“But Elisha said, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” 2 kings 2:2

Have you ever had the feeling that your closest companion including your best friends or family is sometimes the source of discouragement for you in achieving a goal God put in your heart? If yes, nothing is wrong with you as you are not the only one. Peter had discouraged Jesus to go to the cross (Matthew 16:22) and Elisha had had a similar experience with Elijah.

In the book of 1 King 19, God asked Elijah to anoint Elisha as his successor and Elijah executed the order. Elisha then served Elijah for 6 years, watching him and receiving mentorship from him. However, there is no evidence during that mentoring period that Elisha was performing the kind of miracle that Elijah was performing, and for him to take the baton of his mentor he believed he should be able to perform such miracles.

When the time for Elijah to leave arrived, he was saying goodbye to his mentee without transferring his anointing. A decision that led the mentee to have an attitude that is almost impossible to find elsewhere in scripture between a mentor and his protégé. He disobeyed him. “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” That was the answer Elisha gave to Elijah when Elijah was telling him the last time to leave him to continue his way. He consistently repeated the same answer three times at different moments. From the persistence of the mentee, the mentor then asked him 'what do you want me to do for you?' and the mentee replied “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit” (2 kings 2:9). Even though Elijah recognized the difficulty of such a blessing, he gave up and told Elisha how possibly such a blessing can be received because of his persistence.

On the way to achieving the goal God puts in our hearts, we meet many types of obstacles including our enemies who are ready to discourage us. It will be fair to mention that sometimes our friends or loved ones can also be a source of discouragement to us because they love us too much or because they do not want us to go through difficult situations.

May God give us the strength we need to be persistent in achieving the vision he puts in our hearts.