Elisha asks this question as he comes back to the Jordan after witnessing Elijah being taken to heaven. He has the mantle of Elijah and he has asked for the firstborn’s inheritance: a double portion.

He cries out, “Where is the God of Elijah?” and strikes the water. The Jordan parts again.

As I read this passage and look through some old notes, I think of two great men of God I miss right now. David Wilkerson, who pastored Times Square Church in New York and spoke prophetically for many years. He also founded Teen Challenge out of witnessing to gang members in New York back in the 1950s. David had words that would enrage people. I would get mad from time to time at “dumb” things I thought he said. Yet, I always knew this man trembled in the presence of God and prophets just say things that tick you off from time to time.

The other man I miss is Calvin Olson. Other than a few people in Minnesota, probably no one knows this incredible man of prayer. He was a missionary in his career. When I met him he was retired and helping with prayer ministry in our District. The man walked with God. I do not say this jokingly: you could ask Calvin what God was up to in the world and Calvin could honestly tell you.

I miss these men and I miss their voices in my life, and in the life of the Church.

But there is a time to miss men like this and there is a time to pick up their “mantle,” so to speak, and get on with the next stage of the journey. It is one thing to talk about what has gone before. It is another thing to actually engage God at the level those men walked with God.

Elisha decided to walk with God as Elijah had shown him. It wasn’t about wishing Elijah was still here. It was knowing the God of Elijah was still around, and if so, pick up where Elijah left off.