The Double portion has always intrigued me. It’s mentioned in the bible and why would you not want it? It sounds great and isn’t two better than one?
“He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.” Deuteronomy 21:17
The firstborn blessing was given to the first born son in the Old Testament. It originated from the blessings of Abraham being passed onto Isaac, then from Isaac to Jacob. Jacob was not the first born but saw the potential of such a blessing and stole it from Esau. It seems that this double portion blessing was then established in the Tribes of Israel.
The classic verses on the double portion are found in 2 Kings 2:1-10 where Elisha asked Elijah of a double portion of his prophetic power.
“When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied. “ 2 Kings 2:9
I was intrigued by this story and told the Lord that, that was what I wanted too. I could imagine what it would be like to have such power. By performing a miracle for Jesus would enhance my ministry and bring souls to the Lord. As time went by God didn’t seem interested in my plea, so I brought forth my strong arguments. Didn’t He say in John 14:12 that I would do the same works as He did and greater works that that? I asked and asked, begged, and fasted for years.decades even, but it alluded me.
Finally in 1993 I said ‘enough is enough,’ and decided to fast until I got it. Well God can’t be bought and the fast went on and on until I was wearing 2 pairs of pants and got down to around 57kg. We were in Botswana at the time looking after some ones house and it was very hot. On Christmas day the fast ended. I was at the kitchen sink when I distinctly heard the Lord say to me. “Do you love me more than my power?” Wow, what can you say to a question like that? “No I love your power more than you.” I felt the Lord say that I was to surrender this longing and concentrate on loving Him. He’d sort out the power side of things. It’s now 2020 and I must say its been hard to surrender this desire especially when you see friends and loved ones dying and there is no forthcoming miracle.
What I have learnt since has been invaluable and in a sense I’m glad I didn’t get what I asked for back then, for it would have destroyed me. Greater men than I have fallen from the weight of such a burden. Without the corresponding strength of character something like this is too much to handle alone.
Since then I can see a radical shift in my thinking. My eyes have been opened to see what God really wants. One of the obvious things is that He wants my worship. He wants a real relationship with me. Before I used to treat Him like a slot machine that if I did this and that He would do what I asked. Now I find that I’m not ruled by my feelings so much but by His word. He is becoming my treasure. Before this fast I counted His power as something very precious, but now I’m beginning to see Christ as my most valuable possession. Jesus warned those who counted the power of greater worth than an intimate relationship with Jesus. They never ‘knew’ Him.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:21-23
What Jesus wants from us, isn’t a miracle ministry so much, but a ministry of love to Him. I wanted the double portion but He wanted me to know Him. He wanted to be my treasure, the great desire of my heart. He wanted to be my true treasure, my source, my life,my strength, my everything, my all. I wanted what was in His hand but He wanted me to have what was in His heart. He wanted me to see His face. He wanted me to know Him.
Paul sort to know Christ rather than to have great power. He did many miracles in his ministry, but they came as a by product of knowing Christ. He explains his heart, and his passion in these verses below.
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:8-11
I love how it’s put in the amplified version of the bible. ‘The priceless privilege of knowing Christ.’ ‘The supreme advantage of knowing Christ.’ Knowing Christ is far greater than having His power.
You can have the power yet not know Him as we see in Matthew 7:21-23. God was shifting me from loving the world to loving God. I didn’t realise how worldly I was. He began to teach me how to put my roots down into Him and not so much into the world. He wants us to become like Paul who said that ‘None of these things move me.’ He wasn’t governed by circumstances or feelings anymore but by the Spirit of God. With all that is going on around us in the world today it would be to our advantage to have the same mind. He says in Romans that all things will work together for good for those who love God. Those who know God. When we get to this place it will make us unmovable like Paul.
One thing I now believe is that the true New Testament double portion, is knowing Him and through that you will know who you are. The beauty of this is, that its attainable for us all. The double portion in the Old Testament was for a select few, but this portion is for whosoever will. I love how it is put in the Message Translation. In finding Him you will find yourself. This is a powerful place to be in and brings with it liberty, peace, health and confidence. There is a song we sing now that says ‘I believe who you say I am.’
“If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me. Matthew 10:38-39
In the Song of Songs it speaks of His love being better than wine. Knowing this wonderful love is better than wine. It intoxicates and thrills the heart. He wants us to know its heights and its depths for its higher than the highest mountain and deeper than the deepest sea. In the Passion Translation of Ephesians 3:16-17 it puts everything in a marvellous light.
“And I pray that he would unveil within you the unlimited riches of his glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with his divine might and explosive power.
“Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life. Ephesians 3:16-17
The Holy Spirit wants to give us the power to discover this marvellous love within, rather than to do miracles. He wants to unveil inside of us His glory and in that, experience His life. For His love to be the source of our lives. As we discover all this we will be filled with the fullness of God. Wow.
Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God! Ephesians 3:18-19
Even more amazing is that our meagre love for Him is like wine as well. It intoxicates Him. As we begin to see how He sees us it makes you want to love Him more. I love the way Brian Simmons puts it in his daily readings from the Song of Solomon. Song of Songs 4:10
“Your love is the finest wine - intoxicating and thrilling.”
Your life of devotion pleases Him more than any other beautiful thing He’s created. It intoxicates Him. Jesus is essentially saying that your love for Him is more valuable than anything else in the universe. Your love thrills His heart. He values your love more than any other pleasure there is. He measures it not on strength but by its sincerity. He knows you love Him although you may fail and sin at times.
We can all receive the double portion in Christ, for we are placed in Him - believe. JESUS CHRIST IS THE FIRSTBORN. In Him you share in His first born blessing.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ” Colossians 1:15
As you know Him more and understand who He is, then you will understand more of who you are. You are a new creature in Christ. We say this so glibly, but it’s far greater than your mind could ever understand this side of Heaven. You are heirs of God and He is your inheritance. You inherit all He is and all He has. We are invited to believe this. We have this opportunity to know Him this side of Heaven. I'm convinced that what you begin to know here on earth is part of your great reward in Heaven. There are those that get into heaven by the skin of their teeth. Do you think that they will get the same reward as Paul? Yes, we all get to heaven by faith but the rewards are different when we are there. ‘The last shall be first and the first last.’ We have the opportunity now to gather up this great spoil that He is making available.
“The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8:16-18
“And since we are his true children, we qualify to share all his treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that he is and all that he has. We will experience being co-glorified with him provided that we accept his sufferings as our own. I am convinced that any suffering we endure is less than nothing compared to the magnitude of glory that is about to be unveiled within us.”
Its mind boggling to know that we are invited to share in all of His glory. Just as we shared in the sin of Adam even though we didn’t do anything. We were there in Adam though for the human race came out of him. So we can experience the blessings of Christ the 2nd Adam by being placed in Him. All His blessings we share. To those who overcome He will cause to sit with Him in His throne. Overcoming is believing what He says and not bowing to the condemnation and lies of Satan. We can’t earn it but we can receive it all by believing.
“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” Revelation 3:21
Jesus prayed that we might receive all these blessings in Him. We need to know that we were co-crucified with Him. That His resurrection is our resurrection. We have been co-ascended with Him and seated in heavenly places with Him.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23
The part we don’t like is that we also need to suffer with Him, but suffering always brings with it blessings. Romans 8:17-18
Look at Hanna the mother of the Prophet Samuel. She had years of grief as a barren wife, but her husband used to give her a double portion every year and eventually she was granted her heart’s desire and birthed one of the great prophets of Israel.
Look at Job and all his suffering. When it ended the bible tells us that God gave him twice as much as he had before. (A double portion).
We are also Christ’s Priests and in Isaiah 61 the Lord has said that he will give us double for our trouble. Amen.
“But you shall be named the priests of the Lord, They shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, And in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame you shall have double honour, And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; Everlasting joy shall be theirs.”Isaiah 61:6-7
So where to from here? I am very thankful that the Lord didn’t give me what I asked for back in 1993. All that I have learnt since then is invaluable and I can take it with me into eternity. I will not limit the Lord, for John 14:12 is still a promise to all of us from the Lord. The work that He did shall we do also and even greater works because He has gone to the Father. Why should things be different because He has gone to the Father? I think that it’s because we are in Him and the blessings that He now receives there are ours too.
When I married my wife, all that she had became mine and visa versa. We became stronger as one. I laugh now because I wasn’t much of a handyman and didn’t even have a set of screw drivers, but in marriage I inherited hers. Lol. I can see that its the same with our union with Christ, He has become stronger as we work together and combine forces. You might say “What can I have to offer?”
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,” Ephesians 1:18
“I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can see something of the future he has called you to share. I want you to realise that God has been made rich because we who are Christ’s have been given to him! “ The Living Bible
Christ says that He has a glorious inheritance in us, which is hard to believe. The Passion Translation says;
“that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones!”