Samuel Rodriguez - I Have A Mantle And I Am Not Afraid To Use It
"So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him". 2 Kings 2:13, "He," Elisha, "Took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan". Yesterday, I referenced to you the fact that the plow of perseverance will always to the mantle of promotion. The plow of perseverance will lead to the mantle of promotion. Elijah found Elisha pushing a plow when he placed his mantle upon him. And subsequently, after Elisha followed Elijah to Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and Jordan, followed that same trajectory by the way.
Spiritual sons and daughters must follow Elijahs to Gilgal, to Bethel, to Jericho, and Jordan. You'll get a taste of the mantle, but then you have to go to that school of learning before you end up with the mantle forever. Now, it's critical that that plow of perseverance did lead to the mantle of promotion. The prophet Elisha finally ends up with the mantle, and what did he do? The first thing I'm gonna share with you three simple things that will take place as a result of you having a mantle. I wanna begin by telling you this. You carry the glory of the risen Christ. You don't carry multigenerational curses. You don't carry drama and trauma, and perpetual victimization. You don't carry excuses. You carry the glory of the risen Christ.
That's Romans 8:17. That's Romans 8:30. That's 2 Corinthians 3:18. And you don't go from problem to problem, drama to drama, trauma to trauma. You go, according to the apostle Paul from (glory), to (glory), to (glory), and that means you and your children and your children's children, you carry a mantle. And because you carry this mantle, in Jesus' name. It's gonna be different this morning. I just wanna give you these three prophetic impartations. Because you carry this mantle, in this name of Jesus, I'm not thinking, I'm not hoping. I'm not wishing, I know that every Ahab, Jezebel, and Baal will be defeated in your generation in your surrounding in Jesus' name, because you carry the mantle. That mantle will activate the Way Maker.
One more time, that mantle will activate the Way Maker. What did Elisha do with the mantle? What did he do? He didn't take a selfie and went, "I have a mantle". He went with that mantle, which is the anointing, the impartation, the calling, the purpose, he took that mantle and the very first thing he did, "I wanna see if this anointing works". So, he went to the Jordan, and he did what his predecessor had done. On one occasion, Elijah went to the Jordan with, hit the Jordan, struck the Jordan, the Bible says, with his mantle and God made a way where there was no way.
So, Elisha shows up, goes to the Jordan, first thing he does, he doesn't go to Starbucks and drink that caramel macchiato or the almond milk latte, or the match green tea, by the way. Very delicious, by the way, if you put, it's the refresher for the season. It's a venti ice matcha, coconut milk with peach juice, lightly iced. Anyway, back to the story. What did he do? He took the mantle, he went to the Jordan, struck the Jordan, and what did God do. I'm gonna repeat to you so you can tell I'm not making this up. 2 Kings 2:14, "He struck the water of Elijah's mantle and he cried out, 'where is the Lord God of Elijah?' then the river divided, Elisha went across". God made a way. The first thing he does is, "Will you do it for me like you did it for him? Will you do it for me like you did it for him? Are you still the Way Maker"?
I'm here to tell you this morning, the same God that made a way for Elijah is right here right now. The same God that made a way for Elisha is right here right now. He is the Way Maker. Someone say, "The Way Maker". He will make a way where there is no way. So, right now, if you're before something, if you're standing before something that is closed, if you're before a closed door, a medical report, a bank receipt, whatever it may be, I don't care what it may be yelling out and shouting in front you, we serve the Way Maker. We have a mantle that will activate, there's an anointing to see God make a way where there is no way in your family, in your home, with your children, in your marriage, in your health and in your generation.
Does anyone here need God to make a way where there is no way? Does anyone come in agreement with me in Jesus' name? This is gonna be... Can anybody have crazy faith, come in agreement that before this year is over, you will go through what right now may be close and you will see God make a way where there is no way? He is the Way Maker. Isaiah 43:16, "I am the Lord your holy one, the Creator and the king. I am the Lord who opened a way". But listen, God says, "Forget everything I did before because it can't compare to what I'm about to do next. And matter of fact, behold, I do something new. It's already begun. Do you not see it? I will make a way through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland". He is the Way Maker. God is the Way Maker and not only is he the Way Maker, praise be the Lord, he is the way.
When I was advising president Obama in November of 2015, I engaged in some egregious maleficence. Google that word. I found it this morning. Copy and paste it in and see what happens. I'm kidding. I engage in activity that was perceived by many as just beyond the bounds. I crossed a line. I posted on my personal Facebook page something so controversial, so counterintuitive to our current reality, so destructive to the sentiments. Oh, what a perpetual, triggering generations. Woe is me. How dare I? It was thanksgiving and I just felt thankful because in thanksgiving, we are thankful. So, I posted something on my Facebook page. What I posted was so serious that it prompted many people to ask for my resignation, literally.
And things were being posted everywhere. "How can president Obama listen to this guy? He's a Jesus freak. He's a fundamentalist. He's a nutcase". So many things. "How in the world can this guy have access to the White House? This guy's a nut". I'mma tell you what I posted that was so controversial. You ready for this? So controversial. I said, "I am thankful this thanksgiving week, that Jesus is the only way". That was it. That's how controversial. That was 2015. Now, they have Satan pride shirts in certain department stores with no... But I couldn't say, "Jesus is". Well, here I am now. I'm in Maui, it's 2023, and just in case I stuttered, there are not five ways to heaven. There are not four ways to heaven. There are not three ways to heaven. There are not two ways to heaven. There's only one way to be saved.
Looking at a barren piece of land via the conduit of the water and declaring it's coming to an end. In Isaiah 54:1,2, God speaks to Jerusalem. He speaks to his people who are in captivity and he says, "Right now, you're barren. You're bearing nothing. You're giving birth to nothing. And a matter of fact, those around you are giving birth to things and you are bearing nothing. You're producing nothing". But then, God says this: do your biblical due diligence. I love this. God says, "Hey, you have nothing. You've been crying. You've been whining. You've been moaning". God says, using 2023 lexicon, "Flip the script. Sing, shout, raise your voice and praise," God says, "Because you are about to have more than those that have already received around you".
This mantle is to activate your praise and your worship because your praise and your worship are forerunners, they are the preamble to the most fruitful season of your life. You're about to bear more fruit all of your activities. You will bear fruit. I said, you will bear fruit in your family, with your prayers, with your worship, with your pursuit of righteousness, with the glory of the risen Christ in you, with you, for you, and through you. You're about to bear more fruit like never before. You're about to bear more fruit, but it's connected to your praise and your worship, so I don't wanna double down on this. I won't get weird. Growing up, I believed, growing up, I believed that your praise and your worship expression were ethnicultural, ethnoculturally contextualized.
What does that mean? Growing up, I believed that if you were of a certain skin color, pigmentation, or lack of thereof, whether you were monochromatic or very skittle bag, whatever it may be, that you would praise a certain way. So, I believed certain people if you're of this skin color, you would praise this way. If you're this, you're more stoic and you praise this way unless you're from Alabama 'cause they praise. And arkansaw. But then, I discovered none of the above. I traveled around the world and God opened up my eyes and God actually just speak to me and showed me something and said, "No, no, no. Don't be, don't be, don't, uh huh. That has nothing to do with your praise".
I went literally around world, different continents, and I discovered that praise and worship have, it's nothing to do with the color of your skin. I discovered that praise and worship is actually... So, I wondered, why do certain people praise a certain way, certain people... Is it their personalities? No. I discovered that praise is actually a mathematical equation. The size of your praise, the foolishness of your praise is directly proportional to the magnitude of the hell that God took you out of. I will repeat that. The size and the foolishness of your praise, some people can't stop praising. I used to criticize 'em, now, I don't. I discovered that the size of your praise is directly proportional to the magnitude of the hell that God took you out of.
In other words, if God took you out of a little hell, then you probably give him a nice, little praise, but if he saved you, if he delivered you, if he healed you, if he turned you around, and placed your feet on solid ground, if he showed up in your family, if he set your children free, if he shifted your atmosphere, if he broke generational curses, you don't give him a little praise, you give him the highest... are they any worshippers in king's church in Maui County today who have the kind of testimony that give God their highest praise? It is the mantle. It is that mantle. And finally... Are there any questions? It is with that mantle the prophet Elisha comes along. Not only does he activate the Way Maker, not only does he say, "Look," and released the fact, all barren season comes to an end. Here comes fertility. Here comes fruitfulness. With that mantle, he unleashes fresh oil upon an entire family.
Fresh oil. 2 Kings 4:3. Someone say, "Fresh oil". Elisha with that mantle said, "Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. Go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you: pour olive oil from your flask into the jar, setting each one aside when it's filled". And they did until they ran out of jars, the Bible says in verse six and it was fresh oil, fresh oil. I need you to get ready with this anointing to see fresh oil come down upon your family. I'mma say that one more time for the hearing impaired. Get ready to see fresh oil come down upon your family. We are about to see our prodigal sons and daughters run back home. We are about to see our children and our children's children serving the Lord.
"Oh, Pastor Samuel, but that's wishful thinking. That's just encouragement. Praise the Lord. That's very Pollyannaish, but my kids are so lost and broken, and drugs, and atheist, agnostic. They're having issues with gender and identity, and with acid reflux, whatever it may be. My kids are so jacked up and discombobulated, there's no way they're gonna come to, I mean, I've been praying and fasting for 92,000 years and I'm yet to see the outcome of it".
I'm gonna tell you a little story. We were in Sacramento. We're actually in Oahu in Hawaii. We were Ain Oahu, my wife and I, we get a call from our team. We had a little sabbath. My team calls me up and says, "Pastor Sam, California, Sacramento. A storm came in, Pastor Sam". "Why are you calling"? Cause they usually wouldn't call us in our sabbath and... "Why are you calling"? "We have a problem". "What's the problem"? "Well, Pastor Sam, it's the sound board. It's our board and our computers that are part of our media team," 'cause we stream live around the world. We stream everything we do on Sundays. I go, "What's the issue guys"? "Yeah, electrical storm hit the region, didn't hit our building, hit the region, right there in the neighborhood, and our stuff... mmm, doop"!
And I go, "What do you mean, boop". They went "Deet"! I go, "Guys, wait a minute, we have standard operating procedures. Let's talk to our operations, pastor, and our media guy. What's the procedure? After every service, everything is turned off to avoid this". "Pastor Sam, we promise you we're not making it up. We have integrity. We did sops. We did standard operating procedures. And everything was turned off". "Are you sure"? "Everything was turned off". "How could it happen? PG and E guy came in and explained to us what took place". "What took place"? "It doesn't matter if your stuff is turned off. When the surge comes into the region, the fact that it was connected, as long as it's connected it could be off, it will receive the surge".
I don't care if your children are turned off right now. In your kids are still your kids. When God gives you a word, that word will impact your kids. If your kids are still your kids, when God gives you an anointing, that anointing will impact your kids. So, put a smile on your face because your children, and your children's children, and your children's children's children will receive the surge of the power of God that is coming your way. This connection is legit. The fact that the man of God with the mantle literally saw a family transform supernaturally through fresh oil to pay off the debts but the oil, we know what it represents. The anointing. Fresh oil. We went through this. That connection, that mantle applied and activating the mantle, during COVID, as July of 2020, and COVID hit March and we are... It's July 2020 and we had the most difficult moment of our lives.
Pastor Eva and I, we lived it. There's never been more, a more difficult moment in that moment. At that time, the former president, president Trump, appointed me to be part of a Corona Virus Commission. The heritage foundation recruited me and I was by the grace of God, the only pastor part of the national Corona Virus Recovery Commission. So, we were writing policies for president Trump regarding Corona Virus. So, we were having the CDC, calls to the CDC, Deborah Birx, and all that, zoom calls. Getting the data, the latest data from around the world, all that. So, we were getting, we were all part of that.
And then, my daughter Evie, gives birth to my first granddaughter, Camilla, Mila. And Evie has a little bit, her WBCS, her white blood cell count, is usually in the low threes. Never needing medication but always a doctor keep an eye on it because it's low WBCS. When she gave birth, her WBCS tanked and she was hit with COVID, same time, perfect storm. My millennial daughter, Evie, who shouldn't be in this situation according to the stats ends up on a ventilator dying from COVID. I speak to the doctor and the doctor... Matter of a fact, my whole family ended up with COVID. I run, and so I run a lot and for whatever reason I, like, I only knew I got COVID 'cause after the fact, I took a test to see if I had and it ended up in my bloodstream, so I didn't know I had it.
The only sign I thought I had COVID, one day I was walking to the bathroom and I got a little chill in my leg like this... I didn't know if it was Elvis anointing. I don't know if it was a Michael Jackson thing. I know that, so, help me, I'm not making it up. I went to the bathroom one day, no fever, no nothing. I'm walking and one day I go... And I started going, like... Like, what is this? Wow. Evie ends up on a ventilator and it's California, super restrictive, and they wouldn't permit her, she couldn't even breast feed Mila. It was crazy. The whole thing was just surreal. Her husband couldn't get close to her, couldn't even, like, the hospital was locked down like a military, crazy stuff. It just...
So, I go in my Jeep Wrangler. I'm in my Jeep Wrangler, hat, sunglasses, on my way to a certain coffee shop whose name I will not mention and I'm aiming and I lost it. I just spoke to the doctor. The doctor said, "Mr. Rodriguez, if your daughter doesn't fight, if she doesn't fight", but I said, "She's a millennial". She went, "You don't see, she had a preexisting condition, sir. She's not your normal millennial. If she doesn't fight, she's not gon' make it". So, I lost it. I'm driving, how can my daughter? She's my baby. So, you want me to say... I greatest faith. You want me to say, like, I prophesied, spoke in tongues for an hour.
No, I was broken. I was broken. And I'm driving down Folsom Boulevard and I'm talking to God, I'm going, "God, I don't doubt you at all. I go not for one, I've seen you too much. I've experienced too much of your glory, your grace. I've been too filled with your spirit. I can't doubt you even if I wanted to. I hate the fact that I can't doubt you. You've been too good. You've been too real and I can't doubt you, but this doesn't not line up with what you promised me. I'm gonna be honest, this is not part of the dream. It's not part of the vision. It's not 'cause you, from mama's womb, my kids are anointed. They have destiny. They have purpose".
So, I start talking, and then, all of a sudden, I flipped it. I went like, "Look, I'm not a baby. I'm not a kid. I'm not even Gideon. I'm not gonna ask for some fleece and", oh, what, and I'm driving and I'm going, "You know what, God, just give me a little something something". She's in ICU in hospital. I can't see her. She has no idea where I'm at, what I'm doing. "You and me right now". This me talking about, "You and me. Do something for me. I want you to send angel right now and invade her room". Angels, I said, angels, verbatim. I did not just say, "Send your presence and", I said, "Send your angels right now".
I get a text from my daughter. My daughter doesn't know where I'm at, has no idea what I'm saying, that I'm crying, that I'm praying. My daughter is in ICU on a ventilator about to die and what does she have next to her in hands? Her iPhone. That's how millennials do it. If they die, when they die, there's a good possibility an iPhone will be right next to them. Generation Z, an iPhone will be inside of them. Alpha, they will born with an iPhone. The algorithm is there. She texts. Ready for this? That's why every agnostic, mathematical probability, watch God. "Dad," comma, my daughter's text, not knowing where I'm at, what I'm doing, what I'm saying. "Dad," comma, "I promise it's not the meds". Not the medication. "Dad," comma, "I promise it's not the meds. Dad, angels just invaded my room".
I'm here to tell you whatever God has done for me, if you had a different outcome during COVID, God bless you in eternity, we have the same, identical outcome but I want you to hear me right now. In this chapter of your life, you're about to see God supernaturally show up in your family like you've never seen God. I'm prophesying to somebody right now. You need to put a smile on your face. You need to put a shout on your lip and a praise in your heart because you're about to see God show up in your family with your children, in your marriage, in your...
If this is you, lift up your hands, and I dare you to say, "God's about to show up". The moment it becomes impossible, it officially belongs to God. The moment it becomes impossible, it officially belongs to God. The next day, the doctor calls me up and I speak to the doctor better yet, and I, I go, "Doctor, what's going on"? Doctor says the famous words, "Mr. Rodriguez," comma, "Mr. Rodriguez, I can't explain it". Anybody ready for, "I can't explain it"? Any, king's, are you ready for people to say, "I can't explain it but everything turned around in your favor and you're about to see the breakthrough you've been praying for, and fasting for, and hoping for"?