I am talking here right straight out of my personal knowledge and not from a book or any notes, just straight out of my heart. The mantle is not something that you can suddenly lay hands on a total stranger in a meeting and suddenly impart to them your mantle.

A mantle is a life style, it takes years and years of following someone and serving someone like Elisha did with Elijah in order to receive a mantle of such. We see how Elisha had to leave his oxen, leave his work, when the Prophet Elijah came along and cast his mantle upon him. He had to follow him as if he were a son, or a servant. Elijah became like a father to Elisha, a mentor, the moment he cast his mantle upon him. Elijah had a school of prophets, and they were son's of prophets and he was like a father to them, a mentor, a life long teacher, a leader who poured himself into them a long long time.

So if someone who is a stranger comes up to you and says lay hands on me and impart to me your mantle, this is something that is impossible because they have not carried your suitcase for you, they have not polished your shoes, they have not served you like Elisha did with Elijah, it is just a total impossibility.

You have to become a servant first in order to receive a mantle. The only way mantles can come suddenly upon someone is that if God himself puts his hand upon you with his mantle. Other wise mantles are something that you have been trained for and lived under teaching of someone for many of a years at a time. It can come from a parent who has groomed you and showed you how to live in this life, or a Spiritual leader, or a mentor who has been by your side day by day teaching you and grooming you.

There is something that is dangerous regarding this mantle doctrine though, because many can become abusers of it and try to manipulate, and control people with it, like one evangelist I know who says he cannot pray for anyone unless they are under his spiritual covering and under his mantle. This is called spiritual abuse, because what would happen if Jesus was here on earth doing that and saying to all the crowds and multitudes of the sick, I cannot pray for you because you are not under my mantle.

And what would happen if the prophet Elijah would of said to Naaman the leper, I cannot tell you what to do because you are not under my mantle or spiritual covering. What would happen if you were in an auditorium full of people and you make an altar call or calling for the sick to come up to be healed, but then you remember, I do not have authority to pray for these people because they are not under my mantle or spiritual covering. It can be vice versa also, someone or everyone in the crowd can say , we cannot go to get prayed for at the altar because we are under that persons mantle or spiritual covering. Anyone can pray for anybody they don't have to be your pastor, or someone in authority over you, because, we are all children of God, and Jesus is our brother, our savior , our Lord, our healer of all, even people who do not know him can come to him to be saved, healed delivered and set free, and much much more!

There is something wrong with this idea that is going around regarding the mantle. The Bible says believers shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, and it says to go into all the world and preach the gospel, not to get everyone under your control, and mantle, and covering, if this was so no one would get saved. So a mantle is a specific only to one area, and that is the area of mentoring, training, and long, long, long, relationship , the way a parent has a parental relationship with their children, and the way a prophet has a relationship with the one he is mentoring.

Other wise there is something some people are calling a "healing mantle" because they feel a warm blanket come over their shoulders, giving them an indication that God is there wanting to use them to heal someone. This type of quote "healing mantle people call does not come by laying on by the hands of man either, but comes down directly from God, because you have been following and watching God in that area for some time. I believe a mantle is a calling because when Elijah cast his mantle on Elisha, Elisha suddenly became called to leave all he had and follow him. Jesus called his deciples, and they followed him for three years and at the end of three years he poured out his mantle of the Holy Spirit upon them and gave them power and authority to go into all the world and do likewise as he did and even greater works than what he did. A mantle is something that is learned and practiced, and taught to you by God or someone who is a leader.
You can stir up the gifts inside of a person though but this does not require a mantle, and you can impart your knowledge, your teaching and you can allow people to receive spiritual things like healings, deliverance, via the fire of God, and his annointing. But all ways the Holy Spirit is the one who does the work not man.