “clay dwellers”; assignment destination, Church of Sardis; responsible for unbelief, what cannot be seen, analytical, earthliness, science, scholarship, workaholic, greed, cold, aloof and unfeeling.

The Third – Amorites: Label, “mountain people” or “people of renown”; assignment destination, Church of Pergamos; responsible for obsession with earthly fame and glory, domineering, loves edifying themselves at the expense of others and vain ambitions.

The Fourth – Canaanites: Label, “lowland people”; assignment destination, Church of Thyatira; responsible for addictions, perversions, exaggerations, sexual lust, pleasing others, allure of all of God’s marked. I also saw a bull and women dancing around to seduce the people.

The Fifth – Perizzites: Label, “belonging to a village”; assignment destination, Church of Philadelphia; responsible for limited vision, laziness, low self-esteem, weakness, sickness, dependency on man, oppressed, spirit of slavery of all of God’s marked.

The Sixth – Hivites: Label, “villagers”, assignment destination, Church of Laodicea, responsible for hedonism, self-centeredness, earthly inheritances, belief in the wide-gate concept, ‘all can enter’ of God’s marked.

The Seventh – Jebusites: Label, “threshers”; assignment destination, Church of Ephesus; responsible for suppression of spiritual gifts, authority over believers, stopping and crushing fruits, threshing the bodies of all of God’s marked.

Sparrowcloud 9, Dream 42.

These SEVEN UNHOLY spirits were dwelling in the Promised Land of Canaan, inhabiting the Nephilim of Genesis 6, the offspring of fallen angels and human women. These were the ones God wanted completely destroyed. God understood that unless ALL of these were completely irradicated, they would continue to plague Israel, pulling her off of God’s path and eventually putting her onto a path of idolatry and rebellion against God, even causing Israel to sacrifice her own children to demons! These 7 UNHOLY SPIRITS were not just “bad people”, these were a demonic hybrid mix, totally evil. Do Christians support child sacrifice (abortion)?

When Christians leave Egypt (metaphor for sin) through the PASSOVER (FIRST CROSS OVER) by the blood of Jesus, we also do not have the luxury of sitting back on easy street and basking in the glow of the Holy Spirit. No, like the Israelites, we must RID our neighborhoods of the bad spiritual actors that seek to partner with our fallen fleshly desires to destroy us. These demonic, spiritual beings have taken up residence in our land. If we could only see behind the veil, we would understand that our beloved planet earth is INFESTED with demons. Honestly, it’s a good thing we can’t see them because we would be HORRIFIED. It would be like the worst horror film imaginable.

The Nephilim were made in the image of the beast, not in the image of God. Because of this, when they died they did not go to Sheol or Abraham’s bosom, Instead, they became disembodied demon spirits who walk the earth. What Hollywood loves to call “ghosts” are really disembodied demons lurking around seeking whom they may devour. We cannot see them with our natural eyes, but they are as real as you and I and they DIRECTLY affect the way we think and act. They HATE mankind and DESIRE to take our bodies for their own (demon possession). They can only possess non-believer’s bodies because as believers in Jesus, we have God’s Holy Spirit living inside of us, Praise Jesus! Our “house” is OCCUPIED! However, they can still OPPRESS believers. Our goal is to use our God-given AUTHORITY IN CHRIST to COMPLETELY IRRADICATE these out of our lives (and our family’s lives). Believers should have a strong desire for the second coming of Jesus Christ when God finally throws these evil, fallen entities into the ABYSS FOR 1000 YEARS, and after the 1000 years are complete, into the LAKE OF FIRE FOREVER! This 1000 year rule of Jesus Christ on earth, when the devil and all of the falen angels and demons will be locked up, will be a GLORIOUS SABBATH’S REST!

God prepared the lake of fire SPECIFICALY for the devil and his angels and the demons. Mankind was not meant to go there, but those who do not receive Jesus Christ, following satan instead, will also be thrown into the lake of fire. (Matthew 25:41).

A word of caution…there is no middle ground. Satan owns the fence. Either we receive Jesus Christ and Eternal life, or we are following satan, whether we know it or not. The majority of mankind who follow satan (the wide road leading to destruction) have no clue that they do so and will be shocked at the Great White Throne Judgment. They are DECEIVED! Humanists, Athiests, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, even Jews who ultimately REFUSE their own Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) do NOT belong to God…and ALL who do not belong to God, belong to satan. Jews have been given an extra portion of Grace to receive Jesus because of the Mosaic Covenant that God still honors UNTIL JESUS’ SECOND COMING when they, TOO must receive the NEW COVENANT. God has partially blinded the Jewish people UNTIL the FULLNESS of the GENTILES comes in. (Romans 11:25).

There are MANY who claim to be Christian and believe that there are multiple paths to Heaven. There are apostate Churches and Pastors who teach this heresy! This heretical doctrine (a doctrine of demons – 1 Timothy 4:1) is a LIE that completely minimizes and negates Jesus Christ’s SACRIFICE on the Cross insulting the Spirit of GRACE! Think for a moment…Would a LOVING FATHER really send HIS ONLY SON to DIE an EXCRUTIATING and PAINFUL death on a CROSS TO SAVE MANKIND if there were OTHER WAYS? Emphatically NO! This is why Jesus asked His Father THREE TIMES in the Garden just prior to His arrest and crucifixion. THREE TIMES Jesus prayed….”FATHER, If there be ANY OTHER WAY, take this cup from Me…but not My will but THY WILL be done”

1) If Islam is another way, take this cup

2) if Buddhism is another way, take this cup

3) If Hinduism or Humanism is another way, take this cup.

But God did NOT take that cup from Jesus. For God so loved THE WORLD that HE GAVE HIS ONE and ONLY SON that WHOSOEVER would BELIEVE in HIM would not perish but have EVERLASTING LIFE. (John 3:16).

There is NO OTHER WAY!!! Jesus Christ is the ONLY PATH to HEAVEN and ETERNAL LIFE for ALL PEOPLE – JEW and GENTILE.

Ephesians 6:12: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Jude 1:6: And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day,

Matthew 25:41: Then He will say to those at His left, ‘You that are accursed, depart from Me into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.

John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.

Matthew 26: ³⁹ Jesus went on a little further. He bowed down with his face to the ground. He talked to God and said, `My Father, if it can be, let this cup of trouble pass by me. But do not do what I want. May what you want be done.’

When Elisha CROSSED OVER the Jordan a SECOND TIME to the “other side”, his life was permanently changed. He had counted the costs of following God, which is significant because Elisha is believed to have come from a very wealthy background. Elisha did not hesitate to follow God. He did not LOOK BACK. He slaughtered his oxen and destroyed his equipment, basically completely giving up his former life. He was ALL IN. Elisha received what he had asked for, a double portion of the “Spirit of Elijah” (Holy Spirit) and assumed the office of a prophet in Israel. His job was to turn Israel’s heart to repentance, urging them to drive out the idol worship they had embraced.

Elisha CROSSED over the Jordan TWICE and he performed DOUBLE the number of Elijah’s Miracles.  There are about 8 recorded miracles in Elijah’s life, while Elisha performed about 16 recorded miracles. Elijah had “passed the baton”. Isn’t it interesting that Elijah crossed over only once, but Elisha crossed twice. Elijah never experienced the FIRST DEATH. He was taken to Heaven in a whirlwind where he is waiting to return as one of the two witnesses of Revelation. He will return at the appointed time, witness for 3.5 years (42 months) of Great Tribulation and eventually die at the hands of the beast (antichrist). He will then be resurrected 3.5 days later, to the shock and horror of the world as Jesus Christ prepares to return as King of kings and Lord of lords. This means that like BELIEVERS, Elijah is still waiting for the second “Crossover” to the Promised Land where mortality puts on Immortality.

Revelation 11: .³ And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.

 ⁵ And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; and so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. ⁶ These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.

⁷ When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them.

¹¹ And after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them.

Elijah passed “the baton” to Elisha and then was taken to Heaven, without dying, so that he could return as one of the TWO WITNESSES.

We see this “passing the baton” in Jesus’ life. John the Baptist was a forerunner for our Messiah Jesus. John had a pretty significant ministry, one in which ALL ISRAEL came to the Jordan River to be baptized. John’s baptism was a “baptism of repentance”, symbolic of the WASHING AWAY of SIN (PARTING THE WATER/crossover). John also baptized our Messiah, Jesus in the Jordan River to SYMBOLIZE God’s parting the waters as Jesus received the official anointing of the Father and of the Holy Spirit to begin His Ministry. Jesus had no sin; however, prior to John baptizing Jesus in the water, he pressed all of Israel’s sin into Jesus as the Passover (CROSS OVER)Lamb of God. Jesus would then take Israel’s sin under the water cleansing all who would believe – forshadowing the fulfillment of this at the Cross. John was passing the baton to Jesus who was stepping into the fulfillment of God’s Will.

What was the first thing Jesus did after “crossing over” into His Ministry and Higher calling? He went into the wilderness to do battle with the devil.

This is the REPEATING PATTERN…CROSS OVER (PASSOVER) and then BATTLE. We can add here that the CROSSING OVER and BATTLE also includes a “dinner” of sorts.

Psalm 23:5: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.

Matthew 4: 1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And after He had fasted for forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. ³ And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” ⁴ But He answered and said, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’”

As Jesus was preparing to do battle with sin and all the forces of darkness on the Cross, He shared the Lord’s Supper with His Disciples. Remember that the Hebrew word for CROSS OVER (as in the waters of the Jordan) also means PASSOVER. The word HEBREW itself means PASSOVER or CROSSOVER.

Luke 21:15: And He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover (crossover) with you before I suffer;

After Elisha Crossed over the Jordan a SECOND TIME into his new ministry as prophet to Israel, what was his first miracle? Elisha’s first miracle had to do with WATER. Moses first miracle at the time of the ten plagues was to turn water into blood. Jesus’ first miracle was to turn water into wine. Elisha’s first miracle also had to do with WATER. Water represents CROSSING OVER (PASSOVER), WASHING AWAY SIN and THE HOLY SPIRIT. Clean, clear, pure water represents HOLY SPIRIT.

2 Kings 2:19: Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold now, the site of the city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful.” ²⁰ And he said, “Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. ²¹ Then he went out to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have purified these waters; there shall not come from there death or unfruitfulness any longer.’” ²² So the waters have been purified to this day, in accordance with the word of Elisha which he spoke.

Shortly after Elisha had crossed over the Jordan the second time into the office of prophet to Israel, the men of Jericho complained to him that the water was bad. The word “bad” means barren, having to do with miscarriage or abortion. The water made people sick, the land did not bear fruit. Clearly, this area was cursed. Water is meant to be a source of LIFE, but this water was bringing DEATH. Elisha performed a miracle by throwing SALT into the water to PURIFY it. This was not a natural purification, this was a supernatural MIRACLE as it lasted forever (“The waters have been purified to this day”).

Salt was extremely valuable in the ancient world. Roman soldiers received their wages in salt. The Greeks considered salt to be divine. The Mosaic Law required that all offerings presented by the Israelites contain salt. (Lev. 2:13). When Jesus told His Disciples that they were to be the “salt of the earth” He was speaking about salt as a preservative. With no refrigeration, the ancients used SALT to preserve meat from DECAY.  As followers of Christ, we are called to be “salt and light” to the world. Believers in Christ are SUPPOSED to COUNTERACT the CORRUPTION and MORAL DECAY that is in the world. Christians, as salt, are to inhibit sin’s power to destroy lives. This in turn creates opportunity for the gospel to be proclaimed and received. However, Jesus cautions us that it is POSSIBLE for us to lose our “saltiness”.

Matthew 5:13: “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by people.

After Elisha’s miracle of purifying the town’s water with salt (Elisha purified the water by adding a pinch of salt (Miracle), he did not make “saltwater”), he was accosted by 42 youths who mocked and hurled insults at him like “baldy“. Elisha cursed them in the Name of the Lord and two bears came up out of the woods and tore up these youths. The word “tore” can also mean divide or SHRED.

The story of Elisha’s calling to the office of prophet contains so many last days “types, shadows and patterns” that we can expect to see come to pass before our eyes. Followers of Jesus have ALREADY CROSSED OVER the FIRST TIME FROM EGYPT (SIN) and INTO the wilderness. We have the Holy Spirit as our guide, but like Elijah, we are not yet IN the PROMISED LAND. Daily, we must NEVER LOOK BACK, and we must battle our spiritual foes by putting on the full armor of God. Israel battled them in the Promised Land, we battle them NOW.

Believers in Jesus who dwell on the earth will enter the promised land (Kingdom of God) at the SECOND CROSS OVER, the RESURRECTION! God prepares a table FOR US before our enemies. On the eve of the PASSOVER (cross over), Jesus shared communion (the Last Supper) with His Disciples. He did this just prior to going into battle with the devil on the Cross. On the EVE of the PASSOVER (CROSS OVER), God will prepare a table for His Bride before our enemies, the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. He will do this just as the world enters into BATTLE the final seven years of mankind’s self-rule on earth. Most Christians expect an instantaneous CATCHING AWAY of the Bride as soon as she is TRANSFORMED from mortal to immortal. However, patterns indicate that AFTER the TRANSFORMATION (CROSSING OVER/BRIDAL MEAL) the Bride will receive a double portion of God’s Holy Spirit along with a PROMOTION to engage in Battle, not eternal rest…at least not yet. There is a LAST DAYS HARVEST that needs to come in prior to the Rapture.

Elisha’s first miracle was to PURIFY the sickly water in the city of Jericho. The Church has lost her saltiness, which is precisely why the world is now so sick. The Church, the only source of LIVING WATER in the world, no longer preserves, but in most cases, now looks exactly like the world. One of the most amazing things about salt is that it doesn’t change. If you add water to salt and then evaporate that same water, you end up with the same salt crystals. No change has taken place. It is the immutability of salt that inspired the ancients to seal Covenants and contracts with it.

Salt should not change….Truth does not change, but the Church HAS changed. She has LOST her saltiness. She has LOOKED BACK. If Elisha’s first act of battle was to heal the sickened waters, the first act of God’s TRANSFORMED BRIDE will be to RESTORE truth to the church. The waters within the Church are no longer bringing LIFE. In-fact, they are bringing DEATH because they encourage people to REMAIN in sin, which always causes sickness and death.

Operating under the power of the HOLY SPIRIT, The TRANSFORMED BRIDE, the Capstone Generation of God’s LIVING TEMPLE, will bring the entire building back in line with the Plum-bob, God’s Word. God’s Word is as immutable as salt. God’s Word cleanses, it heals, it restores.

Elisha restored and purified the water but then immediately began to receive threats, insults, and curses. The 42 “youths” who cursed him represent that part of the Church who REFUSE to believe or follow the Word of God, but love the Church looking exactly like the world. The word for “YOUTHS” in 2 Kings 2 CARRIES along with it a connotation of APOSTASY or WICKEDNESS. This “apostate Church” will NOT be taken in the Rapture, but will remain on the earth for the 42 months of Great Tribulation. During these 42 MONTHS the apostate Church will be “shredded”by the 2 bears who likely represent the TWO WITNESSES (one of whom was Elisha’s mentor Elijah). These TWO BEARS (two witnesses) will tear asunder THE LIES and doctrines of demons of the left behind, APOSTATE, WICKED CHURCH.

Revelation 13:5; And the beast (antichrist) was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.

Rev. 11:2: But do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. ³ And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days (42 months), clothed in sackcloth.”

The Outer Court of the Gentiles was the outermost courtyard and the only area of the temple where non-Jews were allowed. As its name implies, the Court of the Gentiles was accessible to Gentiles, foreigners, and those who were considered impure.

The Inner Courts were on a higher level than the outer court. To enter into the Inner Courts one would have to pass through the western gate of the outer court and up a flight of stairs that had 15 steps to the first court which was the Court of the Israelites.

In Revelation 11, the “outer court” was not to be counted because it would be trampled by the Gentiles for 42 months (3.5 years). We understand that there will be a 3rd physical Temple built in Jerusalem, and that the current blueprints exclude the outer court because there is no room due to the Dome of the Rock, the Muslim Mosque that currently sits in that location. However, Revelation 13 may also be referring to God’s SPIRITUAL TEMPLE, where those in the OUTER COURT (impure, immature, apostate Christians) are “LEFT OUT/NOT COUNTED” (left behind/NOT RAPTURED) and remain for 42 months to be “trampled on by the Gentiles”, symbolized by the 42 months of GREAT TRIBULATION they must endure.

As we consider the patterns in 2nd Kings 2, we should be VERY ENCOURAGED that there appears to be a GREAT CLEANSING/RESTORATION of the TRUTH at the time of the SECOND CROSS OVER (resurrection), a GREAT HARVEST OF SOULS PRIOR TO the Rapture (catching away) and the final 42 months of Great Tribulation!