[SUB12] TROQUE O BOM PELO MELHOR - LUCIANO SUBIRÁ

Hi people, I’m here in Rio de Janeiro, with the Pão de Açúcar in the back, passing to bring another word that will bless your heart. Paul the apostle says in Philippians, on chapter 3, verses 13 and 14: "forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. " Normally we use this text to speak of the importance of forgetting the negative things.

For example, our sinful past that has already been forgiven, the conscious that if someone is in Christ it is a new creature, there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Some others use this passage to refer to their painful experiences in the past, like, for example, the capacity of overcoming hurt upon forgiveness, forgetting what one day has hurt us, damaged us, pressing on towards a place where our souls are healed and all of this is true and should be done. However, the purpose of of our reflection today is to show that not only bad things should be forgotten, I believe we must leave some good things behinds as well if we want to enter the better ones.

If you are someone that wants to break trough, wants to go beyond, willing to exchange the good for something that is even better stay with me and we will reflect about it together in the next few minutes, The Word of God shows us that none of us should, actually, get stuck with an attitude of conformity, contrariwise, it seems by the scriptures that an attitude of inconformity is what attracts the intervention of God. The Word of God speaks about Gideon. Gideon is a man to which The Angel of the Lord shows up and calls a brave man, and commissions him to deliver Israel from the hands of the Midianites, but the man that listens to that, coming from the angel of the Lord the affirmation: “The Lord is with you, brave man", he instantly responds with a question: “if the Lord is with us what happened to the wonders that our parents have told us?

" His questioning is “if the Lord is with us, where is the move of miracles from the generation of Moses? If the Lord is with us, where is the conquering anointing of the generation of Joshua If the Lord is with us, I want to see the manifestations of God. " Actually, you can see in Gideon a nonconformist heart.

Nonconformist with the sameness, nonconformist with the manifestations of God being not as frequent as in the past, nonconformist with the situation of the nation. It is specially the type of person God is looking for. The word of God declares, in 2 Kings 16:9, that the eyes of the Lord go all across the land seeking for hearts that are incorruptible, wholly His so that He can show Himself Strong.

This shows us that God is not revealing His strength to everyone. God is seeking hearts so that He can, in fact, manifest, reveal His might. And it is specially people that have a heart that is completely dedicated to the Lord, that is eager for the manifestations of God.

I learn a lot when the subject is to forget what is behind us and, advance to what is ahead, not only in the sense of exchanging something bad for something good, but like we said before, In the sense of exchanging something good for something better. I learn a lot with the prophet Elisha. Elisha, actually, really impresses me by the capability he had, specially in this subject, of pursuing what God had before him, of reaching greater things that God had for his life.

We know that Elijah leaves upon Elisha the responsibility of being his sucessor and he does by direction from God. What normally most of us don't stop to think about is the weight it had. For example, when God chose Joshua to be Moses’ sucessor, Joshua is terrified before that responsibility.

God needs to tell him: “do not fear, don't be scared. Like I was with my servant Moses I will be with you. " Why?

The responsibility he had was enormous. And do not think that with Elisha it was different, because after Moses maybe Elijah was the biggest figure that we can find in the old testament. Someone that, in fact, was used by God, marked his generation profoundly, a man of revival that took a whole nation to fall to their knees crying “only the Lord is God!

" However, something we don't usually talk about Elijah, is that he gave up on his mission. Even before completing his ministry he enters a cave, discouraged he asks for death. Basically he is frustrated with himself, maybe with some goals he did not reach, because he says to God: “I'm no better than my parents" and he simply says: “I’m done.

Here I resign, I quit. " Bible says he asked for death upon himself. It is like, in a modern language, we can say he presented to God the resignation letter.

He is basically saying to God: “I'm done, I’ve had enough. I’m out. " And God, using the same terminology of work of our days, not only accepted Elijah’s resignation letter, but he gives to him the responsibility of fulfilling a short task.

The Lord tells Elijah: “I still have some tasks for you before you leave. You’re going to anoint Jehu king of Israel, you’re going to anoint Asael king of Syria", and The Lord, in third place, says to him “and you're going to anoint Elisha prophet in your place. " However, we see that the prophet Elijah did not anoint Jehu king of Israel nor Asael king of Syria.

He simply goes, searches for Elisha, casts the mantle upon him, transfers the responsibility like who says: “now it’s with you,I’m out. " We need to understand that the way Elisha reacts to that at the same time he embraces the huge privilege that is being offered to him, there is a posture inside him that says: “I crave everything that God has for me and I settle for nothing less than the fulness of God’s purpose for my life. " The word of God says that when the day finally arrived that Elisha would be taken by the Lord to heavens, they go to four distinct places.

They pass trough Gilgal, they pass trough Bethel, trough Jericho and finish at the Jordan. Each of these places Elijah tells Elisha “stay here, God sent me to another place, to do something else", but Elisha answers him: “as surely as The Lord lives, I’m not leaving you nor leaving you be", bringing it to a modern context, a modern language. In all four occasions, he repeats the same thing: “as surely as the Lord lives, I won't leave you.

” Until the last of these four places where Elijah goes to, Elijah demonstrates a clear frustration, he looks to Elisha and asks: “what do you want me to do before I’m taken from you? " I, particularly, believe that Elijah’s protest is: “what is it that you want that you won't leave me be, let me have a little privacy before I leave? " This was the moment, the moment Elisha's where he answers: “I want doubled portion of the spirit that is upon you.

" He was not, like some say, asking for a doubled portion of the Holy Spirit. Because God does not give the Holy Spirit by measure, says the gospel of John. He, actually, was saying to Elijah: “I want doubled portion of the anointing, of the spirit that is upon you.

" In other words, I understand and this is my reading of the whole context, Elisha is saying this to Elijah: “if you want to give up, If you stopped before your time, if you presented your resignation letter for whatever reason, God, the boss, the employer accepted, this is in between you two and I have nothing to do with that", I basically believe that Elisha in between the lines is saying to him: “but if you think I’m gonna give up on my own calling, of my own ministry just to live in your shadow like some sort of steppe of yours, just to be a substitute because you didn't want to finish your calling, you’re mistaken. " It is like Elisha put his conditions and terms saying: “I'm only joining this if I am to be two prophets in one. I’m only in this if I am to live the fullness of my calling, of the purpose God has for my life and still accept and embrace what you have given up on.

" Interesting is, Elijah is used to seeing miracles, manifestations of the supernatural, he looks to Elisha and says: “a hard thing you have asked. " Basically he is saying: “you’re trying to get too much here, boy. " But, Elijah throws the “hot potato” up like who says: “God is the one who defines it.

" And he says: "look, if you see me when I am taken from you, so it will be, if not, that will not happen. " And you know the story. The Word of God says a charity of fire separate the two, Elijah goes up in a whirlwind and in that moment, the atitude of Elisha keeps being the same.

In the moment Elijah goes up, the word of God says, and we’re in the beginning of 2 Kings, the word of God says that Elijah’s mantel fell down. In that exact moment, Elisha goes and grabs the mantle aiming the Jordan, and, in that moment I believe, he was doing a declaration, because before crossing te Jordan , when the two got there Elijah opened the river and they crossed walking, a miracle that the entire generation of Joshua saw, the two saw privately, but now Elisha is saying basically that: "not a chance I'm swimming back. ” Basically he is saying: “of all that God has done in my life sets the standard, from now on I’m not stopping.

" He grabs the mantle, he strike the waters and when he does his cry is: “where is the God of Elijah? " He is not asking “where is Elijah? " because he knows Elijah is gone.

Let me make an observation, there is a lot of people stuck to moves from the past. There is a lot of people stuck with what happened in a unique moment in history. The Word of God says that the the other sons of the prophets got to Elijah asking for permission to search for his body.

What did they want? “There has to be a burial. We need to mourn the past move of God.

" The attitude of Elijah is not of disrespect but of someone that understands it is time to move on. He says: “don't worry about it, we’re keeping on", and even though they insist, when they return, Elisha says to them: “What did I say? ".

We need to understand that even though in our history as a church in Brazil and around the world, we had other powerful moves of God in the past, God was not buried with great leaders, the Holy Spirit did not leave this earth, we are living a special time where we need to believe in greater manifestations. I dare you: believe, wait, seek the manifestations of God in your life. Leave de good and advance for the best in the name of Jesus.