After a worship service at First Baptist in New Castle, Kentucky, the mother of a fidgety 7-year-old boy told Pastor Dave Charlton how she finally got her son to sit still and be quiet. About halfway through the sermon, she leaned over and whispered, “If you don’t be quiet, Pastor Charlton is going to lose his place and he will have to start his sermon over again!” It worked. The little boy didn’t make a sound.
During the last week of nice weather in September 2002, six climbers found themselves stranded at 9,000 feet in the Cascade Mountain Range in Washington. It took a U.S. Navy Chinook Helicopter to rescue the climbers, who had spent the night on a ledge.
Jan Jorgenson, spokesman for the Snohomish County Sheriff, said, “They had an inadequate length of rope and they got themselves in a position that they could not rappel out of. They got on a ledge where they couldn’t move forward or back.” (1)
There you have it. We pick up our story of Elijah in a similar dilemma. Back on the Ponderosa, we are having trouble at the widow’s house again. This time the stakes are much higher. Before it was just lack of food. Now it is death. Elijah is stuck on ledge unable to move forward or back.
It happened back then and it happens today. Satan is working his own rip-off schemes every Sunday morning as God’s servants gather to receive biblical insights and application. Before you can turn on your engine and back out of the church parking lot, he has ripped-off the truth that would have helped you through the week. Before the cookies are iced, he comes along and takes a huge bite. Before the shoes are worn, a scuff is found. Before the car is driven, a scratch is found. He has brought down some of the best.
Satan’s mousetrap is set each Sunday. You arrive at church smiling, shaking hands and saying what a wonderful day it is. But he’s got you in his scope:
…Irritated over the congested, noisy foyer at the end of the service.
…Pastor preaches too long causing you to wait longer in the restaurant for lunch.
…An unresolved conflict at church keeps you from relaxing and enjoying the morning while you try to avoid that person.
…A baby crying, a tile stained, an instrument out of tune, a cue missed at the sound booth, or a grammatical error in the message is enough to take you out.
These are the satanic rip-offs that get Baptists as well as Pentecostals. They devour the believer who has walked with Jesus for 50 years and they trip-up the new Christian. Satan knows exactly which truth will be the “break-through word from heaven,” and he holds it hostage until the memory of what God said has faded. Whenever God’s Word is declared, Satan’s strategies are unleashed.
Most of us are creatures of habit. We are uncomfortable with change - at least too much change. We tend to live by the motto, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Do you find yourself protecting your comfort zone at all costs? The older you become, the truer this is. As I read through God’s Word, I don’t see a faith in God that is played between the hash marks of comfort. Is there any life more mundane and vanilla than the predictable? As I pour over God’s Word on a weekly basis for devotional and professional study, I come up with only one string to play on - expect the unexpected.
Expect the Unexpected
Abraham: Dad had waited for years to have a son. A word from heaven had promised it, but his aging body and infertile wife made it impossible. Then it happened! A son. A close relationship was built between dad and son. The months rolled into years and all the promises that God had declared were wrapped up in this teenager. Then, without warning, God told Abraham to offer his son on the altar of obedience.
Hosea: The first time he asked her to marry him she laughed. The second time he asked she thought he was crazy, but she knew he was serious. The third time she said, “yes.” It was an odd mixture the man of God and the harlot from Israel. Anyone could see he was head over heals about her. It was a real love story. But while Hosea was hitting the Bible belt, Gomer was hitting as many nightspots as she could squeeze into an evening. He tried locking her out. He tried locking her up. Then along came the children - out of wedlock. God’s instructions: Go find her and remarry her.
David: He did everything right. He tended sheep for dad. He stepped forward and killed the nation’s number one public enemy. Even when the city praised him over the king, he deflected the praise and walked in humility. Then God allowed a disobedient, aging and jealous king to chase David all over Israel for over a decade.
Mary: Finally, when God wanted to save mankind of their sins, He rented a womb from an ordinary Jewish girl with a common name and sent mom and child to Bethlehem. It was here that the Savior of the world was to be born of an unwed mother— a virgin.
Friend, let’s let God call the shots. He alone knows what’s best. Don’t try to second-guess or figure out this thing called life.
Life is never more real than in the home. Elijah was now apart of the family. He almost forgot that he was on a mission from God. He was fed daily and playing with a young man whose life was teeming with energy. Just when Elijah was enjoying the home cooking of a widow in Zeraphath, enjoying life on the Mediterranean, forgetting that the king and queen wanted him dead, God allowed the widow’s son to die on his watch; right under his nose. The boy’s life was slipping away and Elijah could do nothing about it. It happened so quickly. One verse. He was sick. Then he was dead.
…(17) Some time later the son of the women who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.
When the miracle of God’s provision came to the home of the widow, Satan hit the fan. Satan will never sit idle when God is at work. Now, the passage doesn’t say that Satan was the author of the boy’s death, but he was to blame for taking the tragedy and using it against God.
As servants of the Lord, God has given us resources to use when we’re hit in life. Failure to understand the elementary insights about how to engage the enemy will leave gaping holes in our defenses, thus allowing Satan to encroach upon our lives. As a believer, you have a responsibility to secure the defeat of Satan and to continually remind him of his status before God and humanity. It is my conviction that in order to proceed in this responsibility we need to know what to do and how to do it, “to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” (Eph. 6:10)
…I am saddened and sickened at Christians who are ignorant of the enemy’s schemes, those who are more selfish than spiritual.
…I am mad at the work of Satan and how he advances on well-meaning people using tactics that leave their lives ruined and in shambles.
…I am alert that Satan has served notice on believers in America that says, “Prepare for War.” I don’t mean a war against terrorism, but a war against “principalities and powers.” There has been a global shift of the relocation of Satan’s powers from other parts of the world to American cities.
…I am aware that God is preparing His people for a day of great harvest of souls. God wants to deposit hundreds of spiritual babies into the warm and loving incubator of Marysville First Assembly. For this to be possible, God’s people have to know how to bring those captives into full freedom from Satan’s strongholds.
Yards After Contact
YAC is a term used in the National Football League to describe the concept of “Yards After Contact.” This phrase coined by Monday Night Football Analyst John Madden, is a measurement that counts the number of yards a runner gains after an opposing player hits them.
When an opposing player hits a running back, he doesn’t throw the ball down. He doesn’t just stop. He doesn’t announce, “I am taking my ball and going home if you are going to play that way.” What does he do? He keeps his legs going when he gets hit, he keeps moving forward; he keeps heading toward the goal line. The best runners in the NFL make their most important yards (touchdowns, third down conversions) after they have been hit.
Elijah and a widow were hit. She was stopped in her tracks. She would just as soon leave the playing field. But Elijah would not quit. He kept going. Elijah took one hit after another, but he kept moving toward the goal line. God had much to teach Elijah, the widow and her son as they went through the University of Adversity. As Samuel Johnson says, “He knows not his own strength who has not met adversity.”
I want to highlight three resources for gaining Yards After Contact.
God’s Resources For Gaining Yards After Contact (YAC)
1. God’s resources for engagement involve sensitivity and truth.
Sometime later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” 1 Kings 17:17-18
A dark intruder entered the shattered world of the widow and attempted to steal her peace and faith in God. The intruder’s name? Guilt. The widow interpreted her son’s death as a direct act of God’s judgment for her past sins. Had she been found out? Could the fiery preacher from the desert, the beggar who once came to her door, really know her past?
The door of her conscience swung wide open as she cradled her son and wept over the dreams that were wrapped in his lifeless body. The heartache of loss caused her to grab for any explanation.
When crises hits, one of the first things to go is often our power of reason. Had she forgotten that if Elijah had not wandered into town the drought would have taken her life as well as her son’s? And what about the smorgasbord of biscuits and water that sat on her counter top everyday? Instead of turning to Elijah and saying, “Can your God help?” she was reduced to the common human response of placing blame.
…Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son…?
The oldest trick in Satan’s book is to get mankind ticked off at God and blame Him for the mess we’re in. Remember Adam? “This women you have given me…” He blamed God and Eve for the problem.
Saint, dear one, don’t blame God for the pain in your heart. He is here to help, to heal. The venomous blame that spewed from the widow’s mouth separated her from Elijah. But even more devastating, it separated her from God. Beware - it will separate you too.
This scene is played out tens-of-thousands of times a day as people come into contact with the living Lord. They feel if they are just obedient to the Lord’s commands and live a life of “spirituality,” that somehow they will be exempt from problems the rest of their days. They buy into this erroneous way of thinking, then when problems come along, the only viable solution is, “I must be bad.” Yeah, she strayed. She slipped off the straight and narrow. So what? Who hasn’t?
Elijah hadn’t spent those months by the brook in vain. They were days of instruction from the Spirit of God. Elijah knew exactly what was going on. He knew what Satan’s calling card looked like, and he wouldn’t allow himself to be sucked into a theological debate over the cause of sickness. And don’t you either, friend. It is a fruitless discussion, one that will leave you more confused the more you engage in it. And don’t beat yourself up. If you have contributed to the problem then repent. Confess. Ask for forgiveness. Move on.
Remember, whenever God is working and producing change in your life, Satan is also working and looking for opportunities to steal and discount what God is doing. Look at the baptism of Jesus. Notice how shortly after His baptism Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted (Matthew 4:1)? His earthly ministry had begun. The Father was pleased. And the devil hit the fan. He was looking for an opportune time to trip up the Savior of the world. And he is looking for an opportune time to trip you up.
God’s resources for engaging the enemy always include sensitivity and truth. Elijah was fully immersed in the use of both of these resources.
2. God’s Resources For Engagement (YAC) Include Compassion and
Intercession.
“Give me your son”’ Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, “O, Lord my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” 1 Kings 17:19-21
Can you look beyond a person’s anger, hostility, and bitterness and see them the way God does? Elijah could; I hope you can. As the tears flooded her drought stricken face and her eyes were almost swollen shut with grief, Elijah sees beyond the physical and offers compassion.
This past week a grass fire swept along the northeast corner of our development burning up all the brush that stood in it’s path. Smoke filled the afternoon sky and the sound of fire trucks filled the air in Tuscany Estates. As our music minister and I stood listening to the crackling fire burning in our neighbor’s yard, we could see the panic in her eyes. She had made several trips into the house securing her personal belongings and placing them in her car for a speedy get away. We asked if we could help. She was in shock & disbelief. She couldn’t answer.
Learn to look beyond people’s surface issues and respond with compassion, faith and intercession. This formula will work for every occasion you face in life:
…Compassion. Elijah took the lifeless lad from the breast of the mother. He lifted the weight of her great burden and transferred it to himself. Elijah said, “Give me your pain. Let me bear your burden. Let me have your troubles.” This is what the writer of Galatians means when he says, “Carry each other’s burdens…”
…Faith. Elijah was not only compassionate he was a man of faith. It was considered a grave sin to touch a corpse. The word of Moses prohibited the priest from dealing with the dead (Lev. 21). Elijah had completely immersed himself in the woman’s pain.
…Intercession. Elijah stretched himself out on the boy in prayer three times before he got an answer. Faith and persistence were the key ingredients that produced the miracle. And it is only through experiencing dried brooks and traveling Zeraphath roads that we gain the intimate knowledge of God’s dealings.
3. God’s Resources For Engagement (YAC) Invoke Faith and Healing.
The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!” Then the women said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.” 1 Kings 17:22-24
God was moved by Elijah’s faith. The widow had no faith yet; she was only a spectator. But she was learning fast.
Then the women said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
An obscure prophet had enough confidence in God and enough love for a boy that he was willing to take the step of faith. He took a chance. He had no experience in this arena, yet he waded into the uncharted waters. He carried the boy to his room and stretched out fully on the dead corpse. God saw and said - somebody believes.
Years later Jesus would see the same kind of faith. A stretcher would make its way down through a hole in the roof, and the stretcher would be a sign that somebody believes (2). God was moved by Elijah’s faith, and so He released power from above. God wanted to heal the boy - the physical.
There are some other matters at stake here. To heal the body is temporal, but to heal the soul is eternal. God wanted to heal the soul of the boy’s mother. God wants to treat not only the body but also the spiritual, for that is what He sees. We see the body; He sees the heart. We often ask God for healing so we can live; He wants to give us forgiveness and grace so we can really live. God is so touched by what He knows about us that instead of giving what we ask He will often give us what we need. For some of you the greatest thing that God ever did was not answer the prayer you prayed. Instead He gave you what He wanted you to have.
Elijah had undiminished faith. Where do we get that? From God’s Word. Because God has acted in times past He will do it again. What happened in 1 Kings 17 still happens today!
How Is Faith Cultivated?
*Faith is nurtured when we move to the dry brooks and the Zeraphaths of our lives.
*Faith is nourished when we spend vital times with Lord.
Some of you may be trusting God to move mountains, others may be trusting Him to move an obnoxious neighbor. Some may be trusting God for deliverance from a major affliction or disease (cancer, AIDS). Others are just looking for faith to give them enough strength to get to the mailbox and get a few chores done. God is no respecter of faith. Whether our faith is small or mountain moving, God takes delight in whatever faith is directed His way.
The Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Heb. 11:6)
You begin to see the Spirit of God work in the widow’s heart when life is restored to her son. Now she knows that Elijah is a prophet. Let me suggest some characteristics of what a man or women of God looks like, things we learned from Elijah’s life.
What Does Being A Man/Women Of God Look Like?
*Elijah wasn’t surprised by Satan’s strategies.
*Elijah didn’t take the widow’s accusations personally.
*Elijah knew how to release God’s resources for the hour.
Let me conclude by contrasting two types of living displayed in the narrative - secular and spiritual. See if you can identify where these come into play in the account of Elijah and the widow.
Secular living is focused on “position.”
Spiritual living is focused on “disposition.”
Secular living is based on “how they lead.”
Spiritual living is based on “how they live.”
Secular living is committed to “self-confidence.”
Spiritual living is committed to “God-confidence.”
God does prefer one way of living over the other; He prefers that which is based on a bedrock commitment to His word and His ways. And the results are always supernatural.
A TV camera crew was on assignment in Southern Florida filming the widespread destruction of Hurricane Andrew. Amid the devastation and debris, one scene showed a house standing firm on its foundation. The owner was cleaning up the yard when the reporter approached.
“Sir, why is your house the only one standing?” asked the reporter. “How did you manage to escape the severe damage of the hurricane?”
“I built the house myself,” the man replied. “I also built it according to Florida State building code. When the code called for 2x6 trusses, I used 2x6 trusses. I was told that a house built according to code could withstand a hurricane. I did, and it did.” (3)
A life built on the firm foundation of God’s Word will withstand the worst storms of life.
End Notes
1. Cathy Logg. Everett Herald Newspaper, September 14, 2002.
2. David R. Culver. Leadership Magazine, Illustration. Winter,
1993. Pg. 49.
3. Max Lucado. The gift for all people. Multnomah Publishers.
Sisters Oregon, 1999. Pg. 38-39.
Edited by Diane Gardner
