Obedience Brings Miracles

OBEDIENCE BRINGS MIRACLES

I Kings 17:1-16

1.And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “as the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew or rain these years, except at my word.

2.Then the word of the Lord came to him saying

3.Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.

4.And it will be that you shall drink from the brook and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.

5.So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.

6.The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat at night.

7.And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

8.Then the word of the Lord came to him saying,

I want to stop there for a moment. Sometimes we go to a place that we believe God has directed us, and we are doing very well, but there comes a time that everything seems to be drying up. The blessings that we had are no longer coming through. The successes that were so easy for us, as others were struggling stopped altogether, now everyone around us seems to be getting the blessings and we have gone from number one, to out of the running. Nothing that we do seems to be getting us anywhere. We continue to try those things that have always worked for us in the past, but have stopped working for us now. It’s not fun anymore!

We start to examine ourselves, (which we should) to see what we have done wrong. Where have we stepped off God’s path, we must be out if His will, because He has stopped blessing us in the thing we were convinced that He sent us to do!

I believe that when God sends us to a place where we become successful, and comfortable, being human and not liking a lot of unnecessary changes in our life, we would become complacent. And would stay there forever. It is for this reason that God dries up the brook and then He sends His word to us letting us know that it is time to move on. Why would anyone want to leave a wonderful flowing brook when there is a drought in the land? You have plenty to drink, the ravens are bringing you two well-balanced meals a day and you are happy.

I’d like to make three points at this juncture:

.If your brook dries up where you are, first look inward and make sure that you are still doing those things that you should, and that you are not sabotaging yourself in the work place causing your own brook to dry up. If you are not sure ask the Lord to reveal to you any problems that you might be having such as sin, unforgiveness, or pride. If none of the above seem to be the problem, then move to point number two.

•God may be drying up your brook because He is about to move you out of your comfort zone to take you to a new place in your mindset, emotions or even in an entirely new direction.

•Wait for the word of the Lord. If Elijah had no faith he might have jumped up and started running as soon as the brook dried up, but instead he waited for the word of the Lord to come and tell him where He wanted Elijah to go. It is God who gives us success in whatever we do and it will be God who will continue to give us our successes if we will wait on Him.

It had to be somewhat uncomfortable for Elijah to sit by a dried up brook wondering if God forgot he was there, or did I ever even hear from God, or what did I do wrong for God to dry up my brook? And where are those ravens anyway?

The last secular job I had, dried up and I sat by that dried up brook for about a year wondering what I was doing, nothing was working out. I was the only Christian surrounded by angry people. I had four glorious months of flowing water and they saw me as a light of hope in a dark place. The ravens were bringing my blessings every day and I said well Lord, I’d rather be in full time ministry, but this isn’t bad, success feels good no mater where you are. The last 8 months were terrible, but I had to wait on the Lord.

I jumped out ahead of the Lord once before and paid a terrible price, so I stayed until He gave me His word to move. No matter how bad you think it is, if you don’t wait on the Lord to give you direction, I promise it will be much worse.